1 Blood

Ruvian panted heavily, hiding behind a large chunk of dim-colored rock.

Slowly he slid to the ground, trying to ease tense muscles and bruises on his body.

"HROAAARGHHHH!!!!"

A deafening roar suddenly echoed through the entire area, startling Ruvian out of resting state.

Despite catching his breath and attempting to calm himself, he couldn't help but be on high alert and quickly stood up, scanning his surroundings for any sign of his predator.

He clenched and started to concentrate, focusing magical energies in right palm. After storing enough, he then rested his hands on his eyes.

The magical energies receded into his iris, granting him the ability of 360-degree vision.

'Ugh, this vision won't last long. I've got to get away from that damned creature quick,' he thought as he repaced his breathing.

Ruvian's mind became laser-focused as he expanded his farsight ability to increase its limited range. However, he had to narrow its vision radius in anticipation of conserving his magical energies.

After carefully scanning the surrounding areas, Ruvian moved with certainty towards a nearby cavern, choosing to hide there for safety.

Just as he thought he had escaped the monster's notice, the creature suddenly caught sight of Ruvian and began to chase him once more. Without hesitation, Ruvian began to gather energy once again, preparing for another attack.

The ground trembled with each step the monster took, and it started roaring fiercely, accumulating magical force that sent nearby rocks and debris flying towards Ruvian.

As each object was flung towards him, Ruvian's enhanced vision radius picked up on the movement and directly sent the information to his brain. This allowed him to react quickly and effectively, dodging the incoming debris with ease.

The monster continued to roar fiercely and fling objects at Ruvian, but he remained focused and alert, using his farsight to stay one step ahead of the creature.

The beast was unhappy to see its prey dash freely and responded by stomping the ground, sending even more magical force down.

The ground crumbled and rolled, forming what looked like a massive wave. Ruvian's face turned pale, but he didn't need to look back to know what was happening. He realized there was no way he could dodge something like that.

He chose to run hastily, putting more pressure onto his fatigued legs.

Suddenly, a flying rock made an impact on Ruvian's back, causing him to stumble.

Ruvian's concentration staggered and unfortunately, it made him lose the enhanced vision.

In this crucial moment, losing a second of running could result in a goner and Ruvian almost got to see that result.

Just right before he fell, Ruvian quickly pointed his two arms at the ground.

Ruvian utilized another batch of magical energies he had stored and created a powerful shockwave.

The force of the shockwave launched him towards the cavern mouth, propelling him quite a distance away.

The cavern had been Ruvian's intended destination all along. He knew that the monster chasing him would not be able to fit inside, and he hoped that he would be safe inside for at least a minute.

As the noise of the crumbling ground began to recede, Ruvian could hear the pouring debris blocking the entrance, giving him a momentary sense of relief.

Ruvian breathed a sigh of relief. "Phew, that was a close call." Sweat beaded on his forehead, mixed with dust and a little bloodstain. He let his body rest on the ground for a moment, knowing his landing wasn't a smooth one.

While lying, Ruvian casted his farsight ability again as he felt the need to know the current situation as soon as it could.

Due to the violent quakes that continued to come one after another, each time with increasing strength.

The vision scanned through small gaps, caught the image of the beast, which rammed its massive bull-like head to the cliffside of the cave.

"Man .... I can't believe it." Ruvian gave a long heavy sigh.

"If anything is harder than stubbornness, it has to be that thing's head."

In a split second, a bright green flash illuminated the entire cave tunnel, enveloping the floor and ceiling, as it swept past Ruvian.

He knew that the source of the energy was the monster outside, radiating its power.

"Oh, my ...."

Ruvian had not expected that taking even a minute's rest would be disastrous, as it meant the beast could accumulate an enormous amount of magical energy.

And sure enough, the ground started to crack and every chunk of rock and soil began to float as if gravity had been reversed.

The once-firmly rooted rock hill was now broken apart like wind-swayed feathers.

The beast continued its search, sifting through each flying rock chunk to find its little prey.

Ruvian had to jump from chunk to chunk to avoid being caught, but an abrupt roar from the monster made the whole debris destabilize in the air, causing him to lose his grip and fall.

Luckily, he fell to a deeper part of the cave that was unaffected by the beast's soil-moving power, and he could finally catch his breath in safety.

In his enhanced sight, Ruvian found an unusual area. A certain part of the cave down here was invisible in his vision, as it was masked.

Knowing that farsight ability could be used to hide things from other far-seeing users, Ruvian decided to narrow its range and increase the intensity of energy being used to obtain a more detailed image of his surroundings.

