The forest was too quiet.
Even the wind had stopped.
Kael felt it first — a faint vibration traveling up through the ground beneath his feet. Not fear.
Warning.
Dean froze mid-step. "…Something big is moving."
Angelika's head snapped up, eyes already sharp with calculation. Elara's fingers tightened slowly around her spear.
Then—
BOOOOOM…
The ground trembled. Once. Twice. And the trees ahead began to shake violently, something enormous forcing its way through them.
The First Sight
The forest parted, and it stepped out.
A massive beast, easily three times the size of an Ironhide Boar. Thick gray hide stretched over a frame built like a moving wall. Towering tusks curved like blades on either side of its head. Eyes glowing with something close to primitive rage.
A Wild Mammoth.
Even the Abyssari warriors stiffened at the sight of it.
One of Dean's men whispered, barely audible, "…That thing could crush houses."
System Alert
[ Danger Detected: Wild Mammoth – Level 5 ][ Threat Assessment: HIGH ][ Recommended Action: Strategic Engagement or Retreat ]
Angelika stepped close to Kael immediately, her voice urgent but controlled. "Kael… this isn't like the boars." She pointed quickly toward its legs. "Look at its leg mass — its charge will destroy our formation."
For once, even Elara didn't argue.
Dean's Warrior Instinct
Dean cracked his neck slowly, blue eyes burning with something eager. "…We can take it."
Kael raised a hand before he could move. "No reckless moves."
His gaze stayed locked on the mammoth, calculating, measuring, already three steps ahead of what everyone else was seeing.
Kael's Analysis Mode
The system began scanning in the back of his vision.
[ Weak Point Identified: Inner Knee Joint ][ Secondary Weak Point: Eye Socket ][ Charge Pattern: Predictable but High Impact ]
Kael's lips moved slowly. "…We don't fight its strength."
He looked over the squad. "We break its balance."
Angelika's eyes widened slightly. He's adapting fast…
Battle Formation
Kael's voice turned sharp. "Archers — spread wide. Abyssari — left flank pressure. Dean — with me at the front."
Dean's grin returned, wide and hungry. "…Now this feels right."
The Mammoth Charges
The beast trumpeted, a sound that seemed to shake the air itself—
RAAAAAAAAAA!
—and charged, the earth exploding under its weight with every stride.
Angelika shouted, "LEFT! MOVE LEFT!"
The squad scattered exactly as planned, and the mammoth's charge missed — barely, trees shattering into splinters behind them where the formation had stood a second earlier.
Phase Two: Controlled Attack
"Archers — NOW!"
THWIP! THWIP! THWIP!
Arrows struck the mammoth's hide, but most bounced away uselessly.
Angelika's heart dropped. "…Its skin is too thick!"
Kael's eyes stayed calm. "Not the body. Eyes and joints only."
Abyssari Power Unleashed
Two Abyssari women moved like blurs across the field. One slammed a heavy spear straight into the mammoth's knee joint.
THUNK!
The beast staggered, and Dean didn't waste the opening. He roared and charged forward, his Titanblade cutting deep into the same joint.
SLASH!
Dark blood spilled across the grass.
For the first time, the mammoth screamed — a sound of genuine pain instead of rage.
System Update
[ Mammoth Mobility Reduced: 18% ]
Kael's eyes flashed. "Good."
Critical Moment
Then the mammoth went berserk.
Its trunk whipped wildly through the air.
WHOOOOOM!
An Abyssari warrior was thrown back violently, crashing hard into the ground.
Elara's voice cracked across the field. "Kael!"
For the first time that day, the danger spiked sharply enough to feel in the air itself.
Kael's Decisive Move
Kael inhaled slowly. Then he activated his growth physics boost, muscles tightening, speed surging, focus narrowing into a single sharp line.
He ran straight at the raging mammoth.
Angelika's voice broke. "KAEL, DON'T—!"
Too late.
The Finishing Strike
Kael leapt onto a fallen rock, then launched himself upward. For a moment, time seemed to stretch and slow around him.
The mammoth's eye turned toward him.
Too late.
SHIIIIING!
His reinforced blade drove deep, straight into the eye socket.
The mammoth froze. Shuddered.
Then—
BOOOOOOOOM!
It collapsed like a falling mountain, and the forest went utterly silent in its wake.
System Explosion
[ First Mammoth Kill Achieved ][ Massive Food Supply Secured ][ Village Prestige: SURGING ][ Kael Combat Rank: Rising Rapidly ]
Aftermath Emotion
For several seconds, no one spoke.
Then Dean exhaled slowly. "…You're insane."
High praise, again.
Elara ran forward and grabbed Kael's arm tightly, her voice shaking slightly. "…Don't do that again."
But her eyes carried something deeper than the words did.
Across from them, Angelika stood very still, watching Kael in silence.
Thinking hard.
Planning harder.
As the tribe began preparing the massive mammoth for transport back to the settlement, the system suddenly flashed red across Kael's vision.
[ WARNING: Predator Drawn by Blood Scent ][ Estimated Arrival: Soon ]
Kael's eyes narrowed toward the treeline.
The real test was still coming.