It was the bear. Sean didn’t know how it had gotten in front of them, but all that mattered now was to escape.

“Up the hill! Go! Go! Go!”

They’d returned to the lake, but the bear was hot on their tail. Sean couldn’t see the bear, but his newly empowered senses told him it was closing in fast. They weren’t going to outrun it at the pace they were going.

“Hurry! Up the hill!” Sean pointed to the same hill on the left-hand side of the lake he’d already explored. The trees in that area were dense. It would be harder for the bear to pursue them up there.

They climbed the hill like their lives depended on it, and they did.

“I’ll distract it!”

Sean stopped halfway up the hill and readied an arrow. He would have time for two shots, maybe three, before he would be forced to flee. That would give Nick and Nate time to set up further up the hill to cover his escape.

Yes, it was a horrible plan, but it was a plan.

It might be because he was running on adrenaline, or maybe his new and improved senses had given him a false sense of security, but Sean felt he could evade the bear. Not for long, but long enough to possibly dive into the lake.

I hope the bears in this world aren’t good swimmers.

The bear emerged from the tree line, a monstrosity, as promised. The bear had bright red fur and was about the same size as the bears on Earth, but its claws and teeth seemed sharper. It also had ivory tusks sprouting out the side of its face like a boar’s snout. It was certainly not from Earth.

Sean took a deep breath and prepared himself while waiting for the bear to get in range.

He’d never shot a wooden longbow before. He was more familiar with a modern compound bow. There was a chance he would completely miss the bear altogether. Still, he had to take the chance.

“My lord! Keep running,” Nate shouted. Both hunters had stopped running when they saw Sean was readying for a fight.

“Keep running! I’ll distract it!”

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“We aren’t leaving you, my lord!”

The two hunters readied their bows, and all three of them were soon ready.

ROAR

The bear charged up the hill, dodging in and out of the bigger trees in its path and running over the smaller bushes. The closer it got, the less confident Sean felt about his plan.

“It’s almost in range,” Nick said. He had one arrow knocked and one ready to replace it quickly. “Aim for the shoulders, chest, or face. Monsters have thick hides. It’ll be hard to pierce.”

The three stared down the bear monster, and once it reached the foot of the hill they all let loose with their arrows. Nick and Nate’s arrows flew true, hitting the bear in the face with one and in the foreleg with the other. The third arrow, Sean’s arrow, Flew over the bear, missing entirely.

“Another,” Nick said.

The two brothers let loose another volley while Sean was fumbling with an arrow–He didn’t usually aim and fire so rapidly. By the time Sean got his bow aimed, one new arrow was poking out of the bear’s shoulder.

Sean released his second shot, aiming lower, hoping to hit an eye or maybe the bear’s nose. Instead, he hit its back, and the arrow bounced off like a ball.

“Spread out,” Nick shouted. All three took off in different directions. Sean ran opposite the lake, hoping to lose the bear in the dense foliage, but of course, the bear chose to follow him.

“MY LORD!”

Sean heard the shout but ignored it and climbed up a smaller tree. With a jump, he barely managed to grab the lowest limb of the tree.

ROAR

The bear was less than thirty yards away and bearing down on him, so he dropped everything. The arrows were useless to him. Sean could climb better without everything holding him down.

He managed to get a couple feet off the ground just when the bear slammed full force into the tree. The forceful blow caused the tree to tremble. Sean held on tight.

“HEY BEAR! GO BEAR! GET OUT OF HERE BEAR! AAAAHHHHHH BEAR!!!”

The bear, unfortunately, didn’t listen. It continually slammed its paws into the tree, trying to shake Sean out. And finally, when it tired of that, the bear started climbing.

Sean climbed higher and higher, but the bear was gaining–the monster was an adept climber for its size. He started breaking off the sticks from the branches he climbed and tossing them back, hoping they’d deter the beast.

He wasn’t so lucky.

The edge of a claw swiped through the back of one of his legs, leaving shallow gashes on his calf. Sean screamed. He kicked. He climbed.

ROAR

Following the roar, the bear fell off the tree, hitting the forest floor with a loud thump. Sean looked down at it, wincing as he did so, and noticed that the bear was filled with arrows. The bear looked like a porcupine from his vantage at the top of the tree.

“Don’t come down yet, My lord. It’s not yet safe,” Nate yelled from beyond Sean’s sight. The bear was still struggling beneath the tree.

Another arrow whistled through the air and lodged itself in the bear’s backside. And then another until, eventually, the bear stood still.

“I think it’s dead,” Nick said. He and Nate rushed in from beyond his sight with their weapons still at the ready and checked over the bear’s body.

“It’s dead for sure,” Nate said. “My lord, you can come down now.”

Sean glanced at his wounded leg. The wound wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t looking forward to the long climb down with it. He had managed to get at least thirty feet off the ground.

“Coming,” He yelled before beginning his descent.