With all I had, I ran to the river. The arrow still in my shoulder, its shaft jumping up and down, digging an ever-larger hole in my back. The armour I’d bought evidently wasn’t any good.

I stopped behind a tree, grabbed the tail of the arrow, ground my teeth, and pulled it out.

Thankfully, since the Mana Medic skill now had a higher proficiency, healing the wound didn’t dry me of mana.

I continued to run deeper in the forest, but the hooves of horses and the ha’s of knights approached at an alarming rate. I looked back; five horses were on my tail. A couple dozen gallops away from me the knights raised their swords, ready to strike me down. As I ran, I broke off branches, infused them with my rose vines, and threw them to the ground. Unfortunately, the horses jumped over them.

I could do as I did with the city gates and blow up a tree, impaling the horses and their riders were impaled by wood splinters where their metal and leather didn’t cover them.

I continued to run. The riders were only a few gallops away. I only had one option left. I created a long horizontal line of flames and launched it to the ground. The dead leaves and dried bushes caught fire. I did these three more times.

The war horses jumped through the first wall of flames, but confronted with the second and third they retreated, unable to know if more would await them.

I continued my mad dash. Finally, I reached the river. I ran up its path until I found the whirlpool in which I fell and lost my sword.

The knights had caught up with me. I looked up to the hole from which I fell. It wasn’t too high and vines, roots, and nearby trees could be climbed to get into it. The sword could wait.

I scaled the cliff’s edge and entered the hole in its wall. I was sure the knights saw me, so I crawled up the hole until I found myself in the bland room. There, two high human skeletons lay.

What used to be corpses were now skeletons. I continued down the hallway till I reached the entrance of the dungeon where the other sword should be, but it wasn’t there. I crawled up the other tunnel and reached the forest above. Trees swayed, birds chirped, and…hundreds of giant ants populated the surface. I popped my head down and dug my feet in the earth to hold myself near the surface. What the hell had happened?

I popped back up. The closest ant was only a few trees over but didn’t seem to have spotted me. Each ant occupied one oak tree. How could there be so many giant ants? How didn’t they notice me? Or at least, how could there be so many beasts gathered in one spot? I slid down the tunnel making as little noise as I could, but I couldn’t do much when pebbles and rocks slid down with me and hit the marble floor.

Thankfully, nothing came of it. I returned to the exit tunnel and controlled my slide down so as not to fall out. When I spotted the light of day, I pressed my feet in the dirt to stop and peeked outside. Four knights were there, talking about things I couldn’t hear.

I didn’t know what to do. For the time being I decided to wait for my mana to recover. It was at the two-fifths level and steadily grew by a point each half a breath.

#

My mana was at its halfway point when the earth above trembled. I climbed up the exit tunnel and into the former dungeon’s tunnel. An ant stood there, its antennaes twitched and turned. More shaking came from above. I infused a bit of mana in my sword and ran to the beast. It didn’t move. I stabbed it in its head.

You killed 1 giant ant, you gained 300 Exp.

LVL 10. 1405/2200

But it was too late. The earth rumbled. The ants were coming. I ran down the hallway one more time and slid down the exit without hesitation. Just as I was about to fly into the whirlpool I grabbed onto a root and dropped down on solid ground.

The knights drew their weapons. “It’s the cursed mage. Be ready to counter spells,” they said as I swung my sword from which a small flame shot out.

The knights raised a tall earth wall which cut their line sight on me. I had no choice. I dropped the cheap blade and jumped in the whirlpool. The current dragged me down, throwing my body against rocks and earth, but I kept my eyes open ready to snatch the red sword. When I hit the bottom of the pond, I searched through mud and earth till my hand felt metal. I grabbed it and pushed up with my feet. I tried my best to swim up, but, yet again, I got thrown into the river and found myself on the beach.

The knights were still looking around the whirlpool. Perhaps I could run, but I needed the experience points. Running wouldn’t do me any good; I didn’t know these woods too well.

I tried to get up, but my body ached. I used just enough mana to heal my wounds, which made running hard, and headed to the knights. I tried my best to stay low and near the river so that the running water might drown out the noise of my feet.

Then I had a better idea. I could use a rock instead of a branch as an explosive. It would be easier to throw and pack more of a punch.