Tap, tap-tap-tap… tap-tap?
The faint sound of tiny footsteps echoed through the forest.
Rustle… rustle-rustle…
The first creature to pop out its head was small, fluffy, and incredibly cute, like a small fox cat.
Not long after, one after another, small and groggy creatures filled with curiosity started to appear in droves, all attracted to something in the distance.
Their curiosity took control, and they slowly approached.
Deep within the forest, countless tiny shapes slowly began to converge from the undergrowth, all attracted by something. Small spirit rabbits with moss growing along their backs, long-tailed lizards that crawled across the trees, and strange bird-like bats that fluttered down from above and landed throughout the surrounding canopy.
One after another, beasts unique to the secret realm slowly gathered from every direction.
At first glance, it looked like a peaceful scene, a bit like something out of a fairy tale…
The beasts quietly appeared, all staring toward the same direction deep within the fog-filled forest. Something was happening there, and the air almost seemed to carry a strange pressure.
Some of the more meticulous creatures sniffed the air, while others just tilted their heads and began to approach. Many instinctively froze in place, like prey sensing the arrival of a predator that was far beyond their understanding, but most of these creatures lacked that level of self-awareness.
Regardless—
The 'commotion' spread further and further, eventually manifesting as an audible sound…
Boom!
The smaller beasts, those lacking wisdom and scattered throughout this part of the forest, gradually became uneasy and soon began to retreat. Some climbed the trees, others vanished into burrows, and entire flocks of winged balls scattered into the air.
The forest slowly became louder.
This momentum continued for some time…
But then—
BOOM!
A horrifying pressure suddenly descended from a deeper part of the forest!
The earth shook violently, and the sky rippled.
Space seemed to distort as the body heat of whatever was ahead rolled out.
The surrounding trees bent sideways as a massive creature forced its way through the distant woodland. Its body towered above the canopy, vaguely resembling a colossal horned ape covered in dark stone-like scales. Crimson colored spiritual energy carrying violence and rage continuously leaked from the gaps in its body, while four enormous tusk-like protrusions extended from its locking jaw.
This was undoubtedly a spiritual beast at the peak of the Fourth Order!
And it wasn't alone!
RUMBLE—!
Another massive existence swiftly emerged.
This beast resembled an enormous serpent-like centipede with dozens of glowing green eyes lining both sides of its body. Its sheer size was overwhelming, and each movement uprooted trees, while corrosive mist poured from beneath its shell and ear-piercing shrieks shook the surroundings.
The moment these two beast kings appeared—
The little beasts all panicked!
Screeech!
Regret!
Deep regret!
That was how they all felt!
Why did they come so close? Why did they have to take a look! Damn their lack of awareness!
Entire waves of beasts, spanning all of the local species, immediately turned and fled. Thousands of tiny creatures suddenly surged through the forest all at once, forming a chaotic tide of fur, scales, and claws!
Their panic spread quickly.
Like a plague, the surrounding beasts, all of whom were much bigger, began to panic.
The commonly seen spirit beasts nearby immediately sensed the commotion and misunderstood the situation completely. They saw the smaller creatures desperately fleeing for their lives and instinctively assumed that something terrifying was approaching.
So naturally… they panicked too!
ROAR!
A large wolf-shaped spirit beast began sprinting through the forest, followed by Herds of armored boars that crashed through the trees. A wave of giant deer bounded over the foliage, while flocks of flying predators scattered into the air. Wolves, foxes, cats, bears, beetles, tigers, snakes, creatures from basically every species throughout the surrounding forest descended into complete chaos!
But the worst part was…
The larger beasts, those who each ruled over a part of the forest, misunderstood as well!
Like the commonly seen beasts, this wave of anxiety hit them like a truck, stunning their common sense.
They, too, transformed into a wave of fleeing beasts that trampled the forest in an attempt to escape whatever was coming from that direction.
The two Peak Fourth Order beasts stopped moving and lifted their heads cautiously.
Their instincts screamed.
Why were so many creatures fleeing at the same time?
What terrifying existence had appeared!
Could it be even more terrifying than that small girl!?
Soon, even they began to become uneasy.
The horned ape slowly took a step backward, and the gigantic centipede curled up defensively.
They looked around, their huge bodies shaking the forest with each shift, in an attempt to search for the source of the commotion, completely unaware that they themselves were the origin of this terror.
As they looked around, not too far into the distance—
A tiny green-haired girl could be heard screaming while aggressively running after them.
"I said I was sorry! Hey, hey! Come back! It was an accident! I meant to hit the bird! The bird! Damn it!"
Seeing that the 'monster' had caught up, they gave up searching for the source of the surrounding creatures' fear and chose to continue escaping, at least, as fast as their massive bodies allowed.
Boom!
Realizing that they won't wait, Petra stopped, then stomped her small foot repeatedly.
"Ahhh! Why do these guys have to overreact so much! Didn't I just kill a big pig? What's the big deal! Come back! I fear you, I really do!" Petra proceeded to chase after the two beast kings, the ape and the serpent, while angrily waving her fists in the air!
-
To understand what had happened, the clock had to be turned back a few minutes…
After the stupid crane revealed her position, the surrounding beasts all began to aggressively swarm her.
This continued for some time, but during this time, Petra became genuinely enraged at the crane that was constantly harassing her. She could be said to be a young dragon in her own right, literally, so it was only natural that beasts like the Bark Beast or the Crimson Crystal Deer were just things to play around with, but this stupid crane was different! So, she tried to shoot it out of the sky using a small pellet of poison condensed from her physique. Unfortunately, the crane was incredibly swift and actually dodged.
