GROOOOAAARRRR!! GROAAAARRRRR!!

The Pantherian's roars echoed through the forest as it thrashed against the creature's grip, desperately trying to break free.

The situation kicks in and panic started clawing at my throat, paralyzing me, but I fought to keep it at bay. My heart thundered in my chest, each frantic beat a reminder of the danger surrounding me. I refused to let fear consume me. I took a deep breath, forcing myself to center my thoughts. I couldn’t afford to succumb to weakness.

My gaze swept through the dense trees. I needed to get away from the river as far as possible, so my only way out would be to venture inside the forest. Though there are still lingering thoughts of fear for the forest itself, right now I had to weigh in what to avoid most in my current situation.

And the most dangerous thing right now is the river.

Just as I was about to move my body, a vine grabbed my ankle and lifted me high up in the sky.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

Huff, huff, WHAT IN TARNATION IS THIS?! The fear was too intense that I just noticed how I soiled my pants, heavily I was tossed about like a rag doll, the vine treating me as if I were nothing more than a toy. Though, after a few seconds of thinking about how I would die, my fear started to disperse. I began to rely on my senses again to assess the situation, focus came back to me to see what I can use to my safety and benefit.

In this sense, after easing some of the fear and somewhat recovering from the tension, I immediately tried to observe my surroundings fully well. And what I saw was quite a sight to behold, I am having an aerial view of what seemed to be the entirety of Forest Macabre. It stretched endlessly before me, a sprawling sea of green that seemed to merge with the sky, its towering trees whispering secrets in the wind.

Massive.

That was the perfect word to describe the forest’s reach, it was akin to looking at the horizon of the never-ending ocean in the pictures from books. It was hard to imagine how deep was I in the forest that I almost lost hope in going outside. However, there are individuals out there that still needs taking care of, both for the good, and the bad.

And so, I mustered up my motivation and tried to rotate at the instant to see if there are places where the forest ends. Pain struck me as I had to do it in the short amount of time when the vine paused in mid-air, yet I struggled enough so that I can see where I should be moving forward.

Well that is if I survive here.

No, I will survive, to hell with this forsaken forest.

And then I saw.

A side of the forest where it is not large enough, where it did not reach the horizon. There I saw some kind of tower. I’m not sure if it’s part of the forest, but I can only hope for the best. Remembering the direction, I must now think of a plan since that direction is on the other side of the Hallowed River.

Up. Suddenly, everything is going up very quickly. It was so fast that I had a hard time breathing due to the intense change in air pressure in the surroundings.

Or rather, I was going down. And it was too late for me to realize it as my body slammed the ground hard enough that I may have broken a lot of bones. Coughing up blood, I felt the vine still clutching at my ankle, tightening the grip can only mean one thing, it’s going to do it again.

Difficult as it may be, I had to try removing its tight hold, I desperately moved my body upright so that I can release myself. Moving my body proved to be extremely painful after the shock that I received, I can feel several concussions all over, but I grit my teeth as if to numb the pain since I don’t want to experience getting flung up again.

Yet something happened. As I was about to reach for the vine, it trembled, it then unfurled itself, and quickly got away from me, after then finally submerging itself again into the waters.

What? It was a strange situation, very strange. Snapping out from my shock, I quickly looked at my hand, desperate to see what might have made that dangerous vine afraid, I had the thinking that whatever it was, it was my only salvation from this perilous situation I’m in.

Looking at my hands, I saw the only thing that bathed my hand, my blood. I tried looking for anything else, there’s my fur, my skin, nothing else. I was both relieved and alerted, relieved that even though it only happened once, there’s a high chance that I can use my blood to ward off beasts; but still alerted because I had several questions, especially on why the vine wasn’t afraid earlier. It was then I was struck with a memory--

It seems that Gabard was right all along,

‘Forest Macabre fears Primordial Blood.’

It was the single statement at the end of the last chapter of his book. And up to this time, nobody was able to prove it because in the first place, primordial blood is ultimately nonexistent in this world. Also, since the forest was extremely dangerous, only a few beasts are brave enough to enter this despicable place.

No, this information is lacking. I don’t know yet if the forest itself is fearful of the blood. But for now, I can consider beasts are generally afraid of it.

PUHAA!

What snapped me from my thought process was the Pantherian earlier resurfacing from inside the river. Seems that he was still struggling all this time. As expected from a Pantherian, such strong tenacity. Nevertheless, it was still wresting and holding for dear life.

