"How many have you caught?" Asked the leader of the Earth bears.
Hearing his question, the subordinate bear answered. "Around a hundred, Boss."
"It's too low, go back and catch more."
"...Alright" after saying this, the subordinate bear ordered some of the earth bears to follow him back to the river to catch some more fish.
Ben saw an opportunity of absorbing Urja, so he followed behind them in his invisibility mode.
…..
It didn't take long for the bears to reach the river. They started catching fish right after reaching there. The large bear who was a protector of the earth bear tribe looked a bit irritated.
"He only knows how to eat and sleep all day, what kind of a leader is he?..ahh! so irritating!" The bear grumbled under his breath.
He was very unsatisfied with his current leader. From the moment he became the leader of their tribe, all they did was to eat and sleep everyday! Their lord was too unambitious!
"What's the use of having so much strength? When it is being wasted like this." Said the bear while catching a fish from the river. He was saying this with a very low volume so that the other bears would not be able to hear him.
From time to time, the bear would grumble here and there to vent his frustration. He was doing it for quite a long time now.
From his words, it seemed like he was a very ambitious Bear, and wanted to fight more in his life.
'Sigh...I wonder whether our tribe will ever be able to conquer other places with our current leader."
Just as the Bear was feeling very sad, he heard some weird muffled noises coming from beside him. The voice belonged to one of the earth bears who had gone with him to catch more fish. So he turned his head towards the direction of the noises, to see what was transpiring there.
What he saw made his whole body freeze like a statue!
There were three lifeless bodies lying dead on the ground. They were his companions!
On their throats, a huge chunk of meat was missing. There was blood everywhere on the ground, along with a small tawny yellow coloured creature standing in the middle of the three bodies.
Seeing this scene, the huge earth bear stood up with a jolt. There was a fearful expression on his face.
"Who the hell are you!?"
The huge bear was panicking, and wanted to run away. He didn't want to fight this small sized creature because he could feel a sense of fear and oppression in his heart just by looking at the beast's face.
This beast was a bigger predator than him! He could feel the suppression even from such a long distance! The large earth bear was a few metres away from Ben, so he directly ran away upon seeing him approach closer.
The bear was about to enter the deep forest, but Ben suddenly appeared right in front of him
Before jumping and slapping the Earth bear to the ground.
Pak!
Dhak!
The bear wanted to roar in pain, but Ben quickly closed the bear's mouth with his two paws and even used his urja pressure to prevent him from roaring loudly.
"Shut up, if you don't want to die a horrible death, then listen to me."
After some rustling and tusling, the bear eventually stopped. He had calmed down by now, but there was still some fear present in his heart after feeling that he cannot overpower this small creature at all.
"Please don't kill me. I will do whatever you say."
Seeing that the bear was so cooperative, Ben felt like he had captured the right creature today.
"Alright, tell me about the strongest member of your tribe."
"The strongest member of our tribe is our leader. Other than having a huge amount of strength, he is nothing. Our leader is very incapable, he is also.."
"Shut up" uttered Ben, after realising that the bear was not telling him anything other than saying how incapable his leader was.
"Tell me about your tribe's population. How many warriors and protectors does your tribe have?"
"We have hundreds of bears in our territory, and all of them can fight. As for protectors, we have around fifteen protectors, myself included." Answered the bear.
"Hm...currently, how many protectors are present in your tribe? Tell me the truth because I will be checking your tribe later, and if your words turn out to be wrong, then..."
"Everyone is there! Out of the fifteen, I am the only one who is not present there."
The bear answered quickly, he didn't have any intention to fool Ben because after feeling Ben's strength, along with his relentless questioning about his tribe, the bear could guess that something was up.
'This beast has such terrifying strength. I am being repressed with only one of his paws! This strength! I am afraid this beast is much more powerful than our leader. Is he going to attack our tribe?'
Thinking of this, some thoughts started forming inside his head.
"Tell me about the strengths of all the protectors of your tribe. How many of them are more powerful than you?"
"There are three bears who are more powerful than me, but they're idiots with no brains. My lord can definitely kill them."
"Hm? My Lord?" Ben raised his left eyebrow. There was a funny look on his face.
Seeing his expression, the bear nodded his head.
