"Wolves?" was the first thought that came to Kohei's mind staring at the dark shapes moving around amongst the trees ahead of them. "No, the size seems about right but there is something of about them". He couldn't make them out clearly, but from what little he could tell their shoulders seemed to slope too much and their heads seemed overly large. "Monkeys? Large monkeys with oversized glistening fangs? How many are they, three? No, there's another one moving around in the back, it looks a bit bigger than the rest"

"Ko-kun..." Haruna was now standing up, clinging to his right hand and trembling, or was that him trembling?

He had a notion that he should run away dragging her with him. Or maybe he should shake her of, so he could grab his wooden club with his right hand, and try to fight them? He knew he had to do something, but in the end all he could do was stand there, unable to move.

The creatures started to make some whistling noises. He guessed that they had realized he and Haruna could see them and, as a consequence, had given up on stealth, and instead communicate openly with each other. Or, possibly, they were trying to intimidate their intended prey.

With Haruna still clinging to his right arm he raised his weapon with his left hand, trying to get himself ready to fight.

"Fighting a pack of wild animals, in the darkness, with just a branch? No matter how you look at it, it's impossible. Then, should we run? But turning our back to them and run away, there's no way we could outrun them, especially while clinging to each other..."

He came to a sudden realization. Whatever the creatures out there in the darkness were, they were obviously pack hunters. "Meaning that, if two preys flee, they are likely to gang up on the slower one as a group". He glanced at Haruna looking as terrified as he felt, feeling her weight and body heat on his arm. Thinking about it, wasn't all this her fault? "If she hadn't run of, we wouldn't be standing here facing off with those creatures, whatever they are. Why the heck should I be the one responsible for her safety, after she was the one who put them into danger in the first place. Yeah, I should just run and..."

His thoughts came to a halt, with a shock. Had he seriously considered running of leaving Haruna behind as a bait to those creatures? Earlier, he had whined about how he had to take care of everyone. And now, when the situation had taken a turn for the worse he was just going to leave his oldest friend to die, and make justifications like she had it coming.

He felt sick, like he had something vile inside of him that he needed to throw up.

He looked at her again, remembering the freckled little girl that had cried when she tripped on the playground, putt all her determination into blowing out the candles on her birthday cake and who had watched the starry sky with him while on camping trips with him and his grandpa. Really, he was such a piece of thrash.

"I'm sorry Haruna..." He whispered as he gently pulled his arm away, stepping in front of her while raising his wooden club in booth his hands. Was he crying? He was pretty sure he was crying.

"Well, at this point, I don't care how lame I look" He thought, facing the creatures

"After all, I really am a lame piece of thrash!"

As he was berating himself the creatures struck. Three of them were running out from amongst the trees while continuously making the whistling sound. "Definitely not wolves and definitely not monkeys".

The way they ran with forelegs longer than their hind legs, was somewhat monkey like, but their long, spindly forelimbs ended in two long, wicked looking claws instead of monkey hands. And on their spindly dark bodies sat overly large, flat faced heads with large ears and grinning mouths full of teeth.

The creatures spread out a bit, with one of the rushing straight towards him. He guessed the other two would try to flank him, but he didn't have the time to check. The creature in front of him took a long leap forward, flying through the air with its claws spread out and his mouth wide open.

Without any time to think, he planted his foot forward and swung his club in one smooth motion like a baseball player. The club hit the creature square in the face, and it actually flew backwards and tumbled on the ground screeching and whistling. It's body felt surprisingly light.

"No time to celebrate" he thought as he turned to face the one to his left, heart beating like crazy. Surprisingly, the creature stopped it's approach and instead jumped backwards out of the reach of his wooden club scuttling away into the darkness.

"Ko-kun! Look out!" Before he could even let out a sigh of relief, Haruna called out to him.

He tried to turn around, realizing what must be about happen, but it was too late. He felt a weight crashing into him from behind and sharp claws raking his back.

"Gah...!" He cried out, feeling sharp stings of pain. Thanks to Haruna calling out he had at least had the time to brace himself. He planted his feet and managed to remain standing despite the impact. The creature was whistling and screeching into his ear holding onto his body with sharp claws.

"Get away from him!" he heard Haruna scream, and suddenly he could feel another impact. The creature let go of him, leaping through the air and landing several meters away. He turned around to see Haruna standing at his side with her arms stretched out after having pushed the creature of him. Her face had gone completely pale, except a for a thin red cut on her cheek. Somehow the creature had managed to scratch her before leaping away.

"Thank you Haruna..." he gasped. He wanted to say more, to apologize again, but there was no time.

He scanned the area quickly. Two of the creatures were scuttling around sideways, seemingly taking care to stay out of his reach. The larger creature was still lurking back amongst the trees, making whistling noises.

