The Winter Wanderer

The Bear

It was a little past 2:00 p.m. Matt watched an adult polar bear from a distance, staring at it while calculating how to defeat it without dying in the process…

Why?

Today was the day of the test. He had to successfully hunt an adult bear.

After fifteen days under Matskim's tutelage, Matt was no longer a complete novice. At the very least, he now knew what to do to avoid dying.

Or rather:

He would survive and kill.

If you couldn't even guarantee your own victory, what was the point of trying to climb the ranks?

In this world, only those with the unbreakable Will to become stronger and win managed to ascend. No, in this world, power wasn't given away for free. Only those who were "polished" could rise through the ranks. A coward wouldn't even manage to awaken…

Matt waited for the bear to pass through a five-meter ravine. The moment the beast crossed it, he would pounce on it without hesitation.

The bear walked beneath the ravine, and just as it was about to emerge from the narrow passage, Matt jumped onto its neck and plunged his knife into its back.

However, the beast didn't even flinch.

In fact, the blade hadn't even managed to penetrate its thick hide.

With a simple shake, the bear sent Matt crashing straight to the ground.

Shit! Matt thought.

The surprise attack had been an absolute failure.

He didn't have time to lament it. He immediately rolled to the right, just in time to dodge the beast's claws.

Zuuuu!

The air cracked like a whip.

Although the paw appeared slow because of its enormous size, that was merely an optical illusion.

Zuuuu!

Another devastating swipe forced him to roll to the left.

Matt focused as hard as he could, and everything around him seemed to slow down.

Although, in this "slow motion," the only thing that had accelerated was his own perception. His body still obeyed the laws of physics.

He understood that this phenomenon occurred because his brain was processing an absolute danger: one mistake, and he would be turned into mush by a paw wider than his own head.

Zuuuu! Bang!

The ground cracked beneath a downward strike from the beast.

Matt made a strange maneuver to the right, stepped on the bear's arm, and instantly jumped upward.

It was stupid.

What was the point of jumping when there was nothing to push off from?

In midair, a human's strength was greatly reduced without a point of support.

He knew he had made a mistake, but he threw his knife at the bear's eye in an attempt to blind it.

The beast merely tilted its head, and the blade bounced off as if it had struck concrete.

Matt dodged another upward swipe, tensing his entire body and twisting it like a cat. He landed on the ground, barely avoiding it.

He was covered in wounds.

The direct swipes weren't the only danger. Every time the bear swung its arms, rocks and pieces of wood from the surrounding area were sent flying like high-speed projectiles. Without the luxury of being able to dodge every shard, Matt was bleeding heavily from his arms and legs.

"Ahhh!"

He tried to scream, but the air was knocked from his lungs when the bear landed a "touch" on him.

The beast had managed to hit his left side.

Luckily, Matt managed to slightly deflect the impact, preventing himself from dying on the spot.

He went flying like a rag doll and crashed into the snow-covered rocks.

He was certain he had dodged the blow properly, but a several-centimeter-long splinter of wood had pierced his right thigh, making it difficult to move.

Lying in the snow, he knew that if he didn't move, he would die.

His breathing became ragged as blood poured from his mouth. He could feel at least two broken ribs on his left side.

He was furious.

Tears began to well up in his bloodshot eyes as he understood the bitter reality.

I'm nothing. I'm still losing even after awakening… I'm still an ant, and I thought I could get revenge. No wonder the old man thought it was ridiculous when I told him I would kill an Illuminated. I can't even beat a simple bear…

He cried and cursed himself as the beast slowly walked toward him.

The bear wasn't in any hurry. It moved slowly, almost as if it were mocking him.

To the animal, Matt was nothing more than an entertaining prey that could serve as a little amusement before lunch.

When the beast was only one meter away from him and raised its right paw to crush his head, a voice echoed through the air:

"Stop crying, brat, and pay attention."

Going back to the moment when Matt had been waiting for the ambush, Matskim had been watching him from a hidden position in the distance.

This was a crucial test.

Matt was stubborn and blinded by revenge. If he continued like this, he would die within a year. Matskim couldn't even imagine him making it out of that frozen hell alive.

The purpose of the test was to show him how weak he really was, force him to change his attitude, and teach him a valuable lesson through failure.

When he saw the first attack fail, Matskim sighed and prepared to intervene.

He never expected the boy to win. He only wanted to show him how naive he was.

At first, he had kept him company purely out of pity, but over those two weeks, he had genuinely grown attached to him.

Not as merely a reflection of his late son, but as a new son he wasn't willing to watch die again.

On the ground, bleeding, Matt thought about his uncles, the friend he had lost in Anadyr, and finally, the old drunk.

Although he never showed it, he deeply cared about Matskim.

Maybe because, after losing everyone, he had spent two months in complete solitude.

Or maybe because he loved him like the father he had never had.

As he saw the bear approaching, he closed his eyes and thought:

At least the old man will be fine. He won't have to get stuck here with me…

Just as he was saying goodbye to life, the veteran's voice brought him back to reality:

"Stop crying, brat, and pay attention."

Matt's eyes snapped open.

He saw Matskim standing beside him, taking a strange stance.

His entire being was focused.

His body became rigid, the hair on his body stood on end, and he raised his right arm to eye level.

It was as if his entire figure had compressed into a trance of absolute stillness.

For a millisecond, Matt thought he saw a strange white flash travel through the air, but his vision was so blurred by blood that he assumed he was imagining it or losing consciousness.

The bear, however, immediately became terrified.

It didn't understand what was happening, but its instincts screamed that the man before it was mortally dangerous and that it had to flee.

For even a second, it didn't consider attacking.

But it had nowhere to go.

It was only one meter away from the hunter.

And then it happened.

Plazhhh!

Matt couldn't follow the sword's movement.

The next thing he knew, the bear's head exploded, covering him in blood and brain matter.

The thrust had pierced straight through the beast's eye, destroying its brain with a single strike.

Pushh!

The old man suddenly dropped into a seated position on the snow, breathing heavily.

Holding that stance and executing that single attack seemed to have drained all of his strength and concentration…

Matt stared at him in shock, completely unable to understand how a simple strike from a short sword had destroyed the skull of a beast that could make knives bounce off its hide as if they were made of paper.