Chapter 54: The NightTerror
The jungle had gone silent.
One second, the air was thick with the hum of insects and the distant screech of so bird. The next, it was gone. A heavy, suffocating silence pressed against my ears like the woods themselves were holding their breath, waiting for the first drop of blood to hit the dirt.
I stood frozen, spear raised, heart slamming against my ribs so hard I could feel it in my throat. My eyes scanned the darkness between the trees, searching for the source of that primal warning screaming in the back of my mind.
Then I saw it.
Two yellow circles of fire. They stayed low to the ground, positioned between two massive, moss-covered trunks. They didn’t blink. They didn’t flicker.
They just burned with a cold, hungry light that told
exactly where I stood in the food chain. I was just at.
The eyes started to move. They didn’t bob up and down like a normal animal walking. They slid through the darkness, circling the edge of my campfire’s glow with a smooth, terrifying grace.
"Fuck!"
The thought barely had ti to form before my legs made the decision for .
My body was already moving, carrying
into the undergrowth before my brain could catch up. No plan. No strategy. Just pure instinct, my body reacting on its own because my mind had shut down.
Vines slapped across my face, leaving thin stinging cuts. Thorns tore at my arms, my chest, my already bare skin. Roots I couldn’t see caught my feet, made
stumble, but I didn’t stop.
Behind , a low growl rumbled through the night like distant thunder. I felt it in my chest, in my bones, in the primal part of my brain that rembered what it ant to be prey.
Then ca the heavy, rhythmic thud of paws hitting the ground.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The creature moved fast—faster than anything that size had any business moving. Behind , branches snapped, thick limbs cracking like dry wood as it tore through the jungle without slowing down.
I pushed myself harder. My legs burned, my lungs scread for air, blood pounded in my ears so loud I could barely hear anything else. But the sounds behind
were getting closer. No matter how fast I ran, it was faster.
I risked a glance back and my blood turned to ice.
"...!"
It was massive—easily the size of a large dog, but built like a predator from nightmare. Sleek black fur covered its body, so dark it seed to drink in the moonlight instead of reflecting it, making it look like a shadow given flesh and teeth.
Its muscles rippled with each stride, coiled and powerful, designed for one thing: killing. Long claws the size of my fingers left deep gouges in the trees it passed, splintering thick wood like it was dry kindling.
Its face was the worst part.
It wasn’t quite like a wolf or a cat but sothing in between—Sothing wrong.
Its snout was too long, its jaw too wide, revealing rows of teeth that curved inward like hooks. When it opened its mouth to snarl, I saw teeth layered three deep, each one serrated, designed to tear flesh and hold on until its prey stopped moving.
And those eyes.
Burning yellow, fixed on
with the cold patience of sothing that had done this a thousand tis before. Sothing that knew with absolute certainty that I was already dead.
I just hadn’t stopped running yet.
I rembered this monster from the ga. I’d been playing that damn ga for years, morized most of the monster nas and ranks, learned how they fought. This one wasn’t in the ga itself, but it was ntioned in so lore entries.
Night Terror.
That was this thing’s na. It was Grade 3, Common (High) rank.
A solitary hunter that stalked the deep jungles at night, relying on speed and overwhelming power to bring down prey.
It didn’t fight fair—it waited in the darkness, watching, learning its target’s movents before striking. There were no stories of anyone killing one alone. The lore said they hunted until their prey made a mistake, then they struck.
It was also two whole ranks above . I was only Initiate High and this bastard is way out of my league.
Damn it! What the hell am I supposed to do...?
A root, thick as my arm, caught my foot.
I went down hard. The impact drove the air out of my lungs in a gasp. I hit the dirt, rolled over sharp rocks, and tried to scramble up, but the world was spinning.
I looked up, and the moon disappeared.
The beast was standing over . I could sll its breath—a foul, rotting stench of old blood and decayed at that made my stomach do a slow, nauseating flip. I could see the intelligence in those glowing yellow eyes, the cold calculation, the pure predatory enjoynt.
It wasn’t attacking. It was studying . It tilted its head, watching my chest heave, watching the way my hands shook as I tried to point my pathetic stick at its throat. It was a cat playing with a mouse that had nowhere left to run.
...And it was enjoying every second of this.
"Get... get the fuck away," I rasped, my voice barely a whisper, pathetic and small against the darkness.
The monster growled, a deep rumble that vibrated through my ribs. Then, it lunged.
I moved on pure instinct. My body responded before conscious thought could catch up, every nerve firing at once.
