Hiding behind the massive roots of a large tree, Dante kept surveying the area despite the silence encompassing him. Despite everything being calm, Dante's instincts were shouting at him to never let his guard down. So with this in mind, he continued his observations.
"Where is it?"
Dante silently muttered as he gritted his teeth in annoyance. Even though he wanted to calm himself by breathing slowly and relaxing. None of it would work as his body kept telling him that something was staring at him from afar.
Staring at him from afarβ¦
Being reminded by such thoughts, Dante slowly turned his eyes yet never moved a single muscle of his head. It was then he noticed the giant and familiar eyes gazing at him. The location of the eyes was complicated and unusual. Because of this, his surveying in the area didn't work.
The pair of gigantic eyes were located behind him, staring at him from above.
He closed his eyelids as his hands began shaking.
Numerous thoughts passed through his head since Dante was wondering what to do in order to survive his unfortunate circumstances. There were doubts, confidence, and curiosity plaguing his thoughts. But all in all, they concluded one thing.
He must fight.
Dante opened his eyelids as he regained his recently lost determination. The bastard seems to be playing hide and seek. It was treating him like a toy, and this fact made Dante angry.
'I don't want to run anymore. This bastard is playing with me.'
'I'll remind you to never play with your food.'
His eyes glinted with such thoughts in his mind.
Dante clenched his rifle as he took a deep breath before throwing something behind him. The eyes looked at it before concluding that it was nothing. It turned its gaze back at Dante, and at this moment, three seconds passed.
*TANG!!!*
*FLISSSH!!!*
The flare ignited, resulting in a red light radiantly gleaming from it. Such light shrouded the dark forest with a lustrous radiance it had never felt. And this brought upon the revelation of what was hidden in the darkness and also the ones lurking behind it.
*GRAHHH!!!*
The monster roared as it was blinded by the instantaneous emergence of the radiant light.
It unveiled what Dante wanted to see, and as he turned his gaze towards the eyes. What he saw was what he didn't expect. He thought of the monster as a giant humanoid. But now, he was doubting his idea.
After all, he was staring at a monster that couldn't even be considered humanoid at all.
The monster's skin was pale white alongside its skinny figure. It had centipede-like legs and a broken body with its back facing forward. On its chest was its massive mouth with dozens of sharp teeth, and on its head were two large eyes that resembled that of a snail.
The size of such a monster was two stories tall, and its length was hard to uncover. The monster was using the branch and was dangling on it using its centipede legs as an anchor.
Dante was looking at it with widened eyes, and his thoughts about the monster were simple.
It was one clear word.
'Abomination!'
He was shocked at how such a thing could even exist. It was similar to that of a horrific alien creature found in the movies of his old world. And he was planning to fight against such an abomination?
"Sh*t, it doesn't matter."
"Let's proceed with the plan."
Dante uttered and shook his head of any irrelevant fearful thoughts. It was time to start the operation in his mind. To take down the bastard that kept staring at him, he must use everything he had.
He furrowed his eyebrows and held his rifle tightly. Afterward, he immediately threw the smoke bomb toward the direction of the flare.
*HISSS!!!*
Pale smoke began escaping from the smoke bomb he threw and started shrouding the surroundings. Then, without a hint of hesitation, Dante pointed his rifle at the monster and aimed at its head. Luckily, the monster was temporarily blinded.
It was frozen in place and was slowly regenerating its vision back.
But before that happens, Dante must destroy its eyes.
*BANG!*
He pulled the trigger, and the rifle's barrel flashed.
One of the monster's eyes then exploded as Dante's eyes gleamed. He didn't have the time to test his rifle since it was sadly dark in the forest. So he was a bit discreet regarding the rifle he was holding.
*GYAAHH!!!*
The deep roar of the monster became high-pitch, making Dante's ears almost burst. He covered them, yet the sound kept piercing his ears. He could only grit his teeth and resign himself to the pain.
A couple of seconds later, the monster stopped screeching, and Dante could hear nothing but a whistling sound echoing within his mind. He squinted his eyes and quickly loaded the rifle.
He pointed it at the remaining eyes once again as the monster before Dante kept wiggling on the branches. It was hard to shoot at an erratically moving object, but the deafened Dante calmed himself and waited for the right moment.
It took time, but when the right moment came, he didn't hesitate to pull the trigger.
*BANG!*
This was the second shot, and the remaining eyes of the monster exploded.
Its centipede legs were losing strength, and when Dante noticed this, he immediately rolled away from his hiding spot. The monster then fell onto the ground with blood splattered throughout it.
*BAM!*
Dante stood up as the whistling echoes kept residing within his mind. He touched his ears and noticed that there wasn't any blood. He sighed in relief as his eardrums didn't burst from the high-pitch scream.
'This bastard.'
'Now I understand why it was included in the marathon test.'
Thoughts passed through Dante's mind as he stared at the flinching body of the monster. It was still alive despite the blood spurting out of its body. It has great vitality, which Dante would praise.
But he wasn't planning on letting it go alive.
From its teeth, the monster was carnivorous. Why it didn't attack Dante was a question, but until he can reach the second checkpoint. It will never get answered.
'Your weakness are your two bulging and snail-like eyes.'
'I should take this into consideration as there might be many more of you in this dark forest.'
The weakness was important info and an obvious one. He was somewhat sure that the abominations of the forest wouldn't end with one monster. So instead of facing them in a direct fight, he needed to check for weakness.
The whistling noise within Dante's head then cleared as he muttered to himself while loading his rifle.
"I need to find other recruits and gather information regarding the monsters."
"It looks like this guy is really a sheltered one."
Dante sighed as nothing within the body's memories noted any monsters. Meaning that the last owner never knew or even met a single one.
"Well, I guess there is nothing I can do about it."
Aiming the rifle at the monster's head, Dante pulled the trigger with a cold expression plastered on his face.
*BANG!!!*
The gunshot kept echoing throughout the forest, and a quick ring chimed in his head.
*[ππ’π§π !]*