"Stay in the formation. Without command, no one is allowed to break away from the formation." Alex's voice continued to sound through the PADS. To maximize the survivability they all took separate pod shuttles.

Adian was at the right corner of the rhombus formation. On his left was a shuttle carrying Elijah, whereas Levi was at the front.

Aiden took one last glance at the empty dark space before closing the small window of the pod shuttle.

"What was that?" It was only for a moment, and he was not sure what he had seen.

"What happened?" Alex replied first while others waited for an explanation from Aiden.

"I think a giant head at ten o'clock."

"Are you sure? We are tens of thousand kilometres above ground."

"It appeared only for a moment to peek before we plunged into the misty grey cloud." Even though he wasn't sure what it was, Aiden was aware of something mysterious being there.

Alex was about to scold him but the first response was from someone else.

"I have seen it too. I'm not sure whether it was head, or not. Yet it jumped." Lyla supported Aiden's words.

There was a long silence until Alex sighed. "Let's…"

"Unknown objects at 1 o'clock. 42 seconds until impact." Levi shouted as Owen added, "Horde of flying beast at 8 o'clock. Confirmed scan. It is 'Naked Raven.'"

As soon as he heard it, the system showed a picture at the side of his vision. A 2 meter tall beast with a wingspan of more than 10 meters. Below the giant raven head was a bare chest of a human. Wide black wings stretched out from the shoulders. its body was like a human being, but under its knees were black talons.

'What sort of mana poisoning has resulted in this kind of beast.' It wasn't Aiden's first time, but it was hard for him to believe.

"We should break," Lyla said, but Alex didn't respond.

"23 seconds from contact."

"31 seconds." After Owen, Levi added.

"Break up." Hearing Alex's scream, Aiden could not help but frown. "Elijah, Levi and Aiden. Land at point C. Rest of you will follow me. Stay there for ten hours and then meet us at Point F."

"What about Owen?" Levi shouted through the system.

'From when Levi is so worried about Owen? 'Aiden was confused, but he didn't ask.

"LEVI." Alex's voice grumbled again. "Follow the order. We're going to take care of him. Meet us within 24 hours."

"Roger, Captain." They broke out with everyone's confirmation.

Even though Levi was still unwilling, he led the drive, but…

All of a sudden, misty grey clouds cracked in front of their eyes. They could see the green below. But, what they saw at the next moment, sent shivers down their spine.

It's a skeleton. A skeleton of humans. A giant human skeleton, and it's still alive. His boney palm was flying towards them,  as it was trying to knock them out of the air.

"Nooooo" Levi's scream thundered through the system as he tried to steer clear from the incoming attack. It was not just him, even Elijah and Aiden were trying to dodge the attack.

Alas! It was too late and the palm was too big. Even before the system could sense the attack all the three pods were knocked out of the sky with a massive impact.

*************

*Tzzzzz*

The electrical shock spread from his neck as Aiden was forced to wake up in a coughing fit. The taste of iron in his mouth reminded him of his harsh reality.

'What was that? A live skeleton, huh?!" He couldn't believe it, even if he saw it with his own eyes, "Is that even possible?"

"PADS, search for anything that resembles that thing."

[No match found.] The robotic voice sounded in his mind, "Would you like to induct the data into the database?"

'There is no data! 'Aiden sighed before he confirmed it.

[Extracting evidence from memory... The host will feel nausea during extraction.]

As soon as the voice sounded, his stomach churned and he vomited air out of his empty stomach along with some residual blood.

[Successful extraction.] Aiden was already struggling to get air by the time the confirmation came. His weak body collapsed on the ground.

"Don't ever extract data from my memory," Aiden grumbled as he looked at the grey sky. 'Who recorded the previous data?'

He had already asked the question in the past. The professor replied that several robotic explorers had been sent to Earth. Although none of them survived more than twenty minutes, each time they could still send back one or two pictures of the new beast.

It took a moment to realize this, but he jumped back on his feet as soon as he did. "System, how many minutes have passed since I landed?"

[14:25.]

'If none of the robots had survived for more than 20 minutes, then...' And before he could think of the worst, it happened.

He could hear the noise in the distance, along with the sound of hooves that came running with it.

[21 seconds till contact. Confirm…] Aiden spared no effort to listen to the system's explanation.

'What am I supposed to do? Weapon?' Aiden turned to look at the messed up pod shuttle, 'No I should look for the medicine first.'

Before he could decide what to do, the timer turned 18 in the corner of his eyes, and the system added, [7 seconds till visual.]

'I have to leave.' But running is out of options. Aiden looked up. He was greeted by the giant trees, and he didn't dare to hesitate.

He crouched down to gather the wind mana around him. It was much easier to gather mana on Earth, but Aiden couldn't care less about it now. As soon as he jumped, the wind mana created a strong blast behind him, propelling him up into the air.

[Skill [Wind Gale] is activated. Mana used: 17. Remaining Mana: 42]

It was a high-grade skill so the mana expense was higher but Aiden couldn't be stingy now.

And most of all the skill was effective. With one jump he had reached 4 meters up into the tree but he wasn't satisfied. He used it again. Sending himself higher on the tree opposite of him and he used the skill once more.

[Skill [Wind Gale] is activated. Mana used: 17. Remaining Mana: 8]

By the time he reached a wide branch high above the ground, he had been struggling for a lung full of air.

Aiden had no idea whether it was due to injury or to the presence of excessive mana in the air. Perhaps it was just because he used mana too quickly that he had a hard time breathing.

Soon the timer had stopped at the edge of his vision as the forest became silent. Aiden wasn't sure whether or not there were insects in the forest, but he couldn't hear one now.

This is not a place with enough light. On top of that, most of the light was filtered out of the grey cloud. The place is shifting between dawn and night. There wasn't a moment out there that was bright enough to be called a 'day'.

The rustling continued in the dark east forest. Soon the darkness parted, and the system recognized the beast that had appeared.

[The vampire deer. Height between 3-4 meters. Antler could grow to more than 2 meters. It's bipedal...]

Aiden couldn't read the rest, as the low-frequency screech forced him to turn to the deer. Its body was covered with thick black hair, and the antlers were large enough to impel a human.

However, it was staring at the light that was blinking at the shuttle right now. His snout was wide open, exposing the sharp teeth along with the mouth. And the long tongue that came out of the mouth was the one that made a piercing cry.

If the camera on the shuttle did not send its feed to the system, Aiden would not have noticed the small mouth full of sharp teeth at the end of the long slithering tongue.

Another thing Aiden had observed was the stench. Looking at the beast, hissing beneath the tree, Aiden was certain that it was the source of the tree.

'How can the blood stench be so dominant? System, record it in your database.' Even in a situation like this, Aiden didn't forget about one of his missions. The more he contributes to the database, the more credit he earns on his return.

After recording enough of the data, the shuttle was silent. No matter how many times it had hissed, there was no response. It kept looking around, but it couldn't find the one it was looking for.

The blood that Aiden had vomited had already attracted his attention, and it was trying to find its source.

The slithering tongue was moving in the air as if it had a brain on its own. It was screeching in every direction, trying to find its prey. Then it turned back to the branch.

* Creeeee *

The sound of its screeching had changed. The eyes of the giant deer turned to the branch, too. It was for a moment, but in that single moment, Aiden felt the red ruby eyes piercing through his soul. He tried to hide, but it was too late.