>Chapter 5<

"W-what...?"

"H-how is that possible?"

Quiet whispers stuttering in disbelief could be heard after Patrick's declaration. Confusion spread throughout their minds. They were sure they were walking in a straight line the while entire time. Even though they couldn't confirm the direction in which they were moving in, they still didn't believe they just had wandered off and walked in a circle right back to where they had been before.

"W-what are we supposed to do?" Tim said in the quietest voice that could actually still be heard.

"Do you guys think it has got something to do with that mist?" Timothy asked, diffusing the nervousness, even if it was just a little bit.

Patrick raised a question.

"Huh? Why would you think that?"

"Well, i agree with Tim. The mist is usually the reason for being lost in some fantasy novels..." Jacob said, explaining Timothy's question.

"...But we're not in a novel, right? It's totally normal to get lost in a heavy fog because you can't see anything, yeah?" Patrick asked in a somewhat ridiculing tone.

"Damn it! Another thing we can't explain happened." David said in a frustrated tone.

"I think we should stop asking all of these questions we can't answer and just go before we get caught." Phillip chimed in.

"Yeah, let's move before we get caught." Said David as he tried to get up slowly, trying not to make any noise

The boys quickly started getting up from their crouching position. Tim took a quick peek at the camp, but he felt that something was missing. After a second, realization hit him. He turned around and saw the man, who they saw before at the camp, was now right behind Patrick, his giant body overshadowing Patrick's completely.

Before Tim could say anything, Patrick took his hand and started scratching his neck while complaining. "Why does my neck feel so itchy?"

Tim then shouted at Patrick. "Patrick! Watch out!"

The other boys took a peek at Tim wondering why he started shouting all of a sudden then quickly looked at Patrick. They saw the biggest man they have ever seen in their entire lives. He had bulging muscles threatening to rip his shirt and was easily over two and a half meters tall. The man was currently wearing a creepy smile on his face as his sharp canines were clearly visible.

Patrick turned around and his breath got stuck in his throat. His heart palpitated rapidly as he didn't even scream out of fear. His legs were shaking out of primitive fear. It wasn't only Patrick who felt this fear. All the boys felt this. This wasn't the kind of fear you get when you're, for example, in a haunted house or something similar. This was the fear of a prey being looked down upon by a predator.

But nature isn't as unfair as it might seem. Prey is only called that because they themselves cannot prey upon the other creatures. For example, Antelopes are considered as prey because they are herbivores. But these weak creatures always have something like an ace up their sleeve, a way to keep living despite the unfair circumstances they were born in.

Although scared, they knew better than to just stand there and let the event play out. So, instead of fighting an unwinnable fight, they chose the best option available. It was to run away.

The boys started running even faster than they had been before. Their speed multiplied by two and maybe even a little more. But they didn't have time to be astonished. All they were thinking about right now was running away as fast as they could.

They didn't notice but the big man's eyes widened a little bit at their speed as he seemed a little bit astonished by it. Though that thought didn't last long as he started slowly jogging after them. The word 'jogging' didn't really fit in that sentence though because his little 'jog' was faster than the boys' full speed sprint.

He easily surpassed their speed and was now standing in front of them with a big creepy smile adorning his face without even a little bit of tiredness that could be seen, as if it didn't take any effort at all.

When the boys saw him suddenly appearing in front of them, a chill ran up their spine and immediately turned to the right and started running again.

The man's smile just broadened and he started leisurely jogging after them running after his 'prey'.

After this happened a few times, the boys realized something. It was something that pushed them into even more despair that they were already in. The truth was they realized that the man was just playing with them, not taking them seriously at all.

Their already heavy breaths got even heavier as they noticed this fact and they slowly stopped running. They didn't plan this ahead of time. It looked like all of them just gave up as if they were tired of doing all of this.

The man's smile didn't falter in the slightest as he enjoyed this little game of tag they were playing. He approached them slowly. They could hear his steps getting louder as he got closer. However he stopped as he could hear a self- deprecating laughter from one of the boys in the back.

"Hahaha, didn't your parents teach you not to play with your food?"

The man looked at the boy who laughed. It was Tim. It wasn't a normal laugh, more like a laugh of a madman. The laugh was a little contagious so the other boys started snickering a little bit too.

The thing is, the man didn't understand what they were saying, so he though they were ridiculing him. His face reddened due to anger of being laughed at by a being, no, worse yet, humans who were significantly weaker than him.

The man just did something similar to teleportation in the eyes of the boys, but they knew better than to think that it was actually teleportation. And they were right. It was just the man's speed that made him look like a flash of light and before the boys knew it, he appeared before the boys. He raised his hand, in what looked like slow-motion to the boys, which then transformed into a hairy paw with claws as long as swords. Even his whole hand enlarged.

His hand slowed down as it was raised to the highest point possible before he slowly swung down with his monstrosity of a hand. The boys just watched on as a white flash was slowly creeping up upon their heads.