Chương 21: Chapter 21: On the Run Again

The time spent during the process of activating the skill wasn't wasted. Noah had to fully connect his soul to the spider's during that time. He discovered that there were steps to the skill that were unexplained. First, he had to fully connect with the creature, then he had to subject the spider's soul into the space of his own. This step took a while because he had to do it slowly to prevent the creature from feeling frightened and resisting. Finally, the spider had to choose somewhere in Noah's body where it would reside during the time it's being held in its 'cage'.

This process took the longest; the spider was extremely picky. Starting from Noah's head, it traveled across his body until it finally settled on his back.

"Nnrgh!" Noah began to feel a small burning sensation flare up on his back, causing him to groan in pain. The discomfort lasted for half a minute before the ability ended.

His body reacted strongly to the process; the pain forced him to his knees while the heat created a furnace within his body, causing sweat to pour out of every gland. The pain wasn't intense, but considering how long he was forced to undergo through the process, coupled with the searing heat, the situation was far from bearable.

"This is exactly why I can't solely trust the knowledge of a skill. It didn't mention anything about pain! And what the hell was up with the extra steps? Maybe I should count myself lucky that I didn't try it before…" he thought back to the time of his confrontation with Derrick. It was possible that the encounter could've easily gone worse if he attempted to store the spider to escape.

"Urgh! This is annoying to think about. I already know what I need to do; the plan hasn't changed at all. Get stronger, and then I won't have to worry about my life continuously getting threatened anymore." He determinedly thought to himself, unaware of the large imprint of a spider imprinted his back.

Now that he recovered a good amount of his stamina, he was ready to continue his short yet difficult trek to the cafeteria. He took a step forward until he realized he was forgetting something yet again. He looked to his side before noting that what he forgot wasn't a thing but a who. Isabelle was unperturbed during her slumber, although she would occasionally grimace and twitch about in the garden bed, further dirtying her appearance. Conflicting emotions spurred in his heart while he pondered over his next course of action.

'This is the downside of traveling with people, especially if they can't even take care of themselves....Well, I'm sure after she heals me then she can just follow someone el-…..wait…she will still heal me right? I mean, I'm still fulfilling the agreement; I didn't tell the dude to let go, he did that on his own. Plus, I saved her 'and' I took her to safety…' Noah questioned, he tried to deny any reason for Isabelle not to fulfill their initial deal of healing him and his creature. No matter how much he believed himself to be in the right, he was still uncertain that she would follow through.

'Well, we'll deal with it when we deal with it.' He decided to give up in the end. Understanding someone else wasn't something he was capable of doing, especially when emotions were involved. Although he resigned himself, he took this moment to heart; his future view towards human interaction would be further decided on the outcome.

Noah bent down, lifting Isabelle and slinging her over his shoulder before breaking into a jog, resuming in the direction of his destination.

His senses were fully alert as he traversed through the campus. The persistent screams echoing in surroundings left him in a highly tense state, his hyper vigilance led his sporadic thoughts to reflect on a glaring observation from before. He recalled being under the tree again, although the chaotic environment still consisted of the same blaring screams and cries, he realized that not once did he see anyone after all that time.

However, now, as he made his way towards the cafeteria, he finally came across others who also happened to be converging in the same direction. He couldn't help observing several instances of students being pursued, whether by wandering mice or animals he hadn't witnessed yet that had emerged following their evolution.

For instance, there was an evolved dog that grew bigger than a Great Dane. He couldn't tell the specifics of the dog, but he picked up on the fact that two of its canines were protruding out of its mouth, a terrifying resemblance to the extinct saber tooth. The dog must've been chasing the group for a while, as Noah noticed that the dog would continuously anticipate when they would attack and it would retreat before trying again.

As he spectated, he couldn't help noticing the peculiarities of the chase. It became apparent that they had been evading the beast for some time.

Subconsciously they were growing accustomed to the dog's persistent attacks. Their screams now carried a tone filled with annoyance rather than sheer terror, reflecting the toll that prolonged fear had taken on their sanity.

Noah decided to quicken his pace, keeping his distance from everyone as best as he could. He didn't want to grab the attention of any of the predators chasing the students, especially with the 'baggage' he was carrying.

Thankfully, the cafeteria was only half a mile away. With the speed he was going, he should get there within a few minutes. He could clearly see the doors from his current position, caution gripped his heart at the thought that people had already preoccupied the building. He was sure that if that was the case then they must've already barred the doors as a precaution. His thoughts were confirmed after spotting a group of students repeatedly banging on the front doors.

