Chapter 52: The Bear Spots a Carriage under Attack

Chapter 52:
The Bear Spots a Carriage under Attack

 

I ENDED UP WAKING before sunrise the next morning. The sky was still mostly dark, and it was probably chilly, but the bear onesie kept me from feeling the cold at all. I changed from the white bear to the black bear side and went down to the first floor.

“Good morning, Yuna.” Fina was already awake, but I didn’t see Noa around.

“Morning. Where’s Noa?”

“I felt bad waking her up, so she’s still sleeping.”

“I’ll make breakfast, so go wake her.”

I got yesterday’s soup and bread ready for breakfast. Noa looked groggy when she came into the dining room.

“Good morning.”

“You look sleepy.”

“That’s because I’m always asleep around this time.”

“We’ll head out after breakfast.”

“Yeah-awn,” Noa replied, the words interrupted by a yawn. Fina smiled as she watched.

 

After we finished our meal, we resumed our journey toward the royal capital. The trip continued to be peaceful; we even stopped to buy some fresh veggies at a village we passed along the way.

I normally slept a lot when traveling. Since you couldn’t fall off the bears, you could nap on them without worry. Noa spent a lot of time asleep, too, probably because she woke earlier than she was used to, and because the bears had such comfortable backs.

 

A few days had passed since we left town when something finally happened.

“Stop for a sec.”

Kumayuru and Kumakyu halted.

“Is there something wrong?”

“There are people and monsters up ahead.”

“Really?!”

I couldn’t see them from where we were. The only reason I could tell was thanks to my bear detection skill, which I was activating every once in a while. This time, it pinged a whole mess of mobs up ahead.

“Yuna, what should we do?”

“If people are being attacked, we have to go help them.”

My bear detection skill identified the monsters as orcs, which I could dispatch without breaking a sweat. But I didn’t want to drag Fina and Noa into danger.

“Yuna?” Fina looked worried; she hung behind Noa, clinging to her clothes. Leaving them behind would leave a bad taste in my mouth, and I let slip what was happening. They’d be so sad if the people under attack ended up dying.

“I’m going to pop over to help them. The monsters might try attacking you too, so you’ve got to make absolutely sure you stick by Kumayuru, got that?”

“Yuna, don’t do anything dangerous.”

“Yuna…”

“I’ll be fine.”

They still looked worried when I left them behind and galloped off with Kumakyu.

The orcs circled a carriage. People—adventurers, by the looks of them—were holding the perimeter, which was probably why I could still detect them. I was momentarily relieved to see them alive, but they looked outnumbered.

“One, two, three…eight.”

There were eight orcs in the fray, and four adventurers to hold them off. One, most likely a sorcerer, was being pinned down by an orc. A swordsman was occupied with two orcs beside the cart. The last two were separated some distance away, surrounded by five orcs.

 

I jumped off Kumakyu and ran for the sorcerer, who seemed to be in the most danger. They were collapsed on the ground, trying to crawl away, but the orc had hold of their leg. It was bringing down a club in its off-hand. This was bad.

I kicked off the ground, collected mana in my hand, and loosed a wind blade at the orc, severing its thick neck before it could see me coming. Maybe I’d gone up a level?

The sorcerer looked around, trying to figure out what happened, and noticed me. “A bear?!”

I ran past the surprised sorcerer and headed for the next target. A swordswoman was singlehandedly defending the cart from two orcs. Their backs were completely unguarded, but my new wind blades would go right through them, potentially damaging the cart and the swordswoman, too. I coiled earth around the orcs’ lower halves and immobilized them instead.

“What?!” the swordswoman cried out.

“I locked them down, so finish them off yourself!”

She picked up what I was putting down immediately, ducked to the orcs’ sides, and cut them down. Meanwhile, I headed to where the remaining two were fighting the five orcs away from the carriage.

Like before, I couldn’t use my wind blade, and the earth trick wouldn’t make it any easier for the two humans to escape. I collected mana in my hands. Instead of picturing a wind blade, I pictured a clump of air. Then, I launched that clump at the orcs. I shot five of them off at once, each one hitting an orc and blowing it off its feet. The adventurers were knocked over by the blast, too, but at least they weren’t dead.

The collapsed orcs got to their feet almost immediately. The adventurers seemed like they were trying to stand back up, too.

“It’s dangerous, so just stay down!” I shouted.

I let a horizontal wind blade loose at the standing orcs, lopping them in half and splattering the adventurers with orc blood. I saved you guys, I thought, so don’t get mad at me, all right? With the threat gone, I approached the bloodstained adventurers.

“You okay?”

“A bear?” A female adventurer with long hair stood up and sheathed her sword. The other female adventurer checked her surroundings.

“Um, did you save us?”

“Pretty much.”

“Well, thank you. You really were a lifesaver.”

“I just happened to be passing by, so don’t worry about it.”

They looked just awful with orc blood all over them, but they didn’t seem angry. I felt kind of bad, but it was an emergency.

“Marina!” The adventurer that was fighting near the carriage ran over. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, we’re fine. This girl dressed as a bear saved us. What about you?”

“Me and Elle are alright, thanks to her.”

A relieved look came over the face of the adventurer with the long hair. “I see. I have to thank you again.”

“Glad I made it in time.”

“I’m Marina, the leader of this party. The one holding the large sword there is Masrika, and this is—”

“I’m Itia.”

Apparently, the sorcerer I saved first was named Elle. We headed back to the carriage, and I called for Kumayuru and Kumakyu on the way. Whether by telepathy or something else, I could give my bears instructions even when they were far away.

“Elle, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. A little longer and I would’ve been a goner, though.”

Perhaps it was because the orc had grabbed her, but her clothes were tattered, and I could see her pale skin. She was trying to cover it up, but since her chest was so big, her boobs were spilling out of her hands.

Was that what I was up against?!

“We’re alive because of you. Thank you.”

She thanked me with this indescribable look on her face, as she looked me up and down. She was probably holding back a ton of questions about my dress sense.

“What the heck are those?!” Marina cried out as she surveilled the perimeter.

“They’re bears!” The adventurers put their hands on their swords.

“Hold on, there are girls riding that bear.”

“These are my bears, so it’s okay.”

“Your bears?”

The adventurers looked at my getup, then at the bears, and relaxed their battle stances like they accepted that.

“Yuna, are you okay?!”

“Yuna, how are you?”

“I’m fine.”

Noa and Fina dismounted from Kumayuru and ran over to where I was. I put my bear puppet hands on top of their heads to calm them down. They were shaking a little, which was understandable. They were ten-year-old girls.