Thud!Thud!Thud!
"shit!shit!shit!"
Flame was stupid. So stupid.
Only after entering the Dead Forest and getting chased by the horde Chaotic grade Headless did he realize how big of a fool he was.
What was he just thinking of just blindly running into the Dead Forest?
Dead forest. A semi-Red Zone area in the Rifts. Something, which even the Turbid and Serene didn't dare to enter without a competent group, let alone a mere Descendant.
"Shitttt!"
Flame cursed loudly under his breath and stepped on the broken tree laying horizontally across his way. he quickly applied force on his legs and jumped to the catch nearest tree branch.
A Dead tree to be precise.
The thick branch swayed slightly as Flame's hands struggled to tighten their grip.
Thud!
The blind Awakened monsters were closing distance at him with an astonishing speed. Even when they appeared, Flame was still struggling to hold a proper grip on the tree branch.
Soon, the Crystal Thorns rumbled blindly towards him, sensing the luscious human blood.
However, their Headless body wasn't able to sense any other thing. They didn't sense the horizontal dead tree, stumbling over each other in a chaotic mess
Seizing the opportunity, Flame quickly pulled himself up and sat on the branch.
After climbing few more branches higher, He sighed in relief. Considering the pitiful height of 250 cm of the Headless Chaotic creatures, Flame was sure they won't be able to reach him
"it was good choice to not remove these clothes along with the others back there. otherwise, I would have died of embarrassment running naked before getting holed by these monsters. Not to mention how painful the climbing would have been"
Flame took deep breaths to regain some of its lost strength and thought back.
As soon as Flame entered the dead forest, he had decided to follow Lucy's trail, but unfortunately for him the trails quickly mingled into the forest wastes, disappearing into the Dark shaded grass.
Then, he had no choice but to follow the foot step of Giant spikey monster.
However, the luck didn't seem to be on his side.
Flame was currently in the tight black tracks and the body form-fitting black top. Back then, Flame had no money to buy a proper armour, so he had to adjust with the synthetic shirts and pants—which were much more durable and resistive to the attacks of the mundane Descendant creatures, but sadly, he had to leave them behind as they contained traces of blood.
So, Flame decided to use them as a decoy for his escape into the forest.
He thought that the mindless—Headless creatures will follow the trail of thick trail of his blood and their kin's Descendant.
But, contrary to his expectations, they followed him instead!
Though Lucy's ability helped Flame to heal some of his internal injuries and the superficial bruises, he still carried scent of some blood along with him.
A human's blood at that!
A delicacy for the Crystal Thorns.
"four…five…Eight!? There are Eight Awakened monster!?"
Flame's eyes widened as he counted the number of Headless.
One would be an overkill for him, but Eight? That is just unfair! Not to mention the two Chaotic monsters leading them.
He wasn't sure how he will deal with them, much less follow the giant's footstep and find Lucy's whereabouts, and still there would have been another problem.
How will he bring back him and Lucy alive without getting his body holed??
"No, no..no…." Flame eyes trembled in disbelief as he watched the stumbled horde of awakened monsters regaining their footing.
They stood up, raised their spikes towards him, and froze—shaking their heads like they were searching for something they lost
And they didn't have to wait for long.
Suddenly, they hunched their humanoid bodies and rammed the sharp spikes into the trunk of the dead tree.
The tree shook violently, making Flame's footing unstable.
He grabbed the upper trunk of the tree and climbed higher.
The Awakened monsters continued their assault and eventually the tree started leaning and crisp voice of crunching wood echoed in the dead forest.
Flame was just around the peak of the tree when he started leaning his whole weight on the side of the Headless monsters—and shook his hands violently.
The crunching sound broke and lost, as the trunk of the huge dead tree snapped and the whole structure slammed into the ground, crushing the pitiful creatures under its weight.
Flame just barely managed to jump before the tree touched the ground, rolling down a few times and seeing stars.
If it was any other monster, then what Flame had done could have been a considered suicidal. Afterall, he was in the middle of the monster village and creating such a mess would have been not a good idea, as it would alert all the other family members and they would have besieged him.
'fortunately…these pitiful creatures can't sense anything…'
Flame was about sigh in relief when he stopped in between, and felt a presence arising amidst the cloud of dust and debris.
'Anything but blood…'
He quickly realized that what he had just done…was basically a suicide
Thud!
Before long, the heavy footsteps rang into forest and silhouettes appeared behind the dusted air.
Flame felt his heart froze for a brief moment, but he gritted his teeth and ran with all his might.
Soon, the Headless monsters followed his lead
'Damn it! why are they so hard to kill? Can't they just die easily. I can't run away forever—need to get rid of the scent. But how???'
He cursed in his thoughts and furtively looked around.
Tall, ancient, leafless dead trees stretched endlessly in all direction, along with some unwelcomed silhouettes marching. There were also remains of the different shades of blue Crystals scattered around which only made his task of not bleeding more arduous.
There was nothing but gloomy darkness all around…
"!"
Flame's pupils constricted as suddenly he saw a source of blinding light, tearing between the trees and reflecting on the pond.
'yes! that's it'
Flame thought and jumped in his stride as a pitiful Awakened from the forest rushed past him, landing on the other side.
The silhouettes scattered around the forest were becoming clearer, surrounding him.
if he didn't want to 'donate' his blood to their evolution, he had to hurry up
As he closed the distance between the pond and himself. He saw a crystal clear light of the sun gleaming through it. the water was so clean that he could even see the clean soil of the bottom.
It was like the pond was just inviting others to take a dip into the pure elixir, offering frugal salvation.
Flame didn't deny the invitation and jumped high from the thin solid ground stretched before the mud.
As soon as he jumped, he felt like some of his problems were already solved. All he now needs to do is just let the time pass and quickly find Lucy.
His feet touched the unusually soothing warm water, before completely submerging into it.
A few seconds passed.
And then, a lithe figure of young boy with long silken black hair appeared. He gasped for breath and flailed his legs in somewhat inexperienced manner, before eventually gaining control.
After stabilizing himself, he turned his head towards the bank of the pond.
There, he saw the motionless figure of the pitiful Headless creatures hovering forlornly.
They stared at him silently…before turning away obediently
Flame sighed.
…
After about five minutes, Flame quickly swam back the bank and looked on the ground.
'no thorns. No spikeys. No giants'
He noted in his mind and instantly slumped down.
His body ached from every corner. His every muscle felt like small bombs were exploding in every tissue and tendons.
The grey sky of the Tyrant's Marble city came into his view, along with pale golden rays of sunlight.
Instinctively his hands moved over his shoulder and felt the wet fabric of his skin tight T-shirt.
His hand stayed there for a while.
He felt cold…
And lonely.
'Lucy…'
Flame quickly stood up and decided against drying his clothes which could probably bring some more time and Lucy might be in a bigger danger.
Now that he had cleared the scent of blood from his clothes, he doesn't need to worry about carrying the scent of blood along with him anymore. now, if he just manages to not get himself bleed and find the footsteps of the giant, he will find Lucy.
And then, they both could return home.
Flame took a deep breath and stood up.
He had made so many mistakes till now and there is no room for them in the future if he wants to rescue Lucy. His communication device and his watch has already become useless from being wet. Surely around an hour must have passed, but he has no leeway to think about it.
He cannot do anything about it. even if he decided to run towards the base now, he will never get to the Rift in time. the unwelcomed stay of his on the Marble City will cross the limit and he will face the consequences nevertheless.
Then, why shouldn't he do something which has a chance of success.
Though miniscule, but still a chance.
And a chance is all he wants now.
Flame walked into the Dead Forest filled with countless Headless