Done killing the rat/cat creatures, Sun Bearer ceased glowing to conserve its energy because as easy as this fight had turned out to be, there were bound to be tougher opponents out there.

Compared to a fight where Adamu managed to stack benefits in his favor, that might not be the case for the subsequent encounters. After all, had not these rat/cat creatures given him the same amount of Pure Essence as the raven/cat creatures?

“Definitely in the same expandable spawn category!” Adamu concluded from the scant few experiences he had with these creatures. “Anyway, if I remember correctly, I should be sitting at thirty strands right now, I think, yet I am still not feeling any signs of imminent Essence Awakening manifesting.”

“Whatever.”

“At least I am not a bottom feeder with Sun Bearer in my hand.” Nodding with relief, Adamu went back to hugging the giant trees inside a ginormous forest enveloped by Silver Light.

However, contrary to what Adamu had thought would happen, it took very little time for the next batch to find him, as if the rat/cat numbers were endless on top of looking like clones of each other.

So, as the Night went on, Adamu kept dispatching the clusters of seven rat/cat creatures every time they sniffed him out. For all of them, he used the same scenario of a sudden flare of True Light to stun them before executing two or three easily. The rest then followed quickly after them. As such, thanks to Adamu’s fast and efficient decimation, they could not group with higher numbers against him.

Either way, once the fourth cluster of seven rat/cat creatures got slaughtered and the 51st strand of Pure Essence dissolved in Adamu’s body, he finally sensed an odd feeling assembling inside him.

It was still weak, though.

Much too weak for what he had planned on doing.

As such, with no other choice, Adamu ignored it and allowed the Compulsion to push him on with its desire to run in the southern direction, relatively speaking, after all, he did have to bend around giant trees.

Ceasing all movements, Adamu's head snapped to the right.

His golden eyes stared behind two giant trees. Specifically, he stared in between them and through a large bush-like plant covering a massive mountain of black, gray, and silver streeked fur.

For one single moment, Adamu stared and imagined what it could be, however, the instant that single moment ceased to be, he ran. He ran and did not look back because he felt his whole body shiver with dire warnings of imminent danger. Soo dangerous, in fact, that his gut instantly told his mind to not even dare observe the giant monster, as if just seeing it would doom him.

Whatever the truth was, Adamu dashing away steered the monster as it lunged from the bush to chase after the prey caught within its diamond-focused iris.

Still running, and despite having but briefly glanced at the monster, Adamu had witnessed enough to recognize some facts.

It was giant, probably two to three meters in height while on all fours. That would make its length at least double its height. Just from that quick assessment, Adamu was certain that if it stood on its two hind legs, it would tower even over his fully grown First of Man form, and Adamu had yet to even grow an inch bigger.

Its giant form aside, Adamu was confident that it had to be another one of those hybrid creatures bothering him since he awoke in this world. The reason? The black, gray, and silver streak pattern on its fur. Ignoring the possibility of the pattern doing anything Magical or not, just having a pattern and the pattern resembling the natural camouflage pattern of tigers said all that had to be said.

Another hybrid with cat features had come to make dinner out of him. The only question was what constituted the other part since a cat theme seemed to be the main part of the Illusion, or at least the part of the Illusion Adamu always found himself in.

Rushing and weaning around the giant trees, Adamu knew he had to understand the thickness of the line between life and death. So when he reached one appropriate curve, Adamu ceased all motion one single moment and glanced behind. Then he paled somewhat and resumed his running sequence.

Bear… It's part bear, no doubt about it. Adamu almost shouted in his mind. But that was not the worst that one tiny glance told him. The monster wasn't even rushing to catch him. No, what it was doing was closer to fast walking, but because of its size and four legs, that was all it took to keep pace with Adamu.

Not good… Not at all. Adamu understood. Think… Think… Think… Ah… that could work.

Just as Adamu conjured up an idea, things went from not good to worse.

Grrr

The low growl echoed all around him and into his ears, then his eardrums, and through them something else passed into his Body. Recognizing it for what it was, Adamu urgently activated Sun Bearer’s Protective Enchantment. Almost instantly, the Fear trying to manifest inside Adamu diminished, however, it did not completely vanish.

