Chapter 59: Grawlwood!
Something in the air on the battlefield began to shift.
The weaker beasts felt it first. A tremor in their movements, a nearly imperceptible hesitation, like something far greater had just announced its approach.
The D-rank beasts didn’t show fear, but they slowed nonetheless, and that alone was significant.
Then the trees of the forest began to move.
Not the wind. Not the pressure of beasts rushing through. Something was forcing them apart from within, pushing them from below, until one after another they began to bend and fall sideways, cleared away by something advancing through the forest as though the trees were nothing more than obstacles to be brushed aside.
It emerged at the edge of the woods.
Five meters tall, perhaps more.
A massive frame, two enormous arms brushing the ground, covered not in flesh but in a dense layer resembling dark oak bark, thick, crusted, as if it had grown over decades. Beneath it, its fur was deep green, almost moss-like. A mane of stiff, leaf-like growths framed its head.
From its skull extended two massive branch-like horns, spreading upward and outward like living wood, as thick as a human forearm.
Its eyes were red.
It stood still for a moment at the forest’s edge. Then it opened its mouth and roared.
The sound spread like a wave.
The smaller beasts stiffened for an instant, then resumed their assault with renewed ferocity, as though the command had erased whatever hesitation they had carried until then. More emerged behind it, E-rank and above, several D-ranks among them, flooding toward the defensive line with a pressure that tripled within seconds.
"Shit, we’re screwed. That’s basically a mini-boss."
"How the hell are we supposed to deal with that?"
"Is it just me, or is the beast tide ramping up way too fast this time?"
The shouts mixed with the sound of battle, fear, anger, disbelief all tangled together. But no one retreated. Where would they go? Back to the city? That was exactly what these beasts were trying to reach.
They braced for impact.
And then they arrived.
The first landed between the beasts and the defensive line with a heavy impact that shook the ground, powerful enough to kill the nearest beasts and force the surrounding ones back. Short hair, a two-handed greatsword, armor marked by previous battles but still holding strong. He rose without haste.
The others followed almost simultaneously, dropping along the front with the precision of those who had done this enough times not to need coordination.
Five in total. Their auras were dense, visible even to those without strong energy perception.
The reinforcements had arrived.
’Three D-ranks at advanced stage... and two C-ranks at early stage,’ Evan judged at a glance.
But their appearance didn’t concern him. On the contrary, a faint smile appeared on his face.
What followed was fast and brutal, the kind of clash that always happens between individuals who have already surpassed a certain level of strength. No probing, no extended tactics. Only immediate impact and immediate consequences.
The Grawlwood didn’t hesitate. It lunged forward with a speed that betrayed its size, its right arm sweeping in a wide arc that would have obliterated anything caught within it.
One of the D-ranks intercepted it from the side, using the momentum to deflect rather than absorb it head-on, still sent flying several meters before planting his feet to stop himself. Another struck from the opposite flank, rapid thrusts against the bark-like arm that left visible cracks but failed to penetrate deeply.
The Grawlwood didn’t seem to care.
A C-rank dropped in from above, bringing a vertical strike down onto its mane and forcing it back half a step. It was the first attack that visibly affected it. The beast lifted its head and locked onto him.
Then its horns began to change.
They thickened and stretched, while a greenish glow spread from their base across its body, like sap rushing through veins. It was entering a powered state, and the change became obvious within seconds.
The next attack was different. Heavier. Faster. It felt as if its strength had suddenly multiplied. The blow slammed into the D-rank tank’s chest, sending him flying an absurd distance before he hit the ground and skidded to a stop.
The other C-rank moved in from the left while the beast was still recovering from the swing, exploiting the opening to drive his blade into its side between two bark plates. The Grawlwood twisted abruptly, forcing him to leap back to avoid the horns.
By now, the beast was heavily injured, and furious. Its movements became more reckless, driven purely by instinct and the urge to crush what stood before it.
The man with the greatsword had stayed slightly back, circling the fight with the patience of someone not looking for any opening, but the right one.
He found it when the second C-rank drew the beast’s attention to the right, leaving its left side exposed for a fraction of a second.
He moved.
The blade was already in motion, a straight line aimed at the neck, the junction between dense bark and the softer fur beneath. A finishing strike.
The Grawlwood turned toward him.
And then something strange happened. It stopped. Not to dodge. Not to counter. It simply... stopped, as if something inside it had ceased functioning mid-motion.
The blade entered exactly where it was meant to.
The Grawlwood fell.
The man remained standing beside the corpse, still in his finishing stance, unmoving for a few seconds. Then he looked down.
His expression was odd.
"Hey," the archer behind him said as she approached. "is everything okay?"
"I don’t know," he answered slowly.
"Hm? What do you mean?" she asked, uncertain.
"Before the strike landed... the beast almost stopped moving," he said, his expression distant, as if unsure of what he had seen. "It was like... it was already dead before I hit it."
She followed his gaze to the corpse.
"Probably just your imagination," she said.
"Maybe," he replied, still unconvinced, as he turned to intercept the next wave of beasts.
But it wasn’t imagination.
Somewhere across the battlefield, a notification quietly echoed in Evan’s mind.
[Ding! You have killed a C-Rank (Mid Stage) Grawlwood!]
[You have gained +10,000 ESS]