Chapter 66: Mutated Brown Bear
Chapter 66: Chapter 66: Mutated Brown Bear
Bena signaled for the team to halt.
Soon, they found a half-collapsed building to use as cover. Bena took out a pair of binoculars and began to observe the fight.
As he zoomed in, a look of confusion crossed Bena’s face.
He didn’t recognize the people fighting, but he did recognize their clothes.
Their attire was identical to that of the people who had died fighting the mutated gray wolves last time. They were clearly from the same organization.
In an open area not far away, there were six fully armed people—no, four, to be exact.
Two of them were already lying motionless on the outskirts of the battlefield before Bena’s team had even arrived, their condition unknown.
The four who were still standing were locked in a fierce battle with a Mutated Brown Bear that stood at least three meters tall.
The four of them fought with incredible coordination, the kind that clearly couldn’t be developed overnight.
This only strengthened Bena’s conviction that they all belonged to the same organization.
At the forefront were two Warriors armed with shields and machetes. Positioned on the left and right, they worked together to draw the Mutated Brown Bear’s attention.
Though they carried machetes, their swings were mostly defensive; they rarely went on the offensive. The shields in their right hands constantly fended off the bear’s sharp claws and fangs.
The two gunners at the rear were positioned in the gap between the two Warriors, continuously firing at the Mutated Brown Bear.
With its attention fixed on the two Warriors in front, the bear found it difficult to effectively counterattack the gunners behind them.
This was a very common and effective tactic in the wasteland.
While most mutated creatures grew to grotesque sizes after undergoing radioactive mutation, their intelligence rarely grew in proportion to their bodies.
Against this type of mutated creature, as long as its combat power wasn’t overwhelmingly superior, one could use kiting tactics to slowly bleed it out and eventually wear it down to death.
Of course, that was only under normal circumstances.
The current situation was clearly anything but normal.
This particular Mutated Brown Bear had tough hide and a thick layer of fat. Ordinary blades and small-caliber firearms couldn’t inflict any effective damage.
If a kiting tactic failed to consistently inflict enough damage to weaken the creature’s fighting ability, the consequences would be dire.
The Warriors responsible for holding the creature at bay rarely engaged in direct, head-on clashes.
However, even when using techniques to deflect and dodge, the risk of injury was still high.
After all, the difference in strength was simply too great.
Even if they avoided injury, maintaining such a high-intensity battle for an extended period would drastically drain the front-line Warriors’ physical stamina and mental fortitude.
Bena keenly noted that as the fight dragged on, the two Warriors’ fighting stances began to break down.
Their once-nimble parries and feints grew sluggish.
The disparity in strength was immense. A three-meter-tall Mutated Brown Bear weighed at least 1.5 to 2 tons.
A full-force swipe of its paw could generate at least a ton of force.
At their peak, two well-trained and fully-equipped Warriors might have been able to deflect that force with skill.
However, both men had now reached their physical and mental limits.
Suddenly, the Mutated Brown Bear let out a deafening roar and accelerated, its previous speed apparently not its limit.
The Mutated Brown Bear’s intelligence hadn’t increased much, but its hunting instincts were terrifyingly sharp.
It had been holding back its true speed, a change that caught them completely off guard.
The Mutated Brown Bear’s sudden acceleration caught the two Warriors completely by surprise. In a single instant, the tide of the seemingly balanced battle turned completely.
The Warrior on the left was sent flying five or six meters in a single blow.
He slammed heavily onto the ground and went silent, either unconscious or dead.
Without his partner to help draw its attention, the remaining Warrior panicked.
The kiting tactic depended on two front-liners constantly dividing the mutated creature’s attention.
Now that one of the men responsible for distracting it had been taken out, all of the creature’s aggression focused on the one who remained.
Despair washed over the man’s face as he watched the Mutated Brown Bear slowly close in.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he turned to flee—straight toward the position of one of the gunners.
The two gunners behind him were stunned by their comrade’s sudden move.
One of the gunners immediately let out a deafening roar:
"Black Bull, what the fuck are you doing? Are you insane?"
However, the Warrior called Black Bull completely ignored his comrade’s question.
The machete he had been using for defense suddenly flew from his hand, hurtling straight toward the gunner who had just shouted.
The gunner never expected that Black Bull would not only desert but also turn on his own men.
He instinctively dodged to the side, but they were too close. The spinning machete sliced directly into his right arm, the one holding his gun.
The gunner let out a bloodcurdling scream.
As the machete fell, his arm was instantly severed. Blood sprayed from the stump like a fountain.
The gunner clutched his stump and roared in fury:
"Black Bull, you fucking bastard! I hope you die a miserable death!"
"Python, get back and tell the boss what Black Bull did! Tell him he murdered his own comrade!"
Hearing the curse, a cold sneer touched the corner of Black Bull’s lips.
’I might not die a good death,’ he thought, ’but you’ll definitely die before I do.’
The other gunner, the one called Python, saw his comrade get struck down but showed no intention of avenging him. Instead, he immediately holstered his weapon and fled in the opposite direction.
The gunner had clearly realized that even with all four of them working together, they hadn’t been able to do much damage to the Mutated Brown Bear.
Now, with only two of them left, their chances were zero.
If he didn’t take this chance to escape while the Mutated Brown Bear was occupied with the others, he’d be a dead man when it came back for him.
Neither Bena nor Zhou Mei looked particularly surprised by this turn of events.
In the wasteland, comrades fighting side-by-side one moment could turn on each other the next for any number of reasons.
It was rare to see someone attack their own comrades as directly as Black Bull had, but deserters like the other gunner were a common sight.
Zhou Mei whispered:
"Bena, what do we do now?"
A short distance away, the gunner with the severed arm managed only a few steps before the Mutated Brown Bear predictably pounced on him.
The bear didn’t immediately begin to feed on its prey. After finishing off the gunner, it instantly gave chase to the distant figure of Black Bull.