Now that I think about it, I got a new class, didn't I?" Alderon smiled as they were running. He pulled up the menu and found the name of his new class. Skeleton Swordsman. Pressing on the class, information about it came up.

[Skeleton Swordsman]

Skeleton Swordsmen are the worst type of swordsmen there is. They are despised by all other swordsmen around the world, especially the human knights who hold the swordsman profession in high esteem. Be warned that meeting human swordsmen with this class can cause them to turn hostile and attack without reason.

Effects: 20% decreased stamina

The class was the same as the Skeleton Blacksmith. Does the world have something against me or what? Do the gods really hate skeletons? Alderon looked at the information and snorted. What a worthless class. On the other hand, while the class was absolute garbage, the skill he acquired with it was actually quite good. Its name was cannibalism and it worked for all classes. 

[Passive] Cannibalism – lvl 1 (0/10)

A very normal skill used by Skeleton fighters to recover health on the battlefield.

Effects: +2 HP / 50 gram flesh 

He had seen some higher tiered skeletons eat from their defeated foes in the underworld. If it wasn't for the fact that skeletons didn't have any flesh, they would have eaten him too as they noticed him scramble into their territory. When they had been eating, the cracked bones in the ribgrasses and their broken arms had healed and grown together again. And now, as he got this skills, he could feel that it was the same. How nice wasn't this? He could heal up just by eating flesh!

He didn't equip the class. Doing so would do absolutely nothing since the effect was negative in the first place. Twenty percent less stamina? Hell no, that would reduce his health, and therefore increase his chances of dying? Did Alderon the coward want to do? Of course not! Not even for the mighty lich would he throw away his dear life? (he wouldn't really die in the first place though, just return to the first layer of the underworld which is also known as the flaming abyss.)

"I can hear them getting closer," Ezra told Alderon in a low voice. "they will catch up in less than ten minutes."

"Then what should we do?" asked the skeleton.

"Increase our pace." said the vampire solemnly.

Ezra shot away like the wind. Alderon ran after albeit not as fast as the vampire. And as time passed, the distance between them grew yet again. The vampire looked backwards and said. "If you don't speed up you will be caught."

Alderon swore. Think, think, think, what can I do to catch up? I need speed... Agility! That's right! I levelled up and that should mean I received stat points enough to raise my agility and, in turn, my running speed!

The skeleton quickly pulled up the menu again. He rejoiced in the fact that he was right. Points really had been added. Nine of them!

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 "Here we go, everything into agility!"

As his bony finger tapped the button with a plus inside, a cool feeling spread through his whole body. His feet and legs immediately felt lighter and instead of one meter per step, he now ran just a bit less than two. He laughed haughtily and increased his pace, soon catching up the vampire who revealed a surprised expression.

"You caught up?"

"Of course." Alderon snickered. "Why? You didn't think I could?"

"No, not at all." answered the vampire. "I thought you'd be run down by the beastmen. But this is better. Now I won't have to feel the wrath of our master for failing to protect you."

Alderon laughed on the outside but was in truth a bit angry. Would he really just have let me die like that? Well, I do understand that I could just be resummoned, but you know, that hurt my feelings you stinky vamp!"

"Oh shit. I made a huge mistake." declared Ezra and stopped running. He closed his eyes and slapped himself in the face, murmuring. "Stupid Ezra, stupid Ezra."

"What? What have you done?" 

"Look ahead," he said. "Can you see something there?"

"a wall..." began Alderon. If his eyes weren't hollow pockets, they would have constricted by now.

"Yeah, a wall, also known as the Koroma mountain chain," continued Ezra. "It's the largest mountain that can be classified as being in the territory of the endless wasteland and stretches for several miles along the border. In a hurry, I must have misjudged where we were, and as such, we haven't been running toward the camp, but instead a bit more south-east, toward the foot of the mountains that protect the dwarves. If we run straight west, we will come to the camp and if we run straight east we will come to the forests of the elves. There's only one problem though."

"What?"

"They will catch up to us before we can reach the camp. In other words, we must fight, or seek hide in the mountain."

As Ezra said his last line, they could both hear a war horn sound out. How convenient. The beastmen were catching up to them and they had no idea what to do. "So what do you say? Do you think your bones can withstand the cold? Because I can tell you, we got no chance in a straight up fight."

"Not sure," Alderon said. "Never been in the mortal world except for the castle. I know I can take on heat pretty well. The flaming abyss down the first layer is quite warm after all. But cold? I truly don't know. Maybe, maybe not."

"Well, it seems like we have no choice," Ezra said. "I'd rather bet everything on chance than to take suicide by fighting a whole beastman squad all by myself."

"You got me fighting by your side, though?"

"That's not much to have considering your current strength, Alderon. No offence, of course."

Alderon and Ezra started to run once again. They could hear and feel the beastmen coming from behind, slowly but surely catching up on their ferocious prairie wolves whose howls echoed across the barren lands and sent icy chills through all living things that heard them. Even Alderon felt a chill. On the other hand, he was quite interested in the levels which he received for killing the mouseman's wolf, so the chill slowly turned into a desire to acquire more stat points.

It was soon dawn when they at long last arrived in front of the foot of the mountains. The mountains were taller than what the eye could see and stretched into the sky, surrounded by mist which hid the peaks. The skeleton and the vampire began to ascend the mountain. Perhaps the pursuers would give up when they would see the tracks ending here.

A while later, the sound of soft thuds sang out. A whole squad of beastmen, thirty-six of them, sat on top of their prairie wolves, looking up towards the mountains with dread. There were two extra soldiers with them. It was a mouseman, the one who had escaped Alderon and Ezra earlier, as well as a wolfman, the one who ran away before the battle began. They both shared the wolfman's wolf and while the mouseman watched everything unfurl with a smug expression, all that filled the wolfman's was hatred. He swore to himself as his eyes were filled with crimson to get revenge for his fallen comrades.

"This is really bad, squad commander. Really bad." In the front of the squad, a lionman and an eaglewoman sat on their prairie wolves. They wore armours of steel, clearly of higher status than the other who wore leather. 

"I know." the eaglewoman bit on her white wing that was adorned with shiny and sharp feathers.

"If they discover the tunnel," began the lionman. "everything will be ruined. And if they do that then the commander will–"

"Stop it!" the eaglewoman looked at her and said sternly. "Manja, don't tell me what I already know. Help me figure out a plan to catch them instead. Because If we allow them to get away with that information, let alone our two heads, I fear the destruction of our race will be imminent."

The lionman calmed down from the eaglewoman's rebuke and said with determination burning in his golden pupil eyes. "Yes, squad commander. Then let us hunt."