Grey frowned deeply. Sunny's answer only confirmed his suspicions, but it brought him no relief.
As he kept fighting, he constantly glanced around, trying to figure out what had caused such abnormal behavior.
Did winter come early this year, and I got so caught up chasing those cultists that I simply didn't notice? Grey thought sarcastically.
He didn't change his fighting style. His dagger moved fast, efficiently, and in the dirtiest way imaginable.
In the heat of battle, Grey didn't even realize how cold-blooded he had become. The way he fought resembled a battle-hardened veteran rather than a civilized man from Earth who had never even killed a chicken.
It felt as though he had found some strange, invisible rhythm.
Every hyena's movements turned out to be surprisingly repetitive and predictable. If the beast intended to bite his lower body, it would rise onto its hind legs first. If it aimed higher, it would crouch before leaping.
The moment Grey recognized that pattern, he started killing even more efficiently. It was as if the entire battlefield had suddenly fallen into slow motion while he alone kept moving at normal speed. The feeling was almost intoxicating. It was as though he had become a higher being, capable of deciding in advance who would live and who would die.
Even so, Grey didn't allow himself to relax.
The fighting had indeed become a little easier, but the biggest problem remained. If more Green Fang Hyenas kept arriving, their entire group would be doomed.
Only God knew what lucky star had protected them so far. Not a single person on their side had died yet.
But that kind of luck couldn't last forever.
The moment exhaustion finally caught up with them, they wouldn't have the slightest chance of changing the outcome of the battle.
The situation on the battlefield was getting worse.
The formation the teenagers had mastered over two weeks of nonstop fighting had indeed helped them hold out this long, but it still wasn't enough.
Many of them were already wounded.
Blood streamed from one person's torn shoulder, another limped, while someone else could barely keep hold of their weapon with hands trembling from exhaustion. Garen's condition was the clearest sign of all. He had been fighting here longer than anyone else. His strikes were no longer as deadly and merciless as they had been at the beginning.
The others' movements were becoming less and less coordinated, and their attacks were losing their ferocity. The teenagers were rapidly approaching the moment when their entire formation would collapse.
At first, the changes were almost impossible to notice. A thrust that lacked just a little speed. A step back that came just a little too late. A swing that felt just a little heavier. But on a battlefield like this, even the smallest mistake could cost a life.
Grey saw it all too clearly.
And the hyenas just kept pressing forward.
He forcefully knocked aside the jaws of one beast that tried to latch onto his thigh, then instantly drove his blade beneath another's eye. Hot blood splattered across his wrist.
Without taking his attention off the fight, he coldly spoke into his own mind.
"Junior, watch our surroundings. Look for anything unusual while I focus on the battle. These hyenas are acting strangely, and if we don't find a way to escape them, we're all going to die here."
"Already on it," came the reply almost immediately. "Do you think I didn't hear what Sunny said?"
Senior didn't answer. He had neither the time nor the desire to trade insults right now.
He simply kept killing.
"Faster," he snapped impatiently when another thirty seconds passed without a reply.
"Yeah, yeah, I know! Stop distracting me!" Junior shot back. "Everything's crawling around like some damn anthill... Do you think it's easy to focus?"
Senior fell silent.
Another minute passed, feeling like an eternity, before a sharp shout rang out inside his head.
"Ten o'clock! Right on that tree branch!"
For a split second, Senior thought he had heard angels singing.
"That hyena's different!" Junior continued quickly. "It's bigger than the others, but it still hasn't joined the fight. Just listen to its cackling. It's louder, more irritating, and the way it's looking at us... it's full of contempt."
Grey kicked away the nearest hyena and, taking advantage of the brief opening, shot a quick glance in the direction Junior had pointed out.
He spotted it almost immediately.
Perched on a thick branch, half-hidden by leaves and shadows, was an unusually large beast. Its massive body, long limbs, and hideous face looked as though it were openly mocking him. The mere sight of the creature stirred a murderous urge within him.
The cackling of that oversized beast was different from all the others. There was a rhythm to it, almost like a signal, as if it were issuing commands.
Grey understood the reason for the hyenas' madness at once.
A leader.
They had a leader who kept the entire pack in a frenzy, refusing to let them retreat no matter how many of them died.
It wasn't fighting. Instead, it had hidden itself in an inconspicuous corner, barking out orders. It was waiting for the formation to collapse completely before finishing off its exhausted prey. Perhaps it even wanted to impress the rest of the pack by entering the battle at the very end and showing off its valor.
Just like a true scavenger. Calculating and merciless!
"Want me to take it out myself?" Junior asked, unsure whether his inexperienced partner could handle it alone.
"No," Senior cut him off. "I'll do it."
There was no time to think. If that really was the leader, it had to die as soon as possible. There was no time to test his theory or come up with a plan.
Grey took a sharp breath and immediately gave the order.
"Kai! Shoot the hyena on the left! The one sitting on the branch!"
