"Clang, clang, clang..."
As the crisp gong rang out, the men on watch in the other rooms jolted alert and began beating their hatchets and clubs. Since beasts might harm people, the conscripts had slept lightly; jarred by the sound, they scrambled up at once. Only the old station-hand, unhurried, glanced outside, then flipped back his bedding and slipped into a pit-hole in the ground. A few bailiffs wanted to follow, but the hole was small, and the old hand wouldn't lift the lid no matter what, earning a stream of curses.
"Grab your weapons, brothers — gather at the doors and windows. If the beasts dare force their way in, we jab them back out."
Under Zhou Yuan's command, the conscripts regained order, bracing batons against the rooms' doors and windows.
"Hey! Ho! Hey!"
The conscripts shouted cadences and beat their clubs, making all the noise they could to scare off the beasts in the dark. By rights, the din of a hundred men should have driven off ordinary beasts. But the beasts outside seemed able to tell soldiers from laborers; though the shouts shook the sky, they showed no intent to leave.
The dark cloaked the blind-bears in protective color, and the conscripts couldn't make out their movements. But in Zhou Yuan's eyes, those movements were perfectly clear. He saw the two 【Level 3 Mountain Crescent-Moon Bears】 first gather at the gate, pounding it, then climb gradually up the earthen wall. Only after the two great bears cleared the wall could Zhou Yuan dimly make out their features — standing, they were taller than a man, a V-shaped white patch on the chest, round-headed and big-eared, hugely powerful. The other four bears were a size smaller, with only health bars above them, no level attribute.
"Here they come. Light the lamps."
"Don't be afraid, everyone. Those beasts can't be stronger than twenty-odd of us."
Warm yellow lamplight lit the room; the tense men breathed hard, sweat welling unbidden. In this moment the station's rooms were both shelter and cage — a mere six bears forced the conscripts to defend each room, not daring to step out. Their numerical advantage was thus halved. Able to rely only on the companions beside them, with no hope of rescue from others, the six bears in truth faced not a hundred-odd men but the twenty-some in a single room.
"A few of you, pull off the bed-boards and shove them against the doors and windows as shields."
The rammed-earth walls were sturdy and reliable; the bears could hardly dig through them, and the easiest places to breach were still the wooden doors and windows. Thud, thud — the bears began ramming the door, and the hands gripping the batons couldn't help trembling. Zhou Yuan stood in the front row by the window, leveling the iron spear, ready to strike.
"Roar..."
A ferocious bear's head suddenly smashed the wooden window and bellowed at the men inside, sending them wailing.
"Hold, hold — strike its skull, jab its neck! Bear paws and bear gall are worth a fortune — pull off this one job and we all turn our lives around!"
Spurred by Zhou Yuan's shout and by fear, the men finally erupted, raining blows on the bear trying to climb in. Such blows only roused the bear's ferocity and couldn't kill it; the best move was to brace its head and keep it out. But the men were past all reason; those holding bed-boards at the window flung them down in terror and fell back.
Zhou Yuan was tense too, but the power of skill began to show now. Whatever his mental state, the moment he triggered a skill it produced stable damage. He thrust once at the bear's mouth, once at its nose, leaving it bloody-mouthed, howling in rage. The wounded bear's ferocity exploded; one lunge and it would be inside. Seizing the moment, Zhou Yuan braced the spear-butt against the ground and stabbed hard into the bear's gaping maw.
"Urgh, urgh..."
The cold spearhead drove into its throat; the bear's weight plus Zhou Yuan's planted spear punched the head clean through its neck. Watching the bear's bar plunge by half, Zhou Yuan whipped out his hatchet and dealt the bear's head two Mighty Mountain-Cleavers. Bang, bang — blade bit flesh. With the skill's boost, his strikes were dead accurate, turning the blind-bear into a truly blind one. The mortally wounded bear still tried to flee, but the iron spear pinned its neck; in the tearing, its bar dropped fast, and soon it howled and went still.
But that playing-dead trick couldn't fool Zhou Yuan. Eyeing the beast — only 26% health left and still falling — he grabbed a baton, called the men to jab at its head, and together they heaved it out. This time the bear couldn't feign death; the clubbing drove the iron spear in its neck to deal it a second wound. As it was flipped over, Zhou Yuan gripped the spear-butt and yanked hard — that single pull finished it.
【Ding. Slew Level 3 Mountain Crescent-Moon Bear. Experience +30.】
Thud — the heavy bear-corpse crashed to the ground, heartening the men inside and terrifying the other bears. Unlike the men, who saw only a corpse, Zhou Yuan also saw an object glowing faint green.
"It dropped something?"
He glanced doubtfully at the corpse outside the window but made no move to fetch it — the bears hadn't gone, and going out now was too dangerous. After a few growls and roars, the four levelless bears made to flee, while the remaining Level 3 Crescent-Moon Bear pounced and savaged them. A good chance — Zhou Yuan reached out, gripped the iron spear in the corpse, and with two villagers' help wrenched it free.
"Whetstone."
At his call, Zhao Dahuang at once dug a strip of stone from the odds and ends and passed it over. Now the spearhead was bent, its tip chipped, but Zhou Yuan still wouldn't abandon it. Ordering two men to grind the spear, he found a hammer-head as a backup weapon.
Before long, the Level 3 Crescent-Moon Bear had bitten two levelless bears to death; the other two climbed the wall and fled. The dead bears seemed terribly important to it; ignoring the two that fled, it pounced again at the broken window.
"Brothers, this thing holds a grudge — we can't let it in. Don't flail; use batons to shove it out, wear down its strength. We killed one, we can kill a second."
Having slain a great bear, the men's confidence soared; still tense, they no longer flailed in terror. With a dozen-odd strong men's effort, each time the bear cleared the window it was pushed back down, turning the life-or-death battle into a contest of brute force. Leveling his spear, Zhou Yuan's few thrusts ruined its eyes, mouth and nose. By now it had lost most of its threat; in the mutual grind he thrust from the side into its ear-hole and called the men to nail it down together.
"One more push — burst its skull!"
【Ding. Slew Level 3 Mountain Crescent-Moon Bear. Experience +30.】
With both great bears dead, the men were about to catch their breath when they saw Zhou Yuan vault out the window.
"I'll go see if the other brothers need rescue."
Amid cries of "careful," "good man," "don't do anything foolish," Zhou Yuan bent and picked up a green light-orb and a white light-orb.
【Ding. Obtained Moonlight Bear Gall and Great Bear Stance.】