Lucian slowly opened his eyes, immediately squinting them in the next second due to the intense ray of light. The golden rays pierced through the thick foliage of the trees illuminating the forest in a beautiful glow.
Lucian didn't enjoy the sleep a single bit, partly due to the hard bark of the trees he slept on.
Something he had never done before as he was used to sleeping on the soft comfy bed.
The main reason was due to having to partly sleep and also be awake in fear of a beast ambushing them in their sleep although that didn't happen.
Looking at the tree slightly below him was a slowly awakening Kenji who gave a loud yawn as the fats on his face jiggled continuously.
Lucian immediately jumped down from the 5 metres tall tree, landing on the ground with a thud. An even louder sound of thud echoed out beside him as he looked at Kenji giving him a smile.
"Only a fool would underestimate me because I'm fat." Kenji said flashing Lucian a prideful smile although he couldn't hide the quivering of his legs.
Lucian chuckled a little as he ignored Kenji and began running to the direction of the sect.
One thing he observed about the fatty is his not wanting to be left behind will. If he was stronger, the fatty would be jealous and would also try to become stronger too. If he jumped from a ten metres tall tree, the fatty would also try to jump too. A weird but good personality.
Kenji also followed behind Lucian's rapidly fading figure as the duo moved with speed through the forest while also trying to be as quiet as possible in fear of alerting the beasts.
-- -- --
5 hours later.
The shadows of two people moved through the forest with speed as their gaze remained focused. The Divine Battle sect was now more closer than ever as it will only require about 2 more hours of running before arriving before it.
Lucian looked at the sect on front if him, his heart thrumming powerfully within him as he was so close to his goals.
A slight smile appeared on his face, but suddenly his body came to a halt as he stood where he was as if nailed to the ground.
Kenji also stopped as he looked at Lucian wondering what the reason of the stop could be.
Lucian's gaze narrowed as he stared behind him. Since almost an hour ago, he felt as if he has been locked on by something, as if he was being tracked by something but due to him being closer to the sect made him ignore that and focused on running instead but the feeling was growing stronger.
It was like the feeling of being stared at by the phantom creeper when one couldn't see it.
Kenji looked at Lucian strangely as he looked behind, but the forest was oddly quiet making him wonder what the reason of the abrupt stop is.
"Hey, what are you..." Kenji asked but was cut shut when Lucian placed his hands on his lips before slowly bending to the ground instead.
Lucian placed his hands in the ground as while he couldn't see behind him, he could pass the waves he learnt from the phantom creeper to the ground and check for any sign of vibrations coming towards them.
He slowly closed his eyes as he strained his soul to the limit.
Everything was oddly quite on the earth when Lucian suddenly felt a slight vibration but it was intense in it's power. Focusing more, he sensed the intensity increasing towards them but he was a little surprised as it felt like the being was walking on two legs and it's power was shaking the land below it although it was impossible to see as the forest were oddly quite.
Lucian immediately opened his eyes as he screamed to Kenji beside him.
"Run..."
Lucian immediately slammed his leg into the ground as he immediately shot forward with speed Kenji not slow to him by even a second.
While he couldn't tell what beast was chasing them. He knew it was definitely stronger than them from the pure vibration intensity he was feeling from the ground, and that they couldn't see the beast even though it had been hunting them for a while was enough to show it was beyond their level.
Besides what type of a beast walks on its two legs.
Lucian ran even faster surpassing Kenji for a metre when the vibration intensity on the ground suddenly increased as the sound of trees being uprooted could be heard behind them.
The beast finally revealed itself as Lucian sucked in a deep breath, all his hair standing on end as fear bloomed in his heart.
From the corner of his eyes was a monster of about 3 metres tall. It's stood on its two powerful legs which were bent together like that of a wolf. It's entire body was covered in dark fur, as it's eyes shone a bright crimson red.
It's dark steel-like claws of about 5 centimeters long shimmered coldly with a deadly light as it's elongated snort opened wildly revealing sharp rows of teeth.
Every step of it made the ground below them shake from their power as it didn't even try to dodge the trees but continuously ran into them knocking them off with pure brute strength instead.
Lucian's face widened in disbelief as he immediately identified the beast. It was the deadly Night Werewolf beast. A powerful late Star rank stage beast known for its fearsome strength.
Any type of fighting intent in him was immediately thrown out of the window as he concentrated on running at full speed instead.
His body weaved through the trees, Kenji a metre away from him but the wolf easily closed in on them as bloodlust shone it's eyes while a playful smirk lay on its face.
It was a little bit surprised when he saw the two kids were able to sense it as it first decided to sneaking in on them. Normally it wouldn't be interested in such weaklings like them but there was something about the lean boy that made him interested.
It felt every gene on it's body was screaming out to it to devour the boy and he'll be able to finally breakthrough it's cultivation level that it has been stuck in since all this while.
While they both were pretty fast, they couldn't be any slower to him as he easily covered the distance to just about three metres left to them.
Sweat dripped down from Lucian's head as he was sure it was neigh impossible to escape this. The werewolf was incredibly fast and it will soon easily close in them in the next one minute, besides it was also at the Late Star rank making any thoughts of fighting impossible.
Kenji was only at the Early Star rank, while he wasn't even the early stage yet but could fight one with his incredibly strong physique. Together they would be able to wrestle with a Middle Star rank stage but a late stage was out of their way.
His heart pounded madly supplying him with strength as he refused to allow the thought of sure death hinder him but his eyes widened when he saw a scream echoed from behind him.
He immediately turned back only to see Kenji, who was sprawled out on the ground due to having stumbled on a tree root.
Kenji immediately tried to stand up but couldn't as he saw his legs had been stuck under one of the trees and couldn't get out no matter how hard he pulled.
He immediately brought out his saber, but the sound of the large steps could be clearly heard as he turned his head behind him only to see a sharp claw magnifying with speed towards his face, the air waves causing sharp pain to his face as line of blood appeared on them just from the power of the claw piercing through the air alone.
One thing was sure, his head would be immediately reduced to a pulp if it made contact with it as horror appeared on Kenji's face.
Lucian's eyes widened in fear as a crazy expression appeared on his face due to struggling with a decision.
To save Kenji or to Keep Running.
The sect was now closer than ever and he could get there in less than thrity minutes more of running at this pace. His goals was closer than ever but should he abandon Kenji.
If he tried to save him, then they both will surely end up dying in the end as they couldn't fight the beast no matter how hard they tried.
Saving him was probably delaying the inevitable. Besides he only knew him for less than three days, was dying for him really worth it.
Tears spilled out from Lucian's eyes, from his heart being broken to a thousand pieces as he clenched his fists tightly before muttering
"I'm sorry..."