Chapter 10 - Surviving In The Forest

Though Hora already cleaned the path ahead, monsters were still coming from every corner. 

Drake couldn't ignore his pain for any longer. His steps were starting to get weak. 

The voice of monster around made his head hurt so bad. He didn't have energy anymore. 

This was the feeling if you want to die. That time, Drake really hoped he could come out from the forest at least. 

Those monsters, because of something, couldn't surpass outside of the forest area. 

As his mana got dimmed for every second, those evil creatures keep appearing on his sight. 

There was one of them around, which easily jumped between Drake and his dragon.

"Drake!" Hora called him from above. 

The monster saw Drake with hunger. It was so huge with the form of a wolf. When its saliva dripped out of his mouth, it burned the grass on the soil below. 

Unfortunately, the gap between Drake an Hora was filled by other monster not more than a seconds after. 

Hora that flew from above, started to panic over Drake. 

What could he do if he was surrounded by the hungry beast? 

Standing in the middle of them, Drake chose to throw his last bottle. This is the last one. After this, he didn't know how to save himself. 

As the monster started to get weak, they then fell into a sleep right at the moment. 

Fleeing from those sleeping beast, Drake ran as fast as he could.

He never thought a real animal was living inside the cave. How a single miss calculation could endanger his life, there's still a lot to learn for him.

"!!" Just when the village at the end of the road was seen, a large strong creature blocked his way. 

A black panther with sharp eyes, ready to jump on him. Sensing how clean this panther was, it surely not a monster.

But Drake knew his limit. With throbbing pain on his shoulder, his limited energy won't be able to defeat that panther. 

Showing its fangs out, that panther growled with frightening expression.

"Seriously!" When Drake looked at his back again, the monsters started to reappear one by one. He couldn't possibly go back inside. His only choice right now was facing this starving animal with limited mana. 

"Hora, cover me from behind. Do not let those monsters touch me!"

Hora flew toward his back, "I'm going to do my best!" he then, with his inner voice, talking with the bunny. 

"I know who you are bunny. If you didn't want me to kill you, you better help!"

The bunny, who was still being carried by Hora, replied to him in the same way using its inner voice "If I do that, then you have to bring me out of this forest."

"You know you couldn't. There's a string with heaven energy surrounding this place. Though you are a powerful monster, you couldn't possibly pass that." Hora said while blasting his fire towards the other monster in front of him. 

"I know the way, if you promised to help then i will keep the other monsters away."

Incertitude expression was shown by Hora. He couldn't possibly let the monster out and bring harm to humans. But he also needed him to help Drake.

"I know what you think, dragon. Listen, you are going to let me enter your dimension. And there, you can create anything to prevent me from doing something bad."

That way didn't seem too bad. After all, Hora could manipulate anything inside his dimension. If he wanted, he could trap this bunny forever in there. 

"Alright! Let you do the work first." He then threw the bunny from his hold. 

As the bunny landed, he started to lead his focus on his energy, boosting the mana. 

The other monsters who sense the energy became more hesitate. They took a step back, and after minutes, they just darted away from there. 

What this bunny did was a success. But with the big energy like that, his little form couldn't endure that power. 

With pain over his body, the bunny monster let out a heavy breath before falling onto the ground. 

After making sure no more monsters left were around, Hora got close to the bunny. And as his promise before, he then took that little creature away to his dimension.

Back to Drake, he still facing the black panther. 

When the panther ran towards him, Drake then chose to dodge several attacks with his remaining energy. But his stamina was running out so fast.

In this state, his power couldn't match the panther before him. The dripping blood and swollen eyes. The blur started coming into his sight.

At the same time when the panther jumped towards him. The darkness came into Drake. He lost consciousness.

Drake didn't know, when the panther was about to maul his body, a pierce sound of whistle was heard nearby followed by a man voice. "Puca! Let go of him!"

That panther stopped as soon as the whistle was out. He then walked back toward the resource of that sound.

A boy with a black hair jumped from the tree. As he walked, a sign symbol of Samoa was tattooed on his arms. 

"Ash, check that person. Is he alive?" Said a young woman above the tree.

Checking Drake's breath, the boy was so sure this guy was still alive.

"Delaney, is this guy really the boy that master told us about?"

The girl jumped down looking closer at Drake. "Yes. I'm sure. It's just like what the master describes."

"Then what to do, they told us to just follow and report, right?"

Looking at how much blood came out from Drake's body, the girl said to her team partner. "Ash, he's bleeding so much. At this rate, he will lose his life before monsters can appear, killing him."

Actually Ash didn't want to bring this boy along. He didn't want any more trouble for his master and his team. But considering how this boy could miserably die at the moment, he finally agreed, "Then we better hurry and bring that boy back."

_____

The cold and chilled wind touched his skin. Drake thought this must be somewhere in hell, because He felt his body floating in the air. 

When he opened his eyes, he only met an endless darkness surrounding him. Nobody was around and only him. It was lonely yet strangely, he felt so peaceful.

Drake enjoyed that peaceful moment. But not long after, the scene was back to the forest. 

But this time, the atmosphere was different. As the dense tree covered the sky, Drake couldn't see the sunlight that came through the gap between them. The light that came was only a dark red light from the ground. 

With thick fog covering around, Drake wasn't sure if this is the forest he had entered. But he remembered seeing the tree that had been burned by the monster he met before. 

Right, why he couldn't sense any presence of monsters in here. 

As he took a step further to the darkness, Drake finally heard a scream. He thought at first that the scream was a monster voice. But the longer he heard, it's a scream from a human. 

Not long after, another scream and cry were heard from every corner. It was so terrifying that his heart was beating so hard.

Then he saw, a bag like cocoons were hanging on each tree, and those crying sounds were coming from them. As Drake got closer, a human hand came out from the cocoon and grabbed his collar. 

Surprised by what happened, Drake jolted from his position. But right now, he was sitting on the bed. 

Was that a dream?

His heart was still beating so hard. Then he checked his body, and his shoulders were already getting bandaged. 

Slowly calming his heart, he then realized the sight of an unfamiliar room, and the back of an old man was clearly seen by Drake.

He rasped, "Urggh…." 

That old man slowly turned his body, showing his face. "You wake up young boy?"

With a dry voice, he asked, "Who are you? And where am i?"

Handling a glass of water, that old man explained everything, "I'm Logy, Ash and Delaney found you in the west forest. Seriously, what did you do there?"

Drinking the water, Drake never thought his life was once again saved by some random person. 

Drake looked at the old man. Not expected, he found a symbol of Samoa on his arms. "Thats.."

"Oh! You mean this?" That old man proudly showed the symbol of Samoa to Drake. 

"Are you a member of the Samoa gang?"

"Well right, I am." Logy said, "I don't know why our leader decided to take interest with you, but you are safe thanks to him."

Thinking deeply, he then decided to do something. Right now, he was so weak that if anything happened like before, he might not be lucky enough to survive. 

When he took the time to master the chanter power, it won't be so bad to have protection. After all, the dragon's tears was already in his hand.

"I want to make a deal," Said Drake to the man before him.