“What's going on?” Lizzy asked as she sluggishly got up from her sleeping bag. “Why is the ground rumbling?”

“Something is coming.” Carrollton quickly realized as he picked up all his belongings.

Richard was the last to wake up, and quickly he did, “What's going on?” He asked as he put his battle gear back on.

His questions remained unanswered, though, as he realized everything himself, “Everyone get ready for battle.”

Everyone listened and we all got into position.

“I don’t know how long I was asleep, but thank you three,” Richard said, Looking forward as he finished tightening his gear.

“No problem,” Hannah answered.

“I don’t know what's coming, but it's big. I want you to all promise me one thing, though, promise me you’ll fight with everything in your being so we can get through this and make it to Ara alive.”

At Richard's words, I felt everyone enhance their body with mana saying, “I promise,” In unison.

We waited, and as we did the rumbling got louder and the ground vibrated and shook at a dangerous pace. The trees around us and in the distance shook, causing leaves to fall everywhere.

As whatever it was got closer I saw everyone clench their fists and grab their weapons tighter.

The trees before us tilted and fell, but right before the threat was shown, I realized what was happening. It wasn't one beast headed toward us, it was multiple.

The thought went as soon as it came as the barrage of innumerable amount beasts burst their way through the trees and into our vision.

Beasts of all different species ran towards us almost unnaturally.

“Everyone get ready!” Richard yelled.

Those were the last audible words I heard before the battle commenced. The sound of spell fire rang in my ears, but the other's fights weren’t visible.

I conjured a torrent of wind around my body to push back every animal that ran towards me, but also to make my surrounding more visible.

I saw Richard up front fighting fist to fist with a charging bear, already covered in blood from the dead beast corpses around him. Along with Chark, who was currently smashing the skull of some sort of snake creature.

Carrolton and Lizzy were fighting back to back doing pretty well holding every beast around them off.

Then there were Hannah and Melian both sending unified explosions of wind and light killing every beast in their path.

A large tiger-like beast charged toward me, disturbing my observance. I lifted my arm and shot a surge of ice mana from my hand freezing the ground below it, the ice eventually spreading up the beast all the way to its thighs. I then sent an explosion of wind, shattering its legs to pieces. It let out a roar but immediately went silent as my dagger met its skull.

I kept using spell after spell until the beasts started avoiding me, making me resort to my more long-range spells. The more I fought, though, the more something seemed off. The beasts weren't fully focused on attacking us.

Why would this many beats suddenly appear out of nowhere and run like this?

Then it all clicked.

“Richard!” I called as I sent a crescent of wind, decapitating two mana beasts.

I noticed him hear my call and he looked my way.

“They're not coming for us! They're running from something!”

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As my words echoed through the forest, I felt the ground rumble once more, this time it had much more depth than the charging heard of beasts.

I turned my head in the direction of the noise, and to my horror, a beast stood over trees and bored down at us.

It stood on two feet. Its face and arms looked to be made up of pure bones, the rest of its body, though, seemed to be made up of fur similar to bears. Its boney facial structure poked forward like the beak of a bird and the horns on its head protruded backward. Its eyes were pitch black as if it didn't have any sign of life.

But my attention was drawn away from its distinct features, instead, I was drawn to its chest. It had a giant gash and was oozing out some sort of dark liquid.

Blood? No, that's ridiculous.

I didn’t want to pay any mind to the assumptions going through my head, but they couldn't be ignored. This beast exuded the strength of a gold-rank beast and if it was somehow injured that meant there was something either the same rank or stronger out there.

“It's an Undead Ogre!” Hannah yelled as her staff shot back from the recoil of her just conjured spell. “They’re gold rank! We have to fight it as a team!”

“Well, it's kind of hard to do that with these rampaging mana beasts attaking us!” Chark responded as he smashed his hammer to the ground, sending a shockwave and blowing back every beast around him.

The sounds of trees falling once more caused me to turn my attention back to the Undead Orge. It didn't make a sound as it attacked. It simply swung its boney arm at the ground and the impact caused a crater the size of a house to be formed. Unlucky beasts that happened to be in the area were crushed under its strength, but luckily everyone in the party managed to get out of the way.

The rest of the beasts seemed to scurry off at the might of this being now leaving only the party.

“Well, that problem is dealt with,” Chark said as he swung his hammer to get the excess blood off.

“Everyone gets into battle position!” Richard called.

I felt the earth's mana expand and then instantly condense around him, snapping and cracking to his will and encasing him like a brilliant amour. The amour hardened into existence and I could see metal, rock, along with other earthen minerals forged into it.

The beast had left us no time to regroup, swinging its giant bone-hardened hand toward us.

“Watch out!” Richard roared stepping forward to intercept the attack by himself.

The sound of bone on earth surged loudly throughout the forest as we were all blown back by the impact.

I used the wind to propel myself upward and land on my feet, but even with that, I was still blown back several yards.

I quickly looked for everyone through all the dust the clash made, mainly Richard though, because he had faced the brunt of the beat attack.

I sent a couple of wind torrents to clear the dust and soon enough I saw the rest of the party.

Lizzy was throwing a fit of coughs due to the dust, with Melian already helping her. Carrollton, Hannah, and Chark were just getting up. Chark looked just fine, Carrollton and Hannah on the other hand seemed to be hurt, but it couldn't have been anything life-threatening.

“Richard!” Hannah called out, staring off into the distance. On her face I could’ve sworn I saw tears.

Looking in the direction she was, I saw him. In the middle of a semi-deep crater, his arms held up in the position he used to block the attack, and the boney arm of the beast was blown back several feet away, disconnected from its body.

The beast roared at the realization that its arm was gone and went into an instant frenzy.

The last thing I saw of Richard was him look our way at Hannah's call, then him falling to the ground unconscious. I couldn't tell if he was okay or severely injured.

A sudden blur of overwhelming dust blew toward us and a strong shock wave of wind caused by the beast's rampage sent us all flying.

I reinforced my body with mana, my body colliding with tree branches and the hard dirt going as I tumbled backward, too fast to ever get a hold of myself and get back on my feet.

Finally, I was able to get up. I looked around, my surroundings foreign. My clothes were tattered and ripped and small cuts were all over my body.

I heard a few loud coughs in the distance ahead. Running over, I saw Hannah and Melian. Hannah had a large wound on her stomach and Melian was trying desperately to heal it.

“R-Richard…” Hannah said as tears streamed down her face. Whether it was due to her wound or the sight of Richard falling to the ground in the presence of that beast, I couldn't tell.

“It will be okay, Hannah. Richard will make it.” Melian said as Light flickered and brightened around her hand and floated to Hannah’s wound. “But first we need to get you back on your feet.”

“Did you happen to see the others?” I asked.

“No. The attack happened too fast. I’m sure Chark is alright, but Lizzy and Carrollton i'm worried about.” Melina answered, still focused on Hannah.

I was about to speak, but Melian interrupted me, “I have a plan, but I need your help, Walker.”

“What is it?”

“I need you to go distract that beast. I know this is an outrageous request, but I know you're stronger than you've been letting on, you want to be stone-cold and hide your abilities just in case, but please, do this while I heal Hannah and look for the others. We will back you up as soon as we can.”

I stood there contemplating but I didn't have long and she was right. I would have to fight if I wanted all of us to survive.

But are these people truly my responsibility? It didn’t matter, I needed them if I wanted to make it to Ara.

“Fine,” I said as my body surged with wind attribute mana. I didn't even bother to wait for her response as I dashed toward the sound of the large beast.