Chapter 79: Man Tears Bear Apart
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 79: Man Tears Bear Apart
Momochi Satoru had always been fearless.
He was the type of person people would say had no sense of fear whatsoever.
He’d watch horror movies without flinching and only ride the most extreme thrill rides at amusement parks.
Perhaps it was that very nature that allowed him to be friends with Kim Yoo-Sung, whom others tended to avoid.
Naturally, for someone like Satoru, a test of courage was a piece of cake.
Child's play, at best.
Laughing off the other students in their ridiculously shoddy ghost costumes, he strode through the night forest with the class president, his assigned partner.
"Hey, can you slow down a bit? We only have one flashlight."
"Oh, sorry. I got ahead of myself."
It was the class president's voice that stopped Satoru, who had been humming as he forged ahead.
They were just partners chosen by drawing lots, anyway.
They'd never had any romantic feelings for each other since their first year, so there was none of the heart-pounding atmosphere others might have expected.
About ten minutes after they started walking silently toward the turning point...
Satoru, thinking it was about time they ran into Yoo-Sung—who was playing the ghost for Class 2-B—walked on, carefully scanning his surroundings.
That's when he spotted a massive shadow crouching behind some bushes.
As far as Satoru knew, the only student at Ichijo Academy with a build that huge was Kim Yoo-Sung.
Convinced it had to be Kim Yoo-Sung hiding in the bushes, Satoru put a finger to his lips to signal the class president to be quiet, handed her the flashlight, and crept up behind the dark figure.
And then—
"BOO!"
He yelled out suddenly and grabbed what he thought was Yoo-Sung's waist with both hands.
Squish!
"Huh?"
Satoru looked up, taken aback by the completely unexpected texture.
What he had touched wasn't Kim Yoo-Sung's firm obliques, which he saw every P.E. class, but a flank covered in long fur.
GRAAAAAWR!
The identity of the dark figure he had startled was not Kim Yoo-Sung, but a giant Asiatic black bear.
And the moment he heard the bear's thunderous roar, Momochi Satoru had a gut feeling: he was fucked.
*
After hearing Satoru's story to the end, I couldn't help but shout.
"Seriously, how can you not tell the difference between a person and a bear?!"
"It was too dark! I couldn't see a thing!"
We were running side-by-side, fleeing from the bear.
The Asiatic black bear Satoru had startled was clearly furious, still chasing us with ferocious intensity.
"Aah!"
Just then.
The class president, running beside us, tripped on a rock and suddenly lost her balance.
Grab!
I managed to catch her just before she fell, but the bear was right behind us.
With a quick "Pardon me," I tucked the startled class president under my arm and kept running.
"Wait, I can run on my own!"
"It's faster if I carry you!"
The flustered class president protested, but I shut her down with a single sentence and sprinted for the turning point.
A large, old pine tree slowly came into view.
If we'd run in the opposite direction, the other students coming up behind us might have gotten caught up in this, so I had no other choice.
The moment we reached the turning point, I told Satoru to hide behind the tree.
The same went for the class president I was carrying.
The two of them scrambled behind the tree, and I faced the Asiatic black bear that arrived right after, catching my ragged breath.
Even for a rom-com world, I never expected an Asiatic black bear to just pop out of the woods.
Honestly, the situation made no logical sense.
And the fact that I was now facing it one-on-one was just as absurd.
When I stopped running, the Asiatic black bear spread its arms and reared up on its hind legs.
Seeing this, the class president, hiding behind the tree, shouted.
"That's a bear's threat display! It's an instinctual behavior to make itself look bigger than its opponent!"
Hearing that, I took another look at the black bear before me.
Standing up to intimidate its foe, its height was roughly the same as mine, and I'm 186 cm.
It was probably just over 190 cm.
Its thick arms were like logs, and the claws extending from them were large and sharp enough to tear through human flesh with ease.
Even if Asiatic black bears are considered a smaller species, it was still a beast fully capable of killing a person.
I'd fought plenty of people recently, but I never thought I'd end up fighting a wild animal. I swallowed hard, my tension rising.
