Maeyurai felt light.
The wind blew past his cheeks like a soft, motherly kiss.
But another sensation was the uneven motion of his body's vertical oscillation, folded over someone's shoulder, and the soft hands on his back as he was being carried.
He opened his eyes and saw the moving grass and the two running feet underneath that weren't his.
"Hogh—" Maeyurai gasped for air after suddenly waking up, reminded that he fainted due to Wency tackling him earlier.
The person carrying Maeyurai was Shienne; it seems she had been around and saved Maeyurai.
"Are you awake?" she asked, breathing heavily from running.
It was faint, but Maeyurai could feel her hands shaking, possibly from anxiety.
"I'm awake; can you let me down?" he asked.
Shienne went silent for a moment before slowing down to let go of Maeyurai from her shoulder.
"Okay," she said. "We should be fine in the meantime."
After Maeyurai was off of her shoulder, she sighed and coughed due to spending a lot of her energy.
"What's going on?" Maeyurai asked. He knew that something was up but couldn't figure out what it could be.
"I've been carrying you for the past 30 minutes," Shienne answered. "You almost died."
Huh?
Almost died?!
What is she talking about?!
"Wait—wait, what are you talking about?!" Maeyurai asked once more, demanding elaboration on what happened.
The sudden drop that he almost died was incredibly surprising, since he had been unconscious and wasn't aware of the current events.
Shienne took one deep breath.
"A Shrieker, a General-Level Hell's Spawn, appeared out of nowhere. It massacred everyone in its sight, almost including you. If it weren't for me, you would've died while you were asleep. What the hell were you even doing?"
A General-Level Hell's Spawn?
Wait... Isn't that stronger than Huizen...?
If so, we need to leave this place immediately!
"Someone named Ugina attacked me," Maeyurai replied. "The attack was so powerful... I still feel the pain in my side."
Touching his right side to feel how painful it was, Maeyurai's face jerks slightly. A bruise had already formed.
His aching body was one thing, but the General-Level HS was on a different scale.
If he weren't careful, it's possible he could get caught and get murdered on sight.
"What do we do now?" asked Maeyurai. "Do we save the others?"
Shienne's brows furrowed from his question. She clearly didn't want to save the others, as she values her own life way more than saving people in need.
"Huh? What are you talking about? I'm getting out of here," she said. "If you want to save the others, then go. I'll call Mr. Koja to save the survivors. And possibly, we can defeat the Shrieker if we have Mr. Koja on our side."
"Fine by me," Maeyurai replied, nodding his head in understanding. "I suppose I can try to save the survivors. I'm pretty confident that I can avoid the Shrieker."
"Don't be too arrogant. One wrong move and you will die; be careful, okay?"
After Shienne finished speaking, she ran away in the venue's direction to call Huizen, waving her hand as she did.
I see... So Shienne's like that, huh?
It's understandable.
I believe if I were a normal person, I would be the same.
But I want to taste the thrill of facing death and avoid it in my own way. It sounds real exciting.
Maeyurai was feeling pumped up despite the pain in his right side. Since the enemy this time was a General-Level HS, he could go all out and use his newfound magic.
"Maybe, I can test that," said Maeyurai to himself, clenching his fists.
But the thing is—he doesn't have his longbow. Since he had lost consciousness and was carried by Shienne away from his previous spot, his longbow was left behind.
"The first step?" he said, turning back in the direction that Shienne ran earlier. "Is to get my longbow. Then, I can roll."
He then started sprinting forward, tracing imaginary steps, trying to return to where he fainted.
*
It was indeed a stupid decision to go back to where death was imminent.
But no matter how dangerous it is, Maeyurai was courageous, prideful, even. He chose to return because he felt the need to fight, to save those that are in need despite the consequence of losing his life.
Nevertheless, he was naive.
He does not know the dangers of facing a creature two ranks higher than him.
A Common-Level, against a General-Level is overkill. The former doesn't even have near enough power to hold its own against the latter, much less win.
While an Elite-Level does stand a chance, like Huizen, it is still very unlikely for victory.
At best, it was a 5% chance of winning.
As Maeyurai was running, he saw zero living participants. All that was left were the corpses of those who once hunted the HSs for the event.
