Just as the panther changed its stance to a leaping one, I dropped the snake's body to the side and ran away from the cave. Currently, that was the best decision for my survival, I was sure that if I entered the cave I would be dead, so my best possibility for surviving is to run away and find shelter the faster the better.

I could hear scary chewing sounds coming from behind me, but sadly they stopped too fast. Then a growl was coming from where those sounds came from, and I knew that the panther was already coming after me. I ran to the best of my abilities, but of course, a simple midget of a bush would never outrun a huge wild cat.

The growl was getting stronger and stronger, and after just a few seconds I could hear it right behind me. The big mouth of the cat pierced into my back, then the cat raised me from the ground and started to shake my body around as if I was a small chew toy.

The cat's body was at least two meters high, so lifting me up was easily done because of its huge and strong jaw. With just a glance I could see that the scary black cat had a few purple stripes going from its back to its belly, and his scary yellow eyes would make even the strongest warrior fear for his life. After a few shakes, a huge piece of me was torn off and my body flew with momentum quite a good distance into a tree.

I hit a tree but to my surprise, I almost didn’t feel any pain. I felt more pain from hitting the tree than from getting a huge piece ripped off. I was laying upside down under the tree, my view fell on the panther and in its mouth I saw a bag, it was my bag.

“Why do all the monsters destroy my stuff!” The panther started to growl and shake the bag, I thanked god that wasn’t me. After seeing the panther eating my bag with horrifying noises I got scared shitless and my mind screamed: "Run, run!".

I struggled to stand up again and started to run at maximum speed, I knew that the bag wouldn't hold the panther for long. Thinking of a way to escape from the panther for a while, I found something strange.

I turned around to look back and saw nothing, “Did it leave me alone?” I asked myself in confusion. Suddenly I felt something disturbing and it was as if two big eyes were watching me, but I couldn’t see anything at all.

“Does he have the special stealth skill?” I imagined the worst and continued to run.

I ran and ran at night. To my surprise and luck I didn’t see many monsters at all, but a few times I ran into a few low-tier monsters. Even though I used my stealth skill they still could see me, they were monsters of the night so that was easy for them, but when they approached me they didn’t care about me at all. Or they just growled in a low sound and turned around and went on their way. That was alarming on its own, but I didn’t mind it and continued on my way.

At all times when I ran deeper and deeper into the forest, I still could feel those two huge scary eyes locked on me, but no matter how many times I turned around, I still couldn’t see anything. I even used my detection skill, but there was no response from it as well.

“Something is wrong.” I said with fear as my instincts were screaming: "You are in danger!", but I couldn’t put a finger on it no matter what, even though I couldn’t see anything at all I knew that I was still being chased.

As I ran more and more, despair slowly started to fill my mind, I couldn’t understand what was going on, the monsters around me were acting strangely. And this crazy feeling didn’t leave me for a second. I used the detection skill, again and again, to make sure I won’t run into a monster even though they didn’t mind me much now, but I doubted that I could be so lucky every time.

I stopped behind two big trees for a small break, but just as I stopped the strange feeling became much much stronger, and I had no other choice but to continue to run. Every step I took became heavier and heavier, from the surroundings I could hear howls and from behind I could feel the eyes.

The pressure slowly was getting thicker and thicker, and because of it, I was slowly going insane.

“Shit what kind of monster did I encounter, did it do something to my body? *Self Awareness*.” Without further ado, I checked my self awareness status.

***

-Ontopary Bush Lv5-

Experience: 11/45

Rarity: Common

Health: 3/7

Mana: 8/17

Stamina: 2/4

Race: Berry Bush

Status: Intelligent(Unique), Shadow Mark

Skills:

*Magic Perception Lv3* *Self Awareness Lv2* *Calm Mind Lv4* *Inspect Lv3* *Rage Lv1* *Killing Intent Lv2* *Pain Resistance Lv1* *Mana Manipulating Lv1* *Wood Element Control Lv3* *Dig Lv2* *Stealth Lv2* *Detection Lv2* *Lifesteal Lv1* *Poison Resistance Lv1* *Item Crafting Lv1*

Titles:

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*Clutz*

***

“Shadow mark?...” I didn’t think twice about this weird status as I inspected it. ”Inspect *Shadow Mark*!”

***

*Shadow Mark* - Curse of the shadows, those who are marked by this mark, cannot escape the user inside the shadows because the user will see them whatever they are.

***

“Long-range detection skill!!!” I exclaimed with worry.

“But wait, I am glowing and the forest around me is glowing, there are no shadows around me at all.” I looked up and saw the dark sky above, and a thought came into my head.

“Impossible! Don’t tell me by shadows it means the night, damn this shitty explanation!” The *Inspect* skill once more wasn’t accurate, and I was forced to gather the strings of information together myself.

