For a moment, it seemed they might actually make it.
Then Ashen felt it.
Lying in wait, hidden just ahead, were more mana signatures.
Hyenas. Waiting for an ambush.
To make things worse, some of the beasts that had merely pretended to go after the Vilegrazers had reconsidered.
After all, why go for a corpse when the thrill of the hunt was still on the table?
Awoo.
Awoo.
The howls were a signal.
Ashen didn't need to explain.
"Sera—NEVER leave my side."
In this chaotic moment, he had no time to think, nor any time to warn anyone.
They were pincered, and there was nothing they could do about it.
Braun was the first to visually see them.
…A wave of monsters, more than a hundred strong, rushing toward them from the front.
Terror coiled around his spine, squeezing like a vice. His breath grew ragged. "Hah… hah… hah…" The realization hit like a sledgehammer; their chances of survival just plummeted to hell.
"AHHHH!!"
With a scream that sounded almost bestial, Braun shoved his fear aside and charged headfirst into the incoming pack.
'Damn it!'
Ashen cursed under his breath. The widening gap between them was dangerous. Braun was too far ahead now.
Making a split-second decision, he grabbed Seraphine by the waist. Before she could react, he threw her high into the air, straight toward the branches of a tall tree.
He had no time to explain.
With Braun too far to cover them, Ashen knew he wouldn't be able to protect Seraphine alone if they got swarmed. The only option was to get her out of reach.
Seraphine barely had time to register what happened. One moment, she was sprinting beside Ashen; next, she was weightless, floating.
Then—thump!—she landed on a sturdy branch.
"Ash?!" she shouted as the shock wore off.
"Stay there!" was all he said.
With Braun holding the frontline, Ashen turned to secure the back.
"COME HERE!"
His roar cut through the chaos, punctuated by the bam! of his spear's butt slamming into the tree trunk.
It worked. The beasts snapped toward him, drawn by the challenge.
Not as effective as Braun's taunt skill, but it was enough.
The first hyena lunged. Ashen sidestepped without sparing it a glance, plunging his spear cleanly into its open maw.
Thrust—Guk.
His gaze didn't linger. He was already tracking the pack's movements, reading the flow of battle, mapping the paths they'd take, avoiding entrapment before it even happened.
For a moment, everything stilled.
Hundreds of blood-red eyes locked onto him.
A heartbeat of hesitation.
Then, the storm broke.
More than a dozen creatures pounced from every direction at once.
Ashen exhaled, letting his body ease into the familiar rhythm. He'd trained for this; these motions etched into muscle and memory. After thousands of repetitions, it came naturally.
Swish.
Slash.
Thrust.
Sweep.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Seraphine watched from above as Ashen weaved through the onslaught, his spear a blur. He barely slipped past snapping fangs and slashing claws; his every movement appeared precise and economical.
Wherever he stepped, only corpses remained.
But the hyenas weren't relenting. They threw themselves at him in droves, only to be cut down.
Minutes passed.
More and more bodies lay in the clearing.
Now, more than fifty were scattered at his feet.
The pack had finally realized something: they weren't winning this fight.
But they weren't going to back down, either.
After all, there was more than one piece of prey.
And a single tree wasn't enough to keep them out.
Ashen felt the shift in their intent. He turned just in time to see two hyenas bypass him, leaping onto the tree. Their glowing red eyes fixated on Seraphine.
"Tch—!"
Seraphine, however, was far from helpless. Without hesitation, she snapped her whip, swatting them back down to the earth.
Ashen's expression hardened. These bastards were cunning.
One of the hyenas tried to climb again.
Fwoosh.
Ashen's spear whistled through the air, impaling the creature's skull mid-ascent. Blood and brain matter splattered against the bark before he yanked the weapon back, immediately following up with another brutal thrust to the second beast.
Then, without missing a beat, he moved, positioning himself directly under the tree to block any more attempts.
Seraphine clenched her fists. She was useless up here.
She hated it.
Her Thema, Anima, revolved around healing, enchantments, and spiritual influence, but none of that was any good from a distance with her still budding skillset.
Still, she refused to sit back and do nothing.
Dropping to her knees, she clasped her hands together in a prayer-like stance.
'Whispers of Desire.'
A gentle blue glow pulsed from her chest. Threads of mana unraveled, floating toward her teammates; wavering, flickering, as if uncertain.
But Seraphine's desperate will forced them to keep moving.
