The forest was a rumble of thundering footsteps and animalistic screeches, the noise nebulous and all-encompassing. Everything had been driven into a frenzy by the anomaly, and Kene and Siran were running out of time.

  Jumping over a fallen tree with practiced ease, Kene glanced back and saw several direboars crash face-first into the log. Some had the sense to run around it, while others used the bodies of their fallen brethren as a crude battering ram to force their way over.

  Ideally, they needed to leave the area as quickly as possible. But there was also the risk that the beasts would follow them all the way to town. Kene did not know whether the frenzy was localized to this section of the forest or spread throughout the entire territory. If it was the latter, the consequences would be disastrous.

  He turned to check on Siran and frowned. The man was starting to show signs of fatigue. Not good.

  A boar burst out in front of them. Without breaking stride, Kene drove his spear between its eyes. The creature collapsed moments later as they rushed past.

  Most of the beasts were still behind them, but the farther they ran, the more began appearing from their flanks. Siran was forced to fend off several on his side as well.

  This is not good, Kene thought grimly. We are being herded. It is like they can track us through the forest somehow. At this rate, we will be completely boxed in.

  He made a hard decision.

  Scooping Siran up over his shoulder, Kene veered sharply to the left. Siran shouted in protest, but Kene ignored him. They needed to punch through the forming cage from the side before the front closed in, and Kene knew exactly where to do it.

  Something ahead caught his senses. Instinctively, he cycled mana through his body, reinforcing it. What emerged from the undergrowth made his eyes narrow.

  A massive brown bear lumbered into view, its eyes bloodshot and wild, caught in the same frenzy as the direboars. It fixed its gaze on them.

  The beast reared up, standing nearly three meters tall, and released a roar that reverberated through Kene’s chest. Then it dropped to all fours and charged.

  Kene set Siran down hard. “Run the opposite direction. Now.”

  Siran did not hesitate. He sprinted left as Kene bolted to the right.

  The bear shifted its charge toward Kene.

  He let out a breath of relief. With Siran out of danger, he could focus entirely on the monster bearing down on him.

  The frenzied bear reared up, its dominant claw building momentum to slash him in half. The beast had power, Kene had to admit, but it was slow. His enhanced perception tracked the trajectory, and he sidestepped accordingly.

  He felt the air displaced by the powerful swing miss him by inches, and as the beast entered the recovery of its strike, Kene seized the opportunity.

  The bear had layers of tough hide, fat, and muscle protecting its vitals, enough that it could power through most attacks. He was not comfortable going for its face yet. Instead, he would cripple it first, then go for a decisive blow, or leave it as easy prey for the other beasts in the area.

  Maneuvering behind it, his spear flashed, already coated in a blue sheen of mana that sharpened its edge. He slashed behind the knee, aiming to cripple its movement. It was already slow, but there was no harm in making it slower.

  A roar that shook his chest burst from the bear, and Kene instinctively moved, narrowly avoiding another rending sweep. It still managed to clip his side, and sharp pain flared where the claw nicked him.

  Did this thing just become faster? Kene thought grimly. Some kind of berserker rage, a bloodline ability perhaps, or something caused by the recent phenomena. I need to end this quickly.

  Pushing past the pain, he raised his spear and stepped into a thrust, this time aiming for its shoulder joint. Just as the strike was about to land, the beast reared onto its hind legs, and the spear struck into the side of its stomach instead.

  Annoyed, Kene activated the extension enchantment. He felt a ripple of force surge inside the beast, disrupting it, and he tore the spear free as quickly as he could. The wound only seemed to enrage the monster further, as it ignored the hole in its flesh and retaliated immediately.

  It really is getting faster, Kene realized, and the beast proved him right as it charged while he retreated backward.

  It is recovering from committed attacks more quickly. Then I will make it commit even harder.

  Angling himself behind a tree, Kene stood his ground and watched it lumber toward him. It limped from the injured leg but compensated by throwing more of its weight onto its powerful arms.

  When the momentum became undeniable, Kene rolled aside. The bear tried to correct its charge, but it was too late. It slammed into the tree behind him, shaking it violently and sending leaves raining down.

  Kene wasted no time. He savaged its other leg and followed with an empowered thrust aimed at its spine. He felt a satisfying crack as the beast thrashed in a failed attempt to recover its balance.

  He barely raised his spear in time as a clawed strike smashed into the space where his torso had been. The force alone hurled Kene back several meters, his heels carving trenches into the ground. His arms went numb, and his vision swam violently.

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  Those two attacks must have dealt serious damage, Kene thought. And its speed has increased even more than before.

  The bear panted heavily, its legs slack beneath it, but its eyes still burned with madness.

  With one final roar, it charged again, dragging its bulk forward using only its arms.

  With its legs disabled, rapid turns were no longer possible. Kene moved in wide arcs, his body still feeling like jelly from the earlier blow. Pain throbbed through his arms, but he ignored it and kept his mana cycling, drawing it from the atmosphere.

  When he reached the maximum range of its arms, the beast wasted no time and swung to pulverize him. Kene slipped just outside its reach and activated the extension enchantment at the same time.

  The technique demanded precision, but he had grown accustomed to his new body. His hand-eye coordination had sharpened considerably during his earlier fights with the Tier One direboars.

  The spear punched through the beast’s hand, extended beyond it, and drove into its eye. It did not penetrate deep enough to reach the brain, but it blinded the creature in its right eye. Kene released the spear instantly and moved.

