*Bamm*

The body of the man fell to the ground hard and on a weird angle, but Max didn't care at all as he immediately got his baton from his hip and rushed the downed man. He got above him as he started to pummel him with all his strength, but unfortunately those damned black arms coming out of his back were blocking everything.

"You insolent....

 This continued for three more second's before the other free hand of the cloaked man found an opening and hit him in the ribs, taking his breath away. "Ghaaaaa.....

What followed was a strong punch from one of the black arms even though he was on the ground. 

"Irritating pest, I've played with you long enough. It's time to end this...." said the cloaked figure as he was getting up, but his stride was cut short by an axe.

"That's correct..." was the only thing that was heard as the axe striked towards the head and was blocked by the black arms, but a second attack immediately came from behind the axe wielding dwarf as Gus jumped over the dwarf with bloodshot eyes and bulging muscles, only to bite the man on his neck.

*Crack Crack....

Sounds of bones being broken were heard, and foul blood drenched Gus's face and mouth , but he didn't let go. His rage and shame made him a primordial beast of anger as his 'Ferocity' skill was active. Of course the two black arms tried to defend the man , but they couldn't do much. With one last crunch the body of the man went limp, and that's when Gus finally let go.

"Hah..hash...hahh..."panted Gus as he was tired from this fight, but he still managed to get up and yell towards the sky in victory. It  was loud and could be heard from far away, but Gus didn't care as he had just killed his foe and the adrenaline was surging.

"........

"........

Max and the dwarf were to the side watching , and even though they knew that they shouldn't be drawing attention towards themselves, the didn't dare to stop the beast man from doing so, not while he was in that state at least.

.........

After one minute had passed Gus had stopped his victory cry and they were about to continue on their escape, but a chill passed through Max's and everyone's spine. In the  darkness, the still lit lantern that the man was holding had begun to shine more and more before it exploded in several pieces revealing a flaming red ball 3cm in diameter.  

"What...

"Grrrrrr.....

"Shit.....

Of course the three of them were startled by this, but what happened next was more terrifying. The ball begun giving an erie laughter making the  gritted their teeth, and prepared for the worst.

"Hihihi...hahahahaha.... what a marvelous sight! Escaping the jaws of death, relishing in the victory, to discover that it was only just a dream..... only to wake up to a nightmare. Such a marvelous sight, such a.....

"Raghh....

Without letting the voice finish, Gus rushed towards the red ball, shovel in hand ready the swing, but his momentum was completely stopped three meters from the ball as he suddenly stopped and fell to the ground. This of course freaked Max and the dwarf out, but they didn't know what to do. They couldn't see an attacker , and they didn't dare approach the red ball, so they waited, and waited, until the same thing happened to the dwarf. He fell to the ground face first, and Max left all alone.

"Hehe...hehehehe... what is the matter!? Aren't you going to try to escape....or are you going to fight? Either way you are going to die here,hihihehehehehhaha.....

Max look around himself and saw his two downed allies and felt completely defeated . He really wanted to run, but he was to tired to care anymore so in his last moments of life he pulled down his ragged pants and pointed to his dick with a big smile on his face."Come and suck it, bitch!"

"........

The enemy was left speechless for a second from Max's actions as he didn't know what to do, but he soon understood that Max wasn't going to play his game anymore. Without a single warning Max felt as if someone was pulling out all the organs in his torso. It was extremely excruciating as he immediately fell to the ground from the pain, but what surprised him more was the screaming he heard in his head. It sounded as if someone was being slaughtered before a raging inferno started burning him from the inside before he immediately curled up in a ball and passed out. Silence followed once again as the moonlight was now the only thing shining directly over their unmoving bodies.

...........

After an unknown amount of time Max hazily gained his consciousness, and a wrenching feeling of hunger almost drove him mad. Without even caring about his aching body he immediately rummaged the sack where he had put his stuff in and gobbled up two of the berries he had saved. Only then did his hunger subside a little bit, but he was still very weak.

"Uhhhhh..... that was quite a ride. Who would have thought that escaping would be such a bumpy road." said Max as he looked around himself to see his two allies still on the ground and the red ball nowhere to be seen. He released a sigh of relief at that realization, but he didn't have time and didn't want to know what had happened. He only knew that the sun was about to raise by looking at the sky so he didn't waste time and headed towards the other two.

He checked their breathing and found out that they were still unconscious, but fortunately we're alive. He didn't know why or how that was possible, but he knew that he needed them to successfully survive. He shook their bodies, slapped them in the face to try to wake them up, but they didn't. It seemed that something was preventing them from doing so.

'Fuck, now what?! Even if I escape from here I'm sure I'll get lost in this damned place without them. I may get lucky, but considering my luck in this world, it's better I don't rely on it. ' thought Max as he considered leaving alone and frowned ' These two don't seem to want to wake up anytime soon, but why? Even though I also seemed to have been knocked unconscious by something, I woke up, though I was hungry as hell though. Fortunately I had my enchanted berries......' 

"My berries!" yelled Max in joy and realization as he immediately got two of them from his sack, and put one in each of their mouths. It seemed like something stupid to do as a berry wasn't an elixir, but Max's luck didn't seem to have completely run out. About two minutes later Gus opened his eyes, quickly following by the dwarf.  Unsurprisingly they also were very hungry, even to the point where Gus was about to eat the corpse of the cloaked man, but after giving each of them one more berry they calmed down.

 This was a heart wrenching handout for Max as he had just spent the equivalent of two weeks of his life on these two, but he knew that he wouldn't get anywhere without them. He also hoped that they would feel indepted to him, and that they repay that dept as soon as possible.