The roars kept sounding off in the distance. At first, Leo counted them, but soon it became clear that there was no end to these roars. Suddenly, a roar far more powerful than any of those before echoed through the cave, causing a wave of terror to wash over Leo. What followed next was nothing less than a battle cry from all the kobolds that wailed before.

At this moment Leo knew - he fucked up.

A dozen lizardfolk emerged from the caves nearby. Each was armed with a spear, and each had a strange mask on his or her head; they were all wearing those masks. These new arrivals looked different from the trio that Leo fought before, however, judging by their armaments, they must have been warriors. Their spears were longer and sharper, and their armor looked thicker and more robust. They immediately turned to Leo.

'I think it is time for the backup plan!'

Without any hesitation, Leo turned around and ran towards the treeline. His heart pounded in his chest as he thought of just how many kobolds were there. If he stayed there and fight, he would die. The situation was clearly hopeless and he had only one option left. Run!

Just as he pushed his body forward, he felt a tug from his left leg's side. Unable to keep his balance, he fell face-first into the ground, hitting a rock with his forehead in the process.

"Shit!" Leo grunted in pain.

Thankfully to the adrenaline coursing through his veins, he was able to regain his bearings within seconds. He looked at his left leg and saw a spear sticking from the ground that went right through his frayed pants narrowly missing his flesh.

He was about to curse when another spear whizzed over his head. The kobolds were getting closer.

Leo decisively ripped his pants which resulted in a large hole exposing his shin, but he was finally free again. He pulled up his pants and ran.

Rare Feat Achieved: Dazzling Retreat

'Fuck you.'

System assures user that everyone is treated equally by the system.

Leo had a couple of words in mind to tell the system, but it was not the time. First, he needed to survive.

Thick Skin Lv.1 obtained

One Feat Point awarded

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Dodge Lv.3 obtained

One Feat Point awarded

Leo ran like hell, dodging spears left and right as he was getting ever closer to the tree line. With every step, he prayed to the gods that his escape would be successful; he didn't care anymore which god he should pray to. Allah, Buddha, Ahura Mazda, whoever could help him, would be welcome. There truly were no atheists in trenches and falling planes.

The kobolds were closing in, but their short legs could only allow for so much speed. Leo, at his 179 cm of height could move much faster. Of course, the increased stats helped as much.

His lungs burned from running, but he still didn't stop even though he finally reached the treeline. The only thing forest could help him with were the spears, as the trees could serve as an obstacle between him and angry kobolds.

But it wasn't going to be that easy. Just as Leo pushed through the tree line and found himself in the thicket, his face was greeted with a pair of vertical pupils right in front of him.

"MRRREOW!"

An enormous black-furred cat-like creature was... hm, doing its business in the middle of the thicket when suddenly, Leo barged in. The huge monster jumped up from the sheer surprise of Leo suddenly rushing in.

"Ahh fuck!" Leo grunted as he quickly changed directions. Another monster on his tail was the last thing he needed right now, but before he could run away, the big cat jumped over him and blocked his way.

Leo's eyes widened as he looked at this massive beast, but this was no time to be intimidated. Leo gritted his teeth and prepared to deal with whatever fate threw his way. The beast growled once and bared its fangs menacingly at Leo as if saying 'go ahead and try it. It licked its lips as if anticipating the feast it is going to have and approached Leo slowly, almost in a playful manner.

Whoooosh.

Thud.

The beast's eyes widened. A short spear was sticking out of the cat's butt proudly as if it was a flagpole. A moment later, half a dozen of kobolds rushed in with their spears in hand. The leading kobold was one of the mask-wearing ones. The moment it entered the thicket it noticed the big cat and the spear sticking out of it. Little lizardman yelped and slammed the brakes instantly, which caused other kobolds to crash into him from behind, piling up neatly on top of each other as they tried to avoid hitting their leader's backside with their spears.

It wasn't long before they were all lying on the floor in disarray. The big cat had its fangs bared, growling at the kobolds. It was clearly intelligent enough to recognize who was responsible for its injury.

"MRRRRREEOWWWW!" It screamed in anger and charged at them all.

That was when Leo finally got his chance to escape; he sprinted through the dense thicket as fast as his legs would carry him. He was exhausted already, he was hungry and thirsty, but some base instinct hidden deep inside of him kept giving him the strength of will to keep moving.

The next was a blur. A few notifications popped up in his vision, but at that moment he lacked the focus to read them.

All he saw was the strange building in the middle of the cavern. It looked weird, almost as if a late roman architect suddenly got an inspiration and came up with motifs and elements of later centuries resulting in a mish-mash of architectural styles. The building was reminiscent of a church or a shrine, yet, it had many peculiarities that couldn't be attributed to either. It reminded him of a fortress; a small fortress built on a cliff overlooking the sea of trees located under it. A tower was connected to it, extending all the way to the ceiling of the cavern, though he couldn't make out where it truly ended, there was not enough light or visibility for him to do so.

Light shined through tall but narrow windows of the shrine, lighting the place up from inside.

***

The moment Leo passed through the entrance of the temple and stepped foot inside, he collapsed. As he passed out he saw a blurry figure approach him.