A hard battle

Time always flows. It's never still. It's always moving forward. Like a river, it carries us along with it.

***

The boss heard a noise coming from behind a tree. He didn't pay attention at first, but it was until he sensed a presence behind this very tree.

*growl*

The boss growled as he slowly walked toward the tree.

'No no no, why is he coming here?' Haste thought as fear slowly began to spread all over his body.

A boss wasn't something that a level 2 like him could kill. The former was a lot stronger than a normal monster, and not to add that they were higher level too.

So Haste couldn't hope, even in his wildest dream to win against such a monster at his level.

He wanted to run away, but fear took over him. So in the end, he couldn't even move.

The dog slowly but surely come to see the tree, but after seeing nothing, he went back to his business.

Haste got extremely relieved when he saw that.

Since the tree he was hiding behind was quite thick, he managed to slowly go to the side when the dog was in the tree's blind spot.

So when he saw that the dog went back to eating what looked like flesh, Haste ran as far as he could so that he could escape from this situation.

The blood and flesh of the thing he was eating were disgusting to him. So much that he was about to puke.

However, as he began to run, Haste walked on a twig, cracking it.

He stopped in his track the moment he broke it. 'Please tell me the boss didn't hear it,' He thought from the bottom of his heart. He then turned his head, only to see the boss running toward him.

"No, please leave me alone," He shouted and ran too.

The boss was a lot faster than the dog he fought earlier, so he had to run even faster than earlier.

He tried to activate his Time manipulation, but he was scared to fall because he couldn't control the speed. There was also a chance to hug another tree, so he didn't use it.

However, the boss was catching up with him.

So in the end, he had to use his Time manipulation.

After crossing another tree, he turned left and used his Time manipulation.

The boss was surprised to see such movement and this sudden increase in speed. And because of that, he couldn't catch up with Haste anymore.

And seeing that, Haste's confidence rose.

'Would I be able to fight him with this speed?' He thought. However, this little distraction made him trip on a big root.

He rolled on the ground a little. And when he lifted his head to see where the boss was, he saw him just a few meters away from him.

'No, why did I trip?' He thought as he strengthened his resolve to fight. There wasn't any point in trying to escape since this boss seemed to want to kill him no matter what.

So instead of turning back, he drew his sword and rushed toward the boss.

The latter rose his paw and swung it, but Haste managed to duck down right in time and went behind him.

He didn't forget to slash his back leg in the process. Albeit, the only thing he managed to do was to create a little wound.

'I don't have enough strength to kill him like this,' He thought as he began to run away again. He needed to formulate a plan or he will surely die.

His stamina wasn't playing in his favor either because he began to slow down, even though his time manipulation was still activated.

And after running relentlessly for two minutes, he saw a giant tree a little further away.

'Right, I can use that,' He thought as he headed there.

The boss managed to catch up, and there was only a little distance between them.

However, this little distance was enough for Haste to put his plan into action.

He rushed right into the tree while slowing down a little so that the dog could catch him.

The distance between them was even less now.

And just before he bumped into the tree, he turned right, dodging it.

The boss wasn't as lucky as him since because of his speed, he couldn't move left or right.

And because of that, he bumped into the tree.

*Bam*

A loud noise resounded in the area, attracting people and monsters.

'I need to act fast,' Haste thought as he headed back to the boss.

The latter had passed out and was on the ground.

So it was Haste's best chance to try and kill him.

Since he didn't think that his blade could cut him, he tried to search for a soft spot.

And the best area he found was the eyes.

So he used his other skill, sword slash, and his sword began to be enveloped by blue color. He then pierced the boss's right eye as strongly as possible.

*Cruish*

He pierced the eye so strongly that only the pommel of the sword didn't enter the boss' eye.

And that means that the entire blade was in the head, thus piercing the brain in the process too.

[You killed a level 23 giant black dog]

[+ 5,000 EXP]

[+ 1 level]

[+ 1 level]

[+ 1 level]

[...] [...]

Haste fell on his butt, exhausted by what had happened. All the adrenaline had dyed down, exhausting him even more.

However, even with all this exhaustion, Haste had the biggest smile he ever had on his face.

He managed to level up 11 times in total with this single kill. So he couldn't be happier than that.

He wanted to check his status, but after hearing noises around him, he decided against it.

He didn't want to draw the attention of anyone. Be it monsters or people.

Haste was well known since he was the son of such a prestigious family. However, he wasn't known in a good way. So he immediately touched the boss' head, picked up all the loot and his blade, and ran as fast as he could out of the forest.

If there wasn't anything in the area, nobody would know he was there in the first place.

And since he took all the loot, he was very happy too.

This end of the day was the best he had experienced since his birth.

He checked multiple times if someone was following him, but there was no one. So he safely came back to the teleportation gate.

He then crossed it.

Once he came to the city he lived in, he was so relieved that he almost fell once again.

However, even though nighttime came, there were still a lot of people outside, so he couldn't block the way to the teleportation gate.

So in the end, he reluctantly goes back to his mansion.

"If only I could live on my own," Haste murmured to himself, looking at the night sky which was filled with stars.

He dreamed to discover the world and be stronger during this journey. But unfortunately, he couldn't since he was too weak.

His family didn't let him either since he could bring dishonor to the family if he did something bad.

So he was stuck in this mansion.

Sure he didn't need anything.

But living in such a family wasn't tolerable.

However, now that he got a new power, it was only a question of time before he could get away from this life and this family that chained him down.