The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

Just moments ago, the two bears were in a standoff, neither making the first move.

But the moment the mother black bear ran, the brown bear lunged straight for it!

It was just like how most dogs attack people or prey.

During a standoff, a dog only dares to bark from a distance, not charge in and bite. But as soon as the person or prey runs, the dog gives chase and sinks its teeth in.

The brown bear caught up to the black bear, reared its upper body slightly, and swung its right paw.

With a dull thud, the brown bear’s paw struck the black bear’s right hip.

An over seven-hundred-pound brown bear!

A single swipe from its paw carried a force of well over a thousand pounds—and that was an understatement!

When that paw slammed into the black bear’s right hip, the black bear shrieked. The force of the blow twisted its entire body to the left, nearly spinning it completely around.

The black bear’s right hind leg buckled, and it nearly collapsed. As it half-turned, it found itself almost face-to-face with the brown bear.

The black bear turned to run, but the brown bear pounced on it, opening its jaws to bite the back of its neck.

The brown bear’s seven-hundred-plus pounds came down like a mountain. The black bear crumpled beneath it, hurriedly rolling over and swiping its paws.

But the brown bear pinned the black bear with a single paw on the white patch on its chest, lowered its head, and bit down.

About a hundred meters from the battlefield, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu were moving sideways, watching as the brown bear, with a single bite, tore off the black bear’s nose and its entire upper jaw as it too opened its mouth.

"AARGH... AARGH..." A horrifying cry escaped the black bear’s throat. Blood sprayed from its mouth and nose, blurring its vision. It desperately swung its paw at the brown bear’s nose.

Among their own kind, they knew each other’s weaknesses best.

Bears have thick skin, dense flesh, and a body covered in fur, giving them incredible defenses.

Their only vulnerable spot is the nose.

The brown bear had just bitten off the black bear’s nose, and in return, the black bear had smacked the brown bear right on its nose.

The brown bear roared in pain, rearing up and shaking its massive head.

The black bear seized the opportunity to scramble free and escape with its life.

But the brown bear quickly pounced on the black bear again.

The fight between the two bears was a whirlwind of sudden changes, leaving Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu stunned as they watched from a distance.

Seeing the brown bear pin the black bear down once more, Li Baoyu murmured, "That Big Bear Dominator is going for the kill!"

If a male black bear encountered a mother with cubs, the male would do everything it could to kill the cubs, but it wouldn’t try to kill the mother.

It does this because a mother bear that has lost its cubs will come into estrus sooner and mate with the male.

But according to the old-timers, even though they’re both bears, brown bears and black bears don’t engage in that kind of behavior.

Therefore, whenever a brown bear finds a black bear—regardless of gender or size—it will hunt it down with everything it has.

When Zhao Jun didn’t answer, Li Baoyu whispered, "Brother, should we shoot?"

From Li Baoyu’s perspective, the two little black bears had already run off. It was better to just shoot the two big ones. After all, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

"Wait!" Zhao Jun said without turning his head.

Back on the battlefield, the black bear once again escaped from the brown bear’s claws and teeth, but the brown bear gave relentless chase.

Just as the black bear was about to be caught again, the brown bear suddenly froze. It turned to look south, where not far off, the two Little Black Bears were squealing.

Animals aren’t human, after all. They understand some things, but there’s much more they don’t.

What the two Little Black Bears didn’t know was that the big black bear had risked its life to create a chance for them to survive. All they knew was that their mother hadn’t followed, so they came back to find her.

But seeing the brown bear attacking their mother, the two Little Black Bears could only watch anxiously from a distance, not daring to approach.

The brown bear suddenly abandoned the mother and turned to charge the two cubs.

Seeing this, the two Little Black Bears panicked and immediately turned to flee.

At that moment, the mother black bear let out an indescribable cry.

With its upper jaw gone, the sound it made had lost all its intimidating power.

The mother black bear started after the brown bear, but it wasn’t running. It was walking.

Not far away, Zhao Jun patted Li Baoyu, signaling him to keep moving sideways along the ridge to follow the brown bear.

"SQUEAK... SQUEAK..." The Little Black Bears squealed as they ran, glancing back over and over. But they didn’t see their mother, only the brown bear, which looked like a demon of slaughter incarnate.

Just then, they came upon a large white birch tree ahead.

The trunk of this birch was nearly forty centimeters thick, and for some reason, there was a dirt hole at its base.

One of the Little Black Bears reached it and dove straight into the hole. The other one let out a couple of squeaks and squeezed in right behind it.

Less than two minutes later, the big brown bear arrived!

It came to the front of the hole and reached a paw inside.

Meanwhile, the mother black bear, its mouth still bleeding profusely, stood about a hundred meters away behind a birch tree, staring blankly ahead. It was impossible to know if it could even see that its children were in danger.

In truth, a black bear without its upper jaw couldn’t survive for long. But right now, it didn’t choose to fight the brown bear to the death to give its cubs a slim chance of survival.

This was the way of animals. You could say they had a mother’s love, but sometimes they didn’t. Yet if you said they had no mother’s love, sometimes they truly did.

Back on the western slope, Zhao Jun pointed at the mother black bear, leaned close to Li Baoyu’s ear, and whispered, "You aim at her. Get a steady bead on her, but don’t shoot yet. The moment you hear my shot, you fire."

Li Baoyu didn’t speak but nodded repeatedly.

Zhao Jun held up three fingers and grinned at Li Baoyu. "If we play our cards right today, we’ll walk away with at least three Bear Galls."

Li Baoyu’s eyes lit up. He still didn’t say a word, but he bobbed his head like a chick pecking at grain.

At that moment, the large brown bear arched its back in front of the dirt hole and began digging at the earth with its two front paws.

It clawed a few times, collapsing the soil around the opening and widening it. Then, the brown bear reached its paw into the hole and swiped. The Little Black Bear inside squealed, but the brown bear failed to grab it.

The brown bear arched its back and dug again, swiping into the hole after a few more scratches.

It missed again. As the brown bear pulled back its paw and arched its back to dig once more, a black shadow darted out of the hole. One of the Little Black Bears had seized the moment the bear retracted its paw to make its escape.

The brown bear spun around and gave chase. In just a few steps, it caught up and sent the running cub flying with a single swipe of its paw.

The Little Black Bear shrieked and tumbled twice across the ground. Seeing this, Zhao Jun, seventy or eighty meters away, raised the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle in his hands.

The Little Black Bear rolled and struggled to get up, but the brown bear was already on it. It lowered its head and bit down on the back of the cub’s skull.

Even from sixty or seventy meters away, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu could hear a sharp CRACK.

With that one bite, the brown bear had crushed the Little Black Bear’s skull.

About a hundred meters away, the severely injured mother black bear watched this happen, yet it remained motionless.

No, it was turning to leave!

Just then, the brown bear released its bite and stood up. It was about to go after the other Little Black Bear. A moment ago, while it was chasing this cub, the one in the hole had crawled out and run south.

Just as the brown bear reared up, puffing out its chest, five shots rang out. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Zhao Jun, holding his semi-automatic rifle, fired five consecutive shots without lowering the weapon from his cheek.

BANG!

Li Baoyu, aiming at the black bear, also fired a shot!