This was an Ursus.
That was the first thought to surface in Saito’s mind the very moment he laid eyes on the corpse.
The ‘Ursus’ here didn’t refer to the name of the nation beneath his feet, but rather to the race of the young man in front of him — those bear-like ears and tail were their most obvious markers, and beyond that, the innate, formidable strength and rock-solid constitution.
Without those, there’d be no way to live peacefully on this homeland with its harsh environment.
And his second reaction was…
“So this is…
an Infected?”
‘My apologies.’
After silently murmuring the words in his heart, Saito, with slow and gentle motions, tore open the clothing on the corpse that had already been ripped to tatters by the Rend Beast, exposing the brawny, already-stiffening body underneath.
Right beside the horrifying wound on the Ursus fellow’s waist and abdomen, Saito spotted some very conspicuous jet-black specks — those were unmistakably tiny grains of Originium, and visible Originium crystallization had emerged on the surface of his skin.
This guy’s Oripathy had progressed to at least the middle stage.
A broken bow and arrows, clothing stitched from animal hides — this guy was most likely a hunter from a nearby village.
He’d run into a Rend Beast in the forest, gotten his belly torn open by a single swipe of its claw, and died on the spot.
That was the conclusion Saito drew from the scene around him — no, it didn’t end there.
He stepped away from the dead Ursus fellow’s side and looked around at the surrounding environment.
Among the toppled trees, the ground was crowded with messy human footprints.
Saito could pick out at least three distinctly different sets — apart from the poor soul who had been killed on the spot, at least two more guys had fled into the forest farther off.
Roar——
That fury-laden roar rang out once again.
Saito snapped his head up and looked in the direction the sound had come from.
“This is bad — I need to hurry and save them!”
Realizing there was a good chance someone was still alive, Saito immediately rose up from beside the corpse, fished a chunk of Originium out of his pocket, and tossed it into his mouth.
Even though the Administrator had already taught him other methods of channeling Originium energy, for Saito, none of them were anywhere near as efficient as just chomping it down directly.
The only thing that could stop him from doing this was the Administrator’s repeated admonitions.
But this was a critical moment.
If he arrived even a second late, the people still out there could very well fall victim to the Rend Beast’s claws — so Saito didn’t bother holding back any longer.
After all, even the Administrator had said as much: that was only in situations that weren’t urgent.
Brimming Originium energy, under Saito’s control, surged swiftly from his lower abdomen out to all four limbs and every corner of his body — as if an endless, inexhaustible power was welling up from inside him.
This was one of the most basic applications of Originium energy.
Body Enhancement.
He pressed his upper body down low, looking from a distance like a vigorous, sturdy Lupo as he charged headlong toward the direction the sound had come from.
…
…
Roar——
The ear-splitting roar rang out just a few steps below.
A young hunter was clinging to a tree, the cloth on his right arm dyed red with blood — but he was still gritting through the searing pain, hugging the branch in front of him with all his might.
Because he knew very clearly that if he were to fall, there was nothing waiting for him but death.
“Vannini!
Can you still hold on?!”
A companion in the distance was calling out Vannini’s name.
Vannini bared his teeth in a grimace and looked over toward the distant direction — another, older hunter was hanging from another tree, gaze locked on Vannini’s position.
“I’m about to…
not hold on!”
Claws thicker than his own waist swept past beneath him over and over, slamming into the trunk.
Vannini squeezed a few words out from the back of his throat, signaling to his companion to hurry up and think of something.
“Hang on just a bit longer — that thing’s arm is hurt too, it can’t climb up to get at you!”
If the hunter over there hadn’t been something like half a teacher to him, Vannini would already have had half a mind to start cursing.
As if he didn’t know all that — the problem was that his arm was hurt even worse!!
It was just that right now he obviously didn’t have the spare strength to bicker with the man anymore.
Meanwhile, over in the other tree, that older hunter wasn’t just sitting and watching either.
He’d been a little too panicked when he climbed up, and his quiver had ended up snagged on the trunk below.
Now he needed to retrieve the quiver without alerting that Rend Beast — only then would there be any chance to help his companion out of this fix.
Only, just as Vannini had said, he himself was already nearly at the end of his rope.
As his wounded right arm gradually lost all feeling, Vannini’s body, bit by bit, was slipping down too.
And below him, that red-eyed Rend Beast, having seen the man overhead nearly at his limit, only sped up the pace at which it pounded the trunk, trying to shake him loose that way.
‘Damn hand, move already!’
Seeing the situation over there, the older hunter stretched his right hand out as far as it would go, trying to hook the quiver back — but that small remaining distance stretched between him and the quiver like an unbridgeable chasm.
‘Can’t hold on anymore.’
With a sudden tremor through the tree trunk, Vannini finally lost his grip and plunged downward.
Those claws, still stained with his companion’s blood, swung toward him in that very instant — as if in the next second they would slice him clean in two.
In the final moment of his life, several familiar faces flashed through Vannini’s mind, including that of the young man who had already been killed by the Rend Beast. This chapter was copied from novelping dot com without permission.
Time seemed to freeze in that instant.
Vannini and the older hunter both instinctively shut their eyes — one in despair, the other unable to bear watching.
Until a gust of wind.
A furiously surging gust swept past beneath Vannini.
Before his eyes had even opened, he heard a heavy thud sound off not far from where he was, and the next thing he knew, his own body had landed in a pile of soft snow.
“I…
didn’t die?”
Lying there in the snow, with two tears still clinging to the corners of his eyes, Vannini was a little dumbstruck.
But the pain and exhaustion racking his body made it impossible for him to even roll over and see what had happened.
As for the older hunter still hanging in the tree, only now did he finally open his eyes — and what he saw was that supersized Rend Beast, a full head taller than the wall around his own house, being pinned into the nearby cliff face by a single hand of an Aegir youth.
“Huff…
huff…
huff…”
Saito gulped in heavy breaths.
This was the first time in his life he’d ever sprinted at such a speed, and the muscles all over his body kept sending up sharp, needling stabs of pain.
His heart and lungs felt like they were about to explode.
But in exchange, that beast that had looked so impossibly terrifying had now utterly lost its breath.
That enormous Rend Beast head had even been compressed into zip format in his hand.
After taking a moment to steady his breathing, Saito gripped the Originium in his pocket with one hand, channeling the energy inside it to slowly heal up his all-bruised-and-battered body.
Once he’d recovered a bit, he turned to look at the two Ursus who had been scared stiff.
“You two alright?”
And faced with this lifesaving benefactor who had so easily killed a supersized Rend Beast, the two of them quickly shook their heads, then quickly nodded their heads — their faces plainly written all over with terror and bewilderment.
‘Am I really that scary?’
Saito reflexively glanced down at his own coat, dyed red with Rend Beast blood.
Yeah brother, yeah — you are way fucking scarier than the Rend Beast.
____
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