The bear roared with fury, its massive paw swinging upward before crashing down between Kaede's group. The earth shuddered under the blow—had they not moved, one of them would have been crushed beneath the sheer force of the strike.
The macaques snarled. One leapt onto the giant beast's back, sinking its teeth deep into the thick fur. The bear didn't even flinch. With a violent twist, it slammed its body against the rock wall, crushing the attacker with a sickening crunch.
"On your feet!" Takara barked at the two women sprawled on the ground.
Her eyes flicked between the massive bear and the advancing macaques. The troop's snarls deepened, outrage burning in their throats at the sight of one of their own slain. Their growls rose in pitch, claws flexing, scraping the dirt in agitation.
The bear answered with a thunderous bellow, its voice thick with bloodlust.
The air became a maelstrom of dust, fur, and blood.
The golden-brown bear's paw swiped through the air with a guttural roar, catching a macaque mid-lunge. The creature's body crumpled against the stone wall, bones snapping audibly before it slid down in a twitching heap.
But the macaques didn't scatter—they swarmed.
Two leapt from above, landing on the bear's shoulders, their claws digging deep into its thick fur while their fangs tore at its neck. Another darted low, slashing at its hind legs.
The bear bellowed in pain, blood spraying across the stone. It rolled violently, slamming one attacker into the ground and pinning another beneath its massive bulk. Golden strings bound tight around its body rattled and hummed with strange tension, almost as if alive, cutting into its hide and leaving deep, bleeding grooves.
Kaede's group scrambled to their feet, nervously looking for a way out of the brawl between beasts. Every movement they made drew a macaque's sharp, twitching gaze, forcing them to freeze.
The bear staggered but didn't fall. With a furious lurch, it smashed its head into the rock wall, crushing another macaque between skull and stone, a wet crunch echoing in the enclosed space.
Takara clenched her fist—knuckles whitened. "We're not getting out of here unless they kill each other first."
"Or unless they kill us first," Sana hissed, ducking as a bloodied macaque was flung overhead, landing in a limp heap right beside her boots.
Another roar shook the ground—this time from multiple macaques at once. From the trees behind them, more shapes emerged, their silhouettes hunched and trembling with rage, closing the only escape route the women had left.
The fight in the center of the clearing escalated—beast against beast, claws against crushing paws—while Kaede's group stood trapped, the air thickening with the stench of blood and the inevitability of being caught in the crossfire.
The macaques lunged for the golden strings wound around the bear's limbs, yanking hard. The alpha barked a command, and three others came forward carrying bundles of burning stems, their tips smoldering. They darted around the beast in a tightening circle, trying to drug it and slow it.
But the smoke only made the bear angrier.
With a deafening roar, it slammed a paw into the nearest macaque, flattening it into the dirt. It thrashed, rolling and twisting, shaking free the threads they clung to. Each tug on the strings sent a shiver through its body, triggering some deep, primal panic. The beast began to shake violently, muscles bunching as if it might burrow straight into the earth to escape unseen horrors.
"Let's run," Kaede blurted, seeing the macaques forced back by the bear's furious strikes. More swarmed in to pin it, leaving openings on the edge of the chaos.
Takara glanced at Sana, about to ask which way to go—
—but before the words could leave her mouth, a new player entered the fight.
"Whoa," a male voice cut through the growls and roars, followed by the sharp twang of a bowstring and the hiss of an arrow through the air.
"It seems we're a bit late," Oliver said, raiding into the fight with a jade bow in hand. He drew back the golden string, feeding Qi into the arrow until it gleamed, hardening it with jade before releasing. The shot flew straight for the bear's eye, a thin cord trailing behind it.
"It's not dead yet," Luna replied, sprinting with him on her back, her palm forming an edge of pure intent shaped into a blade. "But as long as we claim its head—this fight is ours."
Oliver didn't hesitate.
He threw his makeshift bow, which was filled with impurities and was nothing more than a half-baked Qi refinement technique coated with fountain Qi.
His triplet crimson-jade-yang blades flashed and unsheathed themselves, two floating into his hands and another floating right beside him as he dismounted and darted forward, slipping through the chaos with the sharp precision of a predator.
Luna flanked from the other side, her daggers glinting as she used the macaques' frenzied assault as cover. The bear roared in pain as Qi and Fang tore into it from every angle—macaques clinging to its fur, stabbing with jagged bones, Oliver carving deep gashes into its flank, and Luna slashing across its exposed tendons.
The beast staggered, fully blinded on one side, its movements losing strength. Oliver ducked under a sweeping claw, spun, and drove both blades deep into the base of its skull. Luna was already there, finishing the motion with a clean strike across the throat. The roar that followed was wet and ragged before collapsing into silence.
The battlefield stilled for half a breath.
Then the macaques turned—dozens of sharp, yellowed eyes locking onto Oliver and Luna. The growls rose again, sharper this time, a sound of possession and territorial rage. The nearest of them stepped forward, its muzzle dripping with blood, fingers flexing like it was about to lunge.
