Chapter 9: We Have a Problem
When the last bear fell and the forest went silent again, Lian expected to finally have a chance to breathe.
This was the first real fight he had ever had with monsters in his life. Of course, the Fallen Wolf existed, but that could not really be called a fight.
Defeating it was a combination of luck, intelligence, and using the environment correctly. And more importantly, that monster was already near death.
And his fight with these bears was won with his own raw power.
But at that moment, a sound came from a distance. A sound like breaking rocks, and after that, a short scream.
"Kyaaaaa! Help!!!"
It was a human scream.
Lian unconsciously raised his head. Before he could say anything, Seris, who was cleaning blood from her sword, turned her head toward the sound.
She listened for a few seconds.
"Let’s go see." Then she said.
And without waiting for an answer, she started moving. Lian just sighed and followed behind her. He still had a few minutes left on his skill and was able to move quickly toward the source of the sound.
After traveling a few hundred meters, the further they went, the more signs of battle appeared.
Trees were broken. Traces of blood could be seen on the ground. Some of the thick tree trunks looked like they had been crushed in half by something huge.
About ten minutes later, they reached an open space in the middle of the forest.
And at that moment, Lian stopped. In the center of that open space, a giant monster was standing.
A creature that looked like a massive monkey with black skin and bones sticking out of its body. Its height was over four meters.
Its arms were so big that each swing could crush a human. But what caught Lian’s attention was not the monster itself.
It was three people.
Two girls and one boy. All three were lying on the ground. Their condition was terrible.
One of the girls was wounded in her side, and her clothes were completely soaked in blood. The second girl had a broken arm and her face was very pale.
But the worst condition belonged to the boy. Part of his armor was completely crushed, and the deep mark of a claw could be seen on his chest.
He was breathing with difficulty, and yet he was still trying to put himself in front of the two girls.
As if even in that state, he wanted to protect them.
Lian frowned. If they had arrived a few minutes later, all three would have died.
But before he could do anything, Seris moved past him.
"I’ll kill the monster." And she walked straight toward the giant creature.
No plan. No questions. She just went.
The monster roared, and the ground shook. A moment later, the fight began.
But Lian did not even keep his eyes on that scene. He quickly went to the three injured people.
When he got closer, he realized the situation was even worse than he thought.
The boy was almost unconscious, and his breathing had become irregular. One of the girls tried to say something, but her voice sounded more like a whisper.
Lian knelt down.
"Calm down. There is no danger right now."
The girl looked at him with hesitation, but then her gaze went toward Seris. At that moment, a massive explosion echoed through the forest.
BOOM!
Several tree trunks were thrown into the air, and the ground under them shook. The girl’s eyes widened a little.
"That... is she with you?"
Lian looked at the fight. Seris was fighting the four-meter-tall monster and was worryingly winning.
"I think so, I guess."
"You think?"
"I am not very sure either."
For a moment, silence fell between them. A few minutes later, the sound of the fight stopped.
And that meant the fight was over. The monster was dead, naturally.
A little later, Seris disappeared, apparently to look around, and Lian busied himself helping the injured.
Actually, he had gotten the water from her before, after they left the valley. That girl was completely prepared to be summoned into a ruined realm and had many things in her storage space.
After giving them some water and letting them catch their breath, they were finally able to talk.
"I am Aria." The girl with the least injuries said quietly.
She pointed to the girl next to her.
"That is Alisa."
Then she looked at the boy.
"And he is Ryan."
Ryan moved his head with difficulty. It was clear that speaking was painful for him.
Lian introduced himself.
"Are you also among the summoned ones? What happened that you got trapped here?" He then asked.
"Yes... When we woke up... we were right here." Aria was quiet for a few seconds and then answered.
"Right here?"
"Not exactly here. A few hundred meters away. We thought maybe if we got out of this area, we would reach a safe place." The girl nodded.
"But we were wrong." Ryan, the wounded boy, suddenly added with difficulty.
"That monster found us." He then added.
Lian said nothing. It made sense. They had just entered the realm. They had no information. Their chance of survival was almost zero.
He had not had a chance to look at that monster’s stats, but it was probably a level 8 or 9 monster. And looking at these three, he could tell the two girls were not even Awakened.
That meant only the boy was Awakened. And looking at his young face, he was not much older than Lian. So it was normal that he could not match this monster.
If Seris had not decided to follow that sound today, all three would probably have been dead within a few more minutes.
At that moment, the sound of footsteps was heard from behind them. Everyone turned their heads.
Seris had returned. Her sword was still stained with the monster’s blood. But something in her behavior made Lian frown immediately.
The girl’s eyes were scanning the area. And for the first time since he had met her, there was no trace of her usual indifference in her gaze.
"Sorry to interrupt your conversation."
"What’s wrong?" Lian felt something bad.
Seris fixed her gaze into the dark depths of the forest and then said quietly.
"I think we have a problem."
"What problem?"
"We are surrounded." Seris answered without taking her eyes off the trees.
A heavy silence fell. And at that moment, from the darkness of the forest, dozens of pairs of red eyes lit up, one after another.