I rolled sideways, felt the rush of air as claws the size of knives tore through the exact spot where I’d been lying. Dirt and leaves exploded, showering
with debris. I scrambled to my feet, sohow still holding my spear, and faced it.
It circled
now, moving slow and deliberate. It wanted
to see it, to understand exactly what I was dealing with. It wanted the fear to make the at taste better.
I forced myself to breathe. My legs were shaking. My hands were shaking. Everything was shaking.
I can’t beat this thing in a straight fight. It’s too strong, too fast. I’ll die at this rate. I need—
The monster lunged again.
This ti, I didn’t just dodge. I called on Starlight Steps. There wasn’t enough mana in the air to do it right—it felt like trying to suck water through a clogged straw—but I forced it.
My feet slid across the mud, shifting my weight just enough. The monster’s shoulder brushed against , nearly knocking
over from the sheer force of its movent.
I stabbed with the spear, driving the point toward its shoulder with everything I had. The wooden point hit its shoulder. I felt it sink in.
Pop.
It went in maybe an inch. It felt like I’d tried to stab a wall of solid rubber. The monster stopped. It didn’t flinch. It didn’t howl. It just turned its head and looked at the spear sticking out of its leg. Then, it looked at .
"Ah... crap."
Then it hit .
It wasn’t even a real strike. It was a casual flick of its paw, like a human shooing away a fly.
I flew through the air and hit a tree trunk hard enough to crack bark. Pain exploded through my back, my ribs, my skull—white-hot and overwhelming, stealing my breath, my vision, my ability to think.
The spear slipped from my fingers, clattering sowhere in the dark. I slid down the trunk and landed in a heap, gasping, tasting blood, sothing warm dripping down my face.
Get up. Get up get up get UP—
I dragged myself to my feet, my vision swimming. The monster was coming again. I tried to move, but I was too slow.
Its jaws clamped down on my left shoulder.
The teeth didn’t just pierce—they crunched, grinding against bone, splintering sothing inside . I felt my collarbone give, the jagged edges grating against each other as it bit down harder. Blood sprayed between its teeth, hot and thick, splattering across my face and neck.
It wasn’t tearing. It was holding. Just squeezing, savoring, letting
feel every second of my shoulder being crushed to pulp.
I scread.
My throat shredded raw, the sound tearing out of
like sothing alive. I clawed at its snout, dug my fingers into its eyes, kicked at its throat—anything to make it let go.
It didn’t.
My hand scrambled across the dirt, fingers closing around sothing—a rock, hard and sharp. I swung blind, slamd it into its eye socket as hard as I could.
The monster jerked back with a snarl, its grip loosening just enough. I wrenched myself free, felt its teeth drag across my skin as I pulled away, leaving deep gouges but nothing worse. Blood poured down my chest, my back, soaking everything.
But my arm was free. It still worked. Barely.
I stumbled back, clutching my ruined shoulder to my chest. My vision swam. The edges of my sight were going dark, tunneling, narrowing to the monster and the blood and the unbearable, screaming pain.
"AGHH—!"
The scream tore from my throat, raw and desperate and full of everything.
I was tired of being hunted.
I was tired of being weak.
I was tired of this whole godforsaken jungle.
The monster stopped. It sat back on its haunches, watching
bleed. It watched
clutch my shoulder, watched the red life-fluid leak through my fingers. It looked satisfied, pleased with itself, enjoying the simple joy of a hunt well executed.
It was playing with —drawing this out, savoring the fear before it finally went for the kill.
I clenched my teeth so hard my jaw ached.
Think. Think, you idiot. You’re supposed to be smart. Figure sothing out. There has to be sothing, anything—
I closed my eyes for a split second and forced Flash Instinct to go active.
Usually, it was just a nudge, but I shoved every bit of my remaining mana into my skill.
The mont I activated it, I felt my mana stir—slow at first, then rushing toward my eyes and brain like water finding its way through cracks in a dam.
Warmth spread behind my eyes, pooling there, sharpening everything I saw. Colors deepened. Shadows gained edges. My thoughts accelerated, each second stretching longer, giving
ti I didn’t have.
But... It hurt.
It fucking hurt so much I thought I’d pass out right there. I bit the inside of my cheek so hard I tasted fresh blood, grounding myself, forcing myself to stay conscious.
Everything beca sharp.
I could see the monster’s muscles coiling, could calculate its next move before it made it. I could hear everything—every rustle of leaves, every drip of blood hitting the ground, every beat of my own failing heart.
