Just as the thought sprung into his mind, Roy shook the idea out of his head. There was no way to know whether it would be effective, and if he was wrong, he would spell death to all who followed him.
While Roy was stuck in his thoughts, he noticed that there was no more noise. He looked back in the direction where the bear was only to find him gone. He then saw all of his group members slowly walking toward the east. Following their line of direction, he could see the red bear strolling on all four with no care in the world. Roy followed the rest of his group, slowly, and without any noise, they trailed in the beast.
Minutes soon turned into hours as the group followed the red bear in the middle of the night. Roy could not use his fireball, so the only guide that they had was the moonlight.
After two hours of stalking the red bear, Roy was able to make certain conclusions. The monster’s path was very predictable, as it never crossed past the one-kilometer mark away from where their hideout had been. It was as if the beast was bound to this place.
Fortunately, the lake was still within that kilometer radius, which meant that their earlier plan was still feasible. Roy now had an idea about the layout of the land and how the battle could go.
After more than two hours of just watching the bear stroll around, eat a gigantic amount of berries, and occasionally hunt one or two stray wild boars, there was finally some action.
Roy raised his hand for the group behind him to stop. They all slowly lay down on the ground barely peeking out of bushes or tall grass. The red bear that they have been stalking all this time finally met up with some competition.
A pack of five black wolves, each of them as big as the alpha blacks in the Wolf Den dungeon, slowly surrounded the red bear. The giant monster, on the other hand, stood in its place while growling in a barely audible voice.
Once the pack fully surrounded the red bear, the wolf that seemed to be their leader took one step closer to the beast. It regretted it immediately.
“Roar!”
The red bear stood upright with a mighty roar before jumping with a speed that left even the Wolf Boss to shame toward the leader of the pack. With one swipe, it crushed the wolf’s skull and broke its spine.
It then turned around and let out the most terrifying roar a creature could ever hear. Even Roy who was more than a hundred meters away felt his legs go numb and weak. The pack of wolves that were in front of the mighty beast just stood in shock. Their legs gave out and they fell to the ground, each of them waiting their turn at the slaughterhouse.
The red bear slowly made its way toward the harmless wolves. It took a bite of the first one’s head. Its mouth was big enough to reach the poor wolf’s nape. It then quickly struck the second one, slashing off the wolf’s face with its claws.
Seeing their kin die such a horrible death, the last two were finally able to push through their fears and run. Luckily, they were smart enough to escape in different directions.
The beast immediately chose the left one as its target and ran toward it with a speed unbefitting its size. No matter what trees, vines, or shrubbery was in its way, it crushed it all, before reaching its prey. It swiped at the wolf’s hind legs, snapping them at the knee. Its legs bent fully to the right.
“Awoo!”
The wolf let out one last whimper before the beast took a bite of its chest. The bear started eating it from the inside out while it was still alive.
Seeing this scene, Roy’s mouth hung open and his eyes wavered in fear. He could now see, with his own two eyes, the terror that was the red bear.
However, not all hope was lost. The beast might be fast, but Robb was much faster. Its strength might be explosive, but his fireball was much more so. If they followed a proper plan, he could see their win.
Now that he was armed with all the knowledge that he could realistically get, Roy signaled with his hands for everyone to fall back. They slowly and carefully crawled away.
Fortunately, after a few minutes, the beast finished its meal and continued on its way forward. With the threat now out of their sight, the group of ten stood up before running with all their might away from the beast’s sphere of influence.
None of them dared to utter a word for a full five minutes. It was only as they reached closer to the Wolf Den dungeon that Alfonse finally broke the silence. “Should we really fight that thing today? We can always come tomorrow when we’re stronger.”
Alric immediately added, “Yeah, that thing crushed those wolves like they were made out of butter. If it hits one of us, our bones will be crushed.”
Roy stayed silent for a few seconds before looking at Marth, “What do you say, should we wait until tomorrow?”
“You are our leader. If your order is to fight today, then that’s what we will do.” Marth’s response was immediate and left no room for further discussion.
“Crafty bastard,” Roy muttered under his breath with a chuckle. He understood the reason for Marth’s response, and he appreciated his sentiment, but what he needed now was real feedback.
Roy switched his attention to Robb, “What do you think?”
Robb thought for a few seconds before responding with a confident voice, “We can beat it. I’m much faster than it even without using Ghost Step.”
“Yes, and your sword can definitely pierce it,” Roy grinned. “It left a mean gash on that arrogant ogre, so why shouldn’t it injure a bear?”
Roy then looked at Fred, the latter’s muscular figure was comparable to even Marth’s, “You have now a pretty good shield. What do you say? You can block those paws with it and your skill?”
Fred smiled and shrugged, “It’s gonna hurt, but I think I can.” He then gestured at Alfonse with his head, “Especially with a little help.”
“And if it can crush those wolves like butter, I can melt them like butter,” Roy said with a final tone. He then scanned everyone with his eyes to make sure that the weight of his next words is properly felt, “Don’t think that we’re the only ones becoming stronger. That beast grew two meters—two fucking meters—in these past three days. And we cannot be screwing around, our time is ticking. Who knows when John’s men will come for us? To them, we’re basically traitors who threaten their absolute rule.”
Roy’s words gave a despairing clarity to their current situation. It was not a choice of fighting the red bear today or tomorrow, it was a choice between gambling their destiny today or waiting for their inevitable defeat. Even if the noble stayed quiet for another day, there was no telling when the ogres beyond the village would invade. In this situation where threats loomed at every corner, they needed to grow their strength fast, and the promise of the quest was too good to ignore.
“I agree with your assessment completely,” Marth broke the silence. He then turned to look back at his knights. “What we should be focusing on is preparing the battlefield. We need to set up our traps and choose the place with the most advantage for us. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir!” The knights responded in unison. Even though they were now part of different groups, to them, Marth was still their squad captain.
“We’ll need a lot of buckets too,” Robb added before looking chuckling at Roy, “Or someone might end up burning the whole forest down.”
“Oh, that might be a problem indeed,” Marth looked at Roy with thoughtful eyes. “When we’re patrolling, we’re gonna go inside the empty houses and see if there are any buckets we can take.”
“Thank you for that,” Roy smiled and nodded. He then took a deep breath before looking at his friends switching the subject, “Now, let’s go to the dungeon. I wanna do the normal difficulty now.”
