Wild Danger
by Alpesco



There were six of us on the trip, Ben, Julie, John and myself had signed on
for this five day walk in the high mountains led by local guide Kate Howalk.
She was in her late thirties and very into communicating with nature. Also
along as her assistant was a tall, blonde-haired young woman of about twenty.
At six foot one she was taller than all of us but Ben, slim yet solid-boned
and not skinny.

Brionn was kind of quiet at first, letting Kate do all the talking while she
attended to setting up camp and organising the equipment. She was clearly
strong, for she handled the heaviest of the packs easily. She had shapely arms
and legs, wore jeans and a thin, sleeveless t shirt. Despite her good looks,
she was pretty much solid bone and muscle. Her arms were long and sinuously
muscular. Occasionally as she worked, larger muscles would define themselves
and become evident.

Ben, who was a bit of a jock, ribbed her about this, giving her a shove on the
shoulder. Her long arm came up, shoved him back and sent him crashing into a
tree trunk.

'You are strong, aren't you?' he said. 'Do you think you could take me?'

'Perhaps,' Brionn smiled.

'Take it easy on them, Brionn!' Kate roared. 'They're paying customers.'

'All right, superwoman,' Ben said, squaring up, fists clenched. 'how are you
at real fighting?'

'You don't want to know how hard I can hit,' she breathed. 'I'm plenty strong,
and I'm a several-time black belt in different disciplines, breaking concrete
blocks with my hands, that sort of thing.'

'Oh.' Ben stepped backward, then suddenly lunged forward to seize her round
the waist, imprisoning her arms as he tried to wrestle her to the ground. I
didn't see exactly what happened next, but somehow Brionn got her arms free,
wrapped one round his legs and lifted, hoisting the six foot three man
effortlessly up to shoulder height. Turning, she continued to stretch her
strong right arm, lifting his legs high above her head, before slamming his
body flat down on his back at her feet. He landed with a heavy crump, combined
with a huge groan as he felt the impact.

She'd put him down on a bed of soft pine needles, instead of anywhere harder,
but he was still shaken, with all the wind knocked out of him.

'Wow.' he said at last. 'I bet you couldn't do that again.'

That was clearly the wrong thing to say, for without hesitating, the girl
bent, coiled her arms round his body and swept him just as effortlessly right
back up to shoulder height, preparing to slam him again.

'No!' he cried out in alarm. 'I give. I give!'

She stopped moving, just holding him there in her long arms, six feet above
the ground. 'What shall I do with you now?' she said after a moment. 'I know.
We'll try some squats.'

Rearranging his weight so it was equally balanced across the front of her
shoulders, she proceeded to do a slow deep squat almost to ground level and
back again. Then she threw in ten more, then another ten.

'Is that enough?' she asked gently, not even breathing hard.

'How long could you do that?' Ben gasped.

'As long as I want,' she said. 'I have great stamina. could carry you right up
this mountain if I wanted to, with all my other gear.'

'I don't believe that.'

'Want to try me? Five hundred says I can.'

'You're on.'

A half hour later, the camp packed up, we waited to see if Brionn could make
good on her bet. She was ready with an eighty pound pack on her shoulders. Ben
had his forty pound pack. Without a word the tall twenty year old, squatted
behind him, ducked her head between his legs and stood smoothly with him
securely seated on her shoulders.

I was impressed. She had an eighty pound pack and a 220 pound man on her
shoulders and she'd stood up straight as if they were nothing. Then she began
the walk uphill. I couldn't believe it. She climbed as fast as any of us and
showed no sign of exertion or effort on what was a tiring climb unladen.

'Aere you all right?' Ben asked at regular intervals over the next hour. Each
time she said 'Fine.' and did a deep squat with him on her shoulders to prove
her continued strength. Her endurance was amazing. I'm sure Ben was hurting
more from his precarious perch on her hard shoulders than she was, carrying
him. The climb steepened, and still she showed no sign of tiring.

An hour later, as we reached the summit of the pass, she was breathing harder,
but still refused Ben's repeated offers to set him down. Only right at the top
did she stop.

'Have I won my bet?' she asked.

