I've successfully exhausted all of the easy targets.

This last target was much harder to kill, even able to block [Damnation Impact] to some extent.

I sat down next to the destruction the both of us had just wrought.

I took a look at the list of distances.

When I scroll down a single listing, it moves about a single pixel.

If I scroll all the way to the bottom at a consistent speed of about fifty pixels per second, it takes about fourteen seconds.

So there's approximately six to seven hundred champions remaining.

I dismissed the list and looked at up the sky.

I wonder if Biatheise is even still alive now... even stasis has its limitations after all...

I inhaled deeply.

If I spend too much time worrying, there's a chance that she will die before I make my wish.

I stood.

Back to it.

----------------------------------------

The Voracious Stalker

These creatures around Andrew are so strange.

I couldn't help but think that each and every day.

They relied so completely upon him, and yet they were happy despite it.

It was clear that each was troubled in one of a myriad of ways, and yet they smiled so often... it was perplexing.

Even the thoughts that would invade my mind to explain the universe around me offered me no satisfying answer.

Suddenly, a strange sensation invaded my periphery.

It was a strange rhythmic tactile feeling, it flowed from my shoulders to just before my hips.

I turned to see the source and saw the whitish creature... Leyn the Fifska.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"It's called petting... it's something that my mother used to do to help me calm down as a child... you seemed stressed and... oh dear, you don't like it do you...? I'll just leave, I'm sorry for-"

I scowled. "It's fine, I've just never felt it before."

Leyn unburied his face in his hands and looked up at me. "Oh? Did your mother not do that for you?"

"I don't have a mother."

He smiled sheepishly at me. "Surely you had someone who gave birth to you?"

"No, I just suddenly existed one day."

Leyn chuckled, until he realized that my expression didn't change.

"You're serious?"

"Yes, I'm serious."

He stared blankly at me for a while as we walked.

It started to bother me, so I asked him a question to at least get him to say something.

"So, why are you walking with me instead of someone else?"

Leyn snapped out of his stupor. He then became embarrassed. "O-oh... you just looked lonely is all... maybe I was presumptuous... I'll leave if you-"

"It's fine, you don't have to leave."

Leyn simply smiled.

What a strange creature.

Leyn's strange behaviors continued, even over the next few days... he would come meet up with me after his lessons with Juohen and we would talk for some time until Leyn got tired, hungry, or something else.

It was so strange to me that even despite me... well, being what I am... he still came to see me over and over.

It eventually came to a head when I asked him a question on a particular day.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"What do you think the purpose of life is?"

Leyn looked at me with surprise. "Oh, I'm not really qualified to say something so-"

"Leyn, I asked you, not your mentor, not your mother, not Andrew... I asked you. If I wanted a qualified answer, I would have asked a philosopher."

Leyn pondered my question for a moment. "I guess the purpose of life is whatever you make of it? I never really had much growing up, but I was still happy as long as I was with my mom and dad."

"If you were happy, why did you come here?" I coaxed.

"Well, I have and my siblings have an illness that drastically reduces our lifespans... in fact I'm the only one of us still alive. The reason I'm here is because I wanted to stay with my mom and dad, and because I wanted the three of us to be able to live together happily."

"Why go through so much effort to live? What's the point?"

Leyn smiled and rolled up a sleeve to flex a muscle he didn't possess. "It's like my dad always says: 'the hardest things in life are the ones most worth doing'!"

I stared ahead. "The hardest things huh?"

A day or two after that, Andrew stopped us to make an announcement. "In order to continue on this path, we need to pass by a champion who refuses to budge! If we don't, we're likely to have champions up our asses within the hour! We'll send Hund and Polyu to scout and see what kind of threat we'll be facing, everyone else, be ready to attack or flee in case of an emergency!"

"So, what about me? Where do I fit into your master plan?" I asked.

Andrew looked over at me. "Didn't you hear me? Be ready to attack or flee."

I flared my nostrils at him and looked around for a place to lay down for a while.

As it turns out though, it only took a couple of minutes for the scouts to return.

They reported to Andrew, whose posture sunk upon hearing it.

"Bad news everyone! Apparently, the champion in there has some sort of wide-angle attack that allows the use of plants, so our numbers are going to be a liability!"

Murmuring swept through the crowd... but it didn't apply to me anyway, so I just laid back down.

That was when footsteps approached me, a familiar pair of feet.

They stopped just outside of striking distance of me, just as they always did.

"So, Stalker? How would you like to help us out here?" Andrew asked.

I shifted over to look at him. "Why?"

