The morning sun and the noises of birds chirping woke us up, and although we didn't have a sound sleep, it was manageable. We all stood up and drank water, fixing our clothes and cleaning them. Today was the last day of the hunt, and their last chance to rise in the ranking.
Eseoghene, Ovie, Egbo, and Eruvwu all began their path toward the palm tree, making a vow in their hearts to try their best today. They weren't used to walking through the forest, most especially the girls. They were walking barefooted with dirty clothes, hungry while they hadn't had their bath. This made them nauseous, as they weren't used to it. The boys all had an easier time as they were mostly used to not bathing for days or weeks sometimes, singing as they walked through the forest hoping for the emergence of any prey, either weak or strong, to add to their points.
They hunted the rabbits they saw, and some birds on trees, and that went on for the first few hours of the day until finally, they entered the territory of a beast. When they arrived in its territory, they all felt it. The sheer power of it was overwhelming; it was as strong as one of their seniors, not an elder, a senior.
Dmm dmmm dmmm. They could all hear it walking towards them, their whole body filled with sweat, their teeth clenched, they readied their weapons and awaited the walking disaster. It arrived in its full glory, standing at more than nine feet tall, its brown fur shining under the radiance of the sun. Its paws were as large as our heads, with its teeth baring at us. It looked at us, staring down at us angrily and menacing.
We stared at it; it was a female bear! The most dangerous type of bear. If we met a male bear, even if we didn't manage to kill it, we would be able to run away. But if it's a female bear, it would pursue us and hunt all of us till our death. It walked slowly toward us; we didn't want to be intimidated, and we all ran to it with our weapons. Ovie ran towards it, with its sword slashing at it with all his strength, but it barely left a white scratch on its back. It swung its paws at Ovie, who quickly blocked the strike with his sword, sending him flying back and crashing into a tree behind. Eruwu unsheathed her daggers and ran forward; she jumped and landed an overhead strike on its head, similar to Ovie, it barely landed any damage. She jumped back, avoiding its paws swinging at her.
"We'll all have to attack it together at once; its skin is too strong, and we'll have to aim for its vital parts like its eyes, belly, and nose," Eseoghene said. "Yes, its skin is very tough; my knife barely scraped it, and also it was very strong; just one paw sent me flying," Ovie said, coughing.
The four of them all agreed to aim at a vital spot, but first, they needed someone to distract it or shift its attention from them. "I'll distract it," Egbo said. So they made up a plan with Egbo starting the fight to distract it. With the fight starting, Egbo took his weapons, two pairs of hammers. He jumped towards the bear, swinging both of his hammers at the bear.
The bear tanked the hit, while Egbo's hands shivered; it felt like he hit a mountain when its vibration reached his hands. But this successfully distracted the bear from the rest of the team. Egbo kept hitting the bear's body, dodging paws and bites, no matter how much his hand hurt. As he took another chance to hit the bear, Eruvwu appeared right behind him and stabbed the bear in its eyes with her dagger.
Roooaaarrrrrr! The bear went crazy, hitting everything around it and trying to remove the knife from its eyes. Unfortunately, Egbo got hit in the chest; his chest caved in as he flew away, rolling on the floor. "I could barely move, and it was getting harder to breathe with each passing moment, and I could feel a metallic taste in my mouth," Egbo thought.
The rest all saw this and ran towards him, trying to drag him away from the rampaging bear. "There's blood in his mouth, and his chest is caved in; one of his ribs must be fractured for that amount of blood to come out of his mouth. If we don't do anything quickly, he won't make it," they all looked at him sadly; there was nothing they could do for him at that moment. Natural herbs wouldn't heal him; the only way for him to survive was if he could break through a new threshold or get to the palm tree, where a tribe doctor would be there, and none of them had any experience in healing wounds like this.
With the bear still rampaging about, they all watched until he bled to his death. With tears in their eyes, they dug the floor and covered him with sand, giving a clear marking so the tribesmen could collect the body later. They all swore in their hearts not to leave this place until the bear was dead or they wouldn't leave here alive.
With anger clouding their hearts, they all rushed toward the bear, swinging their swords and daggers at it. Eseoghene stabbed the other eye, making it completely blind. Ovie used his swords to stab into its mouth when the bear was about to roar, tearing its tongue apart. And Eruvwu finished it off by stabbing its ears, which led straight to its brain and killed it.
They all fell down with their chests heaving heavily and with tears in their eyes. Why wasn't it this simple when we were fighting the bear with Egbo? Now it was easily killed. They all cried, for they had lost a friend, to some not just a friend but a brother to them.