Henry stiffened at the words of the woman. He didn’t know how the woman knew. He was hiding behind a tree. He wasn’t even sneaking a peek. The woman couldn’t have seen him. He thought the woman might be referring to some other monster in the vicinity but his instincts told him otherwise. The wind was blowing against so she shouldn’t have picked up his scent and he wasn’t emanating any murderous intent, so she shouldn’t have felt any menace. Thus, Henry arrived at the most plausible conclusion, magic or something close to that.

“Warchief, you’re saying that whatever did this is watching us right now?” one of the men asked.

The woman called the warchief nodded. 

A warchief?

The two men immediately gripped their swords tight and spun their gaze in the direction the woman was looking at. A faint blue glow was laced on the blades of their swords. It further affirmed Henry’s suspicions, magic.

“Stand down, you two,” the woman ordered with her voice raised slightly. “It means us no harm. It’s not showing us any sign of hostility but that will change if you point your swords.”

The men did not argue and lowered their swords obediently. 

“What do we do?” 

“We leave it alone,” the woman said. “There’s nothing else we can do.”

“There hasn’t been a new kind of monster in a hundred years. And to think it appeared now of all times. What if it’s a threat?”

“If it’s a threat, we will deal with it but only when we know for sure it’s a threat. Until then, just stay out of its way and leave it be.”

“As you wish, warchief” The men didn’t bow as Henry had expected but they did nod her way. 

They sheathed their weapons and disappeared into the trees on the other side of where Henry was hiding. He didn’t come out of his hiding immediately. He waited for more than half an hour. The wind blew towards him a few times. He caught the humans’ scent but it was light, indicating they were moving further away. He didn’t know what humans smelled like but he didn’t need to. He knew what nature smelled like and he treated any other accompanying scent as a cause for caution. Soon, an hour went by and he no longer smelled the humans. As he slowly exited his cover, something leapt out from the trees on the other side. Henry considered darting back behind the tree but what he saw only made him loosen up.

The thing that appeared from the trees was a Flying Devil. It instantly pounced onto the iguana's carcass and mauled right into its flesh without any restraint or concern. Henry understood why just from looking at the Flying Devil’s state. It was as thin as a reed and the flaps on its wings were in tatters and bloodied. The Flying Devil seemed to notice Henry’s presence but it didn’t care much for him. It continued to gnaw on the carcass without a hint of fear. It was desperate and at the end of its wits. If it didn’t eat now, it wouldn’t be able to live for another day, which was why it wasn’t afraid of Henry.

Looking at such a pitiful sight, Henry couldn’t bring himself to kill the Flying Devil. It wasn’t like he was desperate for food. He had plenty of meat back in the cave and if he ran out, it wasn’t hard for him to just hunt something down to eat. Leaving the Flying Devil to its own device, Henry turned around and left. The way back wasn’t as complicated as he had dreaded. He just followed the small chasm and he found himself back at the ravine. From there, he only needed to follow the mark he left on the trees. He took a detour to the pond to wash himself before he returned to the cave. 

On his stroll back, Henry couldn’t stop thinking about the humans. More than his craving for interaction, he desired information and knowledge of this world he was in. He could probably get a lot of info out of the humans but approaching them was a trial. Though they showed reasoning, it would raise anyone’s vigilance if a monster just approached them out of nowhere. There was the problem of speech. He couldn’t talk. He tried but all that came out were only the cries of a beast. The structure of his mouth and throat was not suitable for human speech. His only hope in communicating with the humans was magic but he knew nothing about magic.

It was a consolation that he could understand them. Maybe there’s a way, Henry thought. From the bits he heard, his guess was right. There was no Dragon in this forest. The monsters that were capable of fire attacks were located in the depths of the mountains. The only mountains he had seen were the ones days away from him.

As he was wading in the deep recess of his mind, his feet had carried him back to the cave. A wave of relief washed over him but he was immediately splashed with cold water when he saw a large silhouette standing outside of the cave. The stench the silhouette carried was enough evidence that it was the owner of the cafe and it had returned.

Henry swallowed a gulp.

It was some sort of hairless beast but as he pictured it with fur, he realized that it was a bear. But no bear he knew had a pair of tusk-like fangs. It wasn’t just the tusks that sent shivers down Henry’s spine but also the dark purplish veins that ran all over its body. Madness filled its eyes and black murky saliva was constantly dripping from its mouth. It was shuddering over every step it took like it was some kind of bad animation with missing frames and an unstable frame rate. Most important of all, it was as tall as a human child just from it being on fours. 

RUN!

