Melas castle was located at a highland between several mountain ranges, which act as a natural defense line for the East of Demon Realm. Due to this, the castle was built with two stone bridges on the East and West sides. The East side leads to the most of Realm’s territories. The West side leads to the dead lands ravaged by wars of the past and present. Even now, the regular army stands strong to protect the Demon Realm on that Western frontier. But that is the story of another time.

Right now, I’m walking on the East bridge alongside with Deborah. Our destination is just right ahead this bridge. There are several people in front of us, and their familiars as well, but they all make haste to get to their position as fast as they can. I think we should do the same, since victory comes to those who take the initiative. Yes, we have to consider going faster.

But then again, the both of us suddenly stop walking. Or rather, the one who does it first is Deborah, I just do the same because I’m still in awe of what she’s doing right now.

“What…are you doing?”

Deborah holds out her hands to the air in front of her and starts…waving. No, not the “Goodbye” kind of waving. She just waves around like some teenager girl on a dance floor, dancing a terrible traditional dance. Or not, on a second thought, it looks more like she’s trying to mimic a French mime, like she is trapped inside an invisible box or something. This is so out of character for her.

“Phew…It’s safe this time. That woman did remember.”

Deborah lets out a sigh of relief. Her mime act also ends along with that, just when it starts to get amusing.

“So what’s the deal with that?”

In a second flat, Deborah’s expression turns from a comedic mime to her daily “Someone killed my puppy” grumpy face. With a bored tone, Deborah answers.

“To check whether the castle’s protective barrier is active or not.”

“Protective barrier?”

I ask.

“You’re an alchemist yet you don’t know what a protective barrier is?”

“Well duh, obviously I know about the stuff that protect things inside of it. But I’ve never heard about this castle having a protective barrier before.”

“Just what did those people in the Alchemy Arts teach you ?”

Deborah sighs again. She continues walking to stop wasting time, but not without going into explanation mode. I follow behind the girl as I listen to another lecture about barriers.

“This barrier was made to defend against powerful high-tier spells, the kind that can wipe a castle off the map in one sitting. It can also prevent powerful beings with high amount of soul energy to enter or leave the castle as well.”

So if you’re a badass in using magic, you’ll have trouble going through a barrier like this?

“What happened the last time you got near this barrier?”

Deborah suddenly frowns. However, it doesn’t seems like she won’t answer my question, though it takes her a moment before she finally has the courage.

“I rammed my face into the air like an idiot...”

Well, I can imagine the rest using the little info she gave me. With that I mind, I let myself burst out a full laughter.

“Ahahahaha!!!”

“Don’t laugh!”

As expected, Deborah says out the two most cliché words in this kind of situation. To save my strength for the battle and myself from her wrath, I tone down my laugh, but still keep a smirk on my face.

Though, she said the barrier was used to prevent entrance from those with high amount of soul energy, and Deborah was made a fool because of it. So her reputation as a fearsome and powerful mage does has some basis, if what she said is the truth.

“The good news is apparently they turned it off for a while to let you go out, I guess?”

“Seems like it.”

Deborah nods in agreement with my answer. Her expressions stiffen for some reason.

“I guess the Headmaster can make an exception once in a while, since I rarely have any business outside of the castle. Turning on and off a barrier of this scale is a real hassle, you know? I believe you have some knowledge about a barrier’s core?”

“A little.”

From what I learned, protective barriers have two types: Small scale and Large scale. The small scale would just require a magic circle and soul energy in the atmosphere to be able to operate. However, for a barrier of this scale to envelop a huge castle like this, a mere magic circle won’t cut it. It’ll require a more complex mechanic, a catalyst of sort. That is the creation of a barrier’s core. Just think of it like a command center used to manage the barrier. To turn on and off a barrier like this, you’ll need to access the barrier’s core and make those changes yourself. I’m not a specialist in this type of magic, so I have no idea what a core looks like.

“Do you know where the core is?”

“That is something we better off not knowing.”

Deborah answers with a stern voice.

“Hmm. Why is that?”

“Please use your brain once in a while.”

Following her advice, I turn my brain on to use its analyze function. Hmm…Deborah said this barrier was used to prevent spells that can wipe out a castle, and prevent beings with high amount of soul energy to enter. So I guess it would be natural to hide the location the core since if the enemy know about it, they will try to find a way to disable the core and blast the castle off the map. Got it!

“Got it!”

