I broke away from camp, boots pounding the dirt as I sprinted in the direction Mnex had pointed out. My chest burned, heart hammering like a war drum.
"Slow down," Mnex muttered in my head. "Observation first, action later."
I dropped low, knees bent, creeping forward with deliberate, silent steps. Then a strange sound reached my ears, deep, guttural, primal.
"Quiet," Mnex hissed suddenly.
I froze, whispering back, Why are you whispering?
"Oh, you know… ambience," he replied dryly. "That's a bear. A very big bear. Try not to get eaten."
A bear?
I pressed myself flat against the rough bark of a tree, peeking around just enough to see. The sound was close, fifty, maybe a hundred meters. Even from here, the growls rolled through the forest like distant thunder. A grizzly, fresh out of hibernation. Its fur hung in ragged tufts, ribs faintly visible from winter hunger, yet its massive shoulders bulged with power.
Nope. No way. This wasn't prey, it was a nightmare wrapped in fur.
I'm telling you right now, I muttered under my breath, I'm not hunting that thing.
"For once, we agree," Mnex said flatly. "That's not your average grizzly. One and a half times the size, maybe more. Easy four meters on its hind legs."
I blinked. Four meters? You're joking.
"Henry, that thing wakes up in the morning and eats jokes for breakfast. And speaking of breakfast, you're on the menu if it notices you."
A bead of sweat rolled down my temple, heartbeat thudding like a snare drum.
Then Mnex, of course, found his comedic timing. "Oh, wait. Idea incoming. Genius mode on."
Don't, I warned.
"Welcome back to Mnex TV. Today's episode: Medieval Survivor, starring one terrified human versus one oversized murder teddy. Brought to you by poor life choices."
Mnex, I growled, this is so not the time.
"No, this is exactly the time. Don't move. I'll go grab popcorn."
I rolled my eyes but dared a quick glance. The bear was sniffing the wind, searching for food. Hopefully, the breeze carried the scent of rabbits or deer instead of me. I ducked back behind the tree, holding my breath.
"Send a pulse," Mnex ordered suddenly.
What for?
"Just do it. Humor me."
I pressed a hand to the ground, felt the ripple spread.
"There," Mnex said. "Two hundred meters behind it. A den. Cubs inside."
My stomach dropped. She's this massive… and she's a mother?
"Five hundred kilos of pure maternal fury. One swipe and you'll be scattered across the forest in bite-sized pieces."
The bear's steps were heavy but controlled, crushing dry leaves with every move. Then it rose, towering nearly four and a half meters, and raked claws down the trunk of a tree. Bark exploded, wood chips flying.
"That's not a stretch," Mnex whispered. "That's her saying mine."
She dropped to all fours again, rubbed against the trunk, dug up a root and chewed lazily.
"Freshly awake," Mnex muttered. "Couple of days tops."
With a grunt, the giant turned toward her den.
"Follow," Mnex instructed. "Quietly."
Shouldn't I be running?
"If she's queen of this forest, you want to know where her throne is. And you were told to hunt either a bear or a wolf. Guess which one you just found."
When they said bear, I muttered, I was thinking more along the lines of… Care Bears.
"Yeah, keep dreaming," Mnex sighed. "Now stop whining and move."
I swallowed hard and followed, every instinct screaming at me to run. I'm not scared, I lied under my breath. Just don't want to hurt her if she's got cubs.
"Pussy," Mnex said casually. "Lord of Pussies."
I clenched my fists, imagining choking him out if he had a neck to choke. But knowing him, he'd just grab me by the ankle and swing me around like a flail again. So I kept moving, silent and unwilling, after the queen of the forest.
Mnex slipped into his faux-documentary narrator voice again, low and dramatic.
"She can't stay away for long," he murmured. "Two defenseless cubs in a den. Every second out here feels like a gamble to her."
The bear's pace quickened, heavy paws silent despite their weight. From ahead came soft, fragile cries, barely louder than rustling leaves. Two tiny creatures, eyes cloudy, legs too weak to stand, waited in the shallow cave ahead.
