As the weird, and pressing standstill continued, the creature found it increasingly harder to retain its calm. He had to forcefully regain control of his body, otherwise, it would shiver and tremble at the sight of this woman, which it just couldn't accept.

How could it be afraid? How could a weakling, a furless Bareskin, or whatever it actually was, induce such a natural, instinctual reaction from its body? Unless it was those monstrous, horrifying worm-worshipper's high priests or their chieftains, none should have the audacity to provoke something like this out of its kin!

They were the top of this world's food chain, besides those old monsters living deep underground, itself and its kin were the apex predators, the top entities of this plane!

Reminding itself, it turned its head to look at the still groaning female. The creature sneered as it looked at the weapon still stuck inside its clawed upper-right hand. The weak tugs and pulls have long since died down.

Deciding to take it a step further, it suddenly sprung to action and grabbed the top of the weapon's handle with its lower right hand, and relying on the surprise, the unexpected nature of its attack, it exerted some of its strength and suddenly pulled on the woman's war axe.

Even though the woman's strength was still rising, climbing, and reaching new heights, the creature thought that it still had the situation under control. Even if she were stronger and more powerful than before, this sudden action would catch her unprepared and she wouldn't be able to reinforce her grip in time, thus losing her only weapon to the very opponent it was trying to overcome.

Then, by using the female's own armament, it would defeat her. Though it was a cruel plan, the creature actually enjoyed it immensely. The irony of it all.. ah, it was so incredible!

Unfortunately, such dreams, such plans would rarely come to turn out the way it would be expected. As it exerted some of its strength, the creature was shocked that it was unable to pry it free from the woman's hands.

No, unlike what should have happened, the weapon didn't even budge an inch, it was as if it was stuck in some rock. Its sneer faded, turning into a frown as a terrible thought emerged in its mind, it slowly raised its head to look at the holder herself.

A snicker, a similar disdainful sneer met its eyes as it looked at the Bareskin.

"You trying something, mutt?"

She spoke some words, that the creature could not understand, though, from the tone, it was obvious that she was taunting its previous oppressor! She actually had the audacity, she thought of herself as now having the upper hand and wanted to repay everything she suffered under its hands!

The thought, the ignorance, the annoying sneer of the Bareskin irked the creature. Its frown returned, only to transform back to the previous angry, animalistic growling snarl as it grabbed the upper half of the handle with the bottom left of its hand, leaving only the upper pair of its arms free.

As it was still holding against the sharpened edge of the head of the axe in its upper right hand, only its upper left was free and unattended.

As it felt that despite the increase in its grip and doubling the exerted force still resulted in no gain from its side, the creature was quickly losing its temper in the bubbling, rising anger.

It raised its upper left hand in the air above its head. Forming a clawed motion, it didn't hesitate much as it aimed at the female's arms that held against the weapon and struck down, hoping to slice those pesky limbs to at least a couple, distinct pieces.

Though she noticed the attack, Naybeah seemingly ignored it, and instead pooled more of her strength and began to pull the weapon towards herself. She gradually increased the might she exerted, hoping to completely and convincingly overwhelm this monster before slicing its head off.

Yet, just like the creature's previous attempt, she was also unsuccessful, as their strength seemed to match the other. The weapon remained stuck in the 3 arms of the bristle-furred creature, neither side could pry it out of the opponent's arms.

Knowing that because of her unsuccessful attempt, the creature's claws would hit its intended mark, Naybeah did what best she could: She tensed the muscles in her arms to increase the resistance against the incoming piercing blow and gritted her teeth to withstand the searing, sharp pain that would sure to hit her nerves upon impact.

She closed her eyes, not wishing to bore witness to the gruesome result, and instead gradually unveil the horrifying reality: her mutilated remains of what was once her arms.

Just as she closed her eyes, her ears picked up a whistling noise coming from behind and swooshing by her in the next instant. The sound of a sharp object piercing into something softer could be heard coming next. Suddenly the resistance on the axe vanished, just as she opened her eyes, the abrupt removal of the creature's hold caused her to falter back and fall down on the ground.

The shock and surprise caused her overwhelmed rage to quickly subside, the effects of the [Berserker's Wrath] vanished almost instantly, leaving her in a heaving, barely conscious state. With great difficulty, she raised her head to look at the blurry, hazy but still, the familiar outline of a feminine shape that walked over to her.

Before she completely succumbed the overwhelming exhaustion that she could feel all over her body, the last thing she felt was a sudden surge of warmth that felt so soothing, allowing her mind to descend to a comforting sleep as it sailed towards the dreamland..

—

Arrow after arrow was fired with rapid succession each hitting its mark with frightening precision. In the span that was at most 2 seconds, all four limbs of the creature were pierced, each clawed hand now held an arrow. Each projectile was fired by such terrifying aim.. each hand losing its motion in an instant as the nervous clusters were torn to pieces by the sudden assailant.

The creature wailed in pain, letting go of the weapon instantly, and jumping back to open some distance between itself, and the sudden intruders.

Yet before it had the chance to turn towards the newcomers, two dark shadows lunged at it from both sides. A predatory growl was all it heard before it was forced down on the ground. A set of sharp teeth etched into the side of its neck, ready to snap it into pieces, whilst the other were pulling its right shoulder, making the creature completely defenseless almost instantly.

---

AN: Hey there Readers!

Just a friendly reminder, that from wherever you are reading , you can reach out to me using any of the below methods!

For you, sailors of the seventh sea (non-WN readers), be a bro/gal and throw me a cup of joe, show your appreciation!

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/shaele