43. The Den (3)

Novum saw one of the hunters was with Rurik beside the bear and quickly headed over. The hunter pointed at the bear's butt and that was when he realized that this bear was the female and most of the time females were smaller than their male mates. About that time there was another bellow from deeper in the cave.

Novum ran a short distance so that he could see the opening of the cave and saw a bear that was probably two foot bigger than the one on the ground behind him. Luckily they still had a pretty good distance between them. "Archers aim for its back legs. Hell aim for any leg. We need to try and slow it down." Several arrows immediately flew through the air and they were all aimed at the legs. Most of them bounced off the thick hide of the beast and Novum was very concerned.

He was about to call for a full retreat until he could get his hands on some better gear one of the arrows from the bow he let the hunter barrow dug into the front knee joint of the bear. The brute stumbled forward for a step and bellowed in pain. It kept coming forward on three legs but the arrows did not let up and one of them hit right in-between two of the claws on it other front paw. With both front paws now hurt the bear had little choice but to stand on its back legs and try to walk forward. This lasted for about twenty seconds and then the bear dropped back to all four.

It was not moving as quickly as before and you could tell that this hurt the bear with each and every step but it was not going to give up. About that time there were more growls coming from the cave and another bear that was about the size of a normal bear came charging out. "Rurik, you and Mike stay with me. Hunters provide archery support. The rest of you head for the cub and take care of it."

The men leapt into action and closed in on the cub. The big bear started to turn around and help but Novum made him pay for it. The moment that his head looked away Novum lunged forward and drove the tip of his sword into the hip of the beast. Now with three legs wounded the bear would be in a lot of trouble but it was still very dangerous. The bear turned back around and swung at Novum who ducked out of the way at the last possible second. The problem was that without something slowing down the blow it continued on and Rurik was not ready for it. The huge paw had lost a lot of momentum when it hit but the blow still threw Rurik over ten feet and into a tree.

The bear was not even paying attention to Rurik, all of its attention was on Novum. It was like he knew that Novum was in charge of this group and that made him his sole focus. Mike made him pay for it. While Mike was not sure how much damage his axe would do by its self he saw an opening and drove the back of his axe into the knock of the arrow and drove it deeper into the bear's paw. About the same time as that Fang decided that he needed to be involved and he crept up behind the bear and when it was roaring in pain. He lunged like lightning and grabbed a hold of the loose skin on the back hip that Novum had cut open. He jerked as hard as he could and then leapt away.

The bear roared in pain as Fang pulled a huge chunk of its muscle away from the bone and it toppled over. As the bear rolled from the momentum Novum saw him grab the arrow in its paw with its teeth and pull it out. The roll continued until the bear was back on its feet and a lot closer to Rurik. The bear knew that Novum was dangerous but he could not resist taking care of a downed enemy so close to it. The bear blocked everything out and drew up to its full height. Even with a wounded leg it could still stand. It was not going to swat at Rurik it was simply going to use its massive weight and crush him.

Novum saw what was going to happen and before he could even consider his options his body was moving. He roared out a challenge that startled the humans that were close to him. It was a roar that told everyone and everything around him that they should be afraid of them. The bear's entire body twitched in reaction to the challenge and that was all the time that Novum needed. The bear slightly twisted towards him in reaction and that opened the side of his chest. Novum aimed the tip of his sword at that spot with all of his strength and weight behind it. The tip of the sword was not really made for piercing but with that much force behind it even the thick bear's hide did not stand a chance.

The sword passed all the way through the bears chest and came out the other side. Everything in the bears chest was destroyed. Even with the lungs damaged as bad as they were the bear still managed to bellow out in pain and a red mist of the bear's blood filled the air. The momentum of the attacked managed to barely push the huge beast off of its original path and it did not land on Rurik. The force of the paws slamming into the ground blew Rurik several more feet but the motion also woke him back up.

Novum got to his feet as quickly as he could and was reaching for another weapon when he noticed that the bear was not moving. He heard another growl and moved quickly towards his weapon when he realized that it was the death roar of the cub. He still pulled the sword out but he was not in as big of a hurry. He passed out a few potions to all of the ones that were injured and then sent two of the faster runners back to the house to get two of the wagons. He would use one for each bear and take them both into town for Richard and he could pick the one that he wanted. The runners were almost out of earshot when he remembered something. He bellowed out as loud as he could. "Bring rope and Noctis." One of the runners gave him a thumbs up and they both started running again.

Novum pulled out one of his rolled smokes and after a few tries got it to light. He took a long pull and blew out the smoke as he stretched and rolled his shoulders. His muscles were not happy with him since he pushed that bear out of the path that it was falling on. He was still not sure how he did it so he thought about it and asked the system. 'What was the roll for strength that I made?'

