Chapter 1696: Change

Chapter 1696: Change*ROAR*        

Amidst the roars of the bear. Sam jumped onto a tree nearby.    

The bear felt the injury on its belly and looked at Sam angrily.    

Sam met its eyes calmly. His plan is working well so far. The bear might have had enough strength to rival some really high-level beasts. But it doesn't have the necessary intellect to use that strength well.    

It is too crude.    

He can easily take it for a ride and deal with it. The only problem is the time it would take to slowly destroy it bit by bit.    

*ROAR*    

Halting his thoughts, the bear attacked the tree he was standing on.    

*CRASH*    

He jumped to a different tree while slashing the bear. The sword ray laced with wind elements hit the bear on the back. But it didn't try to pierce through it or cut through it.    

Rather the sword ray moved tangentially to the bear's body. It brushed past it while cutting off some fur.    

If one looked closely, one would be able to notice that there is a very slight gash that cut off a negligibly thin layer of hiding along with the fur.    

Sam noticed it and smile. He looked at the bear charging at him and threw a spear with his left hand. The spear lodged itself into the ground. It was neither near the bear nor it was in its path. The bear didn't even bother with that spear.    

But as soon as the spear landed, the ground shook a bit.  A streak of earthen spikes emerged from that point. They hit the bear from the side and some spikes were particularly targeting on its belly from under it.    

The bear halted in its tracks and jumped to the side. Sam took this chance once again and sliced on the same spot as before. The slash is once again tangential just like before.    

He didn't aim to cut the flesh off directly. Just another very thin layer of it was cut off. The layer was like a thin and delicate flower petal.    

Sam jumped off onto a different tree and waited for the bear to stabilize itself. It looked at Sam fiercely. Its eyes are bloodshot. He could sense its thirst for his blood from far away.    

This time, it also wisened up a bit and didn't run towards him. Instead, it jumped straight from its spot to his location.    

Sam smiled as if he had anticipated it.    

The tree he was standing at suddenly moved. The branches that looked completely normal were shot out and tried to catch the bear in mid-air.    

His spiritual energy traveled through the tree. Wooden spikes came out and tried to trap the bear within the branches.    

*ROAR*    

The bear roared in frustration as it slammed its claws on the branches and the trunk.    

The spikes weren't able to pierce it. But the branches started coiling around making it irritable. They tried to restrict its motion.    

Sam of course didn't leave this chance. Once again he shaved off another layer of flesh on the back of the bear.    

And this time, along with taking away that small layer, he also left some purple marks on the bear at that spot.        

The purple mark is a kind of poison.    

For the next few moves, the poison kept growing as he kept shaving the flesh. He succeeded for the six moves.    

In these six moves, he used the trees, earth, and the surrounding rocks to his advantage as he made the bear either get caught in some silly trap for a moment or halt in its tracks as it got off guard by some sudden attack.    

Either way, he left a significant mark on the back of the bear. The whole patch of flesh that was exposed turned purple.    

When Sam landed the next attack after that though, the bear is not as angry as before. It is not as frustrating. It just tried to follow Sam's movement.    

Sam landed on a tree and smiled a bit. His plan is working. The poison he left behind on the back of the bear in that patch of exposed flesh is actually to make its flesh numb. To make it lose its sense of pain.    

He doesn't know if it works as most of the creatures here are purely driven by instinct and they don't really care much about the pain. Whether it is present or absent is irrelevant to them.    

The only purpose it served for the bear is to irritate it constantly. It becomes pissed off knowing that Sam is touching it and attacking it as he liked while it was unable to do anything about that.    

Sam's goal is precisely that.    

So, when he noticed that the bear didn't react when he attacked the poisoned patch of flesh, he felt a bit relieved.    

He decided to go for the next phase of the plan and for that, he needs to land three more proper hits on the same spot before placing something there.    

So, he led the bear to three more traps. In the first two, he simply and successfully landed the hits. The bear started bleedings slightly. Just when he was about to land the third attack though, the bear that was supposed to be stuck in the trap suddenly made a completely unpredictable move.    

Instead of trying to break free of the trap like it usually did when it fell into them, it let the trap irritate it, while it forcefully let its body get damaged a bit and tried to roll around.    

It rolled around exposing a part of its belly to Sam. But one of its claws which was the only free one brushed past him.    

Sam was thrown away and crashed into a tree. He stopped himself from being thrown completely off balance. But it was too late.    

The bear forcefully broke through the trap. And to Sam's surprise, it attacked the particularly weak point which granted the bear an easy release. It escaped the trap with almost no injuries and dashed towards him.    

It smashed into Sam and charged him through the tree before it crashed him into another large rock beside them.    

*BAM* *CRASH*    

The rock is smashed into pieces. Sam tried to get away from that spot, but he wasn't able to. The bear took the momentary chance to bite into him.    

Sam reacted quickly enough to activate his metal elemental fusion making it impossible for the bear to bite him. And from the suction he is feeling from its mouth, he is sure that the bear is trying to tear him and swallow him.    

If he turns into anything soft now, there is no doubt the bear will suck him in. But he definitely cannot stay in that mouth also. He needs to get out of there immediately.    

But no matter how much pressure he applied on the bear's jaw, it didn't budge.    

Instead, it started crashing Sam into the surroundings.    

"Fuck it. I will just finish you off."    

Sam muttered and he started gathering energy. But not outside or in his arms. Instead, he gathered the energy in the gap he created inside the mouth of the bear. He gathered the fire elemental energy. The golden concentrated flaming ball was created. Just when he was about to launch it though, the bear suddenly spat him out and left the spot.        

*BOOM*    

The energy ball brushed past the bear's fur. It left a large burning mark on its hide before it went past it and exploded.    

He left a large crater by accident.    

The Bear looked at the crater and then at Sam vigilantly.    

Sam frowned when he saw Bear's reaction. This shouldn't be happening. This is not supposed to happen.    

The creatures on the second floor, shouldn't have this kind of vigilance. The creatures here are still supposed to fight based on their instincts. It is already surprising enough that the beast came out of the trap like that.    

If going by instincts, it should have gone for the traps, instead of going for Sam, since Sam's attack didn't seem like much since the start.    

But it went after him by forcefully dealing with the trap. Now it acted like this. There is no way this is a simple coincidence.    

One more thing that bothered him is the sudden transition. He is a hundred percent sure that the bear was initially attacking purely based on his instincts. It just became like that out of nowhere.    

As these thoughts flooded through his brain. The bear slowly stepped back and looked at Sam cautiously. It didn't roar or growl. IT became completely silent. This just solidified Sam's beliefs.    

Something has changed in this bear all of a sudden.    

He thew that thought to the back of his mind the next moment. He knew he cannot afford to lose focus now. So he decided to focus on this later after he defeated the bear.