Felix awakened to a feeling of weakness, as a pang of dizziness assaulted his senses, causing him to let out a suppressed groan.
Opening his eyes he could vaguely see the head of a female figure above him, it took a minute but his eyes gradually cleared up and a figure with inky black hair became apparent to him.
"Serena?" Felix muttered in confusion as his mind tried to put the pieces together, it took a while but when he finally remembered.
"Fucking pink birds," he yelled as he sat up, his expression a mixture of anger and embarrassment.
"Someone's feeling better," a male voice called out from the side. To Felix, the voice sounded a bit raspy with visible hints of displeasure and impatience in its tone.
Tracing the voice to the source, Felix's blue eyes met a pair of black eyes staring at him with light indifference.
The person who possessed those black eyes was a man who reminded Felix of a sturdy rock.
With a bear-like figure, this red-haired man exuded a forceful aura that made one feel guarded, his gaze imposing.
"Who are you?" Felix asked with a hint of caution coating his tone. By the green colored tags on their shoulders and the black body armor they wore he could tell that they were one of the other teams the Vice Captain had spoken of.
"This one is rude," a childish female voice sounded out behind Felix, drawing his attention before darting in.
"His strength is decent though, he's the strongest so far, but he has fifteenth layers just like the rest of them so it doesn't really mean much," the voice behind Felix analyzed.
Hearing the voice behind him Felix turned back and the first thing he noticed was shimmering silver eyes, it was a girl with silver eyes.
"A teenager?" Felix called out sounding confused.
At the sound of Felix's voice, the silver-eyed girl suddenly pounted, her small face frowning as she pointed at Felix.
"You're the teenager, I'm twenty, I'm an adult!" She yelled, sounding increasingly annoyed with each passing moment.
One couldn't blame Felix though, standing at four feet, the silver-eyed girl, petite and fetish really did look like an underdeveloped teenager.
"That's enough," a heavy voice called out again, it was the red-haired man with black eyes, and by the sound of his voice, he seemed annoyed.
"Hump!" The silver-eyed girl pouted, saying nothing after that.
With a short pause the red-haired man said calmly, "Serena, you explain the situation to him, and see if you can get any useful information from him. We'll camp here for an hour at most."
"Ok Bruce," a female voice besides Felix replied.
Hearing this voice, Felix realized that it was actually the voice of someone he knew.
It was Serena, he had been so confused that he had disregarded her.
"Hi," Felix greeted absentmindedly, his tone coated with a bit of ease.
"Are you all right?" Serena asked, her voice bittersweet.
Looking at Felix reminded her of the night she had spent with him. She had thought that he would be the shining star of the show, leading their venture into the abysmal enclave and serving as an extra layer of protection for her.
However, upon venturing into the abysmal enclave, she quickly realized that her plans were severely miscalculated.
She had thought that earning his affection would put her in a safer position, but even with his affection she couldn't be any more unsafe.
Glancing at the robust, red-haired figure in the distance Serena thought to herself, "Why couldn't it be him? His strength is much more overwhelming."
"I'm fine." Felix's voice cut through the air breaking Serena's train of thoughts.
After a short pause he looked around, "who are these people?" He asked his voice tainted with heavy curiosity.
Sensing Felix's curiosity Serena shook her head, "I've only been with them for a few days, and all I know is that they are strong," she said with a pause before darting in, "also they seem to be looking for Aiden."
"Aiden?" Felix echoed slowly before darting in, "That cowardly bastard, why are they looking for him?" He asked in an annoyed tone, his body already assuming a dismissive posture.
"If not for him we would have watched you go, bye-bye," the silver-eyed girl interrupted from the side.
Ignoring the silver-eyed girl Felix asked, "How did you end up with these people, why are they looking for Aiden?"
Serena wasn't surprised by Felix's questions, instead, she answered patiently. "The currents in the river were much harder than expected, and by the time I regained control of myself, I was lost."
Pausing a bit Serena let out a breath as she continued. "As for how I met them, I was escaping from a pack of infected beasts and stumbled upon them, at first they were more interested in my gray tag, wanting to claim more rewards for themselves and abandon me, but the red-haired guy over there, Bruce."
Saying this Serena glanced toward Bruce before continuing, "Bruce asked me if I knew a guy called Aiden, and when it was confirmed that I knew him they let me tag along. We also found some of the others along the way."
"Some others?" Felix's echoed with raised brows as he glanced around.
Indeed he did recognize some familiar faces amid the group of unfamiliar faces. There were Ethan and David.