When she reached the entrance, the mother bear let out a deep, rumbling sound that vibrated through the trees.
"That's not a threat," Mnex whispered. "That's 'Mom's home.'"
The cubs tumbled forward clumsily, little potatoes desperate for warmth and milk. She sniffed them, nuzzled their fur, and ushered them deep inside, curling around them in the safety of darkness.
I pulsed the ground again, waiting for Mnex to feed me the data.
"Mother bear's calm now," his voice came quick and clipped. "Heart rate's dropping, breathing's steady while she nurses the cubs."
A pause, then his tone sharpened. "Another presence. Watching. Not close enough to strike… yet."
"What is it?"
"One hundred meters. Three shapes low to the ground. Silent. Waiting. This isn't hunger, it's war."
My voice cracked. More bears?
"No. If they were bears, you'd already be surrounded. Canines. Big ones."
Wolves?
"Direwolves," Mnex said grimly. "Stronger, meaner, smarter than regular wolves. And they see that bear as an intruder on their turf."
Through pulse, I waited for Mnex to process it.
"Ears flicking, tails twitching, heads tilting, they're not hunting, they're forming battle lines."
Mnex's voice dropped, almost reverent. "If you're patient, Henry… you're about to watch nature at its most brutal. Territory wars have no mercy."
I stayed crouched, every muscle tense. The forest had gone deathly still, the only sound my own slow breaths. The wolves melted back into the underbrush, phantoms waiting for nightfall.
This was no hunt anymore. It was a siege. The mother bear was strong but tired, shackled by instinct to her cubs. She couldn't flee, couldn't charge without risk. And when darkness fell, the forest would become a killing field.
Winners didn't walk away from wars like this. Only survivors did. Maybe, if fate felt cruel, that survivor would be me and Mnex.
My grim thought barely faded when I noticed the mother grizzly had stepped up to the den's entrance, having clearly spotted the circling wolves. For a while, they circled, the tension straining the air like a drawn bowstring. The grizzly stood her ground at the den entrance, every muscle coiled, eyes burning like molten gold. Hunger still clung to her ribs, but rage gave her strength. Rage and something fiercer, the promise to kill or die before letting her cubs be taken.
The first direwolf emerged from the brush, then another, then more. Eight shadows crept forward, fangs bared, low growls rolling like distant thunder. They weren't here to hunt. They were here to conquer. This was the wild's version of diplomacy, draw blood, claim land, leave corpses behind.
"Stay put," Mnex whispered, voice taut. "Our turn comes after the slaughter."
For a heartbeat, everything stilled. Then a howl shattered the silence. Deep, guttural, like a war horn summoning doom. Even the wind seemed to hesitate.
Two direwolves lunged first, lightning fast blurs of fur and teeth. One aimed high for her neck, the other low for her hind leg.
The bear exploded in fury. A roar like thunder tore the forest apart. A single paw strike caught the first wolf midair. Crack. Ribs shattered. The beast spun two meters before hitting the ground limp. The second's jaws grazed flesh before a swipe sent it sprawling. First blood spilled dark and heavy, soaking leaves.
The pack tightened, closing in like a living trap. The leader barked a signal. More lunges. Teeth flashed. Tendons tore. The bear's blood painted the soil crimson, but she refused to fall.
Snap. A direwolf's neck broke under a brutal swing. Another yelped as claws gutted it from chest to belly. Mud and gore churned beneath massive paws. But for every corpse, two more bodies slammed into her flanks.
A female direwolf launched onto her back, fangs sinking deep into muscle. The bear slammed herself into a tree. Crunch. Bones gave way, the wolf went limp before hitting the ground. The air reeked of iron and fear.
This wasn't hunting. This was war. A primal hell where breath came in ragged gasps and every heartbeat sounded like a death knell. The wolves kept coming, driven by honor and instinct, even as bodies fell around them.
The grizzly shielded her den with blood and fury. Any wolf stepping too close had its skull crushed or spine snapped. One wasn't fast enough, the paw landed with a sickening smash, spraying brain and bone across the dirt.
