Yet another attack. He used the uneven and cluttered terrain in an attempt to block. It sshed toppled numerous wide trees without issue; what was he even supposed to do? If he hides, then it will target Kanade or the downed Lilliane.

  Kanade couldn’t do much, and by the looks of it, Li was out of the fight. He had to keep dodging. His meager bites wouldn’t do anything either. Something caught his eye, a mere glint amidst the greenery and the walking mayhem’s path of destruction. A gleam of a sword. Li’s grasp probably didn’t hold during the attack she suffered. It had to be the only chance to win.

  He rushed past a few more slow yet devastating attacks, managing to grab the sword by its handle. Dodge and attack; mastery of counterattacking. Their life was in danger; thinking about others wasn’t in his mindset, yet their faces kept him pushing. He kept dodging, sneaking in an attack every chance he could—things weren’t going so great.

  Kanade’s arms were trembling; they were already tired. Now the onsught that Pochirin was surviving was keeping her conscious and aware. She had no time to worry for Pochirin or Lilliane; the bear had to fall first. The pristine swift bow relentlessly spit out lethal hits; her passive which gave a vague sense of weaknesses, barely did anything as the thick hide prevented her from reaching those points, whether they were eyes, joints, or limbs. If only she could have a clean shot, she could give it her all.

  The battlefield, in less than a minute, was cleaved through. The bear was deforesting the jungle bit by bit. Worst of all, her quiver was getting lighter and lighter after every useless attack she made. Its body being filled with arrows made no difference in its journey of destruction. Until;

  The sword trembled in his mouth; he was focused on the legs, yet it kept forcing him to use more and more strength to just hold it. However, his ability cooldown was up. He had no time to py tug-of-war with the sword; he promptly let go—or rather, as he did, it hurled out of his mouth straight into the jungle. The sudden pull made him stumble for a moment; before he could even react, he was calm. A wave of relief washed through him, with a figurative pat on the back, he was back to full focus. However, it wasn’t his time to shine.

  “SPEAR…!” A regal scream carried the same aura he had just experienced. “OF LIGHT!” A bright fsh of light flew over his head, nding straight into the bear’s stomach; it completely absorbed the impact until its feet couldn’t withstand the bst. The strike still had enough power in it that kept pushing him, its fight against it left deep furrows in the ground. While it was doing that;

  It’s my time!

  Han jolted after that light show; he readied his skill. And promptly leapt teeth first onto its right leg without a chance of fleeing, then everything stopped. It was quiet for a split moment, no ringing in Han’s ears or explosions—pure silence followed up by a whirling sound. A blue light shone behind him; thinking it was a sudden attack, he steeled himself, rolling on the ground enough to see Kanade in her tree spot. The air visibly circled around her next and final arrow; the compressed air was filled with mana to the point where it glowed bright blue and pyed with everything it could get on, lighting up the dark humid jungle.

  Through the howling wind, a deyed whisper reached Han’s ear. “…Hypershot.”

  He couldn’t even see her let go of the arrow as it roared in front of him; the tree she was on was immediately rid of every branch and leaf until the kickback managed to even upheave its roots.

  A loud, thunderous explosion behind momentarily stunned him; the deafening, numerous snaps colored whatever was left of the jungle purple before the light sprang into the sky, where it continued rumbling in the dark clouds above.

  What the fuck is happening?!

  The noise had jumbled his brain completely; up, down, left, and right didn’t matter. He barely managed to turn back to Kanade. She was wobbly, her crouched stance didn’t make sense. Something was wrong; he had to go. Leaving the bear, without caring to check whether it was dead or not, he rushed to Kanade. She buckled, but Han was just in time, he had no chance of catching her. The least he could do was lessen her fall—a fall that never came. Without needing to look up, a light white shone and faded in a moment.

  “She’ll be fine. I healed her.” Li held her, though slowly kneeled down and leaned her against the uprooted tree. “Come here… you’re injured.” She said after gncing at Han.

  Though, he didn’t feel anything. He wasn’t hit; he made sure of that, or else he would have been dead. Holding the sword in his mouth did exhaust his muscles. Until he used his tongue to poke a hole out of his cheek.

  “…Idiot.” She whispered inside her armor, but that just pushed the confusion more. She pced her gauntlet on his head, and then the same calming aura passed through him once more. Only then did it register what she said before;

  So it was her.

  Lilliane is a padin. The sensation was her active skill, a whatsitsname aura skill that alleviated combat stress around her; sadly, she turned it off for what was about to happen. Nonetheless, victory was achieved as he noticed the red notification floating in the corner of his eye.