Deborah throws me a look of disbelief. However, I don’t care about that, since my focus is currently on the forest in front of us. A chatter really does wonders, we have already crossed the long stone bridge without knowing, thanks to a simple chat.

“So this is our battleground.”

When we both get off the bridge, I take several steps ahead to look at the forest’s entrance, while Deborah stays behind, looking deep in thought.

“Erkunia Forest. At the end of the forest is the seventh Asmodi’s territory. A forest filled with monsters, and they’re not the peaceful types you met at Darkwood.”

“But that isn’t what we should be worry about, right?”

Deborah doesn’t reply. Seems like her mood for a chat is over. I guess I should also prepare to get serious.

I begin to give myself a quick equipment check. Underneath my shock-resistant battle cloak are six pipe bombs, three glass syringes and a RG Bomb. On my belt is several 9mm caliber, fifteen round magazines and of course, my trusty gun. I don’t think I will have much use for the gun in a fight like this, though. My hunch tells me this fight isn’t gonna be as easy as the last fight I got. But well, there’s no turning back now. The only thing I can do right now is keep moving forward.

“Are you ready, Deborah?”

Suddenly, the girl slowly walks toward me and…pats me on the back. A pat with the force that could match the punch of a grown man.

“What the hell are you doing!? That hurts!”

“Moral encouragement.”

Deborah answers with a nonchalant attitude.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you were trying to kill me instead!”

Seriously, I have a feeling all of my internal organs just turned upside down from her pat. Well, that may be a little exaggerated, but I do feel weird after her pat. It’s like her pat really did pump up my spirit like she said.

“Can’t take a little pat on the back? Are you really a man?”

Deborah smirks and walks toward the forest’s entrance. What’s her problem, anyway? Is she trying to make a joke? If so, then I’m not laughing!

“I studied the way around here yesterday, so I’ll take the lead. Follow me, and don’t get yourself lost.”

Without a look back to the guy standing behind her, Deborah takes her steps and enters the forest’s entrance. I guess there’s no other choice but to let her lead the way. Ladies first, like how people always said.

Still, what did she eat everyday to get a brute strength like that? Is it because of that mystery dish served in the academy’s cafeteria? And for some reason, I suddenly have a hunch that I’m forgetting something. Can’t remember what, though. But, if I forgot about it, then it’s probably not that important.

I don’t have any more time to stand here doubting, though, or else I’ll really get lost if I don’t follow Deborah’s trail. I quickly move my feet and enter the forest as well.

…

The path through the forest is dark, even though the sun is at its highest at the moment. Dead trees are everywhere, and the ground was covered with dark leaves, not too different from the Darkwood. However, the atmosphere around is heavy and eerie, even more than the wood I’m familiar with. It’s like a ghost forest, the kind that people go in to commit suicide, like the old Aokigahara forest back in my world. If this forest exists in my old world, it certainly will become a hotspot for aspiring horror movie makers. But then again, if people flock in here just because of its horrific atmosphere, then it wouldn’t be an eerie forest anymore.

Back to the topic at hand, I’m still following behind Deborah. The path she chose is rather rough. It’s out of the main path, but she said that the competition will be held at the Northern part of the forest, so of course, I don’t have any saying in this situation when I know next to nothing about this area.

Rocks and rocks are everywhere. Climbing through them is a chore indeed. However, despite wearing a long dress, Deborah goes through all of the obstacles on the way with ease, and barely breaks a sweat on top of that. I never know she’s the physical type. Maybe her tall figure helps? Come to think of it, even though the light is scarce, following behind Deborah does has its…perks, considering her…back assets, even if her cloak and her long skirt do their best to keep them hidden.

“What are you standing there for?”

“Nothing! It’s not like I’m looking at something in particular!”

As I answer her sudden question, Deborah throws me another look of disbelief. She just sighs without pursuing the question and continues on her way.

“We have to hurry. We need to gain a foothold before the competition starts.”

So it hasn’t started yet? If so, then what is the reason for the absence of all the other participants? Or is it like Deborah said, they have already chose a good position to gain foothold before the fight?

“Stop standing there and move your feet!”

Deborah’s shout from afar brings me back to reality from the depth of my thought. Damn, this bad habit of mine is really annoying. I don’t remember spending time at cloud cuckoo land to gain this kind of habit.

“Geez…seriously. To think that woman’s words are true…”

As I approach the girl who is waiting for me, I can hear Deborah mumbling something to herself.

“Is there a problem?”

I ask.

“Nothing. Just keep going. The competition will start soon.”

