"What is that voice?" Maya asked in his ear, her voice curious. He knew that she had not recognised that voice at all and why would she? She was a child after all and she was clearly sheltered.
He had to at least get Maya to safety. From a quick look on the map he did not close, he could see that there was only one beep behind him. He only had one monster behind him which was good.
"Maya, I'm going to put you down now and I want you to do something for me. Can you be a good girl and do something for me?" Mark made sure his voice was as comforting as he could make it out to be.
The child was already afraid and if he even so much as raised his voice, he knew she would get afraid. He could not take such a big risk right now. The girl muffled a quiet 'ok' near his ear and he forcefully breathed out.
"You see the marker in the distance? Run toward it and stay there. No matter what happens, stay there. Don't leave it for any reason and you will be alright. I need to do something first. Think you could do this for me?" He was demanding a lot from such a young child.
Essentially, he was all but abandoning her but he also knew her best shot would be if she stayed at the marker. One thing about boss fights was that once they were done, the area would most likely be the safest it had been.
So maybe he could take advantage of it. He just had to distract it and then come back for Maya. then they could get out of here without any problem. But if she did not follow his words, then it would create problems for him.
He could not take the chance for this to happen at all.
"B-but I'll be all alone. You'll come back?" her words sounded uncertain and Mark wanted to assure her. He really did want to but the monster was too close now.
"I need to go to the restroom. It's urgent but I'll be back soon" He forced his words to sound as carefree as he could. He could see that the girl was hesitating, clearly not believing him but then she sighed.
"You sound just like daddy when he has an urgent meeting and has to leave me. Don't worry, Maya will be a good girl and wait for you to come back" the girl sounded upset but he was just relieved that she was following his words.
As soon as he separated from the child, he saw the red spot on his map stop too. It headed toward Maya which caused Mark to panic. Why was the monster heading toward the child and not him?
He saw it before he saw Maya again. It was an ugly abomination, a cross between a beast and a plant. Surely not natural.
And he was sure that it saw him too because there was a sharp turn before the beast turned sideways and ran after him. The panic was real but for Mark, it felt like a constant companion now.
The adrenaline rush was a thankful gift it brought for it allowed Mark to pick up speed. The beast was large and it was clear that Mark would not, under any circumstances, outrun it at any cost.
What he needed to do was to spend a little time thinking. Seeing the first sturdy tree, he made quick work of climbing it. It was a tough climb, the wood almost too smooth to climb up but he managed.
The monster was still down below, now circling the tree he was on.
He had to hold on tight as it slammed into the tree a few times but thankfully, the tree held on. Seeing his efforts as futile, the monster stopped for some time which made Mark narrow his eyes.
The monster was not too far gone. It had some of its rationality inside him.
He could only rely on himself and his system now because he had nothing else and something told him that he would not be able to call for help right now. What did he do to deserve this treatment?
Liam's words of this world being a game came back to him and it gave him an idea. Didn't most games at least arm their players with some sort of weapon? And he should still have the one Liam gave him in his storage.
He was not sure how effective it would be, but he had to at least try. He would not get a lot of chances like this again.
The gun was still in his inventory and he held on tight to it as it came out of his storage. He aimed it at the beast but he could not aim properly. His hands were shaking badly.
The only other thing in the weapon slot was a katana which he did not know how to use. Even if it was an S grade sword (early joining gift), he was sure it would only be wasted on a noob like him.
He wished it was a gun but his luck had never been that good. At least the gun had a significant charge.
He took in a deep breath before he fired the gun again. It grazed the monster's side but missed anything vital. However, it was enough to enrage the monster.
The next collision with the tree was violent and sudden which caused him to fall down. He managed to turn his head and get his hands under his skull at the last second. This perhaps saved his life as he landed on his side.
His arm hurt and as did his side. It felt like the reopening of wounds and it hurt. And yet by some miracle, nothing seemed to be broken or permanently damaged.
There was just a lot of blood from a lot of small wounds all over him.
The monster seemed satisfied and he could see the smugness in the eyes that gazed at him. The monster was coming over to him but he could not feel much of it.
His senses were taken over by pain long ago and his mind was detached by all the pain he felt. The monster was almost above him but he could not even react.
The teeth were almost on him, on his throat. He could feel them touch his neck and his body reacted faster than his brain.
He could not be sure that it was his own actions that caused him to fire the shot right on the monster's face in a split second but somehow he managed.
The shot was powerful and the gun beeped and angry red - empty. The monster let out a road of pain, its moments frenetic and in a rush, Mark drew the sword from the inventory that was still open and thrust it in front of him blindly.
There was a sound of its meeting and tearing something and then there was wetness on his face.
Mark somehow opened his eyes to see the sword impeded in the neck of the monster, the life in his eyes a dim glimmer of the earlier fury. Blood was escaping everywhere, on his sword and even on his clothes.
His black hid all the red, but it was considerably darker now on him. It was a scene that would make a lesser man puke his guts out but Mark had seen such scenes with animals before. After all, hardly any animal dies a good death.
More than anything Mark felt satisfaction.
Satisfaction over surviving and over living. Satisfaction over conquering something stronger which he could not have ordinarily done. Was he done then? He had to check
______________________________
Mission status: still in progress
Achievement unlocked: Hidden boss slayer
Reward: Immunity from the surrounding beasts for the next 1 hour
______________________________
The mission was not over but his actions had made it certainly easier. 1 hour had to be enough to get out. He would squeeze every drop of his energy if he had to but he would get out of here one way or the other in the next hour.
Taking out a water bottle, he cleaned up the blood from all visible surfaces and extracted the sword out from the monster. The sword did not have even a speck of blood on it and he found it fascinating.
But he soon banished it back to the storage and he made his way back to Maya.
The child was waiting for him just where he had asked her to. Her face was white as a ghost and he coughed to catch her attention. The girl jumped in fright before locking eyes with him.
"Y-you're back? I-I heard something weird from the forest" the child was clearly spooked out and him leaving her here alone certainly did not help the case at all.
But he couldn't say he regretted his choice at all.
"Maya, let's hurry. Your father must think we are so lazy to take so long" he coaxed the frightened girl who seemed to cheer upon the mention of her father.
"Let's go then" Mark let out a sigh as he hurried after the girl. Somewhere halfway, he defaulted to pick the girl up in order to preserve time.
Somehow, they made their way out of the forest just after 10 minutes of the limit expiration of the safe time and got lucky to find another two yellow spots along the way.
The cave was located in a clearing was a small house near the side of the mine and Mark defaulted to approach it for shelter. He would not be able to take any more of this at all.
Mark knocked at the door as soon as he could reach the door and it opened with a click.
"You finally reached here. Come inside now and we'll wait for En to pick us up" the one in front of him was a young woman, barely 25 even with short hair.
As soon as Maya saw her, she squealed happily and called out 'daddy'. Mark could only look at her in shock and the woman seemed offended at his stare.
"What? A woman can't be the head of the house now?" Mark decided it was not worth it and just stayed quiet for the rest of the time.
Almost an hour later there was another knock on the door but this time it was En. En had finally arrived and with a confused but determined Luna in tow who froze as soon as he saw him.
Well, this was awkward now.