Thinking about the time he spent with Marianne always brought a smile to Viran’s face, yet the ending always spelled a frown for him. So, what Viran had decided to do was quite simple. He will remember everything they talked about and everything they did together, he would memorize it. The more he thought of it the more happiness he would feel over Marianne instead of the sadness that resulted in it- was the conclusion he had come up with.

Seeing the grain popping out of the ground in front of him brought him back to thinking about Marianne often, so he tried to remember the dazzling gold he had seen that day. The sight that he had fallen in love with would be attributed with the pleasure he felt with Marianne, not the pain he felt when she had died.

“Shh… Kid. I found the tracks.” The hushed voice of a woman shifted Viran’s thoughts away from Marianne once more.

Contrary to the golden sea he had seen that day, an everlasting darkness had instead swallowed up the surroundings completely. Yet the moon was still shown onto the ground in great detail, and within the soft soil were animal tracks the size of a bear.

Viran was standing not far behind Junia as she inspected the trail intently, her hands were already the color of matte from the dark dirty color of the soil. Junia stood up slightly with her back arched heavily to conceal herself behind the wild grain, and dozens of yards in front of Viran and her stood a large bear-like animal- a manabeast.

“There it is… You remember what to do right?” Junia whispered lightly to Viran, and while receiving a nod she drew the string of a bow almost twice the size of her body. The taut string shook with a resounding force revealing just how much pressure it was exerting, yet for Junia it took no strength at all for her to pull back the string.

Alongside Viran’s waist laid a short scabbard fit for a child like him and a similarly sized sword fitted within. His hand firmly grasps the handle and lifts it out, the swords metal was unlike any he had ever seen and instead was a dark grainy blue color. He had heard Marcus call the material Cerulean steel, but that’s not the point.

As Viran slowly stalked closer, sticking close to the many flora to keep out of sight, the ginormous figure of the manabeast was finally drawn by Viran. The manabeast was called a Southern Stronghide Bear. The beast weighed much more than a regular bear, but was anything but a regular bear. For one, this manabeast was a delicacy of the Southern Domain of the Empire and was regarded highly whenever it popped up in the market. Secondly the bear was extremely dangerous with two abilities the race itself could use. The chaotic mana inside of a manabeast was especially dangerous within the Stronghide Bear making it’s spells much harder to deal with comparatively to other manabeasts.

Once Viran became distant from the bear, a ferocious roar came out of it frightening Viran to his very core. The first spell had just been used in the form of its thunderous roar. An intimidation that activated the fear within the hearts of any who heard it, the spell itself was not much different from what the gruff Knight had before.

The spell itself would normally be able to make Viran run away as fast as he can and make Junia’s fingers tremble, but they were already prepared beforehand with the help of Jules. Within the largest tent in the encampment stood the altar Jules used to concoct his potions and medicinals for healing. Luckily enough he held onto enough ingredients that was able to stiffen the throes of fear in their tracks, though Viran could still faintly feel it through the shivers he felt on his spine the potion still did its work.

His gaze hardened once the bear realized its roar had no effect. It could tell something was watching it, yet it didn’t know where or what. The bear roared once more, and still Viran and Junia held onto their consciousness. The induced fear battered their conscience, making them want to run yet they held tight onto their weapons. The bear sniffed lightly into the air, before its attention was diverted directly to where Viran stood alone. The simple glance of the animal in front of him forced shivers to run down his neck, yet he held firm. After all, the bear would be their dinner.

The arrow nocked tightly into the bow of Junia whistled through the air and directly into the open ear of the bear. A loud roar escaped the bear as it threw its own paw directly into the arrow, yet the arrow held firm and instead went deeper into the ear of the bear.

With a wisp another arrow follows soon after and cuts directly into the snout of the bear before implanting itself directly into the ground. With its senses cut off, a faint brown glow could be seen on the bear's fur. It's the second spell, a spell that makes the bear successfully live up to its name and increases the hides defenses of the bear.

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Another arrow flies, and unlike before is easily deflected off of the bear and instead leaves only a small blood trail coming out of its side. At this point the bear roars once more for an effect before running off with its blood leaving a perfect trail for Junia and Viran.

Viran exits the bushes after a moment and quickly picks up the two arrows and throws them lightly to the extremely agile Junia. Junia flows through the trees and shrubbery with a speed and agility that shocked Viran immensely, but he still attempts to keep with her.

“Alright the bear is bleeding, once I get its attention it's all on you, kid.” Junia speaks to Viran before continuing to stalk the bear.

Minutes pass and Viran can already feel his shins shaking from the amount of scratches he had already gotten from crawling through numerous bushes and shrubbery, yet when looking at Junia she is completely fine and completely devoid of any wounds similar to Viran. He could tell she was a pro, and far more experienced than he is.

