Previously Zach had been receiving various system messages but he had dismissed them without reading because of the situation that he had been in. But the message written in red seemed to be something important, too important to be ignored.
[Weight has exceeded past the limit.]
[Accuracy has slightly decreased.]
[Movement Speed has been reduced by 20%]
Zach let out a loud a grunt in anger as he read the penalty that he had received for carrying Luna. Slightest decrease in accuracy meant that he couldn't believe in his marksmanship completely.
Zach didn't bother too much about the decreased movement speed since that was obvious as he was carrying Luna.
Zach carried Luna and ran like a maniac. He couldn't be as cautious as before. After all, he didn't have the same reaction time and the same accuracy as before. Carrying Luna with him had bound his hands somewhat.
Breaking past the encirclement, Zach didn't bother slowing down. Because he wasn't na?ve enough to assume that this was the end. The enemy had surely already set up a new encirclement while he was busy trying to carry Luna.
[Your status has been updated from Normal ? Exhausted.]
As expected, there was another volley of arrows waiting for him in the never ending forest.
Zach tried to dodge as best as he could by taking into account the trajectory of the launched arrows. He fired back with his rifle but his aim was slightly off due to the extra burden on his back and his ragged breathing.
Even though he dodged the incoming arrows as best as he could, there were still some that escaped his vision. While trying to save Luna from the incoming attacks, Zach too received some minor injuries.
An arrow managed to graze his cheek and another hurt his left hand which he had been using to support his rifle.
[Your status has been updated from Exhausted ? Injured.]
[Movement speed has reduced slightly.]
Zach put his rifle away and kept on running as he switched to his pistol. Since the range of his pistol wasn't high enough, Zach only used it for cover fire as he located the gap in the encirclement.
Lady luck had finally smiled down on him after giving him so many handicaps earlier. There was quite a huge gap in the encirclement this time, probably because he had killed off quite a few of the enemy attackers in the previous skirmishes. This allowed him to move past the encirclement relatively easily as he continued to avoid the ranged attacks.
Zach ran past the various encirclements as he began to accumulate more and more wounds in order to protect Luna but he didn't stop even once. Stopping at this juncture was nothing less than suicide.
Luna's heart fell into turmoil as she watched the back of the human who was trying to save her from other humans by putting his life on the line. She wanted to tell him to leave her behind and escape but for some reason she felt that the human would never leave her behind even if she told him to.
As Zach continued to run past the various encirclements, a bad feeling reared its head in the back of his mind as it tried to grab all his attention. Zach ignored it but soon felt as if he wasn't escaping but he was being allowed to escape every time he rushed through the gap.
From the earlier skirmishes, he was sure that enemy leader was a cunning one who wouldn't allow him to escape unscathed from his encirclement.
It wasn't long before he figured out that he was being herded in the direction that the enemy wanted. The gap in the encirclement was always large enough to allow his escape. Even a no name leader would have managed to patch the gap by now.
"They are not trying to kill us at all. They are trying to lead us to that direction." Zach announced his deduction out loud so as to gain Luna's attention. He needed her valuable input in order to truly determine what trick the enemies were trying to pull.
Luna was startled by her voice but then she figured out what he wanted to know about.
At first she couldn't remember where she was but when she looked around carefully while taking in her surroundings, a look of absolute horror came over her face.
"THAT's…that's the territory of the Earth Bear, a D-rank beast that is incredibly strong and sturdy. They are definitely trying to kill us by pushing us in that direction." Luna stumbled upon her words as she explained the scheme of the enemies.
Zach nodded in understanding and finally understood how he had managed to escape even while carrying Luna so easily. If he wasn't wrong, then the enemy leader was trying to save his men since he had already suffered a loss at his hands in the earlier skirmishes.
"As expected, the enemy is quite cunning. He is trying to kill using a borrowed hand while keeping his losses from hurting him any further." A cruel glint flashed across Zach's eyes as he increased his speed with the last burst of his strength and dashed into the territory of the Earth Bear.
Zach hoped and prayed vigorously for the bear to ignore him as he scuttled past its territory.
But his heart fell as he saw the frighteningly large and nightmarish brown figure standing on its hind legs as if welcoming him with open arms…and mouth.
"There's definitely no one listening to my prayers in this world as well." Zach sighed heavily as he thought to himself.
The Earth bear had already seen him coming from far off and looked as if it had been waiting eagerly for its next meal.
The outstretched claws and the gaping maw of the beast was a stern reminder of the cruel end waiting for the two of them if they didn't make a run for it.
Luna suppressed a scream as if still trying not to attract the attention of the Earth Bear.
Zach on the other hand wasn't prepared to die in this manner. He aimed his pistol at the bear as he tried to calm down his heavy breathing. The distance was so close that Zach didn't even have to worry about the shot missing; after all, the huge body of the bear was the only thing he could see in front of him. Even the huge tree trunk was hidden behind its body volume.
Running like his life depended on it, which it really did; Zach pulled the trigger continuously firing his pistol towards the bear in an attempt to delay it from chasing after him.
However, Zach's thinking was too primitive. He had been thinking that the bear would be extremely slow since it had a large body, too large for it to be agile enough to chase after him once Zach got ahead of it.
Alas, the bear turned out to be even faster than him. Swinging its claws madly, it ran after Zach and Luna with madness in its eyes and in a single leap covered the distance that Zach had barely managed to create earlier.
Zach could hear the sound of its breathing as it chased after him. Luna was so terrified that she would inadvertently scream every time the bear closed in on them. Her hands on the other hand tightened their hold on Zach's neck which was bearing the brunt of her anxiety and fear.
Zach almost gagged from the force of her hands strangling his neck. He tapped her arm that was wrapped around his neck hurriedly in order to save his neck from breaking.
Luna finally muttered something in an inaudible tone and the force on his neck vanished.
"It's catching up to us…hurry and get us out of here." Luna screamed from behind him as she barely managed to rein her fear in to tell him of the dire situation that they were in.
"Tell me once it is really, really close." Zach shouted hurriedly and instructed Luna to be his hindsight.
"It's coming closer…closer…closer…it's close enough to reach us. Do something…HURRY." Luna shouted at Zach with fear and frustration of not being able to do something herself.
Zach heard her signal and changed his direction slightly as he headed straight towards an especially sturdy tree in the vicinity. The bear gave a maddening chase as it followed after them.