4 Unwilling

A few minutes before Luna called for help.

Luna jumped over from the branch and began fighting the rodent who was affected the least, this was one of the backup plans Evan had created in case some rodent did not get blinded, then it was Luna's job to stall until Evan dealt with the other rodents.

Luna was just a small cub of two months with no fighting experience compared to her the rodent grew up in the wild where life is a constant struggle and must have a lot of fighting experience.

During the past few minutes, the rodent had managed to gain a few hits on Luna showing its superior fighting experience and the paralytic fluids over its claws had managed to enter Luna's body through the injuries due to which her speed started to regress.

When she saw that Evan had finished his fight, she finally called for his help.

Back to the present.

What Evan saw was that the snow-white fur of Luna had been dyed red due to cuts she had all over her. The rodent had gone berserk when it heard the screech of the third rodent before it died and relentlessly attacked Luna.

Seeing this all the thoughts except one disappeared from Evan's mind, the only thing that mattered now was ending the fight as soon as possible and returning home before the situation got worse.

Evan wanted to run and save Luna but knew berserk rodents are stronger than normal ones, facing it head-on was not ideal for Evan who was already showing signs of exhaustion.

Without making too much noise, Evan approached the rodent from behind, who was focusing all its attention on Luna. He planned to attack it from behind.

The moment Evan reached near the rodent; it sensed him quickly; the reason was rodent blood all over his body. The rodent changed its target to Evan, it wanted to kill this human who killed its kin.

GRRR

The rodent growled and charged at Evan. Now Evan was in a predicament; he did not have much strength remaining because he was just a normal person who had yet to begin his cultivation.

He held the old sword to attack the rodent, but he was shocked to see how quickly it managed to cover the distance, the rodent was already a few feet away from him.

Seeing this he used the sword to defend himself from the claw attack but the moment the claw attack hit the sword, knocking it away from Evan's hands as the rodent brushed past him.

Before Evan could recover from the shock of losing his weapon the rodent made a U-turn ready for another attack. It growled as it charged at him for another attack, this time with more ferocious than last time.

Evan was in a bad situation right now, he had lost his weapon and if he tried to recover it, he would be defenceless against the incoming attack.

The rodent also did not allow him to do so and directly jumped over his body.

Due to the rodent's momentum, Evan fell to the ground while the rodent was over his body, it kept trying to bite Evan's head but he somehow managed to defend himself by holding its mouth with his hands.

When Luna saw this, she charged and attacked the rodent, but her physical strength was considerably lacking compared to the rodent; while her attack almost did nothing, when the rodent attacked, she was sent flying.

Since she couldn't help with physical attacks she changed her strategy, she began gathering a huge amount of mana near her mouth to release another flash bomb but this time she couldn't use all her mana like earlier because, if she failed then she would have no mana left for another attack.

Once she finished mana gathering, she held on to it and pressured it so that it could increase its damage. Her mouth started bleeding due to the amount of mana being stored and pressurised for a long period. Once she reached her limit, she released the mana.

As soon as she released the mana, it transformed into a beam of light.

BUZZ!

Before the rodent could react to the sound, the beam of light passed through its head, its body lifelessly fell over Evan's, and he could see through the hole in its head while there was a faint burning smell in the air.

Pushing aside the Body Evan groggily got up and checked for his injuries. Unfortunately, amidst the struggle to keep the rodent away from his head, the rodent had managed to give him a few deep cuts.

This means they don't have much time and at least need to get out of the forest before they get paralysed.

After checking up on himself Evan went to Luna, the last attack had done her a lot of damage. Her lower jaw had been dislocated and deep cuts caused continuous bleeding.

'Luna's condition is severe, and I need to get back as soon as possible and get treatment for her'.

Evan did not waste any time any further and started running, they needed to get away from here as soon as possible because this fight and the dead rodent would attract even more monsters.

Evan had barely sprinted for a few moments before he stopped abruptly, taken aback by the sight before him.

