They moved all at once, without giving him any time to think or even plan for the situation.

The first wave hit.

A six-legged wolf lunged its jaws wide open, and he stabbed it in its open mouth, slicing upwards. A second followed, and he stepped through it.

Something heavier slammed onto his side, Atheline staggered barely keeping his footing as its claws ripped through his robes narrowly missing his back.

Everything around him was like a frenzy each beast trying to get a piece of him.

Atheline attacked just as frenzied using both his weapons and body to defend against them.

His gaze assessed trying to find an opening but none.

They pressed in from every direction.

He fired a shot point-blank into somethings skull. Another slammed onto his back, forcing him to drop to one knee.

"Tch."

’Too many’

He forced himself up again, twisting, cutting moving but every strike was slower than the last.

His breath came out in short bursts as his lungs tried to keep up with the strain. The poison inside him suddenly painfully surged.

It was reacting as though feeding off his weakness.

[Suppressant resistance +1]

[Suppressant resistance+2]

[Suppressant resistance +1]

The system interface appeared at the back of his mind but he ignored it and continued. He didn’t have the luxury of stopping to panic.

Another surge shot through his body. Something slammed into him on his side forcing him to stumble. He sliced down blindly, killing it.

Atheline started to get overwhelmed. He knew he might fall soon but he wasn’t ready to go without a fight.

"Fine," he whispered to himself.

His grip on his bow tightened.

"If I die, I’ll kill you all first."

The next beast lunged and he finally let go. His core circulated faster the aether turning into burning elements that struggled to leave his body, his channels burning with strain.

His elementals reacted as though they had been released from confinement.

Fire tore through the air, as wind increased his speed and balance. Ice spread beneath his feet, tripping those caught off guard.

The collision of different elements caused a burst of pressure and violent power to spread outside.

The next wave of beasts didn’t reach him, they were shredded. Some were burnt to a crisp while others froze mid-motion, broken by the following wave.

[Suppressant adaptation: 56%]

[Conclusion: Host is advised to stop using his elementals, you have a few minutes before your body looses it’s resistance]

Atheline never noticed.

For a moment, the swam broke. Atheline took this opportunity since he knew he wouldn’t last.

He stepped forward, forcing more out but there were just too many that filled up the space that had been vacated.

The poison reacted instantly.

It surged through his body like something alive, tearing through his body in response to his power.

His vision darkened as pain laced through his chest.

"Tsk..."

But he didn’t stop like he had the luxury.

More came for him, each determined to take a piece of him.

He answered with raw force a blast that sent bodies flying, forcefully tearing a clearing around him through sheer destruction and will.

Atheline could feel his body failing him but then something snapped.

The comfortable weight he had gotten used to in his neck disappeared.

A chuckle escaped him.

’About time’

A sharp clear sound like glass breaking filled the air. Something activated.

Atheline could feel the power and suppression just from the mere chain that was floating before him.

Light shot out of the chain. It spread from it, thin at first then expanded outwards in a perfect arc, slicing through the chaos like a line cutting across space itself. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Everything it touched was erased. He could feel Lilith’s power and absolute wrath.

The beasts closest to him vanished first, then those behind then as it expanded further.

The light moved outwards, cutting through the horde with terrifying precision leaving only blood behind, the only evidence of their existence.

Silence slammed down as though the forest was also surprised by whatever had transpired. Hundreds of hungry ravenous beasts had gone just like that.

The pressure disappeared so suddenly that his body almost gave out from its absence.

He staggered.

"What... was that," he mummbled to himself.

He knew the charm would be powerful but the way it erased almost every beast just left him surprised.

The chain dimmed and floated back to its rightful place, clasping itself on.

Atheline would have celebrated, but fate wasn’t done with him yet.

On the now empty clearing, one beast was still alive unharmed by the light. There was only a cut on the mass around it.

The veins on the ground pulsed even further, forcing him to take a step back.

Then it moved. The mass rose.

It pulled itself upwards. The dark outside coating wriggling and boiling as it merged with its skin until whatever was inside of it was revealed.

It looked like a wolf but with six legs and ten eyes that blinked at him.

Half of its body was blackened while writhing with corruption while the other half was still a shade of beautiful blue.

It was as though its body had reached a weird balance between corruption and non-corruption.

’A fenrir wolf... how is it even surviving that’

From the looks of it, he finally came to an understanding of what had been disturbing him.

In the herd, both corrupted and uncorrupted didn’t attack each other as nature dictated. There had also been a few half-corrupted that he had encountered.

’How am I even going to survive a forest lord’

Forest lords were strong and Atheline couldn’t asses its power and that meant he was truly doomed.

He looked behind him then around but no route for escape would enable him to vanish into the forest.

[Suppressant resistance +2]

[Suppressant adaptation: 58%]

The interface was like a ticking time bomb, reminding him of what to expect.

’I’m so dead."

He could feel that the protective spell had gone after it had erased everything.

He took a discreet step back, ready to run.

The beast stepped forward and then, it attacked.