43 A Long Trek

Kasdeya didn't stop moving away from the camp for a long time, not even stopping to kill the smaller imp groups she found along the way, as she was worried that the bone weaver would have a way to catch up with her. It wasn't as if it even saw her leave but she still decided to be cautious and put as much distance between her and it as possible.

Much to her displeasure, however, a group of imps still managed to stumble across her and interrupt her escape.

Seeing that she was alone, all the imps immediately rushed at her while, once again, letting out their strange cries. In response, Kasdeya just sighed and prepared herself for battle.

The fight didn't last long and, even though there was a large number of imps, Kasdeya dealt with all of them without much difficulty, which was an improvement to how she had to be wary when she first stumbled across these creatures in mobs.

Continuing along, Kasdeya noticed that the ground seemed to be starting to slope upwards, which was a good thing if she was going on the theory of being underground. After all, if someone wanted to get to the surface, they had to go up.

After a long while, Kasdeya figured that the distance was great enough so she started actively killing the imps she found once again, however, the number of imp groups she stumbled across seemed to be declining.

"I guess this means I'm starting to approach the end of this particular location, nonetheless why this 'underworld' is so perfectly divided is a complete mystery to me." Kasdeya pondered right after ripping her hand out of an imps chest, taking a souvenir with her.

"After all, there is no conceivable reason for there only to be one type of creature living in such a large area, and the singular bone weaver I found doesn't count. Where is the diversity? There aren't even any animals, unless you count the imps as animals. Lest this entire location is some artificially created world then there should be a lot more life."

But, as if to prove her wrong, a screech suddenly echoed through the air, instantly causing Kasdeya to go on full alert, as she recognized the sound.

"Damn it, I was wondering when that thing would show up again, after all, there is no way that I'm lucky enough to never see it again."

Kasdeya glanced at the environment, quickly scanning her surroundings for anything she could use to hide, but all that was here was the pile of corpses in front of her. She lunged into the pile and covered her entire body in an attempt to hide.

'I'm quite a bit stronger than I was when I first saw that creature, but I never got the chance to inspect it so, for all I know, it's 50 evolutions above me. Just in case I'm playing it safe.'

Kasdeya kept still as the resounding screech once again echoed around the surroundings. Then, not even 5 seconds later, all the corpses covering her, bar 1, got dragged into the air and Kasdeya only glimpsed the same vaguely humanoid shape flying into the distance with it's massive wings flapping, surprisingly silent for its large size, while carrying a monstrous number of carcasses.

'Holy shit, I did that on a whim, but if it was hunting for food maybe that was a terrible idea? Or it could also possibly prefer live food so doing that might've saved my life, I have no idea, but either way I need to keep moving.'

Kasdeya moved the remaining corpse off of her and started jogging in the same direction, now easily discernible from the noticeable incline which had gotten steeper.

As Kasdeya continued her climb, the incline continued to become more and more obvious and, after a few more days, Kasdeya had to start moving up on all fours as she didn't have enough grip while walking like a biped.

Finally arriving at a jagged cliff face, Kasdeya started climbing up it, utilising the tried and true method of using her claws to hook around outcroppings and dig into crevices with the occasional help of mana. Upon reaching the top, she was greeted with the wonderful sight of jagged terrain with sharp drops and steep rock formations and occasional lava streams pouring into the darkness below.

"Well I guess I found the Hunter's cliffs." Kasdeya muttered to herself, right when a familiar screech suddenly wrung out again. "That thing has terrible timing." Kasdeya complained as she desperately looked around her for any cover, but much to her dismay, she was at the peak of one of the cliffs so there was nothing around to hide under.

Kasdeya dashed forward, planning on going down into one of the casams to hide but she then felt danger from behind so she leapt to the side, straight into a large crack in the stoney floor, which resulted in her bashing her horns on numerous objects as she caught onto the side of the ravine and saw the flying creature flying back up and out of sight.

'I guess that's the hunter.' Kasdeya figured, as she rubbed her aching head before starting to climb back out of the small ravine to continue moving forward.

Kasdeya got out and didn't linger as she didn't want to tangle with that beast any more than what was already determined by fate. Starting to move down the opposite side of the block-like-mountain she had already climbed, she found a connecting piece of stone to the plateau which she climbed across.

Arriving on a small ledge, Kasdeya started walking again when the rock beneath her feet suddenly gave way and she almost tumbled down into the abyss.

Just managing to dig her claws into the cliff face next to her, Kasdeya released a sigh, "This is going to be a long… period of time…"