Attack

A flock of birds burst from the forest.

That scream stretched long through the mountains before abruptly cutting off, like a kite with its string snapped.

Then the beasts of the dense mountain forests erupted into a frenzy, their roars echoing through the wilderness in waves!

The once-peaceful mountain forest suddenly seemed to boil over.

Mol trembled all over, dense beads of sweat visibly seeping from his skin. He cried out in terror, "My Lord Romain, we have to get out of here!"

This was no ordinary phenomenon. Faced with a large-scale magical beast attack, even a War Knight could not be sure of carving out a path to survival. They could be torn apart alive.

Romain swept his gaze over the hunters and found that they had been frightened as well.

Hunters had never made those terrifying, savage magical beasts their prey.

He asked Green, "That scream just now..."

Green's expression was equally grim. "It was the death cry of a wild boar."

It had definitely been a magical beast-level mountain boar. Such a deep and piercing scream had echoed through the empty valleys, mournful and unending, carrying a great distance.

Romain asked, "Could you do that?"

Green and Aaron shook their heads at the same time. If they were fully armed and the terrain was favorable, they could kill a boar, but they could not do so so decisively.

Given a boar's vitality, even if its vital spot were pierced, it would still struggle and howl for quite a while rather than suddenly fall silent.

The killer had to be a powerful extraordinary individual!

"Lord Romain, run! Why do you care who killed it? It could be Dick the Traitor Knight, or perhaps Jet the deserter..." Seeing that Romain had no intention of leaving, Mol became frantic. He truly feared losing his life on this mountain.

Just then, a violent commotion broke out among the guards outside.

"A magical beast! I saw a huge shadow!"

Someone shouted, and the guards and hunters began to descend into panic.

"What are you panicking for? Form a defensive line!" Romain strode out of the cabin. His furious roar, bursting from his chest like a bomb, drowned out every other voice.

Romain shoved through the crowd and saw a gigantic brown bear, around three meters tall, climbing up the slope.

What an enormous body—and what speed!

The wild bear ran on all fours, moving absurdly fast as it crossed the thirty-meter slope in four or five seconds.

Romain's pupils constricted sharply. He shouted again, "Defensive line!"

At the command, the guards—stiff with shock at the sudden turn of events and lacking any sense of danger—frantically raised their shields and formed a jagged defensive line.

Before they could even adjust their stances, the brown bear pounced upon them in the blink of an eye.

Its arrival instantly crushed four or five shield-bearing guards—the men had not even found their footing and offered no effective resistance. When fear gave way to the actual impact, they simply toppled over, plunging the area into complete chaos.

Aaron stepped forward, gripping his round shield as he slammed it heavily into the bear's head.

His right foot braced against a bare rock by the cabin door. Using his powerful body and the terrain for support, he violently tensed his entire body and forcibly halted its charge. His face flushed red, and every muscle in his body trembled.

Green drew his mountain bronze and steel sword. It weighed more than ten pounds in hand, yet when swung, it carried the weight of more than twenty pounds—an effect of the mountain bronze.

Green drove it viciously into the thick back of the brown bear's neck.

But it was far from a graceful attack. The blade should have plunged straight into the wild bear's neck, severing its windpipe and killing it as swiftly as possible. Yet because of the hasty movement, the brown bear's thrashing, and his inability to build up force in such a short time, the sharp tip pierced through the tough bear hide, fascia, and muscle by only a little over ten centimeters before veering off course.

In the end, the blade slipped free, leaving only a wound deep enough to expose bone.

The pain drove the frenzied wild bear even madder, and it let out a roar.

Romain also roared, stepped forward, swung the Armor-Piercing Greatbow from his back, and savagely brought it down on the wild bear's head.

Green's thrust with a sharp weapon had hurt it, but the blow from this blunt weapon directly stunned it for an instant. Its head was knocked aside, and even its sharp teeth were loosened.

The experienced hunters had already scattered. They raised their shortbows one after another, but with the scene in such chaos, they did not dare loose their arrows for fear of hitting their allies—especially with Romain Armor-Splitting standing in the middle.

Romain noticed the situation as well.

He retreated and shouted, "Green, Aaron, draw this thing away!"

Aaron, who had long felt that he could not hold on, shifted his shield aside and stopped confronting the wild bear head-on. He then rolled away to the side.

The nimble Green leaped onto the wild bear's back. Gripping the hilt with both hands, he raised the sword above his head, point down, and stabbed it into the bear's back. This time, it sank twenty to thirty centimeters deep. He flipped away, pulling the bloodstained blade free as he fled.

The brown bear felt the searing pain. With bloodshot eyes, it lunged at the two men.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The hunters seized the opportunity and fired their arrows. However, the shortbows had limited killing power, and the arrows were poorly made, with wooden or stone arrowheads that lacked penetration. They only inflicted scattered, minor injuries on the wild bear.

But Romain had also raised his bow and arrow.

A powerful greatbow made from redwood, strong sinew, and diamond possessed terrifying force.

Its finely crafted metal arrowhead gleamed coldly as it aimed at the brown bear.

Romain suddenly released the right hand that had drawn the bowstring with all his strength.

Whoosh—

It was a piercingly shrill sound. The arrow tore through the air, its tip ripping through flesh as it drove terrifying force into its target!

The eighty-centimeter arrow sank entirely into it by sheer force!

To the wild bear, it was like a long needle had been driven straight into its body, nearly robbing it of its ability to move as it let out a miserable howl.

Romain's gaze remained cold. He drew his bow, nocked another arrow, and fired it straight at the beast...

Whoosh~ Whoosh~ Whoosh~

After firing five arrows in total, Romain finally lowered his aching right arm.

The wild bear struggled as all five arrows buried themselves in its flesh, inflicting considerable damage on its internal organs.

Romain beckoned, took the iron-tipped spear handed over by a guard, then joined Aaron and Green in thrusting their spears into its throat and brain from a great distance.

They quickly killed the magical beast.

This brown bear was valuable from head to toe. Its gallbladder and heart could rapidly strengthen an ordinary person's constitution and treat certain illnesses, making them extremely expensive.

Only nobles could afford such rare ingredients. Ordinary people lacked the strength to hunt such fierce beasts.

Dota stepped forward to inspect it.

"Sir, I can smell Beast-Scent Grass." Dota's expression shifted, but he still reported truthfully.

Beast-Scent Grass was like opium among humans. It released an enticing, strange fragrance, and any beast that consumed it would enter a berserk state.

But Dota knew that Beast-Scent Grass was extremely difficult to find. It was a rare resource, and ordinary people had no way of throwing such a herb into a magical beast's mouth. He keenly sensed that something had changed in the mountains.

Only one person in the mountains could have done such a thing!

Bandit Borg!

Dota told them everything. Since he had chosen to submit to a noble lord, he might as well be completely honest.

The hunters had no favorable impression of that crazed bandit in the mountains either.

After listening, Romain realized that someone was targeting him.

He looked out over the forested mountains.

"Humph! Not one of them will escape!"