Year 1, Fall, First Month, Fourth Week.

One hour after the fight, the team encountered a group of five hyenas harassing a big elephant-like beast. The beast was around five meters tall and should weigh at least a ton.

The hyenas only took the risk of harass it because it was too slow to catch them. However, the harassment was without results because they couldn’t even make a scratch on the beast.

‘-- The elephant is a third rank LT beast. Usually, it does not go out of its way to attack. But the hyenas have harassed it. Therefore, it might be wise to stay away from it. --’

‘Third rank?’

‘-- The tiers (Low, Medium, High, Unique) divide the beasts according to their magic level. However, the difference of fighting power between same tier beasts made it necessary to further divide them into ranks, three for each tier. --’

‘-- The tier levels match the core crystals of the beasts. A medium tier earth beast has in its core a medium quality earth crystal. The tiers also represent the level of elemental energy used by the beast. Low tier beasts develop elemental traits. Medium tier beasts can manipulate their element. High tier beasts can use the element properties. --’

‘-- The ranks divide same level beats according to their overall fighting power. However, each element might give the beast advantages and disadvantages. A fire beast has more attacking power and less defense power than the other element beasts of equal rank. Contrary to earth beasts, which have more defense power and less attacking power. The wind and water beasts are less extreme. --’

The team stopped at a safe distance from the beasts’ standoff and discussed how to proceed. Diana starting making the remarks.

“I don’t think we can hurt that beast, look how the hyenas’ claws didn’t leave a scratch on it... How about we take down the hyenas and skip the big guy? Even if it tries to attack us, we can run and lose it later.” The team members nodded, agreeing with her. Karl smiled and said:

“Sure... Since we have experience fighting the hyenas, we know what to look out for and we could use more meat and earth crystals.”

The team separated into three different groups to execute the plan. Since the hyenas could run, the attack group would be formed by three archers, one defender, and Diana. Tael and two other best archers would try to hit the hyenas before they fled while Diana and the defender would protect them from any unexpected attacks.

Toni, Carion, the last archer, and the other two defenders would stay with Karl and the main group. Their only job was protection. This group would quickly follow the attack group, and once the hyenas were taken down they would collect the bodies and run in the direction of the forest together with the attack group.

The last group had the job of distracting the big beast. They would throw stones on the big beast from the direction of the stream (opposite direction of the hyenas).

The attack and collecting groups would only move after the big beast was successfully lured by the distracting group.

After drawing the big beast far enough for the other groups to escape, the distraction group would circle the beast and run to join them. Since this group needed to prioritize mobility, Samia and Sania would be responsible for throwing the stones.

Their job was the most dangerous and could go wrong in many ways, but Diana decided against allocating more members to prevent slowing down the twins.

They checked if everyone had understood their positions and put the plan in motion.

Again, Tael organized the archers' attack with signals and shot the furthest hyena. This time around, the two archers were less apprehensive and hit their targets. Tael’s arrow arrived milliseconds earlier than the others, hitting the hyena on its back leg.

The other two arrows also found their targets, one hit the paw of the hyena and the other went to the back of its target. Unfortunately, the archer that hit the back didn’t activate the Arrays properly so the arrow just scratched the hyena before breaking.

From this distance, without the extra effects, the arrow wasn’t strong enough to penetrate the earth-enhanced skin.

The hurt hyenas started to flee towards the forest. The archers tried to shoot again, but only Tael was fast enough to shoot down his target before they left the attacking range.

Right when the attack started, the twins threw their stones at the big beast, successfully drawing its attention. On their second throw, the beast was already moving towards them.

They continued to throw and ran in the direction of the stream until they saw Diana’s signal and ran towards the other two running groups.

The whole thing was executed in about three minutes and without any unexpected events. Shortly, the big beast decided to stop chasing the team and they shifted back to their normal pace.

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After moving for ten minutes, the group stopped just take the blood from the beast and rub the smell-masking herbs.

A couple of hours later the group arrived at the Forest surroundings.

Although there were lots of trees on the plains, it was obvious where the Forest started. The density of the trees increased and their colors became greener in the Forest.

Noticing Karl’s amusement, Master Al explained that the magic density was higher inside the forest and thus changed the plants and air. Actually, the change was gradual but the team only noticed it when it got more distinct.

The plan was to make camp somewhere outside because at night the team should be in a safe place, and it was way safer to stay outside the Forest. So, they looked for a hill, caves, or any place that would offer some kind of cover.

They settled for a big stone that towered over the nearby trees.

When planning, they were confused if they should start a fire or not, because it could attract beasts. In the end, they decided in favor of the fire. The worst-case scenario was to suffer a beast attack without even seeing it coming.

To call it a camp was being too generous. The team just put some straw bags in the ground and used the LCs to cover one side of the camp decreasing the radius of possible attacks.

