Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Chapter 316: Chapter 14 Fighting the Bear_3

The gunshot shattered the silence of the forest, and the double charge’s recoil nearly knocked the lieutenant to the ground. In the instant that the gun smoke spewed out, he saw the lead bullet graze the giant bear’s cheek, exploding upon its shoulder.

With no time for regret, Winters immediately switched to another rifle.

Following the gun smoke came a bone-chilling roar; neither the flash of fire, the deafening bang, nor the smoke scared off the beast. The enraged giant bear charged towards the puny human with a roar.

So for the second shot, Winters aimed for the gaping maw of the giant bear.

This rifle did not let Winters down for all the trouble he’d taken to carry it, as the 35-gram lead bullet accurately lodged between the bear’s upper and lower teeth.

The bear’s head jerked back from the massive impact force of the lead bullet, and blood froth spewed from its mouth. The colossal creature crashed down, whining in agony.

With no time for pity, seeing the beast fall, Winters hurriedly started to reload his musket. There was no time to clean the barrel, so to save time, he poured the gunpowder directly into the barrel.

But before he could even reach for the lead balls, the bear that had just taken a heavy blow staggered back to its feet.

“Vineta [swearing]!” the lieutenant decided instantly, tossing aside the musket and scrambling up a tree.

In a life-or-death moment, Lieutenant Montaigne, who had never climbed a tree in his life, clumsily ascended, using the “foot treads” given by the old hunter, and managed to scamper up the tree—though in an exceedingly ungraceful manner.

Just as he reached a height of two to three meters, the bear slammed into the tree trunk. The thick pine, almost as wide as a person’s embrace, swung like wild grass in a violent storm, nearly shaking Winters down.

The pine tree trembled, but did not fall. Winters, having steadied his position, frantically climbed higher.

The bear, after ramming into the tree, shook its head a few times and stood upright, leaning on the tree. It roared and swung its front paws at the human, the swooshing bear claws narrowly missing the human’s ankles.

The distance between man and bear was a hair’s breadth; Winters could even smell the rancid breath from the bear’s mouth.

But the human had now climbed five or six meters high; the bear reached out futilely with its front paws, while the man above climbed higher and higher.

Lieutenant Winters Montaigne had only two wishes at that moment: first, that the bear could not climb trees; second, that the tree was sturdy enough.

The first wish was granted, for the giant bear showed no intention of climbing. Realizing it couldn’t reach the human in the tree, the bear turned to viciously batter the tree trunk with its back and shoulders.

And the lieutenant discovered that the tree he had climbed was certainly not sturdy enough.

With each attack from the beast, the thick pine tree began to tilt. There were no other large trees within several meters for Winters to jump to.

He couldn’t let it continue to ram—he realized—or he was certainly doomed.

“[Incoherent, vicious swearing]!” Not caring whether the beast could understand human speech, Winters shouted desperately to distract the bear’s attention in his dire situation.

However, the beast beneath the tree paid no heed, continuing to pummel the tree with brute force.

Winters pulled out his saber and, while climbing down, chopped at the pine branches beside him. Branches smashed onto the bear, but even this felt inconsequential to the massive creature, and it was not impeded.

Winters descended to almost within reach of the bear.

“Come on!” The human roared like a wild beast: “Come and kill me!”

Furiously, the bear stood on its hind legs and lunged toward the man in the tree.@@novelbin@@

Winters was waiting for this moment.

As the bear opened its huge maw, roaring and pouncing towards the man in the tree, the man above also roared and thrust all his might to drive the javelin into the bear’s mouth.

The man in the tree was smacked hard onto the ground, yet the javelin lodged deeply into the bear’s throat.

Intense pain nearly paralyzed Winters; he couldn’t even feel which of his bones were broken. He lay on the ground, motionless.

The bear desperately flailed its head, flicking scarlet blood everywhere. It tried to pull the javelin out with its front paws, but reversed barbs had bitten deeply into the flesh, causing excruciating pain the more it tried to pull.

With a tremendous effort, the beast snapped the shaft with its jaws, leaving the spear point lodged inside. The beast, gasping, groaning, and snorting, moved closer in the direction of Winters.

One step, two steps—the heavy footfalls grew nearer.

Winters was in utter despair.

“In this situation… does playing dead still work?” A thought tinged with dark humor suddenly struck the despondent Winters Montaigne.

He chuckled bitterly to himself and closed his eyes to meet his fate.

He could feel the heat of the beast’s breath.

“Whoosh.”

A sound of something slicing through the air came.

“Whoosh.”

Another followed.

Two arrows from a one hundred eighty-pound longbow pierced the bear’s face one after the other.

The bear, struck by the arrows, stood on its hind legs and roared in pain.

“Come on, beast! Charge at me!”

It was the old hunter’s voice.

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