  The bear’s berserker strength answered with a furious strike that snapped the shaft in half, leaving the blade embedded in the center of its palm.

  As Kene retreated, he could already hear the frenzied direboars closing in on the area.

  Kene thought. ‘

  His decision was settled.

  With that, he turned and broke into a sprint. The bear roared in anguish behind him, and Kene caught the faint impression that it was cursing him as a coward.

  He risked a glance back. The bear was still trying to pursue him, its body mangled and bleeding heavily, yet its bloodline ability kept it combat capable enough to remain a lethal threat. Kene did not underestimate it. He zigzagged through the trees, forcing the creature to give chase while struggling to keep up.

  That served a second purpose. The noise was tremendous.

  Crashing branches, bellowing roars, and the stink of blood drew the frenzied direboars toward the bear’s position like moths to a flame.

  Ahead, Kene spotted Siran finishing off a lone direboar. The man looked up in surprise, disheveled and spattered with blood across his gambeson.

  “You,” Siran started, but Kene cut him off.

  “We need to keep moving. They’ll catch up to us eventually,” Kene said sharply.

  Siran followed his gaze, and his face drained of color. A tide of direboars had descended on the wounded bear, tearing into it in a frenzy. The beast still lashed out, maiming and killing several in its final moments, but it was not enough. It soon went slack, buried beneath the writhing mass.

  “They’re distracted for now,” Kene said. “But they’ll pick up our scent again. We need to use this window to escape.”

  “Yes, Y Ester,” Siran replied, breathless.

  They moved.

  As they ran, Kene slowed his mana absorption. His channels were beginning to strain, the telltale ache creeping in from maintaining such a high output for too long. The passive empowered state he had sustained earlier had been invaluable against the bear, but it was not something he could maintain indefinitely at his current level.

  Enforcers had to regulate their intake carefully, or risk permanently crippling their channels.

  The thicker the channels became, the more mana they could handle safely and for longer durations. Kene was still only at the first tier, though he now possessed an additional set of channels. He had not tested them yet.

  He had never heard of something like this in his previous life, or if someone had experienced it, they had kept it to themselves. He could understand why. Multiple channel sets would allow sustained high output by rotating between them. The temptation was obvious.

  But the timing unsettled him. Gaining them immediately after the strange phenomenon made him cautious. There was too much he did not understand, and experimentation without preparation could easily end with him crippled.

  Up ahead, he heard the sounds of two large beasts fighting. The ground trembled faintly with their clash, and antlers flashed between the shrubs.

  Siran did not need instruction. They both pivoted and curved around the area, avoiding a direct confrontation. The detour cost them time, but they were already nearly halfway to their destination.

  Four direboars spotted them during the maneuver and charged.

  Kene drew one of the experimental blades and raised it calmly, positioning himself to intercept.

  His channels were still recovering, but these were not the bear.

  For creatures like this, he did not need to cycle mana at all.

  Siran’s spear moved in practiced motions, finding the eye sockets of two boars.

  Kene did a wide horizontal arc with his blade, solely relying on his base enforcer strength and the enchantments on his weapon and cleaved clean through the head of both.

  The two men kept the pace shortly afterwards, and continued.Only Kene noticed one problem, the noise was not lessening. In fact it was getting louder.

  He had a bad premonition but kept it to himself, until he picked up movement above them, a large shadow was circling them and Kene tensed.

  “What now?” Kene said aloud.

  He barely had time to look up before he saw it. A roc, a human-sized avian magical beast, was diving straight toward them. Kene reacted instantly, shoving Siran away as the creature’s talons tore through the space he had occupied a heartbeat earlier.

  The roc climbed sharply and banked, already lining up for another ambush.

  Kene reflexively began forming a spell array in his mind to blast it out of the air, then caught himself. His core was atrophied. That option no longer existed.

  They also lacked any throwing weapons or nets capable of grounding a flying beast, and even if they had them, stopping to use them would be disastrous. It would only give the pursuing monsters time to close in on their position.

  There was only one viable option.

  They had to shake it while continuing to move.

  “Siran,” Kene said quickly, “do you know anywhere we can hide from a roc?”

  Still unfamiliar with the terrain, he deferred to the local. Siran paused for only a moment before answering.

  “There’s a cave entrance. Follow me.”

  Kene did not hesitate.

  The next three minutes turned into a deadly game of maneuvering through dive ambushes while trying not to stray too far from their route. The roc varied its attack patterns deliberately. Sometimes it waited an entire minute before striking again. Other times it swooped multiple times in rapid succession.

  There were several close calls.

  Once, Kene was forced to parry when he reacted a fraction too late, distracted by a charging direboar. The roc capitalized immediately. His blade absorbed most of the impact, but its talons still tore a deep gash across his forearm.

  “It’s right ahead!” Siran shouted between labored breaths.

  The man was holding up well, but his stamina was clearly failing. Unlike Kene, he did not have the luxury of bodily reinforcement.

  Kene himself was riddled with injuries, but he had managed to keep his vitals from being seriously harmed. He was fairly certain his arms had hairline fractures, and possibly a cracked rib. The gash on his arm still needed to be bound, and his channels remained badly strained.

  The cave entrance came into view.

  Above them, the roc let out a piercing screech. It had realized what they were trying to do and was not about to let its prey escape so easily.