?Like a flash of lightning, Alan suddenly moved to the side and caused the Raven to be in distress, its eyes darted everywhere to find him, but before it could fully locate him, his spear was a like a violent snake ready to bite, or in this case, stab its neck.
It weaved through the air in an unnatural pattern, like it could bend and successfully struck the raven.
However, in the nick of time, the bird caught the spearhead with its beak. It refused to let go and dragged Alan closer, to limit the use of his spear further.
It was planning to munch on the spear, But Alan recalled it into his inventory to be free from the raven’s grasp. He summoned it again, and continued in his assault.
One, two, three strikes, one after the other, aimed at killing the beast in one attack. But the damn thing was fast even on the ground. It turned its body in unexpected ways and dodged the strikes.
They both circled one another as soon as the strikes ended. Alan cursed, in his mind, at his inability to kill this thing quickly.
‘Goddammit, Guess I have to use them.’
He readied himself and was about to use a skill. However, the process was interrupted. Alan heard a voice in the middle of his casting.
“Filth that needs to be purged.”
A voice that was…old. Archaic even, it was rough to hear, but it was definitely human tongue.
‘There’s a human nearby?’
He thought, but the fact that he didn’t sense anyone put him in disarray, and the next thing he knew he saw something flash by from the corner of his eye. A feather, belonging to the foe he was fighting.
It weaved past his chin and cut a little of his skin. The intended target was his eye, but he managed to dodge in time.
“…”
Alan silently looked at the raven, which cackled in delight. Happy that it had fooled the creature in front of it.
“It was you, huh.”
He felt insulted that he had fallen for such a simple trick. How could he have even entertained the possibility that there was a human here? When he didn’t even sense one near? He should already have been cautious by the fact that he could hear it directly in his ear!
“Huu….”
Taking a deep breath, he let his mana flow through his spear. The spear glowed a cold light, one that was visible in the darkness. He didn’t want to do this, but he had too. The bird was getting on his nerves. He would end this in one, swift strike.
The bird, sensing the strength within the spear, tried to fly, but it was shocked to find its feet were frozen to the ground.
“Did you think I would let you run?”
Alan had already frozen the ground beneath them the moment his chin had been cut, The idiot bird just didn’t realize its feet had been frozen due to the cold weather already present.
“Die.”
He said, as his body disappeared, the raven, acknowledging the fact that it was struck, decided to attack as well.
It raised its wing, laced with feathers that could cut steel easily. But it was useless.
Its head fell on the frozen floor below, along with the part of its wing that tried to block the strike. Alan appeared behind it, swinging his spear to get rid of its crimson blood. The feathers, that once shone under the moonlight, looked to be rusted now.
He collected the corpse and put it into his inventory. The light on his spear died soon enough, and Alan looked around him, cursing.
“Shit.”
He could feel and see the other monsters of the night that had surrounded him, some stronger than the raven and many weaker. And one that was incredibly, incredibly strong that the raven was an ant compared to it.
That monster was in the darkness, waiting to make a move. It seemed to be darkness itself, as it weaved through the shadows in the form of a black mist.
“…”
Alan looked at them all, and sighed. He input mana into his spear once again, and this time it glowed brightly. He, with a resolute look on his face, stabbed the spear onto the ground, unleashing his mana in the form of a wave of bright light.
The monsters, used to the darkness, flinched at the sudden burst of light, they were enraged at this form of attack. With their claws and fangs bared, they were ready to pounce on the creature that had done until…
They saw him running, hundreds of metres away from his original position.
The bastard wasn’t getting ready for a final showdown, he was preparing to flee!
***********
I ran for quite a while, I could have chosen to fly, but I was afraid of getting shot down or intercepted in the sky. I am skilled in flight, but not enough to match monsters who have been doing it since birth.
So I decided to simply run, it was easier for me to dodge the attacks and attempts at my life like this. Although the sand beneath me did hinder my speed, I was still able to run from all those.
I wasn’t worried about most of the monsters that had appeared, I could still defeat them. What I was worried about was whether my actions would attract an endless army of them…and the one monster that seemed to be moving within the black mist.
Without a doubt, it was S-rank. Perhaps even stronger than that. I also knew that it was letting me see it, if it truly wanted to hide I would have never caught sight of it, and if it wanted to kill me.
I was already dead.
Not only that, but I don’t know why it didn’t kill me, but I am not complaining. So I just ran. Coincidentally, as I ran I looked up into the sky, trying to spot the moon, but I was graced with the beauty of space instead, with all of its stars. The striking colours of blue in the night sky.
“Damn.”
Such a view was difficult to see on Earth, where each piece of land was vital and was already filled with buildings.
The vast scene brought peace to him as well, as if his bond to the spatial affinity was being…provoked. Or perhaps strengthened.
“…”
He silently looked down from the sky and focused on getting home, he ran and ran and ran, for days.
It took an entire day of constant running for him to reach the base.
******** .
“Explain yourself.”
Maxwell asked me as soon as I entered the base, he took me to the Predator compartment and questioned me relentlessly, Sabrina and Kazikato were here as well.
“I went to investigate the south, I believe I also informed you.”
Maxwell, clearly having an annoyed expression on his face, glared at me.
“And this scouting mission took you a day?”
“Well, it wasn’t supposed to last that long… I encountered…something’s.”
Maxwell, finally having his irritation replaced with curiosity, urged me to explain.
“There is a desert in the south, and a fortress lies within it. It’s made of sandstone and has engravings of Minotaur on the wall. Pretty sure there are Minotaur inside it.”
“And?”
“Well, it’s hot? It’s a desert, what else would you expect.”
“Nothing else?”
“I encountered a few plants and also monsters. There was a raven that could speak our tongue. Most likely a skill, and there were quite a few more beasts there.”
I continued.
“There was definitely a beast of S-rank or higher, it was like a black mist. The other monsters were all A-rank. Also, the monsters there appeared only during the night, night hunters most likely.”
“… Wait, S-rank beast?”
“Yeah, It got pretty close too, but I managed to run away.”
“Alan, what bullshit are you spouting?”
Confused at his words, I asked.
“What?”
“What bullshit are you spouting that you managed to run away from and S-rank or higher beast?”
I couldn’t understand. Sabrina also had the look of shock on her face, Whilst Kazikato couldn’t give a damn about what was happening.
Ah, I think I know what they are referring too. The gap between A-rank and S-rank is the same as the gap between D-rank to A-
rank. Ridiculously large.
“It let me go, I know it could kill me in an instant, it also allowed itself to be seen by me. So… I ran?”
I knew the beast let me go, why it did I didn’t bother to care for.
“…”
Maxwell was silent, and Sabrina interjected.
“It could also be that it was interested in Alan, considering we arrived here from another planet, it could be expressing its curiosity over a creature it hasn’t seen before.”
Maxwell nodded, finding some sense in her words.
Scolding me once more, he sighed and ordered me to go back to Earth.
“What? Why?”
I asked him the reason, and he responded with something that sent chills down my spine.
“We can’t handle the reporters any more, you have to give an official interview about the tower raid.”
… .
…
…
Fuck. I hate that shit.
𝑖.𝘤ℴ𝘮