We followed the river for a while, but found no animals we could hunt. The forest seemed awfully quiet as well. 'I can't even spot a rabbit anywhere... I wonder if something happened', I thought. We continued our search, but the most we found was two rabbits. 'This is not much... Where are all the wolves, boars or bears?', I asked myself, perplexed. This was the first time we had such difficulty finding something. Usually the further north we went, the more populated the forest was.
'Something must've happened, though I'm not sure what exactly', I said to myself. "Shelly, we have some leftovers, which should be enough for a few days if we ration them. Something's not right in the forest right now. There should be more animals, but we only found two rabbits. Let's go back to our camp", I said. Shelly looked disappointed we wouldn't get more food, but I had a bad feeling about it.
Fortunately, nothing happened on our way back. That made me wonder whether I was becoming paranoid for no reason. "Anyway, let's just rest for now, and we can try hunting something in a few days", I said once we returned. The two rabbits became our dinner, but of course Shelly wanted more. "You'll get more later, alright? We have to ration our leftover meat, remember. It will do you good, you won't get fat", I replied. Shelly didn't like the word 'fat', but I only said that to tease it.
The next morning, I left our little shack to exercise. My body got used to the modified pose, which allowed me to maintain it for about eight minutes. The progress might've been great, but that was only my body getting used to it. Any further improvements would be slow, and require a lot of time. 'There's a long way in front of me, before I can last fifteen minutes in that pose. I wonder how strong my body will become then?', I asked myself.
I could already tell that my body improved. Maybe not by a great amount, but it surely became stronger. After my usual morning exercise, it was time for the Art of Stealth training. I still tried to utilise the speed, in order to travel quickly but quietly. It was hard for me to tell whether I made any improvements, but I had no other clues about that 'avoid the light' part of the Art. It was either speed or ability to simply disappear. Since the latter seemed impossible to me, speed it was.
While running around the forest, I spotted something moving in the distance. Stopping immediately, I gave that something a more detailed look. '...A bear. Great, this should provide us with loads of meat', I said to myself before approaching slowly. The bear was preoccupied with its own activities, until my daggers arrived. "Tsuk, tsuk, tsuk... Roooar!", the bear roared in pain, while I closed in to finish it off. "Swoosh", I slit the bear's neck before it could attack me. "Bam...", the bear fell to the ground, lifeless.
"This should satisfy that glutton for a while, hehe. Now there will be no excuses, I will make you train, Shelly", I said to myself while cutting the bear open. When half of the bear was butchered, I heard loud noises deeper inside the forest. 'More bears?', I asked myself. Whatever made that noise, was getting louder and louder. 'I'm not going to risk it', I thought then left whatever was left of that bear behind.
Back at our camp, Shelly was still asleep. "Seriously, wake up already", I said while patting its head. "Maaaa...", Shelly released a sleepy noise then looked around. "While you were asleep, I got us some more provisions. Let's eat some breakfast", I added. When Shelly heard the word 'eat', it immediately sprung to its legs. 'Yea, I expected nothing less for a glutton', I thought.
During our breakfast, the same loud noise reverberated through the forest. Moreover, it was getting closer to our camp. 'I have a bad feeling about this', I thought before extinguishing the fire. "Shelly, we will have guests soon. Prepare yourself, since I'm not sure what we're about to face", I explained. "Mah!", Shelly replied, but munched on the meat anyway. I just shook my head, and awaited our guests.
A few minutes later, I finally realised what was creating all that ruckus. 'Bears... and quite a number of them', I thought but then noticed something within that group. A silver bear, but not like the silver-grey wolf. The bear was completely silver, with its fur glistering in the sunlight. "Shelly, stop eating already. We might have a problem here", I said.
There were eleven bears in total. Dealing with such numbers wouldn't be too easy. Especially with that variant present. The bears didn't stop their charge, they were clearly after us. the moment those bears got closer, I began throwing my daggers. "Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh...", over ten daggers flew at the whole group, but I wasn't able to kill any of them. Moreover, that silver bear was similar to the wolf of similar fur colour. Its coat was as tough as a piece of metal.