'Yes!' he said . 'Yes. Just let me down. Aren't you tired?'

Her arms rose, gripped him about the waist and pressed him over her head,
before lowering him to his feet in front of her. 'It was just a good workout,'
she said.

It was later that day when it happened. We'd been descending through thick
woods when the bear just crashed out of the trees towards us. It wasn't big as
bears go, only about seven feet or so, stood at full stretch. But we didn't
see it till too late.

Perhaps it was as startled as we were, but it fell upon the screaming Kate at
the front of the column and mauled her with its claws and teeth. Startled, the
rest of us backed away, looking for some sort of weapon. Ben grabbed a stick
and poked ineffectually at the bear as Kate continued to scream above its
roars.

Then someone fell on the bear from behind. It was the girl, Brionn. The four
of us watched horrified as she leapt onto its back, her long arms snaking
round its neck. What was she doing? We backed even further away as the bear
reared, her legs clamped tight about its waist, her arms about its neck. Ben
and I dragged the bear's bloodied victim a few feet away, but she looked badly
injured. Fortunately for our guide the bear was more concerned now with the
foolhardy young woman on its back. Six foot one and in heavy jeans and a
sleeveless top, she clung to the enraged beast like a limpet. It's roars
echoed across the mountain as it tried to shake her off. But she clung on
tight, her long legs immovable as they dug deep into its middle, her long arms
revealing startlingly large and rounded biceps as they tightened round its
neck. And surprisingly, as they did so, the bear began to rasp and gasp for
breath. The girl's handsome face was remorseless as her strong arms poured on
the pressure, the large muscles swelling and defining themselves into
rock-hard sculptured spheres.

And now, incredibly, the bear was beginning to sway and stagger, barely able
to breathe as Brionn's arms crushed its windpipe. Unbelievably the twenty year
old girl's sheer strength and determination were beginning to weaken the
growling beast.

Still her grip tightened, arcing the bear's spine against its natural line as
she hauled the thick neck backward. Its breaths were the thinnest of gasping
wheezes now. Suddenly it stumbled, falling to its knees and forepaws. John ran
sharply forward to poke it with a fallen branch. There was a roar of reaction,
and a clawed paw swept round to catch Brionn's shoulder. With a cry of pain,
she fell to the ground, loosing her potent choke-hold. Able to breathe again,
the bear roared, turning on her in fury.

I thought she was finished then. But the girl's fighting spirit surprised both
me and her adversary. Still lying on her back, her left leg struck up, sharp
and hard, into the bear's knee, drawing an astonished roar of pain. In less
than a second she had rolled back to her feet, and sent two more powerful
kicks crashing into the bear's lower body. Each did severe damage. The bear
howled in pain as her heel slammed deep into its side and then still deeper
into its vast belly. Halted by the unexpected power of the blows, the great
beast was wide open to two more huge kicks. The first was accompanied by the
sound of cracking ribs. The second smashed solidly into the creature's knee.
Then a third massive kick fired upward into the beast's bloodied jaw, knocking
it backward.

Brionn could have got away then, but she chose not to. Looking across, I could
see that her face was set. She had clearly determined upon retribution rather
than escape. She was a fool, I thought. Get away.

Taking a single step backward, however, she used that iron right leg to send
five more shattering blows into the bear's rounded body. Each massive kick
drew a deep roar of pain as the creature staggered visibly, the sheer power of
the blows leaving it unbalanced and unable to counter-attack. She was slowing
it now, weakening it; remorseless, as her powerful legs inflicted startlingly
heavy punishment. I could hear deep cracks as her blows broke bones deep in
its huge chest, damaging the vital organs beneath. Each kick further reduced
the bear's range and speed of movement, each produced a louder roar of pain.
What amazed me was just how powerful and damaging her kicks were. She clearly
had enormous strength in those long legs of hers, and her speed, stamina and
martial arts training enabled her to apply that strength to the full. Each of
her blows was easily powerful enough to fell a big man, or to shatter a solid
door to matchwood. Just how many of those devastating kicks could she deliver
without tiring or weakening?

'Come away!' Ben yelled. 'You can escape now!'

But she ignored him.