I noticed some bruises on its face and some lashes as well; I guess it had to fight the creature holding it down underwater. And I didn’t need to think deep to see who had the upper hand since now, I can see multiple vines entangling its body, from its upper limbs to its neck, choking the poor creature.

Then the Pantherian looked at me. With its fierce and dauntless eyes, it glared.

Yet, I didn’t feel any anger, there was no bloodlust, no killing intent. What I felt was different, it was different from the time Edran had looked at me. It was different from the looks of my executioners. Yes, what I felt was otherwise.

It was helplessness.

It was a look of weakness, of submission, of defeat. It was as if this creature is begging for mercy, the glare that was supposed to make other beasts kneel in fear is nowhere to be found. This is the feeling that I have as I was looking at the Pantherian as it continued to fight off someone stronger. It was a new experience for me, being immersed in books and learning the characteristics of different creatures outside the palace. I never had this kind of experience, this feeling, this understanding of the emotions of other beasts.

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Then it dawned on me. That I was presented a choice. On one hand, I could leave the Pantherian as it is right now since it can also act as a decoy for me. On another, I can help it in escaping from the river, knowing it could turn on me if freed.

I’m having doubts about helping it since there’s the chance that my blood won’t work on it, and if I were to successfully save it, I’ll probably be its next meal. However, if I don’t help it and it somehow escapes, I’m pretty sure I will have a stalker for life.

GROOOOOOAAARRRRRR!!!

A roar louder than before. I looked back at the Pantherian and saw that it is starting to slowly sink deeper into the river. I guess it doesn’t have long enough. The renowned stamina, ferocity, tenacity, and endurance; all of these traits were powerless in the face of a stronger creature.

In this case, not only does the Pantherian have to battle a creature with a stronger and more flexible body structure, but it also has to deal with the river itself, being able to swim does not necessarily grant you advantage over other creatures, just like other skills like [Flight] and [Dig], it just gives you an “entrance” to another environment, nothing else. The creatures borne from their own environments will always hold significant advantage, that is one of the few truths of this world.

I guess I may benefit from this one huh.

I made my decision. I had to first wipe the primordial blood off my hands to make sure I don’t scare off the Pantherian just in case. Then. I started to approach the river, slowly but cautiously, I tried not to run too fast because there might be other creatures besides the one with vines lurking inside the river.

When I arrived at the bank of the river, no other monsters appeared, so I got to thinking that maybe the vine beast is like an acting king of this portion of the river, or maybe even including the nearby territory. As such, I factored that out when I tried to reach for the Pantherian.

“Endure more! Swim faster and take my hand! I’ll take care of the vines around you!” I shouted even though I don’t know if this creature would understand me. Even without referencing the books I’ve read, I’m pretty sure that living things in the forest had other means of communication other than creating their own language. But right now, I don’t have much choice but to rely on communicative signals like reaching my hand, hoping that the Pantherian would understand me.

Fortunately, it seemed that my message got through as the Pantherian seemed to have mustered his last remaining strength and swam as hard as he could toward my outreached hand. Although—

GRRRROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRR!!!

Suddenly, the stripes on its body changed its color from black to red, its eyes also emitted some kind of smoke like it was burning. It then swam faster as if the vines holding it down and the raging counterflow of waters aren’t there. A reddish aura is now covering its whole body, and even I can sense the dense bloodlust in it even though I’m just looking.

So this is berserk. Quite intimidating I see.

[Berserk. A characteristic of selected beastkin that lets them tap into dormant instinctual power at the cost of their sanity. Beasts that go berserk will only accomplish the last goal they set in their minds and would ignore anything else; anyone who interferes with them will be considered an enemy, whoever or whatever it is. Once they’ve completed the goal, they will lose a significant amount of strength and will most likely fall unconscious.]

The berserker state of the Pantherian looks so different from its normal state. The ferociousness almost blends in the air and you can just feel it. Now I would have to deal with it once it reaches my hand, I dug my arm and feet deep on the ground just in case I get pulled in by its power, even though I doubt this could offer any resistance.

This should be enough for me not to get pulled in the river.

With all its power dedicated to its goal, it finally reached my hand and grabbed it. Hugk! As expected, I was dug out from the ground and was pulled off, skidding my feet as I was dragged and creating two valleys of eroded earth. That’s just how much power the Pantherian’s hand had. And here I thought I’ve made enough approximations. It seems that I still underestimated a berserker’s power.