I slowly angled my arms.
It was the basic offensive stance of Combat Sambo, which I'd learned when I fought Boris.
It allowed me to react instantly to any of my opponent's movements, making it easy to land a counter.
In the forest, where not even the sound of insects could be heard, I slowly drew one foot back.
And then—
GRAAAAAWR!
Unable to wait any longer, the Asiatic black bear charged first.
A massive arm swung violently.
I dodged by leaning back slightly, then extended my left arm.
Thwack!
A jab too fast to be seen.
But perhaps because of its thick hide and subcutaneous fat, it didn't seem to feel any pain. The bear didn't even blink as it continued its assault.
I dodged the other arm swinging at my torso with perfect timing and instantly closed the distance.
I secured its outer joint, shifted my center of gravity forward, and executed a shoulder throw.
SLAM!!
The nearly 200 kg body was lifted impossibly high and slammed into the ground.
Satoru and the class president, watching from behind the tree, looked on with stunned expressions, but this was no time to let my guard down.
The bear shot back to its feet, clearly enraged, and charged recklessly.
A bear's maximum speed can reach 60 km/h.
A charge from a creature of that size and weight would send any normal person flying.
But instead of running, I chose to face it head-on.
I lowered my body like a sumo wrestler.
I spread my arms slightly and planted my feet firmly on the ground.
And then—
GRRRRAAAAAWR!
I collided with the savagely roaring bear.
Screeeech!
Since the bear was slightly taller than me, its weight pressed down from above, and the soles of my shoes dug into the dirt.
But I tensed my calves and held my ground, refusing to be pushed back any further.
The bear seemed surprised that it couldn't overpower me, but unfortunately for it, this was nothing out of the ordinary for me.
After all, some of the people I'd fought, like Ivan and Boris, possessed even greater monstrous strength than this.
It felt wrong that humans stronger than bears existed as a matter of course, but regardless, there was no reason for me to lose a contest of strength here.
'What should I do now? Strikes? A submission?'
A bear's anatomy is different from a human's.
I didn't know if trying a joint lock, the way I would on a person, would even work with my limited knowledge.
And strikes weren't very effective because of its thick fat and hide.
As I remained locked in a tense struggle with the bear, not making any decisive move, the class president shouted from behind me.
"Aim for the bridge of its nose or between its eyes! That's where the skull is thinnest!"
Hearing that, I immediately shifted my gaze upward.
Easier said than done. It's incredibly difficult to repeatedly strike the spot between the eyes of an opponent taller than you.
But I had nothing to lose, so I decided to follow her advice.
"Hup!"
I put all my strength into my body for an instant, breaking the stalemate.
The bear's arms swiped through the space where my torso had been. I dropped low, shot into its guard, and wrapped my arms tightly around its waist.
Then, with all my might, I lifted the massive bear's body and slammed it back-first onto the ground.
GRAAAAAWR!
The Asiatic black bear, having landed on its back, roared in pain.
But I didn't even blink at the sight, simply straddling the bear's torso.
From the mount position, I looked down at the bear as it flailed its arms, struggling to escape.
"I won't kill you."
Muttering that, I slammed my fist into the spot between its eyes.
The bear roared, "Graaaawr!"
But I showed no mercy and continued to rain down punches.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.
With tightly clenched fists, I relentlessly hammered the spot between the bear's eyes.
Finally, as if the shock from the continuous, powerful blows had reached its brain, the Asiatic black bear's eyes rolled back into its head, and it passed out.
Satoru, who had been watching me fight the bear from behind the tree the entire time, muttered.
"I know I'm not one to talk, but... I kind of feel sorry for the bear."
"If you know that, then maybe you should shut up."
At the class president's rebuke, Satoru flinched and lowered his head.
It seemed he knew full well that if I hadn't been there, things would have gotten really serious.
Watching them, I got off the unconscious bear's chest and thought.
'Now what do I do with this?'
With a bear showing up in the forest, one thing was for sure: the test of courage was completely ruined.