Chapter 9: A Major Problem
The gleaming red eyes of the ursa major towered over the treetops of the Forever Fall forest, the ursa being hit by the first shell only seemed to make its eyes glow a brighter shade of red as it roared in rage.
'Shit!'
'It's three times larger than what Jaune fought in the show, what the hell!'
As Hanns' main gun reloaded, the ursa in the distance planted its claws on the dirt below it and started to accelerate towards Hanns. Each singular step created tiny shockwaves from its weight bearing down on the ground below it.
Hanns rejected the notion of using his reverse speed to dodge, it wasn't going to be fast enough. Pushing his engine to the max he felt his sprockets turn faster and faster as he raced towards the Ursa Major.
The ursa who heard the engines prepared to lunge at the machine speeding towards it and with one great pounce, the ursa pushed forward one of its paws to claw at the machine speeding directly at it. Hanns swerved to the right as the ursa narrowly missed its target by a few inches.
Hanns went in between the ursa's body and where an arm recently attacked. 'It's slow' he thought. The ursa major could hit hard but it's slower at maneuvering due to its size. It's hard for the ursa to attack with the same limb right after doing a heavy attack, so as long as he went through where it recently attacked then he could stay relatively safe.
Hanns went around the ursa and punched on the brakes, he skids onto the ground and stopped, using the momentum to turn towards the now exposed backside of the knee of the ursa. He pelts the ursa with tracer rounds to see in the dark. The ursa groans but as soon as it starts to turn around, Hanns sees his tracer rounds deflect off of something.
'Found it!'
Firing off a single shot the shell launches into the air and impacts a random part of the ursa's leg. The fuse inside of it sparks and the shell explodes into shrapnel, digging at the surrounding flesh of the ursa. Unfortunately, the shell only injured it from the side which meant less damage than he would've done if it hit directly at the center of its knee joint.
'Damn!'
The ursa cried out in agonizing pain, it felt the searing of flesh near his knees and the chunks of skin blasted off and left decaying in the wind. It turned to face Hanns, hearing the unmistakable sound that came from the machine that injured it. Hanns unleashed a storm of machine gun fire to distract it while he engages his engine to drive away. The ursa upon feeling the bullets, covers itself with its arms, completely shielding it from the bullets that were now rendered useless at its impeccable tough skin and armor.
Hanns drove towards its left, with the ursa's vision being obscured from blocking, Hanns could try doing the same move against it. Just as he was turning though the ursa swung its arm towards Hanns, who reacted just in time.
'Shit! That was close! how the hell did it see me?!'
Acting quickly he went around the arm that the ursa failed to attack with and Hanns once again skidded to a stop towards its back. He fires his machine gun and using the tracers he pinpoints the center of where its knee should be.
The ursa learning of Hanns' pattern crouches down and covers its knee with its body. Firing another shell at the ursa, Hanns scowled as he saw the ursa cover its joints by bending its legs. The shell lodges itself at its thighs instead which still resulted in the beast yelping out pained growls. The shell stuck in it detonates and releases shrapnel and it embeds multiple into the dangling piece of blown apart thigh. He could injure its unarmored skin but it would've been better if he just hit its joint to cripple it.
Hanns once again tried to speed off into the distance, he looked towards the ursa to see it backing away over to the nearby forestry. Hanns pelts it with machine gun fire but the ursa ignores it, learning of the machinegun's apparent weakness towards its tougher fur. Hanns couldn't predict what happened next as the ursa tears off two trees using its monstrous strength, leaving only the trunks on the ground.
'Holy shit!'
The ursa leans back and lobs the first tree like a javelin towards Hanns but puts on the brakes just in time for it to miss. The ursa quickly charges up another throw with the other hand as Hanns only could stare as he tried to re-accelerate his lost speed. The ursa lets go of the trunk and it travels horizontally drawing closer to Hanns. Hanns could only remember at that precise moment what it felt for parts of his suspension and right tracks to cave inwards while steel screeching within his body was heard by him. He was sent careening down deeper into the forest behind him, destroying sections of the forest until he came to a brutal stop.
The ursa was left staggered from the exhausting throws it made but it didn't relent as it attempted to rip out more trees leaving its trunk. Hanns tried to go away but he felt himself stuck at something. Looking behind him he saw the tow hook had been let out by accident from the attack he just received. Quickly opening the hud to hit the detach button it somehow flinged off the cables wrapped around the branches of the thrown tree. The ursa had finally readied itself, gaining its strength back as it began to lean back to prepare for another throw at the machine.
Hanns felt his right tracks falling off at any second but determined to get away he makes his heavily damaged tracks run and he drives towards the woods.
