“They’re trying to kill me,” Yuji thought as panic surged through him. “This isn’t just bullying—they want me dead.” The realization hit him like a hammer, and fear clawed at his mind. But fear wasn’t enough to stop him. He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to focus through the haze of pain. “I won’t go down like this. I just unlocked my system. If they want me dead, I’ll take at least one of them down with me.”

Desperation surged through him as he tried to push himself up, but before he could even get to his knees, hooves slammed into his chest like a battering ram. The blow knocked the air out of his lungs, leaving him gasping as he collapsed back to the ground. His legs buckled beneath him, and waves of pain radiated through his body. Disoriented and vulnerable, Yuji lay there struggling to catch his breath while the savage assault continued.

The sheer weight of one goat bore down on him, pinning him to the dirt. He gritted his teeth and strained against it, trembling as he pressed against its body in a futile attempt to shove it off. “Come on! Move! Fight back!” Yuji screamed inwardly, but no matter how hard he pushed, it was useless—his goat body simply wasn’t built for this kind of overwhelming force.

“Is that all you’ve got, outsider? You’re pathetic,” the leader goat sneered, pacing in front of Yuji with a look of pure disdain. Its voice dripped with venom as its hooves stamped the ground impatiently.

Yuji’s mind screamed at him: “Get up! Get up!” But his legs refused to respond. Blood pooled in his mouth from one particularly vicious strike; its metallic taste filled him with bitterness as he struggled to breathe. Each kick sent fresh waves of agony through his body. The world spun around him in dizzying circles as his head buzzed from the effort of just staying conscious.

Yuji’s vision blurred further as tears welled up in his eyes—not from pain alone but from frustration and helplessness. He had wanted to fight back so badly, but now he couldn’t even move. His body betrayed him completely, leaving him sprawled on the ground like a broken puppet.

[Warning: The host sustained a serious injury. The host is bleeding.]

Yuji coughed, blood trickling from his mouth as his vision dimmed. Every breath burned in his chest, shallow and ragged. His ribs screamed with pain, and his legs trembled beneath him. The ground felt like it was swallowing him whole as his hooves slipped again. He could feel his energy draining fast, his body betraying him with every passing second.

“Is this how it ends?” Yuji thought bitterly. “Beaten to death by a bunch of goats?” He tried to force himself upright, but his body refused to cooperate. His legs buckled again, sending him crashing back to the dirt. The world spun, and his head buzzed with the effort of just staying conscious. The goats kept pushing him down, taunting him as they kicked him. His own blood tasted bitter in his mouth as he struggled to breathe.

The pain blinded him, and he started losing consciousness. As the world started to slip away, he caught a glimpse of something else—an adult goat charging into the fray, its powerful hooves crushing the grass beneath it.

Before the yearlings could even react, the adult goat had crashed into the yearlings with devastating force, scattering them like leaves in a storm. One of the attackers had been swept aside by a single headbutt, its body flying through the air before slamming into the ground with a sickening crack. The sound of bone breaking had echoed across the meadow, silencing the jeers and taunts of the other goats.

Yuji had lain motionless on the ground, his battered body refusing to move. Blood trickled from his mouth as he coughed weakly, his ribs screaming with pain. Every breath had felt like fire in his chest, but his mind raced despite his broken state. Who is this? Why is it helping me? For the first time since the attack had begun, a flicker of hope had stirred within him. He felt it was just a matter of time before he lost his courses, but he tried to stay awake just to find out what would happen next.

The leader goat staggered back, its eyes wide with a mix of surprise and anger. "What do you think you're doing? This doesn't concern you. You better not interfere or it wont be a good thing for you," it growled, its voice full of venom.

The adult goat had snorted loudly, its breath visible in the crisp air like smoke from a fire. "And who are you to decide that?" it had growled, taking a menacing step forward. "You think yourselves strong because you outnumber him? Because you prey on the weak? Pathetic." Its voice had dripped with disdain as it had scanned the herd.

“You’re playing a dangerous game. How long will you be able to protect him? He is an outsider being. Protecting him means you share his curse. When the old man finds out, there’ll be nowhere left to run. So you better think carefully.” said the yearling leader in a threatening tone.

“Enough.” The adult goat’s voice had boomed through the clearing, rich with authority and laced with fury. Its eyes had blazed like molten fire as it stood tall, surveying the younger goats with a glare that could have cut through steel. Even the most aggressive yearlings had faltered under its gaze, their confidence crumbling like brittle stone.

Another yearling had tried to speak up but quickly shrank back when the adult goat’s fiery gaze landed on it. The once-rowdy group now stood frozen in place, their earlier confidence shattered.

Yuji could only watch in awe as this towering figure defended him. Despite his pain and exhaustion, something inside him stirred—a mix of gratitude and determination that refused to be extinguished. I can’t let this end here, he’d thought weakly. Not while someone is fighting for me.

The adult goat’s gaze softened momentarily as it turned toward Yuji without breaking its intimidating stance. "Stay down," it had said firmly but not unkindly. "You’ve been through enough."

Yuji wanted to respond—but his body betrayed him completely. His body could not take it anymore; the pain was there. Moreover, he was too exhausted. At this moment, the system suddenly responded with a message.

[Warning: The host has lost too much blood. The system determines the host is in critical condition and requires recovery. The recovery period will begin now. The host will lose consciousness in three, two, one.]

Before Yuji could even finish reading, he felt the numbers being counted softly in his ear, as if the system itself was whispering the countdown. A wave of cold exhaustion swept over him, heavier than anything he had ever felt. His vision tunnelled, the world shrinking to a single, blinking notification.

He tried to fight it, to keep his eyes open, but his body was no longer his to command. The pain faded into numbness, and the voices around him became distant echoes. The last thing he saw was the system’s message, pulsing gently in the darkness.

[Mission completed. Calculating gains…]