There is no noise.

Silence is the only sound that pervades the forest as the thing gets down on the rest of its limbs, sniffing at them with a nose that is split in two as what was perhaps a mouth extends to the sinuses. Its mouth looks like a flower, blooming petals of flesh and teeth, on a head that has grown and contorted to fit its massive size. It has fur, and skin, but it looks like steel. It walks on eight pairs of limbs on a body that was extended to accommodate, out of its back sprouts a mess of bone spears, joints and muscle allowing for precise movement.

Perhaps, a long time ago, the thing in front of them could have been recognized as a bear. Now it is a horror of biology and violence.

The thing sniffs the air as it approaches then, Rakan does not move, none of them do. It walks up to Yorin and extends a tongue out of the flower-mouth, giving his face a gentle lick. Yorin doesn’t seem to appreciate the gesture, shivering in a primal kind of fear that can only be present when in the sights of an apex predator. The bear-thing laughs, then it goes to bite off his head.

In the instant before Yorin would have lost his head, Rakan is there, and hits the beast as hard as he can, the sound of club on skull reverberates through the forest. The bear-thing lets out a squeal of delight and goes to jab Rakan with multiple bone spears, he weaves between then, grabs Yorin, then throws him aside. Tantra is staring at the two titans as they clash, Rakan dodging and swinging his club, the bear-thing standing on four pairs of limbs as it rears up and assaults Rakan with a flurry of paws and claws. Rakan dodges one, dodges two, but the third strikes him in the side and sends him flying into a tree. Throughout all of this the bear thing is squealing with joy out of its flower mouth. It charges Rakan as he struggles to his feet to continue its assault.

Tantra is shaken out of her daze when she sees Etra run towards the bear-thing. Tantra blinks, then boosts her legs with all she can, tackling the girl to the ground.

“What are you doing?” Tantra hisses.

“Helping him!” Etra says, “he’s gonna die at this rate.”

“And so will you!”

“If that thing kills Rakan then we’re all dead anyway, I’d rather die fighting.” Etra argues.

Tantra’s mind blanks, trying to find some way to get out of this alive. The only thing she can think of is driving the thing off, but how much can they even help with that? She can barely follow what's happening as it is, but she doesn’t have any other options.

She lets Etra go, “fine, but let me go first, and only join if its safe.”

Etra huffs, but nods under Tantra’s intense glare.

Tantra takes a deep breath, sending a thread to each leg and charging in silence covered by the sounds of struggle. Rakan has been pawed around a few times, and while it’s obvious the thing is just playing with him, he can still follow and deliver his own strikes. That’s what's important, she just has to hope this thing isn’t so advanced that it can shrug off the blows Rakan delivers.

She brings up her club and readies herself to strike a knee-

She is jabbed by three bone limbs, puncturing through her soft human flesh and coming out the other side. The thing just flings her aside into a tree. She coughs out blood, then coughs out some more, then a lot more.

Fuck, she thinks through tears.

It punctured her lungs. Tantra gets up on shaky legs and continues to cough out blood, trying to take whatever breaths she can, but air simply escapes them. The Qi however, doesn’t.

She stumbles forward and someone grabs onto her.

“Tantra!” A voice she recognizes as Yorins cuts through her thoughts, he really shouldn’t be here, he’ll die here. “Oh my gods, are you okay?”

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She tries to say something but all that comes out is a cough and some blood, landing straight on Yorins robes. Damn, that’s rude, not fitting behavior for a merchant at all. She goes to say sorry but only gets more blood on his robes. She grumbles internally, this’ll ruin her image. Well, a part of her says, your not going to live long enough for it to matter.

Oh shut up.

She just needs a moment.

Yeah, just a moment.

She lets out a few more coughs and goes to look at the bear-thing. Kisrin and Etra are both dueling with their own bone spears while Rakan, it seems, has decided to ramp up his boosting. She can’t even see him, just blurs and the sounds of crunching bone. The bear-thing is actually being pushed back, to its delight, fucking weirdo.

She really need to focus.

She goes to take a deep breath, suffering through a few more coughs, but the Qi gives her clarity, and it subsides some of the pain. Yorin is saying something, but she can’t hear him, the only thing occupying her focus being the bear-thing.

She boosts her legs and charges again.

This time she expects the spikes, and ducks under them. She sends two massive threads to her arms and boosts with all she has, hitting the back of one of the bear-thing’s kneecaps. It doesn’t break, but it does stumble, which gives an opening for Rakan to start wailing on its head. A spike pierces her shoulder and flings her aside again.

She gets back up and charges, hitting the same knee.

Spike, fling.

Charge, knee.

Spike, fling.

Charge-

There is a crunch as the knee breaks. Tantra, skewered thing that she’s become, coughs with joy. It is quickly replaced with pain as a paw the size of her body swipes her aside and cuts deep into her flesh. She goes flying and crashes into a tree. She thumps to the ground and tries to get up.

Huh, she can’t seem to do that.

Weird.

She looks to her left arm.

There is no arm, just meat, gristle, and bone.

Oh that’s not very good.

That’s not very good at all.

She flops to her back and considers her arm. That’s a lot of red, and a good amount of white, It looks like the muscles’ll be quite useless. Ah well, she has her other arm. She grips her club and sits up, feeling a monumental amount of pain from her chest as she coughs some more. She looks down.

Huh, her robes are torn.

So is her flesh but the important thing is her robes.

How is she supposed to show her face to anyone dressed like this? Ah wait, repair scripts, forgot about those. Handy, very handy. Well, up we go!

She wobbles to her feet and looks at the bear-thing, still fighting Rakan, honestly, what a pain in the ass. Couldn’t this thing have just left them alone? All they wanna do is cross the forest, is that some sort of crime now?

You know what?

Fuck this bear.

-

Rakan won’t be able to last much longer, with his guts trailing the forest floor and his body punctured to the hells and back, but he doesn’t need much longer. The bastards started protecting its head, which means he’s getting close to caving it in, beasts this strong don’t protect something unless they have to. Fucking monsters. They must be off from their route, because this thing shouldn’t be anywhere near it. Consequences of rushing and not navigating properly. He lets out a cough of blood as he ducks past another paw. Beasts aren’t like humans, they’re all brute force and no technique, making them very predictable. Well, except for Divine beasts, but if they met one they’d just be dead so it wouldn’t matter much if it can fight with flourish.

He hits its head again and hears a crack.

He smiles and dodges another pair of paws.

Then, suddenly, he is met with his student riding the bear as she bashes in its skull, cackling and coughing.

He blinks.

Is that Tantra?

Hard to tell through all the blood, but he’s pretty sure it is.

Damn, she must have hit her head hard one of the times she was thrown around like a wet towel, ‘cause what she’s doing is insane.

None of the spikes can seem to stab her as they aren’t designed to point inwards, the bear tries to shake her off, but whenever it does he rewards it with a fully infused club the the face. He smiles as the bear rages in confusion, trying desperately to get one of them away from his head.

Eventually, there is a crack.

Then another.

Then the skull caves it.

The bear goes limp and the girl falls off, struggling on wobbling feet as she walks towards him.

“Good job kid,” Rakan says as he pushes his guts back into his stomach. Qi’ll heal it, it’ll just take a while.

Tantra smiles wide with teeth stained crimson.

Then she passes out.