"Sigh…sure enough, anything involving people becomes annoying. There might be a way t…shit!"

He noticed the people locked out suddenly looked in his direction, their actions showed genuine fear before scattering in the opposite direction. His gaze narrowed in suspicion, not toward himself; he was sure that he wasn't the reason, which meant something was behind him. Sure enough, when he glanced back, his fears were confirmed; the evolved dog from before had returned. It probably realized that it would have a harder time going after a group before deciding to go after him instead.

He had the urge to drop the extra "baggage" to increase his odds of retreating to safety. However he hesitated, the impulse was hard to fight against, but if he acted on that decision then everything he had to go through up till now would be meaningless.

"There's already that Mark guy and his group, then that vulture, and now you? I swear I'm going to get back at all of you when I get a chance. For now, how do I get out of this mess…?"

His eyes began to dart back and forth across the building. His pupils slowly changed in size as they dilated due to the activation of his 'Hunter's Sight' skill. His anxiousness was rising, even when using his most trusted skill he failed to find a solution. History seemed to repeat itself; his hands once again began to grow unsteady, losing their hold around the girl. Who knows what his spider would say if it noticed its master once again contradicting himself.

Isabelle continued to draw the short end of the stick, her life was now in Noah's hands once again. Just as it seemed she would be left behind once more, Noah's eyes shined in expectation.

"Okay! We can use that. They can just complain later; they don't even own the building and yet they're locking doors?"

Rustle!

Noah could clearly hear the sound of the dog's pursuit growing louder. The distance between the two closed with every step after having to make a detour. The building consisted of a lot of windows, but most of the windows were too large so it wouldn't deter the dog from following behind if he were to enter from there. As for the smaller windows, the student window frames made up most of the barrier, making it near impossible to break through unless he was willing to harm himself in the process.

However, as he approached the window he set his eyes on, relief mixed within his anxiousness; the window fitted perfectly for what he needed.

Growl!

Just a few feet away, and he was almost there, with the dog hot on his heels. At this time, he could even make out the heat and smell from its breathing.

Just before he made it to the window, he adjusted his weapon in his hand to place it in front of Isabelle's body, helping to secure her for impact. He was left with few options; he already made up his mind to jump through the closed window; he would just have to use her body to "soften" the impact.

Shatter!

He propelled himself into the glass. Part of his forearm impacted against the glass first, but the rest of the pressure was relieved using Isabelle's body. In that brief moment during the collision, he released his hold of Isabelle's body, causing her body to fly with the momentum to the floor.

Her state of injury was unknown, Noah was only aware of the discernable noises coming from her direction. However, Noah refused to allow himself to become distracted, he wasn't out of danger yet. Lowering his center of gravity, he positioned himself adjacent to the window, ready to react at a moment's notice.

"Come on, you bastard, I dare you…"

Before entering the building, Noah was prepared for two outcomes. Either the dog would hesitate to follow them through the window due to its newly acquired abnormal size. Or, it would continue in its pursuit, enabling him to use this chance to attack preemptively, it would be his only chance to fight against the creature whose physical prowess was still unknown.

"Grrrr!"

Just as he assumed, the dog made the instinctual decision to pursue them through the window. However in this case, its impulsive action would prove to be its undoing.

Whelp!

At the moment that its head breached the room, Noah stabbed upward with full force into the dog's lower jaw, dangerously close to being impaled into its throat. But Noah's attack didn't end there, with all of his strength and will, he forced himself to hold the sword in place. If he was strong enough, he could've probably split the dog in half. His arms were forced to follow along with the dog's momentum as he desperately pushed in the opposite direction.

The surreal strength he acquired wasn't enough to overcome the dog's newfound growth, but it was enough to allow the weight of the dog's fall to impale itself further. As the dog's weight pushed against the tip of the sword's blade, the continued resistance caused the sword strain, causing it to break off and become lodged in its upper jaw.

As the dog crashed into the room, The initial stab, combined with the broken blade rooted in its mouth, inflicted severe trauma upon the creature. The excruciating pain triggered a frenzied response, its deadly whimpers mixed with its dangerous flailing claws still proved it to be dangerous even when defeated.

In the dimly lit room, the faint glow of sunrise provided Noah with just enough light to observe his surroundings. Finding himself in the teachers' lounge, he noticed the room was well-organized besides the chaotic mess caused by the dog's frenzy.

