The gears in Silver's mind spun at the fastest speed possible. He knew that every second mattered, and despite the pain, grievous injuries, and exhaustion he currently felt, he knew he had to push through to have a chance of survival.
Although his mind was somewhat 'calm', his body and expression was not. His body subconsciously took a step back due to the presence of the crimson lions, and when he realized this, his eyes flashed with realization, hope, and also immense anxiety.
'Let's hope this works.'
Silver thought, and then he took several fearful steps backward. His expression was still one of fear and dread, and it was not fake since he felt like his heart was beating faster than his body could handle.
In fact, the insides of his body felt hotter than usual, but Silver attributed this to the heat and flames around him. However, this was not so.
As the crimson lions slowly approached him, Silver's fearful steps increased, and he was internally hoping for his luck to not fuck him up.
He had thought of a way to survive the wrath of the crimson lions, however the chances of survival were exceedingly low.
He remembered seeing a cave nearby before the appearance of the crimson lions, but he subconsciously removed it from his mind when he saw it since entering a cave that was at the edges of the Heartwood was extremely dangerous.
Caves were usually the dwellings of beasts, and any beast that was not in the Outskirts or at the edges of the Greenbelt was too powerful for Silver.
If his body's condition was at its peak and he found himself here, he might have thought of entering the cave. But with his current physical condition, entering a cave at the edges of the Heartwood was a death wish.
But now, he had no choice.
He could not outrun the crimson lions.
Even if his instincts is able to warn him beforehand of an incoming danger, he was not fast enough to dodge an attack of the crimson lions.
He was not strong enough to fight the crimson lions.
He had no treasure to protect him from the crimson lions.
He literally had no way of protecting himself, so he had to take a choice.
Enter an unknown cave that was at the edge of the Heartwood to have a sliver of survival? Or wait for his death.
The choice was obvious, and Silver took it.
However, he was worried. He was afraid that if he ran straight to the cave the crimson lions would decide to increase their speed to kill him.
If they did that, he was going to die before he could even reach the mouth of the cave.
So, Silver had to take fearful steps backwards in the direction of the cave while keeping his eyes on the crimson lions, hoping they would not notice his plan.
His mother had once told him beasts with a powerful bloodline and a powerful cultivation were intelligent, and some were even more intelligent and cunning than humans.
'I just hope I'm going in the right direction.' Silver thought with a fearful expression.
At first Silver only took a step back for every second, but he then increased it. As he did this, he was extremely grateful that the crimson lions were taking their time to approach him.
And he knew why- Pure confidence and pride.
After five seconds and several steps back, Silver glanced back and to his relief, he noticed that although he was not in the exact direction of the cave, he was not far off at all.
He had merely used a fraction of a second to glance behind him, but when he looked back at the crimson lions, he noticed that the gaze and expression of the male crimson lion changed slightly.
Silver's instincts screamed at him, and without a shred of hesitation, he turned and ran to the cave.
BANG!
The ground trembled and cracked behind him, and he almost stumbled. Stones, rubbles, and a large dust cloud flew towards him. The dust cloud dimmed his vision, and he coughed with a grimace.
His body wanted to give up and shut down, but he knew he could not stop.
He was very sure the male crimson lion had just taken either a single step, a single dash, or a single leap towards him.
The next step, dash or leap the male crimson lion would take, would surely make it appear before him in an instant.
Luckily for him, he was already close to the cave and he just needed three seconds to reach if he ran.
However, three seconds was a tad too long to escape from a Nightmare beast like the crimson lion.
Silver felt his instincts unleash the loudest scream it had ever released and Silver subconsciously performed a forward roll.
BANG!
GROWL!
An enranged and displeased growl was released by the crimson lion as he stood before the destroyed and collapsed mouth of the cave.
He raised his paw.
----
Meanwhile, inside the cave, Silver coughed out a mouthful of scalding black blood as he ran Deciding not to waste his mental faculties on why he spat out scalding black blood. He spat out the remnant of his blood in his mouth while taking a glance behind him.
His gaze reflected the collapsed and destroyed mouth of the cave.
He released a shaky breath. He had been lucky.
When he entered the cave with his forward roll, the male crimson lion had landed in his previous spot with a force that collapsed the entrace of the cave.
Luckily for him, the shockwave of the crimson lion's landing had propelled him far away from the mouth of the cave, preventing from being crushed by the falling rocks.
However, he had sustained grievous injuries.
Silver looked around, and he was able to see various stones and also glowing flying insects on the wall acting as the light source of the cave.
'Are those mystic flies and mystic stones? Or are they something else entirely?'
Silver thought as he glanced at the glowing stones and flying insects. Due to his exhaustion and injuries, he could not see clearly.
He looked up, hoping to not see any bats or beast that was watching him from above or waiting to devour him from above.
However,
'No beast?'
Silver furrowed his brows. The cave was actually bright so he was sure that there was no beast above him.
Not only that, the inside cave was actually much much larger than the entrance of the cave. The inside of the cave would be able to house the crimson lion, although, it would be a little bit uncomfortable for it since the body of the crimson lion would barely touch the ceiling of the cave.
But this was not Silver's concern, Silver was more concerned about the fact that he had not encountered any beast despite the noise created from the collapse of the cave's entrance.
"Or there's no beast?" Silver thought with a tinge of hope and also hopelessness.
Before he could dwell on these two feelings, his instincts screamed at him.
BANG!
However, before he could even react, in a fraction of a second, the cave's ceiling above collapsed and Silver subconsciously protected his head with his arms.
It all happened too fast.
He didn't even have time to look at the cause of the collapse cave's ceiling, but he knew all too well what had caused it.
The male crimson lion.
Above Silver's head were the falling rubbles of the cave's ceiling, and also a massive crimson paw which landed on the ground at a speed that could not be seen by Silver.
BANG!
However, luckily for him, the crimson lion's paw had missed Silver by a few meters. But what had not missed Silver was the massive shockwave which blew him away and also the collapse of the cave's floor.
As Silver flew, expecting to fall to the ground after a second or two, he realized that he had not stopped falling.
He turned and looked at what he expected to be the ground, but when he did, his eyes widened in uncontrollable fear.
Beneath him was a hole so large that Silver would need at least an hour to run around it at his fastest speed. It was also so deep and bright that it almost made Silver squint his eyes.
However, when Silver saw what was at the bottom of the hole, the fear he had managed to control and the composure he had struggled to maintain fell apart instantly.
Beneath him was not just a powerful beast.
NO!
Beneath him were powerful BEASTS!
COUNTLESS POWERFUL BEASTS!
And these beasts were all SERPENTS!
-----
[A/N: This chapter is not edited.]