It was at this moment that Bray suddenly heard a loud shout come from beside him. It was Sloven, seeing that Bray was in a trance due to the sudden shock, he called out to him before his life could be endangered.
"Bray, get a hold of yourself, don't you dare die on me." Hearing the shout, Bray slightly regained his thoughts, but at this moment the two beasts clawed at him, and with no time to react, Bray was almost ripped to shreds.
Thankfully, at this moment, a loud strike intervened, it was Sloven once again, rushing forth with a punch towards the two beasts. With a skill at the s-grade and all its enhancements, the beasts were sent flinging with no chance to react.
Seeing the sickly pale youth, Bray felt deeply puzzled. He had previously thought making friends in this world prison would bring about nothing good, but now Sloven was giving him a reason to believe that he was wrong.
"Get rid of whatever thought you have going on in your head right now," Sloven stopped beside him and looked at Bray with a slightly furious expression. He couldn't hide his fear but was trying to stay strong. "Just focus on staying alive, you handle the beast on your right, I'll handle the one on your left."
"Remember, don't drop either plaque."
Bray nodded in acknowledgement, he calmed his breathing and then reorganized his thoughts. I can't die now to think I almost lost my life due to a moment of carelessness. Bray felt truly disappointed in himself for losing his bearing like that.
But one couldn't blame him, although he had previously seen the Chyna die in a gruesome and disgraceful way, he wasn't as close to her as he was to his cellmate Gable.
He turned to look at the monster behind him, the monster was still struggling to get up from the punch Sloven had thrown. He took this moment to once again continue running forward.
He was already halfway past the field after running for a couple of hours, if he could ignore the challenges beside him, in the next few hours he should be able to complete the remaining distance in a few more hours.
Bray began running, the sounds of his footsteps racing through the forest were barely discernible in the midst of the horrifying screams and terrifying roars ringing out. Sloven was beside him, running at the same pace.
In between a few moments, he would occasionally turn to look at the location of the beast, seeing they were still far enough, he would sigh in relief.
A few moments soon passed, and like this, Bray and Sloven ran, they only watched after their own backs, not caring about the others. At this moment, they were drawing near the end.
After a tense and chaotic race, Bray finally sighed in relief, seeing the finish gate ahead. At times, the beasts would lunge forward but would be immediately handled by him and Sloven.
But although Sloven had saved Bray, he didn't let his guard down around him, this was a place where only one's life mattered. From what he knew, it was almost impossible for two people to win the competition happening in three months.
Only one of them would survive, so he wouldn't be surprised if Sloven chose to eliminate a competitor now. Bray turned to look at Sloven for a moment, all he could see as he ran was the sickly and pale youth whose face was filled with calmness and, at the same time, nervousness.
He shook off his thoughts, increasing his speed once more. Soon, the smiling faces of the guards appeared in his vision. Seeing their expression, Bray felt the urge to strangle them, he was truly disgusted by them.
Did they know how many people had lost their lives? How many people lost their friends? Bray turned his gaze to the side, looking away from them, for now he couldn't stand the sight of them.
…
Soon they reached where all four guards were standing, and as soon as they did so, the two beasts that were chasing them immediately stopped a few meters away.
"It seems we have the first winners." Zach said with a lighthearted laugh, causing the other two to smile in return.
Ray looked at Bray and Sloven for a fleeting, barely noticeable moment, and a glint flashed through his eyes, but no one present noticed it, after which he went back to his usual calm expression.
Underneath his pants, inside his pockets, his fists were tightly clung as though he were trying to suppress something, inwardly, it looked as though he was having a struggle. After a few agonizing moments, his hand returned to its calmness, and the thick vein-like black lines that had begun to appear soon retreated underneath his skin.
…
Roarrrrrrr
Tssssssss
They roared and hissed simultaneously in anger, in the end, they couldn't catch Bray, they knew they would definitely be tortured when they headed back. This was the main reason why they chased the human-like creatures with all their strength.
Basically, they too were living in some sort of prison, and this pursuit in the race of death was a sort of game to them, everyone of them was restrained by the plaque, and only those that killed two humans and above would be given a path to freedom.
Of course this was only freedom from the torture that the others that scored less would surfer. If only they weren't restricted to the plaques, they would have killed the human-like creatures as they pleased.
Even though they felt a slight pity for the human-like creatures, even though they knew that they too were just like them, they knew that they needed to do this in order to survive.
…
Few minutes later, after Bray reached the end, another young man reached. Bray turned to look at him. This young man's expression was solemn, but his gaze didn't carry a hint of pity, he looked as though everything he had just done was righteous on his path.
"Another one, let's see, there are at least ten of them left, that is quite a good number," stepping Joe said nonchalantly as he glanced at the young man that just came for a fleeting moment.
"Mn," Raphael nodded in agreement, he too turning to look into the distance with a peering gaze.
To be continued...