Deborah once agains take the lead. Our following moments are as uneventful as ever. Finally, we get pass a rough and rocky area and find a flat land that is easy to stand on. I take a short rest on a nearby rock and wipe out the sweat on my face with my sleeve. Despite taking on the same obstacles as me, Deborah still looks as vigorous as ever, to the point she doesn’t need a rest and just stands there looking around.

“So, when will it start?”

“Shhhh.”

Deborah gives me a sign of silent. The girl suddenly closes her eyes for five seconds. When that time ends, Deborah opens her eyes and lets out a voice.

“It’s here.”

The moment Deborah finishes talking is also the same moment a small shooting star flies past us with speed bordering on the speed of sound. Suddenly, it flies back to us and just hovering on the sky. That shooting star’s true form is a small ball of light, radiating something that looks like pixie dust as it keeps hovering on the sky. It reminds me of a certain annoying fairy in a game about a boy named Zelda or something.

“Attention, all participants!”

It sounds like a voice just comes out from that ball of light, but it’s not. The voice I suddenly hear actually comes from my head. No, seriously, it did come from my head, but I’m ceratinly not THAT crazy, so don’t make any assumptions. It’s more like that ball of light is acting as some sort of conductor, a microphone of sort so the announcement can reach the participants.

“I will now hereby announce the rules of the competition. In this year’s competition, your main goal will be acquiring the balls of light in this forest with your familiar. They are the same one that is in front of you. There are no runners-up, only one winner. The time duration is one hour, at the end of that time, the familiar that acquired the most balls of light will be declared winner.”

So it’s like a game of tag but with balls of light? Nevermind about that. I have something else to take care of.

Slowly, I walk to the highest rock nearby and climb on it, all while listening to the next part of the announcement.

“The rules are simple. You may allow your familiar to engages in combat against the familiar of others. Killing however isn’t recommended. Also, the masters are forbid from directly taking part in the fight, namely attacking other masters and familiars. Severe punishment awaits those who wish to break this rule. The competition’s progress will be broadcast to the spectators at the castle, so behave yourself. That is all. The competition will now begin!”

As I thought, the very moment the announcement ends is also the moment the ball of light starts to fly away. But I have anticipated that. Before it can get its velocity back to the speed earlier, I lunge toward the ball from the rock I just climbed, snatching it in the process.

Or not, it doesn’t have any weight since it is literally a ball of light so I can’t grab it in the physical sense, but the very moment I touch it, it suddenly disperses and goest inside my body. What does this mean?

“So you got one from the start. Maybe you’re not as hopeless as I thought.”

Says Deborah. So that a success? Not bad.

“Well, I entered this competition with the intention to win, thank you.”

“Really?”

As Deborah finishes saying her line, she turns her head to the forest behind her back, like she’s scouting the terrain or something. About me, I stand up, dusting the dirt out of my clothes and prepare for the next fight.

“We should move on. I bet the other participants have already started the hunt. It’s best to avoid them.”

Deborah’s right. If the goal is to catch the balls of light, then fighting against others is meaningless. It’s best to avoid them and just focus on acquiring the balls.

“Ladies first.”

I give Deborah the sign to continue leading us. She doesn’t give me any sort of reaction and just moves on the path.

The deeper we walk, the darker the forest becomes. However, with Deborah leading the way, even if we’re in the dark, we always find a proper path to walk through. The girl really has a good sense of direction. But that isn’t the problem here. The problem is we both became silent for the last five minutes. I know that is the wise course of action to remain silent, since a lively chatter can give away our position, but venture through the dark like this without saying anything…it really makes me feel uneasy.

“Hey Deborah, what is the difference between a monster and a familiar?”

I finally ask a question when I’m at my wits’ end.

“You’ll know when you get to see them.”

A short answer. Well, what else did I expect from her?

“Come to think of it, despite this forest being filled with monsters, we have yet to encounter any for some reason…Are they hibernating?”

It’s Winter, after all.

“That’s very smart of them.”

Again, Deborah give me another quick answer, all while keeping her pace in the dark. With how uninterested she is, I guess trying to make another chat is meaningless. And so, we just continue walking.

Ten minutes pass. We find ourselves standing near the bank of a river when we finally get out of the dark forest. While keeping yourself hidden is fine and all, but if we don’t take the initiative then how else can we win this competition? The clock is ticking and all we can do right now is hiding?

Suddenly, as if the gods read my mind and decide to grant me my wish, at a position from afar comes an explosion. With trees covering all the way, it’s hard to make an accurate approximate distance, but I’ll say it’ll only take about five minutes from here to get to that place.