No… without even realizing it, Adamu had already been infected with a different kind of Fear, a predatorial Fear rooted within the most basic animalistic instinct caused by seeing a large and powerful killing machine expecting to make dinner out of you.

As such, these two types of Fears complemented each other to such a degree that they almost seemed to merge into one powerful Compulsion that expected Adamu to just give up completely on living by halting everything he was doing to quiver to the ground and beg this great and mighty Nightmare not to eat him, yet knowing for certain that it would savor him bite by bite.

That was the vision that floated inside Adamu’s mind when the Monsters Compulsion began emerging.

For the few moments when Adamu failed to react in time, it caused his body to flinch multiple times as he ran for his life while weaving around the giant trees.

Unfortunately, for the Nightmare Monster, Adamu had already been infected by another Compulsion of a much higher Rank. Thus, before it forced Adamu’s body to do what it sought to, Adamu’s intent focused on Sun Bearer’s Energy Reserve Runic Pattern. From it, he drew on Ina’s Glory to further strengthen the Protective Enchantment.

Still, Adamu could not wipe away the Fear Compulsion entirely, however, it also did not grow more menacing as well, which was plenty for Adamu. Nevertheless, in the back of his mind, Adamu's appreciation of Sun Bearer grew further and further.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Saved from the worst, Adamu knew he could not outrun the giant predator. Luckily, as Adamu had noticed before, these hybrid creatures vying for his Spirit Juice, and possibly more, had one glaring flaw.

If everything Adamu had observed so far held even one grain of truth about the hybrids, then it was their longing to thoroughly cook, in a certain sense, their prey with Fear before actually trying to eat them. As such, before his time came, Adamu had a feeling that the Monster leisurely trodding behind him would give him the chance to live long enough to cheat his way out of the danger.

Assuming it so, in between two giant trees, Adamu finally affirmed his decision.

Adamu’s goal was somewhere west of where he first started running from the bear/cat Monster, but much more cat than bear.

So before he went west, he had to take a 180-degree turn north to return to that place before going west, which meant passing right by the giant Monster hunting him.

So when Adamu affirmed his decision, he slowed down, although not instantly. The effect was immediate when the bear/cat Monster leisurely caught up anticipating an easy meal. Then, when Adamu’s body shivered from imminent doom, Sun Bearer’s top glowed so bright, so suddenly, and near its laser-focused eyes, that it instantly blinded the bear/cat Monster.

On top of that came the pain caused by the sudden presence of True Light making the bear/cat Monster flinch away at just the right moment, causing its hyperactive reflexes to urge it to reflexively jump away from the harm without any rime or dime that it had even done so.

Adamu, on the other hand, had dashed away at max speed the moment the flare of True Light emerged.

However, even without seeing what happened next, he did hear the mighty crashing sounds echo into the first as the giant bear/cat Mosnter collided with one giant tree after another, causing the already cascading hyperactive senses it possessed to flare moment after moment from every brief contact with a giant tree.

ROAR THUD

ROAR THUD

ROAR THUD

Snorting once with delight at the unexpected result, Adamu used every shred of strength he possessed to dash somewhere northwest.

Why had Admau chosen that particular direction?

Well… After killing the seventh cluster of rat/cat creatures, Adamu realized that the interval between their interactions diminished as well. Therefore, Adamu posited that there might be a nearby den for them to spawn from since they held part of a rat’s nature. That being the case, Adamu had realigned his approach south, with the consequences of running into the giant bear/cat Monster. Only now he was forced back to that place since fighting the rat/cat creatures was a much better option than fighting a hungry giant killing machine.

Whatever the choice, however, Adamu knew that he had little time to reach his destination because his gut told him that the Monster would recover quite fast, and when it did, it was a 50/50 chance of it coming after him to finally finish him for good or as revenge for having hurt and embarrassed it so much.

When the first rat/cat creatures appeared in front of Adamu, he knew he was on the right track.

