And so - I recoiled back while holding out my knife towards this towering creature.

It was purely instinctual at this point, I was utterly exhausted after all the fighting and walking, I couldn't even hold the knife upright with one arm so I had to use both of them.

Looking at me like I was some wounded puppy - he slowly crouched down and placed his axe on the ground beside him, after which he reached for the satchel that was hanging on his belt.

As his hand left the satchel - I noticed it was holding some kind of necklace with a muddy orange stone in the center, he then proceeded to put it on his neck, after which he twisted the stone - that in reaction, produced a faint gleam before going back to being muddy.

After that, the bear man started talking, but I couldn’t understand a word he was saying - it sounded like some nordic language with occasional animalistic growls mixed in here and there.

“Uh, hello? Sorry but I don’t understand a word you are saying”

I said while hesitantly pulling the knife away from him.

The bear man looked down at the necklace in disbelief, after which he took it off and held it in his hand while inspecting it, mere seconds later his expression changed to pure fury, he wound up his arm preparing to throw it away, but he stopped mid-swing.

His ears twitched as his eyes were suddenly focused on me.

The necklace started falling to the ground - as he quickly picked up his weapon and started running at me.

It was really sudden, I thought that we were trying to establish some friendly relations.

I was panicking, my strength was leaving me, and I could feel that fighting him would be my end.

Not wanting to simply end up as a deer in the headlights - I jumped to the side trying to dodge, but as I did that,  I noticed that the bear man was mid-jump himself.

The next thing I know - I start hearing the sounds of creaking wood, with splinters flying through the air.

Halfway through the river was standing a tree, and it was wailing while throwing its branches and roots at the bear man.

With its appendages flying above my head - I went prone and started crawling further away from the water, and when I decided that I put a decent enough distance between us - I glanced back to see how the situation was progressing.

The bear man was dodging, deflecting, and cutting down most of what was flying at him, but the blows that did come through put some decent dents in his armor, along with drawing blood on several occasions. 

Despite that - the bear man persevered and was instead pushing back against the tree, with each swing he took off a piece of it, and after many successful chops the tree was but a bare trunk now, exposing something familiar - the rune circle similar to the one that the skeleton had on his forehead.

The fight was not over yet though, because now that it didn’t have what to throw around at the bear - it used its main body to try and crush him.

But as it tried to do that - he quickly kicked the tree, causing it to lose its footing and start flowing downstream while it tried to get itself out with its remaining roots, to no avail.

With the bloodlusty flora defeated - the bear man relaxed a bit as he stretched out.

When he put aside his weapon he glanced over to the necklace that he dropped at the start of the fight, which he quickly approached and shoved back into his satchel, and as he stood up while doing that - he finally noticed me hiding behind one of the trees.

He yet again approached me, but this time he simply held out his hand to me, which I slowly accepted.