This is not Earth

The chase continued with the monster making its way through the field towards Leo. But, even with the energy boost he was still not fast enough to completely outrun it. His rekindled hope of survival was gradually diminishing with every step he took.

He once again glanced at his back to look at the extremely terrifying monster. The monster was fast and Leo couldn't help but feel like the monster was happy.

"Why do I sense joy coming from that thing?"

"I can't believe that it's happy. It must know that I'm about to be caught. Even when I thought that I could finally catch a break."

It would have been better if Leo had died by being decapitated by the monster. At least his death would have been painless, but the mysterious energy boost that he got gave him the false hope of survival. But the thought of having to die at the hands of a monster that found joy in killing, not for the food, but for the fun of it made Leo mad.

"Wait…How do I know that it's chasing me for fun and not for food? Was it just my imagination? But the feeling was very strong."

[Roar]

The monster's roars got louder and louder as it got closer to Leo. He cleared his mind of anything that did not contribute to his survival and decided to focus on getting away from it.

"What do I do now? The gap between us has almost been closed.

Just then, Leo realized that the gentle splashing that he heard when he was kneeling in despair was now more audible.

"That sound. I could hear it before but I did not realize it then. It's running water."

[SPLASH!!!]

Leo could clearly here the sounds of water splashing and once regained his hope for survival.

"If I can make it to the water, I could lose this thing. I just hope that it can't swim."

Leo kept at it and ran with all his might, trying to get to the water before the monster got to him. Suddenly, the end of the open field was in sight and Leo assumed that he had arrived. He had prepared himself for the dive. The monster paid attention to only the human in front of it and could not see what was ahead of Leo.

"Just a little bit more"

Leo could practically feel the breath of the monster on his head.

It caught up to him.

His instincts kicked in and he ducked as the monster closed its jaws, missing Leo's tasty head once again. But the monster's attack slowed its pace and created some space between itself and Leo.

"Chance"

Leo finally made it and took the dive without confirming what he was diving into. Leo was in the air at the time when he realized that he had just jumped off a cliff.

[chuckle]

He laughed at the fact that he just jumped off a cliff of his own volition. The monster, ignorant of Leo's enlightenment, followed in his footsteps and also jumped off. They both began their descent with the force of gravity gradually increasing the speed of the fall. Leo was falling down at a faster rate than the monster because the area of his body provided little drag compared to that of the monster that was some feet above Leo.

"Ahhhh!!"

Leo screamed in fear of death as he fell but was lucky enough to fall into some vines that cushioned his fall but at the same time wrapped him up in midair. The monster was also saved by the vines and was wrapped up as well right beside Leo.

"Oh my God"

This was when Leo finally had the chance to look at this humungous monster. The light from the two moons were more than enough for Leo to clearly see it.

"Now I'm sure I'm not on Earth"

Facing Leo was a beast that had the face of a tiger and scales all over its body like that of a snake. The body of this terrifying monster could be likened to that of a dragon but without the wings. The claws were long enough to pierce right through a human's body and the muscles on both the forelegs and hind legs looked strong enough to tackle a fully grown elephant. This was a beast that was built to kill.

"I've never seen anything like this. If I saw this in a museum, I would be truly amazed."

Even though they were trapped on vines and could fall to their deaths at any moment, the weird monster still tried to reach for Leo and bite him. Leo could do nothing but watch it struggle.

"I guess other planets have animals that are as smart as animals on Earth."

He then ran his eyes across the monster's body, studying it as they hung apart from each other. He then noticed that the shape of the hind legs looked like that of a dear and not a cat.

"hmmm…This thing should be fast, like really really fast. With legs like this, it should have caught up to me in no time at all. Maybe it doesn't work that way on this planet."

Leo failed to realize that the monster was indeed fast, only that he now had speed that surpassed that of normal human beings. Leo's physical strength and speed were enhanced, but he did not notice anything other than the energy boost he got while running earlier. The perception of his immediate surroundings were now sharper than before and that was how he knew that the monster enjoyed killing.

[Glare]

Leo stared angrily at this inhumane creature forgetting his past fear for it, maybe because he felt that it couldn't reach him.

"You want to eat me, don't you? Well I'll like to see you try"

Leo began taunting it, trying to make it angry and desperate. He had no idea of how to get out of the mess he was in, so he decided to mock the monster in the meantime.

"Ha Ha Ha… Look at you, not soo tough now aren't you. To think that only a couple of vines would hold you down."

Leo spoke as if the monster could understand his language, when infact the monster couldn't but was still growing more and more aggressive as Leo continued his taunt.

Just then when it seemed like the monster had had enough, its tail that was previously out of Leo's sight began moving in a snake like manner along the vines and as soon as it got to Leo's face, it began wiggling vigorously until it dawned the form of a venomous snake. Leo went pale and muttered

"Why did I have to taunt it?"