4

She ran.

Or at least, she started to.

As soon as she turned around to flee, sounds of not-so-distant shouting could be heard:

"There she is!"

"Don't let her get away!"

Although the source of the voices was blocked from my view, I could tell they were on the beach from the way her head snapped in their direction.

She froze for a moment.

I could practically see the gears turning in her head as I grabbed my spear and quickly rose to my feet as well.

She looked back at me, hesitated for a second, and pointed in my direction.

She screamed, "Humans! Look at my wounds! The human in the forest used the Spell I stole!" I could hear a different accent when she spoke this time, but more importantly…

'Ungrateful bitch!' I gnashed my teeth.

At the same time, she turned and ran off down the beach.

My heart thumped as adrenaline kicked in.

I turned and ran straight into the forest. Whatever the implications were regarding me being able to use Mana, I didn't care to find out. Her words seemed to hold great weight though. When I glanced back over my shoulder - four of the seven men gave up their pursuit of the girl… and came after me.

Ding!

[Quest received. You possess a great secret. Silence the men who discovered it. 0/7 Reward: 500 EXP]

'Oh, I really fucked up.'

I held little faith in my ability to fight four versus one. I had barely any concept of my own strength, not to mention the strength of the men now hot on my tail.

I knew I could outrun them though.

I ran straight into the forest, my speed noticeably greater than during my last escape. If before I could run ten miles an hour, now I could run twelve. Of course, those numbers were just estimates. With my improved speed, I lost sight of the armored pursuers after a couple minutes.

The forest was getting darker though, and I had to slow down to avoid tripping over countless gnarled roots. To make matters worse, although the ground was level near the beach, I could feel the incline now. I was heading uphill.

'This is getting tiring…'

I stopped.

I couldn't hear the clanging of their armor anymore. Judging that I had opened enough distance between us, I looked to my left - what should be south - and started jogging in that direction. Running at an incline would take too much energy and I was already exhausted.

I had barely jogged another minute or two when I came across a hole nestled between two massive trees on my right. Actually, looking closer, rather than a hole it looked more like a cave.

'I'll hide in there for a while.'

The cave opening was short enough I had to crawl inside, though it seemed to open up into a larger tunnel shortly after. After crawling forward for a couple seconds, I was able to stand - though I could no longer see anything but pitch-black darkness ahead. It was actually pretty unnerving. I wondered where I even got the courage to crawl in there in the first place.

I was about to orient myself with my spear facing the dimly lit entrance, when I heard a low-pitched growl. It was terrifying. It sounded like the low rumble of thunder for several seconds before a high pitched clicking noise joined in. A chill suddenly ran down my spine.

I jerked my spearhead in the direction of the threat as I nervously backed away.

'I'm such an idiot!' I cursed my past self for making such stupid, rash decisions.

As I moved closer to the opening of the cave, the silhouette of some untold horror slowly became visible. Although I couldn't yet tell what sort of creature it was, I could tell it was big. Much too big.

'Yea… Nope!'

I turned and ran back towards the cave opening with speed even I didn't know I was capable of. Diving into a military crawl, I scrambled through the mouth of the cave. I could hear the monster roar from within the cave, sending ominous vibrations into the forest floor beneath my belly. As soon as I made it out of the cave, I didn't even look back. I ran.

I hoped for a moment that the entrance of the cave was too small for the creature to fit through, but that hope was instantly squashed. All I could hear behind me was the thundering sound of what seemed like hundreds of footfalls. When the monster left the cave entrance, the thundering growl and ear-piercing clicks echoed out into the forest, released from their confinement.

'Oh. My. God. I'm dead! I'm so fucking dead!'

I never stopped running though.

During the time the monster was taking to announce itself to the forest, I had already ran ten seconds back to the north. I had only one idea on my mind:

The beast might like four meals instead of one, and I was faster than them.

It sounded like a train was thundering in my direction from behind. Using the trees, I tried to zig-zag my way through them to perhaps hinder the monster, but if it was working, I didn't know. The ear-piercing clicks now sounded more like screeches as the monster drew closer.

'It's excited!' I realized, aghast.

A small cluster of flickering lights in the dim light ahead caught my attention.

'Fire! That must be them!'

I ran in the direction of the lights with all my strength, still using the thick, titanic trees to avoid becoming monster food.

