The arrow throbbed in his shoulder, he needed to remove it before pushing forward.

‘What the hell was that about?’ Ethan thought, ducking behind a massive tree trunk.

‘What the hell was that about?’ Ethan ducked behind a massive tree trunk, breath coming in sharp bursts.

The arrow in his shoulder pulsed with each heartbeat. Without wasting time for gentle removal, he gripped the shaft of the arrow and yanked it out.

“Hisss.”

He bit down on the scream, tasting blood as his teeth cut into his lip.

The arrow that was in his shoulder wasn’t a normal one, it was an arrow of a mid-bronze hunter.

He needed to stop the bleeding now.

He tore a strip from his shirt, binding the injury amateurly. His mind raced faster than the blood seeping through his bandage.

Voices and roars echoed through the forest behind him. The bear fight was still ongoing.

‘I could just leave…’ But a different plan formed as he caught his breath. ‘No way those fools can handle a Mid-Bronze bear with regeneration. This is an opportunity.’

Ethan circled back, moving silently between trees.

The scene unfolded before him.

Ray fired arrow after arrow, each shot finding vital points with uncanny accuracy.

The bear’s flesh closed around the wounds almost as quickly as they formed, its E-Grade regeneration negating most of the damage.

The other hunters darted in with spears and swords, scoring minor hits before retreating.

This was going nowhere. The bear couldn’t catch them, but they couldn’t put it down either.

Ethan settled into his vantage point, a smile spreading across his face.

The throbbing pain in his shoulder had long since faded to background noise as he watched the chaos unfolding.

“Let them wear each other down,” he whispered.

“The last one standing gets to face me.”

Twenty yards away, Ray’s team was learning the hard way that Mid-Bronze beasts don’t follow the rulebook.

“What the hell?” Ray shouted, loosing another perfectly aimed shot into the bear’s eye.

However, the arrow struck true, sinking deep into the bear’s hide, only for the wound to bubble and push the projectile out seconds later.

“This thing’s regeneration is insane!”

“You said this would be easy!” A hunter with a spear backpedaled as the bear’s massive paw swept through the space he’d occupied moments before.

“You said one quick kill!”

Ray fired again, two arrows simultaneously piercing the beast’s throat.

The bear roared, more annoyed than injured.

“It should be! No bear regenerates this fast!” Frustration edged Ray’s voice. “Malik, flank it! Vero, go for the legs!”

The hunter with twin daggers, Vero. Darted in, slashing at the bear’s hamstrings.

“Got it!”

However his attack barely did any damage, as the difference between their rank was too high.

“Keep it busy! Only I can damage it enough!” Ray reached for a special arrow, its tip gleaming with something that caught the moonlight. “I’ve got one coated with paralysis toxin. It cost me a fortune, but—”

The bear didn’t wait for him to finish. It charged, moving with shocking speed for its bulk.

The hunters scattered like leaves in a storm.

“God damn it!”

The fourth hunter, a woman with a curved blade, rolled under the bear’s lunge.

“This fight isn’t worth dying over!”

“Shut up and do your job!” Ray snarled, taking aim with his specialty arrow.

The paralysis arrow flew true, striking the bear’s neck. For a moment, hope flashed across the hunters’ faces. The beast staggered, shook its massive head…

And kept coming.

“Impossible!” Ray’s composure cracked. “That toxin could drop a Silver-rank human!”

“We need to abort,” Malik panted, blood streaming from a gash in his side. “This thing’s not natural.”

“Three minutes,” Ray insisted, pulling more arrows. “I can do this. Formation Beta!”

The hunters moved like they’d practiced this a thousand times, creating a rotating pattern of attacks to confuse the bear.

It might have worked on a normal beast…But, this one simply absorbed the damage, regenerated, and pressed forward with relentless fury.

Ethan analyzed every move, cataloging strengths and weaknesses. Ray’s accuracy was phenomenal—every shot finding vital spots that would kill anything without that regeneration. Whilst the others were simply there for distraction.

“It’s core!” Vero shouted after narrowly avoiding disembowelment. “We need to destroy the core!”

‘Smart,’ Ethan thought.

‘Beast cores channeled their talents. Destroy that, and regeneration stops.’

“I can’t pinpoint it through all that mass!” Ray’s frustration boiled over as he fired three more arrows in rapid succession. Each one struck perfectly—each one pushed out as the wounds sealed.

The woman fighter limped back, clutching her arm where bone showed through torn flesh. “Ray, I’m done. This isn’t working. We need to escape.”

The bear roared again, this time with a note of triumph. It could tell its opponents were starting to get weaker, the injuries and fatigue were taking their toll on them.

Malik went down next, the bear’s paw catching him mid-dodge. His scream cut off abruptly as he slammed into a tree trunk.

“Malik!” Vero abandoned formation to check on his fallen comrade.

Ray cursed viciously. “Stay in position!”

Too late. The carefully orchestrated dance fell apart. The bear capitalized immediately, focusing on Ray, the one who was causing the most damage to it.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep