Leonel brought the group to a stop again, his senses continuing to be focused on the battle ahead.
They were no more than 200 meters or so between them. But, through the thick forest, it was impossible to spot them with the naked eye from the distance. It was no surprise, then, that the group of about a dozen had yet to notice their appearance as well.
Leonel steadied his breathing, slowly pulling out a silver tipped arrow. Compared to the arrows he had been using, this one was easily twice as thick and several times heavier. Its tip was split into four serrated edges, a look alone that made one want to have nothing to do with such a vicious killing instrument.
If one looked closely, it was possible to see a faint energy coating the arrow tip. But, one who wasn't especially sensitive wouldn't notice it at all.
With a calm inhalation, Leonel nocked his bowstring and pulled it back.
He stood on the forest floor, aiming toward what looked like nothing but endless trees, his eyes filled with a cold calculating light.
…
Beads of sweat fell down Belthorn's delicate brow. After hours of battle, her long black hair had long since been soaked through, clinging to her forehead and even parts of her collarbone.
Around her, what looked like silver spheres hung around. Every so often, she would make a gesture with her slender hands, causing these spheres to shoot forward and smash into the limbs of the Titan Hyena.
It was hard to tell if this was a telekinetic ability or something more complex. But, at this moment, the men and singular woman that surrounded her were most definitely not thinking about this.
To this point, they had already lost several members of their team. If it wasn't for the combination attacks of Belthorn and the white belt senior, Jaelis, far more would have fallen.
This sounded like a glass half full type of approach, which was good. After all, it was always better to remain optimistic in this kind of situation. But, it took a turn for the worse when one realized that their group of just over a dozen had been double this size not long ago.
Jaelis held the Titan Hyena down with the help of others, his spear rotating quickly with his every attack. But, even with how haughty he was, he had to admit that had it not been for Belthorn's odd ability, he would have fallen several times already.
Jaelis and three others struck forward at the same time, their blades all aiming for the snout of the Titan Hyena.
Their blades almost reached their target at the same time, but Jaelis' eyes flashed at the last instant. In a hardly perceptible action, he slowed by a measure.
The Titan Hyena roared, swiping a strong paw across and snapping three weapons at once.
Its foul breath hung in the air as it lunged, plunging both sets of claws into the shoulders of another.
The Titan Hyena ripped downward, tearing the freshman into six strips.
Jaelis was the first to retreat, his spear tip having been spared.
At that moment, Belthorn reacted, sending several silver balls smashing into the torso of the Titan Hyena. With it having jumped into the air, it didn't even have the chance to dodge.
The Titan Hyena was launched back, deep dents appearing in its side. Any other creature would have been entirely crippled. But, Belthorn and the others had been through this once before. The flesh of the Titan Hyena might have deformed, causing terrible bruises, but its bones were just fine.
The Titan Hyena latched onto a thick tree to stabilize itself, its eyes filled with fury as it locked onto Belthorn for the third time in this battle already.
BANG!
The Titan Hyena launched itself forward, causing the tree it had just been on to partially snap and begin swaying from side to side.
"Form up!" Jaelis roared.
He took a protective stance before Belthorn. Or, rather, it seemed like he had. Before Jaelis would take any sort of protective measures, the Titan Hyena had soared over its head. It seemed that Jaelis had miscalculated the flight trajectory of the beast.
Belthorn's eyes widened, watching the massive mustard yellow furred beast falling down toward her.
Biting her teeth, she mobilized what remained of her floating silver spheres. In order to launch her previous attack, she had flung the previous five outside of her ten meter range of control. Usually, Jaelis would find a way to throw them back to her, but he had already been retreating before he could this time.
Now, she only had one left, the one she had left behind for emergencies. But, just this singular sphere wouldn't be able to toss the beast away like those five before had.
She needed time to accelerate her spheres to reach that level of power. But, this foul beast was already falling toward her. Even if she by some miracle managed to kill this Titan Hyena, this wouldn't change. There was no way her body could survive the collapse of a beast so heavy onto it.
Henorin stood beside Belthorn. Seemingly not knowing what to do either.
"Dammit! Protect her!" Jaelis roared.
At that moment, Henorin's eyes narrowed.
Belthorn roared, her final sphere shooting up. Her face was drained of all color, clearly having been overtaken by fear. If anything, her final roar was less about her confidence and much more about gathering up the courage she needed to do anything at all.
The silver sphere shot upward, but it was off target.
Belthorn had aimed for the beast's chest. In such a situation, aiming for the largest target was best and it would hopefully give her better leverage to throw the beast off course.
But, in her agitation, she missed, aiming too high and causing the sphere to smash against the bared fangs of the Titan Hyena.
A splutter of bone and broken teeth flew, sending the sphere spinning off in another direction. The Titan Hyena roared in pain, but as expected, its downward trajectory didn't change. In fact, it was now even more infuriated.
It was exactly then that a sharp whistling sound filled their ears. It was as though someone was blowing the flute right next to them all, intent on making them all go deaf.
SHUUUUUUUU!