It should also be said that Petra's ability to 'throw' was comparable to a fourth-order attack at least!
For this crane to dodge, it was something that even stunned Petra for a moment.
Mm, anyways…
After missing the first attack, while Petra was distracted and coming up with her retaliation plan, all the creatures in the forest and nearby that had been hunting Petra for whatever reason watched as the tiny poison pellet slowly missed, fell from the sky, and landed on the back of a strange golden-ringed boar.
The boar, who had been cultivating the standard method used by most magical beasts, sleeping, then jumped up, screeched, and looked around, its face full of fear.
It proceeded to go absolutely berserk, but for some reason, it was incapable of producing any of its own power, as if its whole body had been sealed by whatever substance had struck it!
It then melted and died—
Leaving behind only a gleaming golden skeleton…
The Beasts: ( ⁰д⁰)
How could Petra have known that the crane would dodge? How could she have known that her missed shot would land directly on the unspoken emperor of the forest? Following the sudden demise of this strange golden pig, the surrounding overlords of the forest completely freaked out and began to view her as some kind of horrific entity, an incarnation of dread, a destroyer of life, a walking apocalypse! They scrambled to flee from her presence as if she were the most terrifying monster in the world!
Petra stood there, dumbfounded. Her eyes shifted back and forth between the wave of fleeing beasts, who just moments ago had been hunting her down, and the gleaming golden skeleton that lay motionless on the ground.
Her eyelid twitched.
She gritted her teeth, then looked up at the sky.
The Crane: ( ⚆ _ ⚆ )
That damn bird was still circling above her head!
Damn it!
She had no idea that the bird had actually wanted her to hit the golden-ringed boar, aggro it, then learn the reason why roses were so red! But how was it supposed to know that she could one-shot it!
Fuck!
This monster!
That was the only thing going through its head...
After losing her temper one last time, Petra hopped up and down, then began shooting more pellets towards the sky, raining down death upon the surrounding forest. Unbeknownst to her, this killed countless creatures, but she didn't care because she still couldn't hit that stupid crane!
Petra was positive that this crane was not a native beast of the secret realm!
This damn thing had definitely come into the secret realm with everyone else!
She didn't think it was a bounty hunter or an assassin; no, at this point she was sure that it was in cahoots with those hummingbirds from 'that time!'
Damn birds!!
This was an irreconcilable grudge!!
Petra still wasn't one hundred percent sure why she had such a bad affinity with bird-type creatures, but If her guess from back then was correct, then things would only get worse…
-
Returning to the present, Petra watched as the surrounding beasts continued to run away, a frustrated expression on her palm-sized face.
How was she going to pretend to be a pig to eat the tiger now?!"
"Tsk!"
She stomped her foot even harder!
Behind her, Mell silently stared.
"…Little master..."
Petra pointed aggressively toward the sky.
"And that damn crane! Don't think I forgot! One day I'm definitely turning it into soup! No, no! I'll turn you into a pair of pants and wear you! JUST YOU WAIT!"
Rustle!
At that moment, Wind finally returned.
She exited a bush, then shook the leaves from her head with a frustrated expression.
She no longer possessed her usual elegance; a branch was stuck in her silver hair, one sleeve had been partially torn, and several leaves clung stubbornly to her clothes. Even her usually refined expression looked slightly dark, clearly having experienced what it meant to be run over.
Petra blinked innocently, then cracked a smirk. "…You look terrible! Hahaha!"
Wind's eyelid twitched.
She really wanted to smack Petra, but instead, "…Thank you, little master..."
Not long after—Crash!
Rose burst through the bushes while looking in an even worse state. Her red hair was messy, mud covered one side of her face, and she was dragging half a broken tree behind her.
"Tch! Those stupid beasts wouldn't stop!"
Swoosh!
Lira popped out from another bush nearby, but unlike the others, she looked extremely happy.
"Hehehe~!"
Mell rubbed her forehead and looked around. "…This situation is becoming pretty bad."
At those words, Wind's expression also subtly changed. Without a moment's hesitation, she jumped up and landed atop a nearby tree before looking toward the distant forest.
Petra tilted her head.
"…What's she doing?"
Below, Mell glanced up at Wind, then toward Petra with a complicated expression. She looked like someone who had just realized that her little master genuinely lacked a sense of situational awareness on a catastrophic level. She knew that it was bad, but how could it be this bad?
Looking around, Rose also frowned.
"…Wait, why does it feel like the beasts aren't going to stop?"
Lira's ears twitched. "Yeah…" She nodded several times. "It kinda feels like the beginning of a—" She didn't finish, and abruptly closed her mouth, pursing her lips nervously a moment later.
Everyone turned, looking up towards Wind.
While standing atop the tree, the silver elf remained completely silent.
Petra still looked confused, but judging from the light in her eyes, she seemed to be slowly catching on…
"…Hm?"
Soon, Wind jumped back down.
At almost the same time—
Rumble!
—The forest floor beneath their feet trembled.
It wasn't just nearby, but also far away too.
As the rumbling spread, Petra's face slowly froze. Her big black eyes widened little by little as realization finally struck her, turning her cheeks red.
"…Oh, shit…"
A 'terrible' thought suddenly appeared in her mind.
"Hehehe… Don't tell me…" There was a pause, and then… "Did I just start a Beast Tide? Oopsie~"
The four girls stared at her…
Petra: "…"
* * *