Feeling Like A Prey

"Hyaaah-!" Daniel leaped into the air, his sword gripped tightly in his hands. He swung his sword at the ferocious shadow bat. With a few desperate flaps of its wings, the bat plummeted heavily to the ground, its corpse fading away into thin air.

Daniel landed on the ground, looking out for the remaining shadow bats. Lumi was handling most of them by herself, not leaving much for Daniel to do.

She kept jumping onto the bats' backs and piercing their bodies with her razor-sharp fangs. Her claws grew larger as a bat approached her, just like a Wolf's. She ripped into the bat's flesh using her claws, leaving deep gashes across its leathery skin. It desperately tried to fend her off as Lumi tore into it mercilessly, slashing and sinking her fangs in. She didn't stop until the creature lifelessly landed on the ground, its body fading away after a moment.

"Great job, Lumi! We're finished with the monsters in this area! Time to go to Area 3!" Daniel shouted from behind, attracting Lumi's attention.

She cheerfully ran towards him, leaping onto his shoulder as usual. She rubbed her cheek with his and yipped joyfully.

Daniel smiled and gently caressed Lumi's head before sitting down on the ground to catch his breath. He had been killing the shadow bats for what felt like hours and was starting to feel the effects of his exertion. Lumi sat by his side and nudged his hand with her nose, as if to say, "Are you okay?" Daniel chuckled and scratched her behind the ears. As he sat there, feeling the warmth and softness of Lumi's fur against his skin, Daniel closed his eyes momentarily.

As Daniel opened his eyes, he noticed that Lumi was staring at him with her bright red eyes, her head tilted slightly to the side. He smiled and picked her up, gently putting her on his shoulder.

Lumi wagged her tail and licked his cheek, making him laugh. "Okay, let's get going to Area 3," he said, standing up and dusting off his pants. Lumi jumped off his shoulder and ran ahead, eager to explore the new area.

As they walked, Daniel couldn't help but think about how much Lumi had changed his life. When he first found her in the forest, he had no idea how much she would come to mean to him. She had become his only support, even if it was inside the game, always by his side through thick and thin. Daniel couldn't imagine his life without her now. He didn't even want to imagine losing her.

As they arrived at Area 3, Daniel took a deep breath and prepared himself for the battle, but after a moment of waiting, he noticed something was off. He looked around, trying to spot the enemy but to no avail. He couldn't see a single one. Even Lumi started searching for her foes but she couldn't even find a trace of them.

"Hmm… Weird." Daniel furrowed his brows in confusion. He was looking around when he suddenly heard Lumi's shout. He whipped in her direction with raised eyebrows. His eyes widened when he saw Lumi being captured by a hand that came out from under the ground. Without waiting for a second, he ran towards her, shouting out loud, "Don't you dare harm her!" he leaped into the air and swung his sword, slicing the large shadow hand in half.

The hand vanished into the air and Daniel caught Lumi in his hands, not letting her fall onto the ground. He rubbed her cheeks and said, "Are you okay?" He was intimidated when he saw Lumi captured by the massive shadow hand.

Lumi nodded her head, assuring Daniel that she was completely fine. "Be on guard from now on," Daniel commanded her while tightly gripping his sword. He was ready for any kind of surprise attacks or ambushes.

After a few seconds, Daniel heard a strange sound below the ground. He quickly moved to the side, aware of the shadow hand's attack pattern. But as time passed, he came to notice something weird. "Huh?! Why is it not attacking?!" He tried to move closer to the source of the sound, but he couldn't tell what exactly it was.

Just when he was about to give up, his right foot fell on a stone block. It was pushed down by his weight, just like a button. Daniel tried to jump away from it, knowing that he messed up. He was just about to run away when two shadow hands emerged from the ground, catching Lumi and Daniel in their grasp. The stone floor suddenly opened up, revealing a large and deserted place. It was even larger than Area 3.

The hands suddenly took Daniel and Lumi down with them, not giving them any chance to think. Daniel struggled to escape but his efforts turned futile. He could feel that these shadow hands were not as weak as the one he had killed earlier. These hands were several times stronger and sturdier.

But what made his thoughts go wild was, "How the hell are these hands so strong?! Wasn't this dungeon supposed to be easy?!" He recalled what he had read about this dungeon. He remembered that there were only supposed to be monsters between levels 150 to 160. He couldn't think properly at the moment because the shadow hand was pressing his body. For the first time in a while, he felt helpless and weak.

He was like an ant against the shadow hands at the moment. He kept attempting to break free from the shadow's grasp but he couldn't even move.

'...Now i feel like a prey again… struggling against the predator but knowing full well that only death awaits…' Daniel thought to himself.

When he was losing hope, he suddenly heard a cold voice, "Disperse!". It sent chills running down his spine. The shadow hands instantly vanished away, Leaving Daniel and Lumi from their grasp.

Daniel looked at Lumi who was lying unconscious on the ground before turning his gaze to the source of the cold voice.

"H-huh?!"

(Author: Heya Guys, here's another chap! The power stone supply is nearly dead. If you think that the story is lacking, please comment and leave reviews so that I can fix my mistakes and become a better writer. Thank you for supporting the book so far! Keep supporting me in the future, it encourages me a lot!)