I put distance between the animal and myself once more by darting out of my shadows while the bear remains in them, perplexed, hunting for its prey. Unfortunately, unlike before, the bear emerges from the shadows and returns to my track in a very short period of time, not even allowing me to maintain the same distance between the offender and myself.
I wonder how the bear can find me no matter where I hide or run to, I can only theorize that it can feel my presence too or maybe it just has super heightened senses.
With the bear at such a close range, I cast one shadow straight behind me. This shadow's job will be to assist me in determining the exact location of the bear when it travels through it. I'm thinking that by doing so, I'll be able to change course and slow the bear down by offering it a more difficult path to follow.
The bear's presence is still within my shadows. huh? Why is it still in my shadows?
The shadows were only a ploy to limit the vision of the bear and slow it down by knowing its exact location, not to entirely halt it. Not that I'm complaining but unknown variables in such situations are still a bit uncomfortable.
When the bear stops following me and remains in my shadows, I do not sit still to assess the issue; rather, I do not sit still because I am mentally exhausted by this conflict. Instead, I keep moving as far as I can, using my shadows to determine the bear's whereabouts.
With my current speed, I could only put 200-250 meters of distance from the bear in my shadows. The bear's presence can no longer be felt, the creature is out of my shadows. It only took around 10 seconds for the bear to get back on my trial and leave the shadows.
I need more space between the beast and myself before I can begin consuming other animals for strength. So I decide to cast another shadow across a path that I assume the bear will cross because it is pursuing me.
Time passes until the bear's presence can be felt once more within my newly formed set of shadows, which thankfully causes the bear to stop in its tracks for a short period of time, allowing me to escape even further away from the strange beast.
I repeat the same strategy a few times more till I get 6 identical instances of such events. This technique was hazardous, but it did allow me to place roughly 1400 meters between the opponent and myself, which was more than enough to allow me to hunt for a few minutes.
I then quickly change my direction at random and go down what seems to be a man made trail?
What is a man made trail doing in this vast forest?
I opt to disregard this detail because I don't have time to think about it. It might just as well be a natural track that appears to be man-made, because there is no specific design on it. They are merely dirt paths.
I then continue to search for animals, in the short period of time I get to hunt, I only get to consume a couple of rabbits, red squirrels and lynx which is literally all I could find!!
Where is my animal buffet? The wolves and other large mammals?
These small animals are not bad but they practically do not even recover the shadows I used throughout this fight.
I can feel the presence of the bear leave the final shadow as I complain and whine in my own head about the current scenario. The dumb bear has returned to the game. With this in mind, I cast another shadow and resume my dash away from where the bear is coming from.
The bear and I are still separated by more than 1000 meters. I simply chose to follow the dirt route because it was travelling in the opposite direction as the bear, and that is what I wanted.
After a while of following the dirt track, I came to a fork trail with the standard center, left, and right paths. In normal cases, one would be stuck picking which way to choose because one may lead to better terrain than another, but I chose the middle path without even thinking about it for a second.
I picked the middle path because it allows for the largest distance between the bear and I.
At the moment I picked the middle trail and followed it, the bear had reached the last shadow I put down near the trail but... IT DOESN'T STOP!!
The bear does not pause in the shadows for even a second; instead, it moves through it as if it has learned from its previous experiences. This is a disaster, a colossal disaster. It means that I won't be able to just cast a single shadow over a broad enough region to prevent the bear from approaching me; it will no longer stop.
Considering the previous patterns, it will probably reach me in a very short period of time for it is probably charging full speed towards me.
I use all the speed I can muster to follow the trail in hopes of reaching somewhere rocky or something similar, for I only have one more trick to use which would not help much without enough grains.
A couple of minutes pass, the bear is now only 400 meters behind me, fully visible to the naked eye.
As I am desperately trying to run, I hear the sound of water splashing around before getting to see a decently sized lake with... humans.
The bear is now only 200 meters behind.
More and more of the scenery comes into my view. There are maybe more than 50 tents all around the lake, stretching into the clearing and woodlands surrounding the lake.
The bear is now only 100 meters behind.
There seems to be people ranging from children to elderly. Some are fishing, some are grilling and some are on canoes and small boats.
The bear is now within a 50 meter proximity.
The sound of the bear and I are terrifying and deafening to practically any living being and we are now close enough for the humans to hear us approaching them.
The bear is now right behind me.