My heart pounded in my chest as their voices became audible.

"... fuck is that?"

"Wait, isn't this Arkos Territory?!"

The men caught sight of me, and whatever was behind me.

With wide, terror filled eyes, they reacted instantly.

"Run!"

They all turned and ran.

'Fuck!'

I picked the closest man and ran towards him.

Realizing I was running in his direction, the man shouted back at me, "You fucking idiot! Do you have a deathwish?! Why would you antagonize an Arkos?!?!"

I gritted my teeth and pulled energy from deep within to accelerate as much as my body would allow.

"Shouting at me about death wishes! The irony! Who was it that wanted to kill who?!" I shouted back.

I held no sympathy for these men. Within seconds, I had caught, and overtook the man.

A moment later, I heard a crash, then a sickening crunch. The man screamed in pain and terror for a second before his voice was silenced - eternally.

The monster let out a triumphant screech… and the sound of hundreds of footfalls started thundering in my direction once again.

I had bought myself time though. Time to locate another man from their group. They were easy to spot after all - their torches betrayed their positions.

One after another, I managed to overtake each of the men. They shouted angrily at me the whole time, cursing me in ways I didn't even understand.

Three miserable, gruesome deaths later, I was alone again. I had almost made it to the beach though. The terrain flattened out a while ago and by the light of the forest around me, I knew I was close. The Arkos, as they called it, was still chasing me though. And my adrenaline had almost worn off. The fatigue of constant running was coming crashing down on me.

'Just a bit more!' I yelled internally, trying to push myself through the burning ache in my legs and lungs.

Time crawled despite the blurred image of the forest around me.

I could see the sand now, the dark color of the forest floor giving way to the lighter tones of the beach.

Ten meters.

Five meters.

Finally, I broke free from the shade of the forest and kept sprinting for the water. It was my only hope.

A second after I stepped out of the forest, the monster's hundreds of footfalls slowed and stopped. It roared at me in a cacophony of thunder and screeching.

I stumbled, crashing into the sand.

Snapping my face back towards the forest, I could see the figure of a monster straight out of hell. It was some sort of centipede-like creature, except enormous. It was reared up like a Cobra and screeching at me with a gigantic maw full of nasty, jagged fang-like teeth. They seemed to extend far down into the monster's gullet.

Looking further down the monster's body, I could now see the source of those hundreds of footfalls. Long, spider-like legs lined the countless armor-plated sections of Arkos' body. Loud ghastly clicking sounds could be heard as the monster used the legs near its maw to smack against each other.

'...' I couldn't even think straight as I looked back at the creature in utter terror.

If that had caught me, I was a goner.

I couldn't help but use my shaky arms to push myself further away from the forest. Which now seemed much more demonic and uninviting.

The Arkos continued making threatening sounds at me for what seemed like several minutes as I laid in the sand, trying to catch my breath. After I was sure that it wasn't going to follow me out onto the beach, I closed my eyes and thought back about the events that led me to this point.

'This world sucks.' I concluded.

It was an inevitable conclusion, given that everything had been trying to kill me from the moment I arrived. Well, almost everything… I thought fondly of the Paruven Crustaceans, whose cowardice I now understood and applauded.

My breathing started to even out, and the screeching of the Arkos finally stopped. I opened my eyes to look back at the monster, but it was already gone.

'At least I'm still alive…'

That, and I had managed to use the Arkos to take care of four of the seven men. Thinking of the other three, and that strange looking girl, I gritted my teeth. No, not strange looking. Demonic.

'It's all her fault.'

I blamed all my misfortune on her. From the moment I met her, she had been the catalyst of all my woes. She had struck me, lured unreasonable men to assault me, and even forced me into a situation where I had to run for my life from some ungodly horror.

She may have been the source of my only Spell and even taught me the Vir'il to utilize it, but I didn't care.

Looking to my south, my brain started working. I didn't want to take revenge at first, but this latest event warped my Earthly brain. I needed an outlet for my negative feelings and in that moment, she was the only thing on my mind.

I gripped my spear and got back to my feet. Shifting my gaze to a certain reddish-brown rock a few hundred feet to my south, the corners of my lips raised slightly.

'I'll get my revenge, demon. But first…'

I walked to the shallow water and made my way down the beach.