He quickly grabbed her waist with one hand to stop her from running ahead and put another on her mouth preventing her from making any sound.
"Mmff..." Leticia was startled being grabbed by him so suddenly and let out some muffled sounds.
"Quiet! There is a beast near the waterfall." Max warned in a low voice.
They were around two hundred meters away from the waterfall. Although they couldn't see it because there were many tall and thick trees blocking their sight, Max could still hear another sound of some animal drinking water apart from the sound of water falling thanks to his hightened senses and his cautious nature.
Hearing this Leticia held her breath and stopped making any sound.
*Snarl*
"Fuck!" Max cursed when he heard the beast snarling in their direction. He knew that they have been discovered.
He quickly carried Leticia in his arms and ran in opposite direction.
"Ah..." Leticia cried out at his sudden action. However, seeing his serious expression, she didn't say anything.
By now everyone in their group knew that he possessed extraordinary senses and could tell if there was any danger around them.
*Whoosh*
When he had ran only fifty meters away, he heard a whooshing sound behind them. The beast started chasing them and he could tell that it was faster than him.
"Damn it! It's a agility type beast." Max cursed. If it was any other type of beast, he was sure that they could escape. However, encountering a agility type beast, they were doomed.
When Leticia heard this, she was frightened out of her wits and grabbed him tightly, wishing that he would run faster.
*Snarl!*
Whoosh whoosh!
The snarling of the beast gradually seemed to come closer and closer and now she could also hear something running behind them.
Max didn't have time to look back to see what kind of beast it was but Leticia who was being carried was free.
She peeked behind them and saw a fiery red furred wolf that had a horn in the middle of its forehead.
Seeing that she looking at it, the wolf increased its speed. In less than a minute, it was around 70-80 meter away from them. Its murderous aura swept over them.
"A-A fiery wolf." Leticia felt chills running down her spine after identifying the beast. It was one of the stronger agility type Two-star beasts and would not let its prey escape easily.
"M-Max it's a fiery wolf. It won't let us escape. Let's go towards Belén and others. May-Maybe we can fight this beast off together." She suggested while stuttering in fear.
Max frowned but didn't say anything. This idea also crossed his mind but he instantly discarded it since he would only kill them if he brought this beast there.
People feared agility type beasts not because of their strength but because of their speed which made it hard to predict their movements.
Even if peak two star mage encountered a initial stage two star agility type beast, it was very different to kill it because he couldn't land his attack on it while the beast could easily chip away the mage's strength and gradually inflict more injuries killing him.
And if it was stronger than an initial stage Two-star beast, the chances of survival would plummet even further even if someone was in group.
Unfortunately for them, this wolf was also stronger than an initial stage Two-star beast.
*Inhale*
Max inhaled a deep breath and opened his status screen and increased his agility by 20 stat points.
Although he knew that it would cause some backlash in this situation, he had to do it for the sake of survival.
[Agility: 70]
Right after increasing his agility, his running speed became much faster. However,
'Ahh...' The veins in his legs bulged and a sharp pain coursed through his body and he almost staggered.
After running for a few tens meters, his veins burst and started bleeding. Despite that, he didn't dare to lower his running speed.
After running for a few minutes, he could feel that the beast was no longer able to shorten the distance between them and his high vitality had also started healing his leg injuries.
*Phew*
'I'm glad I didn't spend my LPs yesterday or I would've died now.' He exhaled and sighed in relief.
'However, I can't keep running since my stamina is depleting faster now. I need to think of some way to lose it.' He thought.
After running at his limits, his stamina started decreasing quickly and his breathing became faster. Sweat drops also started to form on his forehead.
He looked down at Leticia in his arms. She had closed her eyes in fear. He knew that she couldn't help him in this situation.
He sighed and increased his intelligence by twenty points.
He chose to improve his intelligence attribute because that would improve his senses which he needed right now.
Although he had enough LPs to increase his mana by another 3000 points, they wouldn't help him in this situation.
A cool sensation entered his mind which made his head buzz for a few second before returning to normal. He could feel that all of his senses were sharper than before. He could even hear the breathing of the beast behind them.
He focused his mind and found out that it was still 80 meters away from them. If he stopped to attack it, it will take the beast only one or two second before it would reach and kill them.
Guessing its running path and speed, Max took a deep breath
"Haah..." With a low shout he conjured [Death rain] at its maximum capacity expanding 1000 mana points and exhausted another 500 more mana points to hasten the casting speed.
*Shua*
More than seventy fire arrows, more than one meter in length appeared above him just in a second, pointing towards the beast behind them.
His face paled slightly after suddenly losing more than one-third of his mana. However, he didn't hesitate and expanded 200 more mana points to make their speed faster and shot them at the wolf.
Although this sudden burst would cause his stamina to be consumed faster, he wanted to take it off guard. If he didn't do this, the wolf can easily dodge the attack, wasting his mana and stamina in vain.
*Snarl*
The moment, fire arrows materialised above him, wolf had noticed them and snarled in disdain. It twisted its body and forcibly changed its running trajectory to dodge them.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Pak! Pak! Pak! Pak!
The arrows which were originally fast, had their speed doubled after the injection of 200 extra mana points and fired at the beast. No matter how agile it was, it couldn't dodge all of the arrows and around twenty arrows still struck it body, piercing its skin.
"Wooo..." The beast cried in pain. Hearing it cry, Max became ecstatic but didn't relax and instead, increased his speed at its Maximum.
He knew that his attack could only buy him only a few seconds, after which the beast would put its all in chasing them in anger.
*Snarl*
Just as he expected, after being injured by his attack, the beast beast grew furious and snarled loudly. It once again chased after them faster than before.
However, in these few seconds, Max had gone more than three hundred meters away in the forest, out of its sight.
...
Even after losing it, Max didn't stop running. After running at his full speed that exceeded a Two-star realm mage's top speed, of course not of wind elemental mages, he arrived in a small valley.
A small stream of clear water was flowing in the middle. There weren't any big trees, only some small bushes. On both sides of the stream were many big and small sized rocks of various shapes.
Moreover, there wasn't a single beast in sight, which was not normal in this beast rich mountain and it made him frown him a little.
Leticia had calmed down by now. Seeing the valley devoid of any vegetation, she exclaimed "It just like the area where we trained, only with the addition of this stream and a much more beautiful scenery."
Seeing that she had calmed down quite a bit, Max sighed in relief and put her down. His stamina had fallen below twenty points and he needed to rest now.
"Let's find a safe place to rest for a while." Max said and walked cautiously while scanning the area.
He quickly noticed some small holes that were around two feet in diameter. However, there wasn't any sign of a beast in them.
Even after walking around them for a while, no beast came out which made him sigh in relief.
He then noticed a naturally formed caved in the hill far from the holes, and in case any beast came out, they would be able to make a run for it.
He led her there to rest. Taking out a bedsheet from his inventory, he spread it on the ground and lay down while pulling her down by his side.
"This mountain is too dangerous. I wonder how many disciples would die here." Leticia said in a trembling voice.
