World Online

Jake couldn\'t get rid of the feeling that there was someone, or rather, something behind him, watching him.

But he didn\'t want to be the person calling wolf. Eventually, the beast would attack, and he would just have to prepare for that.

An hour passed, and Jake glanced at the map. They were one hour away before they could leave this place and finally enter safe haven.

Looking around, everyone in this party was sweating, and everyone panting. They were exhausted, forced to run so fast and for so long.

Ganshin raised his hand, bringing the troupe to a halt.

"We covered more ground in this one hour than we ever did before. I know that everyone is exhausted, and you want to have some rest." Ganshin said.

"And you also know that we cannot afford to do that. That is why, I must ask you to keep going. Push yourself to the limits, and pick up the pace even more. We will be able to get to the Loviel Empire in just an hour if we can keep up this pace." He declared.

"What is he doing? Until now, every decision that has been made in this party was level headed. But now, its like they are all possessed. Why would he allow us to just lose all of our stamina on purpose?" Jake thought to himself.

He looked back again.

As they were not on a fixed path and were going through the trees, he couldn\'t recognize where the hell they were.

The trees that loomed behind him weren\'t comforting either, and whenever he looked up in the thick covering, all he could see were shadows that didn\'t reveal their contents.

"A beast that made a sound that big should be humongous. Let us hope that I am just thinking too much." Jake told himself.

Already, the party decided that this was enough rest. So Jake begrudgingly took a deep breath as he started jogging once more.

All of them were jogging, not just him. But he was perhaps the most exhausted of them all. He was sweating so much that he even debated taking off his armor and putting it in his inventory.

But eventually, he decided against that, for it would leave him completely defenseless. Already, he was so weak that a single attack from a beast around would send him above.

If he didn\'t have the armor, then he would enter a loop of death and revival. It was better if he kept it on, and used the armor\'s skill the moment a strong beast was upon him.

The sky above was slowly darkening, and that was also of concern. The darker the night got, the stronger evil beasts got.

And if the sun went down completely, even if they did go to Loviel, the evil beast that was hunting them could potentially follow them inside.

Just thinking about the possibility made Jake shiver.

Rustle.

Jake heard the sound of the leaves move for the first time. He looked back, frowning, as his eyes landed on the spot where the leaves moved.

The wind until now didn\'t seem to affect the trees, so it had to be something else.

On the ground, next to one of the bushes, he could see a few dozen leaves scattered on the floor.

The leaves were clustered at the bottom of the bush, but they slowly extended toward a direction parallel to Jake\'s own.

It was to Jake\'s right.

"Is it finally coming out? That thing?" Jake looked to the right, scanning the bushes and trees, trying to find the beast before it decided to attack him.

But no matter how hard he squinted his eyes, he couldn\'t find the beast anywhere. It was certainly a master of stealth.

"Damn it. If I call out the party once more, and the beast doesn\'t show up again, I am going to be the one who called wolf. This situation is kind of irritating." Jake grit his teeth.

In the corner of his eyes, he could see a shadow once more. A shadow that was traveling through the trees.

This shadow was defined a little clearer now.

Jake could see it, just like that beast could see Jake.

The shadow was pitch black, with purple flares for eyes.

These flares ere locked on directly to Jake, and it understood the fact that Jake was staring straight at it. After all, it was staring back.

Then, Jake could see a mouth. A mouth that opened wide with two rows of teeth grinning wide open.

A taunt that was clearly aimed at Jake.

The fact that he could see the monster, but couldn\'t report it.

Jake clenched his fists as he kept jogging.

Even though he was moving quite fast, the shadow was keeping up without any problem at all.

Jake couldn\'t even see its legs. It was like it was flying, but then again, it didn\'t have wings.

"Should I call it out? But a beast so powerful, it has to be much faster than me. I won\'t be able to follow where it will run off to next. And god, I am so sure it is going to run the moment I call it out." Jake told himself.

His sword appeared in his hands.

Even if he couldn\'t call the beast out, he sure as hell wasn\'t going to stay weaponless.

Jake tried to lock onto the shadow to get a reading, and maybe get its stats out. But it gave him nothing.

He couldn\'t lock on to the shadow itself.

"I need it to be still. How do I get it to stop?" Jake wondered as his eyes slightly darted, looking straight for a brief second.

Every single party member was inconveniently looking at another side.

"Screw it. I guess I have no ch-"

Just as he was about to give up, he felt a sharp wind pass by his ears.

Aargh!

A shrill scream of pain suddenly came from the direction of none other than the beast that Jake was looking at.

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