A Villain's POV
Chapter 41: Compulsory Mission

Chapter 41: Compulsory Mission

Raze sat there trying to figure out what dream he had. It was like he had gotten some important revelation, but a few minutes after the game, he forgot it all.

"Hey, you finally up?" Joel spoke. He was seated near another tree, watching Raze.

"I thought you might have gone and gotten yourself killed by now," Raze said.

"No, I hid away, true, but later, when the wolf had not come to chase me, I figured I should check on you, and I saw you leaned against the tree and the wolf dead on the ground.

You managed to kill two rank-one beasts in one day. I’m still trying to wrap my head around that. It’s almost unbelievable," Joel said.

"It’s believable. You are just pretty weak, so you can’t do it," Raze said.

"I forget that you are an asshole at all times," Joel said.

"Save me the dumb talk. You ran off on two occasions, and even when you helped, you summoned all the courage for a lifetime to use at this very moment. That’s pathetic," Raze said.

"Don’t you get tired of attacking me at every turn?" Joel asked.

"When you make yourself useful to me, I’ll not attack you," Raze said. He pushed himself up and stood. He looked around—the wolves’ bodies were still on the ground.

"I don’t get it. How was I asleep, and no beast came this way for me? Normally, they would rush at the scent of blood immediately," Raze said, looking around.

Joel glanced at him when he said that—a short look, but his gaze seemed odd. He looked away after that and then spoke. "I guess we got lucky," he said.

"Luck? I don’t think we have good luck. If we did, two rank-one beasts would not have attacked us," Raze said.

"Maybe it’s you. You are the bad luck because whenever you are awake, they come for you, but the time when you slept, they didn’t come," Joel said.

"So what are you saying now? You calling me a beast magnet?" Raze asked. He looked at Joel with his brows raised.

"You are the one putting a name to what I said. I’m just saying," Joel said.

Raze noticed that Joel’s character was off a bit. He would not be this snappy on a normal day.

"Did you find your sharp mouth inside the forest?" Raze asked.

"Huh? Not really," Joel said and didn’t say anything more. Raze didn’t pay more attention to Joel again. He walked to the stream and washed his hands.

"We have to toss the bodies of all the wolves into the water, let them all flow downstream. We can’t leave them here," Raze said. "Or we could find a new spot near the stream. I feel that’s better."

Raze got up and started walking away. Joel let out a tired sigh and got up as well. The both of them walked deeper into the forest and then made a turn. They got to the stream far from their original position.

Raze sat down near the stream. He was still bothered by the fact that he had a dream that seemed important, yet he couldn’t remember what it was.

Unknown to Raze and Joel, a new beast had entered the location they had just left, drawn by the blood that was left on the ground.

The beast stood at ten feet tall. It cast a long shadow from the night moonlight. It growled at the sight of the dead wolves.

The beast was a bear-type beast, with brown fur so thick it looked like twigs on its back. It bent low and started sniffing around as if trying to find something, and after a while of sniffing, it let out a roar so loud it shook the trees around.

When Raze heard the roar from where he sat, the hairs on his body stood on edge. Joel was already on his feet, looking around for what caused that roar.

"Something is coming, and I am not sure this is something we can take," Raze said and got up.

"You mean it’s a rank two?" Joel asked.

"No, there are no rank twos in the forest, so either that is a rank-one peak being or a mutated rank-one beast. Either way, we don’t want to get caught up in whatever it is doing.

From the sound of that roar, it’s near, and I mean really near. We have to move," Raze said.

"We just got here. Are you sure it will come our way?" Joel asked.

"You see why you don’t have a chance at life? You seriously want to gamble your life on the chance that it will not come this way just because you are tired and lazy?

If you want to die, tell me. I’ll make it quick for you and use your body to distract whatever it is that made that roar," Raze said and started walking.

Boom! A loud explosive sound pulled their attention, and then they saw it headed their way—a massive monstrosity running through the forest and bashing through trees.

"Oh shit," Raze said and started running. He didn’t pay any mind to Joel. He didn’t care if he died. In fact, he would prefer if he died to distract that beast that was chasing them.

’All this is wrong. It’s wrong. This forest should not be this chaotic, even at night. The story never said anything about it being like this.

There was a massive movement of unranked beasts against the students, but not rank-one beasts. They only move when you are in their territory.

What is happening? It’s like something is changing the story, and it’s not for the better,’ Raze started thinking about the situation as he ran for his life.

He was still deep in thought until one mission came.

[Compulsory mission: Defeat the Earth Bear]

[Reward: You stay alive]

[Penalty: You die]

[Time frame: 1 hour]

"What the hell?" Raze screamed as he saw the mission that came up. What was the meaning of this?