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I pushed Rachael out in just the time as she had barely dodged the boulder by a hair’s length.

I could see the terror in her eyes as I helped her up. We didn’t waste any time confirming each other’s conditions as we both made a run for it.

I didn’t use [Sprint] as I had already overused it. So, with just Qi powering my legs, I ignored the pain and started running.

We got in the thick spread of trees and the worst thing happened.

The creature which was still following closely behind us suddenly stopped. I immediately had flashbacks to the time when I was running away from the silver wolf.

“Shit!”

And I was right. The body of the creature glowed a faint red. The power then concentrated around its mouth as the very next second…

ROOOAAARR!!!

The atmosphere vibrated with its roar. I didn’t know what kind of a skill it was but my body started feeling numb all of a second. I don’t know how but my body which was in midst of running collapsed and slid across the ground, while falling when my vision turned to Rachael, she had suffered a similar fate as well.

I could immediately feel the loud footsteps coming towards us breaking through the trees in the distance.

I felt a very strange and foreign energy coursing through me. It had covered every single muscle in my body and I was having a very hard even feeling some parts of it. I could feel it vividly throughout as it was very foreign to me. This energy was what was keeping me from moving.

I wanted to push this energy out of my body, so with all the might of the remaining Qi in my body, I made the cycle of Qi spin, I took away the automatic control of [Qi Regeneration] and moved around my Qi in a very violent manner as I was trying to drive away the different force from my body using the force that was already present in me.

This continued and the cycle of energy became more violent with each continued iteration.

Boom!

Eventually it was successful as my body let out an audible shock wave as the foreign energy that had entered my body was expelled out.

[Skill: Magic Resistance Lv.1 has been acquired.]

[DEF has increased by 10.]

[Skill: Qi Manipulation is now level 5.]

[Qi has increased by 20.]

I was in too much of a panic to pay attention to any of the messages that came.

I lifted up my body from the ground and made my way towards Rachael who was still in the effect of the skill. But I didn’t need to help her as when got closer I saw her move a little and the very next second small red clouds started coming out of her body as she too slowly stood up.

We both looked towards the back where the creature had finally reached us as it was only about a hundred metres away from us.

But seeing us both get up from its attack, it had lowered its speed and was now a little wary of us. Looks like it hasn’t experienced anyone breaking apart its paralysis like that.

Grrrr!!

Of course it wasn’t going to be enough to make it leave. Something like this would only make it angrier. I could see it trying to intimidate us with its growl.

I didn’t want to wait for it to prepare another attack so I quickly asked Rachael.

“Rachael, do you have any attack skills that can harm that thing?”

Rachael was surprised hearing my suggestion but she still thought for a second and quickly replied.

“One, but it won’t be enough to take it down. It is a Tier-3 creature for a reason.”

“That’s enough, prepare it and I will keep its attention away from you. Just signal when you’re ready!”

I said as I moved in front of her. I opened up my status and glanced at the HP.

HP: 100/167

“More than enough.”

We don’t need to defeat it, just slowing it down should be enough to get us out. We were already very close to the exit.

[Sprint]!

A striking pain invaded my body as I activated this skill, the worse being in my legs. I knew it was going to lower my health significantly, but I didn’t have a choice. It was the only usable skill I had at the moment.

I ran towards the creature, something that surprised the creature as much as it did Rachael, she wanted to say something to stop me but I wasn’t going to listen or rather I wasn’t there to listen.

With her level, only she has the skill to hurt something like this. All I can do is annoy the hell out of it, and right now, that’s what I’m going to do. I just hope she can prepare her skill in time.

Thankfully right after I ran, she had taken her bow out and with her tattoo glowing the brightest ever, she was chanting something while her eyes were fixated on the creature.

Like an experienced hunter, she tracked every single minute movement the creature made.

The creature saw me coming towards it and immediately it tried to swipe at me with its huge claws, but for someone with such high level movement skill, it had improved my body to such a level that I was almost able to sense the attack arrive in slow motion.

With the moves I learned through pain and sweat today, I loaded one of my legs with Qi and kicked hard on the ground to the right, throwing my body in the opposite direction. Seeing me suddenly change direction like that, the creature was confused, but I wasn’t going to give it time to understand what was happening.

Now that I was in its blind spots, I only had a few milliseconds before it noticed what I was going to do. I loaded both my legs with Qi and using the strength of the left leg, I jumped giving me height to reach the creature’s face.

Then, using the other leg, I landed a kick straight in the face using the new shoes’ metal front.

Even though I kicked such a vital spot with a kick hard enough to break a boulder, there was no blood, only a little bit of shock as the creature moved back a few steps, now a little more angrier and bloodthirsty than ever.

My kicked severely lacked power to hurt such a thing.

I used this time to make some distance between us. Which was perfect timing as Rachael was done with her skill as well.

“Grant!”

I immediately jumped to the side giving Rachael the perfect shot towards the creature who had just focused its attention back on me after it had stabilized itself.

“Roooaaarr!!!”

It roared but it didn’t matter as the hand that was holding down the arrow released.

With a loud whistling sound it moved towards the creature. It couldn’t react in time as the arrow, which was surrounded by a violent dark green aura, pierced the creature in its shoulder.

If that was it then that would’ve been enough, but just as the arrow hit, Rachael shouted out.

“Let’s go! The paralysis effect won’t keep it holding for more than a few seconds!”

I quickly moved along with her and within a few minutes we were back on the road. But we still weren’t safe as the creature had long broken out of her paralysis spell.

But it won’t matter even if it did manage to reach us. I got down on one knee and presented my back to Rachael.

“What are you doing!?”

She was very taken aback by my sudden actions. But I didn’t have time to explain her.

“Just get on, I don’t have the time to explain!”

She was still a little hesitant, but gritting her teeth and making up her mind she slowly got on. How can she be this slow in such a situation? I don’t understand.

“Don’t let go no matter what.”

“What are yo…”

She didn’t have time to finish that sentence as I tightened my grip and activated [Quick Dash].

I didn’t specify the distance as I used every point of Qi I had in my body.

Rachael was caught completely off guard as she screamed the moment my body moved. But her scream quieted down quickly as soon as she realized that we had appeared a few hundred metres away from the gate.

She was in a daze, but she quickly got down.

“How did you do that!!?”

I couldn’t hear her question properly. I dropped down on my knees. My feet being unable to support the weight of my own body, I collapsed.

HP: 10/167

Blood poured out of my mouth, ears and eyes as I failed to realize the dire consequences of using such a powerful dashing skill when I was already in fatigue for overusing [Sprint].

“Grant!! Grant!!!!”

My vision blurred as I saw multiple people coming towards us in a hurry. I didn’t know what happened afterwards. The last thing I do remember was Rachael calling out my name.