Explosions?

Gram unleashed a relentless onslaught of swings with his mighty battle axe—roaring behind each swing.

Lillian dodged each swing—her nimble body narrowly avoiding it by a hair's breadth.

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

Like an extension of his axe, the axe slashed at her, fortunately doing no damage whatsoever but messing her hair.

Gram, with a loud roar, raised his axe up high over his head and, like lightning, stuck full force down at the earthy ground—sending a shrapnel of the earth into the air.

"Urgh..." Lillian groaned. (2)

She backed off—shielding herself from the occasional stones coming her way with her arm.

Like a savage bull, Gram rushed through the cloud caused by his swing and prepared to slice her in half with a ferocious grin mercilessly.

This Frenzied Barbarian wasn't going to give the poor Rabbit before him any chance of escape, it seems.

However, this Rabbit, defiant of the fate to be carved up, spat at him with a face full of water—knocking him away.

Lillian huffed heavily with her arm raised—she had just barely finished manifesting her bullet. (2)

Gram, landing with a loud thud, flipped back to his feet without the help of his arms.

THUD!

The ground trembled under the weight of his exaggerated muscular body.

He then eyed the girl. His eyes lit up with excitement at the girl's. He then raised his head to the sky and cackled—his laughter seemingly capable of shaking the virtual world itself.

"KAHAHAHA! Me like small White Rabbit! Me was so bored!" Gram bellowed—somewhat struggling to string his words together.

Winds then began to storm around him like he was the centre of a newly created tornado. Warning signs rang deeply inside Lillian's head before having to raise her sword quickly.

Gram, with a stomp, shot towards Lillian explosively, his speed several times faster compared to before. Had the wind adorning his body like a cloak increased his speed?

Slamming the sharp edge of his ruthless axe, she sent her off with a deafening sound of metal clashing—knocking her deeper into the forest.

CLANG!

Like an unrelenting beast, he followed after her, charging at her on all three—his large battle axe over his shoulder.

Lillian skidded back, her eyes unflinching at the danger coming at her.

Swinging her free hand behind her back, she materialised an object and injected it with her mana before chucking it at the Mad Humanoid Beast.

Gram's eyes took note of a spherical object glowing a vivid blue approaching him rapidly. Using the flat side of his axe, he swatted it away.

That was... what he had intended to do.

When his fearsome axe collided with the airborne object—a brutal explosion erupted upon impact.

BOOM!

The explosion caused Lillian to fly back more, causing her to have a rough landing.

"Ugh... what a pain..." She groaned, pushing herself up to a seated position. (2)

She gazed at the smoke that formed from the explosion. After it had cleared a bit, she recognised the familiar-sized crater it had made.

It was about 5 metres in diameter.

This impressive tool should have left the savage man heavily injured, right? That was what every normal person would think would happen to someone who was so close to the impact.

But Lillian knew otherwise to underestimate the man. Having pushed herself back up to her feet, she summoned yet another grenade to her hand.

She tensely waited for the man to appear, keeping her guard up. She wasn't going to have a repeat of what had happened earlier.

And she was right to do so.

"RAAAGH!" With a swift duck, she dodged the devastating axe that passed over her head.

Gram lunged over her and landed on the other side. Smoke rose from his body, parts of him bruised—he was in a solemn state.

However, he didn't seem nearly as bothered about his condition as most people would be. Instead, he bared his teeth like a vicious bear and growled ferociously like a wild animal that had just been backed into a corner.

His eyes were completely white. Had this man gone unconscious?

"Haha... as expected of the future Mad King of Beasts..." As the imposing title of the man's future left her tongue, he roared at her and leapt towards the trees—sticking to it like a spider.

His long and sharp nails were like the claws of a violent beast. He stuck on the side of the tree, tilting his head at Lillian like a curious owl before leaping at her with his jaws wide open.

Stepping out of the way of his snapping jaws, she slashed her sword at him, causing a long red gash to appear diagonally over his shoulder.

Gram roared out in pain before wickedly slamming his deadly axe into the ground—uplifting it.

As if a sliver of his mind had returned from a beastly frenzy, he then began to control the wind around him—sucking in the solid debris and swirling around him.

"That's definitely bad... Argh!" She clutched her shoulder and glanced at it—dirt staining her scorched blazer. (2)

Lillian then ran towards the trees, using them to shelter her from the hailstorm of dirt and small rocks.

The speed at which small debris swirled around him increased to a concerning degree before firing off at her.

While she ran, the impacts from Gram's dirty ammunition collided with them and resounded frequently in her ears, leaving her already tense body even more tense.

She took brief glances back and saw how each bullet bore shallow holes through the thick dark wood trees.

After a few more minutes, Gram finally ran out of ammunition—this was a perfect time to counterattack.

Peeking from behind a tree, she fired off a blast of water at him.

SPLASH!

It knocked him a step to the side. He grunted and rolled his shoulders, snorting. Then...

"Hm...?"

An odd, familiar blue light appeared at his feet. Looking down, he discovered a small glowing, wet, spherical object at his feet.

It radiated a violent light—befitting an object used for destruction. Before Lillian had sent off her attack, she had stored her active grenade inside her water bullet.

BOOM!

The grenade exploded once again—the explosion caused a massive cloud of both dirt and smoke to arise.

Lillian grinned from behind the tree. (2)

"The guy's durable, but there is no way he could survive that—"

As she said that, a bloodied hand appeared just beside her head. The hand gripped the rough surface of the tree—painting it a subtle red.

"Rabbit... plays hard to get..." The heavy breathing of a man on his last leg echoed behind the tree.

Quickly pushing herself off of it, she dodged a brutal overhead swing from Gram.

Unfortunately, she could not dodge it entirely, for a shallow cut appeared from her right shoulder all the way down to her left hip.

"A-ah!" She cried out, biting her lip as she placed her hand over her injury. Tears welled up in her eyes. (10)

Wiping them away, she stared back at the seriously wounded Barbarian, who was indeed on his LAST leg.

The explosion, having taken away from the leg, had shocked him out of whatever beastly state he was in before.

Half of his body was fearfully bruised and battered from the explosion—the arm in which he wielded his axe laid loosely by his side.

However, that did not diminish the bloodlust in his eyes.

Gripping the tree tightly, he leaned against it—his nails creating shallow grooves in its woody skin.

"..."

'What a mad man indeed...'

Lillian walked over to him, careful and cautious. In the state that he was in, she didn't expect him to be able to make any more wild movements as he did before.

"You're Gram, yes?" She asked the Wild Man.

"Huh...?" Gram raised his head—his long, messy hair fell over his face, causing his brown eyes to be hidden away.

However, Lillian knew they were focused on her.

"How does little Rabbit know my name?"

"Isn't it correct to know about a great hunter's name?"

"..."

Gram smiled broadly—his jagged teeth on full display to her.

He then let out a low chuckle.

"Kahaha... Rabbit is indeed wise in the rules of the forest... I admit... defeat..." His words soon slowed, and his voice soon became quieter.

Lillian stepped out of the way as his massive body collapsed onto the ground with a loud thud—soon dissipating into a cloud of pixels.

THUD...!

Silence and peace soon returned to the dark forest as the Wild Beast now retreated back to the physical world where he belonged.