Another sudden flare, and he dispatched them within seconds. The reward for killing them flooded Adamu’s fleshly depths, but he was still far from the outburst he required despite having already stored the 72nd strand of Pure Essence.

A hunch told him of the possible reason, but he ignored it in favor of searching for a rat/cat den.

It had to be underground, of that Adamu was sure. The question was where exactly because even after dispatching another two groups of the creatures he found no trace of it. However, when he compared the times between their appearances, he knew he was close, very close.

Regardless, what else was closer also reached his ears.

ROAR

With no other choice, Adamu rushed and ignored combat altogether.

Instead, he took into account every cluster of the rat/cat creatures and made a conjecture. Once he had that one, Adamu corrected his approach and found the entrance with a long trail of rat/cat creatures on his tail.

Not even bothering to examine if it truly was the entrance or not, Adamu dashed into the surprisingly large hole and tunnel found within. However, the moment Adamu reached the first fork in the tunnel, he ceased moving further. Quickly considering his options, he instead dashed back to the entrance with a flashing shaft, thereby stunning the first few creatures before quickly dispatching them.

However, Adamu did not rush to kill the subsequent ones. Instead, he began to poke the hell out of the rat/cat creatures with his glowing spear shaft since they could not gang up on him inside the tunnel.

Like this, he forced the creatures to backtrack right out of the hole and into the welcoming claws of the bear/cat Monster.

Stuck between Adamu and the giant bear/cat, the rat/cat creatures' numbers dwindled quickly. Then, when enough got culled, Adamu rushed back inside the tunnel and stopped right at the forked tunnel.

There, he waited for the struggles to reach him before being smashed to death one by one.

Once all of them were dead, Adamu listened to the Monster’s unhappy growling before it began digging with its paws and claws. Still, regardless of the danger, Adamu did not rush away into the tunnels. Instead, he waited there to see if the giant bear/cat would give up, and if it did not, then he would like to see just how long it would dig for him.

Both options favored Adamu since both would give him the necessary rest time. In the end, whatever option turned out to be the best solution, all Adamu had to wait for was for the Source of True Light to Dawn, causing all his current troubles to vanish.

So Adamu waited as the giant claws dug closer and closer. In the end, Adamu had to admit that the bear/cat was either very angry at him or its persistence to feed on his Spirit was that much stronger because Adamu inched closer to the left forking tunnel.

Soon after, it was time to head deeper because the giant front paws and claws did not give up.

Occasionally, Adamu would observe the depths of the tunnel for any hidden ambushers, but it was hard to distinguish anything through the ordinary darkness hiding everything.

I wonder if all the rat/cat creatures left to hunt or are possibly cowering down deeper, just like I am now.

With nothing currently ambushing Adamu from behind and a giant bear/cat slowly digging for his juicy Spirit, time passed.

Then, all of a sudden, all grating digging sounds ceased reaching Adamu’s ears.

Wondering about the cause, Adamu neared the now giant entrance the bear/cat made, however, no giant paws or claws were present.

Is this a trap? Or has it finally given up? Questioning in his mind, Adamu refused to leave the rat/cat den just yet. Instead, he waited and waited for any indicator to reach his ears, but the only thing that did was the background noise of a forest.

“Wait a second…” Adamu voiced as a possibility reached him because the noise was far closer to birds chirping as the first Rays of Dawn materialized. Of course, these were much stronger because the birds were likely much bigger, but to Adamu, they undisputedly sounded like morning chirps. “Phu… Looks like I am out of trouble then.”

Yet, in the same instant, Adamu determined he was, in fact, safe, the world decided otherwise as the ancient forest, seen from the gap of the rat/cat tunnel, shrunk with remarkable speed.

However, that was not all.

In the same instant, the world shrunk down, it oozed out True Darkness and began flooding the tunnel Adamu took refuge in. With its influx, the opening for the rat/cat tunnel entrance closed even faster, but not how one expected it.

Instead, the True Darkness seemed to pull at the ends of the tunnel to close the opening, almost like a living breathing anal opening clenching its muscles to shut itself up.

As such, within seconds, there was no entrance.

Only True Darkness remained.

“Oh…”