...And beneath all that, faint but unmistakable, I heard it.
Water. Flowing water.
If I could reach the water, maybe I had a chance. The current was fast. It was a suicide move, but staying here was a guaranteed grave.
I looked at the beast and felt a jagged, insane smile pull at my lips. I probably looked like a lunatic, covered in blood and grinning in the dark.
"...I’m a real bastard, aren’t I?" I whispered.
The monster lunged for the kill. I threw myself sideways, felt claws tear through the space where my head had been, and used the montum to push myself toward the sound.
I ran.
But this ti, I wasn’t running blind.
Starlight Steps. I forced the technique again, felt my mana flicker and completely die, felt my legs scream as they obeyed. My feet found paths between trees I wouldn’t have seen without Flash Instinct guiding .
I ducked under branches, slid around trunks, twisted through gaps that shouldn’t have been there.
Behind , the monster tore through everything I managed to dodge—trees splintering, bushes exploding, nothing slowing it down. It was faster, so much faster.
I was losing my blood too. My vision swam. My legs were giving out. Every step was a battle against my own body, against the darkness creeping in at the edges of my sight.
I’m not going to make it. I’m really not going to make it.
But I kept running.
I was maybe fifty yards from the stream when the monster caught . I felt its claws hit my back before I heard the sound, felt them dig in and drag, tearing through skin and muscle.
The force of it slamd
forward, my face hitting the dirt hard enough to make my teeth rattle. I tried to push myself up, but my arms gave out. My legs wouldn’t move.
I just lay there, face-down, tasting dirt and blood, feeling the warmth spreading across my back, waiting for the next blow.
The monster stood over . Its mouth was open, rows of teeth gleaming wetly in what little light filtered through the canopy. Those yellow eyes glead with triumph, with the satisfaction of a hunt coming to its end.
This was it? The end of the road?
No. No way. Not like this.
I clenched my teeth and used every last scrap of will I had left. I dug my fingernails into the dirt and dragged my broken body forward. Inch by inch.
My blood left a dark, sared trail behind .
The monster didn’t even try to stop . It was letting
drag myself forward, giving
a false sense of hope, a taste of maybe just so it could watch
fail.
Almost there. Just... one... more...
The sound of water was so close that I could feel it.
I reached for Flash Instinct again, pulling on every drop of mana I’d managed to recover over the past few minutes. It wasn’t much—barely a trickle—but it was enough to use it for one second or two.
The mont I activated it, pain lanced through my skull like a hot blade. My nose started bleeding again, warm blood dripping down my lips, my chin. My vision blurred, the world saring into shapes and shadows I could barely make out. My mana reserves were completely empty now.
There was nothing left.
However, I could hear the stream and feel the distance. I knew where I needed to go.
The monster lunged.
I threw myself forward with everything I had, my body screaming, my vision swimming, the world tilting sideways. I couldn’t see.
And as I flew through the air, I twisted. I try to looked back at those yellow eyes with my bluring vision.
I raised my hand, my middle finger extended high and proud.
"You hear , you overgrown piece of shit!" My voice was raw and broken. "I’m not dying here! I’m not dying anywhere! You want ? Co get !"
A laugh tore from my throat—wild, manic, desperate. I was bleeding out, dying, but I was laughing. Maybe I’d finally snapped.
"One day, I’m coming back for you! And when I do, I’m going to skin you alive and use your fur as a rug!"
Then, I let myself fall.
The water hit
like a physical blow. It was ice-cold and dark and violent, grabbing , pulling
under. I gasped, swallowed water, choked.
My body was done—no strength left, no fight left. The current grabbed
like a toy, dragged , tumbled
over rocks and roots.
I caught one last glimpse of the bank. The monster was standing there, silhouetted against the moon. It didn’t jump in. It just watched
being swept away, a small, bloody speck in the dark water.
Wait, you bastard. I’ll be back. I’ll kill you. I’ll—, I thought, but the water was already filling my nose and ears.
The current dragged
over a jagged rock, and pain exploded in my head. My vision went white, then gray, then black. I felt my body being tossed and broken against the riverbed, but I couldn’t feel the cold anymore.
Can’t... can’t breathe...
I surfaced for a mont—gasped air, saw stars spinning overhead—then went under again. The stream carried , tossed , beat
against rocks until I couldn’t tell where I ended and the water began.
I’m going to drown. After all that... I’m just going to—
My head hit sothing hard—a log, a stone, I didn’t know.
And then—
Nothing.
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