The old man screamed as he tried to recite something.

"A-a-abatas b-b-berjaha seyve Xenon!"

There was no response but I had an odd feeling that someone was laughing at us at this very moment. The old man then proceeded to hide behind me and the golem right after the prayer's failure.

"Get back here, Rocky!"

Reaching out my hands, I grabbed the panicked boulder and somehow the lifted it with a surprisingly low amount of effort.

I didn't exactly expect to be able to pick up Rocky with such ease, but I pointed it core first in the direction of the demonic creature anyway. Rocky screeched something in terror, flashing it's core with colours and flailed it's arms around, accidentally hitting me in the face, fortunately not very hard. I fell to the ground shouting in pain anyway as I dropped Rocky.

The Treknuken roared with laughter, patting it's abdomen with it's hand. Damned piece of shit, laughing at my failure!

I put my hands over my face, relieved not to feel the touch of blood as I stood up, facing the Treknuken. It finally decided to attack, swiping at Rocky, sending the poor golem flying, fortunately not crashing into me. I didn't care if it hit the annoying old man though.

Rocky had enough, anger trumping over fear seemingly.

"REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The core of the golem glowed red and a beam of white light hit the Treknuken right smack in the center of it's chest, burning a large hole on it, but not hitting all the way through it's body. The monster howled in pain, clutching it's abdomen.

"TRRRRRRIAAAASSS! MAAADDOOOOOP!"

The Treknuken shouted in anger, retreating. Two Treknukens that were in earshot looked in our direction, and shouted back in reply.

"MAAADOP! MAAAADOP"

By this point, we had already started running as we heard the loud rumbling of their feet hitting the ground. The old man was panicking, reciting various chants from the book, and a white speck of light appeared above us all of a sudden after he read one of the chants. The old man shouted excitedly and bowed as he ran, tripping over a random rock and hitting the ground headfirst. I wasn't very sure if the goddess really existed at this point, but I would be very grateful if she were to do something.

The old man ignored the pain and threw a crystal from his pocket towards the white light. I expected the crystal to be swallowed, and something to help us appear. Nope. The crystal passed through the speck of white light, unswallowed.

A feminine laugh rang out from the white speck but nothing happened. I twitched in anger, what type of deity is this?

Piece of shit! You having a laugh? Fuck you and all your descendants!

The mind reading goddess didn't take the statement lightly.

A blue light shone, and a sudden force smashed me from above right into the ground, and I screamed in shock! I could even heard the light cracking of my ribs after the attack. An invisible force then lifted me from the ground, forcing me upright. All the wounds I had sustained then healed, including the hole on my arm.

"First chance~♪"

The voice of the goddess rang out in a singsong tune. I was stunned. That was too unfair! How would you even stop yourself from thinking thoughts? It's like when you see a really fat man and you think to yourself "Hey, that guy is so fat!", even when you don't intend to voice your thoughts.

The monsters that were chasing us paused for a second after witnessing the scene, then continued to run towards me, the other companions of mine already in the distance. Damn you traitors!

The one that had the wound on it's chest stood before me with a frown on it's face. The other Treknukens discussed something, before continuing to chase the traitorous duo.

It seemed that the Treknukens were intelligent enough to continue chasing the fish that escaped the net. At the very least, I only had to deal with one, a injured one. It still wasn't any less terrifying to face a giant demon twice your height though.

"REEEEEEEEEEEEM! WEEEEEEEEY YUEOW DRUOOOOOY!"

The giant stood before me and shouted something. It seemed to be taking out it's anger from the injury from Rocky on me. That wasn't fair, I wasn't even a quarter of Rocky's strength!

The monster then clawed towards where I was, and I dodged. I activated Strengthen Body and Paralysing Hoe, taking the opportunity to smash the weapon towards the creature.

"Clunk!"

The hoe hit the scales of the Treknuken, glancing off it's natural armour and dealing no damage. Fuck! I was simply just too poor of a combatant, unable of even giving the monster even a scratch. Despite the attack doing no damage, the giant got angry, shouting something at me and swinging it's claw at me again.

The swipe dodged again, the Treknuken grew frustrated and simply jumped towards me, planning to make a Alan pancake. I froze. Dodging to the left or the right wouldn't be fast enough. But the time I moved the demon would have crushed me. I suddenly realised that if I had rolled earlier forward the attack would have missed, but I was too late.

I didn't want to die! I still had my mother and a long life to go! Admittedly, I might not ever make it out of the abyss and back to the capital again, but I still wanted to live!

Time almost seemed to slow as I waited for the monster to hit me, causing my demise.

Wait a second.

Time had actually slowed! A strange flow of mana pulsed through my entire body, the same phenomenon that had occured back when the bandits had attacked my mother! I didn't feel like it would be much of an aid however, but I dashed forward as fast as could, pushing against the thick air!

To my surprise, I had managed to push through the air with more ease than the first time I did back at the village and I narrowly managed to dodge the attack! Looking back the the Treknuken slouching face first in the ground, I decide staying any longer would be a bad idea.

I was a little worried about Rocky, not a single bit of worry spared for the old man however, but I decided that I would need to run if I wanted to survive.

I took advantage of the extra speed I was given, and ran away, as far as I could from the pillar.