Lin Xiao's heart pounded in his chest as the creature's roar filled the cavern once again, echoing off the icy walls. He couldn't stay hidden forever, and now that it had sensed him, his time was running out.
Without hesitation, he sprinted, his feet sliding on the slick ground as he pushed forward, trying to put as much distance between himself and the beast as possible.
The creature let out a low growl, and Lin Xiao heard the unmistakable sound of massive footsteps thundering after him.
Glancing over his shoulder, he noticed that while the creature was pursuing him, it moved slower than he expected. Its lumbering form stumbled slightly, as if its size and blindness made it difficult to navigate the icy terrain.
"It's not fast... but it's not too slow either," Lin Xiao thought, panic creeping into his mind. Each step the creature took was heavy and deliberate, but the gap between them was closing.
Lin Xiao ran faster, every muscle in his body aching as he pushed himself to his limit. His breath came in sharp, ragged gasps as the freezing air bit into his lungs.
As he rounded a corner, he nearly slipped, the ice beneath his feet betraying him. He caught himself just in time, his palms skimming across the ground as he kept his balance.
The creature let out another roar, its head swinging in his direction, and Lin Xiao suddenly realized something crucial.
"It's not seeing me... it's following the sound." Every time he stumbled or made a noise, the creature adjusted its path, closing in on him. His heart pounded in his ears, the cold air stinging his throat as he tried to suppress his panicked breaths.
He needed a plan—something to throw it off. His eyes darted around the cavern, searching for anything that could help him.
But the landscape was barren, filled only with jagged outcroppings of ice and snow. The beast's footsteps drew closer, the ground trembling beneath its weight.
Lin Xiao took a deep breath, trying to quiet his mind. If it was following his sounds, he had to use that to his advantage. But how? He couldn't just keep running; eventually, he'd run out of room.
"Think, think, think..." His thoughts raced as he sprinted, trying to come up with a plan that wouldn't lead him straight into the creature's claws.
With each step, he knew the clock was ticking. The creature was relentless, but if he could outsmart it—just for a moment—he might have a chance.
Lin Xiao clamped his hands over his mouth, muffling the sounds of his labored breathing. His pulse raced as the creature's heavy footfalls grew louder, its blind pursuit honing in on every noise he made.
Desperation surged through him as he wracked his brain for an escape. Suddenly, it hit him—Xiao Bai's powers! He could just teleport out of this nightmare and find safety.
Without wasting another second, Lin Xiao closed his eyes and focused on activating Xiao Bai's teleportation ability.
The familiar energy pulsed through him, a warm and comforting sensation amidst the cold and terror. He visualized himself back home, away from this icy wasteland, back in the warmth of his world with his family and Little Blackie, safe and sound.
But as the energy built up, something felt... wrong. There was a resistance. Instead of feeling the pull towards his world, he felt a strange barrier blocking the teleportation. His eyes shot open, and the realization crashed over him.
"I can't teleport home."
The disappointment was sharp, but there was no time to dwell on it. The creature was still drawing near, and he could feel its presence looming just behind him.
"Okay, okay, don't panic," he thought. If teleporting back to his world wasn't possible, then he'd just have to use the power to get far away from here—somewhere within this strange world where he could hide or regroup.
Lin Xiao focused again, but this time, he targeted a distant location within the same icy landscape. He had no idea where he would end up, but anywhere was better than right under the claws of this monstrous beast.
With a sharp breath, he triggered the teleportation, the world around him blurring as space itself bent to his will.
He disappeared from the spot just as the creature lunged, its massive claws crashing into the ground where he had been standing mere seconds before.
The icy cavern was silent again, save for the creature's frustrated growl, searching for prey that had suddenly vanished.
....
....
Lin Xiao staggered as his feet hit the scorching hot ground. The icy chill from the previous location was suddenly replaced by the burning heat of a dry desert. He blinked in disbelief, trying to adjust to the drastic change in environment.
Sweat immediately started forming on his brow as the glaring sun beat down on him, the air dry and heavy.
"What the heck…?" Lin Xiao muttered inwardly, his mind racing. Just moments ago, he had been in a freezing wasteland, pursued by a blind creature, and now he was standing in the middle of an arid desert. The contrast was jarring—too jarring.
"Is this... the same world?" he wondered aloud, squinting at the vast expanse of sand dunes that stretched endlessly in front of him. He couldn't shake the eerie similarity to Earth—this world had ice plains and dry deserts, just like his home planet. But there was something off, something unsettling that made his skin crawl.
As Lin Xiao wiped the sweat from his forehead, he started piecing things together. The teleportation hadn't taken him to a different dimension—it had moved him to another part of the same world. That meant that this place, despite the extreme shifts in environment, was somehow connected. "How can one world have such stark contrasts like this?"
The heat was already making him feel dizzy, his body struggling to adjust after the freezing cold.
He scanned the horizon, hoping to find some shelter or clue as to where he had ended up. The landscape was barren—just an endless sea of sand, with no signs of life or civilization in sight.
"Great… just great," Lin Xiao sighed, his frustration mounting. He reached into his inventory, searching for something that could help him survive in this heat.
But he couldn't shake the nagging feeling that something wasn't right—this world was too unpredictable, too chaotic