Miscalculated

We easily walked for hours in the morning but somehow by noon, it was a different case as the sun was out and in what felt like an hour, we were all burned out, hungry and thirsty.

I felt I was better off and even Nami seemed to be doing pretty well but Kern and Moey weren't.

Kern's shoulders sagged heavily and his breathing became so erratic that after a while, I knew we needed to stop which meant that we needed to divert slightly into the forest, for the shade.

"We should stop for a…" but I had only begun speaking when I watched all of them fall to the ground in the next second even before I  had finished speaking.

"I thought you would never ask .." Nami complained before turning to look at me with pleading eyes.

"We need water and food. We'll stay on the path for you to return," She gasped and it was obvious that she was sending me off on the search for food and water.

I was a final stage and I knew that I was the strongest but the thought of the huge tentacles I had seen sent a small shiver through my back.

Moreover, I was still traumatized by my brush with death and the transformation beast but looking at my supposed parents and sister sitting on the ground, drenched in sweat, I knew that I was the only one that had enough energy to move.

As quietly as I could, I moved into the forest looking around and plucking whatever looked like food and placing it into the half full skin bag in my hands.

Water of course couldn't be found but I figured enough juicy fruits could make up for it.

It took a while, but finally I was done.

The next second, without seeing any reason to delay, I practically ran out of the forest glad to come back and see that apart from the fact that Nami, Moey and Kern seemed to be covered in even more sweat, they all seemed pretty fine.

"Here…" I passed it over to them, not having taken a single bite of any fruit, just in case I somehow unluckily picked poison instead of fruit.

"These are pretty good…" Money exclaimed when she saw it, even as Nami was already wordlessly munching on one the biggest fruits in the bag.

I also leaned forward and picked some, which I began to eat in comfort, glad to feel that the effects of the sun weren't as harsh on me as it was on the others.

The peace continued for a short period of time as everyone got to rest when my ears suddenly picked up a loud rush of feet, something that scared the hell out of me and I instantly jerked up to my feet.

We were the only humans for miles and moreover, the footsteps I heard couldn't be said to belong to humans.

"Get up…" I hurriedly yelled dashing into the forest in the next second, hearing and watching my family do the same in the same second, which was great since at that exact moment, we all watched with open mouths as two mighty clawed striped beasts appeared and began to claw at each other.

"They're huge and…" Nami began to gasp in shock but before she could say more, I instantly raised my hands to block her mouth.

Just because we were somewhat far didn't mean that they wouldn't be able to hear us.

Moreover, one of the huge beasts in front of us could take us out, not to mention two.

They were about five feet tall even on all their four limbs and their claws glimmered with blood in a way that made it obvious that there was most likely never s time when they didn't go on a killing spree.

"We should leave…" Kern whispered and I instantly nodded my head, agreeing instantly as we all began to back off deeper into the forest.

I didn't like it but it wasn't like we had much of a choice since the path had suddenly been taken over.

I was still wondering where we could hide until the devastating fight was over and hopefully they both killed each other, when Nami suddenly pointed at a small wooden cave that seemed to be made by humans.

It was small, but it would definitely be more than enough to shield us for a while,

The only drawback was the fact that it seemed to be extremely deep in the forest and way off the path.

"If we make a run for it, I don't see why we can't make it…" Money said and I could hear the slight excitement in her voice when she said it since it would definitely be much cooler to rest under compared to the path where they had been sitting under the sun.

Everyone agreed and in the blink of an eye, Kern and Moey began running with me and Nami running behind them.

It was about a few meters deep and although we didn't come across any beast, my heart wasn't calm as I endlessly worried, expecting a huge pair of tentacles to suddenly descend on us all.

My nerves were frayed still and I was prepared to use my mana to attack at any moment, which was probably what saved Moey as I watched her increase her pace the moment we got to the wooden cave live structure only for what seemed to be a snake like beast to appear and attack.

It was humongous. A better description would be a giant snake whose head seemed to be able to crush us all into paste the moment it struck.

I was terrified and without thinking, I grabbed 350points from my mana core and threw it straight into the next attack I threw out.

I controlled the air turning it as sharp as I imagined it to be, before sweeping it in the direction of the beast's eye hoping that with that it would at least be unable to make out our direction.

The attack was successful but the cut was even deeper than I thought, as I watched it slice through the snake's skin like butter and instantly I realized that I used more points than I should have.