Not looking in front, Maeyurai, once more, stumbled into a familiar figure.
"Argh," exclaimed he, shifting his gaze forward to see what he hit.
To his unsurprise, it was Ugina.
"Piece of crap, what the hell are you doing?" Maeyurai asked, an exasperated tone in his voice.
"Oh, man, I'm simply standing here, nothing else," Ugina replied, shrugging.
"I have no time to waste with you; I need my longbow," Maeyurai said, before realizing something. "...Did you or the other guy take it?"
Seemingly not listening, Ugina merely shrugged again, trying to act unfazed by Maeyurai's irritated tone.
"Don't worry, I didn't take it. Wency did," he replied with the same tinge of sarcasm behind his words.
Maeyurai immediately stepped forward and landed a punch to Ugina's face. It felt satisfying.
"Bullcrap, give it back!" he yelled out. "I don't know why you're not troubled by the Shrieker, but I need my bow back!"
Ugina stumbled backwards as he felt the force of Maeyurai's punch. He held his cheeks gently and spat on the floor.
"Psh, you suck. Surely, you can punch harder than that, yeah?" he provoked.
Hearing this, Maeyurai threw another swing, which Ugina avoided.
In reply, Ugina sent his right knee directly to Maeyurai's stomach before swinging his right elbow towards Maeyurai's cranium, hitting like a hammer.
The stunned Maeyurai fell to the floor, coughing as he gasped for air.
"Hagh—" Maeyurai tried to inhale more oxygen but was only interrupted by Ugina's feet to his face.
"Come on!" Ugina shouted. "You were so cocky earlier; what happened to you, huh?"
He raised both of his hands, clearly mocking Maeyurai for his weakness.
As much as Maeyurai hated to admit, he is being overpowered by Ugina. He wanted so much to tear apart his face and beat him up. But of course, he couldn't.
Standing up, his legs were wobbly.
I feel weak... I should've trained my body harder!
If so, I could at least bring myself to this guy's level and beat him up!
Maeyurai raised his knee and sent a front kick, attempting to hit Ugina in the stomach.
However, Ugina managed to block the kick by placing both of his forearms in front of his abdominal muscles, stumbling back from the impact of the kick.
Smirking, he returned a hit by rotating his hips, performing a spinning back kick, and landing a direct hit to Maeyurai's jaw.
Maeyurai lost balance. He felt the world rotating, his eyes seeing stars.
But he managed to stay on his feet, though wriggling. He shifted his weight and managed to regain his balance, hunching forward.
"Why are you even trying to compete with me physically?" asked Ugina, belittling Maeyurai for being so eager.
"You know you can't beat me," he continued. "So just give up and run. Abandon that stupid bow of yours, and leave behind your pride as an archer."
After speaking, Ugina landed the final verbal blow.
"You don't belong here. Go back in your house and rot."
A blink. Then, a flash of fire.
Something bright swung by and hit Ugina in the face.
It was Maeyurai's hand, infused with fire. When Ugina was speaking, he was secretly infusing his hand with his Fire Magic.
After hitting Ugina, Maeyurai immediately dispelled the infusion to avoid exhausting his hand.
"That's what you get, you trash. Stop yapping when you're fighting someone."
Ugina felt that the punch was much stronger than earlier. Though, not twice. He also felt the intense heat that it carried due to being infused with fire, leaving a sharp pain on his cheek.
"Hrrgh..." Ugina growled in a low tone, glaring at Maeyurai.
Looking at Ugina's angry expression, Maeyurai felt satisfied.
Smirking, Maeyurai decided to provoke him by running away.
Turning around, Maeyurai sprinted at full speed, trying to escape from Ugina. Of course, out of anger, Ugina chased him down.
"Get back here!" yelled Ugina, trying to catch up to Maeyurai with all he's got.
Slowly, Ugina was gaining on Maeyurai.
But Maeyurai's sudden halt caught Ugina by surprise. Expecting a sneaky blow, he brought his guard up to protect his face and upper body, only to find out Maeyurai kept still.
What is that?!
In front, there was a tall, red creature, standing at a height of 3 meters.
It wasn't a Walker, nor a Crawler.
It turned its gaze towards the two and let out an ear-piercing shriek.
"RHIEEEEEEEEEEH!!"