The figures hidden among the dense trees watched the battle that had continued for two full days between the Bull of Wrath and the woman with the murderous aura. The shock was evident on their faces throughout the battle, and rather than fading with time, it only grew stronger with every passing hour as the woman remained standing and fighting.
They had expected her to hold out for a while before despair overtook her once she realized that the Bull's defenses could not be pierced deeply enough. After that, they thought she would retreat if she were fortunate, or fall if she were not. After all, this particular beast had ruled the region where they lived for hundreds of years with absolute dominance, making everyone who dared challenge it quickly lose hope before paying the price. It was because of this very monster that their small human settlement had been forced to live underground in dug-out tunnels, venturing out only during the night to hunt and gather what they needed while it slept.
Yet it seemed that this deeply rooted legend in their collective memory had been shattered today by the woman now lying on the ground beside the enormous corpse of the fallen beast. The bull had fallen. The woman was still alive. That single fact was the hardest thing they had ever tried to comprehend, because everything they had experienced and everything they had heard from their parents and grandparents had firmly engraved in their minds that the Bull of Wrath could never be defeated, and that anyone who challenged it would inevitably pay the price.
Thus, even after the battle had ended, they remained hidden among the trees for quite some time, frozen by shock. Confusion filled every face. Eventually, one of them suggested stepping forward to learn the identity of this mysterious figure. At the same time, however, fear crushed the idea at its very roots. Even while lying on the ground and appearing exhausted, the murderous aura emanating from the woman remained overwhelming and suffocating.
They had no way of knowing how she would react if they approached. A being of such a level might see their approach as provocation or a threat and act before they even had the chance to explain their intentions. She might kill them on a whim without sparing the matter a second thought. So they remained where they were, silently debating what they should do, every option before them carrying its own danger.
But what happened next gave them no opportunity to retreat. Suddenly, they sensed the murderous aura emanating from the woman surge sharply. Even more terrifying was the fact that it was aimed directly at them, as though she knew exactly where they were hiding among the trees, how many of them there were, and how far they stood from her.
The deadly pressure descended upon them like an invisible wall sealing them in from every direction at once. None of them could remain standing, and they all dropped to their knees one after another in the same instant. Their bodies were overcome by helplessness that reached even their will itself, making the very thought of resistance utterly meaningless.
At the same time, however, they sensed something else woven into that murderous aura. A message. It was neither spoken words nor a language they understood, yet its meaning reached them with perfect clarity without the need for speech:
Come forward.
Everyone struggled to stand after understanding the message. Since they had already been discovered and no longer possessed either the ability to flee or to remain hidden, they realized that they had no real choice except obedience. They rose with difficulty, then emerged from their hiding place among the trees one after another, taking slow, cautious steps filled with fear as they approached the woman lying beside the corpse of the beast that had terrified them for centuries.
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