Chapter 60: Chapter 60: Wilderness Convergence
Alas.
Vikir rose to his feet.
His bones shouted at his unhealed joints, but he had no way out.
If he didn't move now, he would be killed.
Boom!
The tent I had assembled was destroyed like tissue paper.
It was the Oxbear's strong hooks that tore through it as the night progressed.
Aiyen laughed in amusement.
"You were lured, weren't you, you tricky thing?"
A male oxbear. Even though he was only a fraction of the size of the female, he was still a very large carnivore, standing over four meters tall and weighing over a ton.
This cunningly prepared beast surely knew it was being followed.
That's why it had waited to strike while it was weak.
Aiyen quickly grabbed his bow and arrows and retreated to beyond the tent.
Bakira, the wolf, crouched low next to her master, growling.
Aiyen studied the oxbear before him.
"I see you were chosen by the old female for a reason."
The giant female Oxbear before him had been very selective about her mate, and he was somewhat puzzled as to why she had chosen this one, who was unusually small among the many males, to be her mate.
To vie for a mate, there were plenty of other smaller males one could expect to find.
But now I understand.
She believed his cunning intellect would complement her superior strength.
[Grunt!]
The oxbear charged at her with two massive horns and both front paws.
Aiyen leaped onto Bakira's back and quickly nocked an arrow to his bowstring.
Ping-!
Two arrows flew, aiming for the oxbear's face.
The oxbear tilted his head and lifted his horns up, so they couldn't hit him in the face.
The arrows then veered in midair as if they were alive, striking Oxbear in both shoulders.
Indeed, Balak's archery was excellent on the continent, and Aiyen's was the best of all.
Karak Karak
Aiyen strung multiple arrows from a single bow.
Surprisingly, Balak's bow had multiple nocks.
The arrows on each of these nocks could be loosed and fired one after the other, or they could be fired simultaneously.
Puff, puff, puff!
Aiyen fired dozens of arrows, barely pausing to catch her breath.
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 tremendous rate of fire.
Of course, drawing five arrows at once required an insane amount of arm strength.
The tremendous strain required was supplemented by Aiyen's low-level Inclination mana.
[Grrrr!]
The barrage of arrows slowed Oxbear's charge.
Each of Aiyen's arrows was so potent that even the oxbear's thick muscles and shaggy hide couldn't defend against them.
Moreover, Aiyen's arrows didn't just fly straight.
She shot them vertically, sideways, and even backward.
Arrows that went up would fall in an arc and strike the top of the head, while those that went sideways would curve back and hit the side.
Arrows that flew backward even hit trees and rocks, sending debris flying.
Additionally, the arrows carried a potent aura.
Oxbear had no idea how troublesome this aura would be.
...Puck! Puck!
Oxbear ducked behind a bush to avoid the flying arrows.
The brambles were quite thick, and he thought they would block the arrows.
But.
"A good arrow will pierce steel if it wants to, but it won't pierce a leaf if it doesn't want to."
Aiyen recalled a lesson she had heard from her mother and mentor, Aquila.
Then, she loosed an arrow, which struck the high bush where the oxbear was hiding.
Poof!
Surprisingly, the arrow, traveling at such high speeds, didn't make a noise upon impact and rebound.
Instead, the arrow's energy left the arrowhead and seeped into the bush.
And then.
Boom!
The oxbear hiding behind the thorn spat blood from its neck.
[Crunch!]
Penetration.
The potent energy from the arrowhead penetrated through the dense foliage and embedded into the oxbear's body behind it.
Vikir gasped at the sight.
"Indeed, that is the archery of the Balak!
A remarkable archery skill, capable of striking even an enemy behind cover.
However, the skilled hunters of Balak truly make it happen.
Vikir had manipulated mana to break a table and the glasses on it without destroying it, but he couldn't say if it could be applied to flying arrows.
"If it can be done... it would allow for more precise aura control.
Vikir lifted his head again and surveyed Aiyen.
Seventeen years old and a Hill junior.
Even in Baskerville, where only prodigies reside, I've never seen a prodigy this young.
In terms of talent alone, he could probably match or surpass even Morg's camouflage.
...But.
It was the oxbear that made even Aiyen nervous.
A juvenile, small male, weakened after a prolonged mating.
Yet still, the Risk Rank A monster was formidable.
Aiyen gritted her teeth as she realized she was almost out of arrows.
Bakira, the wolf who had been her constant companion, was also exhausted.
It's cold, the terrain is rugged, and it's a moonless night, making visibility difficult.
Now, with all the advantage, Oxbear is poised for the final blow.
The oxbear's typical attack pattern consists of a horn charge followed by a sweeping blow of its front paws.
But it's the tooth attack that follows these two actions that truly 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 Aiyen's head off.
