“Young Dire bear level 8”
So that is what it was he was not going to be killing that in one hit, he doubted he could even get close enough to try, that cave would make a good home base and it was the best and really only option he had seen so far. He also wasn’t sure he was happy with having a predator like that so nearby. There was also a small voice in his head screaming about the amount of experience that must be worth. In that moment he had already decided he was going to kill the bear, he just had to work out how.
First he needed to move away and plan. So he went back the way he had come, before moving round in a wide arc keeping the cave entrance in view. When he got to one of the trees that would have a good unobstructed view of the entrance, he began to climb. He kept going until reaching a point with several large limbs growing in the direction of the cave entrance about seven or eight meters up. Making himself comfortable while watching the entrance he thought and planned. First what did he have; he had his big knife on a stick as a spear, he had his little conrex claw knife, and some string that was it.
“Really” He did have his bag of tools and bits back where he had started, but he wasn’t sure how to get straight there from here so he would have to go back the long way round. That would take all day if not longer and most of the bits in there weren’t ready to use missing handles and bits.
“NO”, he wanted to secure his base before he went and got that bag.
“Okay” so with only the stuff on him what could he do? He knew nothing he had on him and with the stats he had, he was not going to be doing a one hit kill on it, but he also remembered scraps of a documentary on ancient human hunters they didn’t kill with one big hit, they would use lots of smaller ones, they would bleed their prey and drive it to exhaustion before finishing it off and that was exactly what he needed to do. That was all well and good in saying but while he couldn’t kill it in one hit, that bear could most likely kill him in one hit, so he could not get hit because it would be over for him. To survive then he needed to reduce its mobility that would make it easier for Gar to hit the bear and harder for the bear to hit him. Gar had no ranged weapons and no confidence in his skills to use it even if he tried to make one. So the only other option he could think of was traps, pit fall traps where what he based his idea of, but not one massive hole, that would take too long and too close to the bear he did not want it coming out while he was digging and him be trapped in a hole with a bear, besides he didn’t have a spade so he wasn’t going to be doing that much digging. But with the aim to reduce the bears mobility not kill it, he realised he could change it from one big pit to lots of little ones all with spikes in that should hopefully injure its feet and slow it down. With that decided Gar started sharpening sticks with his conrex claw knife while watching the cave entrance
Gar spent a couple of hours just carving sharp sticks; he had saved a lot of the smaller leafy branches to cover his holes and carved the thicker branches into stakes. He had climbed down the tree several times to place bundles at the base, and had made sure not to take to many branches from right where he was to still keep some cover, instead taking them from around the massive tree. Now ready to start setting the traps and still no sign of the bear leaving the cave, he climbed down, took his big knife which was removed from the stick, a bundle of stakes and a bundle of leafy branches. deciding to start with the traps furthest out, he moved towards the cave when he was about twenty five meters out from the cave entrance he got down and started digging using the large knife, he made sure to spread the dirt so there was no mounds. He dug until he had a hole that went up to his elbow and was about twice that roughly circular, that dire bear had been big and he wanted to make sure its foot fit in the hole, he then took several stakes which had been sharpened on both ends and drove them into the bottom of the hole, still leaving a good length of sharpened stake pointing up, he then took some leafy branches and covered the hole spending a few minutes to get it right,
“New skill acquired Traps level 1”
Gar kept repeating this around a huge arc in front of the entrance, he wasn’t able to do it as close to the cliff as he would of liked because the ground became stone and he couldn’t dig, once he completed his arc as best he could he moved slightly closer and repeated, all the time keeping an eye on the entrance. By the time he had used up all his stakes and branches he had made over a hundred little pit traps
“Traps levelled up. Traps level 2”.
The closest were about three meters from the cave entrance. By now it was starting to get dark again and Gar had seen no sign of the bear leaving. He retreated to the tree he had been in earlier, stepping carefully round the traps; he didn’t climb it this time but merely sat against its trunk. Looking out across his handiwork, it was fairly obvious where his traps were, the leaves not exactly blending in with the grass, but Gar was counting on the dire bear not being smart enough to notice that. Taking the moments rest Gar attached his big knife to a new stick he had prepared earlier this one longer than his previous, he wanted the extra reach. That done and nothing else left to prepare Gar just needed to decide, was he going to wait for the bear to come out or try to lure it out. Having no idea how long until it came out and everything being set up and ready Gar decided it would be best to try and draw it out. He set himself up standing just outside his arc of traps, spear in hand, Observe active just to make sure he didn’t miss anything. He was about to shout when the bear came out, he saw it as it came to the mouth of the cave, observe kicked in
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“Young dire bear level 9”
Floating above its head
“Observe levelled up Observe level 2”
This thing was massive nearly three meters tall at the shoulder while all fours. Gar was starting to wonder if he had dug his holes wide enough to fit that things foot. That was when all thought left Gar’s mind, the bear had turned and was looking at him, straight at him, it started to run towards him, it passed through the first few traps missing them completely but then it hit one.
