The moment the villagers’ spear formation fell into chaos, the brown bear lunged straight into the crowd and its paw instantly pinned a villager to the ground.

The brown bear’s strength was enormous. The pinned villager kicked and punched in terror with all his might, yet he could not budge it in the slightest.

It opened its bloody maw and bit down. In the scream, the sound of bones snapping could be heard.

This brown bear tore violently, forcibly ripping a hole into the villager’s chest as blood sprayed out.

The sight terrified the surrounding villagers. Their faces turned deathly pale, their courage nearly shattered and they wanted nothing more than to run for their lives with every last ounce of strength.

At times like this, you did not need to run faster than the bear, you only needed to run faster than your teammates.

A huge group of villagers scattered in the blink of an eye.

After biting the villager beneath it to death, the brown bear was not satisfied. It immediately chased after a second villager.

Just as the second victim was about to appear.

Lin Er, holding his bamboo sword, suddenly appeared behind the brown bear.

He had observed carefully just now.

The brown bear’s back and head were covered in a sturdy layer of earth armor. Only the earth armor on its limbs and belly was thinner.

But the limbs were not vital points and the belly was hard to attack.

Lin Er took the chance to circle behind the brown bear. Unfortunately, its rear also had a layer of earth armor. He could still stab it if he forced it, but the damage probably would not be very high.

After all, the villagers had just stabbed at it with more than ten long spears and all of it had been blocked by the earth armor, barely injuring it at all.

Seeing the villager about to be attacked, Lin Er did not hesitate any longer.

He swung his sword down at the brown bear’s hind leg.

With a clang, the strike broke through the thin earth armor defense and opened a bloody cut.

Lin Er felt that he had struck bone. A hard resistance traveled up through the blade.

The brown bear’s massive body jerked and it nearly toppled to the ground.

It let out an extremely violent scream that echoed across the fields.

Struggling to steady its limbs, the bear turned its head.

It stared at Lin Er. The bear’s eyes were filled with blood energy, already red.

Overflowing with killing intent.

Lin Er had no technique, but his body had been cleansed and refined, making his strength exceptionally great.

The damage from that strike had indeed hurt the brown bear.

Pure stats, not a shred of skill.

When Lin Er saw the bear turn its head, his breathing tightened. He knew he could not meet it head-on. Stealing one strike like that was already a huge profit, so he turned and ran.

The brown bear did not hesitate and chased after him.

One of its hind legs was injured, so it limped while running, but in its fury, its speed was not slow.

Lin Er was slightly surprised, but he did not panic.

Keeping a safe distance of around ten meters, he led it through the narrow paths in the fields and headed straight away from the village.

This was not the first time he had been chased by a bear.

Lin Er felt a strange sense of familiarity, but he still did not dare be careless.

One man and one bear, one in front and one behind.

Lin Er ran on, dragging the brown bear behind him for half a kilometer.

Looking ahead, he had already reached an oak forest. There was not a single person around and no villagers had followed.

After that fierce pursuit, the brown bear’s qi and blood declined and its speed slowed.

Seeing this, Lin Er felt even calmer. He stopped and stared straight at the bear.

Actually, calling it a brown bear was not accurate either. It was covered in earth armor and Burns had said it had reached First Tier, so it should be called a First-Tier Earth-Armored Bear.

When the earth-armored bear saw Lin Er suddenly stop, it thought he had run out of strength. Putting everything into it and not even probing, it lunged straight at him, intending to kill him.

Lin Er was prepared. He sent out the bamboo sword in his hand.

The bamboo sword flew out, drawing a streak of green light as it shot straight at the earth-armored bear’s vital point.

The earth-armored bear was shocked. As a beast, its reaction speed was extremely fast. It lowered its head to dodge, using the earth armor on its head to block.

With a clang, earth and stone burst with sparks scattering.

A sword mark was left on the earth armor around the bear’s neck. Mane fur was exposed beneath and a bloody cut split open, blood flowing out.

‘This earth-armored bear really is thick-skinned and tough. That layer of earth armor is almost as hard as steel.’

Lin Er was surprised and thought it was a pity.

If it did not have earth armor protecting it, that sword strike would have shaved its head right off.

After feeling the pain, the earth-armored bear instead summoned earth element and the sword mark on its earth armor was repaired rapidly.

This time, the earth-armored bear became much more cautious and advanced slowly.

Lin Er retreated repeatedly, continuing to observe its weak points and said,

‘Since the earth armor on your back is too hard, I’ll cut off your limbs first!’

He refused to believe the earth-armored bear’s limbs were just as hard.

When the earth-armored bear came within three meters, Lin Er instantly drove the bamboo sword.

A streak of green sword light flashed.

The earth-armored bear tried to dodge.

But it was too fast.

With a wet slash.

One of the earth-armored bear’s forelimbs flew off. A huge amount of blood sprayed out and it lost its balance, crashing to the ground.

Lin Er continued driving the bamboo sword, launching a second attack.

Another forelimb was severed. The earth-armored bear collapsed completely, losing its ability to move.

‘This earth-armored bear is still too bulky. It can’t dodge a flying sword at all.’

Lin Er did not continue sighing. He drove the flying sword for the final blow, thrusting the tip into the bear’s eye and piercing through its brain.

This huge beast fell silent forever.

Lin Er recalled the bamboo sword and wiped the cold sweat from his face.

Just now, he had driven the flying sword with intense concentration and had not paid any attention to spiritual energy consumption. In just a few strikes, he found his dantian was nearly empty.

‘Not good, my spiritual energy.’

Lin Er could not help feeling regret. Killing the bear had felt amazing, but now the spiritual energy loss hurt just as badly.

He had to remember that spiritual energy was extremely precious to him and very hard to replenish.

But this was not the time to think about that.

Lin Er raised his head and looked outside the oak forest. He saw Burns bringing seven or eight villagers. They held long spears and bows and were cautiously hurrying over.

‘I didn’t expect these villagers to still dare come over. Looks like not everyone had their courage shattered.’

Lin Er quickly raised a hand and greeted Burns. Only after seeing the bear corpse did the villagers let out a sigh of relief, lower their weapons and walk over.

Burns looked full of admiration and said, “Kid, you’re really impressive. You actually killed this earth-armored bear all by yourself.”

The other villagers also echoed him, their eyes filled with respect.

Lin Er waved his hand and said, “I fought while running, slowly grinding it down.”

No matter what, this menace was finally dead.

With the villagers helping proactively, they found wooden poles and rope and worked together to carry the bear corpse back.

Lin Er had originally wanted to help too, but Burns and the villagers all considered him the greatest contributor, so this small matter did not need him to lift a hand.

He could only let it go.

The group filed out of the oak forest in force and soon returned to the village.

Some villagers were guarding the entrance. When they saw the group actually carrying the bear corpse back, they shouted for everyone to come out, telling them they no longer needed to live in fear.

When many people learned that Lin Er had slain the earth-armored bear alone, they all looked him over.

In an instant, Lin Er became the center of attention, praise flowing nonstop.

If he had not intervened earlier, no one knew how many more villagers would have died.

Just then.

A crying voice rang out at the wrong time. The sound was not loud, but amid all the laughter and celebration, it was especially piercing.