Perripi POV

“There’s something coming! From the front!”

Kamudatou(or Kamu, for short), our ranger, shouted us a warning. Even though we were all of the same beast sub-species, his senses were sharper than us and he was aptly suited to his role as a ranger.

“Prepare!”

Boraro shouted a command. Bora was our leader and the only other swordsman in the team than me. The two of us were positioned near Garoudu, our tank, who stood to the front of us with his two round wooden shields. While Bora was tall and slender, Garo was short and bulky; each of their frames perfectly suited to their roles.

*ruslte*

The sounds of something approaching were now clear to us as well.

“Something’s off…”

*rustle* *rustle* *rustle* *rustle* *rustle* *rustle*

The number of presences approaching was growing until..

“Its a pack of climbertooths!”

A dark grey-skinned beast jumped out of the bushes and collided with Garo’s shields. It was a climbertooth. It was called as such because it had about five-inch long canines protruding from each side of the mouth and it could climb and move around on trees just as easily it could on land.

“What the hell are climbertooths doing in this area!?”

Two more climbertooths rushed out of the dense undergrowth. One collided with Garo as the previous one backed off dizzy from a shield bash. The other one headed to Boru, who parried it with his sword.

*thump*

One of those beasts fell near me with an arrow sticking out its gut, a nice shot by Kamu, and I quickly put an end to its like with my sword to its throat.

“They’re coming from above as well!”

Kamu shouted us a warning and I looked up. Another climbertooth was waiting for a chance to jump on unsuspecting prey.

"Kamu, focus on the ones above!"

I was the second-in-command, and noticing Bora dealing with two climbertooth simultaneously, I decided upon the best course of action in our situation.

"Urfa, do your thing!"

I shouted another command to our last member: the supporter, Urfangio while I ran to Garo, our tank, who was starting to be Overwhelmed.

Urfa was the youngest in our team and accompanied us to learn to be a hunter in the future. His job in our team as a supporter was to carry the support materials so we could fight at our best. He carried with him a weapon, but he was not to fight with us. But that didn't mean he was useless in fights.

Urfa threw his bag to the side and carefully made his way over to the climbertooth I'd killed, to pull it away from the area of fight. While fighting a large number of enemies, piling bodies could become troublesome. While climbertooth could easily jump over the dead bodies and attack their prey, we would trip over and become easier targets.

"Garo, duck!"

I reached Garo and with a quick slash from behind him, managed to incapacitate one of the climbertooth. But such a surprise wouldn't work anymore, now that they were aware of my presence. For a second the 3 remaining climbertooths backed off(another had joined) and I took a quick look around.

"Damnit."

This was looking incredibly bad. Bora was fighting 3 of them on its own, and though one of them was limping thanks to Kamu's arrows. It was still an impossible win for our leader. The only thing he could do was defend till one of us could come to his support. The only one at the moment who could've done it was Kamu but even he had his hands full with the climbertooths on the trees. If he let even one of them get a good jump on us, we were finished.

But by the grace of the Wolf Lord, none of us severely injured till now.

"Peri!"

Garo gave me a panicked shout. I realised I'd been looking around too long and the climbertooths were making their move again. Two of them jumped on Garo while the last one went around him and came at me with its claws aimed at my throat.

(I won't be able to raise my sword in time!)

I'd noticed too late and there was no way I could defend against that attack. The world seemed to slow as I watched the claw swipe down to my certain death.

"Aaaahhhh!!!"

I screamed as the climbertooth gouged out my shoulder. At the last moment of impact, I felt an invisible push that saved me from the fatal attack but it wasn’t enough to get me out completely unscathed.

“Aaaahhh!!” “Daammnn!!!”

Two more screams echoed simultaneously. I grit my teeth and through my slightly blurring vision, I noticed that the climbertooths had taken advantage of my teammate’s distraction upon my scream. A climbertooth had jumped on Urfa from the trees and one of the three fighting Bora managed to land a successful swipe at his left feet. Urfa, the one in most danger, was saved thanks to a barrage of arrows from Kuma.

“Peri!”

But I didn’t have time to look any longer. Another shout from Garo brought me back to reality as I realised I was on my knees from the pain and the climbertooth that had gouged my shoulder was coming back to finish its prey. Helplessness took over me as it simply walked up to me. I met its eyes, pretending fake courage when I knew there was nothing I could do now. It stood at a breathing distance from me, growling in my face, as if mocking me. I just sat there, looking at it, awaiting my demise. It opening its jaw, tilted its head to insert its canines into my neck and claim victory.

*burst*

A spray of blood spread in the surroundings, but there was no pain. I could feel the blood cover my body as the climbertooth fell over to the side with a thud.

“Wha..?”

*burst* *burst* *burst* *burst* *burst* *burst* *burst* *burst*

Suddenly, there were alot of bursting sounds and all the climbertooths simultaneously sprayed blood from their mouths and noses.

*thud* *thud* *thud* *thud* *thud* *thud*

And they simultaneously fell on their sides.

*thud*

And the last one fell from the tree.

Blood was pouring out of my wound and though it should have been hurting like crazy, for some reason my brain chose to ignore that to instead inspect the incomprehensible incident.

A curtain of wind blew about, blowing up dust and causing me to use my good arm to cover my eyes. As I looked towards the source of the wind, two figures slowly descended in our midst; a man and a woman. I noticed the man’s gaze as it was locked on mine. He looked familiar, but I didn’t know any humans who could fly….

“You’re….!”

There was only one human I’d ever seen in my entire life and it was very recent.

“Hi, Satoshi existing in this place.”

He used a weird phrase to introduce himself. I noticed the woman by his side suppress a laugh, but I wasn’t in a mood to funny. Ignoring the pain in my shoulder, I rose up to my feet.