With the threat partially taken care of, Noah made his way to his bag with calm and steady strides. Reaching into one of its pockets, he retrieves his dagger before returning his attention to the dog, his steps echoing in the room as he cautiously approaches the crazed and dying beast. He could delay the inevitable if he so chose to; the amount of blood loss occurring from its wound foreshadowed its guaranteed death, but how could he allow that?

He wanted to personally take the creature's life that threatened to take his own; otherwise he felt as vexed as he did earlier in his attempt to kill Derrick, just to be denied. He continued to approach with vigilance, waiting until the moment that its berserk state died down. However, before he could make his move, a sudden shriek, followed by an agonizing cry echoed through the room.

The sound was insufferable, almost rivaling the dog's own gut-wrenching cries; it almost forced him to forget his original objective in order to placate his ears. He was beyond bewildered, how could someone's screams rival the anguished cries of a dying creature? Though he didn't have to wonder who the source of his suffering was; he knew it had to come from the only person accompanying him.

"Wha-wh-whats go-going on here? an-and WHY DOES IT HURT?" She sobbed, his voice trembled as the continuous sharp pains forced her to clutch her in the attempt to relieve herself from the swelling agony. The louder her cries grew, the tighter she would press against the main source of her pain. Blood slowly flowed down her face, enveloping both of her hands. The amount was far from what her cries signified, although it couldn't be considered a small wound either.

Despite hearing her situation, Noah on the other hand didn't bother to look over in her direction. However, her oppressive cries continued to eat away at his patience, his irritation reaching a boiling point.

"Will you shut up!" He exasperatedly exclaimed. "Did you forget that you can heal yourself? For crying out loud…" His admonishing shout elicited a startled shriek after admonishing her. With a sigh of frustration, Noah returned his attention to the dying creature, although it would still periodically kick and struggle; its remaining energy and strength were abysmally inferior to its earlier counterpart.

Despite its earlier weakened state, the danger of its increased size and sharp claws forced Noah to remain cautious to his approach. However, now that the creature was closer to its final breaths, he recognized that its threat level was significantly diminished.

Forcibly stomping on the dog's neck, the dog jerked but was unable to gather the strength to remove itself from his firm hold; its movements growing weaker with each passing moment. As he focused on subduing the dog, Noah became aware of the lack of cries coming from Isabelle's direction. Without any further distractions, he firmly gripped his dagger, driving the blade into the dog's eye with all his strength.

The sudden newfound trauma caused the dog's body to react strongly, a feral growl began to sound out. Realizing that his attempt to end the creature's life failed, he had to act quickly unless the creature managed to make a desperate attempt on his life. With that thought, he delivered what he assumed to be the final blow, stomping on the dagger's handle, fully immersing it into its eye socket.

It jolted for the last time before all of its movements ceased, and the only sound was the soft crying from the human banshee.

Noah still lacked the empathy to care about her well-being. There were still the spoils he would receive now that the dog was dead, whose priority was above her status. He eagerly looked around for the appearance of the irregularity. His eyes instinctively wandered throughout the room but would always return to the side of his 'trophy', and it was there that the treasure presented itself.

Same as the others, it was another bronze chest; something that others would surely disagree upon when comparing a few zombies to a conscious Sabre-tooth dog. However, Noah couldn't care to consider the grade it was as long as it held something he could use. He specifically needed a weapon and didn't have the luxury to be picky. After not only losing his sword but also forfeiting his dagger in this one altercation with only a small mallet remaining, he needed a more reliable way to defend himself or he'll have to rely on his spider before finding a suitable replacement.

The emptiness reflected in his eyes clearly displayed his lack of luck while viewing the contents of his loot. The contents within contained the usual gold, which was the only saving grace followed by a pair of boots. The lack of weapons irritatingly caused his eyes to twitch. He considered closing the chest and attempting to get a do-over if possible, although he knew his thoughts wouldn't be fulfilled. No matter how game-like the world is right now, he knew that it was nowhere close to being a game.

Begrudgingly, he took out the boots and put them on after removing his shoes. Ironically, putting on the boots made him feel lighter than his sneakers. He felt the need to check his stats to find that it increased his agility by two.

'Well, I can still work with this. As soon as "it"' recovers, then we can farm some zombies and avoid the bigger monsters till I get proper gear.' He made a quick mental plan; lastly, he took hold of the gold to watch it disappear before he sat up to look around the area.

It was subtle at first, but his new heightened senses were able to pick up on the sounds of footsteps approaching.

'Shit, more people to deal with…'