He saw, and he thought.

'Run.'

Zach turned and bolted like never before. The muscles of his thigh worked their hardest, propelling Zach forward as he fled from the chasing monster of a grizzly. That slight peek he saw of the forked horn grizzly made his blood run cold. The level itself frightened the shit out of him, standing tall at level twenty-five with a badass horn to boot. And for Zach who could only win against a level fourteen chitinclad boar was primarily due to his bloody pain stacks.

Nonetheless, he wasn’t stupid enough to stand his ground and took a chance against the brown bear. One of the things he remembered well from his past life in the modern world was a little clip on Youtube about a famous pod-caster who was terrified of grizzlies. They were creatures that shouldn’t be messed with unless you had the tools to really take them down, and at the moment, Zach was naked. Both in tools and stats.

He ran as if his life depended on it, and rather than turning back towards the fort, his strides hastened beside the flowing rough river. Taking a peek behind him, his eyes went wide. The Kabuto Grizzly Bear was right behind his tail, closing the distance at an alarming rate. Zach thought of his blade, and slightly cut the skin of his forearm. Blood dripped and his speed rose. He did it a few more times, increasing the stacks. But his perception tingled. He threw himself to the side, rolling against the gravel and stone before getting back up. While doing so he heard a loud thud, and he saw it. A boulder was there at the spot before he suddenly dove. Zach felt goosebumps. He glanced behind and watched the grizzly throw another boulder with the might of its forked horn.

Another catapult attack and Zach was quick to leave. The growl behind him grew louder as he assumed the brown bear might get a little bit angrier than before. In a way, Zach was pulling aggro quite well for the day. Not like he wanted to though.

“Fuck!” he cursed. Backing away at the last second as out of the blue, a forked horn emerged from the whitewater of the river. In the ensuing chaos, he slipped and fell on his bottom. Witnessing the emergence of another kabuto grizzly from the depth of the rough river. Water dripped against its fur, falling like a waterfall. Mimicking a small fraction of the sound of a waterfall, attesting to the size of this creature. In its mouth, Zach saw the huge fish which somewhat resembled a salmon. Well, besides its two heads, of course.

The crunch of bones and flesh echoed in his ears as he saw the kabuto grizzly feasting on its breakfast. Yet its eyes did not glance away from Zach. He had a feeling he had become another side dish for this kabuto grizzly. But a roar from afar drew his gaze. The first one that had chased him was getting close, and besides the increasing tension, he wondered whether he had barged inside the territory of these kabuto grizzlies.

Zach left without a second to wait. While the growls behind him grew fiercer. A few moments later, he heard a loud thud. His curiosity beat his sense of security, and he glanced behind him. The kabuto grizzlies were now fighting against one another, clashing their forked horns, trying to flip the weakest of the two. Zach watched with keen interest as it was pretty intriguing to see a clash between monsters. But another thought came to mind. One that involved high-risk, and high-reward sort of situations. A perfect time to deliver an ambush.

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But the cautious part of his mind restrained the impulsive nature of his instinct. He weighed his pros and cons, and the con was open to see, which was death. Yet the pros were rather tempting. Two level twenty five beast would fetch quite a lot of experience for someone who had been stagnating at level twelve. Not to mention, the bonus stats the meat of these bears would provide. Greed took over. Zach changed his direction and bolted towards the fighting grizzlies.

But after he was close to a few feet away from them, the tad bigger grizzly was flipped to its backside, slightly quaking the earth underneath his feet. The kabuto grizzly that won roared right in the face of the defeated one, posturing over its dominance. Then their nose sniffed the scent of prey. The winner turned its head to Zach as it let out a growl. The fallen one got back on its four and as if following the order of a leader, the two of them started a new chase.

Zach cursed and turned back. He sprinted as if nothing else matter at that point. His greedy plan backfired immediately, and now two were on his tail. Boulders rained on him from behind, and the half-naked man dodged and swerved, avoiding getting smushed.

After a while, his situation just got a lot worse. The number of angry unicorn bears chasing him was frightening. Nine similar-sized kabuto-grizzlies were relentless in getting their teeth on his flesh. Zach had an inkling that his running along the river only brought more dread rather than freedom. He had a hunch that he was just running deeper inside their territory, making his luck even worse than before. But right now, could he really turn back and sidestep all of these raging grizzlies?

Then the growls stopped. The noise that kept constantly driving his legs to flee was now gone. Again, his curiosity got the better of him. He glanced behind and saw all nine of these bears staring in the same direction where the lush forest resided. The trees were moving, parting as if something big was passing through. Then the ground beneath him started to quake. It was in intervals as if corresponding to the steps of a big creature. Zach waited with bated breath, staring at the trees with fear growing in him. His eyes went the widest they could be as a huge head emerged in between the trees. Revealing two pairs of red eyes with a similar-looking forked horn in the middle of its forehead. It was another Kabuto Grizzly, and definitely extremely bigger. The beast changed its stance, standing on its hind legs. From Zach’s perspective, it was as if he was standing before the T-Rex in Jurassic Park as a huge shadow cast over him. Then a deafening roar blasted the whole area, and Zach felt his heart drop.

“Fuck,” he cursed. At this moment, Zach went for his last resort. It was the thing he wanted to avoid the most as it could be unpredictable. But he did not have a choice. His slight peek through Identify at the towering beast only revealed him a name dyed in red, and nothing else. Zach threw himself into the rough water. Submersing himself in the water that was quick to push him by the strong current. His hand flapped as he tried to surface, and by the time he earned another breath of fresh air, he heard the loud growls of the kabuto grizzlies. They were still chasing him, and even the giant grizzly joined along. Yet fortunately the current was strong and fast. Zach was swept faster than the strides of those bears, and by the time they were gone from his sight, he finally sighed out of relief.

“Hmm?” Yet his ears picked up something. It was like the sounds of crashing waves and sort of familiar to him. He turned and saw another problem.

‘Really?’ the thought came to mind. He turned back and tried to swim his hardest to the nearest shore. But alas, his pain stacks were gone, and he was no longer strong or fast enough. Then the moment came.

Zach plunged down a waterfall.