“So it started.”

Deborah mumbles to herself as she looks to the same direction as I do. However, it seems like we don’t share the same viewpoint, since the girl pay no more attention to the direction of the explosion and just trying to figure out a way to cross the river.

“I think we should approach that direction.”

I reply, with my finger pointing toward the direction of the explosion earlier.

“No, it’s too dangerous. We will keep going.”

Says Deborah, without turning her back to me. I clench my fists and grit my teeth as I prepare my answer.

“Why? If there is a fight, then it’s no doubt that a ball of light is nearby as well? We’ll waste time if we just keep hiding like this.”

“It’s too dangerous. It’s best that we search for the ones that haven’t been pursued by anyone.”

Again, Deborah answers without meeting me face to face.

“Is that the only reason?”

Like a keyword, my question piques Deborah’s attention. She turns back and stares at me, with a look of pity through her red eyes.

“You…are not strong enough. That’s all.”

I clench my fists harder. That gaze of hers, I absolutely loathe it. The look of seeing someone as a burden, her burden, especially. Stop looking at me with a gaze like that.

“I’ve changed! I worked my ass off because I believe I can change! I can defeat them if I have a chance. And this is that chance!”

“No…you can’t. Your voice are filled with doubts. And you know it.”

What doubts! Stop putting words in my mouth!

“You’re naïve, Akuma. Too naïve. You do not know how harsh this world can be. This competition isn’t a mere childplay as you thought it would. I know not the extent of your power, but from what I can tell, your exotic magic is not enough to keep you alive in a world like this.”

With a pause, Deborah lets out a sadden smile. But, her words don’t end with just that.

“Heh, why I am still trying to explain this to you? Your foolishness is beyond saving. I give up. The only way you can learn this lesson is to experience yourself. Face it, without strength, you’re as good as dead if you want to walk the path of a warrior.”

“You’re saying like strength is the answer for everything!”

I shout.

“And you’re saying like that isn’t true.”

Another staring fight. Our eyes meet once again. Her sharpen eyes, versus my eyes of anger.

I won’t buy it. I won’t buy any of her crap. It’s true than humans like me were born weak. Ever since the start of our race, running is all we can do to survive from the horror that are the primal beasts. But that doesn’t mean humanity gave up without a fight. It’s true that a human isn’t as strong as a bear, as fast as a cheetah nor capable of flight like an eagle. But humanity can create weapons to fight the strength of a bear, vehicles to outrun the speed of a cheetah, and aircrafts to conquer the skies that an eagle can never reach. Right, humans are weak in nature, but their spirit is not!

“You’re wrong! Strength isn’t everything!”

Suddenly, before I can end my rant, a loud growl comes from a bush nearby. Slowly, a large creature emerges from the dark. It’s enourmous, almost three meters tall and has a bear-like form, except for the bones sticking out from its black fur, covering its main body and shoulders like a metal armor. Its face is hellish with black sclera eyes and a mouth that is filled with purple saliva. Yep, that is definitely not a character from Winnie the Pooh.

“Hey Deborah, is it a familiar?”

I give out my question as I reach my hand to the inside of my cloak, grabbing a pipe bomb in the process. A sweat drops from my face as my worry starts to rise by the bone-armored bear’s appearance.

“No, it’s just a plain monster.”

Deborah calmly answers. The girl’s stare is focusing on the bear right now. However, despite being cautious, I saw no signs of fear when I look at the girl.

The bear growls like it was trying to say “It’s lunchtime! And meat is on the menu!”. Our little conversation has probably piqued its attention, or maybe because of the explosion nearby woke it up from its slumber, but why it’s here doesn’t matter right now. Slowly, it walks toward us, with eyes aiming especially at me like it knows I’m holding something that can bring pain to it.

“Deborah, stand back! I’ll deal with it. You try to get to safety. This will get a little messy.”

“No, you stand back.”

Her answer is something I do not expect, and it just keeps escalating from there.

From the conversation earlier, I think she will simply bring out some bullshit spell and burn the bear to ash or something to show me her definition of strength and disprove my words in the process. But no, on contrary, she doesn’t do anything flashy to combat the bear in any form. All Deborah does is walking toward the bear, slowly, with next-to-no caution nor hesitation in her gestures. An action that looks very, if not outright suicidal of her. But the girl shows no hints of fear. If anything, it’s…actually compassion that she’s showing, to that demonic bear of all thing.