But the tactic worked. Each assault stole more strength. Her movements slowed. Deep gashes tore at her legs, shoulders, neck. Her once proud fur hung matted and wet with blood. A trail of crimson marked every step she took.
Finally, her hind legs trembled. She dropped to her knees but swung wildly, a final desperate rampage. Claws split a chest open, ripped a jaw clean off. The forest rang with howls of agony and wet tearing sounds that made my stomach lurch.
She locked eyes on the den, saw the trembling cubs, and used everything left to take one more step. One more roar. One more kill. Then her massive body gave in, collapsing into the blood soaked ground, breath fading as her jaws ripped one last throat from its body.
The direwolves had won, but it was no triumph. Five lay dead, bodies twisted and torn. The survivors limped, bleeding, their leader dragging one useless leg. The den was theirs now, but victory came in pain and silence. From inside, two tiny whimpers floated out, innocent, unaware, waiting for a mother who would never return. Nature had no mercy. Alone, they would starve… or worse.
The forest grew quiet, unnervingly still. The air reeked of blood, heavy and metallic. Leaves crunched under broken bones. The scene below was no battlefield, it was a graveyard built by instinct and savagery.
From the ridge, I watched without a sound. The mother bear lay in a pool of red, direwolf corpses scattered like broken dolls. My stomach turned, but my hands didn't shake. Mnex's voice cut through the silence, cold as ice.
"This is ecosystem balance, Henry. Sometimes even the victor loses. Now… it's your turn. The bear's dead. The wolves are bleeding."
I drew an arrow, breath steady, heart a frozen drumbeat. The string creaked as I pulled it taut. Release.
Ffft.
Thk.
The arrow punched through a skull, the beast crumpling instantly.
"One."
Quiet, I muttered.
Another arrow. It slipped between ribs, blood spraying in an arc. The pack panicked, too broken to fight back. Now I was the hunter.
I slid down the rocks, silent as a shadow, spear in hand. A wounded wolf limped ahead, breath ragged. I stalked close and drove the spear into its spine. It dropped without a sound, blood hot against my cheek.
"Two."
I let the spear go, fingers already reaching for the short sword at my hip. The last two spun, snarling, teeth bared in desperation. One lunged for my gut. I stepped aside, blade flashing, throat spilling warm red into the mud. The other snapped for my leg, I met it with steel, stabbing down hard. It writhed, choking, then stilled. My eyes felt empty, as if nothing human was left behind them. I could've ended this with fire, erased the scene in ash. But proof mattered. Corpses mattered.
The leader was last. Limping. Defiant. We locked eyes. Pain. Rage. Helplessness. All in its gaze. In mine? Nothing. Just the weight of inevitability.
I yanked my spear free from where it had fallen earlier, grip tightening around the blood-slick shaft. The thrust was clean, merciless. Steel slid through ribs, finding the heart. The direwolf coughed blood, sagged, and went still.
"Five. Pack's done."
"No," I whispered to no one. Not yet.
I walked to the bear's body, kneeling beside her. Blood still dripped from her claws, proof she'd fought until the last breath. My voice was low, rough. "You fought well."
From the den came two faint cries. Small. Innocent. Helpless. My hands hovered midair. Part of me wanted to reach in, to promise warmth and safety. Another part knew the truth. The wild didn't offer mercy. Neither could I.
The cave went silent, as if the world had held its breath and given up. I stepped outside, letting the cold wind scrape the stench of death from my skin. My legs felt heavy, each step dragging me back toward camp.
Doyle sat by the fire, staring into the flames. When he saw me, his eyes widened for a heartbeat before his usual smirk returned.
"Guess we won't be staying here long," he said dryly. "Honestly thought you'd torch the whole forest. Looks like you held back."
I didn't answer. I walked past him, to the river, washing blood from my face and hands. When I finally sat by the fire, my voice was flat, almost dead.
"One giant bear. A handful of giant wolves. Pretty sure I've broken the family record."