They started to run, behind them a huge, towering ten foot tall brown bear chased after them, bellowing loudly. It was muscular, with matted fur and covered in large scab wounds on its side and its face, which were most likely caused by the Smilodon mother or another large creature. There was a hole where one of it's eyes should have been, claw markings above and below. It drooled and frothed as it ran.
"What is that?" Paul bellowed loudly from the middle of the group.
"A giant bear obviously!" Trojan shouted, who ran past him hugging the Tiger Cub tightly. Quickly jumping over the upcoming tree roots that appeared suddenly.
They ran past a couple of trees with the markings, but the bear behind them was quickly gaining on them. The beauty of the well lit silver forest lost to them in the panic.
"We can't keep running!" Tomyris shouted dispirited.
"What do we do?" Dom panted beside her, also trying to think of a solution to their situation.
"We need to turn and face it." She replied.
"We will die if we do that!" Paul shouted from behind them, as he slowly fell to the back of the group.
"I said we should have left these behind!" Gregorios bellowed as he ran past Paul hugging the other two cubs they had taken.
"Then we'll need to just out think it then!" Dom exclaimed, ignoring Gregorios who then ran past him, surprised at the speed of the Hoplite..
"Gregorios and Trojan, continue with the cubs and head back to camp, request any additional help you can get. Subutai and Lucius, any Hoplites they can gather and the Lumberjacks if possible!" Tomyris ordered, "Homer, Hector, Paul and Lazarus, we need to get ready to turn and face it before it picks us off one by one."
"Face it?" Paul exclaimed in shock, "It's a 10ft bear, blind in one eye, that's drooling!"
"Can't we just sacrifice Paul?" Dom questioned jokingly, trying to lighten the mood as they prepared to fight the 10ft tall, One eyed Giant Bear that was gaining on them. The bear which was now running on all 4 paws, seemingly excited and enjoying the chase.
"Thanks Lazarus!" Paul scolded back to him, not finding the situation overly funny as he really would be the first to be caught if they continued running, and if they weren't nice people that actually would be an option as a plan.
"It's an idea!" Tomyris argued. "No offence Paul."
"No offence?" Paul replied angrily, "I don't want to be Bear food! You be Bear food."
"She's more important." Dom replied matter of fact. To a hurt look in return from Paul. He wondered if the NPC's respawned, because if not he would be disappointed to lose any of the ones he had around him. Even though he had been playing for only a few hours, the game had felt like a couple of days and he was making friends with these characters in the game.
"When we come to the next section of the forest, we turn and lock shields." Tomyris suddenly ordered the Hoplites Hector and Homer. "We bang on them with our swords and make as much noise as possible, if it crashes in to us it will hurt, but get up quick. Lazarus and Paul, you are to flank around it whilst we get it's attention, try to cause it pain and pull it away from us. No one die please!"
There wasn't much time to discuss as they quickly reached the next section of the forest. If they didn't turn to face it now, Paul genuinely would be caught by the Bear sooner or later. Hector, Homer and Tomyris dropped to one knee and held their shields in front of them selves, locked together to create a small wall between the trees. Dom and Paul quickly split directions, flanking away from the path.
The Bear quickly tumbled straight in to the wall, its front right paw swiping in to the shields angrily. The weight of the Bear pushing those behind the wall strongly and they quickly lost their balance. Tomyris and Homer rolled to the sides to avoid a follow through attack. The bear angrily rushed towards the closest of the fallen ones, the Hoplite Hector, who had banged his head in the fall and wasn't in a position to defend himself..
The Bear quickly aimed it's paw at Hector. Suddenly though it raised it's head in a roar of pain as a sword slashed in to it's rump, only just grazing the skin but drawing a small amount of blood. Dom had arrived just at the right time, distracting the Bear from the flank as planned. It turned to swipe away at Dom who had just slashed it, but he had to quickly jump backwards as it was attacked again on it's other side by Paul who now came in with his sword. Paul's sword stabbed it direct, rather than slashing causing it to stumble and miss it's intended target.
Whilst this happened Tomyris and Homer quickly got up, shields raised as they bashed and stabbed at the bear that was now targeting Paul. The Bear was now surrounded on 3 sides, with Tomyris and Homer at it's front, Paul on it's right and Dom on it's left. Hector was also slowly getting up, slightly dazed and hurt, having taken the brunt of the initial swipe on his now dented shield.