Unfortunately, he still hadn't had the chance to teach his subordinates how to use a clock face for directions. This world had never invented mechanical clocks, so the concept of a clock face simply didn't exist. All he could do was improvise and hope Kai's eyesight was better than his own.
It was incredibly inconvenient.
Especially now, when the battlefield was in such complete chaos that even a normal shout could easily be swallowed by the endless cackling, roaring, and cries of the wounded.
Even so, Kai understood.
Without asking a single question, he turned in the right direction and fired two quick shots in succession, hoping the few arrows he had left would be of some use.
The arrows whistled toward their target.
The hyena leader had noticed the two archers long ago, but it hadn't bothered to dodge right away. It simply didn't believe such a weak attack could threaten it.
It looked at the incoming arrows with such contempt that it almost seemed to be mocking them. As if the people before it weren't dangerous enemies, but a pitiful pack of cubs too foolish to understand how insignificant they truly were.
There was no way arrows that slow could catch it off guard.
At the last moment, the beast merely tilted its head slightly to the right before lazily shifting its body.
Both of Kai's arrows missed.
Unfortunately for it, even if this hyena was smarter than the rest, it was still no match for human cunning.
Another arrow was already flying behind Kai's shots. It was far quieter and far deadlier. Grey had fired it himself from his almost Gold Rank bow.
It flew straight toward the beast's eye just as it finished dodging the first attack.
This time, even the hyena's expression changed slightly. It clearly hadn't expected a trick like that.
Even so, Grey had underestimated the creature's physical abilities.
Although the leader noticed the danger too late, its reaction was astonishingly fast. The beast suddenly tensed its hind legs and launched itself off the branch, leaping down at the very last possible moment.
Grey's arrow streaked past, clipping away only a few tufts of fur.
"Bitch," Grey cursed calmly. "I won't fall for the same trick twice."
Without the slightest hint of emotion, his fingers were already drawing the bowstring once again.
He wasn't aiming at the hyena itself, its head, or even its torso. Grey aimed at the exact spot where the beast would be a moment later.
At last, those physics lessons came in handy. He calculated everything: air resistance, the angle of movement, and the speed of free fall. He already knew the target's exact trajectory, so he had complete confidence in his final shot.
The leader simply couldn't dodge or change direction. It had nothing to push off from.
The Green Fang Hyena leader's eyes widened. For the first time, an almost human emotion flashed across them. Fear.
It realized the boy's plan far too late.
The arrow slammed beneath its ribs with a heavy, wet thud that sounded like music to Grey's ears. The beast let out such a sharp shriek that, for a brief moment, it drowned out the sounds of slaughter all around them.
Its body jerked in midair before crashing to the ground like a sack of garbage.
But Grey had no intention of trusting the beast's pitiful appearance. It was far too cunning. He drew the bowstring again and, without the slightest hesitation, released another arrow, determined to finish the creature once and for all.
That decision proved absolutely correct.
The leader wasn't just intelligent. It was frighteningly tough.
The moment it sensed another attack approaching, the leader, which had looked like a lifeless corpse only a second earlier, suddenly twitched, sprang to its feet, and dashed aside.
The third arrow merely grazed past, missing every vital organ.
Ignoring the arrow lodged between its ribs and the horrific wound, the limping hyena fled into the forest at a speed that made it seem as though Death itself was chasing it.
At that very moment, everything changed.
The remaining Green Fang Hyenas instantly lost their will to fight. It was as if the entire pack had suddenly had its spine ripped out. Just a second earlier, they had been relentlessly throwing themselves against the teenagers' formation, ignoring both the deaths of their companions and their own wounds.
But now... they began to retreat.
First one.
Then three.
And then all the rest.
Their cackling changed. It no longer sounded frenzied and bloodthirsty. Instead, it became something between a groan and a whimper. They jumped back, snapped defensively, retreated in fear, then one after another disappeared into the trees, desperate to catch up with their wounded leader.
Within seconds, the battlefield that had looked like a living slaughterhouse only moments ago began to empty at an astonishing pace.
The teenagers exchanged confused glances. Few of them had managed to notice Grey's actions in the heat of battle. None of them dared to lower their guard, afraid the hyenas had only fallen back temporarily and might return at any moment.
Even so, smiles slowly began to appear on their exhausted faces.
No matter how small, a victory was still a victory.
They had survived and driven back the mad onslaught of the Green Fang Hyenas, one fierce enough to frighten even seasoned adventurers.
"Hooray!" someone suddenly shouted from the crowd after finally realizing the enemy had truly retreated.
"We won!" the others echoed with joy.
Their blood began to boil once more.
A battle this brutal could awaken courage even in the most cowardly people. After all, fighting wild beasts had always been one of humanity's oldest instincts. It had been etched into their very genes since the distant age when mankind survived only through hunting and gathering.
They laughed and embraced one another. Loudly and carefree, as if they wanted to savor the lives they had nearly lost.
Then, without warning, Grey smacked the nearest subordinate across the back of the head with a stinging slap.
"Shut the hell up, all of you! Did you fucking forget where we are?!"
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