The smell of burning flesh quickly assaulted my nose.

Over a dozen invisible creatures had been caught in the fire.

As they screamed in agony, the invisibility on one of them wore off and I could finally see what was making me so nervous.

Flailing around on the ground near me was a 6 foot long creature with a humanoid upper half and a snakes tail lower half.

It had green skin and long nails on each of its fingers that are at least 30 cm long. Each on of them was like an individual knife attached to its fingers.

The creatures continued to flail in agony until they finally succumbed to the flames. At the same time the fire around me began to sizzle out.

Most the creatures caught in it burned to death from it but a few survived, however, they were in no condition to do anything anymore.

[Soul Manifest]

[Your soul is excited]

[You have slain a Corrupt Lamia]

[…]

The moment the flames died down enough I dashed through them.

Sure enough the other Lamia quickly gave chase as they destroyed anything in their way with their strength.

As I ran I skirted corners, took shortcuts through building, even leapt over some building, however, I was unable to lose the Lamia.

In fact, barely after a minute of running the number of Lamia chasing me reached a level where I could no longer count them all.

Everywhere I looked I could see invisible and visible Lamia smashing the area to bits as they chased me with hatred in there cold, beady, black eyes.

The focus and drive behind their pursuit sent chills up my spine.

This didn’t feel like a normal creature hunting for food. This felt personal somehow.

Maybe I pissed off a Lamia in a past life or something.

These Lamia also gave a terrifying sense of unity with each other. It is like they aren’t exactly separate individuals, but, more the same. They even resemble each other to an uncanny degree. The only differences I can notice between them right now are some scars of unique injuries on some of them. Apart from that, they are the same.

Their faces, their height, their muscular torsos, even their hair.

This is a truly terrifying position to be in.

As I continue running from the Lamia as I try to lose them, some of them managed to catch up to me.

Some of them even managed to take a different route and meet me in front of me.

These Lamia all swung their hands at me, using their nails as their weapons like an old horror movie character I know of.

I quickly dodged these Lamia I could see but the ones I couldn’t would occasional manage to scrape me.

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Small wounds were forming on my body as the hunt continued.

I started casting low power [Incarnat] in a ring around my constantly, giving me a better idea of when an invisible Lamia is attacking me.

With this I could see when they would split the fire and could dodge their attacks.

I would even up the power on [Incarnat] when a lot of them got near me or I would throw a spell behind me to reduce their numbers.

This continued for 15 minutes as I ran for my life.

In this time I killed hundreds of Lamia and I received so many wounds that I was covered in blood all over my body.

Eventually the scenery started to change as we left what I could only assume to be Lamia territory. We came across some other creatures on the way but I ignored them and left them to the Lamia, who always crowded them before mutilating them.

We were moving into a more affluent area of the city. The streets were wider and the houses larger.

I had less options for dodging or trying to lose them here because there were less obstacles to use, however, I didn’t mind because I had a plan.

Since I clearly couldn’t shake the Lamia on my own, I was going to get help from creatures in another territory.

A few kilometres ahead of me I could see a few old buildings that I recognised. They were tall, massive block shaped buildings that formed a little community of their own. The buildings were run down and in disrepair but thankful the buildings aren’t that important.

What is important is that these buildings make up the school of 4 foot creatures with big eyes that I scouted before.

My plan is simple.

I am going to run straight through the centre of the school and out the other side, leaving the Lamia and gremlin creatures to fight each other.

It is a bit risky but I really don’t have another choice right now.

As I approach the school I can see the gremlin creatures in the distance. A few of them were walking around the buildings but the majority of them could be seen with their heads barely poking over the windowsills of the upper floors.

Once close enough, I cast a high power [Incarnat] and through it at the closest building.

BANG

The collision shook the ground as a hole opened up through the bottom floor of the building. To my surprise the building actually held up from the explosion as I was fully expecting the entire thing to fall.

It doesn’t matter though as it already did it’s job.

The moment the explosion happened all the gremlin creatures in side searched for the cause, and when they saw me and the Lamia running at them in the distance, they stared straight at us with their big yellow eyes.

A slight shiver ran down my spine when I saw them staring at me.

It was a different kind of terrifying to see children sized creatures with big eyes staring at you from within a school…

As the Lamia and I approached the school, the gremlins began moving to intercept us.

Once I was barely a hundred meters from the hole I had created I could see the gremlins inside, all staring at us through the hole.

They didn’t move, they didn’t scream, they just stared at us.

I prepared another [Incarnat] and blasted it at the hole before using [Rubius] as a shield and sprinting through the flames.

After I was clear through the other side of the building I turned around to see if I was being followed and sure enough, the Lamia charged through the hole without a care.

The gremlin however, didn’t move.

They stayed in the fire without flinching and continued to stare at us. Some of them focuses on the Lamia, others on me.

The shiver down my spine grew stronger, feeling more like I was being electrocuted than nervous.

[Soul Manifest]

[Your soul is excited]

[You have slain a Corrupt Gazer]

[…]

Shortly after, as I continued through the school and prepared to blast another hole through the next building, the first Gazers succumbed to the flames.

Their name irked me though.

Gazer.

These gazers are doing nothing but look at us.

Are they really weak creatures?

That shouldn’t be possible since they have their own territory.

No matter how many of them there are, if they are weak then other creatures wouldn’t treat this place with caution.

I blasted a hole through the next building and dived through the flames again.

This time on the other side I also released a ring of fire to set everything around me on fire. The Lamia and the gazers were both engulfed in my flames and would die shortly after.

Before I went to blast through the next building which is also the last, I turned my head to see how many pursuers I had. And to my absolute shock, there were so few Lamia that I could easily deal with them now. Which is a far cry from the hundreds, if not thousands that were chasing me beforehand.

Without thinking too much about it I decided it was a good thing and prepared to cast [Incarnat].

I raised my right hand in front me to cast it but then I noticed something…

Something that quickly made me realise what allowed the Gazers to earn a territory.

My right hand…

Heck my arm up to my elbow…

It was melting…