After Swapping Identities With My Archenemy - Chapter 60

Chapter 60: Besieged by Bears

A dark shadow on the window reached out a hand and tapped: knock, knock, knock.

The sound was so faint it was nearly swallowed by the howling wind, but the sound of rhythmic chewing remained sharp and clear, as if someone were eating right next to their ears.

“What is that? What is that?” Chu Lianxue whispered, her voice trembling slightly, terrified of alerting whatever was outside.

Shen Wensi, who had been lying still as if asleep, propped herself up on one elbow. Her eyes were sharp in the gloom. “It doesn’t look human.”

The group let out a collective breath of relief, only for their hearts to tighten again. Humans were terrifying, but an unknown entity lingering outside was hardly an improvement.

Jiang Huaiyi’s hand gripped her peach-wood sword. Beside her, Xiao Die had already crept to the window, staring silently at the glass. The silhouette outside remained motionless, but Jiang Huaiyi noticed two round protrusions on top of its head.

A grim memory surfaced. Their guide, Er Shu, had mentioned a chilling incident: bears “mimicking” humans. Not long ago, a pair of elderly villagers had opened their door to a late-night knock, only to be slaughtered. Their remains were found days later, frozen solid and hung in trees like cured meat organs missing, lips and eyeballs picked away.

The shadow’s long claws scraped against the glass with a sound like hailstones hitting the ground. It was an adult black bear, standing upright.

The tapping accelerated. It was growing impatient. Suddenly, a blood-curdling scream erupted from elsewhere in the camp. The scream seemed to trigger the creature outside; it slammed its massive weight into the window.

The glass groaned. A draft of frigid air carrying a foul, metallic stench wafted into the room.

“The window won’t hold!” Mu Ze shouted. She lunged forward, flipped the latch, and threw the window open herself.

As the heavy black bear tried to lunged into the room, a flash of cold steel cut through the air. Chu Lianxue’s sword lunged forward, piercing the bear’s throat with surgical precision. With a powerful kick, she sent the beast tumbling back into the snow, a spray of blood trailing in its wake.

“That was brutal,” Mu Ze remarked, looking out at the twitching carcass. “That’s a protected species. Where’s your compassion?”

Chu Lianxue wiped her blade, arching an eyebrow. “Weren’t you the one who opened the window for me?”

The screams outside grew louder. Jiang Huaiyi leaned out and saw several shadows chasing people through the moonlight. “It’s a mass attack,” she realized. “The lights must have drawn them. We need to move.”

There were at least seven or eight bears. It was bizarre—bears are solitary animals, yet these were operating like a coordinated pack.

Before they could investigate further, two more bears charged from the slope above, crashing into their room. The group scrambled out the door just as the glass shattered behind them.

In the chaos, they ran into Er Shu, their guide, who looked disheveled and frantic. “Run! There are too many of them!”

They fled down the mountain for fifteen minutes, their lungs burning in the freezing air. Eventually, the temperature began to rise slightly, suggesting they were nearing the river at the base of the valley.

They found a small cluster of wooden huts used by villagers during the flood season and started a fire. The crackling flames provided a small sense of security.

“What’s going on?” Song Rong gasped, clutching her chest. “Does this happen often?”

Er Shu wiped her face, warming her hands. “It’s strange. I’ve never seen anything like this. They should be hibernating.”

Jiang Huaiyi watched Er Shu’s face in the flickering firelight. Something felt off. In these mountains, guides were almost exclusively men. Why was Er Shu so comfortable staying in the communal guide quarters? And why did she seem so unsurprised by the “strangeness”?

As Jiang Huaiyi pondered this, Shen Wensi sat down beside her. During the run, Shen’s hair had come loose. As she moved to fix it, Jiang Huaiyi felt something cold pressed into her hand. It was the jade piece her Master had given her; the cord had snapped during the flight.

Suddenly, Shen Wensi stood up and pulled Jiang Huaiyi to her feet.

In the ring of darkness surrounding their fire, several pairs of glowing, crystalline eyes emerged. Massive black bears stepped into the light, standing upright on their hind legs, slowly encircling the group.

Er Shu cursed under her breath. Before anyone could react, she bolted into the darkness like an arrow, her flashlight beam vanishing instantly.

The bears closed in. They were huge, their white chest markings vivid in the firelight.

“What are our odds against this many bears?” Song Rong’s voice shook.

No one answered.

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