Mikrim quickly drew the steel hatchet she has strapped on her leg and struck down with it aiming at this creature in the face. Her hatchet successfully connected, and an echoing blow was heard, injuring the beast.

However, her hatchet didn't dig deep enough as the beast's mouth opened wide in a four-way split, catching her hand and enduring the bash it took face-first. It only left the beast dazed, biting down on her further. Mikrim's swing just didn't have enough centrifugal force, being pinned on the ground.

Mikrim's hand was immediately torn away like paper, leaving violent shreds of skin, muscle, and bone on her avatar as her blood spurt out on her face partly blinding her. Along with it, her hatchet dropped with a clang on the ground next to her. Her HP dropped a large chunk to 44% as this happened.

With only one hand left to support her bow in blocking the beast's jaws, Mikrim started shouting due to the horror, and rapid succession of events she was suddenly experiencing.

And then, the wolf pinning her suddenly flew a few paces away. This left Mikrim a confused look whether if she was finally safe. She quickly looked to her left, with her eyes widened and mouth agape showing this apparent, surprised expression.

It was Banelfsing who kicked the wolf brutally away from Mikrim, evident on his bloody, steel-toed boot. The wolf rolled on the forest's dead ground and immediately recovered its footing, facing its attacker. The monstrous wolf began showing trouble in its breathing due to Banelfsing's kick.

"Come here, ugly! I'll make sure you find out what real iron tastes like!" Banelfsing provoked the creature, luring it away from Mikrim. He pointed his torch at the creature at an angle just enough for Arka to have enough lighting to see in her fight with the wolf-like monsters.

Arka faced the creatures that surrounded her; an open hand and sword in front. As one of these creatures leaped towards her, Arka quickly ducked and grabbed the wolf on its belly and slammed it down onto the forest’s dead earth with just her bare hand. She knelt on top of the creature with one leg. She didn't mind its twin companions whose eyes appear to be lusting for blood,

Arka felt recklessly confident in the protection of her armor. The two remaining creatures that surrounded her quickly lunged at her while she plunged her sword with both of her hands into the creature that she was restraining. A deep incision was made down their pinned companion. Blood and guts of the creature spilled out of its body dying instantly.

Weephound registered to the index—a small window appeared at the corner of her HUD.

As this window appeared, the two remaining Weephounds vigorously clamped their four-way jaws down aggressively, on the leg and arm of her armored avatar. Their strong jaws held her firmly in place.

Simultaneously, Banelfsing began to rush towards the Weephound he was facing with his dagger, held in a reverse grip in hand. The beast began to leap towards him in response.

Seeing this, he jumped back, making the creature land; avoiding its pounce. As it did, Banelfsing kicked the fragile, dirt on the ground and blinded the Weephound successfully because of its lined-set of arrayed eyes.

Once again, he charged forward, dagger in hand. The beast started to flail its heavy paws as it wildly tried to bite with its four-way jaws. During this moment, Banelfsing sought for an opportunity to land a critical blow.

It didn't take much time to find this opportunity for him, however, as he quickly stabbed his dagger on the creature's thick neck. As he plunged it in, the Weephound knocked him away with its massive paws, staggering him back with a strong blow to his side. His HP dropped to 73%.

This surprised Banelfsing, as the stab wound should have been fatal enough to kill the beast as seen by its instant bleeding. While Banelfsing was still regaining his balance, the beast figured out the location of its prey despite the difficulty in vision and began to pounce at him.

However, this was stopped at the last moment as Mikrim struck her steel hatchet behind the hound, with a look of uncertainty expressed on her bloodied face with a drop jaw and wary eyes.

Being able to bring down the hatchet at a more open space, she was able to pierce through the Weephound’s tough hide on its side.

The Weephound fell on the broken ground. Before it could recover, Banelfsing rushed toward it to finish it off. He drew his second dagger, positioned himself opposite of the creature's massive jaws, and skewered his dagger into the creature's eyes. The beast kept gnawing at him out of reach, as Banelfsing went for a final twist and hoped his skewered dagger was enough to kill.

And it proved to be that it was—as the creature's snarling began to wane, and its strength left its body. In mere moments, all that was left in the scene was the Weephound's still, bloodied corpse; and Banelfsing firmly pinned down with his dagger on top of this creature.

Arka slammed her sword down at the beast that caught her arm. Although, she missed as the creature immediately backed away from her as it saw her raised sword arm. Next, she swung a back fist at the other creature that had its jaws clamped down on her leg. But just like Mikrim, her fist was caught in its grip in the process, and her HP dropped to 83%

Instead of trying to escape from it though, Arka held a firm grip on one of the creature's quadruple jaws, and did a quick stab on its side, burrowing her blade deeply.

As the beast lost its strength, she threw it down onto the ground.

The last Weephound found an opportunity to leap at her for a sure kill. And so, it pounced once more for its prey.

Arka predicted this instant action made by the beast through by quickly withdrawing her sword buried in the stomach of the dead monster on her feet. She then made an expeditious sword swing—slashing deeply into the pouncing creature's chest. It was left airborne and landed brutally into the wooden signpost behind her. The pole broke due to the collision with a creak from the wood, as it fell with a loud thud on the cursed ground.

Someone once asked that if a tree ever falls in a forest, does it make a sound? Perhaps this event could be treated as something similar, serving as an answer for Arka with that age-old question.

She began to stand up and turned to both Mikrim and Banelfsing who were sitting on the ground. She assessed the party, directing her pupils to the small party window on her HUD to which; she saw Mikrim's HP being the lowest among them. This implied she was hurt the most.

Arka looked at Mikrim and saw her covering her severed hand with tears welling up in her eyes. She held a vexed look on the torn hand she hid with Banelfsing accompanying her. Arka quickly jogged to them as she flicked the blood away from her bloodied sword, and sheathed it back on her waist.

"Krim!" She called out. Mikrim and Banelfsing turned to Arka, as Arka saw her surprised look.

She knelt with them and looked at her severed arm. "Let me see," Arka said.

Mikrim, reluctant as her whole body shook in nervousness; slowly removed her hand on the gruesome severed arm she had. It was violently torn away, showing the graphic muscle, blood, and bone underneath her flesh. Mikrim quickly looked back up at Arka, fearful at the sight.

Arka covered her missing hand and looked at her.

"D-Don't worry, it'll come back..." Arka said. "Ban, did you give her a healing potion?" She looked at him.

"Yeah, splashed some on her, and her wound. Healing should be cut to a few minutes," he said to Arka, as she nodded.

"I'm fine... sorry for worrying you two," Mikrim croaked. Due to this, she cleared her throat wanting to speak soundly. "It's just shocking seeing this happen. It's a strange feeling though that this doesn't hurt..." She looked back on the severed arm Arka covered, as her eyes started to relax.

"Yeah, t-this is just a game after all... I was surprised too when first I had this character's body get severed," Arka said. "You'll get used to it,"

"Arakar's right. It takes time. Just gotta have to experience seeing more of these mobs," Banelfsing told Mikrim, with a nod.

As Banelfsing said this, Mikrim remembered her reason for joining up with the group. She agreed with him, due to the same understanding that what she wants was an adventure to try and fight these monsters with them. "Yeah, you're right, Ban." Mikrim said, nodding and smiling at the both of them.

The whole party began standing up, as Mikrim took Arka's hand, pulling her up. "C'mon, let's keep heading back to the city so we'll finally have a safe zone to log out," Arka said to her, with a firm shake on her severed hand before letting go.

Mikrim nodded in agreement. "Okay!" She said, with her mood uplifted.

Banelfsing then approached Arka and began handing her the torch he held. "Arakar, we should probably fix our formation. I think it might be better with you, in front,"

Out of reflex, she took the torch Banelfsing offered to her. "R-Right. I've been thinking about that too. Our mage is vulnerable from being flanked with no one to protect her."

"Exactly," Banelfsing agreed with her. "I'll be sure to keep an eye on her. With the way you fought, I think you're much better in tanking for us,"

"I suppose so..." Arka held a hand on her chin before merely letting go. "This formation is indeed better for us to venture through this forest."

Banelfsing nodded at Arka before heading next to Mikrim. Arka turned her back to them before their party continued moving on towards the right path of the forest.

Minutes passed as they ventured through the darkness guided by the torch that Arka's held. The party encountered no other monster after that that would cause them any further inconvenience. It was at this time that Mikrim's severed hand finally started its recovery process. She lifted her arm to look at it.

What took the form of her severed hand were thin, gridded shapes shining with a faint, blue light. After outlining the missing hand her avatar was missing, it suddenly reconstructed itself from the base of her severed hand in a digitized form. An immediate, low hum was then heard as her hand finally came back to where it once was.

Mikrim went wide-eyed in surprise along with a sudden jerk of her reconstructed fingers upon seeing this.

"I-It's back!" Mikrim was astonished at the game's recovery process.

"What'd I tell ya? Slow, and painless, right?" Banelfsing told her with a grin.

Finally, the party reached the end of the dark forest, marking the end of their long journey as the large, dead trees were all but a fleeting, experience.

It seems they couldn't unwind, however, as they saw the new, alarming scene in front of them.

Numerous, large columns of thick smoke rise within the broken castle walls of the Grand City of Fellmoria, as a massive scale of monsters appear to invade into the heart of the city. A spiraling, colossal, white light was also visible coming from within the city, firing upwards into the darkened, rust-colored skies.

Knowing that the only way of entering the city was through the eastern farms, the party looked at this location, distances away. They saw that it was also under fire invaded by the monsters that Arka, Banelfsing and Mikrim has been fighting all this time.

With no other choice to enter the city walls, they immediately rushed toward the farms meters away and see just what was going on.

All three of them felt that the longest night in the world of Helamir has only just begun, as each of them prepared themselves for what was to come.