"Please survive… please survive…"
The threads converged midair, fusing into stronger strands before finally latching onto Braun and Ashen.
[Whispers of Desire ^ (Entry+)]
[Whispers of Desire ^ (Basic-)]
Seraphine ignored the system's notifications, focusing all her mana into the connection.
Braun was the first to feel it.
His battered body, riddled with wounds, began to mend. Blood loss slowed, then stopped entirely.
The beasts hadn't killed him yet, but if they had, they weren't going to get the chance now.
"AHH—DIE! DIE, DAMN IT!"
With newfound vigor surging through his veins, he tore into the beasts with reckless abandon.
Bash—RAM—STRIKE!
Gone was the practiced footwork, the calculated swings. Now, he moved like a cornered animal, bashing skulls with his shield, hacking wildly with his axe. There was no need for precision; there were too many of them for him to miss.
Ashen, meanwhile, felt something beyond the raw strength flooding his sore limbs.
It was her emotions.
Maybe it was because he had been on the receiving end of this skill too many times in the past week, but he felt Seraphine's emotions as clearly as his own. The desperate hope for his survival. The silent terror that spiked whenever fangs came too close.
His survival instincts, already in overdrive, were further ignited by Seraphine's will for him to live, making adrenaline surge violently in his veins.
And in that moment, something shifted.
What neither of them expected was that her emotions and will would push Ashen into a state of pure instinct.
His brain, spurred by such an overwhelming will to survive, searched for the optimal solution, and this state of Absolute focus was the answer. And so, his body obeyed.
Everything—his mind, his body, his soul—aligned into singular focus.
A cold, lethal clarity descended.
The battlefield stilled.
Snarls faded. Bones clattered to a halt. The creatures hesitated, as if their instincts screamed that something had changed.
Then—he moved.
Whirr—SHING!
His spear became a silver blur, carving through the air in fluid, lethal arcs.
A hyena lunged, jaws wide—
THWIP—GUSH!
The spearhead punched through its throat. Ashen yanked it free with a sickening KRKTCH!, splintering ribs in the process. The beast collapsed in a twitching heap, gurgling its last breath into the mud.
A distant chime echoed in his mind, the system's voice informing him that he had activated Trance.
But it was a whisper, lost to the storm.
His mind had already stepped aside.
His body was doing the killing now.
Two more came.
Tap-TAP-tssk—
His feet slid effortlessly, avoiding claws—
SWOOSH—CRACK!
The shaft of his spear snapped against another's spine, sending it sprawling mid-roar. The second beast leapt—
SHNK!
Ashen's counterthrust impaled it midair. Its hiss died in its throat as he flung the corpse aside.
The slaughter continued.
Even after Seraphine's mana ran dry and the glowing threads that connected them snapped, his spear did not stop.
Seraphine's eyes fluttered open, her breath catching in her throat.
Then, her mouth fell open.
Hundreds of mangled bodies were strewn across the clearing. Blood seeped into the earth, painting the forest in a nightmarish tapestry of gore.
Braun, who had activated Last Stand, his second skill, which granted him enhanced durability and stamina as long as he never fell or ran, finally noticed the sharp decrease in beasts lunging at him.
He stole a quick glance around.
His gaze locked onto the reason.
Ashen.
Marching toward him.
Bloodied spear in hand.
Expression blank.
More of the remaining hyenas noticed, too.
Something deep in their instincts shrieked at them, HE was the true threat.
Braun was nothing compared to him.
One by one, they disengaged from Braun, swarming Ashen instead, desperate to end the demon that had cut through their ranks like grass.
But it was futile.
CLANG—ggg!
His spear deflected fangs, ringing like a war drum.
A pivot—THUD-SLIDE—dirt sprayed as he twisted behind the next beast.
KRKTCH!
The spear found its heart.
One by one, they fell.
Until, at last, the final surviving hyenas shuddered.
Their glowing eyes flickered with something dangerously close to human recognition.
Then—
They ran.
With one last, mournful cry, more plea than growl, they turned and fled, vanishing into the trees as if escaping a nightmare made flesh.
Silence.
…Drip. Drip.
The only sound left was the slow trickle of blood from his spearhead, pooling onto the earth.
Braun and Seraphine barely dared to breathe.
What they had just witnessed… it didn't seem real.
As if a single loud breath would shatter the illusion and pull them back into a grim reality.
Then—
Thud.
Ashen's body tilted backward.
And collapsed.
"ASH!!"