"Why are they chasing after you?"
"What was that array you used back there? I saw many silver and few gold grade monsters stopped by it! It's quite amazing!"
"Where did your team go?"
Sith's team members spoke up one by one, declaring their curiosity about William's origins and actions here.
"Sorry folks, but I ain't saying a thing about any of that," but as they decided to act mysterious, William also decided to do the same.
"Come on! We all know you came from the Aspire academy!" Another team member rolled his eyes in response to his words, "and from what I know, this academy isn't that good to have someone like you out there."
"Consider it like we hid our strength quite deep from outsiders," William answered with a laugh before adding, "you do know that we are going to have a very intense chase tonight, right?"
"What chase? We already killed almost half of the monster army who chased you here. As for the remaining half, they had to struggle with fire back then."
"That reminds me, why did you call all of us back this fast?" Another team member turned his attention and poured out his rage at Sith.
And almost instantly, Sith pointed his finger towards William, "he told me so."
"You did?!!" William could feel the weird looks these folks gave him, "why?"
"To save your lives," William's answer was swift and short, but decisive enough to make everyone shut up.
"He says that there is a hellish monster around, one that's enough to tear us into shreds," Sith explained what William didn't, "so we need to run fast to live."
"This…"
"What type of monster is that?"
"Dude, we got a few gold grade spirit masters here, not to mention the rest are all silver grades!"
"Don't look down on such a threat," William rolled his eyes, started to address everyone around, "if you don't believe me and want to try out your chances, then go ahead, be my guest. I'm just trying to help you out."
"You…"
"I do believe him," Sith's words landed and cut any path of objection and doubt the team had, "I saw him fight more than twenty monsters that looked the same to me. They looked like they were like copies of a single monster. And believe me, despite fifteen being bronze grade and five being at silver rank, each could use a different technique and element than others!"
"..."
William could hear the team sucking a cold air of breath in a loud, audible way. They got shocked, and seemingly a bit terrified by what Sith said. And like an instigator, William helped by adding more fuel to the fire.
"This isn't all! This monster can create a copy of any monster or spirit master it kills. Killing silver grade spirit masters and monsters will yield silver grade copies. While killing gold grade ones will give gold grade copies. It's a gold grade monster, one that lived for at least tens of thousands of years. It came from the deep and untouched places of the forest to us. So, you can run your imagination wildly and consider how scary and deadly this dude is!"
"..."
This time it was a heavy and suffocating silence. Even Sith, the one who heard a bit about this monster before others, and got few ideas about it, couldn't help but feel a cold shiver down his back at this moment.
"How… How can we outrun such a thing then?!!!" At last, one of those who argued with William before couldn't help but speak up.
As he got shocked by the news William and Sith exposed, he changed his words from thinking about killing that beast and looking down on it to asking about how to run away with their heads on their shoulders.
"Just by running fast," William shrugged, "fighting it is futile endeavour for anyone, for all of us. So, let's focus on running as fast away as possible, and not let it surround us."
"We got a few traps laid out in the forest to facilitate a long path of retreat for us," another one said, "let's use this!"
"No!" William was decisive in declining this, "I said I'll give you one day of work and help. Don't waste my time running around the forest, moving from one landmine to another."
William knew this might look quite appealing offer, but he got to turn it down. He had to stick with these folks for one day, help them in killing and hunting monsters as he promised.
Then he got to break apart, leave them and return back to his team. If he accepted their offer, then he'd end up far away from his team.
Doing this would indeed endanger him, and his team. Not to mention the return journey would be a hellish nightmare for him.
"We… We don't need any payback," Sith looked fast among his teammates, who gave him a silent nod, "we just want to survive this and return back to our people safe and sound."
"We just need to run for ten kilometres," William paused, "can your upcoming trap thing secure this distance for us?"
"The landmine we created extends to cover around seven kilometres," one of the team said, "so it can provide such safe distance for us."
"Great! Let's try to consider things after going through that safe zone first. How far away is it by the way?"
"Two kilometres at least," Sith thought for a moment, "it's not that far."
"Let's prepare for the upcoming hard battle then," yet unlike what everyone thought, William didn't show any signs of relief.
"Battle?"
"Yes, it's a long distance, enough for that monster to approach us," William paused, "I like to play as the main controller of the team. But as I don't know what you can do, then it's better to assign someone who can do it and know you better."
"Controller?"
"What does that even mean?"
"Consider it like the leader of the team," William rolled his eyes when he discovered they were alien to such a term. It was quite expected actually, and he mistook them knowing such a thing as they already knew the value of establishing safe escape pathways before entering any battle.
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