Bears are awesome, damn near-perfect apex predators. Able to shrug off small-caliber gunshots due to their tough hide, Incredibly strong, and able to put the weight of their massive bodies behind their attacks, a bear can gut a human using its claws, all while putting forth minimal effort. With top speeds ranging from twenty-five to thirty-five miles per hour depending on species, you effectively can’t outrun them. Before the invention of high caliber firearms, bears were animals best left alone. Even now, going up against a bear isn’t something anyone should take lightly, even armed with the appropriate weaponry.

Alyx knows all of that. He had, of course, loved bears. They were the coolest, most adorable murder machines on this side of North America. That was until he found himself upside down in a bush starring at an approaching Owlbear that was really pissed off. It Screeched at him once more upon approach, rising onto its hind legs, front paws waving threateningly before it. With a slight grimace of pain, Alyx pulled himself from the bush, slowly rising to his feet, trying not to provoke the Owlbear any further, though it seemed pretty well provoked at this point despite his efforts.

Most people have probably never found themselves in a fight with something or someone significantly larger than them before. Well, this may shock you, but size matters. Size matters a lot. Not just in terms of the amount of damage a large creature can dish out but also how much it can take.

Alyx wasn’t going to go down quietly, though. If he couldn’t outrun the Owlbear, then he would do his damndest to get a food good hits in. Feet spread a little more than shoulder-width apart, front foot forward, toes of the back foot in line with the heel of the front foot for a nice balanced base. Lower the center of gravity by bending his knees, tuck in the pelvis, arms up guarding his face and chest, hands balled into fists, palms facing each other, head down, chin tucked up against his chest.

An uncomfortable position to hold for any period of time, but an effective one for presenting a smaller target and protecting his more vulnerable spots. Mind you. It could be considered the wrong stance to take, coming from a boxing martial art centered around defensive posture and taking hits well.

But he only knew one hand to hand stance. Everything else he’d learned about martial arts had to do with weapons. And those stances weren’t going to help him. He didn’t have a weapon to use. That was his logic anyway, and time would tell if it was flawed.

“SCREEE---QUONNNNNNK” Once more, the Owlbears screech shook his bones as it announced its fury. Right before launching itself at him, lumbering forward with one mighty paw raised to the sky, the Owlbear slammed its massive paw down right where Alyx had been standing. Hopping backward at a forty-five-degree angle to the right, Alyx had managed to avoid the blow. However, he had overcompensated just how far back he needed to go and had given the Owlbear room to charge. Which it did with no hesitation, using the extra space to gain more speed and momentum for its next strike. This one a horizontal swipe of its claws directly in front of it, giving the strike a larger arc to hit Alyx. He had no choice but to desperately step backward, just barely out of reach of the claws, which allowed the Owlbear to begin setting the pace as it Swiped again, in a similar fashion with its opposite claw. This time slicing through Alyxs coat like a hot knife through butter, only the luck of the gods kept those claws from snagging on the cloth of his jacket.

Dancing around a tree, Alyx did his best to force the Owlbear to have to circle it to get to him, buying himself some time, as the Owlbear was forced to go around the tree. Somehow someway Alyx was still alive, even avoiding its attacks. But he needed to be able to do more than just dodge around the Owlbears claws. He needed to slip past them to try and get a punch in.

That opportunity presented itself as the Owlbear came charging in at him again, raising up slightly on its hind legs so it could bring both of its clawed paws down in a vertical strike. Jumping forward this time and to the right of the strike, Alyx was able to just barely duck under the paws of the Owlbear as they came down and shook the ground with a dull thudding impact.

“Fuck.You.”

Feet sliding to a stop so that Alyx was placed just to the right of the owlbear, his right fist cocked and ready, left arm still up in front of his face in a defensive position in case anything went wrong, Alyx ground his feet into the earth, twisting his hips and shoulders to torque his arm forward as he unleashed what for him had always been his best punch, a right hook with all the power he could muster behind it.

Ignoring the notifications in his mind, Alyx’s fist slammed into the side of the Owlbears head just as it was turning to look at him, and quite frankly, nothing should have happened. Bears are nature's version of an M-1 Abram tank.

Instead of an ineffective and ultimately futile act of final resistance, Alyxs punch sent the Owlbear stumbling, its head reeled backward from the blow, and the body followed. It wasn’t enough to send the owlbear stumbling to the ground, but it was knocked back a few paces. Hard to tell who was more surprised, the Owlbear, Alyx, or the elven rangers who’d been watching the whole thing.

One thing Alyx did know was that in combat, you pressed any advantage you could get, fight to win, fight to be the one who gets to go home at the end of the day. Able to shake off his surprise faster than the Owlbear, Alyx stepped forward to the Owlbear’s now exposed side and unleashed a forward snap kick up into its ribs. The blow lifted the Owlbear slightly, not enough to get it off the ground, but this monster, which had to weigh more than twelve hundred pounds, was affected by Alyxs blows!

