A few hours passed, and we had already covered more or less ten kilometers of distance.
However, given that the gun's presence was several hundred kilometers away, it would take us days just to reach it at our current pace. That would be too slow.
I turned to Igni and gestured to "hurry up." Although she hesitated for a brief moment, after some consideration, she nodded her head firmly. After she did, we started increasing our pace.
From a walking speed of about 5 km/h, we doubled it into a slow jog. Then, after getting used to dodging the Demons while jogging, we increased the speed slowly, once in a while, in gentle increments.
An hour later, we were already running at a speed of almost 60 km/h. Considering our top speed, we were rushing along at about half of our maximum. It was getting harder to dodge the demons around, but with our pace, we would reach the gun's location soon.
With our nerves heightened to the limit, we actually managed to completely stay under the radar of the demons spread around the forest. Honestly, it was at the level of a miracle.
About halfway down, I stopped. Igni, too, who was still holding hands with me, stopped at the same time. She quickly scanned the surroundings, wary of the reason why we stopped, but I gestured for her to stay down.
We didn't stop because a demon detected our presence, but rather because of my mental fatigue. Although I could still continue our pace without problems, if the worst situation arises, it's better for us to be well rested than tired.
Igni sighed in relief but didn't let down her guard. She kept watch over the surroundings, even though we have several layers of concealment cast over us.
I, on the other hand, slumped down on a nearby tree's roots. I heaved a deep sigh as I let my body relax slightly. As I did, I tried opening the Karma Value checker and noticed that there was already a small part of it that returned to white.
'This means that our current ordeal is still under the influence of my bad karma...'
The penalty for reaching 100% bad karma was pretty bad. Thinking about it, if not for me being pretty multi-skilled, then we'd have died as soon as we entered the forest and many times over while traversing it.
'We overcame a lot of life-and-death struggles just by running and hiding. It seems like recovering all my good karma would be pretty easy.'
I heaved a deep sigh as I closed my eyes, trying to relieve even a little of the mental strain that I was currently feeling. As I was doing so, however, my senses suddenly started blaring warnings from all over.
"Damn!"
Without wasting a second, I jumped to my feet and rushed to where Igni was, pushing her down to the ground.
*WHOOOOOSH!*
As soon as we were down on the forest floor, an invisible wave flew past, mowing down all the trees within our immediate surroundings. After the wave passed, I noticed that not only the trees but even the nearby demons were caught in the blast and fell.
The bad news was that, due to the wave, all four barriers I had up were completely shattered, exposing me and Igni to every single demon around.
"...!"
Without giving us time to rest, another batch of warnings tingled within my senses.
This warning system that had been saving me since I was weak was something that came naturally to Primo. It not only warns you of incoming dangers but also gives you hints on what action to take to achieve safety. This time, there seemed to be no way to evade, however.
"F*ck!"
Having no choice, I pulled out my sword and wrapped myself in the Flames of Evolution. As soon as I did, an invisible wave, or rather, an invisible wall, was rushing toward us.
"Shatter!!!"
I screamed to the top of my lungs as I concentrated as much energy on the edge of my sword and swung it vertically downward. As I did, a powerful blast ensued, creating a crater of about a hundred meters centered around my back foot.
"Kuh!"
However, despite my effort, I was slowly getting pushed back by the powerful, invisible, wall-like wave.
"My Lord, let me assist!"
Igni shouted by the side as she summoned her [Flame Sword] and swung it straight toward the point I was attacking. With the two of us hitting the same area, a cracking sound echoed before we were sent tumbling forward.
The wave got crushed only at the part where we stopped, but it still continued to eradicate everything along its path behind us. Screams of agony echoed for a short while before complete silence ensued.
With only a single glance, you could already tell that no demon was left alive nearby. It was a beautifully executed "friendly fire" incident, wiping out everything around us.
Then, suddenly feeling an intimidating presence, I looked up. There, floating idly in the sky, was the same demon shark that swallowed us whole before. Although its size was about a tenth of the original, it was still large enough to swallow the two of us whole.
It showed several rows of razor-sharp teeth as its mouth hung slightly agape. Its big black eyeballs seemingly stared at us without even a desire for our flesh.
"Igni! Run!"
Without hesitation, I pointed her to where the gun was. Igni realized what I meant and ran without hesitation. The shark turned toward Igni for a moment, but I didn't allow it to chase after her.
I revved the energy from the Flame of Evolution and covered not only the sword but even my muscles, bones, and tendons. Power seemed to overflow from my body, but this method would greatly damage me at the same time.
To counter that, I also activated the Broken Phoenix's ability to continuously heal myself while I fight.
"Haaap!"
I took a large leap and swung my sword, aiming to behead the large shark. However, as expected, it managed to dodge the strike easily.
"Fight me, you big, dumb fish!"
I shouted as I tried to provoke it, not sure if it understood speech.
Unlike my fears, the shark seemed to realize that it was insulted and roared with anger. Igni was now completely off its radar.
"That's right, come to Papa!"
I waved my sword, sending another slash.
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