Andrew sighed and walked a little closer to me, before crouching to just about eye-level. "Alright, how about this: you race Sydui and I to see who can kill the champion the fastest?"

"Oh, and let you have the numbers advantage?"

"Well, consider it a way to even out the fact that I have a distance tracker on me at all times." He retorted.

I stood and shook myself off. "You know what? Sure, I'm bored."

The two of us walked to the edge of where the scouts told us the plant-control-area began.

A very confused Hund agreed to officiate, and begun the countdown. "Three, two, one..." He fired off one of those poison-needle things he uses. "Go!"

All three of us sprinted into the area, holding nothing back from the start in terms of speed.

As soon as we entered, we were immediately bombarded in every direction by vines and falling trees.

As we dashed, I was caught by surprise from a thornbush that fired its thorns through me.

Luckily, I was able to move before they hit anything vital, but it definitely hurt.

After a moment, my [Regeneration] kicked in as it always does, but by then I was behind Andrew by a bit.

"What's wrong Stalker?! Is a thornbush giving you trouble back there?!" He goaded.

"Are you sure you should wind yourself by yelling backward at me?!" I replied.

He was about to say something else, when a root wrapped around his foot and tripped him.

He easily managed to use his liquid metal thing to cut it and move before anything could finish him off, but it did allow me to get ahead of him again.

I grinned as I leapt over them both.

A myriad of plants all ripped out of the ground and tried to seize us, only to be slashed to pieces by Andrew, and entirely bypassed by me.

All of my senses were going into overdrive, all of my ears pinpointing the dangers before they could hurt me.

Despite myself, I started laughing.

I hadn't even realized that I was smiling, and here I was laughing too!

I piled on the speed, leaping from falling tree to falling tree.

Andrew suddenly appeared beside me, in the arms of his companion, wreathed in shadow like the last time we had fought.

"Can't you keep up without help there Andrew?!" I taunted.

"Nope, and I have absolutely no shame right now!"

Just then, a mountain of falling trees split the path down the middle.

"Looks like this is where we part Andrew! See you after I've killed the champion!"

"Not if I see you first Stalker!"

We both made our way around the wall of bark and raced toward the champion.

I technically didn't know for certain where they were, but if the thornbushes trying to turn me into a fine paste were any indication, I figured I was on the right track.

I used [Plate Flesh] to reduce the damage I took and rushed straight through them.

I was riddled with shallow wounds, causing every step to fill me with pain.

But I didn't care! I was going to beat Andrew and that was that!

Once I cleared the thornbushes, I saw the champion fixed in place amidst wall after wall of trees, thornbushes, and vines.

"If that's how you want to play it, then I oblige you!"

I charged forward, being further riddled with thorns.

My [Regeneration] couldn't keep up and I started to slow down.

Roots and vines wrapped around me and I knew it was over.

I was crushed to death in moments.

Usually when I died and [Second Chance] activated, I chose a location far away from where I died, because it gave me the best chance to survive the coming days.

However, if I did that now, I'd only have to go back through the gauntlet again... so the only option was this...

My dust recollected right above the champion's head and I dropped onto him.

"Surprise!"

He looked up in horror, he didn't have enough time to react.

I bit his stupid head off, causing him to turn into dust.

All of the plants suddenly returned to normal at once, and a certain oppressive aspect of the atmosphere shifted.

I stood there, breathing heavily and smiling like an idiot.

I felt... alive.

Maybe this is what Leyn meant when he quoted his father?

Andrew finally ran in, only to see my victory.

"Nice to see you finally showed up Andrew~!" I called at him.

"Damn! You got here fast didn't you?" He shrugged. "I concede defeat Stalker, good job."

A certain weight that was constantly in my stomach suddenly lifted, and I found myself speechless.

Andrew pointed backward with his thumb. "Race you back to the group?"

"You're so on!"

----------------------------------------

Andrew

After The Stalker had started to gloat about his victory, Hund walked up and whispered to me.

"So, you let him win didn't you?"

I chuckled. "What gave it away?"

"You seem like you're in much better spirits than you should be."

I crossed my arms behind my head. "There wasn't really a chance of him beating me in the first place honestly... I had the speed advantage, the range advantage, and the firepower advantage... he just had toughness, which was almost useless in this race."

"So why'd you lose on purpose then?"

"I dunno, I thought he just looked like he needed a win."

We both looked over as The Stalker retold the part where I was tripped by the root and everyone around him laughed.

Hund smiled. "I think you might have been right on with this one."