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.

covering its body spit out sharp vines as it went to finish off Hank. Somehow the man managed to avoid having his throat ripped out as he ducked and blocked with his axe. Despite his efforts, he was still sent to the ground,

only receive a gash. His entire right arm was torn to shreds as his axe, and

his son yell out and his daughter firing spells on the beast. His vision was waning but still clear enough to see a bolt of electricity hit the creature from the side. It did little more than inflict a small burn mark, yet it was enough to piss off the beast

right in the crosshair of the charging tiger. Hank’s eyes turned red as he saw his only remaining family members about to be

in 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 be damned if he didn’t

learned a bit about controlling stamina through his skills. Enough to slightly increase his striking power. Today he went further as he channeled all he could into his one

entire arm erupted into a cloud of bloody mist. The pain

straight in its midsection, embedding itself deeply. The impact also made the tiger stumble, missing its charge as it tumbled

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

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

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

the tiger - one for his head, the other

the blow never

from his face. Frozen in mid-air, slightly shaking. He saw the tiger trembling for some reason as its eyes focused on something off to the side. Hank followed its gaze

figure traveled several meters. A mask covered the face of the new arrival, but the build made him identifiably male. He didn’t appear to carry any weapons… it was clear he didn’t need

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 had glared at him with just as it was about to

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

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

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

tiger that the group of four had believed to be their death instead met its own demise. Completely dominated by whomever or whatever the

arrival? Was he human? Some kind

he was in thought, the person disappeared once more, only to appear right in front of Hank. The middle-aged man tried to

with a bottle containing a very familiar

male voice. One that sounded significantly younger than Hank would

mangled by the tiger earlier, while his second arm was entirely missing. He looked up at the piercing yellow eyes. They resembled a beast more than a human,

presented to the man who couldn’t move to accept it. The masked man just standing there with an extended arm. Luckily the situation was saved as

the liquid down his throat. Instantly he felt a rush of vital

his stump where his arm had once been starting to itch and wriggle as a new arm slowly began growing out. His mangled arm began healing nearly instantly as even the gash on his face

vital 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

you,” he mumbled, his mouth now able to move correctly. His stamina was still dangerously low, and he was exhausted,

and were now hiding behind their father, who had managed to stand up. Mark was especially interested as his skills allowed

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