Considering how they didn't just rush him and Haruna were they actually afraid of them? After all, even the largest one was probably smaller than a human, though it was difficult to tell in the dark. Maybe the situation wasn't actually as bad as he had thought. "No, they definitely hold the advantage, they're just being careful wearing us down" he thought, then he realized something.

"Haruna!" he called, not taking his eyes of the three creatures in his field of vision "There was another one that ran off somewhere, keep your eyes open!"

Suddenly, the large on gave of a loud shriek and came rushing towards him while the other two spread out, likely planning to flank him again.

"Shit!" he hadn't realized just how much larger the large one was before it came rushing through the underbrush, it was probably about twice the size of the others. The wounds on his back seemed to hurt more just looking at its curved claws, looking long enough to gut him in one sweep.

"Haruna! Run away!" He screamed. If he stayed behind they might ignore her and settle for the wounded prey. In the end, he would be the one acting as bait.

"Well, it's better this way" He thought as he raised his club, determined to at least get a good hit in on the creature, hoping Haruna had started to run "Please, Haruna. Please escape".

"Kohei, Oyama-kun!" He heard Tenya's loud voice as he saw a light flicker at the edge of his vision.

His friend appeared at his side panting heavily and carrying a torch.

The light seemed to frighten the creature who came to a halt screeched and immediately started to back away, almost stumbling over its own spindly legs

Kohei managed to get a brief look at the creature's face in the firelight, aside from the already clearly visible fangs he managed to get an impression of a wrinkly, misshapen face with a flat, snout like nose and black beady eyes.

"Are you guys okay?" Tenya panted, out of breath

"Haruna..." he could hear Alisa's voice behind him.

"Damn, man, when did you suddenly get skilled and smart enough to make a torch? Kohei thought "No, wait, maybe Alisa is the one responsible?"

"We're... Not really okay" He said out loud "But thanks, you guys probably saved our lives".

"Hmpf a-as if I would let my sworn c-comrade die in a place like this" Tenya stammered while adjusting his glasses with a somewhat shaky hand "but what are those things anyway?" He glanced at the three creatures who had slunk back amongst the trees"

"Don't know man" Kohei said as he took a step backwards "But whatever they are, they don't seem to like the fire, so let's back away slowly while holding up the torch"

"Things might work out after all" the second he allowed himself the hopeful thought, he was interrupted by aloud shriek coming from above and remembered the fourth creature.

He turned his gaze upwards just in time to see the creature coming dropping down, presumably from a tree, it crashed into Tenya, sending him sprawling backwards and used his body as a springboard to pounce Kohei.

As he fell on his back, the wounds struck the ground wracking his body with pain.

He tried to struggle, but the creature had pinned his arms to the ground.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

As the creature lowered its head, dripping saliva from its fanged maw all over his face, he saw the other creatures approach from the left at a quick pace.

He turned to the right, hoping that at least Haruna and Alisa would be able to run away, but instead he saw them staring wide eyed at something... Behind him?

Suddenly the monstrous head above his face disappeared in a fountain of blood, squirting all over his face.

Blinded by the blood he could hear the other creatures shriek in rage? grief? fear?

Blinking away the blood in his eyes he looked up to see a tall, beautiful girl, with long jet-black hair tied up in a horse tail, pale skinned with strong yet elegant features.

"...thin neck..." Tendoujin Kyoka-senpai said lowly as she flicked her wrist, splattering blood from a great, cruel looking cleaver.

Change pov

"How long have I been walking? Kyoka wondered as she stumbled through the dark forest, exhausted and slightly feverish "Should I just stop for the night and try to get some sleep?"

She hesitated, on the one hand falling asleep alone and unguarded in this strange forest had it's obvious risks. She was sure she had heard something move around in the underbrush, though she had no idea what it was. On the other hand, there was only so much the human body could take. Even with her leveling up her vitality and using her [Warriors rising], she would eventually collapse of exhaustion if she just continued walking without rest. Furthermore, she had no idea where she was heading. For all she knew she could be walking around in circles in the darkness.

"Honestly, what am I doing? Sloppily taking care of my wound and hope not to get an infection. Eating raw monster flesh and hope not to get food poisoning. Taking off into an alien forest and hope to find someone" She sighed. She knew that she had made the wrong choices. However in this situation with her lack of information, equipment and forest survival skills, there essentially were no right choices.

"Father told me that I needed to be a reliable person myself, before relying on others. But here I am not even being able to rest because there is no one to guard me when I sleep.

Not being able to do anything except to walk and hope for the best.."

