Pivoting in the air, Rumius met the oncoming blur of brown and green feet-first. He landed heavily on a lower branch of the pine tree across him and his body tipped over it as the momentum of his jump continued pushing him forward. Rumius's hand shot out and his palm slammed against the trunk, killing the momentum and setting him place.
' That's it. This is it. This can work! Let's keep at it!'
' This is the way out! I can do this!'
Mana filled his legs with power as he jumped again through the air. His feet struck a higher branch and stuck. Then he jumped again, flying across the forest to the next tree. Then to the next, and then to the next. Rumius's smile got wider and wider with every jump.
Rumius jumped again, and this time, he aimed for a high branch that was almost directly above him. Because of how high but close it was, Rumius didn't have to contemplate too much before making the jump.
That alone saved his life.
The instant he launched off from the branch, an ear-splitting roar followed by the sound of splintering wood reach his ears.
Rumius jolted in the air, but his attention was still mostly fixed on reaching the high branch. Rumius flew above the branch and landed on it on his descent. A sickening "Crunch" punctuated his ears and Rumius's eyes went wide with pain. Sucking in deep breaths, he limped to the trunk of the tree and hugged it. Rumius turned his head around just in time to see the tree had been on moments ago fall over, bisected at its thin waist.
And the perpetrator was on the ground, glaring up at him with its yellow eyes. And Rumius glared right back at it.
' ARE YOU KIDDING ME? SERIOUSLY THIS FUCKING BEAR! WHY ARE YOU SO DESPERATE TO EAT ME? I BARELY HAVE ANY MEAT ON ME YOU STUPID FUCKER!!'
However, Rumius noticed that it wasn't approaching to take down the tree that he was on. Why?
Rumius quickly saw how much smaller the tree that it had taken down was. It was likely weaker, and the bear had waited for him to jump on it the whole time! It was stalking him!
" Well fuck you, cause you know what? I don't think you're going to get me while I'm on this tree." He spat. With his arms wrapped around its trunk, Rumius could already feel how he wasn't even halfway around its diameter. This tree was just that much bigger. And more importantly….
Rumius turned away from the bear and faced the other way. From here, he could already see it. He was at the border. And a few trees away, there were the grassy fields, illuminated by the dying lights of the setting sun.
It was now or never. And everything came clear spontaneously in one fluid instant of clear, insane and ridiculous thoughts.
Once again, it felt like adventure was calling him. The thrill, the sensation, the danger.
Rumius simply had to laugh at himself. ' I suppose I just never learn.' He sighed.
Then he jumped. With both legs.
Pain exploded from the ankle on his right as the world and his heartbeat accelerated to a blur. But to Rumius, the pain felt numbed. He couldn't care more about the reason. Right now, he was busy chanting.
There was a heavy rustling in the air, as if something big was moving, hunting, chasing. Dry leaves and fallen branches cracked as it moved. Rumius tried his best not to think about it. He needed to continue chanting. He had to imagine.
When he came into the forest, Rumius had noted how the trees were packed slightly less densely in these areas. He took that into consideration now. That meant that he wouldn't have to worry about hitting nearby trees and branches as he jumped through the air. Rumius sailed through the air past one tree, then two, before he began to go down.
Rumius pivoted through the air, bringing his palm to face the ground. His mouth opened and closed as the chant completed itself.
" BLAST!"
An explosion sounded loudly in his ears and a sudden force smashed against his arm, shooting through his palm up his bones and into the joint and accelerating his entire body. Through the pain, Rumius saw the ground shooting away at blinding speeds. There was an also a sound of furious roaring in the wind, one that didn't feel like it belonged to the wind itself.
Then, seemingly in an instant, the entirety of the surroundings brightened. Rumius mildly thought to reinforce his muscles with mana only some brief seconds before he crashed onto the ground, rolling, but successfully arriving several metres beyond the tree line.
There was a silence in the air. Rumius slowly rose to his feet.
His ears were ringing. His body was aching from a hundred different places. And he could only see blurs for some reason. There was a big green blur in front of him. The blurs above him were like the palette of a master artist. Actually, everything was a blur that looked nice, so he couldn't discriminate. Rumius took a step, and then another.
' Where am I?'
Rumius looked around slowly, so that he wouldn't fall over in dizziness. There was a large carpet of green in front of him, and not only that, there was also a little bump in the distance.
Slowly, the image began to shift. Some spikes appeared on the smooth carpet, then disappeared and were replaced by blades upon blades of small green grass. The texture was only becoming more and more complex by the second, until finally, something clicked. And with the click came a whole ass-load of pain.
Rumius doubled over in agony and ecstatic laughter.
' YES! YES! HAHAHAHAHA!! EAT SHIT YOU STUPID BEAR!'
' I DID IT! I DID IT! I DI-ow, ow..ow.'
Rumius sucked in a long breath as he grappled with the flaring pain in his side.
' Ohhhhhh shit. Okay, I need to get back fast…'
Rumius turned and began limping away. Each step hurting more than the last. But the adrenaline was still around. And above it all was the taste of sweet, sweet victory. Maybe he had not killed the bear. It was probably unthinkable for him right now. But he had escaped. Such a large animal probably wouldn't leave its natural habitat and enter the plains past the tree line. It shouldn't be natural. And that means that he was safe!
' Me: 1
Bear: 0 '
Or so he thought, smilingly.
In the next instant, a murderous roar echoed through the plains, and a black shadow came crashing through the trees.
Rumius turned and saw the monster come charging straight at him with a terrible vengeance.
A part of its face was bleeding, actually no. Hell, it was missing! Rumius didn't know what couldn't have caused such a wound, but in the instant, it couldn't have been more trivial.
By the time he saw the bear, it had been ten metres away.
By the time he'd processed what was happening, it was five metres away.
In that instant, even Rumius wasn't sure what possessed him. The creature was barely two metres away when he raised his palm.
It was one metre when he said a single word.
It had happened too fast for Rumius to remember anything. It was like a cannon had gone off or a volcano had exploded. When the sound died away, all there was left was the vague recollection of an unstoppable force clad in white light, and the red stains on the ground where the bear had once been.