The bone-armored bear averts its attention from me to the girl that dares to confront it. Slowly, it closes the distance to its arm reach. When the two of them stand face to face, the bear growls. Deborah’s long red hair flutters away due to the wind, or breath, that comes from its mouth. It’s hard to see her reactions from here, all I can see is her back and the gigantic demonic bear in front of her.

The bear suddenly raises its right arm. From its hand, it bare its claws, a set of sharp claw made of bones. Before I know it, it swings its arm downward, aiming at Deborah’s head with the intention to kill the girl in one strike.

“Deborah! Watch out!”

I shout in vain and in fear of seeing someone die in front of me for the first time of my life. But… the gods seemingly heard my one-second prayer and decide to actually do something. Before reaching her neck with barely a few inches away, the bear suddenly stops its arm from bashing Deborah’s neck like a feeble tree twig. I know I’m not the pious type, but to think my prayers actually come true…

...No, that’s not true. It’s not gods’ work, not at all.

The bear draws its arm back. Its ferocious aura disappears, replaced with a terrified look instead. Cowers in fear, the bear slowly retreats, but not without being cautious to bow before the young girl as it slowly steps away. Once it goes back to the forest, the atmosphere becomes normal again. That’s it? No fight and it just retreated like a coward? Just…what is this? What happened?

This is too sudden, I…I don’t have any words to say about this. No, I can’t find any, even if I try.

Deborah turns back and throws me a stare. Her red eyes hold no complex feelings, unlike the earlier conversation. Is this…her definition of strength? What exactly is the thing she tried to prove?

I...I don’t know what to do anymore.

“!!”

Deborah suddenly senses something. She turns her head back to the direction of the bear earlier. I can feel it as well. Something is moving very fast from that direction. Is that bear coming here to finish what he started?

“Akuma! Dodge!”

It’s partly true. The thing that comes out from the forest is indeed that bear, but it isn’t running, it’s flying toward me, with speed matching a cannonball and with the size of a medium tank. Though, it’s more like something threw it, because bears can only grow wings when pigs can grow theirs first. But that isn’t what I should concern about right now. What I should worry is what will I do to keep my life from being crushed by that big ass bear.

“Holy s!!!”

With all of my strength, I take a dodge roll to the side to evade the flying bear. Rolling on the hard ground isn’t exactly pleasant, but I’ll prefer it than getting crushed under the weight of that giant bear.

Dusts begin to fill the air as the bear makes contact with the ground. When I get back to my feet, I give the bear a glance. It’s…dying. The bear’s breathing heavily. The bone-armor on its chest is broken, and there’s a stream of black blood flowing out from a stab wound that could only be caused by an ultra greatsword or something similar. Its suffering doesn’t last long. When the time comes, the bear takes its final breath and promptly dies from massive blood loss.

What exactly is happening right now?

“So this is source of that dreadful aura engulfing the whole forest...”

From the direction where the bear was tossed, there comes a voice. From the dark, a young man walks toward the river bank where we’re standing nearbyt. He’s wearing the standard cadet uniform of Melas, along with an armband of the Magic Arts department. However, he doesn’t wear any sort of wizard hat.

I…know this guy. He was the guy who offered Amadia a position in his party that day, the day where I tasted Deborah’s “tough love”.

“Naranath…”

I raise my alertness to its highest, while Deborah just gives the guy a cold stare. I put the pipe bomb back and try to get my hand on my gun, though thanks to the rules of this competition, I don’t think I’m in the position to shoot the guy right now.

“Fancy meeting you here, Akuma. Did I choose the wrong time to barge in? Seems like you two are having a lovers’ quarrel here.”

“What the hell do you want ?”

I shout, despite knowing full well his intention. There’s no doubt the dead bear is the work of Naranath, or probably his familiar’s. However, the problem is where the hell his familiar is. Maybe it’s still in the forest and is awaiting further orders. To cause a wound like this…just what sort of creature is his familiar?

“Now now. It’s really hard to follow you when you guys took a detour from the main course, you know? I’m simply here to tell you that the opposite riverbank is the end of the competition’s boundary. Those who cross it will be instantly disqualified from the competition. If you keep going, you’ll find yourself getting kicked out of the competition before having any worthwhile fight, you know?”

Detour…? Boundary…? Disqualified…?

What did he mean…by that?

“Hey…tell me, Deborah. What he said isn’t true, right…?”

“…”

Deborah’s expression noticeably darkens.

