Pretty did not run in a random direction. Through her renisas eyes, she could see where the cluster of rentom eaters were less in number and tried to run in that space.

She did not know where to go but she knew she needed to run away from the trail.

The man beside her did not disappoint her as he grabbed her hand tightly and led the way. He also chose the same path with lesser rentom eaters and she let him.

She gave the necklace to the man as it was better off with him, For one, it was not hers to begin with and also she could not jeopardize other people’s life preserver for her own. Besides, she also had her own way to navigate in the dark and he had nothing.

She could not just leave him there. Her conscience would not let her.

Apart from it, two bodies helping each other was better than her alone.

Just like what she did in the tunnel, she let her renisas spread around her to make a hologram of red lights with the things in her surroundings. Everytime that her renisas touched a physical object it stopped and the indentation of the object would be clear to her. It was enough for her to navigate in the dark without her slamming to a tree.

The man was also guiding her so it was not hard for her to spread and collect her renisas.

When they passed the border from the east side of the trail, the surrounding rentom eaters zoomed immediately to their directions. She also saw how the other rentom eaters from the other side of the trail entered the trail without a problem.

She was glad she did not stay at the trail thinking it could protect them from the rentom eaters. Rentom eaters were semi humans, they were humans who were infected by the gray renisas, the death renisas, and if humans could pass the trail, the rentom eaters could possibly too.

She had a feeling the trail masked a person’s renisas. It was a mystery, but such places that could mask or prevent spirits from entering indeed exist, both man-made and natural, in the real world.

Like the rentom barrier back in the Summit, that was a normal man-made barrier that would stop even neafs from entering.

She could not feel any renisas behavior in the trail so it should not be a renisas barrier.

It could only be a natural barrier, a naturally made barrier where spirits could not come in. If there was a river where souls and spirits went, there were also places where they could not go.

What she was sure of was this forest was special.

She promised that if she ever survived this place, she planned to have some serious talks with the person who made that sign post that led her here.

Pretty and the man held their breath as they ran through the trees. There was a huge space between the trees and there's hardly anything in it that would hinder them from running, but both of them sprinted through the forest while waving their hands around as if something was in front of them.

Countless spirits and neafs barraged them and they had no choice but to push through it. The neafs could still consume their renisas but it was way less than when they were standing still. Running helped them to at least lessen duration of contact with the neafs.

But Pretty knew it was only a matter of time. They could not run like this indefinitely and eventually they would either collapse from exhaustion or get their renisas dried by the neafs. Both of which would turn them to be rentom eaters.

As they ran, they keep check of the rentom eaters around but as they passed a huge tree, a rentom eater suddenly lunged at them from behind it. It jumped towards Pretty and got hold of her hair.

Pretty was caught off guard by it so she was not able to dodge. She felt herself being dragged by her hair and with the sudden force, she lost her grip to the man’s hand.

Her left hand instinctively held her hair by the base and she used her freed right arm to pummel it to the rentom eater’s direction like it was a baseball bat.

The rentom eater got pushed back but it got a hard grip on her head so she was also dragged by it. She fell back first towards the rentom eater and the rotten smell of it washed on her nostrils.

Pissed, she grunted and turned herself around to face the rentom eater. She raised her right fist and punched it to rentom eater’s face. Her fist hit the cheek of the rentom eater hard. She felt a crunch from the contact and she felt her hand entered something.

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She could feel the wetness of her hands and by the intensity of the smell and the feeling of stickiness, it seemed that her hand passed through an open wound in the rentom eater face.

It only pissed her off more that she punched the rentom eater’s face again using the same hand. She felt the rentom eater's face easily break from her punch and then it laid there not resisting. She could still feel it twitching below her but it already loosen its grip on her hair. She snagged her hair back and the rentom eater’s hand fell to the ground with a thud,

She did not expect them to be so fragile.

She was about to look for the man when all of a sudden, a hand got hold of her left hand and dragged her upright. A second later, a gray figure of renisas fell towards where she was squatting a while ago

She did not have much time to react as she was dragged back again into running by the man.

The skirmish with the rentom eater was only a short time but the rentom eaters around had gain a distance to them.

