It had been an hour since he killed the wolves.

'Fuck, I'm getting sick of all this shit.' Eian watched as a groups of three huge boars attacked him.

He side-stepped left, pivoted to the right and stabbed the first boar behind it's left-leg.

For the second boar he had little time so he jumped and rolled left.

He took cover behind a tree and felt the boar head-butt the tree.

The third boar swerved and he speared it's skull properly killing it.

When the second came back he accidentally disemboweled it, he had been aiming for behind the left-front leg.

It ran away, blood and intestines spilling and collapsed a yards away squealing loudly in pain.

Eian mercifully killed it, with a furious thrust.

'What time is it?' Eian looked up and saw the suns had vanished sometime during his jog.

He felt weird in the darkness again, it reminded him much of the caves.

At least in the caves there were only two directions to watch, here he had to keep his senses ramped up to the max.

It wore away at his focus and he wasn't sure he could keep it up forever.

The bleeding in his shoulder and arm had already clotted, though the powerful impacts of the boars made them reopen slightly.

'Gods I hate this place.' Eian sighed.

He checked his surroundings briefly taking a break, he wasn't tired, but running for so long was mentally stressing.

He removed his only gauntlet on his right-arm and checked his tattoo's on his right-fore-arm.

He noticed they were blinking and revealed: Body 5, Mind 4, Spirit 5.

'Aw fuck. He told me to select body next.' Eian watched his malnourished body.

He clearly wasn't ready for another upgrade.

To be honest the belly-aches, hunger and the upset-stomach weren't something to look forward to either.

He gazed at his 'magic' ring, it hadn't done anything useful as yet.

He still felt that extra sturdiness to his well, but he didn't know what it did.

It sort of felt like wearing clothes on his well, like an extra layer of something was on top.

He reequipped his gauntlet on his dominant arm.

He relaxed maybe five minutes before resuming his marathon.

After another hour of running the noises around him began to disappear.

Hoots, leaves moving, even the occasional monkey screech disappeared completely.

It made him feel very awkward, like something was watching him.

He stopped running, dropped the lotus and the horn and drew his sword.

He waited for another ten minutes, something instinctual assured him something was near.

'What is it?' Eian's eyes scanned the surroundings.

"Come out, come out where-ever you are. Fucker." Eian was getting angry.

He felt the eyes watching him, fear gnawed at him.

Sounds of the wind blew behind him and he turned to look.

He thought he saw the glimpse of a something on his peripheral vision.

He thought it vanished behind a large tree, he ran and checked.

Nothing was there, he kept searching above the tree and around himself.

'This is some bloody bull-shit!' Eian watched about.

He readied rock-armor, luckily he had replenished his reserves at the pool.

He turned and saw a naked robust humanoid figure crouching over the lotus, holding it in one arm.

It turned and Eian noticed it was made wholly of what favored vines.

It dropped the lotus.

"ROOOOAAAAAAARRRR!!!!" It's screeching roar reverberated even through his helmet.

'Oh shit!' Eian held his helmet painfully.

It blurred forward and punched Eian straight in the gut.

He went flying, lost his grip on his sword and crashed into a tree.

His chest-plate was dented by his gut and which caused problems moving his diaphram.

He summoned rock-armor and felt himself encased.

The strain was heavy, and he began to sweat.

Another hit to his back actually sent him rolling like a wheel, his rock-armor cracked.

Eian set off empower.

-'Fuck!' Eian jumped to attention and saw the green creature blur.

He punched at it's bulky figure and it's after-image vanished.

Another blow to his back sent him reeling forward.

He quickly searched and saw his great-sword a few yards away.

He set off another empower and felt his something begin to ache.

The burst of power spurred him and he knew it would chase him.

He grabbed the sword, which favored a short-sword in his bulky-armor.

He pivoted and did a wild swing, catching nothing.

"ROOOOOARRRR!" Creature.

It was a few yards away, watching him it's mouth agape.

Eian charged, he was on a timer, having used empowered twice now.

He swung and it dodged, kicked at it's legs and it blur-rolled away.