<The minimum roll for success was a 17 and you rolled an 18. As such the system minimized the muscle damage from the act.>

'Thank you system.' That was a close one but he had made rolls like that before in other games but this one seemed more real since a life was probably saved. As he was waiting on the wagons to come back he got to thinking and he was not sure that his bracing at the house was enough for the bears. He still needed to clean them out. He would leave the bone and muscle but the guts needed to come out. The organs would be delicious and Fang would whine if he did not get at least a kidney. But honestly he was worried about them eating the organs if the bears were tainted by magic. As he thought about it he saw the wagons coming. He opened his bag and called over a few of the workers.

"We are going to bury the guts and not eat them. I have been thinking about this for a while and I am worried that if these things are magically tainted and we eat the organs we might get sick or maybe it could do the same thing to use. The meat seems to be fine since we have been eating if but the organs are a risk. I have eaten them and not been affected but that does not mean that I won't be later. So lets get a hole dug." A few of the workers grabbed the shovels and went to work right away. They were not sure what was going on but they would not question Novum over something like this. Of course Novum was going to keep the liver and kidneys for Fang since if there was something here he was already exposed. He just had to be careful about it.

The sun was past its highpoint when they finally got everything taken care of and headed back to the house. Novum dropped off the small bear at the house and told Fang to stay. He had them load up two cases of the honey that they harvested and took several guys with him to the village. The guard's mouths fell open when they came riding up and saw the beasts that they were hauling. After a short story they let them though and Novum pulled out the honey at the store and sent the other ahead of him.

"Good afternoon sir, I brought the stuff that we talked about." He sat the honey on the counter and he thought the man was going to cry.

"I will put it out a little at a time so someone does not try to buy it all."

"Sounds like a plan sir. I will leave it all to you. I have to go and see Richard." He stepped up on Noctis and headed down the street. The mayor and Peter were still standing outside with a shocked look on their faces after the wagon had passed. "Good afternoon gentleman."

Peter spoke first. "Oh hello Baron. When you are done with Richard would you be so kind as to stop by and see me. I have some of the information that you asked me to look into."

"Of course. I will be back as soon as I can." Novum gave the dumbfounded mayor a nod as he continued down the street.

The mayor looked at Peter. "What information?"

"Oh Novum asked me to look into the property to the north around the lake that is there to see if there was anything weird or out of place in its history. I think he thinks that something in the lake is causing the huge animals."

"That makes sense. You are here and the records are here. So what did you find?"

"Nothing that I would bet my life on but a couple of interesting things. I would have to show you the map for you to see what I am talking about."

"I will just have to come and take a look myself when he gets here."

Novum kicked Noctis a little and he beat the wagons there but not by a lot. "Richard I brought two for you to pick from so why do you not come on out and take a look. They were killed and gutted this morning but the hides were barely touched."

Richard got up and walked outside and his mouth dropped open when he saw the two huge bears in the wagons. He could tell even from this distance that they were in way better shape than anything except maybe the first wolf Novum brought him than he had worked with before. "I will take them both and I will push your ownership to a quarter and I will get you some coins later."

"No coins are needed. Where do you want them?"

Richard saw that Dan was one of the drivers. "Dan take them around the corner and come in the back way." Dan gave him a nod and kicked the wagon back into gear. Novum left Noctis out front and headed to the back through the store. He was not sure how the tanner was going to handle the animals by himself. When he stepped through the door he was surprised by the size of the room. This space was bigger inside than it was outside. He was confused when he remembered that he wrote about one of his characters having this type of space. He wondered how many building the system put this in. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and saw the set up.

There was heavy bracing in the ceiling that appeared to be more than strong enough to hold the weight of the bears even both of them. He was still not sure how they were going to get them up there. Richard opened the doors and the first wagon was right outside and the men pushed it a short distance into the room. Richard tied the legs with an unusual knot and then walked to the pulley system and gave an easy tug. The bear moved like it was barely more than a wolf. "That is impressive Richard."

"Oh, thank you. I designed it well I came up with the theory and spells necessary for it and had a friend build it for me. It has made life so much easier for me and I do not need the extra help around the shop for just things here and there."

"Well since you appear to have it covered I still need to head to talk to Peter about something. No rush but when you get a chance could you take care of the contract. Handle the bears first I am in no rush but it is something that still needs to be done."

"Of course. I had one drawn up already for the other amount I will have it changed in the next few days and get it sent to you."

Novum nodded his head and headed out of the shop and towards city hall. The mayor was waiting out front and led him to the back room they used before and Peter was standing beside the table with several old maps on them. "So what am I looking at here Peter?"

"Maps from just over a hundred years ago. Let me clarify, maps of this immediate area from a hundred years ago. There was no lake."