“Is he the human your dad brought back from the badasaur’s territory?”

I heard someone ask. It sounded like Bora but my ears was tingling a bit and my eyes were too busy surveying the carnage.

“I heard he had run away.. Why is he back?”

This time it sounded like Garo.

“Perripi.. What is he?”

Everyone had questions, but nobody dared move. In front of that enigmatic display of power, if we took one step wrong, our fate would be the same as these climbertooths. Even though the climbertooths were a prey we couldn’t defeat in the end, we had fought. This man here was an existence none of us could even imagine battling.

“We have come to spread peace and tranquility!”

The woman declared loudly in an orator’s attitude, a mockery, as if all of this was funny. But obviously, none of us could do anything against her. Unlike the man, she was a beastkin but I did not know her sub-species. I knew the names of other beastkin sub-species, but since I hadn’t seen them I couldn’t recognise it.

“I would like to stand here and chat but I really suggest treating your wounds first.”

The low blood pressure was getting to my head and it was only now that I noticed her concerned gaze. Her earlier statement was likely to declare they weren't hostile..even though it had been phrased very awkwardly.

“I’m fine. Look at the others first.”

Bora said to Kamu who was retrieving medical supplied from Urfa’s bag near him.

“M-me too. Somehow climbertooth got knocked off balance and I managed to escape before it got me.”

Urfa also said, while running over to Kamu to help him out. It seemed like everyone was somehow alright. I fell back onto my butt as a wave of relief washed over me.

“Kuma! Peri needs help!”

Garo ran to my side and took off my leather armor carefully.

“The wound is deep..”

He said in a heavy voice. It seemed my wound was the worst. He proceeded to tear off my undershirt from the side, careful not to expose too much of my chest.

“Its nothing Uncle Bom can’t fix.”

Uncle Bom was a healer in our village. I had called him Uncle Bom since I could remember, so I don’t know his full name. Magic capabilities were incredibly rare in our sub-species but Uncle Bom had healing magic and though I don’t have a source of comparison, I’m told that he’s very proficient in it.

Urfa brought over some alcohol, medicine and bandages.

“Arrghh..”

I screamed through my clenched teeth as Urfa silently poured alcohol over my wound for disinfection. It was indeed deep and even though my head was slightly fuzzy from the blood loss, it wasn’t something I couldn’t bear through with grit teeth. It was a miracle that it wasn’t as bad as it should’ve been. I remembered that moment when the climbertooth’s claws almost sliced my neck and I was pushed back.

I looked at the source of that miracle. He was.. flying.. right behind Urfa and watching over the bandaging with curiosity. He had black hair, a little unkempt but they looked good on him. His eyes were the same color as his hair with a certain depth to them. They were shiny, like a child watching something new, yet they were clever, as if he wasn’t just watching, but observing and dissecting every movement that entered his gaze. His cheeks were a healthy shade of perfection. He had a high grade dark cloak on him and the most distinctive feature of all, he had round ears at the side of his head.

He had soundlessly made his way over at some point but it wasn’t like he had hid his presence. This was why Garo and Urfa weren’t saying a word. They were afraid. They had clearly noticed him but were doing their best to avoid eye contact.

“You’re.. Satoshi.”

He was the only human I’d ever seen and he had even lived in my house for a few days; there was no way I wouldn’t remember his name. Also, he had just given his introduction, albeit in a weird phrasing.

“Yes. And you are Smirnie’s daughter.”

His accent was a bit weird. I felt Urfa’s hands tremble for a moment at his voice but he continued uninterrupted.

“Perripi.”

I told him my name.

“I don’t understand ‘Perripi’.”

He replied in a practised monotone.

“It’s her name. She is Perripi. Hello, miss Perripi. As he has already introduced himself, he is Satoshi. And my name is Feriana.”

The woman by his side wasn’t flying anymore. She corrected Satoshi in simple words. At first, from the simple wording, it sounded almost as if a child was speaking but then I remembered that Satoshi who had been in our home not too long ago couldn’t speak the beast people’s language. He was likely learning from this woman who introduced herself as Feriana.

I looked her up and down. She was dressed in a simple woman's clothes that were light and easy to move in, and did not give a single bit of protection to be travelling in a forest full of deadly beasts. Though her body was well maintained, it was more out of hard daily chores, than training. But what was I to know, for she travelled with a man with unfathomable power. Who's to say she wasn't just as powerful?

"Ah, don't worry. I am not a combatant."

She said it herself, noticing my inspective gaze.

"Only Satoshi here fights, if he ever needs to. Though it's not like he actively seeks battles. He's very kind, in fact! I just follow him as his… uh.. as his.. spouse."

"Clearly a lie."

The woman looked at me with wide eyes. Even Garo and Urfa looked at me as if I was crazy.

(Damn, it just came out instinctively!)

"The way you looked for a word that wouldn't be in his vocabulary was a dead giveaway."

"Peri…"

Garo called out and I could feel Urfa's hands shaking. But my mouth didn't stop for some reason.

"Why don't you use a simpler word instead of 'spouse'?"

"Wha.. wha.. whatever could yourself have possibly been implicating.. haha.. I have been perfectly conversing in ordinary speech words.. haha.."

"..." "..."

Urfa looked at me pleading eyes to shut the hell up.

"Wife."

I said, ignoring their gaze.

"You said you're his wife."

"What what what what what what!"

As she clearly freaked out over my choice words, I looked at Satoshi. He looked back at me, expressionless. I had a weird sense of foreboding..

"Satoshi. Wife."

"I don't understand ‘wife’."

"..." "..."

"Son of a bitch!!!!!!!!"

Some birds flew away in the distance at my scream.