Three more massive kicks powered into the bear's body, unbelievably hard,
these seemed almost to lift the creature from its feet. Then she halted. The
bear looked groggy now, still on its rear legs, but disoriented, unsteady.
Another two huge hits crashed home, making me feel almost sorry for the
creature.

Brionn's eyes narrowed, and balling her large fists, she sent them scything
into the head of the bear. Long long arms, sheathed in rippling swathes
of-muscle, powered in three enormous punches. I was surprised how much damage
her awesome kicks had done, but she must be totally mad to finish it with
punches... To my astonishment, however, the great creature was sent rocking
backward. The crack, crack, crack of those massive punches echoed through the
trees like gunshots. I simply couldn't believe a girl so good looking could
hit that hard. The blows swung in from her shoulders with the full uncoiing
power of her long, long body behind them, driving her fists into their target
like mortar shells.

And that was just the start. Far from tiring, Brionn now began to deliver blow
after shattering blow with the same awesome power. One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight massive punches crashed into the bear's huge head like
hammer blows, and each seemed more powerful than the one before.

Her action in attacking the bear with her fists had seemed mad, insane. But
now I began to wonder. Her blows were actually damaging this great creature,
doing it mounting harm. It seemed incapable of doing anything to protect
itself the destructive rain of punches, slowed and confused by the battering
it had already taken.

Brionn's face was impassive, unflinching, as she turned every iota of her
being into inflicting more and more damage. Crack, crack, crack, crack, CRACK.
The bear was staggering backward, dazed by the enormous weight of shot it had
taken from Brionn's legs and arms. But she was untiring. She ripped in ten
more massive punches, any one of which, I'm sure, could have knocked out most
normal men. Blood began to pour from gashes on the bear's now misshapen face,
matting its fur and running ito its eyes. Three-quarters-blind and virtually
defenceless now, the bear crashed back into a tree trunk, its upper limbs
flailing.

Evading them easily, Brionn drew a deep breath, her face hardening as she
stepped forward to finish off her work. Six more devastating shots rocketed
into its head, ending all capacity the bear might still have had to fight
back. It was completely defenceless now, dazed, blind and badly injured. But
Brionn still had more to deliver. Her eyes squinting to narrow slits, she sent
in another five huge punches. These were the most awesome blows yet. Her body
swung round almost 360 degrees to hammer each one home, each hit exactly where
she wanted it to on either side of the beast's domed cranium. The punches
impacted like blows from a flail. Her fists must be rock hard just to absorb
those jarring impacts. By the time her third blow landed, the bear had stopped
moving, except in response to Brionn's punches, its head crashing from side to
side like a sack of rocks. There were no more growls or even even groans of
pain as the last of those terrible punches tore in. At last she halted her
onslaught and stepped backward, breathing heavily, her fists still tightly
clenched, watching as the bear slumped to the stony ground.

I noticed that it's eyes were open and staring, streaked with blood, yet as
motionless as the creature itself. Only then did I realise what had just
happened. I could barely believe it, none of us could, but somewhere in the
course of those last few punches, with the sheer brutal power and unrelenting
number of her blows, this 150 pound girl had just killed the 300 pound bear. I
was in awe. Her long arms still hung ready from her shoulders, rippling with
pumped, corded muscle.

I don't know if she realised the creature was dead, or she just wanted to make
absolutely sure, for she slammed three more of those big brutal punches into
its shoulders and back of its neck, The blows landed dully with a deep
snapping of bone as the body slumped heavily onto its side.

'It's dead.' I said. 'You don't have to hit it any more.'

Brionn knelt next to the fallen bear, one of her long arms coiling round its
neck. The other met it from the other side. They tightened, then with a sudden
twisting snap, they broke its neck. '

I don't believe it! John said, approaching.

'I don't believe it yet myself,' Brionn gasped. 'Kate's my friend. I just went
mad. I just went on hitting, harder and harder. Once I'd got enough kicks in,
it was over.'

We did the best we could for our party leader. It took two days to get her
somewhere we could call an ambulance. She was badly hurt, but she survived and
made a good recovery. As for Brionn, I never heard anything more of her for
over a year.