Henry heard that inner voice again after so long and he understood just how dire and grave his situation was from how the voice shouted. The bear eventually noticed Henry in its peripheral vision and turned in his direction. Henry wondered what it would do but he knew it wouldn’t be anything nice. The bear stood on two of its limbs and roared. It was not a roar of a bear but something malevolent. The first word that came to Henry’s mind was demonic. In fact, the bear looked just like that word, demonic.

Right after it roared, the bear seemed to reel itself back as if it was shirking from Henry. It wiggled backwards awkwardly. There wasn’t just rage in its eyes. There was also an indescribable agony. The growls started to sound like moans and groans to Henry. It was suffering. Henry understood its circumstances then, the reason it came back only now. If it didn’t come back at all, it would mean that it was dead. But if it was still alive, then why didn’t it return? The answer was simple. Either it couldn’t or it had difficulty doing so. The bear was under the influence of something demonic, most likely it was corrupted physically, spiritually, and mentally by demonic energy from the way it looked. He could tell it was trying to hold itself back.

RUN!

The voice rang out in his head again. It wasn’t something that needed to be told but it was easier said than done. His whole body was trembling. It wasn’t merely the sight of the bear but also the aura it exuded. It was just in his mind but the mind controlled the body. It was like an unseen force was holding him in place, chaining him to where he stood. While he struggled to no avail to move his body, the bear began to wobble towards him. The bear was facing its own struggle. It didn’t want to attack Henry. Although the bear didn’t have a peaceful disposition in the first place, it didn’t want to attack Henry just because it was told to. Animals had their own sense of pride after all.

The bear was getting closer and closer, and Henry was still unable to move. A bite from the bear would be the end of him. He wouldn’t die from a single bite, though it would have been better if it did kill him. It would save him from all the pain afterwards. Left with no other options, Henry bit down on his tongue and blood spread across his mouth. The stinging pain that struck him coldly and harshly released him from his prison of fear. At the same time, the encroachment of the demonic energy appeared to have completely taken over the bear and it had started charging his way.

Henry took off into a sprint and ran for the lake. He was not the bear’s match but the monsters lurking within the lake would be. Henry ran without looking back. He didn’t need to. The sound was enough of an indication as to the distance between them. The bear was huge. Its size was hindering itself from going faster due to densely-packed trees.

Henry could hear the sounds of other animals and monsters crying and scurrying away from them. It was obvious that the bear stood at the top of the chain around these parts and now that it had turned into something more vicious, it would only make sense that the other animals and monsters would run.

The lake eventually came into sight and just as a smile was forming on Henry’s mouth, an explosion from behind tossed him into the air and he landed into a tumble that crashed him into a log. His world was spinning and rippling but he didn’t have time to wait for it to stop shaking. He pushed himself back to his feet and glanced back at the bear. He saw it raising its paw overhead. 

Fuck!

Henry dove to the side as the bear swung its paw down, unleashing aura blades towards him. Unlike the aura blades the eagle used, these aura blades were black and purple, like the veins crawling all over its body. It didn’t take him long to realize it was those aura blades that exploded behind him as the aura blades did the same thing beside him. The shockwave of the explosion alone threw him far and he bounced across the ground. When he got back up, he looked all over his body to check for wounds and injuries. He didn’t see any wounds but that didn’t mean he didn’t have any. In fact, a prickling sensation ran down his limbs whenever he moved. Even if his hide was tough, the same couldn’t be said for his insides. 

Every step brought him pain but he couldn’t stop now. The bear had lost him due to the smoke that had arisen from the explosion. It bought him some time to recover his bearings. As soon as he was done recovering, he growled to let the bear know his location and resumed running. The bear roared in response and chased after him. The bear continued throwing the aura blades but Henry soon learned its patterns and dodged accordingly. After he got over the aura blade’s ferocity, everything else was pretty straightforward. The bear was a simpleton. It wasn’t capable of tricks or any complicated thought process, especially in its current state.

Henry arrived at the lake. The bear was just a few hundred metres behind him. He gurgled the blood in his mouth from his bleeding tongue and spat it into the lake. The bear was getting closer but Henry stood his ground and waited. The surface of the lake began to ripple. A grin crept to Henry’s lips if he even had lips. The bear was just right behind him. It bared its mouth wide and lunged. At the same instance, the lake’s surface broke apart and the crocodile with the bifurcated jaw shot out from below. Henry tumbled away and let the two gigantic monsters clash.

