Sudden encounter

It looked to be around early afternoon, although neither Jonas nor Mendo could tell due to the thick treetops once again blocking most of the sunlight. The both of them just saw that the sun seemed to be slowly moving away from the middle of the sky. When the both of them walked by the river, the sun seemed to be indicating that it was early noon but Jonas could remember walking for more then 3 hours. Mendo and Jonas talked casually as they both got to know each other a bit better, although the knowledge they had of one another was still pretty vague.

Jonas walked through the chilly forest. He already asked Mendo for the oil 2 times so as to get them to move smoothly again. He made a promise with Mendo to pay him back, but Jonas didn't even know what currency they were using.

"Talking with someone really does seem to make the journey shorter huh? we should arrive at the village in a few hours, maybe 1 or 2? Well, if we arrive there do you have a place to stay at?" Mendo put his arms behind his head posing as if he was stretching. The question he posed was one Jonas had already thought of, and he couldn't help but shiver at the thought. Would he have to sleep on the cold road again? Maybe he would be confused for a beggar. Even the thought of just not having a simple shelter let Jonas eyes radiate despair. He answered to the best of his knowledge with no drive of dressing up the state of his situation. "I don't have anything anywhere, that's the best i can tell you. I don't even know how the fuck im supposed to keep myself fed, let alone shelter. I don't really have a clue what currency is being used here either, so the best i can pay you with is my jacket or lighter both of which are pretty much the only things i could slightly bare to give away" He voiced in a grave tone. It was unknown to him how he should act in such a strange and dangerous situation.

Mendo looked a bit concerned at his new acquaintance's future challenges as he knew very well that living on the road in the north isn't an easy endeavor, especially not if you don't know anything about the area. Thinking about the harsh area they were in, Mendo knew very well that Jonas was probably more on the lucky side as Fontechia had walls which protected it from the various beasts that lurked outside of them. Speaking of which, Mendo noted that he was indeed on the lucky side the last few days, as they had not encountered any beasts on their little journey. Normally, he had to always stay on guard and use his Galver at least once per trip, which meant that he was more then lucky to not have encountered anything while walking back to Fontechia.

Mendo tried to find the right words to make Jonas feel a bit more at ease but didn't really know what words one should say in such a situation. He certainly experienced the harsh environment of the north but couldn't imagine what it would be like to know nothing about it and just be thrown into it.

At this very moment, a cracking sound could be heard from the tall grass on the left of them. The loud crack was followed by an increasingly fast rustling as the ground seemed to vibrate a bit. Jonas could feel something was wrong but didn't really know what to do, the most dangerous situation he had ever been in happened right after he got out of compulsory military service and that wasn't even that serious, just some guy who tried to beat him up. At the time Jonas could fight him off but that was only because he had just spent 6 months in the military. Being beaten and even defeated by some random thug would've been an embarrassment for not only him but the entire Bundeswehr.

But now the situation was different. Even if it was just some thug, he had been out of the military for 7 1/2 years! Not only did a lot happen in that time, but he also lost half of his right leg. He could probably still do some damage if it was indeed a human, but the heavy footsteps which could be heard now seemed to belong to something on four legs. Jonas thought process stopped as he looked at the surprised Mendo who put his hand onto his waist and immediately drew his weird sword, if you could even still call it that, while taking his stance which solidified his current position.

The footsteps got heavier and heavier and the vibrating of the ground seemed to increase everytime one could hear another step. As the vibrating of the ground almost threw Jonas out of balance, the tall grass beside the road got pushed to the ground, revealing a creature which looked like a crossbred bastard child of two people in the same Family. The few normal animals it shared features with would probably be a grizzly bear and a wolf, maybe a trace of wild boar. It's long teeth were as sharp as razor's while it's head shared the form of a bear. Foam came out of it's mouth while it's rough fur looked like that from a boar, meaning that it had fur-like bristles.

As it showed more of its grotesque body, it seemed to stop as it looked at the two men. If you took either Mendo or Jonas, you couldn't really say that they were tiny. Both of them were easily above 1.83 but to the disgustingly huge beast they looked like nothing more then tiny little sticks.

Jonas was absolutely terrified. What was his best option in this kind of encounter? fighting? yeah right, as if! but running away wouldn't help either. Maybe playing dead? No, that only works on female bears, and even then they need to have kids for this tactic to have any effect. Jonas simply didn't have a clue. Although he wasn't panicking, he was absolutely filled with dread as he simply didn't know what options remained. In the spur of the moment he looked over to Mendo for help but what he saw was even more surprising then the sudden attack by the grotesque being.

