William thought about it for a while. "I need to slip away unnoticed or muscle ball there is going to chase me to the end of the earth. Think William think, you can't make a lot of sounds otherwise…."
Then it hit him, he can use sound as a distraction and give the bear what he would come to call "the Houdini".
He slowly made his way down the tree, which was not easy as he was pretty much a rookie in this regard. It took quite a while to finally reach the ground, doing his best to make sure he produces as little noise as possible and hopefully draw no attention from the muscle ball.
This, he had apparently succeeded in doing; probably helped by the sound of running water from the nearby stream and the fact the even though it was night time the forest was not completely silent.
Once he was down from the tree, he picked up a rock and prepared himself by choosing a direction to walk towards, yes walk, as running means a lot of noise and he was not about to test a bear's sense of hearing.
As the bear was still near the stream, William threw his rock towards it and with a splash which was quite loud, he left the scene as quietly as possible. As he did so he turned around one last time, just to see the bear limping towards the location the rock had landed in and disappeared into the night.
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The sight of the bear attack, inside the forest.
The search party made up of lord Ulric, the hunters and the guards had arrived a few minutes ago.
Even at night and with low visibility, the sight was as gruesome as ever if not worse, instilling a foreboding feeling in all those present.
The only things that made the situation somewhat bearable, were the lights from the torches which drove away the darkness, the weapons they had brought with them and the fact that they had numbers on their side.
Ulric observed the sight as well; he was a seasoned warrior so he was quickly able to guess how the confrontation went from the clues left behind. These soldiers gave their lives for his son, once this whole nightmare was over he intended to give them a proper burial with all military honors as well as compensate their families, but for now, time is of the essence and finding his son was his priority.
"HUNTERS!!! Find us tracks we can follow, if you can lead us to my son, I will reward you with enough gold to last you a lifetime." Lord Ulric made his declaration.
The hunters, now motivated by greed, as well as fear of what would happen if they were to arrive late to the marquess's son's aide; that is if he were to be still alive, gave their best, doubling down on their efforts and suppressing any fear they might have had of the beast.
Soon they found William's footprints as well as the horse's marks, but most worryingly the paw marks of the bear a well, one of which was bleeding leaving a trail behind for them to follow. They were unfortunately all leading in the same direction which was deeper into the forest. This means that the bear had followed William and the horses which was troubling, to say the least
"ONWARDS MEN" the marquess gave his command as he made his way towards the same heading as the trails. Whether this beast had hurt his son or not, it had killed his men making this whole confrontation very much personal.
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William was tired; he had been walking for a long time now and with little sleep, the psychological impact of the encounter with that monster of a bear had started to make him jumpy, flinching and turning to look around him after hearing the slightest of noises.
The forest can be a scary place even during the day, at night though it was just plain creepy, giving a person the feeling that they were being watched, stalked from every corner, from behind every tree.
This was exactly how William was feeling right now; he felt like 'muscle ball' could appear from any of his blind spots and attack him leading to a gruesome death. Adding to that the relatively poor visibility, it simply made for a nightmarish experience.
William was also very hungry having had little food as well, his rations could last him a day at most if rationed to the extreme maybe two days. He had eaten very little, trying to preserve as much as he could in case the worst came to be and he finds himself stuck for more than expected; that is if he survived that long.
'I have to gain more ground, I have to put as much distance as I can between me and it. The mud has proven to be a delaying tactic at best, if I stop for sleep, sooner or later it will find me."
William had picked a route that brought him back towards the periphery of the forest, hoping he can eventually find the exit, he had been leaving as many clues as he could for the search parties that he had no doubt would looking for him by now, hoping that they could maybe find him before the bear did.
After some time he heard the sound of something growling behind him; as he turned around he saw the limping bear running towards him, at a now much slower speed compared to what it had been capable of when it faced the guards.
"SHIT, SHIT, SHIIIIIT." William took off running as fast as his exhausted and weakened body can carry him, running high on adrenaline and the desire to survive.
As he ran William would turn from time to time to look at the beast chasing him only to find that it was still quickly gaining ground, even with an injured paw, it was still faster than an average person by quite a margin.
William soon started heading towards areas of the forest that were densely covered with trees and zigzagging through them hoping that it would buy him enough time to maybe escape.
It worked, well... slightly; muscle ball would tear through small trees like a bulldozer and only be forced to make a detour when face with larger and more ancient ones.
It did not take long for William to start getting exhausted and for his speed to start dropping, decreasing his lead further and further from his pursuer until there was nothing but a couple of meters between the two.
At this moment William was pretty much losing his mind, feeling that his heart was about to burst from his chest from fright as well and overexertion, feeling his mind go into overdrive trying to find any way to get himself out of this situation, yet he came up with nothing.
Completely consumed by his approaching painful and gruesome doom, William had not noticed that the ground in front of him gave way to a steep slope, by the time he realized though it was far too late to adjust himself.
The bear at this moment was so close to William that even with its injured paw, it was still capable of jumping on its target. It attempted to do just that and pounced on its prey, adamant on finishing it off once and for all.