Fortunately, I was able to provide enough resistance that I stopped being pulled just a few distance away from the river. The Pantherian then lost all its strength and fell unconscious, it still held my hand probably out of instinct alone since it was just hanging for dear life. However, I still had to hold tightly and resist with all my might because much to my surprise, had I not noticed the Pantherian losing its ferocious aura and its body coming back to its normal appearance, I would have thought that I was still being pulled by a berserker. The vine did not lose either to the berserker and is still vehemently trying to bring it under water.

I bit my forefinger hard enough to wound it and let a few drops of blood flow, then I reached for the vine trying to choke the Pantherian’s neck. Before I can even get near, the vine squirmed and unfurled itself as fast as it could and then dropped back into the water. I did the next one on its left arm and the same thing happened, however, this time, another vine popped out and latched onto its right leg.

Ugh. This is irritating. There, I realized that whatever this creature is, it is desperate and will keep on sending these annoying vines as long as it’s not near me. More than that, I also felt a stronger pull from all the vines entangling the Pantherian’s body, dragging me nearer to the river.

“HUAAAAHHHHH!!” Its already taking all of my strength just to make sure that my feet stay on the ground, yet I had to deal with a persistent vine monster. You are just so annoying! I then bit more of the skin on my forefinger so that more blood would flow out. Afterwards, I applied the outflow on the Pantherian’s body, from its neck to its limbs, to almost the whole of its upper body.

That eased the pull somehow, but I can’t slack here since I’m almost at my limit as well, I’m very well aware that I do not have the same strength and endurance as a Pantherian, I am also not a berserker so there’s no choice for me but to wisely preserve and utilize my energy and stamina.

I dug my heels into the ground, the force of the Pantherian's weight nearly dragging me down with it as the vines relentlessly pulled it deeper into the river. My hands clutched its arm, feeling the strain in my muscles as I tried to anchor myself, fighting the current and the writhing vines in a desperate tug-of-war. The creature’s body was heavy, its fur soaked, and the pull of the river was relentless. Every inch felt like a battle.

With one hand still gripping the Pantherian, I bit into my finger, hard enough to feel the sting of the cut. Blood welled up, dripping down onto the vine latched around its waist. I smeared the blood quickly, rubbing it over the tight coils binding the Pantherian’s body. The vine shuddered beneath my touch, recoiling as if burned, loosening its grip slightly. It wasn’t enough.

The vines around its legs pulled harder, dragging us both toward the water’s edge. My feet slipped, and for a moment, I nearly lost my footing. But I held on. I gritted my teeth and forced myself forward, my free hand quickly moving to the Pantherian’s arm, smearing more blood along the tangled vines. They writhed and squirmed in response, recoiling further with each drop of blood, but they were stubborn.

I could feel the Pantherian’s body starting to shift, the vines slowly losing their hold, but the pull from the river grew stronger, the vines clenching tighter around its legs and waist. My arms trembled as I fought against the pull, the veins in my neck straining with the effort. I was almost out of strength.

“WAAAAAARRGGGHH!” I hissed through gritted teeth, more to myself than the creature.

With another bite into my already bleeding hand, I smeared a fresh stream of blood across its waist, pressing hard against the vines that clung to its torso. They hissed and slithered, recoiling faster this time, wriggling back toward the water as if in retreat. But I wasn’t done yet. There were still vines coiled tightly around its legs, pulling it downward with all their might.

I lunged forward, digging my feet into the ground as deeply as I could, reaching for the Pantherian’s legs. The vines felt like living chains, tightening even as I smeared my blood along them. They fought back, pulling harder, but my blood worked its magic. One by one, they snapped free, hissing and slithering away like snakes retreating from a fire.

My muscles burned, and my breath came in ragged gasps as I finally managed to pull the Pantherian clear of the riverbank. The last vine loosened its hold, slipping off and slinking back into the dark waters, defeated.

Exhausted but victorious, I collapsed to my knees beside the Pantherian, my hand still bleeding, the scent of my blood heavy in the air. The Pantherian lay motionless, but it was free. The vines wouldn’t dare come back—not with the stench of my blood warding them off.

And with this—

I’ve done my job.

However, I’m not someone kind enough to do something without expecting anything in return.

I guess I’ll move on to phase two.