'Bring it on!' Zephyr snarled, hunching his back slightly to brace for the incoming beast.
'What could it be? A Quillclawed? A Grimfang? No, they're not as fast as this.' His mind was already moving at hyper speeds, his memory enhancement coming in clutch as he shuffled through every bit of knowledge he could remember from the magic theory classes about the various beasts in this rift—their size, habits, traits.
SKREAAA!!!
The creature crashed into the small clearing with speed, shattering a few trees along the way. Only then was its momentum halted.
Zephyr caught a glimpse of it as it skidded past him before crashing some ways away, and his body instantly went cold, all previous bravado totally gone.
That was an Alpha Skarnid. Equivalent to a four-node awakened at tier three. It was on a whole different level compared to him.
The beast's gaze shifted away from somewhere in the darkness before locking directly onto Zephyr.
He had reacted immediately he identified his foe, fleeing into the forest madly, putting all his effort into widening the gap between him and the Skarnid.
A flicker of something crossed the Alpha Skarnid's eyes before it stood up slowly, its differentiating black carapace blending into the backdrop of the forest. Unlike regular Skarnids, a single look at this creature and you'd know it was built to kill. It towered at nearly seven feet, with long bladed arms that hung nearly to the ground. There was a constant pulse of magical energy around its body, the hardening spell seemingly active on every single part of its body. It was in a whole other league.
The Alpha Skarnid kept its gaze on Zephyr all the way, its gaze cutting deep into the darkness clearly. It tilted its head in curious contemplation as it watched him eat up ground like a beast before flashing forward.
'Run! Run Zephyr! Just keep fucking running!' Zephyr hastened himself, pushing the limits of his body. 'To hell with that bloody examiner! Is this even allowed?!' he cursed.
He had to get as far as he could away from that... Predator. Nothing else mattered.
'And to think they're giving only twenty-five points for an Alpha Skarnid kill!' Zephyr had just finished the thought when he felt all alarms go off. He feinted to the right and took a sharp left turn, dashing between the narrow space between some trees as the Alpha Skarnid whizzed behind him, falling for the feint and crashing into trees again. Their groans echoed through the forest as they fell in succession.
"What the fuck?!!" Zephyr yelled in horror, a sense of despair pervading him. "It caught up with me?!" The impact of that reality destabilized his psyche.
Subconsciously, he had begun to trust in his newfound abilities— most especially his speed— believing himself near untouchable to most creatures in this rift. If it came to the worst, he could just run... But it seemed there were other things faster.
The Alpha Skarnid reoriented itself, now genuinely intrigued by Zephyr. It let out a cry that even someone like Zephyr could interpret. It was a cry of excitement... the excitement of a predator enjoying its hunt.
WHOOSH
'Again!' Zephyr ducked, and immediately a spear spell shattered the tree right in front of him. The wood shrapnel nicked him on the face as he evaded.
The beast crashed into the same tree before bounding down Zephyr's direction again.
'It can't change directions quickly.' Zephyr noticed the pattern instantly with the help of Aegis, a countermeasure already coming to mind. He changed direction again just as the Alpha Skarnid swiped at him, sending it crashing into another tree.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Zephyr kept at it, changing directions haphazardly and unpredictably. The gap between him and the Alpha wasn't getting closer, but neither was it getting any further. He was literally dancing at the edge of death each time it swiped or slung a spell at him.
The beast's cries grew increasingly frantic as it failed to catch Zephyr each time.
Zephyr's mind was taxed. The focus required to keep evading a raging beast stronger and faster than he was each time was astronomical. He had to get the timing right, down to the last second, all based on the sounds he was hearing alone. He couldn't look back, and he had to trust he was making the right decision.
If it was just that, even if strained, he could still cope because of his improved acuity stat, but right now he was splitting his attention to run the Mana Barrier spell— a spell that required some level of concentration, especially for a one-node awakened.
He gritted his teeth as he zigzagged through the forest, feeling his hold on the spell slowly slipping, eventually resorting to short bursts of attention switching to keep his hold on it. He wanted to curse at the examiner who was surely watching from somewhere, but there wasn't even room for that.
Unfortunately, in a moment of lost focus, Zephyr miscalculated the timing.
"ARRGGHH!!" He screamed in agony, tumbling forward from the force of the slash. The Alpha Skarnid screeched in ecstasy as it knocked another tree over, skidding to a stop.
Zephyr recovered quickly, stabilizing himself, but it was too late. The Alpha was faster to accelerate, catching up to him quickly.
With a wild snarl, it smacked him to the side with enough force to kill a lesser Skarnid instantly.
Zephyr folded like soft bread, nearly snapping the tree into two. He spurted out blood in gasps, reeling from the impact. Aegis immediately dulled his pain receptors, allowing him some modicum of relief.
His body was bent in an unnatural position. His lower side was embedded in the trunk of the tree while his upper body dangled on the ground limply, the blood spurting out his mouth nearly choking him. He could see his hip very clearly from where he was. He knew he wasn't that flexible, which meant he had likely broken his spine.
The Alpha Skarnid let out a victorious screech to the skies, the echoes rippling through the darkness of the forest, chilling any who heard it.
Zephyr watched with blood trickling down his head as the Alpha calmed and walked slowly toward him with deliberate steps.
He was numb. The Mana Barrier spell had dissipated a while ago, and the chill he felt earlier in the day was already encroaching on his mana core, but he couldn't put up a single bit of resistance. At this point, he had already given up, leaving whatever happened up to fate.
He could hear Aegis sending streams of analysis directly to his mind— calculations of his chances of turning the situation around... it looked bleak.
He tuned Aegis out, staring the Alpha straight in the eye blankly, his thoughts drifting to the examiner and the fact that his bracelet never lit up a protective barrier.
He'd sustained damages that would kill any recruit thrice over, and yet there was nothing.
The Alpha stood directly over Zephyr, and he had to move his eye to the extreme to look at it.
"Y O OU— P U - N - Y!" It spoke.
"Y O U— W E - E - AK!"
"T H O U - GHT— STR O NG"
"B UT — Y O U- W E -A K"
'Sigh... It talks... The fucker talks...' Zephyr was amused. He would've laughed out loud if he could. He suddenly found a talking ant funny for no reason. The absurdity of it all.
He made to force out a chuckle to spite the creature when Aegis sounded an alarm despite Zephyr tuning the AI out.
'Host's Mana core has been invad—!'
Zephyr felt it before Aegis finished the thought. A soul-biting pain. Despite numbing his pain receptors, he still felt this pain.
It wasn't a physical pain. It was a pain emanating from the depths of his very soul. His core was screaming to him.
This thing was trying to devour him. To seize his access to mana... to sever his link to this world? No... not this one. His connection to the real world... to... Origin?
Zephyr blacked out.