300 Reaching the Source of Danger, The Appearance of the Real Boss (1/2)

Day 44 – 11:24 AM – Mount Malabito, Mamuyao, Rizal

Northwest foot of Mount Malabito, it was the part where the Agos River and the mountain met. At a wide clearing by the riverside, a huge reddish black lizard and several people could be seen. They were of course Mark's group together with the children that escaped from the place where the manifestation of the miasma appeared.

Unfortunately, the attack Chaflar made really took a huge toll on it and it was not able to fly towards the base directly. There was also the issue where there were too many people riding on its back and it had to carefully fly since the children were not used to it. Its master would surely give it a beating if any of them accidentally fell. In the end, the poor dragon could only reach the other side of the mountain where the base was located before it landed.

In any case, it was enough for them to be safe from the miasma. Still, Karlene, Amihan and Edzel were all worried for Mark. They wanted to help but they knew that they would just hold him back. It was not that they want to escape but they had to.

”Will boss be fine from that thing?”

Edzel could not help but voice his worry as he gazed towards the northwest direction. He was not really asking anyone and was not expecting for anyone to answer him.

The feeling they all had as they gazed at that monster was terrifying. It was as if they were going to be swallowed whole by the darkness and lose their minds. Even now, the younger children were shivering from the aura that the monster had and that was the reason they were too behaved while riding of Chaflar's back. It was not because they did not want to fall but more of they did not have the energy to fear about falling off.

As for the children that were able to hold their fear in, they were still in remorse. After all, they had just lost everyone that took care of them in this past month. They all had no parents or guardians now and had no idea what to do next. The only thing that they could do now was to try to appease the other children.

Karlene did the same and helped the children gather in a single area while trying to hush their cries. When she looked around, she saw Amihan and Miracle that stayed sitting on Chaflar's back while gazing towards the same direction as Edzel's.

”You two shouldn't worry. Mark will be fine.”

She said thinking what the thoughts of the two could be.

Miracle turned towards her and Karlene was surprised that there was not a shred of worry on the little girl's face.

”Father is fine.”

That was the entire thing the little girl said before she returned to gazing back at that direction.

On the other hand, Amihan did not say anything and just looked down. She was already someone that was easily scared of things and she honestly felt like she was about to die when she saw that manifestation of miasma. As a naïve spirit, she was highly sensitive to malice and she could feel that malice and animosity several times compared to people. Right now, she was trying hard to hold it in but her heart and mind was quivering fiercely. Still, despite how terrible she felt, she was still hoping that Mark was fine.

”These girls are strong.”

Karlene smiled and looked at the children once more. Since Mark sent them this way, she knew that Mark decided to bring these children to the base. She could not do anything in that fight but in the least, she could protect these children.

Especially, now…

She stood up gazing at the other side of the river.

”Karla, you felt them right. I'll leave those guys to you so protect everyone.”

Saying that, she relaxed her mind and let Karla take over. Her appearance changed and a dark purple armor started to cover parts of her body. The nails on her hands turned into claws and her hair changed color and started to move as if being blown by the wind.

Everyone was surprised at her sudden transformation and the children felt scared even more but before anyone could say anything, she already dashed towards the river.

That was then everyone noticed. There were several feral evolved animals creeping on the other side of the river while hiding behind the trees and bushes.

***

Day 44 – 11:28 AM – San Marcelino, General Nakar, Quezon

Almost half hour after the manifestation of the miasma appeared, Mark was still running towards the north following the Agos River. It had already been ten minutes since he entered the forest filled with the red lichen in the surroundings but he was yet to find the very source of all this mess.

The shadowy figure was still on his tail relentlessly chasing him. However, it was still within his calculations. Actually, he was maintaining a fixed distance between him and the enemy. The distance enabled him to dodge the attacks with allowance to save on his mental energy being consumed by his [Flash Precognition]. The main reason he was maintaining this distance was because he was using the manifestation as the radar to point the correct direction.

It was because as he got closer and closer to the real body, the manifestation become angrier and angrier. It even roared more often. When he started to run in a different direction, the animosity the manifestation was releasing would also lower by a bit. With all those signs, he was able to pin point the correct direction to go.

”Tch!” Mark clicked his tongue. ”The reinforcements arrived.”

He said those words as he started to detect contaminated beasts started to approach him from different directions. It seemed that it took them a while since they still had to gather from different places. However, since Mark rushed towards the right direction faster than the enemy anticipated, it could only throw the beasts towards Mark's direction without gathering in one place.

”I can take advantage of this.”

The beasts were all scattered and were approaching him individually rather than in groups. With that, he could deal with them one by one as he ran. However, it would also give the manifestation the opportunity to catch up. In that case, he would need to use his [Shadow Mist Movement] more often and his mental energy consumption would increase several folds.

”What a pain.”

Mark vanished into black mist and rushed across the trees. The closest beast to intercept him was just several meters in front.

A burst of miasma soon flew towards him destroying the created subspace forcing Mark out. As he was forced out, his body was horizontally on the air but he was already by the side of the contaminated beast that looked like a wild cat with his left needle launcher aimed at it.

SWOOOSH!

The poisonous needle was launched hitting the contaminated beast on its temple. It caused the beast that amidst its charge to slide several feet through the red lichen covered forest floor.

Mark's body started to fall but it was late to just regain balance and run. He stretched out his left foot towards then ground trying to land.

FLASH!

Before his foot touched the red lichen covered ground, a flash appeared at the sole of his shoes which made contact with the ground first and immediately spread out burning all the red lichen on the place where his foot landed. However, the momentum of his fall was too strong and he still fell.

In the last moment, he stretched out his left arm.