Mike was splitting fibres.
He had taken multiple sticks, thinned them down to fibres to make rope.
By tying the fibre back together, the rope was complete.
Now for the leather.
Using a sharp stone, Mike tore apart his shoes.
Using the shoe's leather and string alongside the rope he made, Mike created a sling.
The same weapon used to kill Goliath.
Now his stones could fly at dangerous speeds, far stronger than lobbing them himself.
But this won't kill it, I'm not sure if I can kill it alone. Tonight, I fight to slow down the freak and find it's weakness.
Mike set off, bare foot but armed.
He was surprised to find the bear... Sleeping?
It's walking, it was probably eating too, so how?
The bears eyes were closed, it's stomach inflated and deflated slightly. Making it look cartoonish.
That thing is sleeping. It's walking while it's asleep.
This is not Attack or Hunt mode, this is a third much more passive mode. This is the Sleep mode.
The ability to traverse land at the same speed as when you are awake, to eat and rest whilst hunting down your enemies.
I can't let it reach the class.
Mike figured, if the bear is sleeping, that means it's energy conservation is a level deeper.
If I attack it whilst it slumbers, the freak won't conserve its energy like planned, it's going to slow down even more.
This is it's weakness! Or atleast it's first weakness.
Mike tied one end of the sling to his finger, fit the stone into the leather and held the other end with the fingers on the same hand.
He swung the sling in circles around him, his breathing eased.
The back of his head, bound to wake that fucker up.
At the perfect moment, he let go of the slings end and it fired off.
Before he could make out the trajectory, it had already hit it's target.
James woke up later than usual, he was a bit stressed from the first day in the forest.
"Shouldnt we be leaving? What happened to the bear?" He asked Tom, who woke up earlier than him.
"Sarah came back from an early morning expedition. That bear was moving slower than yesterday."
"What? Has it gone hungry?" Up till now, the general understanding was 'this bear is going to kill us and eat us.' so James was a tad bit confused.
"She said a lot of things, it's better if you go ask her. I'm still trying to process it."
"We can go together, we still have to check out the circle we got here in." James offered, Tom agreed and they met up with Sarah.
"Everyone's packing up, now's our chance to check out that circle before we get too far." Sarah spoke like it was a pre-game pep talk.
The three of them left camp and found the bears path, it came to a grinding halt in front of some trees.
"It stopped here, but why?" James pointed towards all the fallen trees that were in it's path, the bear obviously doesn't care about these trees.
"This isn't everything, let me show you something." Sarah started running, she was as perplexed as them when she first saw it.
Trees were scattered across the ground, blood had spilled here and there. This was behind on the path.
"Did it have a fight here? Some other monster?" Tom was the first notice that it was a brawl.
"There would be a corpse if two creatures of that size fought. Or a trail of blood, leading to where the winner took the loser." Sarah pointed out, there was blood but not enough to kill any human, much less a giant bear.
"It was attacked, it stopped tearing down wood and chased down it's attacker. They got into a confrontation around this area." Tom put the pieces together.
"So who do you think attacked the bear?" James asked, this situation felt very unfamiliar to him.
"Probably Mike, or there's a creature roaming around here that we don't know about." Tom scratched his chin.
"You think Mike did this?" Sarah looked around, it felt possible but unbelievable at the same time.
"That guy's a genius when it comes to wood stuff, look for any kind of weapon around here. Also, where's the bear?"
Sarah pointed beyond the ruined trees "it's walking back, I think, it'll be here soon."
"Let's go to the circle then, theres not much to find out over here anyway." James said, but as they were leaving, he noticed a blood covered stone on the ground.
Is it not dry?
"James? You coming?" "Just a second."
He slipped the stone into his pocket and ran along.
They ran through the woods, around the bear and back into the path, retracing it to find the circle.
The setting slowly became familiar, this is where it all began.
They arrived at the clearing. Tyson's body wasn't anywhere here, neither was Mike.
"Look." Sarah spoke softly, she did not like what she saw.
A mound of dirt, rectangular in shape.
"So then it was Mike who attacked the bear." Tom's face clenched, he couldn't process how he felt at the moment.
"Tyson..." James wanted to look away. How could he?
How could he gets comfortable when Tyson was killed?
The guilt began to weigh on them.
"I won't stop Mike." Sarah broke the silence after a minute or two of mourning.
"And leaving the forest? Are we going without him?" James wanted to help Mike, but he knew the others would object to staying.
"Some of us can wait at the border, either for Mike to come to his senses or to help him kill the bear." Tom added.
"We can't stop him, and frankly, I don't want to."