The final leap sapped another three precious stamina points from him and as he made contact with the fat man’s gryphon’s shoulder, he rolled and leapt from there to his shoulder, quickly forming and grabbing out at the man’s glasses. The swipe missed as the man moved surprisingly quickly for his bulk. He had choreographed his swipe so of course someone who had lived as long as him would see it before it landed. Instead of swiping again and missing again Aarav ducked under the man’s grabbing hand and slipped out of his grasp as his hand closed on a small part of his body he was not able to get out of the way in time. Then he glommed his body directly onto the other man’s neck, then forehead, slipping under his glasses and over his eye. Please do not have laser vision! It would just be my luck for this idiot to be superman’s fat brother in disguise. Positive luck my big slimy butt. Maybe small slimy butt would be more accurate but that’s not nearly as satisfying. Thankfully no lasers came and Aarav was not burned full of holes. Leaping from under his glasses out into the air again the glasses followed.

“Yess!!!” Aarav screamed in triumph as he soared away from the old man, his eyes were a cool grey, he was focused and for some reason he did not seem surprised anymore or dissuaded without his glasses. “Wha…?” He had just pulled out another pair…

Aarav did not have words strong enough to explain how he was feeling right in that moment. He just stared at the man dumbfounded, mouth hanging open and then a scream ripped from his maw. Pure unadulterated rage ripped free. It didn’t matter, nothing else mattered. He would just pull out another pair after he took those off as well. There was a more immediate problem though; he was running out of hang time with how fast the ground was approaching. Once he was down on the ground it was game over for him.

Desperate he screamed, “Hello! How are you?” Maybe speaking their language would throw them off! Why hadn’t the thought of it earlier?

Language Mastery: Darfan, you have 2% Mastery, using it every day to master it.

Aarav didn’t have time for massages from the system; he swiped the notification away with a finger while continuing to plummet. In his desperation to escape he had forgotten to extend his wings and was quickly reaching terminal velocity. If he hit at this speed it was going to be death for sure. Stamina draining away, the ground reaching up at an alarming speed, four gryphons and their riders bent on catching and maybe eating me? What did they want with him? Idiot! Focus damn it, this is not the time to lose yourself to errant thoughts! How do I get out of this?

Veering to the right again he made for the river. The ground was fast approaching, wings unfurled were able to slow his descent some but it would not be enough before he hit the ground. Hopefully the water would buy him some real estate to slow him. His fear of death was less than his fear of water because even the idea of being submerged in the deadly stuff did not slow his adrenaline fuelled mind.

This was it, he last ditch effort to escape from these hunters. Why hadn’t they left him along yet? This was surely more effort than the chase was worth? Maybe they were the type of hunters that liked the fun of hunting an elusive prey? It was a sign of his strained mind and flagging stamina that he was thinking of such useless questions. None of this was going to help him escape but he couldn’t help the wandering it was getting harder and harder to focus his taxed mind. Even adrenaline had its limit. Stamina was now down to the final point. Recovery only at ten percent and he wasn’t close to death but as the final point of stamina slowly drained away his wings stopped moving and even a herculean effort to try to get them to wave was met with monumental resistance. It was desperation and the violent urge to survive that allowed him to continue to move his wings in small shuddering movements, and it was at a huge cost, each swing of his wings slowed his fall but reduced his health now instead of stamina, he was down from thirty percent health to twenty now. The pain was excruciating, wing joint protested and fins worked to retract, his wings were fighting against him. They refused to obey. His whole body wanted to curl up in on itself and enter the water like a ball. That would hurt the least. He pushed and pushed, trying to coax more from the wings while his lizard brain fought against those inclinations. But the more he tried to fight his wings the more they fought back.

A second and then the sound of tearing, his wing joint broke from the force of the wing and drag. Then they ripped completely free and spun out into the air.

Aarav didn’t care; all he cared about was survival. Losing his wings had made him lighter, not light enough to make new wings and be able to fly but enough that new wings might be able to…he tried…and failed…tried again and failed again. This time he coughed up a mouthful of slime, he didn’t have blood so this was the only alternative, he knew he was going too far. Is it too much when the alternatives are death by impact or death by dissection? Nothing can be considered too much right now, I will use up this body before I lay down to die! There might be not recovering from this. His insides were trying to escape and he already felt raw and completely used up.

These were the clear symptoms of stamina starvation. He might still die even if he managed to survive the fall into the water. He was losng health at a prodigious rate. Each moment cost him more. Each movement bought him another second before impact. Slowed him a tiny bit more, finding that balance between speed and health would be the key to surviving the next few seconds.

Finally at five percent, self preservation locked his new wings’ joints in place, falling at an angle to the river, his body had had enough. There was nothing left for it to give. Any further moment would absolutely and undenably kill him, falling into the river was a chance at life. Manifesting legs and then fins everything that would slow his movement once he got into the water. Aarav opened up his body, fighting its need to ball up, spread out and prepared for a weak belly flop into the water. Eyes retracted and nerves retracted as well. He wanted to feel as little pain as possible on this one. If this was his time, this was it. He tried all his could to diminish his senses before time. Ears dissolving a little, mouth and nose and finally the eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to remove them completely as the countdown to doom approached but he tried to reduce the sensation as much as he could. He would stare death in the face as he had last time. He could not be taken by something unseen in the shadows or outside his view. This was going to be it.

Only five seconds and it would all be over, he might survive but he doubted it, he had used up too much health, so endeth the live for Aarav, Resh, slime and had zero impact on this world, except to get chewed up and spit out by it, same as the old world…that’s what his tombstone would say, if he got one…which he wouldn’t because he wasn’t human. He was a monster…they just died and another monster would be born in its place. Or he would be harvested.

Four... Aarav couldn’t help but open his eyes, the water fast approaching.

Three… The rush of the wind moved past his ears and he braced for the impact that was sure to come. This might be his last moment on this planet and in this life. If he hadn’t run out of stamina or just waited to explore the village when his recovery was back to full…

Two…The wind brought the smell of the forest and the taste of the flora in the air. A tear had time to slip out of his tightly closed eyes. He could have waited until his health, stamina and mana were full at least to mount the gryphon. It had been a stupid chance to take, now he was paying the ultimate price.

One….No! I don’t want to die! Please god save me! I promise I will never ask for anything else in this world. But don’t let me die a second time!? If you save me I will work hard every day to not repeat the same mistakes of my past. Please! PLEASE!

Wait….what happened? I should have died by now; or at least hit the water. I feel like I’m still alive…