A blond girl was clinging to the golden fur of a huge ape with a dazed expression. They were running headfirst into a horde of beasts — The horde which seemed like a dark wall of shadows before now looked like a wall of myriad beings.
A few seconds later the giant ape collided with the horde; a snake lunged onto it, biting its leg. Soon a horned rhino stabbed the ape as a group of bees stung it. The ape let out a shrill cry and kept running forward.
I had never thought about any goal for me…
Flieday felt a sharp pain in her hand, and another one and another one. She was being stung constantly by the bees but her mind did not care.
The attacks from graded beasts were being canceled by the ape for the time being but Flieday knew she would not survive if this kept going. She gestured at the ape as the image of her sister flashed in her mind.
The ape grunted and turned around instantly, now running with the horde — in the frenzy no beast held actual malice towards either So Flieday or her golden ape. They were merely being punished for blocking the beast's path to living.
I'll think about my goal after meeting with my parents… I should survive until then
Soon the beasts stopped attacking the ape, and the bees left Flieday alone as they ran along the flow. However, the graded attacks still had to be blocked by the ape thus slowing it down.
In a matter of seconds the ape's energy reserves were exhausted and it showed immediately. Flieday felt the world around them get brighter and brighter as if white flames were burning around her.
The darkness was hidden in the excruciating white glow as she looked to her feet. The ape had slown down considerably; it too was under this kind of attack. Flieday herself did not feel any warmer or hotter.
She allowed herself to fully focus on what's happening and soon found her answer.
Everything is made of matter and energy; the only reason my vision is changing is light. If I am seeing everything as bright as white, then my eyes are allowing more light inside than necessary. It can control my body to an extent!
The world shone brightly as Flieday closed her eyes. However, to her dismay, she was wrong — even when she closed her eyes, she would see pure white. Before she could change her thinking, however, the world slowly turned darker and darker.
In less than a moment she could finally see the darkness she should have with her eyes closed. When she opened her eyes, she saw a huge squid in her periphery vision.
The squid had its main body above the ground and its tentacles inside it — its skin was dark pink which was slowly turning white.
The squid had plenty of scars covering its thick skin as Flieday looked around. She was in a sandy patch with no vegetation around. The sand dunes that towered around her were spread sparsely around her.
The geography of this part of Kle was made of small patches of Sprik jungles, white deserts and bedrock jungles.
She was not too far away from the horde — only about some kilometers away from there. She was not actually moving her head around to observe; rather; she was only using her peripheral vision to see the squid and surroundings.
"What's your tribe?"
***
"How absurd…"
A huge dark blob of blood was concentrated in the middle of what seemed like a creator on top of the mountain of corpses.
In the peak of the mountain of corpses there lay a arena of some sorts; the sole champion of it was a blob of blood concentrated on its centre.
Before Elias could even blink, the blob disappeared from in front of him. He turned his head and saw faint afterimages in his periphery before it appeared right beside him.
In the next moment Elias was falling headfirst from the mountain of corpses. He felt excruciating pain in his hands. He instantly brought his hands in front of him as he jammed his legs into the mountain — the days of training every muscle in his body were going to benefit him now even if it did nothing to help him in the fight.
Both of his arm's entire forearm was blown away; his torn muscles hung from the sides.
He used most of his muscles in the legs and muscles on his back to slow down his fall considerably.
He looked upward once again and saw the harrowing blob of blood falling towards him.
He had assumed that the beast could not come down from the peak because of some unknown reason but was spectacularly wrong.
Now that Elias had purposefully slowed down his fall he was like a fish in a net. He panicked momentarily before calming down; using his remaining hands and legs to dig into the mountain of corpses.
His pure strength and application of muscle were refined to the pinnacle in the hundreds of lays, thus digging out corpses did not strain him.
No matter who is faster, everyone falls at the same speed.
Come to think of it, if the creature is a blob of blood, then is it staying on top of the mountain of corpses to stay away from the river? Wait, if it is a blob of blood, then how does it sense me?
Elias stopped digging corpses as suspicion struck him. He quickly changed his plan and took some corpses out and started tearing them apart.
The blob of blood could ambush him at any second, thus he was extremely vigilant and alert.
With every second passing like eternity, he tore and connected as many muscles as he could.
As soon as the horrid stench of blood entered his nostrils and assaulted his mind. He took a deep breath and jumped out of the small cave he had dug out.
He was completely bare except for the thick sheet of muscles and tendons stuck to his hands and legs. At least whatever remained of his hands that is.
He knew that he could not see the movement of the blob clearly and was too slow to hit it, thus he decided to use gravity to protect himself.
He glided for a couple of seconds before the sheet of flesh tore into chunks of white muscle. However, that few seconds worth of gliding were enough for him to gain distance from the mountain.
He was falling at an impeccable speed as the river churned around him; he was constantly looking around to get a faint glimpse at the blob before it hit him.
Here it is!
Since he was escaping, the blob had no choice but to take the risk and fight Elias mid-air with its doom underneath.
Elias caught an afterimage of the blob and prepared himself — the blob appeared at his feet but instead of Elias not moving like the last time he dove his leg into it.
He used his every muscle to implant his leg as deep inside the blob as he could, for he had assumed that the blob had a core as a weak point
Something has to be keeping this thing together!
Elias felt his leg faintly touch something before he slammed into something.