The Primal Hunter

As he ran through the forest, telling the others to try and keep up, Hank truly regretted convincing them all to go camping that week. But how could he possibly have known that something as world-shattering as the initiation to some goddamn multiverse could happen?

The only lucky thing was that at least they had all entered the same tutorial. They had entered the tutorial with nine people - Hank, his wife, his two kids, his sister, and her husband and kids, and a long-time mutual friend of theirs.

Out of the tutorial walked only four. Hank, the family friend Miranda, and his two kids. Not that they liked being called kids anymore, his boy Mark being 19 and his daughter Louise at 22.

In the tutorial, they had stuck together initially but had ended up split up due to circumstances out of their own control. They were forced into these trials in groups of five. Due to their class choices, Hank and his wife had chosen to split up, his wife joining his sister and her family.

None of them returned from the first trial.

Now it was just those four. Thrown back to Earth into the middle of a forest that had clearly been altered significantly from before. They had been only a few hundred meters from the road upon the initiation, but now no such road was to be found anywhere. Instead, they found themselves walking through a seemingly endless forest for a bit over two weeks.

They managed to fight off the beasts, most of them not being above level 24. Hank, his trusty axe in hand, easily able to handle them. His son, Mark, a healer who was able to fix any immediate issues. It had gone well at first, with the four of them surviving without losing anyone - until today.

A beast had appeared. One that Hank, even with his race at level 31, couldn’t identify.

[Oakwood Tiger – lvl ??]

He became unequivocally sure that any beast he couldn’t identify was far above his ability to handle from the tutorial. He was powerless against the tiger that was a weird mix of wood and flesh. Yet it hadn’t simply killed them.

They met the tiger nearly three hours ago. They tried to run at first, hoping it would ignore them like most other high-level beasts, but this one was out for blood. It cut them off with incredible speed and attacked them, showing that it clearly was also strong. Hank felt like his arms were about to be torn off from every casual swipe of its barbed wooden claws.

Yet whenever Hank thought he would die, the beast simply switched target and attacked someone else. It only did small wounds, clearly enjoying itself… it was just playing with them.

Hank was furious, but no matter what he did, it proved useless. In the end, their only course of action was just to run.

Louise was also an evolved caster, but her spells did even less to the beast than his own axe. Miranda wasn’t a fighter at all, having focused on her profession instead of class during the tutorial.

He wasn’t entirely clear on her profession, but it was some kind of social type. It did, however, give her some insight into mana and an intuition skill. A skill that had guided their direction of fleeing for the past few hours. Needless to say, Hank was beginning to doubt it.

They ran desperately, encountering several weaker beasts on the way, resulting in even more injuries. Mark was already dangerously low on mana, and Hank could barely keep his legs moving with his nearly depleted stamina.

But suddenly, something changed. The tiger appeared to be unsettled by something. Unsettled enough that it decided to stop playing around and finish off its prey.

having his throat ripped out as he ducked and blocked with his axe. Despite his

He scrambled and once more narrowly blocked, but this time he wasn’t lucky enough to only receive a gash. His entire right arm was torn to shreds as his axe, and the claw both smashed

but still clear enough to see a bolt of electricity hit the creature from

son was standing beside his sister, right in the crosshair of the

the tutorial suffered the same fate. The final promise he made to his wife before parting for the last time was to protect their children, and he would

he could into his one good arm. Instantly he felt it fill with power unlike

the axe, the pent-up stamina in his arm was too much as his entire arm erupted into a cloud of bloody mist. The pain

its midsection, embedding itself deeply. The impact also made the tiger stumble, missing its charge as it tumbled to the ground and slid into

first felt relief, but it quickly turned to despair as the tiger turned its eyes to him. Two vines sprung from its back, pulled out the axe, and threw it on the ground

between Hank and his children, the tiger began a new charge, this time to finish off the man who had wounded it. Hank knew it would barely matter either way. His eyes were heavy, and

to buy the others a bit of time to escape. He could see the tiger was anxious for some reason in a rush. He hoped it would leave after finishing him. A naïve hope perhaps, but it was all he had to

their ends flew towards him from the tiger - one for his

the blow

trembling for some reason as its eyes focused on something off to the side. Hank followed its gaze and saw a figure slowly walking

traveled several meters. A mask covered the face of the new arrival, but the build made him

eyes pierced through the mask, focusing on the tiger. Hank felt a cold shiver run down his spine when he saw them. It reminded him of the same eyes that tiger

person was only a few meters away, whatever froze the tiger stopped. The vines nearly at Hank's eye retracted, but instead of switching

cut off the tiger. It stopped abruptly and tried to get around him but was instead met with a bone-white dagger that looked like a fang. Hank was a bit surprised as he hadn’t seen where the weapon came from, but the beast was even more so as the dagger swung down, aiming for

beast’s struggles were also in vain. The vines were simply pushed down, unable to pierce

believed to be their death instead

human? Some kind of creature brought by

front of Hank. The middle-aged man tried to shy back in fright, but he could not move with his injuries. Had he come to finish him off

he was instead presented with a bottle containing a very familiar

figure said in a distinctly male voice. One that sounded significantly younger than Hank would have

looked up at the

the man who couldn’t move to accept it. The masked

woman to pour the liquid down his throat. Instantly he felt a rush of vital energy enter his body. It was like when his

had once been starting to itch and wriggle as a new arm slowly began growing out. His mangled arm began

energy in his body. He checked his status and, to his surprise, saw that his health pool of around 1800 was entirely full. He even felt some of the remnant energy slowly fizzle out within his body, dispersing

able to move correctly. His stamina was still dangerously low, and he was exhausted, but he couldn’t quite relax yet. He had to figure out the situation

had managed to stand

thanks for the help, mister…?” Miranda asked their masked savior,