Sprint

Kai pushed himself as hard as he could as he madly dashed towards the Mother Tree. There was no telling how long Aldred would be able to continue fighting, especially now that there was two full moon abominations instead of one.

As if one wasn't bad enough already.

Kai did not have long left in his fusion with Umbra. Honestly, it felt as if they started fighting hours ago, yet only five minutes had passed since the start of this chaotic war. It was crazy. Normally, wars would take months, even years to finish, but when there was all different types of magical beasts and powers involved...

Kai felt a shiver run up his spine as he dodged an attack from a quarter moon abomination that tried to cut into his side with its tail.

If this was the scope of a battle in a tutorial, then what would wars look like when it was full empires like the Malus Empire or the Nation of Lust that Kai heard so much about?

Even Eye of the Moon, how strong would someone like him be? Kai had no idea how strong the ability to doom a whole world by cursing the moon was in comparison to other gods abilities, but still, Eye of the Moon was strong enough to wipe out a planet without too much trouble.

Well, he would have been able to, if not for one extremely charismatic man that wished to get revenge.

Kai dodged, pirouetted and ducked as gracefully as he could in his Lycan form, which was not actually that gracefully, but it worked.

He had to reach the Mother Tree, he had to know. His mind was burning with curiosity at just how vast the scope of everything happening was.

Kai knew that he would never truly understand, he was just some puny human who happened to have a decent innate ability that allowed for monstrous growth and a bloodline and class that somehow allowed him to meet a god who was now his master.

But he still wanted to know.

Sadly, the path to the Mother Tree was not an easy on.

Scattered in the way was countless beasts, abominations and humans, all fighting with all they could give to preserve their lives for another moment.

Ruin laid in their wake as the entire area surrounding them was impacted by all the brutal clashes that were still ongoing.

Scorched grass, craters in the ground, swirling shadows swallowing things whole, arrows embedded in tree bark from missed shots, blades laying discarded beside fallen corpses.

It was a horrific yet beautiful image, one that perfectly encaptured the essence of war.

Yet Kai paid it no heed as he continued trying to reach the Mother Tree.

Out of nowhere though, Kai was swept off his feet by... nothing.

He skidded along the ground a few feet before coming to a halt. Growling, Kai looked around and failed to see what attacked him.

Kai was then struck in the side by something sharp, but when he looked down to where he got stabbed, there was nothing there except a wound.

It reminded Kai of the tunnel, where that invisible-

Kai sighed and activated Soul Sense. With the fact it was upgraded since the last time he fought one of these bastards, Kai was able to spot the evolved abominations corrupted soul much easier.

A dense black orb with thin red lines surrounding it like veins, just like the last time Kai saw it, the abominations soul was the exact same.

Still as revolting, and still as chilling to gaze at.

Unlike the last time he had to fight the invisible wendigo, Kai did not have the time to spill his own blood to try and cover the abomination in order to be able to kind of see it. It would take too long and Kai was already on about half HP from everything he had went through so far. He still had two health potions saved in the pocket of his tunic though.

But what Kai had done last time was mainly focus on defense. But now...

If he didn't have enough time to be defensive, he would be offensive.

Without warning, Kai lunged forward towards the soul and slashed down with Life Eater, the atrocious looking blade gleaming with newfound power from all the life it had absorbed thus far.

Kai had no idea what the description meant by how the blade grew stronger by absorbing the life of those it fells. Does it get more durable? Sharper?

It's not like the exact statistics mattered, more power was helpful power.

This fight was going to be different from the last time he fought this kind of abomination. For starters, Wa'rak was not here to assist him, Kai had lost track of there the arrogant wolf was.

But Kai was also much, much stronger when compared to that time in the tunnel.

So it was time to see how much he had actually grown.

The soul swiftly dodged to the side, dodging Kai's hideous blade.

But that only put the abomination in the path of Kai's equally as dangerous claws.

The invisible abomination howled as Kai's sharp claws cut into its flesh. Kai could feel it squirm, but he resolved himself as he closed his hand, holding some part of the abomination in his grasp.

The wendigo struggled, but Kai's Strength stat was much higher than when he first fought this type of abomination.

Now, they were on near equal footing.

The abomination squirmed wildly as it tried to escape Kai's grasp, but the Lycan did not let go.

Gritting his fangs, Kai held tight with one hand while he lifted Life Eater with the other. The abhorrent looking blade gleamed with malice as Kai howled and thrust the tip through the abominations invisible flesh and into its soul.

The abomination let out an ear-shattering scream as it landed one solid hit on Kai's side before dying while still in Kai's grasp.

The body of the wendigo slowly started turning visible again as Kai let go and let it limply fall onto the bloody grass below his feet.

Just as Kai was about to turn away and continue trying to make it to the Mother Tree, he felt his hand shiver for no reason.

Looking down, he only saw Life Eater in his hand.

Did... did the blade just shake?

Kai quickly checked his status to see had anything about the weapon had changed, but it's description was still the exact same.

