As I pressed my boot onto the bears head to yank out my sword, all three girls came running over seeing that it had been felled. Thick dark blood spilled from the hole the blade left behind as I drew it out. I flicked off what blood remained, then sheathed the blade. Serin was the first to arrive.

“You did it!” She said giving me a brief hug.

“We did it. There’s no way I could have taken that thing head on, like you did.”

“You’ll get there. What is this, your third time out in the field?”

“I think so.”

Lillia and Altria soon joined us, stood where the bear lay.

“Good work. You did really well.” Lillia said as she inspected the corpse.

“I knew you could manage it.” Altria said as she joined us.

“We’ve done what we came here for, so we should get moving. We still have a lot of miles to cover before we reach the campsite for the evening.” Lillia instructed.

The party doubled back to where we had left our gear, once we had picked it up, we were back on the move. Altria took the front once again, she was looking for monster trails, but this time it was so we could avoid them. We didn’t want to spend the time brining one down, not when we had already met our goal for the day.

The place where we planned to make camp for the night was several miles into the plain on the other side of the forest. We were crossing the forest at its thinnest part, but it would still take us another couple of hours to walk through. This was despite already venturing quite far inside as we conducted the hunt.

We now had an easier pace than before. Altria was only a short way ahead now and she was only walking so we didn’t have to rush to keep up. We had been making good progress for about thirty minutes when Altria suddenly froze in front of us. She gave the hand signal to halt and we all came to a stop.

Lillia ran up quietly from behind, stopping when she reached me and Serin.

“What is it?” She quietly asked.

“I’m not sure. I can’t see anything from here.” Serin replied.

Altria quietly crept back to the rest of the group.

“We’re in a bit of a spot. We’re going to struggle to get round them without doubling back and giving them a wide birth.” Altria explained as she re-joined the group.

“Them?” Asked Lillia.

“Yeah, two, about a hundred meters up ahead… What do you think?”

“Two of them… I think we should play it safe and double back.”

“I agree with Lillia.” Serin added.

Just as we turned to head back the way we had come to give them a wide birth a loud growl rang out through the forest. I’m not sure how it happened, perhaps the wind had changed and carried our scents to them, but they were now aware of our presence. There was a loud crashing sound as the two beasts barrelled at full speed in our direction. These weren’t like the wild creatures I found in my own world. Sure, people got attacked by them from time to time, but with these monster beasts, as soon as they were aware of a person’s presence, they went into a rage and attacked without fail.

We were caught in a bad spot, with little time to react. Altira loosed two arrows in quick session, hitting her mark on both occasions. Both bear monsters were hit on the side of their heads, but it wasn’t a fatal shot for either and they both continued their charge. We would have to stand our ground and fight. Everyone ditched their gear and turned to intercept the approaching creatures.

“You hang back Theo. If you can safely assist do so, but we’ll take the lead on these.” Instructed Lillia.

“Right.”

In the time it had taken us to drop our bags the creatures had already covered half of the distance between us. Lillia raised her staff, her eyes glowed and multiple vines shot up from the ground at the feet of the of the closest creature, working their way up its legs. At first it ripped through them, but more only kept coming until it was eventually brought to a stop. It was still trying to fight its way out, but the vines kept on coming. The second beast tore past, only focused on us. There would be no daze this time, Lillia’s full concentration was on restraining the first creature. This didn’t deter Serin who ran ahead to meet the creature head on.

A couple of arrows flew overhead, hitting the beast on either shoulder. Serin dashed in as it reacted to the impacts, dealing two blows in a flash before somersaulting backwards to safety and quickly dashing to the side. She circled the creature while it was still reeling from her attack and another arrow whizzed past, hitting it on the shoulder once more. This time the bear leaned heavily to the side and Serin moved in for the kill, lunging forward for a single strike to head. Her sword pierced the back of its head, just below the ear and penetrated several inches. She pulled it out just as quickly and the creature crashed to the ground.

Seeing that the creature was dead, Serin turned her back on it and shifted her focus to the second bear that Lillia was still just about restraining with the vines. Serin picked up the pace as she could see that it would only be a matter of time before it broke free of its restraints.

As Serin ran over while Altria shot an arrow hitting it in the side of the head, this seemed to little more than enrage it and the beast struggled harder than ever. Serin had already covered the distance, but as she was closing in for a kill shot, the vines gave way and the bear burst free.

Serin got clear safely, but she was put on the back foot a little surprised by the sudden breakout. Altria was covering her with arrows, but its back was turned to her, so she was unable to hit any vital points. It still gave Serin just enough of an opening to regain her footing and get in a couple of stabs.

I had been hanging back the entire time, but seining what was going on I had decided to move forward. The bear was too preoccupied with Serin to notice me come in from the side as I plunged my blade into its chest from its armpit. I retracted the blade straight away, but I was still too slow to dodge the arm that came swinging round. I was thrown into the ground by the blow and landed on the floor several feet away.

The creature now heavily wounded slowly approached me as I picked myself off the floor. I was winded and getting up was painful, luckily for me Serin didn’t miss the opening. Her next shot pierced the bear from the side, her rapier pushed in up to the hilt. Unlike my attempt, Serin had pierced the creature’s heart. She pulled out the blade as the bear moved forward another two steps and collapsed on the floor, blood pouring from its wounds. My ears rang with the tada noise as I gained points from the assist.

By this time, I had gotten to my feet, but my side throbbed with pain. The creatures blow had done more than knock the wind out of me. I would be lucky if all I had got from it was bruises this time. The whole group had gathered near where the final bear had fallen.

“Are you okay you look hurt?” Serin asked seeing that I was holding my side.

“I’m fine, it just aches a bit…”

“Let me look at that.” Lillia said as she reached me.

She quickly removed my chest armour and touched my ribs in turn.

“You’ve cracked a rib. Sit down I’ll heal you.” She told me.

I did as Lillia asked and sat down as she begun the healing technique. I started to feel better almost immediately.

“This is why I told you to hang back…” She complained.

“I did… It’s just when I saw it break free like that, I thought I could help.”

“This could have been a lot worse, you’re lucky. We weren’t ready to give you cover, if Serin had been a moment slower.” Lillia lectured.

“Don’t be too hard on him Lillia. He did create the opening that I used to bring it down.” Serin said speaking up for me.

“I suppose.” Lillia agreed reluctantly.