Mendo stood firm against the beast, in his right hand was the sword and his left hand quickly put it into spin. His eyes screamed with fear as would anybody's when encountering such a threat, but his bravery was what stood out the most in this moment. Bravery didn't mean to not fear anything but instead be ready to face those fears. No man doesn't fear death, but a brave one accepts it. A man who doesn't fear is either lying or isn't human. Even someone who doesn't have anything to lose will fear death, but for him, it probably is the least of his fears.

Mendo began to shakily spin his wrist which lead to his blade beginning to glow a dim red, indicating that it had reached over 525°C. At this point, Jonas noted that the strange metal the sword was made of didn't seem to be bending, meaning that it couldn't be iron, but what else should it be made out of? It didn't look like steel or aluminum which Jonas immediately jumped to, but the metal it was made out of didn't matter in this situation as he quickly realized.

Mendo took one step towards the gigantic beast which stood on two of it's four legs at the moment which looked exactly like what a bear would do. Mendos shaking wrist which was still spinning the glowing sword struck towards the belly of the creature releasing the same 4 meter long flame as it did before when he showed Jonas how the sword worked. The flames hit the belly of the creature which immediately seemed to howl and groan in pain, but the face Mendo was making wasn't one that screamed victory, no instead it looked like one of pure terror.

The weird creature quickly threw it's front legs to the floor, pinning down Mendo who once again struck the sword towards the beast. This time, he rammed the sharp tip of the sword directly into the stomach of the beast, leading it to once again howl in pain and anger. This time though, it looked much different. The sword which was still stuck inside the creatures belly seemed to not come out again as the panicking Mendo realized that he forgot to spin it, thereby losing the effect of the hot flame which would've penetrated the creature's stomach. The monster seemed to slowly regain itself and lifted one of it's heavy paw looking leg's. As it reached out to go for the last blow and finish of Mendo, the latter had his eyes wide open full with terror and fear. At that moment, Mendo saw a silver leg strike the angry creature into it's low hanging throat. The beast once again screamed, but this time it seemed to be more anger then pain. It let Mendo go and instead pursued the silver leg with it's gaping mouth. It swiftly plunged it's sharp fangs into it and pulled it towards itself. Mendo quickly saw the brown unkempt beard and the long hair fly through his vision as he got up. He looked towards the beast who had the silver leg in its cavity and quickly recognized the struggling Jonas at the other end of the leg. Jonas threw a few panicked punches towards the monster as he roughly screamed through the isolating forest. He landed a few punches in the creatures face, although he didn't really care how many landed. He just did what he thought would help him live and hopefully survive a little longer. His screaming quickly turned into a cry for help towards Mendo, who he saw had finally recovered a bit.

Jonas didn't even think too much when he kicked the weird beast, he just wanted to help Mendo out a bit. He quickly regretted his action the moment his right leg left the ground. The time to regret was quickly robbed from him though, as the beast lunged it's razor sharp teeth into his prosthetic leg.

Jonas yelled in his panicked rough voice "MENDO!!!!!! FUCKING HELP ME AND KILL THIS BASTARD!". As his yelling reached Mendo, the latter instantly took action again, still shaking with pure fear. If some weird stranger didn't run away to help him he had to at least do the same. He sprinted towards the huge beast, his spinning wrist shaking furiously with the glowing blade in his hand. He rammed the blade, which was still covered in blood as it was pulled out of the stomach of the creature, into the same spot Jonas had kicked his prosthetic leg into. That spot being the monsters throat. The moment Mendo plunged the sharp spinning tip into the creatures throat, flames shot out on the other side of the creatures thick neck. The flames instantly set fire to the rough bristles which covered the beast, leading it to finally release the still screaming Jonas from its fowl maw and dropping the poor man to the hard ground. The beast struggled for a few seconds, letting out the loudest screams it had made to this point and then collapsed with a loud thump which was followed by a huge vibration. It almost felt like a mini earthquake.

Jonas stopped with his panicked screaming as soon as he hit the ground, finally being released from the traumatizing experience. He got up and sat down, looking at his completely destroyed right leg. Not only did he not know where to find a replacement, but he also didn't know how he could proceed to the village they were heading to. He put his hands onto the ground behind him to support his upper body, looked at the sky which was still not visible through the thick treetops, and gave out a big and long sigh. He looked towards his savior, Mendo, who still hadn't moved away from the corpse of the gigantic beast. Jonas looked into his direction, opened his mouth and said, "Is that a fullbear?".

Mendo quickly turned around, his young face clearly expressing the terror he still felt.

"Yes... yeah that was one of them"