The Spirit beast loomed in the air directly above Sezel, but there was no shadow because there was no source of light in the godless sky.
'No, no shit.' Sezel's mind raced as panic spread like wildfire, but he was not a weak city rat to lose control over his mind during a life-or-death situation.
Living in the slums had taught him enough about how to be calm and not let panic take over during important situations, and this situation was the worst he had ever faced in his life.
He tried to rotate his body on the ground, but his left leg wouldn't move. He tried to pull it, but the weight was too heavy for his frail body. He glanced down—and cursed. Beardy's bulky frame had crashed down over his leg when they all fell.
'Fuck, get your fat ass up, damn it.' he gritted, and then looked up again in grave horror as the creature moved lower and closer to him.
Time seemed to slow down. Then—just as the beast dropped lower, seconds from impact—the weight lifted. Sezel barely rolled aside, missing death by a breath.
The Spirit beast landed just next to him, its claw-like hands scratching at the dirt like knife through meat. Sezel looked at it with wide eyes, frozen, not even trying to move a muscle or even breathe, but his heart pounded too hard against his ribs. 'I... I am alive.' he rejoiced internally.
By then, all the others from his group had already scrambled back up and built up their distance. Sezel didn't dare look away from the beast. One wrong move might get him killed.
A black slimy substance sprayed out of its maw, its saliva and blood mixed. A look at its fearsome knife-like teeth was enough to make a grown man paralyze in fear.
Sezel slowly regained his senses and, with delicate motions, pushed himself away from the creature while it was busy sniffing the bag full of tools that Sezel had removed beforehand. Hope flared—maybe it would stay distracted.
But the creature's interrogation didn't last long, and neither did Sezel's luck.
The Spirit Beast snapped its gaze toward him, blood-red eyes locking onto his crawling form.
'No. No, no, just sniff the damn bag. Don't look at me.'
Sezel froze as the eyes of the horrifying creature moved over him.
Then the beast scrambled towards him with slow steps, approaching Sezel, but he tried his best not to move. 'Don't move, don't breathe,' his thoughts were chaotic. He tightly closed his eyes. The creature reached him and sniffed, its black blood and saliva mixed liquid dripping over his tattered clothes.
PIERCE!
With a desperate cry, Sezel stabbed the creature's eye with a small wooden branch. The creature cried, stumbling back, its muffled roar echoing through the lifeless forest. Sezel instinctively rose to his feet and ran as fast as he could. He looked at the others who stared at him, paralyzed in shock, and a bitter thought seared his mind:, 'This fucker Arty was just standing here looking at me dying, and he was supposed to save us.'
"Run! Run—toward the forest!" Arty finally shouted, his voice cracking, feet already turning.
'Perfect timing to play hero', Sezel thought bitterly.
Everyone bolted after Arty. Sezel soon caught up—but their path was already doomed.
Arty halted abruptly with a disgusting look on his face. Everyone else skidded behind him, coming to a stop. The leader, losing his composure, immediately snapped, "Why the fuck did you stop?" he yelled, scared out of his wits.
Arty turned, his face pale as bone, his breathing uneven. He looked at the leader and then punched him in the face, sending him to the ground.
"What are you doing?" Beardy and the other giant bellowed, stepping forward.
Rilli looked at them, shocked, her hand placed over her mouth.
The leader pushed himself up, but Arty dropped down over his stomach, his eyes lost. "Stop yelling, you bastard." he choked out. "Just shut the hell up."
Tears streamed down his cheeks as he pointed to the woods and moved his finger in a circular motion. "We are surrounded."
The words hung tight in the surroundings. Everyone stood shocked. Sezel turned instinctively, scanning the tree line—and felt his stomach twist, his heart sank as he noticed ragged breaths of hungry creatures coming from all directions. Arty was an awakened and an experienced Slayer, so it made sense he had noticed it before them.
'We are screwed, aren't we?' That was the only thing that echoed in Sezel's mind, and of course, it was true—they were fucked over multiple times.
The creatures crawled out of the shadowy darkness one by one, each one more gore-looking than the other. Sezel looked around, counting the numbers. 1... 2... 3... and by the time he counted them all up, the chances of survival had gone below 10%.
"9," a whisper escaped his lips, but another thought struck his mind, and he turned backward, looking at the one he had stabbed. "No, ten." There were 10 of those shitty creatures.
Survival was now a fantasy without divine intervention. After all, it was 10 rank 2 spirit beasts vs. 4 useless humans and 2 useless level 1 awakened ones.
Sezel gulped hard because deep down, he knew he was the reason they were in this mess—because he stabbed that thing and it called upon more of its kind to have a hefty dinner night.
'To hell with that, what if I stabbed it. I wanted to live; it's not like these scaredy cats were going to help me.'
Sezel closed his eyes and exhaled deeply, calming himself down. Then he stepped forward, picking up a stone, and threw it at one of the spirit beasts, which looked smaller than all the others.
"Come on, you bastards," he declared, trembling.