"My shield." He grumbled sadly, "I really liked this one."
"We need to box it in." Tomyris interrupted, whilst stabbing at the bear which was now aiming at Dom again. "We box it in, we tire it out, and we kill it. Hector are you ok?"
"I'm fine!" He snapped, taking his position beside Homer, whilst Tomyris moved to the left, allowing Dom to move to it's back.
"Keep the pressure up!" She ordered, as they continued to dance around the Bear, slashing and stabbing at it over and over.
"I'm going to aim for it's chrysanthemum!" Paul bellowed angrily.
"You are broken!" Homer shouted as he bashed away another swipe from the Bear that was coming towards him, pushing him back a meter as he almost stumbled over the routes of one of the silver trees.
"Like my shield!" Hector added in a depressed tone.
Paul aimed to stab his sword at the Bear from behind, but it quickly turned to face him, it's mouth open showing it menacing teeth. Clearly unimpressed by his attempt
"How did that go?" Dom commented from the other side, unable to see everything happening.
"Not very well! Paul replied, seeing his chances of life fading before his eyes.
They continued a few rounds of this, slashing and stabbing at the bear. Whilst dodging it's random return attacks. They had split it's attention across them, leaving it in a constant situation where it didn't know where the next attack would come from. Unfortunately their weapons weren't ideal or strong enough to seriously damage the Bear.
"We could also give it an escape route?" Dom queried, whilst slashing again at the Bear that was now swiping its paw at Hector and Homer again. "If we leave one side open, it may decide to retreat."
"Possibly." Tomyris replied, quickly blocking a paw herself that had unexpectedly come her way, Her shield taking the brunt of the attack.
"Let's give it a go!" Paul shouted, "I'd rather that survive, than die trying to kill this thing."
The Bear was now covered in cuts and fresh wounds, with blood dripping from many different parts of it, none of the wounds seemed to be lethal. The main effects of the wounds being that it had slowed slightly, and it's anger levels were raising, causing it to make more rash attacks.
"Paul, move to Homer and Hector. Lazarus you head towards me!" Tomyris ordered quickly.
The group quickly followed her instructions, now covering the bear from the front and the left. Allowing it to retreat and reduce it's danger levels, as it now wasn't pushed in to a fight to the death scenario.
It quickly stood up at it's 10ft height and bellowed loudly down to them, blood and drool spraying those below it. A moment of tenseness passed over the group as they gazed at the now stood One eyed Bear, waiting for it to make a move.
It roared again at them, before Paul roared back at it. The group followed suit, bashing their swords against the shields and shouting loudly at the Bear. Creating a situation where 4 men and 1 woman were in a shouting match with a Bear in the woods.
It suddenly dropped back on all 4 of it's paws, it turned and retreated back in to the depth of the woods. Roaring angrily back at them as it stomped away. The forest floor shaking as the peace from before returned to the area around them.
"Did we win?" Paul asked panting. Relief washing over him as he dropped to the floor dazedly.
"I think we did." Dom replied, stunned himself.
"Your plan worked." Tomyris commented, clearly impressed.
The group of 5 quickly gathered together and continued their speedy retreat out of the woods, before the Bear or any other creature decided to attack them.
"I think we need to assess our plans with the woods." Dom commented, "It's clearly more dangerous than expected! We have Sabre toothed Tigers and giant Bears on our doorstep."
"We need to arrange a permanent guard at the Lumber Camp and increase the strength of any further excursions in to the woods." Tomyris replied.
"What is that?" Hector asked, seeing a brown dot circling above the tree line.
They soon heard shouts in the distance, and looked to see that Subutai was there with the Lumberjacks and 5 Hoplites including Gregorios. Gregorios now held his spear and seemed to be much more confident than the speedy warrior they saw running away earlier. The Tigers were not with him, and Dom expected he had got rid of them as soon as he could.
"Seems you have been in a bit of a fight." Subutai commented when they finally caught up with each other. Dom looked down at himself and across at those that were with him. Subutai was correct, they had been in a fight, they were all covered in dirt and a small amount of cuts. Hector's shield was in a bad way and Paul's sword was bent at the tip.
"We've got a lot of work to do." Dom commented whilst looking at Subutai.
"That we do." He replied honestly.