'Isn't that the guy we saw the last time you were being chased by those frogs and lizards?' Void looked at the running Neil.
He recalled they had seen this guy before, the first time was when they were being chased by the Lightning Apes, and then by the frogs and lizards. Now, they've also encountered him when they were being chased again. How coincidental!
'Yes, it's him. Why is he running as if I'm a calamity?' Grey asked feeling a little shocked by Neil's reaction.
'Well, had we not been connected. I'd have also run away from you. You're like a walking calamity.' Void said mockingly.
'And you're a calamity magnet.' Grey retorted sharply.
"Hello!" He waved at the twelfth prince's group as he got close to them, hoping to dash past them.
He didn't have time to stop and talk to them, maybe he might speak to them after they leave this place. But for now, he doesn't even have time to change his damaged clothes, much less the time to talk to them.
The last time they fought against Aetonth, it destroyed his clothes. He had some spare in his storage ring, but he couldn't delay since he knew Aetonth would chase after him once again.
"Hey! Why are you running?" The twelfth prince tried to block Grey's way as he questioned.
But to his surprise, Grey did a strange footwork and he was already behind him.
"Wait!" He yelled.
"I'd run if I were you!" Grey's said but didn't even turn to look at them.
At least he warned them. He didn't know why they didn't wisely run away, just like Neil.
"What?" The twelfth prince and his group looked at Grey like he was crazy.
They felt Neil was even crazier, why the hell would he run away just because he saw someone running?
But they got an answer a few seconds later. A chilling cold seemed to be coming from behind them that made them turn around.
Roar!
They were greeted by Aetonth's roar that sent a chill down their spines. The twelfth prince shivered in fear and unconsciously took a step back. He wasn't the only one who got scared, the other two who were with him stood rooted to the ground. It was like their spirits left their bodies on seeing the ice blue dragon coming in their direction.
"Dra...dra...dra...gon." One of the youths stammered while raising his shivering hand, pointing at Aetonth.
Aetonth who was originally chasing after Grey was slightly taken aback when it heard this. It's not like it didn't see them at first, but it couldn't be bothered by these unimportant people.
It opened its mouth, spraying streams of ice at them.
The twelfth prince panicked. They couldn't run now since Aetonth was already so close to them.
He looked around, and it was like time stood still. It was at that time that he heard it clearly, the sound of running water.
"Jump into the stream!" He yelled as he dived into the water.
They were very close to it, so jumping in before the ice would get to them was very doable.
Plop!
The other two heard this and followed as well. Getting wet was better than dying.
Plop! Plop!
Two more sounds of people diving into the water rang out.
Aetonth didn't bother to look at them and just continued on its way.
Currently, there were two people running, and one dragon chasing behind them. Neil was at the front, but Grey was slowly catching up to him, while Aetonth was closing the gap between itself and Grey.
Neil who was at the front couldn't help but look behind him. Looking behind him, he was stunned when he didn't see the twelfth prince nor the other two. His eyes trailed from where they were previously standing, and he caught sight of a head popping out of the flowing stream. Two more heads came out as well, and he quickly figured out what happened.
He looked behind Grey, trying to figure out what was chasing him this time. He didn't see anything on the ground, so he curiously looked at the sky. That was when he got the biggest scare of his life.
Flying elegantly in the sky was a magnificent blue dragon, with snow seemingly following its trail. It was a magnificent sight.
'How does he always do it?!' Neil felt like his head wanted to fall off when he thought of this.
He suddenly recalled when they first encountered Grey. At that time he thought there was nothing special about him. Then they encountered him again, at that time they were fighting what looked like a lost battle. Grey dashed out from the forest and acted strangely while running towards their enemies.
He initially thought Grey was a traitor, but when he saw what was following behind him, he quickly understood the reason for his actions. Then he encountered him for the third time, in that particular encounter, he thought he would truly die. But just like the second encounter, Grey came dashing out of a forest, and behind him were multiple frogs and lizards.
This was the fourth time he was encountering Grey, and he didn't dare to say there was nothing special about him anymore. Being able to always survive these chases had already made him special. In fact, if there was something higher than special, that was what Grey was.
When he thought of his third encounter with Grey, he suddenly remembered the young lady who was swallowed by the frog.
'If only she told me what those Apes did to her.' He thought sadly.
Sometimes, his curiosity made him have different thoughts about what the Apes might have done to the young lady. Even after coming up with multiple scenarios, he still couldn't figure out what they did to her. If only she was alive, he would try to find her, so she would tell him what they did to her.
"Hi!" Grey's voice brought him back from his thoughts.
When he looked at his side, he saw that Grey had already caught up.
"Bye!" Grey said as he dashed past him, not forgetting to flash him a smile.
They were almost at the end of the valley, but Neil knew Aetonth would catch up to him before he got to the end.
'I guess I have no choice.'
Plop!
With that, Grey was the only human left on the valley who was on land, the rest were in the water, thanks to him.
Aetonth didn't look at Neil, since he got out of the way in time, there was no use in attacking him.
Void looked at Neil in pity, he felt jumping in the water was just as much torture as getting beat up by Aetonth.
Grey was thinking about how they would deal with Aetonth when Void suddenly asked a strange question.
'Did you know that the only time we were being chased and we didn't encounter that guy was when we were chased by those bunnies?' asked Void.
'Yeah, why are you bringing that up now?' Whenever Grey heard about those bunnies, he felt like going back there and smashing that annoying bunny leader to pieces.
'Nothing, I just thought I should inform you.' Void said.
'Well, I don't like recalling that stupid bunny.'