-'Fuck it's like a ghost.' Eian.

It ran forward and he timed it's blur, he held the great-sword back one-handed aiming with his right hand.

He feinted a left-punch early, like how Ul had taught him.

He then thrust the great-sword forward with all haste.

The metal dug into it's shoulder missing it's face, as it dodged at the last millisecond.

"ROAAAARRR!" creature.

It tackled him backwards and he felt the sword dislodge itself.

He went spinning and had to balance himself to not drop.

It blurred again, mid-spin he hastily threw himself side-ways then pivoted swung the sword.

It did a jumped and almost hopped his weapon, though it caught it's feet.

'Fuck! Fuck! I can barely keep up!' Eian's heart was racing, this thing was fast, he had to guess where it would be and attack there.

It went spinning into the forest, it got up and rushed him.

He dodge-rolled at a random location again, to keep moving.

He noticed it couldn't take fast turns.

Eian sent a punch and swing at two possibilities, his rock-fist caught it solidly at it's face cracking something, it felt like hard-wood.

He received a forceful impact unto his chest in return, the blow cracked his armor again, and actually shot him backwards a few paces.

He landed standing, but was stumbling backwards, he threw himself sideways on a good foot to re-balance himself and dodge.

He felt his empowers begin to wane.

He set off two empowers back-to-back, he had no hopes of keeping up with only one.

His body began to tremble from strain.

Suddenly he felt weightless for an instant.

'Ughhh.' Eian felt he had just sprinted full speed for an hour.

He sent a punch at the monster and felt his arm blur forward, almost as if the rock around his body had life of it's own.

The impact sent the monster flying into a tree.

He almost blurred forward, he couldn't control his speed and the monster shot a punch at him.

Eian swung the sword and it bit deeply into the monsters arm.

The punch broke his armor and he felt the impact on his chest, they collided and went rolling forward together.

He luckily landed atop the creature.

He felt an impact on his shoulder, a chunk broke off and it almost sent him backwards despite not having much momentum.

He had let go of the great-sword, it was almost useless in such close quarters anyways.

He grabbed the creature on the floor and began pounding it's skull, it too pounded him and chunks of armor broke off.

The constant damage and subsequent repairs had drained him too much of his spirit to set off his last empower, he was on his last legs.

He felt the wood-like skull crack and soon it split, pieces began to break off and finally it splattered.

He felt his spirit hit zero, a few seconds later and the armor crumbled.

Trembling he pulled the great-sword from it's arm and forcefully chopped it's body to pieces.

He made sure it was dead, suddenly it's body parts quickly began to rot and disintegrated unto the dirt.

The forest went silent.

'Never again.' Eian thought.

He went to recover the items.

He gazed at the lotus and noticed it's luster had dimmed, it was physically wilting before his eyes.

It died soon after.

'Huh?' Eian cursed his rotten luck.

He grabbed the remains of the lotus, perhaps it was still useful.

He also grabbed the unicorns horn and kept running.

The forest remained silent save for wind.

Eian thought it was very eerie, then he heard different animal howls in the distance.

'Fuck what now.' Eian thought.

Suddenly a pack of three wolves appeared and attacked him.

He side-stepped the first and chopped both its front legs off.

The next two attacked together and he dodge-rolled left.

He speared the second in the skull and the final one quickly ran away.

'They've never attacked in numbers that small.' Eian thought.

He ran towards the general direction he had seen the smoke prior.

He heard another animal approach about ten minutes later.

He turned and saw a huge adult stag charging his with it's sharp horns.

-'WHAT THE FUCK? THOSE THINGS NEVER ATTACK ME?!' Eian.

He dodged it's assault and chopped off a leg cleanly.

It fell to the ground easily.

He proceeded to stab it multiple times on its belly since it was attempting to gorge him on it's horns.

It died shortly.

-'FUCK DID I JUST UPSET THE WHOLE DAMN FOREST?' Eian thought, his whole body was aching.

He kept running, he had no other options.

His spirit was wholly exhausted and would take time to replenish.

The trees whistled as he passed, the breeze seemed had picked up.