What he saw in front of them was a pair of red eyes in the darkness, staring at them

As he stood there frozen in terror, The number of eyes watching him kept on increasing, at first there was only one pair then it became two then five then ten; the eyes seemed to multiply until they were everywhere.

Suddenly, they started moving, getting closer and closer. Chills ran through Evan's as he looked at this scene.

He overcame this dread and started to run, but the eyes followed him, always watching his every move. He ran in every direction, trying to escape their gaze, but they were always there, surrounding him from every angle.

He felt despair as he saw that the eyes had gotten closer, and he could hear their low growls and snarls.

In desperation and fear, Evan seemed to have lost the sense of direction unable to find the way back home. He just kept running in hopes of somehow returning to his home and ending this nightmare.

As he turned again to run in another direction, he couldn't see the tree root and stumbled, falling hard. At that moment, Luna came out of his grasp and rolled over the ground; away from him.

The eyes were now upon him, closing in, and he knew they were doomed.

"N-not Y-et!" he growled.

He did not want to give up but when he tried to get up, he couldn't lift his body anymore, no matter how hard he tried his body refused to obey; continuous fighting and running around had already depleted his strength.

To be honest; even before falling, he was just barely hanging and had no energy to run; the paralytic fluids had started to slow down his speed and he just ran due to his sheer will to survive and return home.

Once the eyes saw that Evan had lost all his strength and wasn't able to move any more, they finally started to come out of the shadows; they were none other than Black Plague rodents.

'Seems like I jinxed myself, Hehe' Evan thought as the paralytic fluids kicked in and they were paralysed.

Hearing the rustling sounds both Evan and Luna understood what was going on without even looking at it. They felt despair as all the rodents moved towards them, but they had no strength to defend themselves whatsoever.

As the rodents moved near, Luna's despair transformed into guilt and sorrow because she was the reason for their predicament, if not for her running all the way here due to the tantalizing fruit they would be sitting in their homes.

Luna whimpered as she tried to drag her body towards Evan, but it was a futile attempt. She was also paralysed.

Hearing Luna whimper and squirming to move herself toward him, Evan's despair turned into helplessness, powerlessness, and anger toward himself, if only he had more strength, he would have managed to reach home.

Finally, all the members of their nest had gathered, there were more than 50 black plague rodents.

Then one rodent which looked slightly bigger arrived in front of them, it looked at Evan and Luna as if were a delicacy.

Finally, it screeched as if giving a final verdict and then all the rodents started running at them.

Evan braced for the end, closing his eyes in horror. The only thing he could wish for was a quick death, but how could things end so easily?

"Arghhh!"

The first bite tore into his hand, a pain so intense it ripped a scream from his throat.

Another rodent latched onto his leg, its teeth shredding flesh and muscle.

Evan experienced a new level of pain, something he had never experienced something like this, it was unbearable he could no longer hear Luna as if his senses had shut down to reduce the level of pain.

More and more rodents started biting various parts of Evan's body but no one killed him directly. They preferred to play with their prey and enjoy the suffering they inflicted.

Evan's world narrowed to the pain, with each bite he lost a chunk of flesh and blood sprayed everywhere. He had already lost sense of his limbs meaning they were ripped apart.

As Evan bore through the pain memories started flooding in; memories of his life till now, memories with the family, then how his life abruptly changed after being left alone, then how it changed once again once Luna hatched.

'L-lunaaa' Evan thought of her as he remembered the time they spent together.

As his memories flashed a change occurred, Evan's despair turned into resolute will as he remembered that he had to search for his family, he wanted to introduce Luna to them and much more.

He remembered all his unfulfilled dreams and ambitions he had cast away just so he could survive. What was wrong with an 11-year-old boy wishing to achieve grand goals?

He was unwilling to die such a death before fulfilling them. All these emotions accumulated and flared up his will to survive.

"I WANT TO LIVE!" Evan bellowed, his voice a defiant challenge to the cruel fate that awaited him.