"Run!"

Without a second's delay he sprinted away with full speed in order to escape the incoming threat, only he couldn't keep up this speed as Ellis was much slower than him and would be left behind

"Sit on my shoulder!"

He ordered and she complied, jumping on him and gripping his neck with her thighs strongly to brace herself for the bullet-like speed while he undid his blindfold

As soon as he was sure she was holding on tightly his figure went static for a second as all his muscles tensed up, then he shot out leaving a boom in his wake, making full use of the inhuman speed that came with one hundred points into agility

The scenery around them flashed constantly, Ellis could easily make out the surroundings due to her brain working at a faster speed but YuJu didn't distribute much into intelligence making him guess his next step using experience since his eyes couldn' keep up

Ten seconds passed and his leg's tendons stretched to a snapping point, clearly his body wasn't ready to make use of his power, while he had a wealth of experience manoeuvring at higher speed it didn't make his body any stronger, putting one of the world's fastest humans at a disadvantage against a mere worm

If that wasn't enough he realized the beast was coming closer instead of him pulling some distance, it made a lot of sense since he knew whoever was leading the swarm was coming at him and it was of a much higher level than his current self, even if he was able to run constantly at his current speed he would still be caught

'How are they tracking us!'

With escape not being an option he sought to find the root of the problem, how was he being tracked

While concentrating on his way his heightened mind also started to think furiously, putting much stress on his brain

'It was the swarm leader's hatchling that gave him the directions, but how, I am sure we were not spotted'

His eyes couldn't help but move around, surveying himself and his followers for any clue while he tried to make out the road at the same time

'Im not leaking any energy, Ellis's aura is withdrawn, Anput is still sleeping we were not spotted, the equipment we took is already stored as was the gem, it doesn't have an actual smell so it clearly didn't stick-'

His eyes suddenly stopped for a moment, settling back on Anput, but this cost him his concentration as he tripped the next second, sliding against the ground as a gash marred his usually unharmed face

"Master!"

Ellis got off to help him but he was already up by the time she was, grabbing her and throwing her on his shoulder before shooting to again

'Damn it, such luck, no such ignorance'

He blamed himself for having another oversight

'How could they not feel the decay that Anput is leaving? A burial gem can keep the decay to a minimum, naturally, they would assume whoever had such an intense decaying energy would probably steal the gem for himself, damn it and I used a burial gem as bait without taking this into notice! When will you learn from your mistakes Yuju!'

He couldn't help but get mad at himself for this, that only lasted for a part of a second though as he cooled his head and started to churn out solutions, if he ever really learned anything it was that emotions only birthed mistakes, one needed to learn how to deal with the situation at hand before they get to reflect

'The only way to get rid of them is to...throw Anput away and lose her energy trace'

He gave the sleeping hound a glance and wiped the thought off his mind

'Ide much rather fight them and lose many of the advantages I would get otherwise than lose her, I have already promised to take her to the apex of this world'

It wasn't that he was a man of his words per se, but he would definitely rather keep a soul slave over some strength augmentations, strong as they may be

'Then I can either fight them or....no that's the only option I guess'

His darting figure started to slow down, each step getting heavier as he sought to slow his momentum until he came to a full stop

Putting Ellis down he handed her Anput and took out the gem from his storage

"Go east and be careful, I'll handle that beast"

"No! I can fight with you, please allow me to assist you"

"They aren't after you, they are after Anput, even if we stop they might attack her while we try to kill them, plus you could do nothing in such a fight, I'd much rather you stay out of my way"

He didn't mince his words even though they definitely crushed her pride, this wasn't the time to care about raising her as much as it was about keeping everyone alive

Their talk took a few seconds but it was enough for the earth to start shaking so hard they felt it might open up the next second a swallow them

"Go!"

Ellis gave him a hesitant look but nodded in the end anyway, knowing how useless she would be in this situation

With no other choice, she turned around and fled while grinding her teeth

'If we get out of here alive I will train harder and no bug would dare chase us again!'

She swore in her mind

Looking at the leaving figure of Ellis with Anput in her arms YuJu took a deep breath, then

'Hm?'

"Wait!"

Ellis heard her master calling out to her and turned around in confusion, only to see him already next to her, looking over her shoulder

"Master?"

"No time to explain, give me Anput and run to the east, I'll catch up in a minute"

Taking the still peacefully sleeping hound off her arms he turned back to the west and started another high-speed sprint, leaving her dubious figure in dust

Though he was stretching his already taut muscles further his face didn't portray a grim expression like a few seconds earlier, instead he looked relaxed and quite relieved

Once he pulled enough distance from Ellis's locations he stopped to take a breath and look at the gem in his hands

There was black mist coming out the yellow coloured gem, the mist was faint and barely noticeable if one didn't pay any attention, only when it merged with Anput's body making the mist around her thicker would it turn slightly more noticeable

'Thankfully I noticed the decay around her getting thicker and traced it back to the gem in my hands else I would have sacrificed so much when a solution was right in my hands'

He felt quite good that he didn't have to put so much on the line, still, it wasn't the best case scenario as he would most defiantly lose this gem

'They are so hard to come buy too'

He laminated but could do nothing about it

After giving a quiet sigh he manipulated the energy in the gem to suck the decay inside instead of supplying Anput with it, he found it very easy as she didn't seem to be pulling it toward her on purpose

"Wu wu! Awuwu.."

Kicking her feet in the air she gave a few whines as if she had her favourite bone taken from her, she somehow tried to pull the energy back in her sleep but couldn't really do much other than slightly slow down the absorption of the decay around her, soon she returned back to her normal looks without that gloomy mist covering her

"Sorry girl, I'll compensate you"

He gave her head a slight rub in apology, that seemed to do the trick as she stopped showing a struggling expression and relaxed

"Haah..."

He gave another sigh as he placed the gem back on the floor, looking at it with as much reluctance as Ellis had given him, such a treasure was hard to acquire in the Infidome, apart from special circumstances like the one on earth one would find it hard to come by this gem as they have all been taken by strong beings

He shook his head slightly to clear away the regret, then headed north with Anput in hand, intending to go around the beast that was getting dangerously close

Not long after he left he heard a blast coming from the back, stopping he looked behind and saw a four thousand meter worm bursting out of the ground and rising into the sky, at least it's upper body was, swallowing the area where the gem was and even the hills nearby, then calling out into the sky victoriously before diving back into the ground making the earth shatter open by its heavyweight coming down

"I shall remember this grievance worm"

He thought grudgingly before turning back to the front and resuming his journey