"They were about to kill us before the bear showed up," Kaede's voice cut cold through the air. "Mister—kill them. They're worse than that thing." She spoke in English to the blond foreigner that could take down a beast that large down almost effortlessly, with the assumption the wounds that were already on its body came from them.
This was their best chance at making it out of this alive, and with his strength and the weapons around him—her eyes moving from the swords in his hand and the other ones he'scarrying along with him.
This guy's really adapted to this world; her eyes sensed the Qi radiating off him, and an idea sprouted in her head: as long as she could cling to him, she'd be a little more safe in this forest.
Oliver adjusted his grip, shifting his stance, ready for another fight. Luna's lips pulled into something between a smirk and a snarl.
But before either side moved, a thunderous bellow echoed through the air. The macaques froze. From the shadows, the alpha emerged—towering, scarred, its fur streaked with silver. It strode past its kin without a glance, approaching the bear's corpse.
With deliberate force, it dug both hands into the beast's skull, tearing out each bloodied eye with a wet rip. The alpha turned to Oliver, holding out one eye as an offering, its other hand keeping the second for itself. The gesture was unmistakable—peace, for now.
Oliver's eyes narrowed, but he reached out and took the offering. The alpha let out a deep grunt that was almost approving, then turned away, lifting its prize high for the others to see. The macaques howled—not in challenge, but in celebration.
The air was still thick with tension, but no blades crossed. For the first time since the fight began, survival didn't depend on killing the next thing that moved—or that was what Oliver and the alpha thought.
Slash!!!
"Die!!!!" Luna yelled, "This is my territory," her intent blades stabbing into the alpha's chest and heart—
Oliver barely had time to register the betrayal before a wet, choking sound burst from the alpha's throat.
Luna's twin intent blades punched through fur, flesh, and bone, pinning the massive macaque leader in place. Its wide amber eyes locked on hers in shock, wet strings of saliva stretching as it tried to roar—but only a bubbling gurgle escaped. Blood sprayed in hot arcs, coating Luna's face and hands.
The alpha's body shuddered violently, its powerful frame collapsing forward. The celebration turned to chaos. Macaques screeched in rage, their howls echoing off the canyon walls like war drums. Dozens of them dropped to all fours, baring their teeth, claws tearing furrows in the dirt.
Oliver's jaw clenched. Damn it, Luna… The fragile peace was gone, shattered in a heartbeat.
The alpha's corpse twitched, its last breath rattling out, the bear's eye it had clutched slipping from its grip and rolling across the dirt toward Oliver's boot.
Kaede's group didn't hesitate. "Kill them!" one of the girls barked, voice sharp with old hatred. "They'd have torn us apart if the bear hadn't shown up!"
The first macaque leapt—only for Oliver's blade to intercept it mid-air, slicing through its chest. The scream that followed was like a spark to dry tinder. The entire troop surged forward, claws and fangs flashing.
Luna didn't retreat. She yanked her blades free from the alpha's chest, trotting in a dance of primal instinct that carved open the first wave. Blood slicked the ground.
"Stay together!" Oliver barked, cutting down another macaque that lunged for Kaede.
The air stank of blood and fur, and the ground trembled beneath the stampede.
Oliver's grip tightened on swords as Luna wrenched hers free from the chest of her prey, spraying dark blood across the grassy soil. The other macaques froze in shock—only for the tension to snap like a bowstring. Screeches erupted all at once, the troop lunging forward in a frenzy.
Kaede's voice cut through the chaos. "Give me one!"
Oliver turned, his eyes flashing towards the blond-haired girl in prison uniform—his eyes trailing down her body. She was already stepping toward him, hand out, her top half torn in the bear's earlier charge—leaving her right breast half exposed. Without a word, he tossed her one of the swords in his grasp, the hilt still warm from his palm.
She caught it cleanly, rolling the weight in her hand once before stepping into the oncoming tide. Sana moved in alongside her, blade in hand, the point flashing as she deflected a swipe from a howling macaque.
Takara didn't wait for a weapon—her fists were enough. She ducked under a clawed strike, her knee slamming up into the macaque's gut, then cracked her elbow into its jaw with enough force to send teeth scattering onto the ground.
The circle tightened, the four of them forming a rough line in front of Luna, who was already cutting her way toward another target, unbothered by the snarls around her. The troop came from all sides—claws raking, fangs snapping—but qi and flesh met them in equal measure.
Kaede's sword whistled as it took a macaque's arm clean at the elbow; Sana pivoted low, cutting the tendons of another's leg; Takara slammed one into the ground and stomped its throat before turning to meet the next.
And Oliver—Oliver was the eye of the storm. Every swing was decisive, every step forward pushing the tide back. The dirt around him was slick and red, the air ringing with the clash of jade and the guttural cries of beasts too furious to retreat.
The alpha lay twitching at Luna's feet, blood pooling beneath it, its single remaining eye staring glassy and unblinking into the sky above.
It would not be the only one dead before the night was over.