"Yes, I don't know what you're going to do and I don't care, just let me live and I will become your subordinate."
Hearing this, Ben felt like laughing. "Really? What if I destroyed your whole tribe? Would you still want to take orders from me?"
The bear became silent for a few seconds after hearing Ben's statement.
"I will certainly feel bad, but currently my life is in your hands, and my desire to live is stronger than saving my tribe members."
After saying this, the bear looked straight at Ben's eyes.
"I have this feeling that you will kill me right after getting all the knowledge from me. I am letting you know that I will serve you even if you kill every earth bear in this forest so as to not get killed by you."
'Damn, he has some unique thinking, even though he is just a savage being living in a forest..' Thought Ben.
"Why is your desire to live so powerful that you would even sacrifice those whom you have grown up with?" Ben was curious about this.
Hearing his question, the bear went into deep thoughts. It seemed like he was trying to figure out the reason for his extreme desire to live, about which even he didn't know till now.
"I...want to do something big in my life...I guess? yeah, that's it."
Right after he said this, the bear felt a weird sensation. He felt like something was entering his body!
Ben smiled, showing his sharp teeth. "Alright then, go back and use whatever method to bring your leader here, alone. Do know that I had transferred a poison inside your body, which is currently in an inactive form. The moment I know that you betrayed me, I will kill you."
After hearing his words, the bear breathed heavily, there was a struggling expression on his face, but it disappeared pretty quickly.
Although it sounded ridiculous, the bear had to believe Ben's words after he felt the burning sensation in his body. He could feel that some corrosive substance had entered inside him.
Right after, Ben moved his right paw away, through which he was suppressing the bear on the ground till now. Now that Ben had moved away, the bear was finally able to stand up on his all fours.
"I will do as you say, my lord." After saying this, the bear left quickly.
Right after he left, Ben turned invisible and followed behind him.
...
Earth bear tribe.
Many bears were happily lazing around, doing nothing. Bear cubs were wrestling with each other. All in all, the tribe was oozing an aura of peace and prosperity. There weren't any walls, huts or entrances in this place. All the bears were living in caves made by themselves using their earth manipulation abilities.
A bear was lazily chewing on a fish, when he noticed a huge bear coming out from some bushes.
Seeing him, the bear stood up and went closer to greet him.
"Hello Giant, why are you alone? Where did those three go?"
The bear, whose name was Giant, didn't respond and went past the small sized bear who had a half-eaten fish in his hand.
"Boss! Please come out! I want to say something to you!" Shouted Giant.
His shout was loud, everyone was able to hear him. The other bears gathered around to see what the matter was about.
Through the opening of the largest cave, an elephant sized Bear came out. He stared at Giant, wondering what he wanted to say.
Seeing him, Giant hesitated for a few seconds but eventually opened his mouth.
"I've met a powerful beast in the river, he is very powerful. Please take our tribe members and run away. We can't defea...Ugh!"
Just as he was about to finish his sentence, his body parts started burning from the inside.
And he even started vomiting blood, his nerves which were green in colour started twisting crazily!
"Aahh!"
The unbearable pain made him fall down to his knees before laying down on the ground. He knew that he was about to die. In the last moment, he was thinking about something.
'There were two choices, either die or live. I choose death to protect the leader....'
He looked up at the sky, there was a dazed look on his face. 'I guess that's something big to do.….'
His eyes remained unclosed as it stared at the vast sky, though his breathing had stopped, he had died. It was a very quick process.
Silence…
Everyone saw the huge bear 'Giant' falling down while shouting loudly in pain, before he became silent completely.
Till now, nobody could figure out what was happening. Everyone was dumbstruck. Even the leader was no exception.
Just as someone was about to come forward to check on 'Giant', everyone heard a deep, cold sounding voice coming from behind them.
"So you choose death over life? Anyway, you choosing death won't change anything."
Said Ben with a bone chilling, cold expression on his face.
He was a bit angry towards 'Giant' for some reason. He didn't know why, but he was angry. Maybe because of feeling like some villain? Or it could be because his plans didn't go as he planned.
Anyway, he was angry and he was about to vent his anger on this bear tribe.
[Ding!]
[ It is detected that the owner is angry. System advises the owner to calm down and think rationally.]