I'm not a Witcher anymore.

The owl-bear let out a roar that shattered the night wind.

The giant claw, still stained with Ingram's blood and mud, swung back sharply from the other side of his shoulder.

The giant hand arrived as if cutting through the wind, and the resulting wind pressure almost bent Zieg's clothes before it could even reach him.

It wasn't a simple slap; it was more like a giant log falling from the city wall, carrying enough brute force to crush a sternum, sweeping across the parasite on its back.

Zieg's expression remained unchanged.

Just as the dark figure drew nearer to the point where the blood and bits of flesh between its claws were almost visible, he released his grip on the sword.

His movements were clean to the point of being almost calm.

With his knees slightly bent and his back arched, he used the violent swaying of the bear's body to lift himself up.

The moment his boots left the beast's back, a giant hand, like a battering ram, swept across his feet, the howling turbulence causing his cloak to flutter wildly and a few strands of hair to be lifted from his forehead.

For a moment, his body was suspended in mid-air.

The night wind blew in from all directions.

Below, there are raging beasts, surging blood and the desolate wilderness where torches flicker.

After that brief pause, so short it could hardly be measured in breaths, Zieg plummeted.

Like a peregrine falcon that has already calibrated the distance and landing point.

The owl bear was still raising its arm, still emitting a furious roar because its attack had missed.

Its broad back heaved violently, its thick feathers and rough fur mixed with scalding blood, exuding a pungent, metallic scent of a wild beast on the verge of death in the night.

Zig fell down.

As he stepped back onto the beast's back, his right hand gripped the steel sword that had been embedded in the gap between his shoulder blades with perfect precision.

Tighten your fingers.

Using the full weight of his fall, and the surging power of the "Prologue: Maripo Forest" potion still coursing through his body, he pressed the sword down without hesitation—

The target is not thick skin and flesh.

Rather, it's the gap in the spine where the back of the neck connects to the shoulder blade, a gap that is still present despite being surrounded by layers of massive muscles.

Click.

The sound wasn't loud.

Yet it was so clear it sent chills down my spine, like a piece of hardwood soaked in water being snapped in two.

The owl-bear's massive body trembled violently.

First the spine, then the shoulders, and finally the entire thick forelimb experienced a moment of extremely unnatural imbalance.

Those amber vertical pupils, which had been burning with a ferocious light, suddenly lost focus at this moment, and the surging ferocity within them scattered like flames shattered by a heavy hammer.

The sound that rolled out of its throat also changed.

It's no longer a furious howl to tear its prey apart.

Instead, it was a hoarse, mournful cry, tinged with blood and laced with a broken voice.

It was as if something had been completely disrupted deep within its massive body.

Zig did not stop.

He drew his sword and slid down the owl-bear's back, which was tilting as it lost control.

The sole of the boot brushed against the blood-stained feathers, leaving two shallow marks.

Upon landing, he slightly bent his knees, absorbing the impact into his waist and legs. He flipped his longsword, now gripping it in reverse.

He glided along the back of the giant beast.

The position was pressed extremely low.

Almost the instant the owl bear tried to regain its balance and instinctively exert force with its hind legs, Zieg was already on the outside of its right hind leg.

The steel sword points downwards at an angle.

There was no exaggerated build-up of power, no superfluous gestures, just an extremely simple horizontal slash.

The resistance as the blade pierced the fur lasted only for a very brief moment.

Immediately afterwards, the sharp steel blade accurately bit into the thick Achilles tendon that bore the weight of the entire body.

puff.

What followed was a dull, almost suppressed cracking sound.

Like a bowstring stretched to its limit, it finally snapped under immense pressure.

The bear's hind leg, which was strong enough to support a mountain of flesh weighing thousands of kilograms, collapsed instantly.

The massive body, which had been struggling to maintain its balance, finally lost all support after this sword strike.

It staggered backward, its giant claws carving deep furrows in the ground, scattering dirt and gravel everywhere, but it ultimately failed to maintain its balance.

The next moment, the monster that had just been suffocating everyone crashed backward like a mountain of flesh that had been shattered from its foundation.

boom--!

The dry, hard wasteland ground trembled violently from the impact.

Large clouds of dust, rocks, and broken wood chips exploded and swept outwards.

The torches that were still burning were knocked to the side and fell to the ground, their flames trailing long tails, flickering in the smoke and dust.

With a scream that was completely out of tune, Craig was thrown off the overturned beast's back.

He fell hard, leaving a bloody gash on half his face, and the iron shield in his hand rolled away into the distance.

But before he could even utter a second curse, the heavy, bear-like corpse, as massive as a collapsing rock wall, pressed down firmly on him.

puff.

It was a teeth-grinding squeezing sound.

Craig's scream was abruptly shattered in that instant, leaving only a short, broken wail.

Smoke and dust filled the air.

For a moment, all the people could see was a blurry, huge black shadow and half a human body peeking out from the edge of the shadow.

After the night wind blew away some of the dust, Craig's appearance was finally revealed.

Only his chest and above were still exposed.

From the chest down, everything was pressed down by the owl's heavy abdomen. The face that had once carried a hint of ferocity and smugness was now contorted beyond recognition by the excruciating pain and terror.

Blood was dripping from the corner of his mouth, veins were bulging on his forehead, and he was desperately digging at the mud in front of him with both hands. His fingernails cracked and peeled off layers of bloody flesh between the coarse sand and gravel.

But that makes no sense.

He couldn't even move himself an inch further.

It could only open its mouth wide and gasp for breath like a fish that had been thrown ashore and whose internal organs had been crushed by heavy stones.

"Help...help me..."

The voice was so faint it was almost inhuman.

Joel stood not far away, his face pale, his Adam's apple bobbing, but he ultimately did not step forward.

Ingram leaned against a cracked rock, one hand pressed against his deformed breastplate, breathing heavily.

Finn had gripped his spear again, the tip pointing to the ground, and warily scanned the surrounding darkness, keeping watch for any remaining survivors.

The air was thick with the stench of blood, dust, and the guts of wild beasts being gutted.

A brief silence, like a heavy layer of ash, covered the desolate wasteland littered with corpses.

Zig wiped the blood off his sword.

The movements were very gentle.

The steel sword flashed a cold, hard light between the night and the firelight before he hung it back down at his side.

He didn't look at Craig, who was still struggling at his feet, but instead turned his gaze slightly to the darkness further away where the torches couldn't reach.

There was another person standing there.

In the darkness in the distance, Aiger did not move.

He stood there like a piece of dead wood stuck in the wilderness, his face half-lit and half-shadowed, only his eyes staring intently ahead in the shadows where the firelight couldn't reach.

He stared at the owl bear that was supposed to crush everything for him.

He stared at the group of merchants and adventurers who should have died in the night.

He also stared at Craig, who was being pressed under the beast's carcass and was emitting weak groans.

He remained silent for a long time.

Just standing there.

It's as if they haven't truly understood how all of this happened.