The beast attack comprised mostly of creatures under dire beast level. It was still rather bad since soldiers were roughly of the same level. What was in the soldiers favor was that they had weapons and knew how to fight in coordinated manner. With the help of formations, only weaker and more numerous beasts could get through. Most of these were weak enough that even unarmed villagers could at least put up a fight.

It was still extremely dangerous and villagers could only huddle up together in groups with their backs against each other in attempt to defend against any attacks.

“Hahaha! Fight! It is not long until we are out of this cursed beast infested forest! Onwards!” Juren was almost crazily wandering around shouting all kinds of things as he blasted beams of energy into the forest. He seemed entirely unstoppable. None of the villagers of Dashire could even comprehend the power he kept unleashing repeatedly.

To Kaden it seemed they were still pretty deep in the forest, but perhaps they were closer to coming out than it seemed. Perhaps Formation Stage warrior like Juren could sense things much further. Still, Kaden had expected quite a bit longer distance. The marching speed must have been faster than expected. It did require some minimum amount of mana to even keep up.

Kaden decided to not concern himself with it. There were far more important matters at hand. Like keeping himself alive. He had already dodged a few beasts that had ran past him to attack someone else. Perhaps since he was hudled together with his parents and other villagers, he was not easiest choice of target? Hiding among other people seemed pretty good tactic!

His biggest concern was the possibility that the monstrous high beast would decide to attack! The Steelfur Bear that Kaden had seen was only a dire beast. Even that had scared Kaden. What would a stage higher beast feel like? Direbeast sent him into a shock, would high beast simply knock him unconscious with simple presence? What would happen when it attacked? Perhaps even being near would turn him into meat paste.

The high beast had not shown itself, though. Was it just making humans pay price passing through the area it had decided to claim? It would be good, if that was the truth.

“Kaden! Careful now!” Suddenly Ann shouted next to Kaden. This interrupted Kaden’s hopeful thoughts.

Something had passed through the defenses and came towards the little group where Kaden and his parents were. In fact, it wasn’t just a single thing, but group of smaller reddish creatures.

It was a pack of Blood Bunnies!

They were common beasts and their strength varied quite a bit, but still all of them were very low ranked. Single one was not a problem. In fact, it was relatively common source of meat in Dashire. Blood Bunnies, despite somewhat silly name, could be extremely dangerous on packs. They would leap at their prey and use their pointy teeth to bite and feed on fresh blood! They managed this with poison located inside their teeth. It would paralyze their victim as they drank it dry. Only after that they would consume the flesh!

They were shaped like normal bunnies, but they had reddish fur and, if you could see in their mouth, rows of sharp needle like teeth.

One or two were easy to kill, if you didn’t let them bite you or had antidote for the poison. Despite being on average equivalent of a human at second layer, a large pack of blood bunnies could overwhelm even initial stage dire beasts with their paralyzing poison.

*Scree*

A blood bunny screeched and decided to attack Kaden while rest of its pack went for people around him. There was thirst for blood in the eyes of the blood bunny! Kaden knew he had to fight and there was no way to scare the beast away. With no weapon, he would have to use his fists or perhaps give a few kicks.

He could not tell just what rank this specific blood bunny was. He hoped it wasn’t stronger than him, but even then he might be able to hold back until rest someone could help him.

The blood bunny leaped towards Kaden. It was very quick and there was practically no way to avoid the attack. Blood bunnies were quick! But its not like Kaden was helpless. Blood bunnies usually leaped straight at your neck where they could drink blood easiest. Kaden prepared mana in his arm and used it to block the bunny.

If Kaden had been strong enough hunter, he might have even attempted to grab the bloodthirsty beast, but he knew he could not do that. At least not reliably. Instead he slammed his arm at the blood bunny as hard as he could.

Despite the size difference, when the blood bunny and Kaden’s mana infused arm collided, to Kaden it felt like he was hit by a hammer. He staggered backwards, but the blood bunny also fell to the ground in slightly dazed state.

The result was relatively good! The blood bunny was probably ranked roughly same level as Kaden. Otherwise its possible Kaden might have broken his arm doing what he just did.

*SCREE*. The blood bunny screeched again, this time it seemed slightly angry and prepared to strike again.

Kaden was planning on stalling, but then he noticed a pretty good sized rock on the ground and picked it up. It had to make do for a weapon. Kaden prefered that, if something was going to have to break, it was better that the rock broke rather than his bone.

The blood bunny ignored its previous failure and even, if it did notice Kaden picking up the stone, it perhaps was not smart enough to understand or simply did not care, and leaped at Kaden once again.

Kaden struck the bunny with the rock and the previously so ferocious beast fell down and let out a few pained screeches as it tried to get up again. This was not something Kaden would allow it to do so he kept beating it mercilessly with the rock.

Soon the blood bunny was lied on the ground in a pool of its blood. Kaden smashed its body until there probably was not a single bone left unbroken and its internal organs likely suffered the same fate.

Kaden looked around and his parents and rest of the people had handled rest of the attacking beasts. These blood bunnies made the mistake of attacking a group. Their true strength lied in their ability to overwhelm targets that were alone.

Kaden frowned a bit. He had wasted quite a bit of mana beating the blood bunny. He could not do so another time or he would have trouble keeping up with the still constantly moving soldiers. Then Kaden had an idea.

He quickly looked inside the mouth of the blood bunny and found what he was looking for. Poison teeth! Blood bunnies do not have separate poison sack. The poison is inside the teeth so they still remain poisonous once removed from the body. In fact, against stronger enemies blood bunnies often lose these teeths in their opponents flesh and the poison keeps seeping in even then. They would quickly grow more teeth later.

As for Kaden, poisonous teeth could be used as weapon. He wasn’t sure, if soldiers allowed villagers to take such things, so he pulled out some teeth while attempting to conceal the matter. With the teeth, he could perhaps significantly weaken any future opponents!

With a quick glance, Kaden saw that while losses had not been major, there were some – mostly villagers. Luckily Kaden had not ran into anything stronger. Results of meeting such beast was obvious. There were blood stains and partial corpses on the ground. Some blood trails seemed to extend into the forest where bodies had been dragged.

Kaden had lived in relative safety in Dashire. This was the first time he saw so much blood and death in one place. Perhaps most people in the same situation would have frozen in terror or unable to act with calm mind, but somehow Kaden was able to keep his fear in control. He knew he would likely die, if he couldn’t do that. He wanted to survive. This desire was strong enough to give him a fighting chance. Not everyone was able to do that.

As time passed and as the march continued, beasts never really stopped their attacks. At times there were less, but then came a bigger wave. Juren was getting crazier all the time and beasts that got too close suffered his wrath. He was extremely angry that everything was getting delayed. That then caused him to scream colorful curses at everyone. Luckily he did not kill anyone.

Finally the forest started becoming more sparse. It was a good sign that they were going to get out soon. Not only villagers, but the soldiers were getting exhausted already.

There was still a last obstacle left, though.

Some of the stronger beasts such as several dire beasts had actually decided to block the road close to the forest exit. It would be extremely difficult to fight through the beasts that were waiting just beyond the treeline next to the road so only way through was to go forward.

Kaden had just enough time to think the situation was bad, but this problem got solved extremely quickly.

The steelfur bear that had been the first attacker was also among the couple dire beasts blocking the way. It was also the first to attack this time too.

Steelfur bears were basically tanks. The name was quite descriptive. The defensive power of its fur was extremely high. It could be used to make some flexible and strong armor. Despite its huge size, the steelfur bear could move extremely quickly. Its attacks could turn human into paste in single hit. Perhaps advanced Channel Opening stage human could take a hit from it and survive with heavy injuries.

Despite all these strengths, the result was surprising.

The robed monk that seemed to never take part in the fighting and just concentrated protecting the holy orders. Externally the man looked frail and weak, but even the lunatic, Captain Juren, would always listen and obey the monk without question. The steelfur bear just happened to attack the monk.

As the steelfur bear stood up and struck with its massive front paw at the monk, a dome of light appeared. Hit sounded like a bell and it stopped the attack and caused even a backlash making the steelfur bear stagger backwards in pain.

The monk muttered a prayer. “Begone beast. You are merely intruders here. This land was given to humans by our gods. You are merely allowed to exist here as stepping stones for humans to grow stronger. Such is the holy word...”

After saying that, the monks body began radiating light and bulged up in size. In moments the small frail looking monk had grown into enormous size. His body was now a mountain of muscle. It looked like light was flowing in his bloodveins.

“You beasts think humans are weak? Rejoice that you are allowed to witness the truth before returning to your god. Purifying Palm!”

Faster than anyone could see, the monk struck his palm at the steelfur bear. The hit was soundless and everything seemed to stop for a while. Then a radiant beam of light burst through its back. Light was also glowing through its mouth, eyes and cracks that opened up everywhere on its body.

The monk stepped back and reduced to his normal size and continued walking forward as if nothing unusual had happened.

The steelfur bear had a palm shaped burn mark on its chest and smoke was rising from its body. As it finally fell down, very little blood came out from the hole in its back. Its insides were completely charred black.

Kaden had managed to see the steelfur bear, a dire beast, be killed like it was nothing. With shudder he realized the monk was probably stronger than Juren. What kind of cruel fate had made people of Dashire be noticed by monsters like these people? What about the people behind them? If Kaden had not felt hopeless enough before, he surely was now.

While Kaden was lamenting over these thoughts, rest of the dire beasts that had blocked the way realized it was a bad idea to do so. They were smart enough to see the power difference unlike the smaller and weaker beasts that had harrassed and attacked the marching troops all the way. With two people, Juren and the monk, at formation stage, even if the high beast, that had riled up rest of the beasts, showed up, it was likely not going to be a problem. So far it seemed to have been content just watching and giving orders.

Now the way out of the forest was clear. The march through the forest was coming to an end.