The stupid fox was angrier than before. I could tell it from its eyes. Besides, there was no way back for either of us. We were either going to die or we were going to kill.

The guns I normally used were out of bullets, so I was going to use the riffle. Taking my rifle back in my hand, I started to reload its bullets. I had spent more than half of my bullets just trying to catch him off guard. But it looks like that cost me a lot.

Luckily they were poisonous, but its bullets were quite a few too.

*This has started to become a pain the ass.*

I slowly took a sharp look at him, from under my hat. And not surprising enough, he had his stupid smile on his face again,

He was breathing heavily,

"I've never seen a person as eager to die as you are."

*Same thing with his stupid words.*

"Eager to die? Don't say that crap to me. The day we come to this annoying world, we start living on one hand and start dying on the other. That's why I'm not afraid of anything like death. Besides, what I'm doing to you right now should worry me, not the moment I'm going to die."

He slowly wiped the blood out of his chin and said,

"I'm surprised you chose to be so close to the terms of "life" and "death" at the same time. But I must tell, it's so reckless that you pretend that I'm the only one who's just made a mistake here. Every second we spend, you and me, we are one step closer to death. And I'm just trying to figure out which one of us is better at it."

His claws, and his teeth had become increasingly tapered. Every passing second, his instincts, like a hungry animal, were triggering his powers. It was as if his strength was increasing. And seconds later, he had already got ready to fight again and was approaching me once more. He was also many times faster than before.

I immediately tried to point my rifle at him. But every time I shot perfectly at it, he stopped my bullets just like before. With his palms, he blocked the incoming bullets just like tiny rocks.

And when he approached me, I used my scarf as a mask and broke the poison bullet I threw on the floor with my foot. The poison spread quite quickly. And when the bullet created a layer of fog in front of me, that fleabag was still hitting around with its paw. Besides, I was already far away from there.

I also prevented him from seeing by throwing these bullets around him, but he was not affected by the poison. He stopped hitting the air, inhaled slowly, and started to blow with all his power. With his blowing, poisonous fumes had disappeared from around.

I was a very obvious target now.

And as soon as he saw me, he jumped in my direction and tried to punch me. I couldn't stop the punch. I was bleeding from my mouth as a result of the punch that came to my stomach. It even made me fly towards the tree behind me.

For a while, I couldn't breathe or move properly from the punch. In contrast, my energy seemed almost exhausted. And he still quickly tried to get close to me again. He was pushing his claw against the ground and was approaching me.

This time he had a weirder smile on his face. It was as if he wanted to finish this job in one move and move on.

I also had to move. But at that moment it was very difficult for me.

"I'm not very familiar with scenarios where a hunter becomes the hunted. But your death will be a source of joy to me."

He raised his paw and prepared to strike one last blow. But just as he was about to do it, a very loud bugle sound came from the sky. This distracted him, so he turned back and looked at the ship.

"That is to say, they caught the prey."

He then turned against me and added, "I have to get back to the ship before the smoke spreads. So, we-"

But it was too late.

I had used my time properly and got out of there without wasting any more time.

"Kid. Just be safe..."

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(Meanwhile, Another Part Of The Forest)

Our collision had seriously injured both of us, but in the end, I had prevailed. Maybe it was hurting me too much right now, but at least I could go help the others without wasting any more time.

However, at that moment, I heard a bugle sound. It was as if it had come from ships in the sky. It was quite loud and could be heard all over the palace.

But why would they blow a bugle for no reason at all?

I didn't understand what had happened. The soldiers were retreating and they were all going back to their ships. It was like they had to retreat after an urgent call or something. When I looked at the ship, the female elite soldier who had previously encountered Hiroshi had returned to the ship.

"Her? What is she doing over there?"

Then I finally understood why they came back all of sudden. On her shoulder, I saw Mila. She was unconscious and her arms were tied up.

In addition to the fact that Mila was kidnapped by the enemy, this meant that other people who helped us also failed. I didn't even want to think about the number of casualties we inflicted. Neither do I had time to think about it anyway.

So I ran towards the ship without thinking about it at all. Jumping on top of the trees in front of me and climbing out of the trees, I was trying to get closer to the ship. But the bad thing is that the ship was slowly moving away from the area where it was located. I was having difficulty catching up with it because my breath was running out quickly. I was getting slower by the second.

Was this the end for everything?

*No. There are dozens more things I can try.*

At that moment, I gathered all my strength in my legs. I focused as much as I could and jumped on the ship above me. At that time, Captain Barlog was holding the general by the throat with one hand. He carried him out of the ship and dropped him off meters above. Now he was falling unconscious from quite a height to be knocked to the ground.