"Stop! Why are you doing this?" Noah kept crawling backwards.

Olivia was done talking, however. She walked over towards Noah, with murderous intent written all over her face, until she stood above him, sword poised to strike.

'I'm about to die and I don't even know why.' Was all Noah could think.

Suddenly, Voidstrider cast a quick glance to her right and then to her left. With a grimace, she turned her attention back towards Noah, prepared to strike with increased urgency, as though she was out of time.

The only thing Noah could do was raise his shaking arms in front of him, as Olivia thrusted her sword towards his heart. Midway through the strike, something big jumped on Olivia, pushing her to the ground, along with it. All Noah could see in the darkness of the night was frantically moving silhouettes, while hearing beastly growls.

Noah stood up, as the growls turned into a whimper and one silhouette had collapsed and stopped moving.

'This is a nightmare! What is even going on...'

There was an eerie short respite of silence and then Noah heard growls all around him. Amidst the terrifying noise, Olivia was charging at him again, sword in hand.

'Run... I have to run.'

Noah had no idea where he was. Even though his sight had adjusted slightly to the darkness, he could barely see what was right in front of him. All the same, Noah began running in the opposite direction of the charging Voidstrider.

Glancing behind him, he could see a creature lunging at Olivia. All Noah could make of the creature was that it was bipedal and larger than a man.

Olivia vanished in a glowing red mist, leaving the creature behind and appeared right next to Noah, ready to strike, yet she stumbled and rolled on the ground, instead, clearly in a weakened state.

Taking advantage of her weakness, the creature pounced on Olivia again, latching on to her, as they both rolled on the ground.

Noah kept running into the night.

Even without the repercussions of consuming a dubious kebab and being beaten up by a powerful Touched, Noah was very much out of shape. He spends his days in front of a computer screen at work, so he could come home and drink beer while playing virtual games, on his couch.

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Just a minute into his great escape, Noah was already out of breath and feeling his muscles aching.

Fear is a wonderful motivator, however.

Noah heard a growl behind him and began running as fast as he possibly could, which wasn't very fast, at all.

A few steps later, he felt a sharp pain from his right shoulder and down to his back.

"Aghhhh!"

Noah tripped and rolled on the ground. And then continued rolling, as he realized that he was tumbling down a steep hill, seemingly making sure to hit every large rock on his way down, before finally stopping and letting out a pained grunt.

'Why is this happening? I just wanted to go home...'

Noah was out of breath, lying on his side. Everything hurt and he could feel warm fluid covering his back and soaking his torn shirt.

With a pained groan, he got up and looked around. There were large trees and bushes all over in front of him and the edge of the cliff-like hill that he fell off from, at his back. Even with his overwhelmed state of mind, Noah didn't dare to go around frolicking in a forest beyond the city walls. Especially at night.

His only reasonable option was to walk along the edge of the hill and find a quiet spot to hide until dawn and then, if he's still alive, try to understand where exactly he was in relation to Arcturus City, in the light of day.

While Noah walked as silently as he possibly could, clutching his shoulder, he understood that realistically it's only a matter of time before he faced a gruesome death. The horrors that roamed this cursed world had driven the remnants of humanity into a small number of walled up cities. Fully equipped military expeditions, as well as powerful Touched, had a perfectly good chance to be overrun and wiped out when venturing beyond The Arc, so what chance did an overweight, beer chugging, office worker, have?

And even if Noah would have somehow miraculously made it back to The Arc, there was still a powerful, deranged and well connected Touched, that decided that she really feels like killing him. Noah shivered as he thought about Voidstrider's cruel expression.

'I hope that monster killed her...'

The situation was pretty much hopeless and yet Noah kept going, walking silently on the border of the forest and the hill.

'Huh?'

Seeing a small, narrow cave opening, surrounded by rocks, at the hillside, Noah considered his options and tried to decide if he should risk squeezing in. A familiar growl helped Noah make up his mind. He glanced up and saw a silhouette half running, half sliding down the hill, towards him.

'It found me!'

Noah frantically began to squeeze into the opening.

"Agggh..." He cried out as the edge of the entrance scraped his injured back.

Sucking in his beer belly, Noah forced himself into the opening and collapsed on the other end, just as a fur covered, clawed arm reached in, after him.

Noah could hear rage fueled growls as the monster attempted to force itself into the opening as well. Noah stepped back until he hit the cave wall. At that moment, the beast's horrific head had popped inside. With the moonlight behind it, Noah got a decent look at the monster, although he wished he hadn't.