A tree was thrown and crashed through the foliage Hanns was at a moment ago. He felt the impact the tree created as Hanns tried to escape by leaving but he could feel his tracks giving away and ready to be blown out. He kept on driving over unseen rocks and dark bushes making him shake and vibrate from the uneven road littered with obstacles.
He only drove a short distance away from the increasingly enraged ursa when he suddenly felt his right tracks slip a bit after losing stability from the sprocket it was held on. Making quick judgment he chooses a thicket of trees nearby to guide the treads back by using the tree to nudge it back to place.
He heard the ursa roar nearby as he prepared for the worst to happen. He thought it was the end, the ursa had clearly seen through everything he tried and in the darkness he couldn't help but be at a disadvantage.
He waited… and waited… as he realigned his right tracks but it didn't come.
'What..?'
His mind went into overdrive because of the adrenaline and reasoned out of all the possibilities why the ursa stopped throwing trees, and one answer came to him.
'Sound!'
He checked for his engine and it only lightly hummed while he idled behind trees to try and reposition his loosening tracks.
'That's why it didn't need to look at me, it could hear me while I was shooting and with my engine at full power! Which meant it was as much at a disadvantage in the dark as I was!'
The ursa turned towards the direction of Hanns after a moment of silence, it could discern the engine noise from the other ambient noises of the night when it waited. Hanns heard it stomping around and left the spot he was in. Not a moment later, a tree plowed through the thicket as he sped off trying to find another spot.
He turned right and raced forwards only to stop right before a very steep cliff.
'Holy crap I almost fell off! If it wasn't so dark I wouldn't have been able to see it.'
'...'
Hanns eyed his cable still attached to him and the trees nearby as he quickly conjured up a plan of action against the massive ursa. He heard the ursa searching around for him knocking down trees apart with ease. Hanns had looped his cable on a group of trees and used another tree to swing it back around towards him as he mentally prepared for what idiotic idea he had made, a makeshift trip wire.
He revved up his engines making sure to be as loud as possible. He faced lengthwise from the cliff ready to get out of harm's way. The ursa hearing of this, charges directly at the noise before coming across the helpless state of Hanns. It couldn't see well so it only had to go off of sound.
Not knowing how effective its tree attack due to the darkness and hearing the still standing Hanns a small distance away, it pushes its hind legs on the ground for a final charge. It was confident that its powerful claws could damage it, after all why would the machine dodge its attacks if it didn't fear its own attacks? It roars as it barrels down towards Hanns.
It got closer and closer, as soon as Hanns felt the distance was right he put everything into his treads as he tried to accelerate away from danger. Before he could fully escape its attack, the worst possible thing happened as the belt from his right finally fell apart.
He used the remaining wheels still attached and prayed that it had enough traction on the ground. After doing so the ursa had almost hit Hanns by only centimeters apart. The ursa had a lot of momentum built up and as soon as it saw what the machine had done, it tried to stop. The cable tightened as Hanns kept pulling from the tree side, the ursa felt the metallic cable digging at its foot before tripping towards the cliff. The size and weight of the creature made sure it couldn't fully stop at the moment of it tripping in the air. Inertia wouldn't let it stop that easily.
As one desperate attempt for survival it turned around and grabbed the edge of the cliff and snagged the cable that tripped him in the first place. Hanns felt himself get pulled towards the edge of the cliff as soon as the ursa took the cable. He powered backwards to try and stop before remembering he could open his hud to detach it, but right as he was about to press it, the point at which the cable met the tank broke apart.
'Guess I didn't need to.'
The ursa still hung on to the cliff side. Deciding that it was time to finally end it, he made the wheel of the tracks on his right and the still working tank tread to his left drag him towards the ursa at a moderate speed before letting his tank impact the head of the ursa which felt its grip slipping. He turned his barrel towards the ursa ready to let it fall down to its death before activating his cannon.
'Long live the king.'
The inner workings of his gun ignited the shell and sent it along the barrel's length before meeting short of exiting the barrel itself right into the head of the ursa. He felt the pressure the escaping gas made and saw his barrel explode as the shell hadn't left the barrel properly before detonating right in front of the ursa. The shell impacts the ursa and sparks flew in the darkness of night, the shell knocks the ursa right off the edge where it is sent downwards. He stood right at the edge of the cliff as the ursa fell head first towards the earth before hitting the ground making the earth shake violently around him as he watched.
[Giant Slayer: Defeat Ursa Major 1/1]
[Notice: Well my friend, I didn't expect that.]
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Jake_Hansel
Jake_Hansel Tell me thoughts on how I structure fights. I thought hard on how to make it interesting so lemme know how I did. Its way too early for me to ask but what tech tree should Hans focus on once he gets the tank he wants in the german tree.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone