My throat trembles. My **soul** screams.

Flesh is being torn apart, nerves are invaded, and a sharp, maddening pain assaults my brain.

“Gyaaaahhhhhh–!!”

Everything in front of me turns bright red, and I can’t grasp reality at all.

I’m being bitten around my right thigh by a black beast. Before I can even think about pulling it off, my instinctive reaction is to scream due to the pain.

–It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts.

My mind is entirely consumed by that thought, leaving no room to consider retaliation.

Suddenly, my sense of balance is thrown off. The beast, still clamped down, shakes its head and uses its weight—almost double mine—to yank me down to the ground.

“Ugh–”

In a flurry, I rotate halfway and hit the ground face-first. I miss the chance to brace myself, and my face slams into the dirt, feeling my nose crunch and tasting the soil in my mouth.

Pain throbs from both above and below, as I spit out dirt while letting out low groans. It’s then that I realize the fangs have slipped from my right leg, and in a panic, I flip my body over.

“This is bad…!”

I lie on my back and struggle to sit up.

Looking at my right leg, I see copious blood flowing from a wound under my tattered clothing, my flesh torn as if gouged by a knife. The pain ricochets, but my priority is to get back on my feet—yet, I’m too late.

The dark shadow moves in to seal my movements and launch a counterattack, too fast for me to follow.

Bounce from side to side on the ground, the approaching beast receives only my desperate attempt to shield my upper body with my arms.

A swinging, sharp claw flashes and slices through my right arm from hand to shoulder in one swift motion. Blood sprays out, with the new wound writhing in pain, which applauds the agony flooding my brain.

Before it can rip into my throat, it intends to crush my limbs and strip away my resistance.

Experiencing firsthand the cruelty of wild hunting, I scream in terror.

My unmeaningful cries do nothing to affect the beast’s movements. Like it’s just doing a task it’s used to, it clamps down on my left wrist, robbing me of the function in that limb.

I feel the fangs pierce through my left wrist.

Beyond pain, it’s a feeling that can only invoke screams. My vision flickers, and even my thoughts become incoherent, yet all that drives me is an instinct for survival.

“Aaaaahhh—!! Damn it!!”

I shout and summon every ounce of strength to slam the beast down into the ground along with my bitten left wrist. But my grip is far too weak to dislodge the fangs. While its black fur becomes matted with blood and saliva, the beast sinks its fangs deeper, chuckling at my resistance.

Within its flanks,

“Stop playing around—!!”

The quill pen I had yet to drop plunges deeply into the beast’s left eye.

The eyeball is crushed, and the sensation of its insides being disturbed sends a roar out of the beast.

Surprised by this unexpected retaliation from what it deemed a powerless prey, the wild beast thrashes in response. But I know that if I let this chance slip, it might be my final one.

My right arm still manages to keep the pen embedded in its eye while my other arm, still bitten, covers the rest of my body to ensure it can’t escape.

“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts—!”

My right foot can’t find a foothold due to the nerves being affected, my left arm hangs by a thread of skin, and my right arm reveals the bone beneath the torn flesh.

Blood pours down from my nose, bringing the dreadful impression that I might be missing two or three teeth.

Even in this dire condition, I push my limits to escape the imminent crisis before me.

There’s pain. There’s suffering. There’s fear. I’m alive.

Both I and the beast still breathe.

“Agaah—!!”

The beast’s claws swipe wildly and graze my forehead, my brain rattling from the impact loosens its grip. In that moment, the beast pushes me away, keeping my quill embedded as it creates distance.

With a single leap, it dashes away several meters, vanishing into the depths of the forest.

Collapsing onto the ground, I forget even the pain, seeking the shadow that has disappeared.

I can’t afford to think it will retreat due to its injuries.

They say a wounded beast is the most dangerous. And for the beast, I am also a wounded opponent.

For both of us, the other must be slain here.

“—It hurts.”

Unable to put weight on my right foot, I kneel and rely solely on my left leg to lift myself. My arms are a pitiful sight, particularly my left hand, which looks so broken that I can’t even bring myself to look at it.

It feels as though my temples are being slammed. I push the persistent pain alarms into the recesses of my mind, fixing my gaze upon the forest where the beast vanished.

It will come back.

That baseless certainty stems from my past encounters with murderous intent, perhaps one of the few experiences I’ve gained in this world.

“———!!”

Whether it’s me or the beast that lets out a suffocating scream is anyone’s guess.

What’s clear is that, within my field of vision, the sharp fangs open wide, and the beast charges in like a bullet.

I experience the impact of an over-thirty-kilogram creature charging full-speed, heedless of restraint. And I’m doing this without the blessing of proper footing.

In a split second, my right arm raises, and the beast’s bite fails to land as it clashes against my jaw from below. But I can’t lessen the collision’s force. My body tangles with the beast, rolling against the ground.

“Ooooooooahhhhhh—”

I’m flung back, slamming my whole body. In desperation, I flail my arms. I feel my hands grab onto that hard, furry body, gripping it tight; I won’t let go, even if I can’t determine where I’m holding on.

Twisting and rolling on the ground, the beast and I tumble into a slope. Instead of slowing down, we gain speed heading downhill, and ultimately—

“—No way.”

Suddenly, the firm ground beneath us disappears.

In the next instant, the sensation of floating washes over me; I realize I’ve just leaped off a cliff.

“———!!”

Whether it’s one of us lets out a scream that doesn’t make a sound is unclear.

Not that the cry could be sustained for too long.

The feeling of floating is interrupted in merely two seconds, and once again, a violent shock erupts through my body, my bones creaking. I suspect something has indeed broken, but prioritizing my urgent situation overrides all else.

I stretch out my left arm, which has no feeling beyond my wrist, dragging it along the ground to lessen my momentum. My nails tear against the rocky surface, and a spray of blood decorates the stone wall.

Finally, the force eases up, and my body barely stops at the cliff’s edge. With my half-body hung in the air, I quickly roll myself back toward solid ground.

“Buhah… haah… Ah, ah, ah, damn it!”

I pinch my nose and expel the flowing blood with a rush.

I can’t tell if the liquid pooling in my mouth is saliva, blood, or stomach acid. In a fit of rage, I spit it all out onto the ground.

Gasping for breath, my whole body protests with pain from cuts and bruises, and then I realize that the beast I fell with is nowhere to be seen.

“Hey, where the…?!”

I can’t afford to think of this as good luck for avoiding a fatal fall.

If attacked again, my life hanging on the edge will surely find its demise this time. Imagining the beast bounding toward me to intimidate me, I change my stance and scan the surroundings.

Then, I quickly lock eyes with that dark form.

“…So, you couldn’t make it, huh?”

The silhouette of the beast is below me, at the base of the cliff.

Unlike me, it couldn’t escape a second tumble. Unable to survive a fall from more than double the height, it lies motionless, having seemingly hit headfirst into the ground marked with blood.

–It seems I’ve once again narrowly escaped with my life.

“Dammit… what a ridiculous situation…”

Having witnessed the end of that life, perhaps relief stole into my heart.

I, too, having lost much blood, collapse onto the ground and succumb to the drowsiness rushing in, closing my eyelids.

Just like that, I fall into unconsciousness, my thoughts fading away entirely.