Monsters

In this world there exist aberrations known as "monsters." Far removed from the lives of plants and beasts, they are as if malice itself had taken form — that is what a monster is.

Most monsters shun light and fire, lurking in deep forests and dark places. It is said that when humankind mastered fire, their domain was driven back into the depths of the woods, and life in the villages became safe. Which is to say: wherever fire does not reach remains their domain still.

Savage Lupus

Once ordinary wolves, they are a species transformed by contamination with a green, slime-like substance. Their coordinated intelligence is gone, but their pack-hunting instinct has only grown stronger, and they run down their prey through sheer numbers. What makes them truly dangerous is their vitality: even with their bodies destroyed, they keep moving as long as the slime remains. The only way to finish one is to burn it away completely.
It was a pack of these Savage Lupus that attacked Alvina in the forest when she was a child.

Hunter

These monsters have an extreme aversion to light and spend the day hidden in the deepest forest, camouflaged as moss and vines. After sunset, they become active and hunt aggressively in groups. Their red eyes glowing in the darkness were once a symbol of terror to humankind. Only after humans mastered fire could their territory be driven beyond the forest's edge.

The Writhing Ones

A type of slime mold mutated into a monster. It inhabits damp, dark places and begins to exhibit intelligent behavior once it forms a sufficiently large group. In cases where it has appeared in city sewers, colonies resembling human figures have been reported. The green slime secreted by Savage Lupus is this organism.

Thousand-Legged Burrower

A gigantic insectoid monster with a millipede-like armored shell and numerous clawed legs that let it crawl along walls.
It lives in caves and other dark places, and its eyes have almost completely atrophied. Even flame cannot penetrate its outer shell, but attacks can damage the soft tissue visible through gaps in its armor. It extends and contracts its long body, spinning like a drill to shatter rock and tunnel underground. The frictional heat can even melt the surrounding bedrock.
As it excavates, ore is drawn into its body through its mouth, suggesting that it may accumulate substances from its habitat within itself.

Indomitable Tyrant

A giant of monstrous strength. Its main attacks are lethal blows delivered by an extraordinarily developed upper body and strikes from enormous claws nearly as tall as itself. Its rough black skin, hard as stone, possesses astonishing regenerative power. Unless burned with fire or acid, that regeneration will not stop. Its overwhelming power and toughness inflict a senseless, primal despair upon those who face it.
It is said that a single Indomitable Tyrant once destroyed an entire city in one night.