John yelled out orders in a hurry, pointing at Dennis. “Leave Kerchak behind and run! We need to give it a reason to stay here!”

Dennis seemed hesitant, but he knew it was a matter of life and death, so he nodded and started running. “See you guys later, I hope!”

John took off, hoping the meat left behind would be enough to stop the bony horror from pursuing them. He lightened his weight to make Larang as fast as possible, not having the liberty to think about Rain's comfort.

The rumbling got louder, coming from the spiky mountains surrounding them. John looked behind him to see Kerchak lightly running after Dennis, leaving plenty of room between them.

If the lizard's corpse stopped the horror, they might still be able to keep Kerchak alive. But John didn’t dare be optimistic. He had a slight fear that it would keep following him regardless of the food left behind.

‘Please don’t come after me again, please, please, please! You didn’t understand my insults, so why would you?’

Rain clung to his back as they sped up, going above the mountains before evening out horizontally. While flying like this, their top speed was approximately eighty meters per second, which would be too fast for Rain. And not fast enough to escape.

“Rain, can you look behind? Do you see the bones?”

He felt Rain turning her head, unintentionally hitting him with her antlers. “White, many white, following!”

“Not stopping with the demon?” John asked, praying she had omitted that part.

“Demon gone, still following!” she replied, confirming John’s fears and sending a chill down his back.

‘Fucking shit! Fuck! What do I do?’

He considered flying as high as he could manage, but he had no confidence that it would save them. “Rain, any ideas?!” he asked, recalling how she had a better solution the last time they met the horror.

“... Black shield.”

John understood what she meant and immediately thought of combining the teleporting shield and the black essence in his necklace. It would be a sure kill as long as he aimed it correctly. Or, at least, he hoped it would.

“Good plan, but dangerous! No way to escape?”

Rain paused first, but then she shook her head. “Not both. Only John.”

“Not happening! We try black shield!”

There was one significant issue with the shield, though. It was heavier than what Larang could carry, meaning they would be forced into a free fall as soon as he retrieved it. So John ascended, no longer bothering with moving horizontally.

‘This is such a gamble… There’s no way I can stop our fall only fifty meters from the ground unless I use air blasts. But that would very likely hurt Rain a lot. I will have to use the method I used last time the planet broke apart.’

“Bones under us soon! Be–”

Rain was forced to stop talking as the wave of pressure caught up with them both. Once again, John felt himself being unable to move, like he was buried deeply under the dunes below them.

He filled his body to the limit with liquid essence, forcing himself to move, and then he withdrew the shield from his core before willingly falling off of Larang’s blade.

They fell straight down. John could finally see the giant wave of bones below them, although it was considerably smaller than last time. A pink area in the middle was clearly visible, indicating the approximate location of the horror itself.

It had stopped moving and seemed to be waiting for John to fall into its clutches, rearing its ugly pink head from the pile of bones surrounding it.

Over half the distance was behind them now, and the speed was still increasing. The shield was pressed against John’s chest, next to the necklace, ready to be infused with the black essence. He had to time it correctly so it didn’t cause issues while he held it.

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‘You think you’ll win this easily, don’t you? I’ll show you what happens when you underestimate us humans!’

Focusing intensely on the necklace, John reached out toward the shield, letting a tendril of the black essence spread onto it. He held the shield by the edges before him, watching the darkness slowly embrace it.

The pink beast was now staring John in the eyes, letting out a fierce roar and spreading its feet. The pink goo surrounding it started moving, sending a thin glob moving up toward the two falling figures.

‘Ahh, fuck you…’

He wouldn’t be able to send the shield forward if he was dead, and he assumed the goo had some powerful corrosive properties, considering the bones it left behind. So he summoned Larang and the shortsword, sending them both toward the beast to distract it.

Larang moved quickly once the gravity started working, but the lucky sword trailed well behind. It worked like a charm, though. After the last time, the beast seemed afraid of anything John sent toward it.

It dodged to the side, losing control of the goo shooting up toward them, and had to dodge again once Larang changed directions. But then it was ready again, turning its focus back to John and Rain.

‘Too late! Bitch!’

The shield fell alongside John now, speeding up due to its weight and lack of air resistance. It was covered entirely in the black essence, and then it was gone.

Straight above the pink horror, it appeared, falling at an incredible speed. And barely a thousandth of a second later, it embedded itself in its back.

But unlike what John had expected, it didn’t pierce through the flesh like it had done with everything else it touched. Instead, it stopped in place while the black essence shot forward into its body. And then the horror was dead.

John didn’t have time to admire the result, though. He was still falling toward the ground, no more than fifty meters above it at this point. The heavy pressure disappeared once the beast died, but John still needed to pull out all his tricks to make this landing survivable for them both.

Larang was back under John’s feet, pushing them upward with full force while his hands blasted wind below them. The sudden braking force caused Rain to squeeze against his back, and he could hear her losing her breath as her lungs compressed.

‘Hold on, Rain! This won’t last long!’

The force needed to stop them in such a short distance greatly strained John’s essence. Nearly five times the standard pull of gravity was working on their bodies, and John felt the harness holding Rain digging deeply into his shoulders.

They were about to hit the ground only a few seconds later, but nearly all the momentum had disappeared. The impact and air spells sent a small sand cloud into the air, but John considered it a safe landing.

“Rain, are you okay?”

He turned his head and tried to look at her. Her head was leaning on his shoulder as she let out an airless groan. Then she released a series of short, empty coughs. She clearly wasn’t in a good shape. But there were no serious injuries as far as he could tell.

He released the harness from his shoulders, letting her slip down from his back. She leaned forward with her hands on her thighs, still breathing roughly.

“Haaah, Rain… Rain no fly,” she managed to say before releasing the contents of her stomach onto the sand.

John couldn’t help but smile a bit before walking over to hold her forehead up. That had always helped him when he vomited, giving him a sense of safety and care. “You’ll be fine, Rain. We won.”

He looked over at the still corpse of the pink horror, with its six legs and rotund body. The way the black essence had acted let him know that Rain had done more than save his hands back then. She had saved his life.

The adrenaline was still pumping through his veins, but John felt surprisingly calm about the situation, like he hadn’t just been in a harrowing life-and-death struggle at all.

Finished with her artwork, Rain leaned back and lay down on the sand, looking pale and exhausted. John shoved some sand over it, and then he sat down next to her.

“Feeling better?”

“... Small better.”

Her voice was still shallow and hoarse, but it was improving rapidly.

“That was a great idea, using the shield. You saved us… But don’t say I should go alone again. I won’t leave you, okay?”

Rain had a mix of contentment and frustration on her face as she replied. “Okay… I like John.”

“I like you too, Rain. Like a sister.”

“What sister?”

“Mmh, it’s like family. Like… someone you grow up with, and someone who supports you. Hopefully.”

Rain looked up at the sky in confusion. “Family sound nice. Rain, no family.”

John looked over at her, feeling both pity and surprise. She had never revealed anything about her past before. “... We can be family. Don’t you think?”

Rain looked back at him with a hopeful look. “Rain and John, family?”

“Yeah.”

She leaned back, regaining some of the color in her face. “John… Family is nice.”