  [FORMIDABLE ENEMY FELLED][3406 EXP GRANTED]

  T-That EXP gain?!? But he couldn’t look away just yet as another appeared.

  [NEW TITLE ACHIEVED][THERYSTOWN’S ONE OF MANY]

  In shock he gnced at the bear’s body. It was still standing, covered in blood, a huge gash in its stomach, and more importantly, without a head. The rumbling above finally caught his attention. Whatever shot from its corpse was now a purple lightning bolt that kept jolting around the gray cloud cluster above the jungle.

  Lilliane straightened herself and extended her right gauntlet to where the bear’s stomach injury was; the bear’s gut bubbled, and her sword shot back into her hand in a quick moment. Noticing Han uncomfortably looking at the purple lightning;

  “That’s Hanma Energy. I won’t be able to erase it for a while. Until then, it roams the sky, eventually striking some poor being.” Her eyes nd on the standing corpse. “This enemy… wasn’t a bear. It was a panda. A lethal ambushing predator that can conceal its presence, quite unlike a panda… don’t you say?”

  Its presence…?

  Everything became far more mysterious for some reason. Han instantly checked Pochirin’s resistances. They were fine until it was the holy stats; -1. It had to be, it simply had to be the case; nothing else would expin it. His mind started to wander;

  He’s… I’m a fucking Hanma Hound?!?

  It makes perfect sense. But that opens up a variety of problems; what will happen once he evolves again? Variables, the amount of variables—they were really starting to give Han a run for their money.

  What would’ve happened to Li and Kanade?

  Pochirin’s a familiar, and that link between them, which protects the master, was everything but permanent. Once he becomes far stronger than the master, when forced into the uneven retionship, it won’t have any choice and will break. Another variable suddenly arrived in retrospect, one that breaks his mind.

  How did she heal me?

  Maybe the hanma, the literal antithesis of everything that was good—can receive holy healing—impossible. What if he’s the bridge allowing him to be healed as a human? That would make sense, yes. It’s the only pusible thing, and it’s keeping everything together, barely and crudely, but it’s holding together. Ultimately—Han was unsure. Unsure about him, unsure about the future. For having his possible future crumble before him in a sentence, he was retively calm.

  Fuck…

  Everything was just happening so fast; he barely had time to process each event’s py-by-py. Uncertainty was killing him; to combat that, he closed the valve and focused on the present. He survived, Lilliane is safe, Kanade is safe and that was all that mattered. Though, that made the situation awkward.

  Should I be happy about the EXP? Shit, what level even was he?

  Aside from seeing the EXP yield, he couldn’t delve into the stats just yet. The time was moving, and it has gotten darker. Lilliane had the same idea by sheathing her sword and grabbing Kanade in her arms; it was better to leave the jungle before even thinking about anything else. The warm wind that was rampant before no longer existed. And the ruined jungle removed any trace of their sshed-up path. They were in a location where the steepness of the jungle fttened out, though they were nowhere near the top. While their reliable wind, their main signal of direction, was gone. Its disappearance opened up another path.

  Burning… the smell of burning wood.

  Fire equals civilization, and the timing of it becoming a colder evening matched up. Han barked some nonsense and turned to her, holding Kanade with one arm. The other was in a praying gesture. He guessed that she pnned to use some guidance skill; he had to be at least a bit useful, otherwise he wasn’t pulling his weight.

  Anyhow, Lilliane stopped praying and understood what Han was trying to achieve; she followed suit, her armor being a bigger burden than Kanade. They kept walking downhill, at least that should have made it easier for her. Han simply kept a normal pace until they had finally reached the jungle’s abrupt cutoff. The Therystown bright candles welcomed them. But before they could receive it;

  “Arg—“ Kanade fought off a long-winded yawn and slid out of Li’s grasp, nding on her feet. “We won… right?” She gnced between the two of them, who were covered in dried blood.

  “We did. The bear is dead.” She said Han somehow knew she had gnced at him. Not that he really could call her out for lying. Though he watched Kanade brighten up, her short tail visibility, although lightly, swung side to side.

  “How much silver is that? It had to be a lot. I don’t think there was much to loot off it though.” She commented whilst they continued walking towards Therystown. Kanade expected her to answer, but she brushed it off on her being exhausted. Their walk was uninterrupted, but they were met with some children’s gazes.