She was shaken out of her thoughts by noises coming from up ahead, strange whistling noises that she assumed was animal calls or maybe monster calls considering the existence of Mister Piggy. "No wait, are those human voices as well?" while wondering about the noises, she noticed a light source moving through the darkness towards the direction of the sounds.

The reasonable explanation would be that there were people fighting something up ahead. Of course, nothing about the situation was reasonable so she might be completely wrong. However, if there was fighting ahead there was at least something she was able to do.

She clutched the handle of her cleaver and focused inwards at her mana pool, receiving the information Mana pool 17/100. By her estimate she would have enough mana to use her Art for slightly more than five minutes (although she was less than confident in that estimate).

Trying to conserve her mana for the fight, only to end up arriving to late was not an option. So, she activated her [Warriors rising]. With her body invigorated and her senses sharpened, she immediately started running in the direction of the noises and the light.

Even taking into account the moonlight and the slight increase in her night vision thanks to her temporarily heightened perception, it was somewhat surprising how she managed to reach her destination without stumbling and falling a single time.

Soon, she was right upon the flickering light and the noises, it was now apparent that there were human voices aside from the animalistic shrieks.

As she emerged from amongst the trees she quickly assessed the situation. Four human beings. Two girls standing up turned their gazes towards her as she barreled her way out from the darkness. Wearing her school's uniform, one of the girls was immediately recognizable as the first year Alisa Alexandrova-san, with her western features and long golden hair she stood out after all. She did not recognize the other girl, who was of average height and build with shoulder length dark hair and had no features that immediately stood out.

On the ground laid two boys also wearing her school's uniform. The one farthest away holding a torch and wearing glasses seemed vaguely familiar. She did not recognize the other boy at all , but then of course the dark spindly creature on top of him made it hard to get a good look.

Aside from the creature atop the boy, there were three others approaching in a strange scuttling run.

As there was no time for a closer inspection, she immediately stepped forwards towards the boy with the creature on top of him.

At first, she gripped her cleaver in a standard two-handed kendo grip by reflex, but after realizing a downwards chopping strike might hit the boy as well, she changed her grip mid-step to a one-handed grip.

The creature pinning down the struggling boy lifted its twisted fanged his face, finally noticing her approach when it was already too late.

She swung her cleaver in a downwards pendulous motion, hoping to strike the creatures head from the side rather than from above and thereby avoid the risk of hitting the boy underneath it.

However, rather than hitting the creature's head, the cleaver bit into the creature's neck and sent its decapitated head flying in one smooth motion.

For a moment she was stunned, looking at the head tumbling across the ground, then she looked down on her bloodied cleaver and the creatures body spurting blood all over the boy boys face from its decapitated neck.

"Compared to Mister Piggy, you certainly had a thin neck" she said while turning towards the other creatures, flicking her wrist to remove some of the blood from her blade.

The other three had come to a halt, staring at her while shrieking and whistling loudly. Were they trying to intimidate her? Then the smaller two suddenly started to move sideways spreading out. She guessed that they were planning on surrounding her. Not a bad plan, it would be hard for her to guard from attacks coming from three different directions.

"However, that is assuming that I will be on the defense!" She thought as she started to run towards the larger one.

"Quickly, the other!" She heard someone shouting behind her, the boy she just saved? "Use the torch!"

There was no time to see what was going on, all she could do was to continue her advance.

The creature crouched, as if preparing to leap at her. However Kyoka had no intention of letting it. Before the creature could act she closed the distance between them and brought down her cleaver over his head while yelling.

As she struck the front of its head she could feel her cleaver impacting its skull before it gave way and the blade sunk into its brain, continuing its path making a deep cut between the creature's eyes and splitting its nose. With a gurgling sound, the creature collapsed like a puppet having it strings cut. She was not quite sure, since she obviously had little experience in cutting through flesh and bone (aside from Mister Piggy), but she had the impression that its skull bone had been quite thin.

She heard some high pitched noises behind her and was reminded of the two remaining creatures. She turned around to in time to see the two creatures running off into the darkness. One retreating from Alisa Alexandrova, who was now holding the torch the boy with glasses had carried. The other one scurrying away from the boy that had been pinned underneath the creature she decapitated. The boy, whose face and shirt front had been colored completely red by the creature's blood, held a black wooden club raised as a baseball bat, eyes focused on the creature running away.

"Hmm, he might actually be a member of the baseball team" She thought looking at him "His arms and shoulders looks fairly strong, and his posture is not bad overall"

Seemingly assured that the two remaining creatures had fled, he slumped his shoulders and started trembling. As if his fear and exhaustion had finally caught up to him.

"Not only that, looking closer isn't he wounded?" She thought, noticing that aside from the creature's blood covering his front he also had several bloody tears on the back of his shirt.

