His bones screamed at his unhealed joints, but he had no choice.
If he didnât move now, he would be killed.
Boom!
The tent I had built shredded like tissue paper.
It was the Oxbearâs powerful claws that tore through the night.
Aiyen chuckled in amusement.
âYou were lured, werenât you, you sneaky thing?â
A male oxbear. Even if he was only half the size of the female, he was still a very large carnivore, standing over four meters tall and weighing over a ton.
This seasoned beast already knew it was being tracked.
Thatâs why it had waited to strike while it was weak.
Aiyen quickly grabbed his bow and arrows and retreated to the outside of the tent.
Bakira, the wolf, crouched low beside her master, snarling.
Aiyen studied the oxbear before him.
âI see you were chosen by the old female for a reason.â
The giant female Oxbear before him had been very picky about her second year, and he was a little puzzled as to why she had chosen this one, who was unusually small among the many males, to be her mate.
If it was simply because she didnât want to be attacked after mating, there were plenty of other smaller males available.
But now I understood.
She wanted his cunning intelligence to complement her superior physicality.
[Grunt!]
The oxbear lunged at her with two massive horns and both front paws.
Aiyen climbed onto Bakiraâs back and quickly nocked an arrow to his bowstring.
Ping-!
Two arrows fly, aiming for the Oxbearâs face.
The oxbear ducked his head and lifted his horns up, so they couldnât hit him in the face.
The arrows then deflected in midair as if they were alive, striking Oxbear in both shoulders.
Indeed, Balakâs archery was the best on the continent, and Aiyenâs was the best of all.
Karak- Karak- Karak- Karak
Aiyen strung multiple arrows from a single bow.
Unusually, Balakâs bow has multiple nocks.
The arrows on each of these nocks can be staggered and fired back-to-back, or they can be fired all at once.
Puff, puff, puff!
Ai Yan fired arrow after arrow, barely pausing to breathe.
The time it took for the first arrow to fly, followed by the second, third, fourth, fifth, and so on, was a blink of an eye.
A truly monstrous rate of fire.
Of course, pulling five arrows at once requires a ridiculous amount of arm strength.
The enormous tension required was covered by Aiyenâs low-level Gradient mana.
[Grrrr!]
The rain of arrows slowed Oxbearâs charge.
Each of Aiyenâs arrows was so powerful that even the oxbearâs thick muscles and furry hide could not defend against them.
Whatâs more, Aiyenâs arrows didnât just travel in a straight line.
She shot them upward, sideways, and sometimes even backward.
Arrows that went up would fall in a parabolic arc and hit the top of the head, while those that went sideways would curve back and hit the side.
Arrows that flew backwards even hit trees and rocks, sending grenades flying.
Moreover, the arrows carried a powerful aura.
Oxbear had no idea how troublesome this aura would be.
âŚPuck! Puck!
Oxbear ducked behind a bush to avoid the flying arrow.
The brambles were quite thick, and he thought they would block the arrows.
But.
âA good arrow will pierce steel if it wants to, but it will not pierce a leaf if it does not want to.â
Aiyen recalled a lesson she had heard from her mother and chief, Aquila.
Next, she let loose an arrow, which struck the high bush where the oxbear was hiding.
Poof!
Surprisingly, the arrow, traveling at such high speeds, didnât hit the bramble and bounce back.
Instead, the arrowâs aura left the arrowhead and soaked into the brush.
And then.
Boom!
The oxbear hiding behind the bramble spewed blood from its neck.
[Crunch!]
Penetration.
The intangible energy from the arrowhead went beyond the barren tree and gouged into the oxbearâs body behind it.
Vikir gasped at the sight.
âIndeed, that is the archery of the Balak!
A ridiculous archery skill, capable of killing even an enemy behind cover.
But the skilled hunters of Balak actually do it.
Vikir had moved mana to shatter a table and the glasses on it without destroying it, but he didnât know if it could be applied to flying arrows.
âIf it can be doneâŚâŚ it would allow for more precise aura control.
Vikir lifted his head again and looked at Aiyen.
Seventeen years old and a Gradient junior.
Even in Baskerville, where only geniuses live, Iâve never seen a prodigy this young.
In terms of talent alone, he could probably rival or surpass even Morgâs camo.
âŚâŚBut.
It was the oxbear that made even Aiyen nervous.
An immature, small male, weak after a prolonged mating.
But even so, the Danger Rank A beast was strong.
Aiyen gritted her teeth as she realized she was almost out of arrows.
Vakira, the wolf who had been his steady companion, was also exhausted.
Itâs cold, the terrain is simple, and itâs a moonless night, making visibility difficult.
Now, with all the advantage, Oxbear is ready for the final blow.
The oxbearâs typical attack pattern consists of a horn charge followed by a large swing of its front paws.
But itâs the tooth attack that follows these two moves that really makes the difference.
[He-aaaah!]
The oxbear charged with all its might, opening its wide arms to embrace both Aiyen and Bakira at once.
Its dagger-like jaws were lined with teeth, ready to rip Aiyenâs head off.
âWhat do we do, weâre running out of arrows, do we retreat, or do we make one last gambleâŚâŚ?