While running, she saw from the trees to her right, three rentom eaters were passing in and out of her view. Another five rentom eaters were also chasing them from her left. .

They were at least twenty meters in distance from her and the man so they tried their best to outrun them. But as they passed another tree, Pretty saw three rentom eaters heading towards her in the direction she was running.

The man also saw it and he had no choice but to steer their direction to the right.

They were running faster now for more than a minute and the rentom eaters were still chasing them. Pretty took a look from behind her to check the distance between her and the rentom eaters when she did not notice her right foot entering a protruding root making her stumble towards the ground while dragging the man with her.

In the last second, the man was able to get himself in balance and pulled Pretty upright. But those precious seconds had let the rentom eaters to their right gain another ten meters to them.

To Pretty’s dread, the three rentom eaters had now doubled into six. She could also see other rentom eaters gaining distance from the back of those rentom eaters.

Pretty and the man continued running without a choice.

Ahead of them, there was a cluster of trees spaced nearer from each other. Pretty had a quick thought of choosing another direction as she could not see if there was a rentom eater behind it hiding. But they were unintentionally herded to that direction as both of their sides had rentom eaters in it.

They had no choice but to pass the group of trees and Pretty braced herself from the possible attack behind it but they only entered a clearing with only a single tree in the middle of it.

The both of them did not stop running and crossed the clearing.

They were about to pass the tree in the middle of the clearing, when Pretty saw in her periphery a gray figure of renisas falling towards them from the tree.

She felt herself dragged to the ground when the sneaking rentom eater got hold of the man.

She was about to help the man when she saw the mans renisas moved in the dark and she heard a muffled sound of fist hitting a flesh and a kick, then she saw the gray renisas of the rentom eater dropped to the ground.

She could not see how the man did it but it was apparent the man knew how to fight.

She immediately took the man’s hand with her sticky hand and she also felt his hand as sticky as hers.

The man continued running with her and led the way forward.

She did not have time to look back and see where the rentom eaters were as she could now hear their running steps.

Unlike her, the man was able to glimpse behind them so he was able to drag her to the other side, enough for her to escape the jumping rentom eaters that were only meters away from them.

The dodge was not executed properly so the both of them stumbled to the ground and rolled.

One second, Pretty was rolling to the ground and the next she could feel the ground below her disappeared and half of her body dangled into thin air.

Her hands grappled around her for leverage and she was fortunately able to hold something that kept herself from falling down.

But the man was not that lucky. She heard a man’s surprise shout and saw his white renisas figure falling. She then heard a thud as the man slammed to the ground below.

She was not sure what it was but suddenly there was a huge falling space below her. She guessed it was a hole or a cliff

She could still see a white renisas figure below her and it seemed not to be a high fall. The man was still alive below her but for how long she did not know as she could also see other gray figures of renisas with the man. He was not alone below and she could only hope for his best as she was also not in the best situation.

She was able to save herself from falling but she was not glad of her situation as droves of rentom eaters were running in towards her and they were only ten meters away.

She pulled herself up into standing and planned to continue running to her right even if it meant leaving the man behind, but she stopped when she also saw rentom eaters in that direction. She looked to her left and it was also the same.

She was trapped.

She was surrounded with rentom eaters and whichever way she chose would be the same. She could fall below to the rentom eaters and hope she could fend them off but she knew the rentom eaters chasing her above would still jump for her. She did not know how deep it was and there was a possibility she could be injured jumping from it.

She had no choice but to wait for the rentom eaters in front of her and evade them the best that she could, hoping some of them would fall below. But she knew inside that it was a fool’s hope. Evading tens of rentom eaters at once would be a superhero feat, and she was not one.

Even if some of them fall below, she was sure others would replace them.

She could not think of another solution. She tried to activate her ability but it was still not working. So she waited there while the rentom eaters were only five meters away.

She could not count how many rentom eaters were coming to her but she was sure they were more than fifty in front of her.

Her renisas must be a beacon to them in the dark. Like a mirage in a desert to thirsty travelers or more like a prey in a forest in front of hungry beasts.

How she wished she could make her renisas invisible like her.

And just like that, the red clouds of renisas around her vanished from her sight.