“Hah! Fuck you. I have superpowers!”

Alyx shouted at the Owlbear, his confidence soaring as he unleashed yet another kick toward its side. Unfortunately for Alyx, his surprising amount of success in fighting the owlbear had made him cocky, and he was caught in the side by a swipe of its paws as the Owlbear turned to face him. On his best day, Alyx stands at five foot six inches tall and weighs in at about 150 pounds, so it’s not an understatement to say that blow sent him flying off of his feet and onto the ground a good eight feet away.

With a groan, Alyx righted himself and came unsteadily to his feet. It was only upon feeling strange warm wetness covering his stomach and flowing over his pants did he look down to see a terrifying sight, the Owlbear’s claws had cut through his clothes and through him, leaving deep long gashes in his stomach and...what looked to be the organs beneath. Blood was flowing down the front of his pants like a waterfall, and all Alyx could do was try not to throw up and press a hand on the wound to try and keep his organs and blood from spilling out.

While those notifications might be comforting, Alyx was still pretty convinced that he was a dead man walking. Hell, the fact that he could stand up and stay standing had to be some kind of miracle.

The Owlbear, meanwhile, only looked slightly dazed by his unexpected resistance and was shaking its head as it turned back toward him.

“SCREEE----QUOONNNK”

“Yeah, well, your mother was a hamster.”

With a chuckle at his own joke, Alyx took a shaky stance, one fist raised, ready to give one more punch. The Owlbear responded as Owlbears do, by charging forward in a rage. Which gave Alyx an idea, quite possibly a dumb one as far as ideas go, but heck, he was nearly dead anyway. So he crouched and attempted to leap at the charging owlbear, swinging the hand that wasn’t attempting to hold his organs in place at the monster’s eye.

Alyx misjudged his own jumping abilities for the second time in a single day as he went somersaulting through the air well above the Owlbear. Needless to say, both of their strikes missed as Alyx came back down toward the ground and bounced against the earthen loam of the forest. Surprisingly his landing didn’t hurt nearly as bad this time. In fact, his guts didn’t even spill out or anything, which in hindsight is probably what should have happened. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why all his organs had stayed in one place. At a glance, even Alyx could tell the wounds on his stomach had nearly closed, and he wasn’t in nearly as much pain…

“Fuck, that’s what...thirty seconds to heal through four massive open claw marks?”

Was it hope budding in his chest or just incredulity at the idea that he could actually regenerate a pace fast enough to make horrible life-threatening wounds inconsequential.

Alyx didn’t have time to explore those thoughts right now, though, as the Owlbear was once more closing the distance, but as Alyx stood, he found himself feeling much more confident. If a little tired, from the experience.

“Looks like this just became a contest in endurance.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Andrea sat next to Julius, watching the madman of a human slug it out with the Owlbear. Trading blows for a few moments before taking a hit and backing away only to come back at the creature again, and again, and again.

“I know he registers as less than half our level, but it’s kind of hard to believe, watching him fight the Owlbear like that,” Julius whispered to Andrea as he kept his arrow sighted on the continuing brawl.

Andrea, for her part, let out a displeased but thoughtful grunt, only distinguishable from her other grunts by Julius’s many years of working with her.” No, he’s very low level. Watch when he strikes. He isn’t activating any skills. No power strike, no flame strike, no charging attacks, nothing. He’s running entirely on passives, which...shouldn’t be possible. At least not at his level. He can’t even have a class yet.”

Julius shook his head, not arguing but just disbelieving of what that must mean.” That means he is running at least two stat increases, one for strength, obviously, but watch how he avoids the attacks. That’s all coordination. Not to mention the obvious regeneration.” Julius sighs as he watches the fight continue, both the Owlbear and the human slowing down as the battle wore on, but the human looked like it was hedging out the lead in this fight, barring a lucky strike from the Owlbear.

Hmmm” Probably endurance too, that or his training was hellish enough for him to ignore the pain those wounds must be causing him. Either way, I wouldn't say I like it. Getting a base stat increase is rare enough. Two is practically unheard of. I don’t want to consider what kind of monster has three stat increases.” glancing sie long at Julius, Andrea grit her teeth,” if he lives, we will need to bring him back to the village if only to find out more about how he got multiple stat increases. That information would be too valuable to just let go.”

Julius almost barked out a laugh, barely able to restrain himself in time.”Oh, he’s valuable enough to bring back, but not to save from an Owlbear attack?” Julius understood that Andrea had more hate in her heart for humans than most and not without good reason, all things considered. But still, now knowing the human's possible value and continuing to let him risk his life like this was Andrea letting her hatred take reign of her actions. Still, the human looked like he was almost done with the Owlbear, and it saved him from an argument with Andrea by saying nothing.

So the two waited, only creeping closer once the outcome of the fight had been determined.