We were delayed on our way down the cliff, and it got completely dark by then.

I took out the torch I had prepared, put some black carbonized fiber inside the tinder, and then took a stone and hit the back of the machete a few times.

A tiny spark landed inside the carbonized fiber and immediately ignited into a red glow. After wrapping it in dry tinder and blowing on it several times, the flame burst into flame with a whoosh as the white smoke grew larger.

I put resin inside the torch, so it ignites easily when exposed to an open flame.

It's not that I'm stingy with torches made of nitrocellulose, it's just that these things are quite troublesome to make, and the materials are hard to find, so I think it's better to use them sparingly unless there's a real need.

I carried a torch and tried to stay close to Top by its light. Now that it was completely dark, Pat was no longer of any use and I had to carry him in my arms as we walked.

Unfortunately, eagles and similar animals are only suited to flying; if they spend too much time on the ground, it will affect their health.

Besides, they are usually not active at night; they will find a place to rest.

But as we walked, we came to a mountain hollow and something felt off. A gust of evening wind blew by, and the unpleasant smell of mutton in the wind made me frown.

There's something upwind of us!

Thinking of this, my nerves immediately tensed up, and I decisively took out the shotgun I was equipped with. I was used to loading two bullets into it, and now I just needed to pull up the two reset firing pins to use it.

With the firelight, I felt a little more at ease. At least I could see what was coming at me so I could take appropriate measures to escape.

I could hear the footsteps of various small animals coming from the nearby bushes; they seemed curious about me. However, because of my overwhelming size, they chose to remain silent.

But I'm certain that the owner of that muttony smell is not the unique scent that these little animals in front of me could emit.

The smell is more like the unpleasant odor of a bear, a mixture of urine and mutton.

I carefully carried the torch forward, shielding Top behind me. Pat, on the other hand, didn't seem to care much and continued to doze off.

After all, they can fly, so they can just take off when they encounter danger. As for their owners, they can only pray for good luck.

Just then, I heard a strange movement in the bushes to my right. The weeds on both sides were bending to the sides at an extremely fast speed, clearly indicating that a very large creature was rapidly approaching me.

Moreover, that unpleasant smell just now was coming from the guy who was rushing towards me.

Because it was nighttime and visibility was poor, and the thick bushes and weeds blocked the view, I couldn't be sure what was coming.

However, since it dared to attack me directly, regardless of whether it's a vegetarian or not, it will have to bear the wrath of my sensitive nerves.

I held the torch in my left hand, raised the gun and rested it on my left forearm, aiming at the black figure that was attacking me.

When I was still fifteen meters away, I pulled the trigger on the gold particle bullet.

"Bang!"

A blinding streak of fire, accompanied by some white smoke, shot out from the muzzle of the gun. The next second, a fan-shaped barrage of bullets covered the area that was rushing towards me.

"Waaah!"

A deep, loud roar came from the bushes; judging by the sound, it must be a bear. But with such a loud roar, this creature is probably quite large.

Even though I knew it was big, I was still taken aback by its enormous size when I actually saw the bear.

Whether it was because the bushes and weeds blocked most of the bullets or something else, the bear not only didn't run away, but instead charged towards me even more fiercely.

When the bear was less than five meters away from me, it suddenly stood up. When I saw its face, I was dumbfounded—it was a fully grown short-faced bear!

The short-faced bear is a large bear species with an average weight between 600 and 900 kilograms, a shoulder height of 1.6 meters, and a head height of up to 3.3 meters when standing upright.

We can be certain it's a short-faced bear because their facial features differ somewhat from those of modern bears.

The short-faced bear had a short face and a broad forehead, similar to modern African lions. They had long limbs, moved quickly, and were extremely fast runners.

Short-faced bears are divided into two species: giant short-faced bears and pygmy short-faced bears. The giant short-faced bear was the largest carnivorous mammal to have ever lived in North America.

Even a saber-toothed tiger would avoid this creature; its nearly 18-centimeter-long claws are more terrifying than a saber-toothed tiger's canines.

With its tank-like body, its massive amount of flesh means that even a saber-toothed tiger could easily slap it a few times, treating it as a back massage.

The giant short-faced bear in front of me stands at least 4 meters tall and weighs more than 1 ton!

At this moment, it is still faintly visible that there is blood flowing from its face and neck, which is obviously due to being hit by bullets.

Perhaps due to the obstruction of weeds and bushes, the bullet's power was greatly reduced, failing to cause serious damage; it probably only penetrated the flesh.

Such damage was nothing to this thick-skinned beast, but it truly enraged it.

One shot left. We can't afford to mess this up, or we're all finished!

This time I aimed my gun at the giant short-faced bear, but just as I fired, an accident still happened.

The firing pin was definitely fired, but the shot failed to detonate. We've fired so many rounds of shotgun ammunition without a problem, and now, at this crucial moment, it's misfired!

"Damn it, we're doomed!"

I was instantly drenched in cold sweat, and my heart sank to the bottom.

This guy charged at an incredible speed; both his slapping bear paw and his head, covered in foul-smelling, sharp teeth, were enough to kill me instantly.

But I'm not willing to die here like this. Top and I have come all this way together, are we going to die here?

At that moment, I unconsciously took a step back and was bumped by something behind me—a spear with three-edged spikes.

The spearhead is the same unremarkable wooden stick I used when I first came into this world to fight a leopard and pierce its throat.

There's no time to worry about that now; there's no escaping it today anyway.

I steeled myself and planted my spear diagonally into the ground. I was going to use the same method I used to kill the wild boar to deal with this behemoth weighing over a ton!

The process was very fast; almost the instant I raised my spear, the giant short-faced bear was already beside me.