Immediately after Adall's teleportation, he found himself in the midst of an environment he had not expected at all.
Indeed, what uncle would receive his nephew, whom he hadn't seen in a long time, in the middle of the forest? Moreover, in a forest where it was so dark in broad daylight that it seemed as if night had already fallen.
"Uncle Merlin!"
"Uncle Merlin!"
"Uncle Merlin!"
"Uncle Merlin!"
"Uncle Merlin!"
Adall called out his uncle's name repeatedly, but received no response. In reality, if he knew where he had landed, he would never dare to breathe for fear of making noise. So, shouting at the top of his lungs as he had just done was obviously the worst idea of the century.
After exhausting his voice properly, Adall decided to carefully observe his surroundings to gather clues about his location. He then swept his surroundings more seriously with his gaze. Having somewhat accustomed himself to the darkness, he gathered more information this time, notably the silhouette of the demonic beast lurking in the shadow, staring at him relentlessly.
("Hm? I must have seen wrong, right?")
Adall's thoughts were understandable. If it really was a demonic beast as he had imagined, he would certainly already be in its jaws. At 13 years old and with the weak physique of a magician without the luxury of being able to cast spells, even a goblin could rob him without him being able to retaliate. So, what about the beast that seemed much stronger in appearance than a goblin?
If he were still alive, it must mean that it was his imagination playing tricks on him.
("Yes, that's it! It's the phenomenon the librarian told me about, pareidolia! I never thought I would experience this in such a place.")
Naming what he thought he was experiencing reassured him a bit. However, he did not have the courage to look again in the direction where he thought he had seen that demonic beast. Instead, he automatically headed in the opposite direction and began to walk away as far as possible from the beast of his imagination.
On the fifth step he took, he heard a noise behind him. Without turning away from his goal of walking straight ahead, he focused all his attention on his hearing.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
He could now clearly hear his own footsteps as well as those of a four-legged animal walking on the dried branches of fallen trees.
Adall felt his body stiffen for a moment, then a sensation he had never experienced before ran up his spine. His mind emptied automatically, leaving only one thought to take over his entire being.
("Flee! I must flee!")
Without further ado, Adall took to his heels. He ran with all his might, not even giving himself time to check behind him if the beast was following him or not.
But even so, he wasn't fast enough. In the midst of his mad race, he noticed sitting a few meters ahead of him, legs crossed and yawning with boredom, the silhouette of the beast supposed to be chasing him. This time, the image was much clearer. So, being a true enthusiast of the encyclopedia of monsters, he automatically recognized the vicious beast he was racing against.
"A shadow panther!"
An evil creature whose real strength was at the level of rank 5 monsters, but was classified among rank 6 due to its assassination-oriented skills. Indeed, the shadow panther was one of the few monsters capable of stealthily sneaking up behind entities stronger than itself and killing them without being noticed.
So, how was it that someone as weak as Adall had seen or even heard it moving? The answer was obvious. It was playing like a cat with a mouse. Adall also had this thought, so he stopped running.
"If I must die today, so be it! But I will never let myself be insulted by a demonic beast like this!"
Adall, who had spent the last two years under the intimidation of his cousin Endric, could not bear to experience such a thing from a monster described as quickly killing its prey in books. Under the adrenaline effect accompanying his resolution to fight to the death, Adall drew the sword his father had given him, a gift from Martin.
"Aaaaaaaah!"
He shouted with all his might to reinforce this new will that had emerged in the depths of his heart and charged. The beast watched carefully as Adall drew his sword and charged towards her, feeling more excited than ever. Indeed, she had never seen or experienced anything like this in her life.
Already, appearing out of nowhere in the very center of her territory, Adall was for her the sign that her morning prayer for a free meal was answered. This forest was filled with demonic beasts, but even the weakest were of rank 6 like her. She owed her survival in these parts to her highly advanced assassination skills. So, when someone as weak as he could be considered an anomaly in the region appeared before her, she decided to play a little with him before dining. After all, she did not know if such an opportunity would present itself to her again.
Her excitement was therefore at its peak when this being supposed to flee until collapsing from exhaustion began to charge towards her, a sword in hand. It was a new experience for her, as none of her prey had ever threatened her like this. Being an assassin, when she failed to kill her prey in one blow or seriously injure it with her stealth attack, she had to immediately flee with all her legs, because her alleged prey were always stronger than her in the region!
So, it was the first time she experienced an enemy charge without fearing for her life. A radiant smile then appeared on her lips, revealing her super sharp white teeth.