Once they notice the blood trail running lighter, they finally meet with the open mouth of a large cave in the side of an even larger mountain directly in the middle of the forest. The creaking of animals and howling of wolves could be heard in the distance, and Viran became aware of the chance that another animal could have stolen their prey. Or worse.

“Alright, I’ll drag that bear out of there. When you see the bear run out make sure to give it all you got!” Junia happily said as she slapped the sore shoulder of Viran, it stung the fazed Viran and drew him out of his previous stupor.

“You got it!” Viran said back with confidence.

Viran looked around quickly and found a suitable spot to hide out in while waiting for Junia inside of the cave. He crouches down with his sword drawn out, and he is completely prepared for the bear to come running out any second now.

...Any second now.

Already the confidence that Viran had crumpled within an instant. It had already been too long and Viran had heard nothing from inside of the cave, though Viran had never been inside of a cave he thought the inside was eerily too quiet…

“Everything is too quiet…” Viran’s thoughts come towards a realization as he quickly looks behind him with his sword already stabbing forward.

He quickly feels his blade catch onto the firm hide of a manabeast. He did not know the breed, but the manabeast in front of him was black as night and with yellow eyes that glinted with an anger that stiffened Viran’s breathing. With a single thrust, the leopard-like manabeast swats the sword straight to the ground and leaps back multiple steps. Viran stared intently at the manabeast before inching forward, to which it responded in kind.

Viran’s eyes trembled with excitement as he stared at the short blade on the ground, the manabeast blood already died it's originally grainy blue exterior crimson. Though Viran stared intently at the sword, his attention never dropped from the cat a single time. Viran’s ears twitched, and still he couldn’t hear the noise of anything around.

With a coldless whisper he himself couldn’t hear, Viran could feel the warm feeling of mana surge in his body and enrapture his entire being. His dark crimson mana is seen by the manabeast intently and with its fangs bared, charged.

Viran’s muscles trembled, and his feet hit the ground in a fast sprint towards the sword stuck into the ground. In only a matter of a second his hand firmly grasps the hilt, just in time for the manabeast to jump directly at Viran. With its tremendous force Viran is blown back and the manabeast begins to strike with its outstretched claw towards the gullet of Viran’s throat, only now did Viran finally feel fear towards his own life. The effects of the potion could be cleanly felt by Viran to have weakened a bit, yet still he kept calm.

“Hrugg!” A growl escaped Viran’s throat as he felt even more mana surge throughout his entire body! His leg quickly goes up smashes into the underbelly of the beast, except he had aimed too low. As his leg fell Viran could feel a warm sensation on his leg and the smell of crimson, he had obviously crushed something the beast held treasured as its outstretched claw already hit the ground as it growled intently.

Now in a single motion Viran’s blade goes up directly through the manabeasts body and becomes lodged inside right to the hilt of it. The sensation of the damaged flesh was transmitted from the sword to his hand. The manabeast still held firm, however, and even with its precious destroyed and a sword lodged into its body its fangs bare wide.

Blood immediately fell directly out of its mouth onto the face of Viran, dyeing him completely in the blood of the animal. With a single forlorn purr, the cat dies as its weight falls to the side and lands next to Viran.

Viran quickly sat up with his hand attempting to rest his heartbeat as he felt his ears pop with an intensity he had never felt beforehand. Suddenly the noises of distant howls, distant growls, and the wisps of arrows entered his ears.

Wiping his face only served to further dye his body in the blood of the beast, but that didn’t matter as Viran grabbed the sword lodged deep inside of the manabeast. With a tug, and another the sword was finally pulled out of the beast and he fell back onto his backside with a force. He quickly jumped to his feet and ran towards the cave only to be further greeted with the sight of the bear dead with numerous arrows sticking out of its stomach and face.

Standing in front of the corpse was a heaving Junia with only a few arrows left in the quiver she wore on her back. On her face was a worried look once she caught sight of Viran. “Oh my God, Kid!”

“I’m fine, I’m fine. It’s not my blood.” Viran hurriedly said as Junia began to further wipe the blood out of his eyes and face.

“No. You aren’t fine! Nothing about this is fine…” Junia said with sincere compassion.

Once Junia made those sincere objections he merely let Junia fawn over him more. He was enjoying the sincere attention he was getting, and his gut was still feeling giddy by the time the blood was completely wiped from his face and all.

“Gods… I’m so sorry.” Junia had tears already gathering in her eyes.

“I’m fine, ok?” Viran said with a large smile, his teeth though were still dyed with blood that seemed to only worsen Junia’s mood.

Faced with the bloody smile, all Junia could do was smile and tend to the carcasses they had both damaged heavily.