Her voice was closer to sounding like two rough pieces of wood being slammed, tapped, and crushed into each other until they are finally turned into dust.
This was the sound of a true monster.
I could not help but look down at her decapitated head that was now laying on the floor, and that was when I saw it.
A smile larger than ever. Eyes that peered into my soul. A voice that sent shivers down my spine.
Everything about her was wrong. So very very wrong.
"Ahhh!" Out of pure horror, I simply kicked the head and made it fly into the distance, yet what happened next only shocked me more to the core.
The body that was now headless was moving on its own, and unlike how it was its movements were before, mostly being refined and almost graceful, now she looked more like a mindless animal that used nothing but its instincts to hunt.
This time, I watched as the body blurred and immediately entered my reach allowing me to swing my ax on instinct as well.
The body quickly dodged the horizontal ax swing and had now crouched to the floor and ready to jump towards me with its claw-like hands ready to rip off my head the moment they were close enough.
Simultaneously, I felt another sense of dread come from the direction I had kicked my head, allowing me to kick back, and dodge the first attack from the body before swinging in the direction I felt the dread come from.
To my surprise, the head was not where I had attacked and instead, there was just hair that happened to be there at the time.
"Crap," I exclaimed out loud, jumping up and barely dodging the 3 tree root-like tentacles that had come from behind.
I side-stepped once again, now dodging a razor-sharp tail that swooshed past my face at a hairsbreadth.
It felt like I had an infinite amount of energy... An amount that felt like I was absorbing vitality through the very air I inhaled.
Every single one of my muscles was bustling with more power than they had ever done before and this was no coincidence. No. I knew exactly why this was happening, it was just that I did not know exactly why.
Why did the fruit have such a property?
Was this the reason why everything in this world seemed to be abnormal?
Maybe this is how they gained their powers?
These were all questions that needed answering, yet answers would have to wait since I was still technically in a life or death situation.
'I can't win...' I concluded long ago, yet I still felt the need to say it in my head just loud enough for it to echo within my mind.
'But I can sure as hell run!' I thought, this time gleaming with the same awkward smile that I forced my facial expression to form. A mask that might one day convince me that I am fine.
With my ax in hand and newfound confidence, I waited and waited for the right moment until it finally happened.
After dodging an attack from the hair that flew at me like long and thin flexible needles, I felt a sense of dread overcome me from a certain direction as my entire body told me to move, yet even so, I resisted until the final moment where I-
*Pitui*
Tilting my head to the right, I watched as my ear had been completely ripped off, but I could argue that at the moment this was more than worth it.
The tentacle-like root went right past me and hit the woman's body and shot right through her heart, stopping the body in place while making the head scream in pain and rage.
At that moment, the head of the woman shot hundreds of hairs toward me, yet with the amazing detection skills that I somehow developed in the last 6 days, I found myself dodging and swerving until it finally happened.
Just like with the body of the woman, the hairs missed me by a millimeter, barely grazing my cheek before shooting behind me and implanting themselves into the body of the kimono dragon.
However, even after seeing that she had hit her fellow teammate, she did not stop and instead shot all the hairs out of the kimono dragon's body, killing it in the process.
[You have assisted in killing a land-dragon variant]
[You have gained +4 EXP]
At the same time, the hairs redirected and began coming my way as well as the tentacles from afar, yet now that I did not have to deal with the body, the invisible creature, and the kimono dragon, I finally felt like I had a chance of running away.
Who would have known stopping for your enemy could be one's biggest mistake?
I dashed in a random direction in which I had no idea where it would land me.
I could not see the moon due to the trees in this area, and at the same time, the lighting overall was simply just too dim for me to make out anything other than the basic outlines of creatures and trees.
I trusted that my instincts would tell me if there happened to be something lurking in the shadows and that even if there was, I would be capable of dodging it in time before it was simply too late.
*Click Click*
The sound of a wooden clicking, one that sounded like the drumming on an old wooden table, or maybe even the creaking of a 100-year-old door...
The sound didn't make sense yet what it portrayed was as clear as day.
They were coming, and they were coming fast!
My speed increased a little but at that moment, I did not think I could increase my speed any more than I had already done without banging my head into a random tree.
The thing about the dread was that even though there were cases of it working on inanimate things or even more of a sense of foreboding rather than actual danger, I could not magically activate it whenever I wanted.
It was not a switch I could turn on and off instead it was more of a switch that would turn on by itself, like an automated toilet light or an automated tap that would only activate after entering a room or if my hand moved under the motion sensors.
*Click Click Click Click*
The send of foreboding was getting stronger and the dread was becoming more concentrated than before.
The wooden old and creaky clicks grew louder.
I could hear something...
*Thud Thud*
Was it my heartbeat?
*Thud* *Thud* *Thud* *Thud* *Thud*
No, it didn't sound like my heartbeat... But it couldn't be footsteps, right?
Maybe it was the creature that used its tentacles to attack me, but why would it be that? That thing usually stayed high up in trees...
Could it be...?
*SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH*
----------------------------------------
To interact with the author, report mistakes, and see what the characters look like, join the discord Server: https://discord.gg/PtzXQBvAj5
----------------------------------------