The sky grew darker and it started to rain. As he felt the droplets of play a calming melody on his shoulders, Arthur's heart was nowhere near calm. He was a rei-ranker trying to escape the might of an Astra-ranker, alone.
Like heavenly lightning, the spear descended on him as if trying to obliterate him out of existence. With a flick of his hand, Arthur appeared a kilometer away.
"You're overconfident, ant!" The roaring laughter of the Paladin came as loud as thunder. "You think you can face me by yourself?" The Paladin flew over from the horizon with a giant grin on his scarred face.
The spear, after losing its target, changed its direction without stopping. Arthur, on the other hand, didn't try to use the limits of his teleport rune to run away. He doubted an Astra ranker would have difficulties in chasing after them for hundreds of miles.
Using his teleport rune, Arthur could barely dodge the spear before it ripped him to pieces. He might have been able to stop it earlier using his Art and controlling the very existence of the spear, but he couldn't pull that off again.
'I need to buy more time.' Arthur thought as he saw the figure of the Paladin descend like a meteor, creating a crater and shaking the earth.
The Paladin looked around from on top of the hill before looking down on Arthur, who was huffing and gathering his breath.
"Ah, how heroic. You've decided to be the bait. However, you're the one I'm after anyway. As for your friends, I'll have my followers find them and rip them to pieces, just like what is about to happen to you."
"Try your best, egg-head." Arthur prepared his runes to be used at any moment. He saw the frown and twitch of the Paladin's eyebrows.
"Childish tactics."
"Whatever you say, potato-nose."
"Die." The Paladin lost his temper and his mana raged. There was less than a kilometer away between the two but the Paladin used every bit of strength he could master as he threw the spear.
Arthur knew he would die if the spear attacked him. There was no way he could dodge this one with how close it was to him. He could only sense the general direction of it without being able to truly see it.
However, he wasn't going to dodge. Arthur's runes were different from abilities, they were a lot more flexible to use. He stood with his head high as he witnessed the destruction of the grasslands. The rain was pushed upward in the path the spear flew in.
With his remaining functional arm, Arthur used his rune and poured as much mana as he can to it. He couldn't hope of getting a higher-level rune at this point because his runes were harder to modify the stronger they are. He simply poured mana so that the rune would work on the spear.
'Let's pray this works.' Arthur used most of his mana as his hand traced the trajectory of the incoming spear. 'Luckily, the Paladin isn't attacking me directly. Due to his overconfidence, I have a chance to succeed.'
All of these thoughts flashed in his mind in a concrete form, but a vague flash of neurological signals. The moment the spear touched his rune, Arthur felt the rune drain most of his mana hungrily.
The pressure of the mana and the spear shredded his arms and he gritted his teeth in pain. However, the spear didn't manage to pierce through his flesh.
The moment the rune and the spear came in contact, the giant white rod disappeared from the world. Arthur fell to his knees as his ears listened to the delightful sound of the Paladin's scream.
"YOU INSOLENT BASTARD!" The Paladin roared at him and Arthur looked up at his handiwork.
The spear that was flying toward him a moment ago was lodged in the Paladin's back, specifically between his ribs. Sadly, it seemed the spear couldn't penetrate his flesh enough to cause a fatal injury.
"I've been careless," The Paladin's eyes were terrifyingly filled with killing intent. "There's no need to capture you anymore, die."
Arthur felt his neck being strangled and thought that the Paladin was taking action personally. However, he was shocked when he saw the giant monster that had appeared and it was only the monster's presence. A monstrous white tiger appeared beside the hill and was a little bit bigger than the hill itself.
'The reason that Astra-beings are called as such is for a simple reason.' Arthur looked with fear as the monstrous flaming tiger. 'They can summon an Astral-being.' Arthur realized something. 'I might have pushed this old man too far, now it's time to run.'
With a flick of his hand, Arthur appeared three kilometers away. He used what little mana he had left in him and began to run away as much as he can. He could feel the ground shake behind him but he was too scared to look back.
'Well, I did manage to injure an Astra-ranker.' Arthur thought smugly. 'It'll be a nice story if I manage to live.' His thoughts in his panic were weirdly irreverent. He teleported on top of a hill but suddenly felt the world tilt.
Looking back, he saw that the tiger that was chasing after him clawed at the hill, cutting it neatly from the bottom and making the whole thing get obliterated. Arthur teleported again as he felt the heat of the tiger's white flames scorch his robes.
'Why is the Astra-ranker not attacking me himself? Is he treating his wounds?' Arthur wondered but then felt the presence of the Paladin close in on him.
To his terror, Arthur knew he couldn't run away anymore. He might be able to teleport, but the Astra-ranker can cut through that distance just as fast if not more.
When he activated his rune again, he felt a space underneath the ground. Without hesitation, he teleported into the underground cavity that he found.
Silence and darkness replaced the frantic rain and thunder as Arthur found himself standing on solid ground. Without stopping to light any fire, he kept using his teleport rune underground as he teleported across the gigantic cave.
The ground rumbled above him as he felt the Paladin's presence grow closer. His mana was already running out and he had to use his Restore-II. His body was filled with mana but he now only had one hour before he would be mana-less.
The underground cave was gigantic and damp. However, Arthur feared traveling too deep underground and tried to keep himself close to the surface. He didn't want to risk facing a dead end.
He was about to teleport again when he heard the sound of the wind. With a frown, Arthur squinted his eyes as he looked around for its source. He used his fire rune as his hand became a torch that illuminated the surrounding.
He was standing in a gigantic underground clearing that he couldn't even see the end of it. However, he couldn't see any opening that could be the source of the wind. He looked around in confusion for a possible exit.
As he felt the Astra-ranker closing on him, Arthur looked for the source in hopeful expectations that he might get to run away.
At last, he found that the wind came in intervals from a man-sized opening in the landscape. With a frown, Arthur realized this was too small to lead to anything.
Pieces of the ground fell as the whole underground cave shook. Arthur realized that the Astra-ranker was close by and he needed to teleport away. However, it was at that moment that something above the man-sized opening moved.
What Arthur thought to be the ground started shifting and parting away from each other. His breath couldn't leave his lungs anymore as he felt a lump in his throat due to the fear. He didn't even dare to breathe as two giant eyes stared at him in the darkness.
'It… wasn't wind.' Arthur slowly realized as he felt the fear grip at his heart like that the hand of a death reaper. 'It's a breath.' The reaper whispered in his ears as the hair on his body stood up. It was the eyes of a celestial monster that made Arthur look like an ant in front of it.
Now that he had a better look at the landscape, Arthur realized that a lot of it was the monster's body. With how big it was and how dark the underground, he couldn't see what kind of monster it was.
No matter what species it was, Arthur knew it was powerful. If such a giant monster could exist, it had its time to evolve over the years. Arthur wondered how much time has passed since it was lying in this underground cave and why no one was able to find it yet.
The rune disappeared slowly as the eyes stared at him and Arthur sneakily used his Stealth rune. He knew it was futile, but he hoped his giant monster would ignore him.
'How did I not notice its presence?' Arthur wondered to himself as he felt the ground shake. 'Maybe I'm not worthy to feel its presence if it wanted to hide it.'
A large hole was created as a loud explosion resounded throughout the cave. Arthur cursed the old egg-headed, potato-nosed, paladin in his head as he saw the irises of the monster constrict as it blew out through its nostrils.
As the monster moved its sight toward the Astra-ranker's direction, the old Paladin's laughter resounded throughout the cave.
"You're finally out of mana, you little rat!"