  One girl waved at her; Kanade couldn’t resist and waved back. Without thinking too much, they seemingly already had a pn to take lodging in the tavern, Han didn’t have any compints. The tavern was quite big, since it was at the supposed town square. It was probably quite a good local as well as adventurer spot. Even without needing to enter, they heard the rhythmic rummaging that were drunken talks. Though it was aided by the fact that the windows and the front doors were open.

  The thick smell of ale and meat with a dish of potatoes filled his nostrils, at least it hid the stench of both theirs and the men’s inside. They finally stepped forward; Li’s stature along, with the dirtied yet beautiful armor, stood out like a sore thumb, to a point where the whole tavern ceased to move and gawked at them.

  “Look who we have here! Burrr—the champions!” A familiar man shouted first, Han’s eyes nded on him by the bar, the supposed mute driver. He ughs loudly and lifts his nearly empty wooden mug, then another man in the corner does so, then an older ss, and in a couple seconds everyone in the tavern had their ale in the air, ughing and smiling drunkenly.

  Everything took a couple of moments to register; Kanade focused on hiding her smile while walking towards the barkeep. An older bulky man with a pronounced gut, his hands were busy pouring ale a tad faster than his single eye could keep up, nonetheless, it nded on them.

  “The drinks are on the house, young’uns. Say, y’all want a room, aye?” Although his gnce didn’t st long, it went back in a surprised jolt.

  “Mm.” Kanade’s barely audible mutter reached the barkeep.

  “A bit meek for someone strong, girlie.” He ughed and pced both of his hands on the counter; his focus finally fully on them. “That can do. A moment, please.” He added and scurried off. She noticed the driver beside her, and seeing the lively atmosphere, had to comment.

  “You’re not that mute.” She coldly pointed out without an inkling to start something.

  “Hehe… It’s better for the trade.” He gnced at her with a gentle smile and answered to the remark with a rather low voice himself. Though, that still was enough for someone to overhear.

  “The less ya know, the less ale ya need to forget.” The man further down the counter added before gulping down his mug.

  “…That’s right.” The driver muttered under his breath, his eyes this time didn’t bother turning their way. Since the barkeep hadn’t come back, she gnced around. Li was silent, probably itching to rid herself of the armor and shower. And Pochirin was stoic as always. Everyone she happened to gnce at either smiled or raised their mugs, interrupting whatever they were doing. The room was heavy, her heart beat faster once she lived in the moment. A feeling she had never felt was brute forced-into her; acknowledgment. Quickly, without letting it rub off on her, the festive tavern did propose a question.

  “How did all of you know that we defeated it?” Since she was out cold after using up her mana, she didn’t even see how the fight really ended. Then a deep oink made her gnce back.

  “I’s can say—rootfog.” A short boarman with a whole bucket on his table grabbed their attention. He was very alike to the hog they had sin but humanoid and much smaller. “I’s was in the farms nds and see’s the sky turn purple, then bam bam purple lightning. I’s knew that I’s had to go to the tavern!—rootfog.” His desk cttered as he spoke, nonetheless, she, and now they, knew.

  “It’s a tradition. Here’s the key. I’ll keep ‘em away from disturbing y’alls sleep.” The barkeep was quick to mention, handing Kanade a key with an etched number.

  “We’d appreciate a bathtub, if avaible.”

  “Thunk so. Already there, but…” He ruffled his graying hair. “We don’t have too much water, and warming it—“

  “It’s fine. How much for the night?” She surprisingly cut him off and was more worried about the cost of staying at a tavern with luxuries like these than anything.

  “I can take her tab, if need be.” The driver chipped in.

  “You can take it off me hands.” The barkeep smiled at the driver, then turned to Kanade. “But I ain’t in need of ya’lls money. Hospitality’s the thing youse need right now.”

  With Kanade’s thanks, they climbed up to the second floor, their room was situated in the back, the furthest one from the downstairs bar. The lock clicked open, Han was the first one to enter. The lock promptly clicked close behind them.

  The room wasn’t anything too luxurious in Han’s experience, though it was far superior to the shack back in Higelsdale. The room itself was enough to fit two beds and a bedside shelf in. And since it was going dark, the barkeep had someone light up the room with several candles pced about the room; on the shelf, near the closed window, and on a chair.

  However, upon seeing a random tub, he quickly remembered what she asked for. He also saw one in the shack; a bathtub. It was of decent size and even had some thin wood id under it to avoid mold on the floorboards.

  This is gonna be awkward as shit.