Its intensity helped him pierced the masking barrier that blocked his vision.

Slowly, the invisible area regained its visual. Ruvian stunned by what his vision perceived.

The poor boy's heart began to tremble. He had a vague memory of it, a triangular formation of six stone pillars. But what shook him the most was the magical rune that was carved on them.

"N-no way .... H-how ... could this be ...."

Much to his surprise, purplish slimy objects suddenly fell from the gap where Ruvian came. He was quite unaware of its appearance as his vision range was shortened.

After touching the floor, the purplish slimy objects initially seemed mundane, but they suddenly began shooting themselves at a crazy speed, like popping heated corns.

Ruvian instinctively knew that anything approaching at such a threatening speed should be avoided, so he quickly moved away from them.

However, he couldn't just run away and skip the stone pillar formation.

'This is identical to what was carved on the Great Gate!'

Feeling pressed as the horde of slimes came after him, Ruvian swung his hand to throw a missile of grayish magical energy.

It blasted those living liquids, scattering them all over place and not a single drop moved anymore.

'Huh, I should have done that earlier—Urgh!! What now?'

The cave shook violently, causing the ceiling to slowly float upwards and revealing an open space where Ruvian's vision could extend and spot his predator.

As the dust settled, they faced each other from a distance.

Ruvian used his far-seeing ability, facing at it with eyes unopened while the monster stared at him with its monstrous eyeballs, each large enough to encapsulate a standing grown-up human.

Ruvian made the first move. He touched a stone pillar and channeled his magical energy into it.

Those carved runes glowed bright. Ruvian hadn't expected for the pillar to receive his magical energies smoothly, as if it was maintained well in this desolated realm.

Unhappy to see its prey made something eye-catching, the beast roared heavily.

With massive claws, it bled its own gigantuous limb, exposing purplish liquids to have them thrown off down.

Ruvian remained stationary, his focus unwavering as he continued to channel his magical energies into the pillar.

He wasn't entirely certain what function the pillar was meant to perform, but he knew that it was crucial to keep it going.

The carved runes on the pillar hinted at some kind of exit from this realm, and Ruvian couldn't afford to lose this opportunity.

At least if things didn't end up well, Ruvian knew he still could make a sudden flee with remaining magical energies he had.

But letting those purplish thingies to shower him aren't one of his options.

He used his other hand to channel a different energy, identical in its purplish color.

Ruvian then sprayed the energy above, coating any floating chunks of rock upon contact. The coated chunks moved under Ruvian's telekinetic will.

He clumped them together, creating a makeshift canopy that sheltered him from the rain of purple slimes.

Unanticipatedly, Ruvian coughed blood. His injuries caught up with him, worsened by excess usage of diverse magical energy than his current body state could manage.

"I-i c-can't ... fail h-h-here .... I want ... t-to live."

Despite being on his knees, he tried his best to maintain control over his telekinesis on the canopy and energy displacement into the pillar.

However, the energy toll was too great, and he knew he had to sacrifice something.

Ruvian made the tough decision to let go of his enhanced vision, despite its usefulness in slowing down the magical turbulence affecting his body.

But the moment he released the vision, everything he had seen and perceived turned into complete darkness.

It was due to his eyes not functioning normally and he had no clear understanding of the cause of their dysfunction.

Willing to take the risk of letting the farsight off. "Almo-st, th-there!" Ruvian encouraged himself to push harder. The pillar's energy pool felt close to activation.

The barrage of flying rocks intensified, bombarding Ruvian's makeshift canopy relentlessly. It was only a matter of time before it collapsed under the assault.

"EARGHHH!!!" Ruvian screamed in agony as an intense burning and stinging sensation suddenly emerged on his left shoulder.

It was caused by a silent spoonful of purplish slime, which had smoldered his leather clothing in milliseconds.

Without hesitation, Ruvian hurriedly recasted a small portion of his telekinetic energy to the slime on his shoulder.

But a sudden move like that made his telekinesis control become very unstable. Right at the last seconds of its manipulation, Ruvian gestured a rushing throw before the telekinesis completely terminated.

The rock chunk canopy was thrown off a few feet in the air and the hazardous slime was also sent flying away from his body.

Luckily, Ruvian made it in time to activate the stone pillars. White energies swiftly resided in him and in a snap of flashes, Ruvian's presence could no longer be felt.

The beast, widely known by humans as Behemoth, gave its long look. After all the floating rocks fell, its reverberating breath could be heard clearly.

"The Necrolyte escaped," said the beast as if it talked to someone.

Faintly the ground shook as the Behemoth slowly walked away.