Chapter 21: The Bear Goes Tigerwolf Slaying

Chapter 21:
The Bear Goes Tigerwolf Slaying

 

ONCE I LEFT THE BEAR HOUSE, I mounted Kumayuru and headed out. The bear shoes were great for getting around, but I really liked riding Kumayuru and Kumakyu. They’d get grumpy if I only rode on one of them though, so I had to alternate.

I used detection magic to scope out the place on bear back. My range had expanded as I leveled up, and I detected tons of monsters.

Aha. Is that them?

“It looks like there are two of them. Maybe they’re mates?”

I pointed the way for Kumayuru. The bear ran, slipping between the trees and parting all the branches and bushes as it went. Way more efficient than running in my bear shoes. There were wolves nearby, but I ignored them for today and kept moving along.

After a while, I could sense the tigerwolves getting closer, so I had Kumayuru stop. I heard the sound of a river nearby. Should I approach slowly on foot, or just charge in mounted? It was cool if they attacked me, but if they fled, chasing them down would be a pain in the butt. If I were a hunter for reals, I’d approach them from downwind to avoid being detected by smell, but I didn’t have those skills.

I guess I should just rush in? I thought. I pointed Kumayuru in the tigerwolves’ direction. We started to run, slipping up the mountain like a shadow.

When we reached the river, two large felines—the tigerwolves—were resting there. They stood up sluggishly at the sight of us. One snarled. They were trying to see what we were doing.

“They’re bigger than I thought.”

One of them was about Kumayuru’s size. The other one was even larger. Maybe the smaller one was the female and the bigger one was the male? I thought.

I dismounted Kumayuru slowly, then patted its head and asked it to take care of the smaller tigerwolf.

I loosed a wind spell on the two tigerwolves, which they dodged easily. Kumayuru bore down on the female tigerwolf, and I sent fire magic flying at the male. It juked to the right and shot towards me—it definitely had wolves beat for speed and control. It closed the distance between us instantaneously.

I made an earth wall, but it plowed through it.

Uhhh, I thought, looks like normal magic doesn’t work on these.

It was close enough to pounce. I jumped into the sky to escape. It roared, watching me take off—then jumped up after me.

“Seriously?!”

The tigerwolf’s sharp fangs came right at me as I fell.

“Bear punch.”

I hit the open-mouthed tigerwolf hard in the side of its face, slamming it to the ground. As soon as I landed, I shot off a flurry of ice arrows that bounced off its hide. I guessed it was the same deal as the goblin king—I couldn’t damage it with normal magic at the level I was now. In that case, I’d beat it the same way I did the goblin king.

I opened up a deep hole in the ground and dropped the tigerwolf into it. But just as I came up to the hole to attack, the tigerwolf ran up the side of shaft and sprang back out, turning its momentum into a claws-first pounce. I backstepped clear of it.

It looked like that trap was a dud.

Meanwhile, Kumayuru was fighting the smaller tigerwolf. They fought and parried claw to claw, fang to fang, equally matched. If Kumayuru were a normal bear, it would have been slower, but my bears were fast—even faster than a tigerwolf. They had enough stamina to run all the way from the town to this place without a sweat. If that tigerwolf was an equal match for my bear, it was a lot stronger than I’d expected.

Leaving that tigerwolf to Kumayuru, I decided to just focus on beating the one in front of me. I really wanted that pelt; I needed a solution that would keep it pristine.

“Water bear.”

A bear made from water appeared and ran at the tigerwolf, grappling it with its watery arms. It forced the tigerwolf’s head against its body and into its watery chest, and a storm of bubbles flooded out of the monster’s mouth as it thrashed its head around.

Bear-type magic really is strong, I thought.

When I looked over at Kumayuru, it was in the middle of getting the tigerwolf pinned. I made a ball of water and fired it at the tigerwolf. It wrapped around the tigerwolf’s face and Kumayuru held her down. After a while, they stopped moving.

That’s a wrap on the slaying, I thought.

I put the tigerwolves away into my bear storage and headed back to the bear house.