It worked better than Gar could have hoped the bears front left paw fell straight into a trap and with the momentum it had built up it couldn’t immediately stop. It let out a bellow that hurt Gars ears as it crashed down into the dirt. Gar started to move forward to attack while the bear was down but it got up before he had even gone two steps, its front paw was at an odd angle and it wasn’t putting it down. It let out more growls as it continued towards him but more cautiously now. Gar’s luck held though as it hit another trap , this time the right back leg, it wasn’t as dramatic as the first time but Gar did see as it lifted the leg several trickles of blood and one stake still stuck in the foot, although that was shaken out even as he watched. The dire bear now with two injured legs was unsure what to do Gar however decided this was his opportunity with such reduced mobility he should be able to use his spear to bleed this bear, and if needs be he could always lead it across more of his traps there were still loads undisturbed. The bear was still using its back right leg but favouring the left one. Gar started circling to its right as he advanced hoping to get round the back of it, or at least make it spin on its injured leg. He wasn’t able to get around to its back by the time he was in range of his spear but he took the open shot he had at its side. He thrust his spear forward and the tip of the knife sank in
“New skill acquired Spear skill level 1”
Not as deep as Gar would of liked but, he could cut the beast that was all he needed for if he could cut it once he could do it a hundred more times. Well that had been the plan but as Gar pulled the spear out the bear reared up, and a back handed swing of its front paw crashed into the spear smashing the stick and spending the knife flying, Gar started backing up trying to lead the bear into more of his traps, it was going cautiously and hadn’t stepped in any more. Due to its caution Gar was able to open up some space between them, not as much as he would have liked, he was also slowed as he was unwilling to turn away from the bear and was watching where he put his feet as miss steps here would be disastrous. He was almost next to the cave mouth near the strip by the wall he had been unable to trap and he was preparing to use it as his escape route and run while the bear was in the middle of his traps, the dire bear had been growling and roaring at him the entire time. Suddenly Gar was flying through the air searing pain across his right shoulder and down his back. He tumbled and rolled and when he came to a stop, he saw with observe still active,
“Young dire bear level 8”
The bear was now behind him
“No” There were two dire bears this second one had just come out of the cave; his health bar was dangerously low only 18 points left. The second bear had batted him and sent him flying with a single swing of its paw the claws having shredded his shoulder and back. Gar had never been so scared in his life, he had been confident if not in victory then in at least being able to escape with minimal injury, and now he was on the ground in more pain than he had ever experienced before with two hulking dire bears bearing down on him, ready to kill him, and in the condition he was in it wouldn’t take much to do. The only thing that was keeping him alive at that point was the bears were moving slowly through his traps, the first bear having seemingly warned the second. Gar new he had to use this short time to get away, it was his only chance, there would be no fighting these hulking beasts. The simple act of rolling over to stand was absolute agony on a new level tearing a scream from his throat. The bears answered his scream with a roar which was the only reason Gar found himself able to continue, getting up with one arm, the right arm having no strength with the damage to his shoulder. Gar wanted to try to run straight through the clear strip near the cliffs, but he had no doubt the bears where faster than him, especially as injured as he was, his only chance was to keep them amongst his traps for as long as possible.
So he turned from the clear path diagonally across his field of traps, it was his only hope. He started to move slowly at first the pain telling him to slow down, to stop, but the sound of the bears pushed him on, a walk, then a jog, then a run, he was striding over traps as he ran, each bunch of leaves a risk of death if he stepped wrong but also his saviours as long as he stepped right. The pain is not something Gar could have imagined, it removed all thought from his brain, and the only thing left was running, to run is to live, keep going to out run the pain. Gar got clear of the traps but he did not slow he did not look back. The bears were still growling and making slow progress towards him. Gar did not notice, he had to survive and to survive he had to run so run he did, the only thing that got through the fog of pain was his health ticking down to 13 out of 136 and a little icon in the corner of his vision he hadn’t noticed before but he instantly knew it meant he was bleeding, that was soon washed from his brain again by the pain. Gar kept running ignoring what was around him, where he was going, everything. The only thing that got past the pain was to run to survive, so that is what he did. He continued to run until he couldn’t any more. His stamina had bottomed out but he had continued on more stumbling than running still onwards, until he hit the river and could go no further, by this point his health was down to 8 out of 136. He had stopped at the river’s edge then just fell face down unconscious into the river.
