Get Baited

'That d*mn bear slapped me way too early! I've only injected about 1 sac of the spider's venom and a little bit of the snake's venom before I was swatted away!'

'But it should be enough right? Maybe? The spider's venom is upgraded to +2 and the snake's venom is essentially a booster so it should at least affect the bear somehow.'

Matthew is currently watching the bear running around in circles in the area, searching for him while he sat comfortably on a tree branch.

Although it is not as fun as watching a circus bear, watching a huge and scary bear just stupidly roaming around aimlessly while occasionally looking up the trees, turning rocks upside down, and tousling bushes while being on its toes afraid of something that it couldn't see is quite entertaining to Matthew.

'Maybe after weeks with no TV or entertainment at all really lowered my standards for entertainment. Even an animal acting stupid is already some kind of entertainment for me now after only a few weeks being here, I guess I'm starting to understand now why people used to love watching cockfighting as some kind of entertainment back in the days…'

Matthew watched the bear for another 15 minutes as the bear is really thorough in his search and Matthew even thought that the bear could even find a needle in a haystack if he kept on with his meticulousness.

Matthew stayed completely silent and invisible all this time because he didn't know how good the bear's eyesight was, and although he wasted so much aura just staying idle, Matthew thought that it was better for him to be safe rather than sorry.

'When will the venom take effect? I've been watching patiently for almost 20 minutes but this bear is still running around in circles! Wasn't he too careful for his own good?'

But after seeing the bear finished making his thorough search for the fourth time, Matthew finally saw that the bear had lowered his guard and decided to go back into his nest.

And the moment that Matthew was waiting for finally came when the bear had relaxed its guard. Matthew could see that the bear's steps were light and his body swayed a little when it walked, and Matthew was further convinced that the bear already had a slight headache from seeing the bear holding his head with one of its arms.

'Finally! If not for my aura reserve expanding after my third evolution, I would only have about 10 minutes left if I stayed in this invisible form. But luckily, it does expand and maybe I could hold on for another 20 or 30 minutes.'

'Go on then bear, enjoy the venom, take your time, and when your huge body finally falls down to the ground, I will be walking over your half-dead body proudly and I will personally help you out of your misery.'

Patience is one of Matthew's strong points and he didn't even bother waiting for another 15 minutes for the bear to finally start to lose strength on his legs and make his huge body sprawled to the ground.

In that 15 minutes, Matthew decided to climb up the tree even further and then stopped at the highest branch before tuning down the chameleon's aura ability to the blur stage to save up his aura reserve.

He checked on the glowing white orb to see how much aura he had left, and Matthew calculated that if he didn't reduce the aura consumption to the blur stage from the complete invisibility, then Matthew predicted that his aura will only last for another 5 or 10 minutes at best after the 15 minutes had passed.

But if he tuned the aura consumption down to the blur stage right now, then he will at least have 10 additional minutes or 15 minutes at best case scenario to stay in complete invisibility later on, which is why he is willing to take the small risk of being found out by the severely ill bear and decided to climb up the tree.

He went up to the tallest tree branch in hopes that it would give him a higher chance to not be noticed by the bear who was already busy staying awake from the venoms rampaging around in his body and staying awake despite the lightheadedness that kept on alluring him to close his eyes and fall asleep. But despite all that, the bear kept on fighting to stay awake.

And luckily, Matthew's plan to conserve his aura without being noticed by the bear worked, and after the 15 minutes had passed, the bear finally fell completely into the sprawled-body state.

Seeing that the bear is finally near its end, Matthew activated his aura ability to go completely invisible, then started slowly going down the tree to give the finishing blow to end the bear's misery.

When Matthew got close enough to the bear, he could finally see that the bear's eyes were already hazy and if the bear had human skin, it would be as pale as a piece of paper. And seeing that, Matthew thought that the bear is really done for, so he deactivated his aura ability because he thought that he would be wasting his cautiousness to an opponent that is already halfway through death's door.

While Matthew was casually walking to the bear as if he already grasped the bear's life in his claws, he didn't know that the bear was not as simple as Matthew thought the bear would be.

Although the bear didn't live in the border of the insect and the beast territory and he hadn't seen any wandering spider, the beasts have their own venom user such as the snake, and it lived around the bear's area.

The bear knew how dangerous the snake's venom could be and what it could do to his body from his experience from living in the forest for a long time, which is why the bear got very angry last time when he heard the loud snake hiss near his nest.

And with that firsthand experience, he of course knew how to deal with the venom. Which is why, when Matthew finally got close enough to the bear, the bear suddenly released a white aura that covered his body. And along with that, the haziness in his eyes completely disappeared, replaced with determined eyes filled with killing intent.

And with its newfound power, the bear hit the startled Matthew with its paws and sent Matthew flying towards another tree.

With the bear's optimal position which is right in front of Matthew, and added with the aura ability enhancing his strength, the claw attack is something that is at least 3 times stronger than the last time Matthew was swatted away from the bear's back.

The blow was basically so strong that Matthew wasn't able to pull off some elegant and fancy movements to redirect the force of momentum to avoid crashing straight onto the tree.

In only a second, Matthew's body traveled 5 meters away and he was only a split second away before his body was slammed into the tree.

The next best thing that Matthew's mind could come up in a split second when his body flew away is to minimize the inevitable damage to his body by putting both of his hands onto the back of his head, then he launched his tongue down to the ground and activated the sticky properties to significantly reduce the extreme speed that his body is currently going at.

Although Matthew's last-second effort wasn't able to get him out unscathed, his crocodile scutes do most of the work of preventing his external injury, while the tongue that was dragging on the ground helped a lot in reducing the speed considerably to the point where Matthew only experienced a slight concussion on his head and he also felt a weird sensation in his body as if his organs were going to shift positions from the sudden change of speed when his body hit the tree.

The bear had finally looked at Matthew's exposed body without any invisibility or blur at all. The bear was quite confused at first when he saw that the creature was something that he had never ever seen before even in his considerably long life living in the forest. But that small detail doesn't matter as the bear remembered that the strange creature is the one who ambushed him out of nowhere and injected a wicked venom inside his body.

And that realization is enough for the bear to ward off any questions from his mind, and just start to once again charge towards Matthew with its aura ability fully activated, boosting both of his speed and strength. And the long and angry roar that accompanied his charge only made the bear 3 times more intimidating to look at.

Matthew was left in a dazed state for a split second after his body hit the tree heavily. But the bear's loud roar served as his wake-up call and his focus returned back soon enough for him to react to the bear's advance.

Seeing the bear huge body that looked like a literal truck to him, and the white aura covering all of its body only made it look more powerful than before which is actually true that it does make the bear more powerful, Matthew said aloud in his mind,

'So you dare baited me ha?! You think I'm scared? Come at me you stupid teddy bear!'

Then he swiftly jumped upward to the tree using all of his monkey leg strength and used his tongue to go even further up, away from the bear's attack range before finally activating his chameleon aura ability to go completely invisible again.