"What about, Kevin and Adrian?" Felix asked Serena, the caution in his tone vanishing completely.
"We haven't found them yet," a voice interrupted from the side.
Turning towards the sound of that voice, Felix discovered a brown-haired man with equally brown eyes walking toward him.
It was Ethan, one of his teammates. Seeing Ethan, Felix couldn't help but ask, "And how did you get here?"
"My story is the same as Serena's," Ethan replied with a sheepish chuckle. With that, he stretched out his hand to help Felix up.
Seeing Ethan stretching out his arm, Felix ignored him and opted to get up himself, this little act put Ethan in an awkward position as he redrew his hand in embarrassment.
"Catch!"
A voice yelled out from the side catching Felix's attention as he turned to look. The person who spoke was a man with long curly brown hair and black eyes.
The next thing he saw was what seemed to be a bowl made out of leaves being thrown at him by this brown-haired man.
"What's this for?" Felix asked as he caught the bowl, his eyes squinted, searching for clarity.
"Your hair, you have to cover it with that," the brown-haired man said with a small grin before explaining as he waved towards his teammates.
"Those pink birds aren't fond of blonde hair, as for the reason why, you'll figure it out soon," he said.
Looking around, Felix noticed that everyone with even a semblance of blonde hair had these green bowls around them, but they didn't seem to be wearing them.
Felix wanted to ask more questions but he was interrupted by Bruce who spoke, "Enough talk, let's move."
"But it hasn't been an hour yet," the silver-eyed girl whined before adding, "Can't we just stay here for a bit?" She asked.
"No, we have to move, my instincts tell me that Aiden is close," Bruce said.
-----------
Meanwhile, as Felix grappled with the peculiar group he found himself among, Aiden and Mai were facing a dire situation near the waterfall.
Aiden, aware of the impending crisis struggled to heal his wounds, his groans suppressed by the roaring waterfall by his side.
Glancing at the waterfall, Aiden noticed a few strange things about it.
The waterfall seemed to be flowing underground. As the waterfall cascaded gently, its clear waters merged with a serene pool below.
It looked like a natural channel, carved through the rocks, guiding the water into a curved cavity shaded by overhanging rocks.
Beyond this geological formation, the arid landscape stretched, revealing the harsh reality of the surrounding dry terrain.
Seeing this Aiden sighed in disappointment, he had wanted to follow the river to the seventh shelter, but it seemed that it wouldn't be possible, they couldn't possibly follow the river underground.
Mai on the other hand had already placed a healing pill in her mouth.
Glancing towards the cliff she could spot the demon's silhouette drawing closer, its crab-like legs piercing the cliff overhead as it moved like some sort of spider.
"We're gonna die," Mai muttered in a pained tone, her voice as though she couldn't believe herself.
Although they were beside a waterfall, the air felt dry, and the distinctive smell of dry rock and dust pierced the very back of Mai's throat.
Mai felt her lips go dry, courtesy of the surplus amount of hell energy around them.
Although the hell energy made their surroundings dry, it also hastened Mai's recovery as she would probably heal up completely in twenty-four hours, her hastened recovery didn't seem to be of any significance in this situation though.
Unknowingly, Mai's eyes began to water, as a feeling of unwillingness washed over her like a shroud, but it wasn't just unwillingness, it was fear. Mai was afraid.
Aiden on the other hand struggled to sit up, looking at his legs one would notice that his ruptured flesh had almost fully healed.
"Just a few minutes more," Aiden thought as he looked above him, the demonic being was drawing closer.
Taking the speed of the demon's descent, Aiden estimated that the demon would have reached them in five minutes, give or take.
Reaching this conclusion Aiden focused, and the energy that circulated evenly around his entire body stagnated around his lower body healing his wounds rapidly.
Aiden's wounds healed at a faster rate, which didn't surprise him at all. As long as Aiden had soul energy his wounds would heal at a speed visible to the human eyes.
For Aiden, broken bones, punctured flesh, and even burn wounds could be healed in a matter of minutes.
The expenditure of soul energy was proportional to the severity of the injury, and so far he had been injured a lot.
Aiden had never had his limbs severed. Well, he has back in that strange realm but that was under completely different circumstances.
In that place, if he had his limb severed he would die in a few hours due to the severe loss of blood and respawn immediately, but over here he didn't know what would happen.
Unknowingly, as he pondered, the wounds on his legs had almost finished at the cost of a large amount of his soul energy.
