It was late into the night. Wolf howls could be heard far away into the distance by a boy resting on top of a certain tree. Kip had woken up a while ago, he didn’t get to sleep much. Bubble was down on the ground munching the dead corpses of two Uromecks, wondering into their area by coincidence.

His stamina has recovered somewhat; but if there exist a hunger bar, it will be would be at rock bottom in his current state. Finishing a few salted crackers in his pocket, like an agile monkey, he descended down from the tree at an unbelievable speed.

“What should I do now” he thought “The hornet nest had been stirred. I haven’t thought of a solid plan yet”. Kip decided to go back to his base, thinking of getting rid of some pesky cyclopes on the way. Everything were going smoothly so far, he hasn’t even dropped a sweat.

“Maybe I’m thinking too much. I wonder if Bubble can fight on par with the Uromeck’s leader” Kip said. But stopped in his track when he heard human screams on a distance not so far away.

The leader was feeling a lot better than It was comparing to this afternoon. Accompanying by a few of its soldiers, they mutilated everything on sight. Even a small rabbit wasn’t spared. It has been a while since it come out of the base to hunt. Nothing around here could be worthy of being the leader rival. Regardless, indiscriminating murders seem to help with its mood.

“That’s smell, looks like a group of human is camping nearby” the leader told its soldiers. Due to being an involved specie, not only was its physical strength greatly enhanced, it’s sense of smell was no way inferior as well. The leader then told its minion to stand guard far away, acting as a barrier in case any human manages to escape. Not that it was easy to do so anyway.

In the darkness of the night, a group of students were sitting closely together under a large boulder. Seven of them manage to escape together when the cyclopes attacked yesterday. They found a sense of safety just by being closer to one another.

No one dared to even to make a sound. And starting fire was the same as a suicidal thought. The silence of the night mean that they were safe for the time being. And every passing second was like a lingering sense of death dancing around them. They never thought they would wish so desperately for the sun to rise. Seemingly out of nowhere, a giant shadow appeared out from the wood. Stepping on the leaf debris and breaking the so sacred silence that was the same as the students’ final hope.

Kip ran toward the origin of the sound. “There are peoples nearby, why on earth are they hiding so close to the Uromeck’s base?” he told himself. He was only interested in checking if Chloe was also amongst the human. It doesn’t really matter for him whether other students lived or die. But once he rushes in, he knows he had no choice but to help them escape, even if the girl he was looking for isn’t there.

“Huh?” Two Uromecks was surprised to see a human running at them. At first they thought it was one of their kind since Kip carried the same Cyclops’s smell on his body. However, when their Kip was getting closer, they were attacked by Bubble who was creeping silently behind them, waiting for a distraction to make her move.

“Help me” one of the cyclops screamed. His friend in trying to pry the slime away with its claw was only making the situation worse. In its panicking state, the monster did not notice a pointy object stabbing toward its head. With a grunt, it fell powerlessly onto the ground. Dead. The same quickly happened to the other cyclops.

The human scream was getting louder now. “I’ve to hurry, before it is too late” Kip bit his lip, and bolted toward the sounds.

The Uromeck teared two humans apart with its bare hand. And throw the dead body onto the ground, as if the human corpse weighted no more than a paper clip. What was it doing you ask? Why, playing with its food of course. How could those insignificant insects be called proper prey? They were no more than a slice of bread, or a piece of fruit.

The Uromeck’s leader was grinning from ear to ear before something climbed onto it’s body. With a swat and incredible wind pressure, Bubble was smashed onto the ground. It was glaring toward Kip now, seemingly annoyed with the defiance expression on its ‘prey’.

“Run a way now!!, toward the direction I came from” Kip shouted. Throwing two of the herb bag he took from the cyclopes just then toward the students who were now frozen in fear, he commanded “Rub those herb onto your skin, they won’t be able to smell you. And do it quick, I can’t hold this guy back for long”

A boy, seemingly more quick-witted compare to other, took the herbs and spread one leaf onto his body, before passing other leafs around. The rest of the students quickly followed, and looked at their saviour as if waiting for him to save them.

“What are you waiting for, run” Kip shouted. Why are these students still standing around? Bubble was smashed away effortlessly by the leader; his chance of survival had been reduced to less than 20 percent if he faced the monster boss heads on.

The boy who responded to first to his instruction urged the others to ran, he quickly faced Kip and asked “What about you?” “Don’t worry about me, just go” Kip replied, with an urgent look in his face. The boy bowed his head thanking him, and quickly ran away with the others.

The leader was pissed off now. How the hell did one of the prey manage to get in. What were those fools doing standing guard outside? Looking at the slime that was struggling to reform its body shape, it thought “So that’s why. Even an elite soldier would have some trouble if he let down his guard in front of a slime, much less and ordinary Uromeck. But why is there a slime here, and why would it helps the human getting away.”

The Uromeck was still contemplating this when it saw Kip passed something onto the terrified human. Although it has evolved, the horrible eyesight was still a bane as long as it evolves to a similar specie. Suddenly, the human smell was getting weaker by the minute, before almost disappearing from its nose. If it was any Uromeck, the human would seem no difference than its kind if they have the same smell on. Albeit hard, the leader could still smell the original sense of the prey if they remained within his 10 metres radius.

“Crafty prey, how dare you try to get away” The leader bellowed in anger. Hearing their leader shout, the cyclopes that were standing guard quickly ran toward their boss in fear. On their way back, they ran pass some cyclopes that seemed to came from the opposite direction. “Weird” they thought, “wasn’t boss by himself, where did more comrades came from”.

Kip was also planning his escape. He wondered if he can resummon Bubble if she gets killed. He didn’t have any choice. Running away from the boss, he chose a direction that were opposite to where his schoolmates escaped. Noticing that the last human was trying to get away, the leader vowed to destroy this prey into pulps. Only then would it calm his anger.

As if a constraint was lifted away. Bubble attacked the leader without fear for her life. She throws part of her body at its weakest spot. She twisted and changed her shape in a way that is hard for the monster to completely rip her into bit. Alas, the Uromecks’ leader was just too strong. Her attack only annoyed and make the opponent madder. Using a solid kick, Bubble was smashes into bit against a tree. Instantly destroyed.

Kip could fell the connection between him and his slime disappear. So aside from vibration, overwhelming brute force can also destroy his slime. He activated his slime summoning again, and was glad to see bubble appeared in front of him. Having no other choice, he ordered he to slow down the boss monster again…

The leader had never been this angry in its entire life. The prey specie strength it was hunting was so weak, comparable to that of an ant. But why is this one running so fast. Not only that, as soon as it destroyed the slime and catching up to Kip, another one appear, and delay it again.

“I’ll kill you!!” the leader cried. Letting Kip escape would be its greatest shame.

The slime summoning skill was used three more time. But Kip finally got away from the leader. Having escape death, his hunger seemed to disappear entirely. He was so tired that he could pass out with any step. There was only one thought on his mind right now.

“I’ll be back. We’ll see who will be the hunter and prey next time”. Inhaling another deep breath, Kip dragged his body, using the party sense allocation skill, and returned to his base.