Chapter 21 – Bear-san Goes On A Tiger Wolf Hunt

I left the Bear House, mounted Swaying Bear, and headed out.

There isn’t any problems with just using the bear feet, but recently, my favorite way to move around is riding on Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear.

If I rode one exclusively though, the other one would get into a bad mood, so I had to alternate between them.

While riding on Swaying Bear, I used detection magic to examine the surrounding area.

Its detection distance increased as I leveled up.

A countless number of monsters were detected by the magic.

I wonder if this is it?

「There seems to be two Tiger Wolves. It looks like a couple {pair}1.」

I told Swaying Bear to head in that direction.

Swaying Bear began to run and weaved in between the trees at a gallop, advancing forward while ignoring the tree branches and bushes in the way.

When I ran through with just the bear feet, it didn’t go as swiftly.

Today, we advanced while ignoring the wolves that were nearby.

After moving for a while, the Tiger Wolves’ indicators got closer.

I told Swaying Bear to stop.

Was there a river flowing nearby? I could hear the sound of running water.

Somehow, it looks like I’m near a river.

I considered whether to dismount from Swaying Bear and go slowly on foot or to continue riding Swaying Bear.

If they came to attack, it would be fine, but if I had to give chase, it would end up being quite troublesome.

Not to mention, there were two of them.

If I was something like a hunter from the game, I could approach from a direction that faced the wind, so that they wouldn’t notice my smell, but I didn’t have such an ability.

I guess I should rush in with Swaying Bear after all?

I told Swaying Bear to head towards the Tiger Wolves.

Swaying Bear began to run.

A black shadow ran through the middle of the mountains.

When Swaying Bear reached the river, I saw the two big tigers. The Tiger Wolves appeared to be resting next to the river.

They sluggishly stood up when they noticed me.

「Grrrr~」

I examined their appearance.

「They’re bigger than I thought.」

One was as big as Swaying Bear.

The other one was slightly bigger.

Was the smaller one a female and the larger one a male?

I slowly slid off Swaying Bear.

I stroked Swaying Bear’s face as I asked her to take on the smaller opponent.

Wind magic flew towards the two Tiger Wolves.

They moved quickly and easily dodged it.

Swaying Bear ran towards the female Tiger Wolf.

I shot flame magic towards the male.

The Tiger Wolf dodged to the right and charged towards me.

Fast!

Its speed and agility were different from normal wolves.

The Tiger Wolf arrived in front of me in an instant.

I created a wall of earth, but it was easily destroyed.

Un, it looks like basic magic isn’t effective.

I was forced to create distance by jumping backwards.

I jumped into the sky and ran away.

The Tiger Wolf looked up while groaning.

As I soared through the sky, I wondered about what to do.

Then the Tiger Wolf jumped up.

「No way!」

I was falling towards the Tiger Wolf’s sharp fangs, which were coming towards me.

「Bear punch!」

I struck the side of the Tiger Wolf’s jaw hard and sent it flying.

The Tiger Wolf crashed into the ground.

As I landed, I fired countless ice arrows.

All the ice arrows bounced off.

It was the same for the Goblin King, but it seemed like normal magic at my level couldn’t deal any damage.

In that case, let’s try using the same method I used to defeat the Goblin King.

I opened a deep pit in the ground and dropped the Tiger Wolf down.

As I approached the pit to attack, the Tiger Wolf came running back up, using the walls of the pit.

If it approached with that momentum, the attack power of its claws would be multiplied.

I dodged backwards.

It looks like the pitfall is useless too.

Meanwhile, Swaying Bear was fighting against the smaller Tiger Wolf.

Attacking and defending with claws.

Attacking and defending with fangs.

It was an evenly matched fight.

A normal bear would have lost in speed, but my bear was also fast. It was faster than the Tiger Wolf. Its stamina was also high, and even though it had run here all the way from the town, it didn’t look tired at all.

But, that Tiger Wolf was surprisingly strong, to be able to match my bear.

I’ll leave that Tiger Wolf to Swaying Bear and focus on defeating the Tiger Wolf in front of me.

I want that fur, so I need to cause as little damage to it as possible. What should I do?

「Water Bear!」

A bear made of water appeared.

The water bear ran towards the Tiger Wolf and hugged it tightly with both arms.

Then, it pressed the Tiger Wolf’s face against its body.

The Tiger Wolf’s face went inside the water bear.

It was pinned by the bear, disabling its movements. A large volume of air came out of its mouth as it shook its head and began to drown.

The bear magic was strong, as expected.

When I looked over at Swaying Bear, the other Tiger Wolf was also pinned down.

I created a ball of water and sent it towards that Tiger Wolf.

The ball of water wrapped around the Tiger Wolf’s face.

The two Tiger Wolves struggled to escape but, since they were pinned down by the water bear and Swaying Bear, they were unable to escape.

After a while, the two stopped moving.

Subjugation complete.

I stowed the Tiger Wolves away in the Bear Box and returned to the Bear House.

TL: if there’s rubi reading, I’ll be using {} brackets to denote it when I can