With that, Aiden got to his feet baring the feeling of soreness that plagued his upper body.
Quickly he ran towards Mai who was still temporally disabled from the nasty fall, and without a word Aiden picked her up, causing Mai to let out a gasp of surprise.
Quickly, Aiden ran by the riverbank, putting some much-needed space between them and the demon.
Due to his injuries, he wasn't fast but he was steady. "Argh," Mai suddenly groaned as Aiden ran prompting him to squeeze out a question.
"What's wrong?" Aiden asked, his gaze intense and furrowed, he seemed worried and annoyed at the same time.
Mai on the other hand didn't reply, instead, her face scrunched up as she closed her eyes, trying to ignore the pain she was feeling.
Aiden, eager to ask more questions, was abruptly halted by a sudden, jarring bang. Startled, he instinctively glanced behind him, his curiosity momentarily replaced by an unexpected interruption.
"Badump!"
His heart suddenly skipped a beat as a feeling of shock loomed over him, a shock that was accompanied by fear, "how is this possible?" Aiden muttered with wide eyes.
The demon seemed to have jumped down halfway through its climb. Aiden wasn't expecting this, although he had recovered, Aiden knew that he was still no match for this demonic entity.
The demon on the other hand wasn't willing to wait for the duo, Instead, two of its crab-like legs violently pierced into the hard soil beneath it.
Using its monstrous strength, it flung itself forward like a pebble on a slingshot.
In a second the demon was behind Aiden, and a feeling of pressure assaulted him, prompting him to grit his teeth and burn soul energy.
"Bang!"
At that moment the demon's scaled fists hit the ground missing Aiden who had evaded, scattering dirt and rocks everywhere.
"Guru!"
The earth trembled a bit as though a mini earthquake was happening.
Aiden on the other hand kept on running with gritted teeth, he didn't have a choice, the fall had injured him, and because of the amount of soul energy at his disposal he couldn't fight, he could barely run.
The demon's legs shuffled through the ground as it neared Aiden once again.
Aiden didn't look back but he could feel it, that demonic being was about to attack.
"Bang!"
Its permanently balled fists hit the ground and a mini earthquake happened once again almost causing Aiden to lose his balance.
"Ahhhhh," Mai screamed in Aidne's embrace, her expression a mixture of fear and pain.
As a result of her injured spine, Aiden's sudden movements caused her a lot of pain.
But Aiden couldn't care less, his heart was beating fast as his senses went on overdrive.
He was running low on soul energy, he couldn't dodge forever.
As Aiden ran he discovered something that made him elated, he hadn't been attacked for a few seconds now.
Glancing behind himself, Aiden could still vividly see the demon's height looming over him as it chased after Aiden with visible ease.
Aiden couldn't care less why it was slowing down, instead, he put even more energy into running, his stamina seemingly unending.
Suddenly Aiden felt a tingling sensation at the nape of his neck and before he could even react.
"Pirce!"
Something priced through his back completely bypassing his body armor.
It was so sudden that Aiden was still in shock, and then the pain set in.
"Argh!" Aiden groaned as he ran, his eyes darting around for a way out.
"Pirce!"
Another spike was fired, hitting Aiden's back once again, and again, and again.
The demon was ruthless firing spikes at Aiden's back, it's attack's repetitive but effective.
"Pirce!"
Another spike tore through Aiden's armor penetrating his skin and prompting Aiden to let out a large gasp of pain.
By now Aiden had slowed down drastically, but the demon didn't rush to attack him, instead, it fired another spike at him.
"Pirce!"
That dreadful sound filled Mai's ears as she watched Aiden gasp, his forceful steps slowing down as he staggered to a halt.
"Aiden," she called out through her pain, her voice feeble and afraid.
Aiden on the other hand didn't hear a word of what Mai was saying, instead, he felt his ears ringing as a pang of dizziness assaulted him.
He staggered, feeling an unsettling chill spreading through his veins. His senses dulled, and a thought clawed its way into his mind - poison.
Quickly glancing behind Aiden noticed that the demon's dysfunctional arms lazily pointed at him, its crab-like legs keeping up with his pace.
Aiden couldn't stand it anymore.
He fell to his knees, his grip on Mai wavering. In that moment Aiden lost control over the little amount of soul energy he had left.
And the soul energy following its primal instincts rushed to heal his wound.
Unfortunately, his soul energy was insufficient, and as it reduced Aiden felt a maddening hunger amidst the pain and confusion.
If he didn't consume a soul now, he would run out of soul energy.