"Shelly, I'll try to take out a few normal bears, then you have to deal with them. That silver one will not be easy", I said while retrieving more daggers from my bag. The bears were about to cross the river, but that silver one wasn't simple at all. Just as I made my move, it made a move on its own. "Roar!", the silver bear roared while jumping high into the air, and over the river.
There was no time to think anymore, I threw my daggers in hopes of killing a few normal bears, then rushed at the silver one. I had to find its weak spot, since throwing my daggers didn't work. Before I could get close though, the silver bear jumped into the air once more. I threw a few daggers at its belly, then rolled to the side. "Boom!", the bear crashed into the ground, missing me entirely. 'Not only is that thing strong, its belly is not a weak point', I thought.
The silver bear rushed at me once more, but didn't jump this time. The bear used its paws to swipe at me, its speed comparable to mine. 'Shit, how am I supposed to deal with that wall of muscles?', I asked myself while trying to keep a distance. Shelly wasn't faring any better. With eight bears ganging up on it, the chances of us winning were rather slim.
"Bam! Bam! Bam!...", the powerful paws of the silver bear struck the ground, each time they missed me. The only solution that came to my mind was poison. 'I just need to find some time, and retrieve it. Moreover, I need to take the antidote and give some to Shelly. Otherwise we are goners as well', I thought. The silver bear's onslaught never stopped, which gave me little time to get the necessary stuff from my bag.
That's when I heard a loud "Mah!", from the other side. One of the bears managed to hit Shelly, flinging it into the air. "Shit! Hold on Shelly!", I exclaimed before making a sudden rush towards the silver bear. "Roar!", the bear accepted my challenge while swiping its paw at me. I wasn't interested in challenges, but a way to leave. I ducked out of the way, then threw my daggers at the normal bears.
This only enraged the silver bear even more, but that wasn't my concern. I had to get Shelly out of there, and fast. With the silver bear hot on my heels, I rushed towards the normal bears swinging my hands like mad. The daggers flew at them one after another, killing four bears. Though that was a good news, the problem called silver bear finally caught up with me. "Bam... Argh!", the silver bear's paw barely reached me, but the sheer power and speed pushed me to the side.
"Bam, Ungh! Pak, pak...", my body slammed the ground, before bouncing off a few times. All my bones creaked from the impact. I had to get up, I had to release the poison no matter what. The silver bear wasn't done yet. With me on the ground, it jumped into the air with the intention of squashing me like an ant. 'Move!', I exclaimed in my mind. My body managed to roll away from that place. "Bam!", the bear crashing right next to me reverberated in my ears.
I knew there was little time, but I had to get the poison. That moment alone felt like eternity. I saw the silver bear standing up, then getting ready to pounce at me once more. I saw how the normal bears got closer to Shelly, who was struggling on its own. 'There it is!', I finally grabbed the bottle of Cloud Haze Poison. I clenched my teeth, disregarded the pain and threw the bottle at the silver bear, who already rushed at me. "Shatter!", that stupid bear thought it was a weapon, and tried to deflect it with its paw. Unfortunately, this was much worse than a weapon. A deadly poison that quickly formed a cloud around the silver bear.
"Roaaar!", the bear roared in pain. The cloud itself was deadly, and spilling that poison onto a living being worked even faster. While the silver bear wailed and struggled, I downed the antidote and prepared some for Shelly. At some point, the bear decided not to care about poison and get rid of me instead. 'I don't have the strength...', but as that thought formed in my mind, Shelly managed to escape the other weakened bears. It made a mad dash towards the silver bear, who was approaching me at the same time.
"Mah! Bam!", Shelly slammed into the silver bear. The bear got knocked to the side, but Shelly wasn't in any better condition. "Maaahh!.... Maaaa,,,", it cried. The shell was severely cracked, I feared it would simply disintegrate. 'Move... Move...', "MOVE FOR FUCK SAKE", I exclaimed while rising to my feet. The silver bear struggled to pick itself up, but the poison was spreading too fast. That guy was no longer an issue. The issue was four other bears making their way towards us.