As Aiyen contemplated his next move.
Something happened that neither Aiyen, Vakira, nor even Oxbear saw coming.
âMove.â
Vikir. He had appeared.
Vikir, an unwelcome intruder into the battle.
He was perched on top of a tall branch.
Then Vikir kicked off the branch and leaped, falling straight down to Oxbear.
âOw! What are you doing!â
Aiyen was horrified. What Vikir was doing seemed to her to be nothing less than suicide.
But then.
As Vikir leapt from the tree, he clutched a handful of arrows.
And surprisingly, Oxbear didnât react much to the sight of Vikir falling.
Thatâs because Bikirâs jump was to the left.
Not long before, the male Oxbear had received a slap on the cheek while moping around in the femaleâs den after mating, and his left eye was swollen shut.
It was an exquisite dig to fill the blind spot.
And then.
âŚPoof!
Several arrows in Vikirâs grasp pierced Oxbearâs left eye at once.
Chiiiit-
The sound of fat boiling, the smell of burning meat was unmistakable.
The arrowheads had been loaded with Aiyenâs mana not long ago, and were heated to the limit.
The hot shards of iron tore through the oxbear maleâs swollen snowball flesh, popping his tender eyeball and sending the bundle of nerves inside scrambling.
[Aaahhhhhh!]
Oxbearâs scream changed slightly.
Its roar, once a mixture of hatred and contempt, was now tinged with fear.
Vikir snatched the arrows out of her hand and dropped to the ground.
ââŚâŚthud!â
The mere act of landing on the ground seems to shatter his entire body.
The oxbear loomed in front of him, its enormous body looming over him.
Aiyen gasped in horror.
âNo!â
She quickly fired an arrow, but it only pierced some of the oxbearâs strong back muscles.
Vakira the wolf lunged and bit her hind paws, but Oxbear was unperturbed.
[Argh!]
Blinded by rage and fear, Oxbear opened his mouth in a guttural roar.
No horns, no front paws, just teeth! The Oxbearâs true breath attack flew toward Vikir.
And the expression on Vikirâs face as he faced it could not have been more serene.
ââŚâŚ.â
This is not a death wish.
Heâs gauging whether his body can handle the technique heâs about to use.
âCome out.â
Bikir ordered in a low voice, and the faithful hound bared its teeth.
âŚPoof!
A black awl pierced the artery in Vikirâs wrist.
The magic sword, Beelzebub, had been unleashed!
Whirring.
With the sound of a flyâs wings, Beelzebub revealed his appetite for the giant hunk of meat in front of him.
And with that, one of the powerful forces trapped within Beelzebubâs three orbs exploded through the tip of his sword.
<The Gluttonous Fly âBeelzebubâ> / Awl
-1 slot: Burn â Cerberus(A+)
Cerberus. The three-headed dog that symbolizes Hell itself.
Roar!
The oil-based flames, which could not be extinguished by water, combined with the aura of Beelzebubâs blade and exploded.
Fueled by the oils of hell, the flames burned endlessly unless their masterâs will was extinguished.
The fiery houndâs teeth sank back into Oxbearâs gaping mouth.
[Cackle!?]
Oxbear stopped charging.
His eyes, blinded by rage and fear, finally opened to the reality of the situation.
âŚâŚWhat the hell is that?
I thought it was just some human blood, but it wasnât.
What you see before you is a gigantic apex predator, the presence of a high-ranking demon that you dare not compare to, the fangs of a monster that belongs in the deepest hells of the Netherworld.
Wherever it has been lying in ambush, the creature that has just bared its teeth is upon you, bringing untold pain and terror.
âŚQuack!
A short, guttural sound.
The awl that sprouted from Vikirâs wrist shot out and pierced the oxbearâs mouth.
First, it pierced the hanging tongue, then the gums, then the palate, and finally the brain in the skull.
To make matters worse, the tip of the awl emitted a terrifying flame.
The most terrible pain in the world: burning pain.
It was boiling the brains in Oxbearâs skull to a crisp.
[Gah!]
Oxbear let out a near-terminal scream.
Vikirâs attack was short, but intense.
The oxbear was still clinging to life with its characteristic toughness and regenerative powers, but that was all.
No, that wasnât all.
In the last moments of its life, Oxbear leaned its massive body toward Vikir.
Vikir struggled to move from the pain he felt throughout his body.
Even in death, Oxbear intended to use his massive body to crush Vikir to death.
But.
Pow!
At that moment, Aiyen threw his whole body and grabbed Vikir.
Bakira the wolf scooped up Aiyen and Vikir with her fluffy back and stepped back.
The Oxbear giantâs head slammed into the ground.
The last words of a male who, only moments before, had been frantically mating with a female in the cozy confines of his den, could he have imagined such an end?
In the jungle, where looting, death, and love mixed together.
âŚThe downfall!
Aiyen pulled Vikir into a hug.
She hastily tore off the few strips of cloth that covered them, shouting, âTell me!
âTell me if youâre going to die! We need to get the seeds out of âŚâŚ!â
Vikir couldnât help but sigh at the success of the hunt.