I continued running like a madman deeper and deeper into the forest. I passed the area that I was familiar with a long time ago, and now I was running like a headless chicken not knowing where I was going. But what could I do, every time I tried to stop even for a second, I could feel like huge claws were pressing on me from above.

After running for another thirty minutes I ran out of my fortune and met a monster that didn’t back off at all. It was a big red fur bear, its fur was bloody red in color and its eyes were black as the night.

His claws were much bigger and darker than the claws of normal bears, which I knew from the pieces of my memories. His size was even bigger than the black panther and reached more than two meters tall.

There was still some distance between us but when his gaze fell on me for a second I already could feel his killing intent towards me.

“As I thought, the scariest monsters are coming out at night.” I thought before that the monsters that came out at night were the most vicious, and they would attack anything that moves at sight, and for not many surprises I was correct.

With a scary bear-like roar, the bear charged at me. All my leaves were standing up as I saw that huge half-ton of muscles and fat rushing at me. With panic, I turned around and started to run, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to outrun the bear.

I could hear the weight of the bear as it ran after me, with a *tap* *tap*, *tap* *tap* sounds as the sounds got stronger and stronger. It didn’t take long for the sounds to be so strong that even the ground around me started to shake a little.

I was sure that at any moment the bear would tear me into one million little pieces but to my surprise, that moment never came, what came was a scary roar of a panther. If I had blood in my body at this moment you would be sure one hundred percent that I turned into a ghost, because I was so scared that even my soul could leave my body at any moment. Not only did a huge bear chase after me from the back but now the devil cat came at me from the front.

The bear slowed its advance, and at that moment I saw the shadow of a huge panther jumping at me from the front. I wanted to stop, I wanted to turn to the side and dodge, but it all happened so fast. I wanted to close my eyes, I wanted to escape somewhere far away but I couldn’t, all I could do at that moment was see the panther get bigger and bigger in my view.

I felt cornered and devastated, there was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. I saw the panther right next to me, I could hear and feel his heavy breathing on my leaves. All I could do was stop at my track and tremble in fear, but to my surprise and shock, the panther just passed above me. No don’t get me wrong, he didn’t miss me, I was never his target from the start his target was the huge red bear that was behind me.

From behind two strong roars could be heard, again and again. One came from the panther and another from the bear. With the roars sounds of immense blows and sounds of ripping flesh could be heard as well, as the claws of the beasts tore into each other's bodies.

I looked behind me and saw the crazy battle between those two demonic beasts. The panther dashed from side to side, and I could see a black aura gushing out of his body, it looked as if shadows were emerging from his fur. Every slash of his claws would follow with an afterimage of a dark shadow, and it would seem as if shadows were dancing around his claws.

On the other hand, the huge bear was standing on its back legs and it would seem as if his body grew up by a half meter, his fur was standing upright and a glint of metal could be seen coming from it. His claws grew much much bigger than his body, they were at least twice their original size. Now the bear resembled a demon from the depths of hell, more than a bear.

The fight was almost even, the bear had few bloody marks on its body, and the panther had only one. But from the looks of it, the wound on the panther's body was a heavy one, on the other hand, by comparison, the wound on the bear was shallow. The toughness of the bear was much stronger than that of the panther, and because of that, the bear had an upper hand.

"Why did the panther save me?" I asked confused, of course, I couldn't answer that question, but I was sure for one thing that it didn't save me to be its friend.

I didn’t care who would win this battle, but I hoped it was the bear. Currently, both of them were a crazy dangerous factor in my life, but the stupid devil cat could know my exact location no matter where I was, so it was much better for me that it would die.

I wasn’t stupid to stay and see who would win with my own eyes, and become their meal of victory, so I inspected both of them and ran away like a madman. I should have done that before, but it took me some time to get my mind out of the gutter.

***

-Shadow Predator Lv11-

Health: 52/88

Mana: 32/48

Stamina: 15/22

Status: Shadow aura

***

-Mountain Lord Lv13-

Health: 98/126

Mana: 12/23

Stamina: 42/56

Status: Iron Fur, Enlargement

***

Two statuses popped into my head. I wasn’t stunned by them, but only could confirm my fears.

“NO, NO, HELL NO! I will never face those monsters, never!” I screamed from fear and only increased the pace of my running. Those monsters were the scariest thing that I saw in this world, and they were so strong that their health alone was ten times bigger than mine.

“If I would face them and won’t get the title *Crazy Insane Madman* I would be surprised.” I ran through trees that were in front of me to an open area and slowly decreased my pace until I came to a complete stop. What was in front of me got me even more worried, because it was the edge of a high cliff.