Ignoring that weird moment for now, Kai got ready to dash for the Mother Tree once more, but an idea popped into his head.

The whole time, he had been barely dodging any abominations or humans attacks because of how fast he had been going, he had even been hit a few times.

So what if he predicted the attacks in advance?

Instead of deactivating Soul Sense, Kai kept the rare skill active as he started sprinting.

While beasts and some of the humans made way for his hulking, flaming and terrifying Lycan form, there was still an equal amount of abominations and armoured humans that did not.

But Kai already knew that they would not before they themselves knew.

The souls of everyone around him shone with different vibrant colours, while some were covered in dark colours that threatened to swallow the bright colours whole.

Still, are souls are readable in the end.

Kai sprinted, not stopping for anything that got in his way..

A crescent moon abomination jumped in front of him and tried to grab a leg with its lewd tentacles, Kai cut it in half before it could even wrap around him.

A human wearing the same armour as all the other humans in the Moon Legion shot an arrow with a purple head at him, Kai just moved his head slightly to the left as the arrow whizzed past and embedded itself into the bark of one of the surrounding trees, some type of poison dripping off its head and down the small grooves of the bark.

For the first time since the whole war began, which was not that long ago, Kai did not get hit.

He dodged every attack that was thrust upon with with near perfection. While there was some he dodged by the skin of his teeth, there was others he dodged so easily that he wondered were the attackers even trying to injure him in the first place.

He could predict the movements of those around him by focusing on their soul, but it was not an easy feat to accomplish.

Kai felt himself start to get a headache as he pushed himself even more. Studying the souls of dozens of opponents all at once was killing him. Focusing on all those souls at once, Kai was not used to giving that level of concentration to... anything.

But it was exhilarating, while simultaneously extremely exhausting. Seeing the shocked expressions of those that attacked him that were sure that their attack would land was great. All of them were unaware that Kai knew what they would do possibly before they even knew.

Ducking, weaving, bobbing, dodging, rolling, falling, Kai was untouchable. No attack managed to touch him as he got closer and closer to the Mother Tree. His head was pounding with all the strain on his mind, but he pushed through the pain.

Suddenly, Kai stumbled as he fell to the ground. He panicked as his whole body shrunk back to its normal size. All of his bonus stats left his body as the feeling of pain returned to his system.

Cursing, Kai accepted the fact he was out of Mana and pulled out a health potion from his pocket. Gagging as he quickly drank it, Kai pushed himself off the ground as his health was restored to full.

He felt fatigued, being fully out of Mana just made Kai feel slower. His steps faltered as his head still throbbed, but Kai felt that another attack was aimed at him. An arrow to the back of the head.

Ah... shit.

The momentary loss of concentration when he ran out of Mana meant that he had not sensed the arrow to his back, and Kai was already mid getting up, meaning he was in no way able to dodge. Even if he were to just start falling to the ground, the arrow would still hit him.

Kai had no way to dodge.

But it's not like he needed to dodge.

"Umbra"

A terrifying black wolf emerged from Kai's shadow, its yellow eyes shining with rage at the prospect of someone injuring its master.

"Cover me."

Umbra's jaws clamped down on the arrow just before just before it could hit him, snapping the arrow in half, causing the person who fired it to take a step back in shock. The pitch-black wolf howled before sprinting off to deal with anymore potential threats.

And it's not like Umbra was weak, she had the bonus of having ten percent of Kai's stats. Meaning, of the one hundred and ninety-nine Strength he currently possessed, Umbra gained an extra twenty.

It seemed that the system was nice and decided to round up.

And Umbra also had her own skills to inflict her wrath on all those who opposed her, she was a good girl like that.

So with a tired and battered body, Kai dashed the final part of the way to the Mother Tree in human form, much more vulnerable, but much easier to dodge.

As he reached the base of the gigantic tree, Kai was careful not to touch the horrific purple corrosion that was clinging to its bark as he started banging on the dense outer layer.

"Failure, come out. I know you're in there!"

The Mother Tree did not respond.

Kai frowned.

Another thought popped into his head.

Even though he thought he had everything figured out, there was still one more problem in his problem solving.

The tutorial was still set in the Forest of Ethania, but Ethania had nothing to do with the forest, it was Failure who was its protector.

So why was it still called the Forest of Ethania?

Then there was also the fact that Failure seemed to know way too much about Ethania in the first place, how would he know?

But there was also the whole thing where Failure had described the Mother Tree as the protector of the forest, was there a reason he used protector specifically?

It reminded Kai of the diary he read, how Ethania had her own protector, her knight.

And there was also the whole thing behind Failure's name, how he said he gave it up because of an irreparable mistake he was still trying to atone for.

But what sort of mistake could it have been?

Failing to guard the one who you had sworn your protection to perhaps?

But that would make...

Kai glanced up at the Mother Tree once more, its impenetrable bark almost looked as if it was trying to protect something.

Kai lifted his hand away from the bark of the tree before speaking once more.

"Come out, Failure, or should I say Sir Constance?"