The forest was dead silent except for the heavy breathing of the sleeping bear. Its giant body heaved up and down with every breath it took, almost looking like a giant mountain of meat. The party positioned themselves around the bear and looked at it nervously. The atmosphere was tense and they found it difficult to breath freely.The hunters drew their bows and nodded to Zach. Taking a deep breath, Zach held a pendant on his hand. The pendant was a magic gear of third grade with the spell "Earth raid" inscribed on it. He had used it previously to make the bear flee. The gear slowly activated and several earthen spikes rose from the ground. The spikes were roughly half a meter thick at its base and pointed at its tip. The sharp tips poked at the bear startling it awake. Only two of the spikes managed to penetrate the bear"s thick hide while the rest broke off.
The bear gave a cry because of the pain. The loud roar signaled the start of the fight as the hunters released their bows. Sharp whistling sounds echoed and several arrows whizzed by heading straight for the bear with immense force. As the hunters were tier one warriors, their arms had immense strength and the bows they were using had draw weight of almost 200 pounds. As befitting of a grade two magical beast known for its defense, the arrows which would have easily taken down a huge Elk didn"t do much against the bear except make it angrier. But it didn"t matter because the arrows had served their purpose. They were laced with a concoction of Vincent. He had prepared it just the previous day and it would weaken the bear slowly.
Vincent gathered mana around his right arms and fired off a "Shock bolt". A bolt of current covered the fifteen meter distance between Vincent and the bear in a blink of an eye. The bolt made zapping noises as it came in contact with the bear causing electric burn to the beast. The huge animal gave another deep growl and pounced towards the pesky human who had fired off the electric bolt. Seeing this, Vincent rapidly retreated hiding behind a thick tree.
The spikes that had managed to pierce the bear broke off drawing blood as the beast charged. The enraged beast ignored the pain and injury as it made its way towards Vincent. The distance between Vincent and the bear was only about five meters when the beast felt a piercing pain come from its hind leg. It turned its head and saw that it had stepped onto a bear trap. The jagged jaws had firmly clamped onto its thick leg and it couldn"t move further because of the thick chain attached to the bear trap.
Vincent had a pale face. Though everything was going according to the plan, it was hard to keep calm when a gigantic predator was charging at you. Thankfully everything had worked out and the bear"s reach had been successfully contained.
The bear ignored the pain from its ankles and tried to free itself. The tree which the chain was bound to shook with each movement of the bear. Given the herculean strength of the beast, it wouldn"t be surprising if it uprooted the whole tree. The soil underneath the tree was slowly coming loose indicating that the party didn"t have much time to take care of the berserk creature.
Nathan and Casper took advantage of the fact that the bear was occupied with the chains to approach it from its rear. Casper gripped the handle of the battle axe tightly and planted his feet firmly on the ground. Using all his strength, he swung the axe at the beasts" hind leg. As a tier two warrior, Casper possessed insane strength and the blow dealt significant damage. The hind legs" bone was fractured and it could now be considered useless.
Nathan"s strike followed close behind. He sliced using his sword but it did little against the thick hide. Nathan cursed his stupid decision of using a sword against such a foe. Despite the underwhelming effect, he didn"t give up and skillfully drove the sword through the deep wound made by the "Earth raid" spell. The bear gave another deep roar and swiped at the human with the sword with its paw. Casper hurriedly raised his axe and used both his hands to grip the opposing ends of the handle. He pushed Nathan away and welcomed the blow. Despite his good defensive stance and the concoction taking its effect to weaken the beast, he still felt an enormous force travel up his arms. The axe also flew away from his hands as the webbing between his thumb and other fingers got torn.
Casper repeatedly stepped back to offset the enormous force but still fell. The bear wanted to attack the two fallen humans but one of its hind leg was injured while the other was clamped by the jaws of a bear trap. It could do naught but roar at the humans to try and scare them. Vincent and the rest weren"t stupid and kept their distance. Everything had gone according to their plan and all that was left now was to slowly deal with the beast.
Zach activated another one of his magic gear and fired an "Ice shard" at the bear. A chunk of ice formed out of thin air and flew towards the immobile creature swiftly piercing its head through its eye socket. Silence once again returned to the forest as the beast stopped struggling and lay there dead. The party surrounded the enormous carca.s.s and examined it. After ensuring that it was really dead, they sat down exhausted one after another. Though the fight hadn"t been physically demanding, the mental exhaustion had far surpa.s.sed their expectations. Not only had the bear struggled to the bitter end, its strength far exceeded their previous estimation.
Casper"s left hand had been dislocated as a result. Besides that, there hadn"t been any other casualties. Zach kicked the small hill of meat and laughed out loud. Casper followed suit and soon the entire party were laughing like idiots. Once the laughter subsided, Zach spoke hurriedly, "Let"s use the smell remover right away. It wouldn"t be good if other beasts came here smelling the blood."
The hunters nodded and swiftly took care of the smell. Zach took out a scroll and unfurled it. It was a one use magic scroll. The spell inscribed on the scroll was "Lighten". It was a second circle spell which reduced the weight of any target by a ton. The hunters swiftly prepared a make shift bed with Nathan"s help. Zach tore the scroll and a soft light shone on the carca.s.s reducing its weight to less than a quarter of what it previously was. The party placed the dead bear on the bed and swiftly made way for the village.