They started the fire at the camp’s entrance, between them and the wilderness. As for the sleeping schedule, they arranged two shifts to guarantee that half of each combat unit (defense, short-range, and long-range attack) would be guarding the camp at all times.

.........

Some time through the night, Tael noticed a group of beasts watching them. He promptly waked Diana up and reported what was happening. Diana got up and tried to identify the lurking beasts.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t find out anything about them. Even if they didn’t show any sign of attacking, Diana decided to wake everyone and get ready for a battle.

After waking up, Karl was stunned for a moment before observing where Diana was pointing.

“Can you identify the beasts? Why aren’t they attacking? Is it the fire?” She poured questions into the newly awakened Karl.

“Maybe...”

‘-- It is a group of five second rank LT wind beasts. They are faster than grey wolves. It would be unwise to fight against them. Fortunately, they are afraid of fire. --’

Karl got up and took some of the branches used for maintaining the fire. He burned their endings and threw them towards the supposedly lurking beasts.

Diana was going to pull him back when she understood what he was doing.

After no time, there was a perimeter made by fire that separated the team from the beasts. With the aid of fire, it was easier to see the beasts. Karl could tell that they were bigger than the hyenas and passed a strong predator felling.

Before departure, the team simulated several scenarios. At night, the team would move only on the worst-case scenarios because their visibility would be compromised and they had high chances of dying.

The approach when they faced a beast attack at night, would be first to try scaring them away, and in case they couldn’t, they would try to kill the beast. Only when they couldn’t face the beast they would try to run from it.

Unfortunately, even with the fire perimeter the beast didn’t move and continued to lurk around.

‘This is so frustrating... If we attack, we would be taking unnecessary risks, but if we don’t we can’t go back resting...’ Diana thought.

Diana asked Karl what they should do. Although she was making most of the decisions she thought that Karl was the most knowledgeable regarding the beasts.

Karl took a minute to consider the whole situation and discuss it with Master AI before deciding on a plan.

They shouldn’t make rash moves but they couldn’t stay awake all night and even if they did, there was no guarantee that the beasts would go away before dawn. The best course of action was to use several long-range attacks to scare the beasts.

Wind beasts would dodge most of the attacks. But they lacked defensive power to resist once they got hit. If the archers could hit a couple of beasts, it would be enough to make them afraid.

Tael and the three other archers drew their arrows and aimed, waiting for the command to let the arrows loose. Behind them, the four shield wielders made a second barrier in case the beasts passed through the fire, followed by the four short-range attackers.

After Diana gave the go signal, they shot the first arrows and quickly move to nock the next arrow. The arrows went through the night hitting something, ground or beast.

The team heard a bestial cry of pain and saw several yellowish hungry-looking felines jumping out of the bushes.

An archer panicked and shot his arrow before the go signal. Tael reacted fast and gave the sign for the other to shoot. The misfired arrow hit a tree but the following arrows went towards the beasts.

One beast got hit in its thigh and roared at the group. Its threatening fangs were bigger than an arm thickness and promised to destroy anything in reach. The team couldn’t help but giving a step back, at least mentally.

Even intimidated Tael signaled for the archers to continue shooting, and they did. However, the third volley of arrows didn’t meet any beasts. Since the arrows had to be hand imprinted by Karl, each archer only had four arrows, and after shooting three only one remained.

Tael stopped the shots making a hand signal and arranged for the archers to shot together at only one target at once. This move was to prearranged on the occasion of a fast-moving target. Better to take down at least one target than to throw away the arrows.

He aimed and gave the signal for the final shot. The arrows whistled through the night and fire.

A high-pitched winced was heard.

Fortunately, two arrows hit the target and took it down. Thankfully, this threatened the beasts and they ran away.

The team breathed in relief, however, it took them a couple of minutes to process what happened and to move again. If the beasts had decided to attack it would be very difficult to get out unscathed.

They didn’t have more arrows and there were at least four more beasts. After confirming that the beasts had left, Diana directed a group to make torches and collect the scattered arrows and the body of the dead beast.

The team was grateful for not having to engage the beasts in close combat, even though they lost three arrows.

Surprisingly, there weren’t any more attacks through the night, maybe because those ferocious beasts pushed other beasts away. With great difficulty, the team got some sleep and soon it was dawn.

.........

Diana only slept two more hours after the attack. She got up crumpy and saw Karl smiling with his hands and clothes dirtied with blood. For an instant, she panicked thinking he was attacked. He saw her confusion and explained:

“Morning D, this is the beast’s blood. After sleeping a little I collected its blood and took its core... It was too dark and I got some blood over myself. But it was worth it, the beast had LQ blood and a LQ wind crystal. To tell the truth, I should have done it right away, but at the time I was so scared that I forgot it...” Diana giggled at Karl’s silliness.

Before getting into the Forest, Karl checked their weapons and redrew some damaged Arrays.

And then, the hunting team from Caiset, for the first time, got into the Eastern Forest.