"Ko-kun!" the dark-haired girl shouted, as she rushed forward grabbing on to him as if too support him and prevent him from collapsing.

"Are you... okay?" Alexandrova-san said in a low voice as she walked up to them still carrying the torch.

"Hmpf, as if something of this level would be enough to beat my sworn comrade Kohei-dono" the tall glasses-wearing boy said in a somewhat pompous voice, while adjusting his glasses "For he is a savage man of the wild that will...Ouch!"

"Annoying... four eyes..." Alexandrova muttered after having stomped down on the glasses-wearing boys foot.

"Yeah.. I'm fine, thanks to you guys... and Tendoujin-senpai" The boy named Kohei, who apparently knew her name, looked at her, his broad face still covered in blood, and smiled weakly "Thank you Tendoujin-senpai, you really saved us".

The other three followed up and thanked her as well while casting some questioning glances at her cleaver.

"Not at all, I am just glad that I was finally able to meet..." Suddenly, mid sentence the dark surroundings became less clear to her eyes and her exhaustion became even more severe. She had run out of mana and her [Warriors rising] had lost its effect.

"Are you alright Tendoujin-senpai?" Kohei asked, sounding concerned. The effects of her loss of her Art must have been visible.

"Ah yes, my apologies for making you worry" She answered, deciding that explanations about her Art could wait for later "It has been quite am exhausting day for me, as I imagine it has been for the four of you as well"

"Uhm yeah..." Kohei answered, he and the other three looked at her a bit oddly. Did she say something strange?

After a prolonged silence the dark haired girl started to speak.

"Uhm, Tendoujin-senpai, we have a camp a bit away from here, it's not much but we have a campfire and water and uhm.."

"Chocolate..." Alexandrova-san added.

"Right! So, would you like to come back with us?" the dark-haired girl asked somewhat hesitantly.

"Water, campfire and chocolate, sounds lovely" Kyoka answered "I will be glad to accompany you"

"Well then, let us depart!" the glasses-wearing boy declared. She had noticed that he tended to talk in a loud voice, did he perhaps have some sort of hearing impairment? "After our glorious battle we all deserve a bit of well earned rest wouldn't you say so my comrades?"

"Annoying four-eyes..." Alexandrova-san said yet again

"While it's true that he is an annoying four-eyes, we should get going" Kohei said and the dark haired girl nodded in agreement "But before that, help me with this Tenya".

Kohei walked up to the decapitated corpse of the smaller creature and grabbed it by the forelegs.

"Help you with what excactly?" the glasses wearing boy apparently named Tenya asked with a frown"

"We're carrying this back to camp of course, I want to get a good look at this thing in daylight, we need whatever information we can get" It seemed the boy named Kohei, who was obviously the group's leader, had quite the sharp mind.

"Geh.." Tenya made a disgusted sound.

"Come on man, it's lighter than it looks"

"Thats not really the issue here..."

"Tenya"

"Alright, alright..." Still grumbling, he helped lifting the creature by grabbing its back legs.

"Well then, I will..." as she turned to pick up the creatures head, she was interrupted by the dark-haired girl.

"It's okay Tendoujin-senpai I'll carry it"

"Are you quite sure?" Kyoka asked. Somehow, she didn't seem like the sort of girl who would be comfortable with carrying the severed head of an unidentified creature, still dripping blood.

"Yes, you're exhausted, right senpai?" The girl lifted the ugly head by one of its large ears, holding it away from her body, while making a disgusted face "And besides, you are already carrying your..." she nodded towards the cleaver Kyoka was carrying in her right hand.

"Well then I will take you up on your kind offer" Declining the other girl's kindness would be rude, and in truth she was quite exhausted, her arms and shoulders aching from wielding a weapon intended for a stronger user with her wounded left shoulder hurting particularly bad.

After walking for a while, they reached a small clearing with a stream running through and a small campfire burning.

"Ah, if you will all excuse me, I will just sit down for a while" She sat down leaning against a tree and letting out a heavy sigh.

"Oh no, I can't believe I am making such a slovenly appearance" she thought.

"Right, let's put a bit more wood on the fire and then get some sleep" Kohei said "I'll take the first watch"

"Oh no, I have not even introduced myself properly..." her eyelids felt as heavy as lead "I will just close my eyes for a few seconds and then..."

"You've done enough, Kohei!" someone burst out... the dark-haired girl? "just sit down and pull up your shirt so I can clean your wounds"

"That's right, first impressions are important... Father says..

"I'm sorry Kohei it's all my fault..." someone sobbed.

"Haruna..."

"Haruna... thats the name off..."

"Oh my... Tendoujin-senpai"

"Let... her sleep..."

"Sleep? No I am awake, I just... need to rest my eyes for a while..."