Point of View: Tharok
"Face me, coward!"
That bastard increased his speed again the moment he heard my voice.
I clenched my teeth and continued chasing him through the snow-covered trees. Every step made the pain in my body worsen. My muscles were slowly tearing apart while Origin Energy surged violently through my body.
Overload was pushing me beyond my limits.
And my body was paying the price.
I stared at Rogan's back in the distance.
"I won't make it much farther… My body won't last that long."
That was the real problem.
I was never worried about Drakar's tribe. Before reaching that place, the backlash of Overload would appear first.
After all, this art was never created for pursuits.
It was meant for short and brutal battles. To crush the enemy quickly.
Not to maintain this pace.
And even less in my current condition.
I gritted my teeth harder and forced my body to accelerate further. I could feel my wounds opening more with every movement. My breathing grew heavier and small drops of blood fell onto the snow as I ran.
But I kept moving.
I didn't care how much pain I had to endure.
I only needed to reach him once.
Just once.
My vision blurred for an instant and the forest ahead of me seemed to distort slightly. I blinked hard while trying to regain focus.
"Damn it…"
I lost too much blood, and it's starting to affect even my mind.
Overload isn't helping either.
The heartbeats echoed inside my head like explosions.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
I took a deep breath and tried to focus.
I couldn't lose consciousness now.
I grabbed a stone from the ground and hurled it with all my strength.
BOOM!
The rock tore violently through the air, but Rogan barely managed to dodge it again.
I clicked my tongue.
"Again…"
My vision distorted once more for a brief moment. This time, I thought I saw my grandfather standing in front of me.
He was smiling.
The image vanished in the next second.
I breathed heavily while my heart beat even faster.
"No… not now…"
The pain.
The guilt.
The fury.
Everything was beginning to mix together inside my head.
ROAR!
Both of us turned toward the sound.
Abominations.
The noise of our chase was attracting them.
My expression darkened.
This was becoming complicated.
At this rate, I won't catch him.
I picked up another stone, this one smaller, and reinforced it with Origin Energy before throwing it again.
The projectile whistled through the air.
Rogan dodged once more.
But this time I smiled.
My body was falling apart.
But I could still think.
And I had just realized something.
I looked toward the direction Rogan was fleeing, then heard another roar in the distance.
My smile widened further.
"That'll work…"
Point of View: Rogan
My breathing was chaotic.
I constantly looked around while running between the trees. The roars kept getting closer, and that only made my heart pound faster.
ROAR!
No…
No…
They're already here.
It's too soon.
I clenched my teeth and tried to increase my speed even more. Drakar's tribe couldn't be that far away anymore. I just had to keep moving.
That was all.
I couldn't stop.
I couldn't let him catch me.
Suddenly, something passed by my head.
I leaned sideways purely on instinct.
BOOM!
The tree in front of me partially exploded, several small holes piercing through the trunk.
"That bastard!"
I quickly got back up and continued running.
Another whistle cut through the air.
I barely dodged it.
My expression slowly darkened.
Those weren't normal rocks.
They were small fragments reinforced with Origin Energy. They weren't enough to kill me, but they could injure me badly enough to slow me down.
And he knew it.
My breathing grew heavier.
I need to change direction.
His attack pattern is becoming too precise.
In the middle of my sprint, I abruptly changed course, but the moment I did, my body tensed.
I stopped for an instant.
My eyes slowly widened as I stared at the forest ahead of me.
Roars.
Many of them.
A chill ran down my spine.
I clenched my fists tightly.
"He guided me toward the abominations…"
Slowly, I turned my head back.
In the distance, Tharok was smiling.
His body was covered in blood.
His breathing was unstable.
And even so, he kept advancing.
"Keep running, Father…"
I gritted my teeth.
If I stopped, he would catch me.
If I ignored his attacks, he would still catch me.
And if I kept running…
I would walk directly into the jaws of the abominations.
My expression slowly darkened.
"He's trapped me…"