Chapter 177

177 Run, please! part The first beast to appear in front of them was something they had never encountered before, it was an oversized scorpion with a hard stony caparace. Anne was startled by it because, despite being able to see it, she couldn’t tell it apart from a rock even at a close distance.

It seemed like a bad start, considering they ran into it almost the second they reached ground level, but it proved to be no challenge for Anne’s quick reflexes. She brandished her spear graciously, cutting the scorpion tail without even needing to use a skill.

It’s shell was hard, but its joints were weak enough for any regular weapon to cut through like butter.

As he passed by the corpse of the creature, Ryu picked up it’s venomous tail and threw it to Sera, who in turn stored it away into one of the bags hanging on the side of her mount. The amarok didn’t miss the chance to grab a quick bite too and ate away most of the scorpion corpse amidst loud crunching sounds. It was almost the same as eating rocks, but apparently it was tasty enough for the beast’s brutish palate.

Walking quickly in between covers, they managed to reach the middle ground with ease, but things became a bit more difficult when Sera looked behind her, noticing three light sources coming down the path downhill they just walked an hour ago.

“Mister Ryu, over there!”

Ryu’s night skill was good enough to see the figures walking in the distance, but it was too far away to be able to get any information. The night vision skill was truly handy, but it had its limits, after all it only allowed the user to bee able to see ‘as good’ as if it was day and not any better.

“It seems they found us already, we should start running”

“Not necessarily Risa, they might not be able to see where we are”

.....

Anne replied, still trying to figure out how many people were following them. They were carrying torches, which obviously made them easy to spot and that raised a question on everyone’s mind but only Luke spoke it out loud.

“Why are they being so careless?”

“Your guess is as good as mine”

Ryu shrugged from behind his cover.

“I have a theory”

Lea spoke, drawing everyone’s attention.

“They don’t know we know about them so they didn’t even think in hiding. By the way, how did you know we were in danger?”

“It’s not really important right now, I guess we could talk about it once we’re safe”

“About that, I have an idea”

Luke said in a somewhat shy voice, something very uncharacteristic of the usually over confident hero

“Why don’t we lure all the beasts we can and start a massive fight to distract our pursuers?”

“That is the most stupid idea I’ve ever heard coming from your mouth, and that says a lot”

Anne scoffed at Luke’s seemingly idiotic plan

“I said I had an idea, not that it was any good”

“Hang on a second. Not even Anne is able to see them, my guess is they can’t see us either. From that distance all they’ll see is a ruckus going on and it may be enough to discourage them from following us. Also, if we draw the beasts attention to something else, it would make it easier for us to advance and we’ll reach the forest even faster. Once in the forest they’ll have no clue as to where we’re headed”

“That could work...”

Bob said placing his hand on his chin in a pensive manner, the rest of the group pondered Ryu’s words for a second before nodding in agreement

“How come when I think of a plan that could potentially save us it’s garbage, but if you hear it from Ryu it’s suddenly the best course of action?”

Offended, Luke stomped his foot on the ground, not knowing the unusual earthly sense of the rock scorpions that were able to tell the distance of prey from the vibrations in the ground.

“Because, you’re always reckless and want to do things your way, Ryu actually listen to us”

Anne replied emphasizing the last part. Luke hadn’t been jealous of Ryu for a while now, but he couldn’t help getting frustrated because he’s been trying hard to become a team player and so far nobody has acknowledged his efforts. He had always been prone to envy and jealousy, no matter how much he wanted to change, he simply couldn’t re write his character in so little time.

Offended as he was, he decided to keep his frustration to himself when he noticed Anne’s worried expression, followed by a crackling and rustling sound in the distance.

“Good news is, we don’t have to think on a way to draw their attention. Best news is... we finally get some action!”

Scorpions crawled from every direction in a straight line towards the adventurers, if they found an obstacle in between like a big rock they simply climbed it and kept going.

The small wurm that chose Ryu’s leather rucksack as it’s nest, became unsettled, warning Ryu of an incoming attack. Although he didn’t know what type of attack it was, he was able to sense it because it was filled with mana and he still had his mana sense activated.

Being able to feel the power drawing near, the direction it came from and even its speed was one thing, but dodging it succesfully was another thing entirely.

The proyectile coming their way was too strong and too fast to be dodged, leaving Ryu with no other choice but to cover himself as best as he could with his megalania black leather cape. He took one tip of the leathery cape and covered himself at the same time as he turned around and the proyectile splattered on his cape with a sizzling sound that revealed its nature.

>Skill acquired: acid resistance

A new skill was almost always reason enough to celebrate, but he was in no condition to rejoice because of the soaring pain he felt on his back. The leather was unscathed, but somehow part of the liquid was able to pass through and burn Ryu’s back severely.

Noticing its master distress, Famine quickly drew closer and Sera helped him up to give Ryu the chance to heal himself.

The battle had begun.