I was running and running, tripping over branches that looked like feet to me whenever I did, brushing against thorn bushes, letting the thorns cut into my skin. I felt weak. My magic mark wouldn't activate, or rather, the tiger-like creature, Terror as I called it now, never gave me the time to concentrate on it.

Running was difficult as I had barely any time to take in my environment, all I could do was to hope that I wouldn't fall over one of the roots sticking out of the ground as the giant white tiger creature running after me. It trampled over bushes and chunks were ripped out of trees as it was hunting me.

Why did this thing have to be around the stream at that time?!

I grit my teeth as I ignored the laughing I could hear in the wind, or the voice of Martin telling me to stop running. Every time I was cut I could swear I saw a knife doing it instead of a thorn or a sharp branch or twig or leaf or anything like that. It let out a loud growl every so often, probably to let me know that it was still there.

My stamina was running low and I didn't know how much longer I would be able to keep this up, my legs were already burning and it felt like my shin bones were breaking every time my foot hit the ground. One of my toes also ached whenever I stepped on the ground with that foot. Everything just hurt.

Why? Why me? What have I done to deserve this?

I suddenly saw the world around me spinning and moving past me in the one second I lost focus. Shortly after my face was planted on the ground, my mouth full of dirt.

Huh?

Something, warm, wet and sticky dropped down on my face. In the corner of my eye, I saw Terror, standing above me with a triumphant look in his eyes. Only one thing went through my head at that moment.

Please don't hurt me!

Please don't hurt me!

Please don't hurt me!

Please don't hurt me!

Please don't hurt me!

Please don't hurt me!

Please don't hurt me!

Please don't hurt me!

Please don't hurt me!

Please don't hurt me!

Please don't hurt me!

Please don't hurt me!

Please don't hurt me!

Please don't hurt me!

Please don't hurt me!

But no matter how many times that thought went through my mind, it was no use, no use at all. More of Terror's saliva dropped down on me as he opened his maw and let out a loud roar that seemed to shake the entire world.

What do I do?...

I felt a sharp claw digging into my back and I saw blood running down to the ground and mixing with the dirt. My heart began beating faster, my breathing became unsteady and I felt dizzy. More and more blood came from the wound I barely even felt due to the adrenaline. I was already accepting my fate, yet again I accepted way too easily that I would die...

At that moment I felt a tingling sensation from my back... my wood elven magic mark was activating.

Why? Why now?

And then I remembered. I remembered something that old Elster told us years ago in class.

"[Blood High] is one of the most important techniques. It will activate once the conditions are met. The user must see, feel or smell blood and needs to be in a situation where it can activate, those situations being battles where the user has heightened adrenaline... or near-death situation!"

My eyes widened when I remembered that and I felt a slight sense of relief, which barely made a dent in the terror and desperation I felt when I felt the tingling sensation spread across my entire body. I immediately activated [Predator's Strength] and heaved myself up from the ground, Terror still partially on my back. My arms felt as if they were breaking but I kept going. The large tiger creature jumped back when it saw me move.

Despite having activated [Predator's Strength] I felt weak... weak compared to before where I could easily punch a tree and break it. Now I felt like I was barely able to use it for climbing. My bad diet of half edible things had weakened me, my once fairly athletic physique was now a skinny one with my ribs clearly visible.

Before I could even think about making my next decision I could already see Terror jumping towards me. Despite being weaker now I still managed to activate both [Predator's Agility] and [Predator's Instinct] at the same time, allowing me to jump out of the way of Terror's attack.

I looked behind me only to see the large claws of his tiger paws rip through one of the thicker trees in the vicinity. I swallowed when I saw the deep gashes... or rather the large chucks that were missing from the side of the tree.

Terror now turned around to face me again, piercing me with two, angry, bright blue eyes. He raised one paw and pressed it against the destroyed tree, making it fall over. For some reason, a smile crept across my face and I couldn't help back a chuckle.

How is this even fair?

I slowly began walking backwards, already feeling my muscles begin to hurt since I hadn't used any techniques in over a month. Terror was licking his long teeth in anticipation as he readied himself for another jump. Instead of preparing to dodge I just bolted into the forest as quickly as I could, channelling all my mana into the muscles targeted by [Predator's Agility] and I ran, ran as far as I could.

I could hear Terror running after me, once again destroying trees and bushes and other plants indiscriminately as he was chasing me.

Shit!

Shit!

Shit!

Shit!

Shit!

Shit!

Shit!

Shit!

Shit!

Shit!

Shit!

Shit!

Shit!

Shit!

Shit!

As I ran the wind picked up, once again making me hear things that probably weren't there. I could hear loud laughter, chuckling, cheering, whistling, the voices of some gang members that I had nearly forgotten, the voices of Hannah and Martin mocking me, an unknown voice was there as well, telling me to run faster. The voices contradicted each other, some cheered for me, some cheered for the beast chasing me while others just called for blood no matter whose it was.

The faster I ran the more strange things I saw. When I passed an old rotten tree trunk I could see Martin laughing and pointing at me in the corner of my eye, making my heart beat faster as I tried to avoid his gaze, but I couldn't close my eyes. I also saw other things, once I saw a gun when I passed a low hanging branch with a small one growing from under it, another time I saw a hooded figure in the shadow of the trees and another time I saw a bullet approach me quickly.

Any time I saw something strange I would avoid it with my gaze and just focus on finding someplace where I could be safe. I ran up a hill, still hearing Terror chasing after me.

Is this some kind of game to him? There's other food to be had!

On top of the hill was grass that grew higher than even Terror was tall, about a good four meters. I could see a few fireflies skitting around, their golden light illuminating the small area along with the orbs hanging from the trees. And in the middle of all that was a massive tree, tens of metres thick from the looks of it and so high that one would probably be able to see the entire forest from the top.

...

...

...

Guess I'll have to climb.

I ran up to the tree and jumped as high as I could, activating [Needle Strike] mid-jump to climb up the tree. All I could do during my climb was ignore my body's need to throw up, the shaking, my fast beating heart, my dizzy head and cling on to hope, hope that Terror wouldn't follow me up the tree. I climbed and climbed, only stopping occasionally to regain some stamina so I could climb even higher. I could hear Terror scratching the tree beneath me but it sounded a little like he was clawing at a metal wall.

After what felt like an hour I reached a large branch near the top, and for the first time, I looked around. I immediately forgot everything else. What I saw was the most beautiful sight I had seen in both my lives. The sky was brightly illuminated by a cluster of moons. It seemed like there were two larger moons, a bit large looking than the moon of earth, and they seemingly had their own moons orbiting around them. I counted them... there were about twelve moons if I had not missed any or counted one twice.

And what those moons illuminated was even more beautiful. A vast forest, emitting this faint light blue shine in the dark, and sticking out of the forest were massive mountain pillars that reached all the way up past the clouds. Their tops hidden. Just in the vicinity, there were at least eight of them, all of them so wide that they easily spanned multiple kilometres in each direction.

"H-How?" I asked no one in particular and I felt as if I heard a whistle inside my head.

How come there was only one moon when we lived up there?

I looked up to one of the mountain pillars, the one that was the closest, the one I fell off of a bit over a month ago.

Was there some sort of illusion?

I noticed my mouth was open when some insect flew inside and I began choking and coughing violently, nearly falling off the tree.

What was before me was a beautiful sight, and the only distraction I had, the only thing that could distract me from my life now...