"Then, is fire okay?" (2)
Shi An turned his head to look at Lin Yan Ming. "Do you still want to go to the east side zone?"
Lin Yan Ming's eyes lit up. "You know the way?"
Shi An hummed and nodded his head, then said in a serious manner, "I have a strong sense of direction!" With the backup light source, Lin Yan Ming raised his eyes to look at Shi An, who was standing not far from him. The young man's eyebrows were soft and calm, his dark eyes were quietly looking back at him from the shadows. It was as though there was nothing that could make him lose his current composure, giving people an inexplicable sense of reliability.
It was puzzling how everyone said that Shi An was a once-in-a-lifetime loser, but Lin Yan Ming had always thought there was a kind of indescribable mystery to Shi An after interacting with him for so long. This sense of mystery was even subtly different from that of ordinary people一which always made him want to believe what Shi An said.
And most importantly ……
Except for following Shi An, the only option left was to stay in place and wait for rescue一and who knows what condition it was outside. Since there was no way to locate their individual positions now, he'd rather take this risk than leaving things up to fate. After thinking about it, Lin Yan Ming took a slow deep breath as he finally made up his mind and said, "…… Okay! I believe you!"
一Maybe, Shi An really knew the way to the forest area!
Shi An happily flashed a smile at Lin Yan Ming.
一Of course he knew how to get to the gray and black area in the east. After all, there was an insect up his sleeve to secretly show him the way.
*
In the silent darkness, Lin Yan Ming walked forward with difficulty. As opposed to when they came, this time Shi An walked in the forefront. The young man's back was straight and slender, always not far from Lin Yan Ming's line of sight. The darkness that didn't even permit one to see their own hand stretched out in front of them didn't seem to have any effect on Shi An, and his pace was always smooth and steady without any hesitation. However, it was really too quiet around him.
He could only hear the thumping sound from the heart and the rustle of the grass beneath their feet..
Lin Yan Ming swallowed and carefully broke the silence by uttering, “Uh ……" He actually did not have anything to say, but he really couldn't bear the insufferable dead silence.
However, in the instant he made a sound, Lin Yan Ming heard a strange echoing sound against the back of his neck, repeating the words he just uttered in an eerie hoarse voice: "Uh ……"
Lin Yan Ming instantly felt a chill run down his spine. He immediately ducked and condensed a magic arrow, then threw it in the direction from which the voice came. It turned out that the arrow landed on an empty space and was swallowed up by the darkness.
The alternate light source on the watch illuminated a small area behind him and the white light under the overwhelming shadows around them appeared small and faint.
The monster was a three-meter-tall magical creature, its body was thin and long like noodles, but it had a huge, heavy head that hung on its neck. The head was hanging low and precisely at the height of the back of Lin Yan Ming's head. It turned its head, and the seven eyes irregularly arranged on its dark face stared deadly at the two humans in front of it. The same eerie, hoarse voice came out of its mouth, mechanically repeating.
"Uh ……"
Lin Yan Ming felt his hair standing straight, a mysterious chill running deep within his spinal cord. He had never seen such a creature all his life. And what was even more frightening was when his eyes fell on the neck of the magical creature. He swallowed hard.
一It was empty there.
There was no school collar, nothing.
Lin Yan Ming wasn't sure if it had broken free from its restraints or …… it wasn't one caught by the school at all?
Whichever it was, he couldn't help but feel creeped out. The creature swayed its slender body and flew closer quickly in a weird posture, the seven eyes on its face blinking at different frequencies. Its face split open into a huge mouth with a ring of sharp teeth flashing with cold light.
"Run!"
Lin Yan Ming shouted in panic, turning around and immediately pulled Shi An to escape.
"Run ……" "Run ……"
The creature behind them repeated Lin Yan Ming's words mechanically over and over again while chasing them. Lin Yan Ming was drenched in sweat, and all he could hear in his ears was the sound of his own rapid panting and the murmurs of the tail2 behind him. The darkness swallowed his sense of direction, making him feel as if he were running through a swamp with no end in sight.
Suddenly, sounds of footsteps came from all directions, and the exact same mechanical murmurs overlapped each other, echoing in his ears.
"Run ……" "Run ……" "Run ……" "Run ……"
Lin Yan Ming stopped abruptly. His pupils dilated, and his face turned white as a sheet, while beads of sweat slid down his cheeks. With the backup light source, he saw dozens of this slender strip of monster surrounding them from all directions. Each of those hanging, heavy head were staring at them intently, repeating two3 words: "Run."
But …… there's no way out.
Footnote:
2 Tail here refers to the monster. It’s tailing them like your own tail that you can’t get rid of no matter what.
3 Two here refer to the Chinese characters.
