Miles’s heart skipped a beat. He felt death was approaching, and the smelly breath of the monster was above him. His end was close, and he couldn’t do much except summon his armor and be swallowed as a whole by the impending doom.

He swam frantically as he willed his armor to cover his body. As he did so, a familiar warmth sprouted out from his heart and covered his whole body. The warmness moved to his every muscle, and all of them inhaled it as a heavenly blessing. Miles's hands, arms, and legs moved faster. If before he could only push the water a little bit, now he could move the sector of the river and rocket himself to the front.

His speed was so fast that he found himself getting dizzy. He looked at his arms and muscles, but nothing was different. “Is this the effect of energy?” He pondered as he swam. And in a short few seconds, he was onshore. He quickly removed his armor and stepped onto the land.

Miles panted like a mad man as he laid by the river. His arms and legs were cramping, hurting. He felt as if thousands of knives stabbed all over his body, “Is this the reason why energy can’t be used before Form-Rank?” Miles thought in his heart as he struggled to stand up. Unfortunately, he couldn’t rest yet.

The monster surfaced onto shore with its four legs, chasing after him.

'Fuck!' Miles could only curse.

At a distance, Miles had also noticed Tian Ling and others were passing the river. He risked his life as they passed the river without any trouble, and now he was stalling the monster.

He then noticed a giant shadow in the now murky red water, but he did not care what it was or if it was another snake-like monster. All he cared about at that moment was to get the hell away from the bloody river, away from the giant serpent-like monsters.

Miles then jumped on his feet, leaving Tian Ling and the rest still passing the pillars of river water with whatever lurks around there. He did not look back as he stumbled into a cave nearby. The cave entrance was only big enough to let a human slip inside. Giant monsters could never enter through it. This was what Tian Ling and his men were counting on. Otherwise, they would be sitting ducks as soon as they entered the cave.

Miles did not know how they discovered the orb in the first place, but now that he was there, he would try to steal it. Since Tian Ling sent him to his death, he would make things hard for him as much as he could.

He walked in through the opening and found himself in a dark, eerie place. He activated his dark vision and looked at the entrance. The cave wasn’t big, only around 100 square meters, its height was about ten meters. The little bit of light seeping through the crack on the wall that he just passed through could barely illuminate the cave. Tian Ling’s men would surely bring light sources of their own to lighten the cave.

Miles could use the torch built in every wristwatch, but he had monster eyes that could display whatever hid in the darkness.

The cave was mostly greyish rocky, except for the small pond by the end of it. Further beyond the pond, there was a small rocky island. On that island, there laid a small monster, similar to the monsters in the river. It had bluish-green scales like crocodiles, but unlike earthen crocodiles, the monster had three eyes. Its size was also much bigger. The neck was stretching like a snake. It looked like a crippled dinosaur.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Miles looked at the monster on the small island and speculated it was only a toddler based on its size. The small beast was not bigger than 2 meters yet. With that big, it could still pass through the opening by the cave entrance, Miles thought.

It was then that Miles heard voices. He looked around and tried to hide. There was no place for him to conceal himself in this tight space. Attempting to hide behind a beast was suicide. His body still aching, he could only wait for Tian Ling and his goons to arrive.

As Miles has guessed, Tian Ling and his men had brought light sources with them. Their light sources cast a large shadow inside the cave, and soon, he was discovered.

Tian Ling and the others turned to see who it was and were surprised to see it was Miles.

Miles didn’t want to get caught, yet there was simply nowhere to run. There were giant monsters outside, so he could only enter the cave. Now that his body was in pain, he couldn’t fight against Tian Ling and his goons either. He could only let them catch him.

“Ooh, I am surprised to see you are still alive. But since you are, let me further make use of you.” Tian Ling approached him with a vicious smile.

Miles felt anger brewing inside of him, but he couldn’t do anything while his body was still aching.

“Ever since you killed my men in Rat Kingdom Forest, I wanted to deal with you, but I could never find you after you left the stronghold. Until today.” Tian Ling smiled and approached. He was holding a sword with lightning coiling around it.

Miles looked at the approaching sword and readied his armor to cover his body any second. If Tian Ling were to attack, he would wear the armor without hesitation and fight with everything he had.

Tian Ling walked to him and threw the sword. “Use this weapon to injure that monster, then fetch the orb for me.”

Miles looked at the sword on the ground and looked at the monster, ’He wants me to injure it, instead of killing it?'

It was then that Miles had realized Tian Ling's intentions. He wants to use the baby monster to threaten the parent monsters outside.

Monsters were capable of thinking, unlike animals, and could see through humans’ way of thinking. Most of them were protective over their races. Miles already experienced it twice. Once, when he killed Wind Mantises’ Queen, and second when he accidentally injured Blizzard Wolves.

Miles picked the sword from the ground and held the weapon firmly. “Can you see the monster’s tier, Coin?” he silently asked his companion while walking to the pond, “And the swords?”

“Monsters outside are pinnacle-tier, and the one in front of you is high-tier even though it is just a baby. The sword is also high-tier.” Coin reported to his earpiece.

Miles nodded slightly and approached the pond, albeit slowly. His body was aching, and his heart was beating madly. He had this unexplainable fear when he looked at the pond, even with a dark vision. Based on instinct, he changed into heat vision and saw what was scaring him so much. One of the monsters he was trying to run away from was swimming in the pond, waiting silently.

Miles then noticed how monsters could appear in the pond. The small pond was as deep as a hundred meters. It was running beneath the cave, connected to the river.

When he entered the cave, he felt the monster chasing him gave up too easily. It didn’t even try to enter or break through the small crack and returned without a fight. It was only then he understood why.

At first, he wanted to inform Tian Ling and others to leave the cave, but then when he looked back with his heat vision, he noticed that another serpent-like monster was waiting by the entrance. He thought about what to do while he approached slowly. He was now closer to the pond and came up with a plan. If he informed Tian Ling and others, they would use him as bait again to escape.

There was only one option left to do then.

He was only a meter away from the pond when he took the liberty to use the sword and made a cut through his palm. Blood immediately flowed out. He brought his palm to his mouth and sucked a mouthful.

Miles collapsed on the ground while blood gushed out of his mouth.