The knights were stronger, more disciplined, more heavily armored. And they had preserved instincts from their former lives, the memory of how to fight, how to hold a line, how to respond to threats without hesitation.

They could hold a line, break an enemy formation, and withstand attacks that would have torn the wolves and Rops apart. While his undead animals were brutal, the knights were more coordinated.

So even if they met a creature as powerful as ten tigers together, he would be surviving. Not comfortably, maybe. Not without losses. But surviving.

Soon enough, they heard a sound.

It wasn’t the howl of a wolf or the screech of a bird. It was something else, something that didn’t fit any category Darion had learned since arriving in this world.

It was low and guttural, almost like a growl, but with a strange resonance that seemed to vibrate through the air and into his chest. The sound came from somewhere ahead, deep in the forest, and it echoed through the trees in a way that made it impossible to pinpoint its exact location.

They continued deeper. Darion’s mind raced as he tried to identify the source. A bear? No, bears didn’t make sounds like that. A Bogart? Bogoarts were loud, but their calls were more like shrieks than growls. And why would he even think of a Bogart, he certainly wouldn’t find one here.

This was something different, something that didn’t match any of the creatures he had encountered before. He wondered what it could be, turning over possibilities in his head, but nothing fit. The forest was full of things he hadn’t seen yet, things that the knights had never encountered because they had never ventured this deep.

Darion would definitely have turned back if not for his undeads. Without them, the sound alone would have been enough to send him running. But with the wolves and Rops surrounding him, with the knowledge that he could summon an army of knights at any moment, he felt a strange sense of security. He could face whatever was out there.

But the creature wasn’t coming at them now, and that was what surprised him. Why not? The sound was close, close enough that it should have sensed them by now. Was it lurking? Was it waiting for them to come closer? What was happening?

As they moved further, they found signs of something large. Trees were damaged, huge gashes in the bark, branches torn off, trunks splintered as if something massive had pushed through them. Large marks covered the ground, deep impressions that looked like they had been made by something incredibly heavy. The ground was disturbed, the soil churned up in a way that suggested a struggle, or perhaps just the passage of something too big to move quietly.

Not from normal animals. This was something else.

Seren crouched down to examine the tracks. She was good at this, better than Darion, and he watched as she traced the outline of one of the prints with her fingers. She looked up at him, her expression troubled. "This isn’t a wolf."

Darion agreed. It wasn’t anything he had seen before.

The footprints were huge. Strange. Almost impossible. The shape of them didn’t match anything , not a bear, not a Bogart, not any creature Darion could name. The prints were wider wayy than his hand; it wasn’t even close, with deep impressions at the front that suggested claws. The spacing between them was irregular, as if the creature moved in a way that didn’t follow normal patterns.

Then they saw the creature!

The creature emerged from between the trees, and Darion’s first thought was: What the hell is that?

It was called a Yuimon. The system identified it immediately, the words appearing in front of him:

YUIMON

Unknown Beast

Threat Level: Very High

It was not fantasy beauty. Not majestic. It was so wrong, a creature that felt like it shouldn’t exist, at least for Darion’s Earth Standard.

Its body was large, mammalian, covered in thick limbs and strange skin that seemed to ripple and shift as it moved. Its neck was incredibly long, extending from its body like something that had been stretched too far. And its mouth, its mouth was circular, filled with rows of teeth that went all the way around the opening, like a lamprey but scaled up to nightmare proportions. Its movement felt unnatural, too smooth and too deliberate, as if it was gliding rather than walking.

Darion was actually unsettled. Because the system didn’t often call things dangerous. Very High threat level was not something he had seen before. He had faced Bogoarts, wolves, even the Slitherer, and none of them had been rated this high. What did Very High mean in practical terms? Was it something his undeads could handle? Something his knights could handle? Something that could kill them all?

They had wandered too deep, too deep into the forest where so many horrors reside. Seeing this Yuimon, the Slitherer now felt like a grain of salt. This was something else entirely.

Seren was visibly alarmed at what she was seeing, but she was ready to fight. Her bow was raised, an arrow nocked, her eyes fixed on the creature. She whispered: "What..."

Darion held his undeads back, putting them on hold. If he hadn’t, they would have dashed at this horrific monster of a creature without hesitation. But he wanted to see what the Yuimon would do first. Would it attack? Would it retreat? Would it do something else entirely?

But the Yuimon didn’t attack. It just stood there, watching them with eyes that seemed to see everything.

Then more appeared.

Three more of these seemingly very deadly creatures emerged from the trees, their circular mouths open, their teeth glistening in the dim light. They moved in a loose formation, surrounding Darion and Seren, cutting off any escape routes.

Darion’s heart rate spiked.

Four of them. Four Yuimons. Four creatures that the system had rated as Very High threat.

He looked at Seren. She looked at him. Neither of them said anything.

They were in deep trouble.