“I’m trying! It’s not listening!” Ren shot back.

  Upon awakening, Beast Masters awakened the Beast slumbering inside their soul space. They were stuck with this Beast until they completed first Class Evolution, and contracted a new beast. The first Beast they had was something they had no choice to choose. It was born within their soul. Hence the saying, if your first Beast has shit personality, then you are royally f*cked.

  While most Beast listened to their Beast Masters, it was not unheard of to have a haughty Beast that refused to leave the Soul Space or fight for their Beast Master. These Beasts would make Water Bullet Spell’s whining look cute in comparison.

  Freya’s eyes softened briefly, and she looked at Ren with pity. He had a hard future ahead.

  Before either could speak again, ten more voids entered Mana Zone. This time even Freya felt it. The ground trembled as the new group broke into a run.

  “I think we should move,” she said, forcing a strained smile. “What was your plan again?”

  “Watch.”

  Ren fired a Fire Bullet straight upward.

  “What are you—”

  Freya fell silent mid-sentence. She felt the “gaze” move away from them when the Fire Bullet went into the sky, and beyond the cover of salt mountains and salt pillars.

  The fire shone brightly at night, attracting the gaze of the giant decapitated lady. The Fire Bullet turned into salt in one second.

  Before the “gaze” returned to Freya and Ren, Ren fired another Fire Bullet into the sky, distracting the giant decapitated lady again and making her look at the new bright Fire Bullet.

  “Tha— That’s a terrific plan!” Freya exclaimed.

  “I know!” Ren replied quickly. “Let’s make a run for it now! I’ll keep [her] distracted! Just don’t use your saw sword! The noise might make [her] ignore the fire and look at us!”

  “Okay!”

  Ren was about to start running when suddenly Freya wrapped her arm around his waist, and her other arm went below his legs, scooping him up in princess carry.

  “Huh?”

  “Hold tight.”

  “What do you—”

  She ran. The acceleration crushed the words from his lungs. His vision blurred as the world streaked past in pale salt and shadow.

  He felt like his spine would snap from inertia.

  Ren realized Freya’s true stats might be really fucking high.

  Freya sprinted along paths she could barely see, reading subtle depressions and silhouette changes. She ducked beneath towering invisible bodies and slipped between legs before the monsters could react.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Ren clung to her neck to avoid being thrown. He would have preferred to run himself, but there was no comparison. Without her speed, they would already be surrounded.

  Ten new voids appeared behind them.

  “Move west!” Ren called.

  Hushclaws, much larger than the ones they fought before, chased them.

  Ren noticed more Hushclaws coming from left and front of their new direction. He fired a charged Water Bullet at the knee of the weakest Hushclaw standing in their path. A crack echoed as bone shattered. Water revealed the creature’s body just long enough for Freya to leap over it.

  They made a mad dash.

  However, no matter where they ran, more Hushclaws appeared. It seemed the leader of these monsters had been long prepared to trap them.

  The monsters that attacked us first weren’t scouts. They were there to keep us busy while these monsters completed the encirclement! Ren realized.

  And…

  “Sh*t! They’re funneling us!” Ren exclaimed.

  “Can we punch through?” Freya asked urgently.

  “Too many Hushclaws to do that!” he answered.

  A cold understanding settled in his chest. Whoever was directing the Hushclaws was a veteran hunter. The waves had been measured, controlled, and tightened gradually.

  Behind them, to the left and right, even ahead, voids filled the edges of his Mana Zone. More beyond that, outside his range. A sea of Hushclaws rushed at them from all directions.

  Ren clenched his jaw. At this rate, he was only burning lifespan while the net shrank around them.

  Then something shifted above. A void appeared directly overhead.

  “Freya—”

  There was no time to finish his sentence. The shape was already descending. A massive Hushclaw dropped from the salt ridge above, falling fast enough to crush them flat.

  Ren did not think. He formed a Wind Bullet and fired it point-blank into Freya’s side, hoping her Constitution was enough.

  The blast knocked both of them sideways violently. They hit the slope and rolled, salt scraping skin and filling their mouths. Something crashed down where they had stood a heartbeat earlier.

  Freya spat, and pushed herself up.

  “What—”

  She stopped when she heard the heavy impact behind them.

  “Dammit. Where did it come from?”

  She looked up, and noticed the ridges of salt mountains above. Did the Hushclaw jump from there? How many Hushclaws were there above? Were they going to jump down like the first one?

  She looked around. Her expression was grave. All around, she could feel the ground shaking. But there was nothing in sight, and barely any sound. The atmosphere was eerie and blood chilling. She knew they were surrounded by a sea of Hushclaws but not one of them was visible.

  “Ren, you need to stop shooting the fire in the sky. The Hushclaws are tracking us through it. That fire you shoot are like beacons revealing our location,” Freya said.

  “…I know,” Ren spat the blood coagulating in his mouth and looked around, sensing the Hushclaws in his Mana Zone. “But if I stop shooting the fire in the sky, the “gaze” will return. We will be forced to stay put in one location.”

  It was a checkmate.

  Stay still and be crushed.

  Move and get turned into salt.

  Freya gritted her teeth. Her mind spun, trying to think of a solution.

  “Their leader,” Ren said, breathing hard. It was taking a lot of concentration to keep firing a Fire Bullet at each second and maintain Mana Zone at same time. “We need to kill their leader. If it dies, the horde will no longer coordinate to attack us. It will give us a chance to escape.”

  Freya’s eyes widened. She had forgotten about that!

  “There!” she pointed toward a taller cliff formation ahead. “It’ll be on one of the peaks!”

  “Let’s go then!”

  There was no time to ask why she knew where the leader of the monsters would be. He released the charged Water Bullet he had been holding. It smashed into a Level 4 Hushclaw blocking their path, blowing it backward into another.

  Freya scooped him up again and sprinted toward the nearest salt mountain, climbing its slope at terrifying speed.

  Ren sensed dozens of voids swarming behind them. The Hushclaws were like an invisible blanket rising up the mountain.

  The slope shifted beneath their feet. Salt cracked. Freya and Ren’s face paled. They had forgotten the salt mountain would crumble if too many people ran on it.

  The salt mountains and salt pillars were not ordinary loose salt. They had hardened and crystallized over time. They held shape under ordinary stress. Still, a salt mountain was a salt mountain. If hundreds of Hushclaws ran on it, it would crumble.