“Please…tell me you’re not trying to get me disqualified…? Please tell me…this is simply just a prank?”

Once again, Deborah doesn’t answer. The girl clenches her fists while her shoulders are shaking. She does not directly face me, and that is the answer I need.

I feel disappointed. Despite knowing I should be angry right now, but disappointment is all I can feel deep inside my heart.

“Why…? You do know what will happen to me if I fail…Yet…why?”

The girl pays me no heed. Her attention is currently focusing on Naranath right now. Her face is scary and shows the only thing she feels right now: Anger.

“You there…making me angry isn’t a smart choice.”

Naranth doesn’t care about her attitude though. He just put on a smile in amusement.

“Like I give a damn! Enough of the dramatic tragedy! Shall we get to the main business then?”

With a smirk on his face, Naranath snaps his fingers. From the forest, a bunch of clanking sound can be heard. Suddenly, the trees behind Naranath are cut down when his familiar emerges.

That…thing is huge. It’s almost four meters tall. The thing that is Naranath’s familiar, it barely qualify as a creature and a living being. His familiar is a decapod creature with similarities to a crab, except it has greatswords for legs and pincers, and armors for a body. The greatswords that made up its pincers also look a lot like two pairs of scissors. There’s still some black blood remaining on the giant enemy crab’s right pincer, most likely the dead bear’s blood. If something like that can stab through the armor of a bear, just imagine if that happens to a human being…

“Go Basatan! Cut that piece of shit into a hundred pieces!”

The giant crab easily complies Naranath’s order. Despite being a crab, it can walk straight just fine. But that isn’t what I should worry about.

“Akuma!”

Deborah shouts as the giant crab walks pass her. However, I don’t have anything left to say to that girl.

Right now, I should value my life first. Its pincers are big, and its walking speed is on par with a car. Facing it head on is outright suicidal. I need to pick a terrain that will give me an advantage.

With this thought in mind, I run toward the forest. The crab promptly follows behind. The plan works pretty fine, at first. Despite having big ass pincers that can cut trees like papers, it still can’t walk with full speed when there’re tons of obstacles on the way. Of course, I’m having it easier with my smaller stature when compared to that thing. I should use this to my advantage. Right now, the best thing I should do is to devise a countermeasure against that crab.

BAM!

Before I can have an easy time to do it though, suddenly, the crab appears from the sky and crashes the whole place it just landed on, with only a few meters from my location. Did it just…jump here?

With its pincers, the crab begins tearing the forest apart. Trees upon trees are mercilessly cut down by that crab. However, despite the fact I am standing nearby, the crab doesn’t actually notice me. I think hiding behind a tree helps. But seriously, I guess the crab is blind, since I saw no eyes on its armored body. Though, earlier, when the crab took its jump, it actually almost cut me down with its legs. It measured its jumping distance pretty accurately, I can’t take the fact that it is blind to face value when the crab is capable of a feat like that. Maybe it’s actually sound-based navigation, but then again, I’m not the only one making sounds in this forest when there’s the whole fighting going on around this whole area.

It must have some sort of mechanic for navigating, that’s for sure. But enough observing. It isn’t aware of my exact location yet, that’s a fact. If I want to bring it down, this is my chance.

Slowly, I reach to a pipe bomb inside my cloak. There are two type of pipe bombs in my cloak right now. One will explode in contact, the other is the timer type. I take out a timer pipe bomb. The setting for this type is three seconds before exploding. After I’m done taking a quick calculation, I activate the bomb, step out of my hiding place, throws it to the location of the crab and run away as fast as I can.

It’s like what I just guessed, the very moment I get out of my hiding place, the crab reacts and turns back to my direction. When it begins to give chase, the time bomb also hits its end and explodes as the crab make its first steps. A big explosion covers the crab in smoke. I can still see its legs, but it seems to stop moving for a moment.

“Did it work?”

The answer…is no. It didn’t.

“Impossible…”

I am stunned when my treasured bomb barely did any damage. The crab is paralyzed for about a second before giving chase again. All the bomb did was just dirtying the crab’s right pincer. And with that very pincer, it throws a thrust to my direction. A thrust as fast as a master swordman’s thrust. I can’t even react to dodge with that kind of speed.

Before I know it, I find myself flying from the ground when the crab stabs my chest, just like what it did to the bear earlier.

The last thing I see is the light of the sun above. I’m falling to the darkness under a cliff nearby.

Before long, light escapes from my sight, and darkness embraces me to join the ranks of the dead.