The human eye was capable of seeing further than 5 kilometres away. However, this snow meant Isaac and Johan could barely see 1 km in front of them. Thankfully it wasn't a proper blizzard or a whiteout, otherwise they'd be lucky to see even a tenth of that.
They'd already made it to the edge of the forest by the time the snow had gotten heavier, so they were in the right area. Now all they had to do was locate the puchella flowers. However, that was easier said than done. Finding 5 small flowers in heavy snow was not a simple task.
Luckily for Isaac and Johan, the map showed the flowers were in a clearing. Managing to find the clearing would be a lot easier than just finding the flowers.
They were just thinking about how to find the clearing when a bear appeared out of nowhere. They saw it moving between the trees ahead of them.
Its brown fur was flecked white with snow and they could see its powerful, intimidating figure up close. They were nearly the length of a football pitch apart and the bear hadn't noticed them yet.
However, their hearts froze when they saw the bear raise its head to sniff the air.
"Quick, climb the trees!"
Isaac still remembered when everyone climbed trees to avoid wolves in the first trial.
He darted behind a tree and started shimmying up it.
Johan hissed, "Bears can climb too, Isaac!" before starting to climb another tree anyway.
Isaac knew that bears could climb trees, but he was hoping that even if the bear smelled them, it wouldn't know where they were. Both people and animals had a horrible habit of never looking up, so they should be okay in trees.
Meanwhile, the bear finished sniffing and looked around. It had obviously smelled something and was trying to find the source of that smell.
Even if the winds were blowing away from it, it could still smell them when they were this close to it. However, they were climbing on the back side of their trees so it couldn't see them.
The bear seemed genuinely confused and wandered around, trying to investigate. While it did that, Isaac and Johan kept climbing their pine trees and managed to reach the branches. They clambered onto them and kept climbing as high as possible.
The bear kept sniffing the air and eventually came to Isaac's tree. Isaac held his breath and stayed utterly silent as the bear looked around.
It looked befuddled when it still couldn't find anything, so it gave a low growl of frustration and trundled away.
Isaac didn't climb down even after it was gone. He kept ascending the branches of his tree, which was one of the tallest ones in the vicinity. He only had the confidence to do so since the snow and wind had lessened over the last 5 minutes.
He was nearly at the top of the tree, which was still swaying quite a bit. He got above the tops of the nearby trees and surveyed the surroundings, looking for an area with no trees.
He saw the clearing to his right, just barely visible through the flurries of snow. He didn't dare linger on this rocking treetop, so he quickly shimmied around the tree so his back faced the clearing. Then he descended the tree with a combination of speed and safety.
Isaac let out a small breath of relief when both feet touched the ground safely, then he did a 180 degree turn so he was facing the clearing.
He saw Johan waiting to one side, about to open his mouth and ask what took so long. Isaac spoke quickly before he could even get the words out of his mouth,
"Come on, the clearing's this way."
Then he strode away without giving Johan a chance to respond. Johan walked quickly to catch up.
"I it's winter but you don't have to treat me so cold!"
He said it in a joking way but Isaac could tell he was slightly irritated. Isaac was talented at a lot of things, but dealing with people wasn't one of them.
"Sorry. I climbed higher up my tree to find the clearing, it's this way."
Isaac's apology had a limited amount of sincerity, but it was better than nothing. Johan decided to just let it go and they walked together in silence.
Instead of heading directly towards the clearing, they circled around it to make sure it was downwind. The wind had changed direction and they wanted to make sure the bone spike bear which lived in the clearing didn't discover them.
They moved around the clearing and into position without any problems. However, they didn't know what to do once they got there since they could see bears lying down in the clearing. Simply waiting for the bears to leave wouldn't work: even if the bone spike bear left the clearing, there would be at least 1 or 2 normal bears left behind.
Fortunately, animals were dumb. Even wild beasts were stupid – unless that wild beast was a more intelligent species such as a monkey or crow. Even the Rank 1 bone spike bear had less intelligence than a 3-month-old baby, so there was definitely a way to lure it out of the clearing.
What do a bear's instincts tell it to do? Eat, sleep, fuck, and avoid danger. Isaac either had to use something to attract the bears, or do something to make them run away.
Isaac chose the latter. If he created a distraction or killed something in the hope they'd smell it and leave to eat it, Isaac could guess that only some of the bears would leave. On the other hand, fear was the primary motivator of most animals: if he did something big enough, he could guarantee all the bears would run. Even if they didn't want to, their instincts would tell them to.
Isaac suddenly activated his Spirit Sword Anima, surprising Johan. Johan got even more confused when Isaac swung his sword full-power at the trunk of a tree.
The razor-sharp sword cut a third of the way through the tree and Isaac had to pull it hard to get it back out.
"What on Terra are you doing!?" Johan whispered.
"It'll be quicker for you to watch than for me to explain it. I'm going to need a bit of help in a second though."
Johan tried to figure out Isaac's plan while Isaac swung his sword at the tree again. Then he swung twice more with less force so the tree was on the brink of falling over.
He repeated this process for 6 more trees until he ran out of Qi and had to deactivate his Anima. Then he put his back up against one of the trees and pushed hard with his legs. The tree started to creak and crack, then began to topple over.
Johan stood there in shock. Surely this would just draw the bears to them! However, he was even more shocked by Isaac's next words,
"Quick, push the next tree over."
However, he quickly realised that Isaac was trying to scare the bears. They'd reached the point of no return with that first tree, so Johan had no choice but to comply.
As Johan began to push the second tree over, Isaac ran to the third tree he had prepared.
*************************
In the clearing, the bears were all awake now and standing with their hackles raised.
When the first tree fell, the bone spike bear let out a loud growl, ready to challenge whoever was causing chaos in its territory.
As the second tree fell, a lot of its confidence disappeared but it still firmly stood its ground.
While the third tree fell, it started to wonder what could cause so much noise and damage. It started to back away nervously.
After all 7 trees had fallen, the bone spike bear and its lackeys were nowhere to be seen. They had all run away into the forest, giving Isaac and Johan ample time to find the puchella flowers.
They quickly searched the clearing and located a grouping of six flowers. When Isaac brushed the snow off their leaves, he saw they had pale blue petals with white stems, meaning they were puchella flowers.
Johan acted as a lookout, making sure the bears didn't return while Isaac was harvesting the puchella flowers.
Isaac took out the empty hemp bags stuffed into his pockets and started dumping handfuls of earth into them. When 6 of them were half-full, he put them down and focused on the flowers.
He used his hands to dig carefully around the base of one. Then he delicately pulled it out of the earth while making sure its roots didn't get damaged. Finally, he replanted it in one of the hemp bags he'd filled with earth.
Even though they only needed 5 flowers, Isaac collected all 6 in this way. However, he sped up when collecting the last 2 since he was already used to the process of harvesting them and he also didn't know if the bears would return.
When he was done, he called to Johan,
"I'm done! Take 3 bags and let's get out of here!"
Johan obediently grabbed 3 bags, using his playful smile to hide the fact that he really disliked being ordered around.
If it was someone he deemed lesser than himself, he absolutely wouldn't take it. However, the fact that Isaac had outperformed him several times during the trials and the academy made it a little easier to listen to him. Even the success of this mission so far showed Johan that Isaac's ideas were usually good ones.
Carrying their bags of flowers, the pair beat a triumphant retreat. Now all they needed to do was return safely. Wait... that's a flag, isn't it?