"What do we do, we're running out of arrows, do we retreat, or do we take one last chance... ?
As Aiyen pondered her next move.
Something happened that neither Aiyen, Bakira, nor even Oxbear saw coming.
"Move."
Vikir. He had appeared.
Vikir, an unwelcome intruder into the fray.
He was perched atop a tall branch.
Then Vikir leaped off the branch and plummeted, falling straight down towards Oxbear.
"Ow! What are you doing!"
Aiyen was alarmed. What Vikir was doing seemed to her to be nothing less than suicide.
But then.
As Vikir plummeted from the tree, he grasped a handful of arrows.
And unexpectedly, Oxbear didn't react much to seeing Vikir falling.
That's because Vikir's leap was to the left.
Not long before, the male Oxbear had received a slap on the cheek while sulking around in the female's den after mating, and his left eye was swollen shut.
It was a vulnerable spot to exploit.
And then.
...Poof!
Several arrows in Vikir's grasp
pierced Oxbear's left eye simultaneously.
Chiiiit-
The sound of fat heating up, the smell of burning flesh was unmistakable.
The arrowheads had been imbued with Aiyen's mana not long ago, and were heated to the maximum.
The hot shards of iron tore through the oxbear male's swollen flesh, popping his tender eyeball and sending the vitreous humor inside sizzling.
Oxbear's cry changed slightly.
Its roar, once a mixture of disdain and arrogance, was now tinged with fear.
Vikir snatched the arrows from her hand and dropped to the ground.
"...thud!"
The mere act of landing on the ground seemed to jolt his entire body.
The oxbear loomed before him, its massive body towering over him.
Aiyen panted with sickening apprehension.
"No!"
She quickly fired an arrow, but it only pierced some of the oxbear's tough back muscles.
Bakira the wolf darted forward and bit at his hind legs, but Oxbear was unperturbed.
[Argh!]
Unhinged and terrified, Oxbear opened his mouth in a guttural roar.
No horns, no front paws, just teeth! The oxbear's primal breath attack hurtled towards Vikir.
And the expression on his face as he faced it could never have been more serene.
"...."
This isn't a death wish.
He's checking whether his body can handle the technique he's about to use.
"Unleash."
Vikir commanded in a calm tone, and the loyal wolf bared its teeth.
...Poof!
A dark drill pierced the artery in Vikir's wrist.
The enchanted blade, Satan, had been unleashed!
Whirring.
With the flutter of a fly's wings, Satan revealed its appetite for the giant hunk of meat before it.
And with that, one of the formidable powers trapped within Lucifer's three rings surged through the tip of his blade.
<The Voracious Fly 'Beelzebub'>/Borer
-1 ring: Consume - Cerberus(A+)
Cerberus. The three-headed hound that represents Hell itself.
Roar!
The oil-based flames, which couldn't be extinguished by water, combined with the aura of Lucifer's blade and exploded.
Fueled by the essence of agony, the flames burned endlessly unless their master's will was quenched.
The fiery hound's teeth sank into Oxbear's gaping mouth once more.
[Cackle!?]
Oxbear ceased its charge.
Its eyes, wild with fear, finally opened to reality.
...What on God's green earth is that?
I thought it was just some human blood, but it wasn't.
What stands before you is a colossal apex predator, the presence of a high-ranking demon that you dare not approach, the teeth of a creature that belongs in the deepest hells of the Underworld.
Wherever it has been lying in wait, the creature that has just bared its teeth has arrived, bringing untold torment and terror.
...Quack!
A short, guttural sound.
The drill that sprouted from Vikir's wrist shot forth and pierced the oxbear's mouth.
First, it pierced the dangling tongue, then the gums, then the palate, and finally the brain within the skull.
To make matters worse, the tip of the drill emitted a searing flame.
The most excruciating sensation in the world: burning agony.
It seared the brains in Oxbear's skull to a crisp.
[Gah!]
Oxbear let out a near-agonized scream.
Vikir's attack was brief, but intense.
The oxbear was still clinging to life with its characteristic resilience and regenerative powers, but barely.
No, not just barely.
In the final moments of its life, Oxbear leaned its massive body towards Vikir.
Vikir struggled to move from the agony coursing through his body.
Even in death, Oxbear sought to use its massive body to crush Vikir.
But.
Pow!
Then, Aiyen threw her whole body and grabbed Vikir.
Bakira the wolf scooped up Aiyen and Vikir with her furry back and retreated.
"Are you alright!?"
Aiyen's eyes widened, scanning Vikir's entire body.
Vikir nodded with difficulty.
At the same time.
...thud!
The Oxbear monster's head crashed into the ground.
Could the final thoughts of a male who, just minutes before, had been passionately mating with a female in the cozy confines of his den, ever have imagined such an end?
In the wilderness, where plunder, death, and love converged.
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