The result was as Henry expected. The crocodile slammed its jaws shut on the bear easily. The fact that the bear was lunging made it even easier. Blood spurted out from the bear and dripped along the ground as the crocodile dragged the bear into the lake with it. Water went spraying everywhere and ripples forming all over the surface, and then everything returned to its serene state. Henry fell flat on his belly and heaved a huge sigh of relief.

The wound on his tongue he gave himself had ceased its bleeding but the aftertaste of his own blood was still present on his tongue. It was cold. His blood was cold as a reptile. He flexed his claws and limbs. He shuddered from the pain that spread throughout his body. He was in a lot of pain but not enough to cripple him. It was his mental exhaustion that prevented him from moving much. He knew he shouldn’t be staying here as the crocodile would return for seconds or the other monsters would seize this opportunity.

But those weren’t his biggest concern. The concern that was currently plaguing his mind was the bear that seemed to have been corrupted by demonic energy, or that's how he would describe the situation. Knowing his fantasy story template, there had got to be a source of the corruption. He then recalled one of the tribal man’s words, “And to think it appeared now of all times.” If he wasn’t inferring it wrong, the man was saying a new breed of monster appeared alongside the appearance of demonic activities. 

Is this the reason that I have been reborn as a Dragon?

It was a likely reasoning but Henry felt slightly embarrassed at such a grand reason. It was even a tad arrogant if he was harsh with himself. Once again, his deep contemplation was cut short when the lake’s surface broke apart in a huge burst and something large flew out from the water and landed some way from the bank of the lake. It was the bear. It was still moving despite having such large and gaping wounds all over its body. Even its ribs and organs were showing. Henry started running before the bear could get back up but it was already up and about. It didn’t seem perturbed by its injuries.

I’m trapped… Damn it! Why is it still alive?

The crocodile lost, was Henry’s guess but as he glanced at the lake, he saw ripples forming that trailed further and further away with each ripple. The crocodile was swimming away, leaving no blood in its wake. It didn’t lose and it wasn’t hurt but it had spat back out the bear. Henry didn’t need to think hard about why. One look at the bear was enough. It probably tasted horrible and the crocodile probably didn’t want to swallow something that could still move despite sustaining such a degree of injuries.

The bear’s blood was as dark and foul as the aura it was leaking off. It shook itself dry of the water and turned to face Henry. It didn’t have a look of vengeance in its eyes, just plain rage and madness. It just wanted to cause destruction. Now, Henry rued his past self for giving into his mental exhaustion but there was no use dwelling in the past. The present was all that mattered right now. Henry unleashed his fire breath at the bear’s face. He then ran without looking at his attack’s effectiveness. It wasn’t even meant to hurt it. It was just to distract it. However, the bear wasn’t even fazed and charged through the fire. Though the bear was slower than Henry at top speed, it was superior when it came to acceleration. Which was why it caught up to Henry and trapped him under his paw. Henry could hear his own bones cracking from the paw slamming down on him. Blood spurted out from his mouth as he retched soundlessly in agony.

The bear dragged him close and widened its mouth, preparing to bite his head off. If it was him a few days ago, he would have submitted to his fate and let the bear end him. But not now. He had come this far and suffered so much. It would be an absolute waste to give up now. Instead of a look of resignation, Henry shot the bear a glare of righteous fury. The bear didn’t register his glare and simply plunged its opened jaws down at him. At that moment, Henry unleashed his fire breath right into the bear’s mouth.

Henry thought the bear couldn’t feel pain but that wasn’t exactly true. The bear immediately recoiled away from Henry and screeched piercingly while flailing its burning mouth around. The fire soon spread to its whole head. It rubbed its head on the soil and rolled across the grass but none of those acts did anything to placate the growing blaze. The fire didn’t stop at its head. Gradually, its neck and its frontal body began catching the flames. In just a minute, its whole body was up in flames. The bear screeched and cried as the fire charred its body into cinders.

No matter how Henry explained to himself in his head, it was odd. The fire burned too quickly. Normally, that would mean the fire was extremely hot but it did not spread to the grass or the leaves when the sparks landed. It only caused the grass it stepped and lay on to blacken but no other entity caught fire. Magic was once again his only logical assumption, relatively speaking.

The bear finally stopped moving and collapsed to the ground when it was burned until only half of its flesh was left on its body. The flames were still going strong. It didn’t look like it could move again even if it wanted but Henry wasn’t convinced. He dragged himself with some struggle close to the burning carcass of the bear and helped the blaze grow larger by adding more flames to it. It was only until the flesh and organs were turned into ashes that Henry heaved a deep sigh of relief. His consciousness left him as sudden as an arrow, then.