Ch 23: Danger In The Shadow (3)

The injured man was running for his life. He had no idea what had happened to the group of people he had just met, nor did he care. What mattered most to him right now was escaping this place alive and informing the outside world, primarily the Federation, about the dangers hidden inside the abandoned mansion.

The so-called accidental disappearance was actually the result of long and careful planning.

Growl~

All of a sudden, a low growl came from behind.

The injured man froze in his place and forgot to run. His body was shuddering in fear as he raised his head toward the sky and turned back to look.

The shadow of a giant creature appeared in his line of sight. This creature was enormous, with eight legs, three large eyes, and a completely black body. It was a huge spider, an Advanced Soul Beast named Iron-eyed Spider. Unlike most creatures, including humans, whose eyes are weak points, this spider was different. Its eyes were its strongest feature, resembling hard iron. Its three eyes were tougher than any other part of its body.

However, the injured man was not afraid of the spider. He was afraid of the person sitting on the back of this giant spider.

"Riley, Riley, Riley!"

"Where do you think you are going? Do you really think you can escape from me, Malachi Darkborne?"

The man asked with an eerie smile on his face. The air around his body seemed to be churning. He had a black mask covering one of his eyes. The rest of his face was clearly visible.

"Malachi..."

The injured man, Riley, was still trembling as he muttered the other person's name. Maybe he already knew that escaping was no longer an option, his trembling slowly calmed down.

"How long do you think you can keep everything hidden? If not today then tomorrow, your wrongdoings will be exposed to the outside world. At that time, the Federation will personally take action. Do you think you can escape then?"

Malachi, the person sitting on top of the spider's back, did not mind Riley's words. He was still smiling, but his smile seemed to have become more sinister and cold.

Shaking his head, he said, "At least, it won't be you exposing us. And we'll be finished with what we're doing soon enough. By the time someone capable of escaping my grasp shows up, my people and I will have long gone. What can the Federation do to us then?

Riley opened his mouth several times but closed it every time without speaking a word. He wanted to say something but did not say anything in the end.

Malachi smiled sinisterly and raised his hand. Spider web-like threads appeared on his hand as he prepared to attack Riley.

"It is time for you to say goodbye to this world!"

Riley took a deep breath and sighed bitterly in his heart. He knew death was coming for him, so he closed his eyes, waiting for his vitality to be sucked by those life-sucking spider webs.

Malachi didn't hesitate to attack. The spider web shot out like a bullet, but before it could reach Riley, someone appeared beside him, grabbed his shoulder, and disappeared.

Everything happened within a second. Neither Malachi nor Riley was able to react.

Hiss!

The spider web hit the ground and no feedback to Malachi.

Malachi did not care about the spider web. He looked startled. He was indeed stunned and did not what to do.

"What happened just now?"

After a while, he muttered in confusion. Just a second ago, Riley was standing right in front of him. However, someone appeared and disappeared along with Riley within a second.

Who was that person?

Because everything happened too fast, Malachi was unable to see that person's appearance. He knew nothing as to what happened just now.

.....

In a cave hidden beneath a giant tree, four people could be seen. Two of them were relaxed. As for the last two, one was grabbing the shoulder of the other. The person whose shoulder was grabbed had his eyes closed.

He slowly opened his eyes, only to be greeted by three people.

The person who saved Riley was actually Emrys.

Riley was stunned when someone grabbed him. Then he felt something but that feeling disappeared as soon as it appeared. Mistakenly, he thought that Malachi had attacked and his vitality was about to be absorbed.

However, when nothing happened for the next few seconds, he suddenly realized something was wrong. He slowly opened his eyes. Three people appeared before him. One of them still had his hand on his shoulder.

He was confused but didn't utter a word. The first thing he did was look around, only to discover that he was no longer surrounded by dense trees and green vegetation; instead, he seemed to have appeared inside a cave, albeit a little too small.

"Who are you people?"

Only after observing the surroundings and knowing that he was safe did Riley look at Emrys, the person grabbing his shoulder, and asked.

Emrys smiled but did not say anything. He withdrew his hand and sat down silently before letting out a sigh. He was tired. Today was too much for him.

In the morning, Emrys went to the outskirts of the city, meeting Rohan. Rohan was not alone, he brought a friend with him. According to Rohan, this friend's Soul Mark was "Intel Scout".

As we know, an individual's Soul Mark is also their final destination.

That friend of Ro was proficient in gathering all kinds of information and coming out of dangerous places alive. Due to his Soul Mark, he had tons of knowledge and information and could help them at critical times if they were to fall in danger.

That morning, the three of them entered the abandoned mansion that was now shrouded in a veil of mystery.

Who would have thought that the layout they were familiar with did not appear after they entered the mansion? Instead, they mysteriously appeared inside a forest right after stepping past the entrance of the mansion.

When they looked back, the entrance was no longer there. It had disappeared somehow.

This forest was too dangerous. In such a place, Rohan's friend helped a lot. His knowledge helped them avoid many dangers, especially powerful Soul Beasts.

Along the way, they avoided at least ten Intermediate and five Advanced Bronze Soul Beasts. Of course, when encountering an Elementary Bronze Soul Beast, they cooperated to hunt.

By now, they had already hunted a total of 15 Elementary Bronze Soul Beasts and this was just the first day inside this strange and dangerous forest.

Of course, they gained a lot as well, obtaining 15 Ordinary Green Soul Orbs. As for Emrys, he secretly extracted Soul Force and managed to gather an extra 1,500 Soul Points, 100 Soul Points from each Elementray Bronze Soul Beast.