[Petrification in: 10 seconds]
His eyes opened with terror and hopelessness. His heart was beating so hard it seemed to escape from his chest.
'What the hell!?'
His gaze moved through the forest, the bushes, and finally over the statues. 'Am I going to turn into one of them?… No, I can't!'
His hair stood on end at this thought.
He still vividly remembered each of their roars and murderous stares covered under the veil of night.
It was fine during the day when they remained static, but moving among those night terrors scared him more than anything else.
Worse still, the dense darkness of the dome was only going to make things worse.
[Petrification in: 4 seconds]
Seeing the countdown, his blood boiled in hopelessness.
'I have to hide!' He quickly fixed his eyes on one of the trees and started to run.
But in the next instant, his legs stayed in place and his body fell heavily onto the grass.
Then, he tried to move, but they no longer responded.
'What do I do? What do I do?'
But it was already too late.
[Petrification in: 0 seconds]
The last thing he saw was his companion in front of him with trembling tentacles touching his hands before everything turned dark.
——
His whole body felt heavy, the darkness wrapped him in a pleasant and warm embrace.
Suddenly, a creaking sound reached his ears, and his legs were freed. The cold brushed against his skin, then his hands with one of them he felt the soft touch of the grass and with the other, a strange wood rested on his palm.
His mind was awakening, still foggy and confused, as if he had just woken up from a long and deep sleep.
'Eh?'
Finally, his eyes were freed. In front of him, the trees and grass were barely visible, hidden behind a fog of darkness. The same darkness he had been running from all this time.
His eyes opened as he lifted his body. The rock fell from his body until it touched the ground and mysteriously disappeared.
His gaze went to his hand, which held a strange spear made from the wood of the trees with both tips mortally sharp. The confusion lasted a moment, then he gripped it tightly, fearing to lose it.
When he raised his gaze, the grotesque statues rose in the darkness. Yellow flashes appeared like terrifying ones in the darkness.
He stepped back two steps when one of them stopped at his figure.
'Damn it!'
Then he started to run as fast as he could.
In the background, the terrifying noises didn't take long to arrive, accompanied by dozens and dozens of hungry gazes that did nothing but fuel his run.
Matt was no longer bound by the weakness that hunger had imposed on him, therefore, for the first time, he could fully unleash all his energy.
His speed had exploded so drastically that it even surprised him and he almost fell in the process.
It was a pleasant surprise for Matt, especially now that he had to escape from the beasts once again.
However, this was far from being like the first time. This time, he was in the middle of the forest where the vegetation was dense, and the trees rose everywhere filling his vision with blind spots.
And what was worse, the deeper into the forest, the greater the number of creatures, which were already free from their petrification and had taken the sweet aroma of his flesh.
There was no speed that could save him, any hiding place was unthinkable, and any breath was impossible.
There was only room for hopelessness.
'I'm finished!' Cold sweat ran down his face.
When a gigantic snake jumped out from a bush interrupting his run. Its enormous jaws threatened to consume him in a single bite, with its sharp fangs free to tear through his bones.
Matt ducked as best he could and the snake went past, slamming its titanic head into the trunk of a nearby tree.
Fortunately, his speed wasn't the only thing that had improved all this time. His perception had also done so, allowing him to move through the dark forest and even detect several of the creatures before it was too late.
Unfortunately, he was still weak.
An instant later, the snake had already recovered, its gigantic eyes looked at him menacingly with its pupils dilated like a deep black stain in the middle of a yellow sea.
Their gazes met. His eyes shone with terror and anticipation, but also, perplexity.
'Great desert serpent…' He thought as all the information about its species ran through his mind.
Then clarity struck him and his mind entered a state of absolute understanding.
Every movement, every contracted muscle, angle, and position his perception embraced every detail no matter how small and his mind formed it into a detailed map that unveiled the next movement.
At that instant, the snake came forward with its enormous jaws open and in a deceptive move, slithered to the side.
The wind whistled and its gigantic tail moved like a powerful whip striking in his direction.
Matt used all his strength to jump, barely dodging and falling awkwardly to the ground.
When he recovered it was already too late.
The enormous jaws of the snake were already upon him, ready to close and crush him inside.
He barely managed to turn and stretch both hands. The gigantic mouth of the snake closed on the wood. Its sharp tips pierced into the upper and lower part of its jaw.
A stream of blood and saliva fell bathing his body in it.
His legs dug into the ground, his muscles roared and the wood creaked, anticipating its imminent destruction.
"Aaaargh!" He roared in pain. His muscles burned, threatening to give way at any moment.
The only thing that kept them firm was his fervent determination and his bones hardened by the system.
However, the wood that made up his spear did not have that advantage. With each moment, more cracks formed in it.
Until it finally exploded into a thousand pieces.
At that instant, when the enormous jaws were closing in on him, time seemed to stop.
His eyes closed, anticipating his harrowing end.
When suddenly, a huge beast fell from the sky crushing the gigantic head of the snake. A sea of blood exploded, staining everything around.
[Your weapon has been destroyed]
The system surprised him with a message that left him perplexed, but that he didn't have time to appreciate when he was sent flying until crashing against a tree.
Upon opening his eyes, he managed to glimpse the enormous creature.
A colossal-sized ape, with dark fur and an armor of rock that made up both its chest, muscular, and lower jaw rose over the corpse. A thunderous roar escaped from its mouth making the world tremble.
Blood dripped from its rocky fangs while it forcefully struck the rock armor that covered its chest.
Shortly after, a giant wolf with brown fur emerged from the darkness and tried to bite the ape, but was stopped by its hands with ease and crushed on the spot.
More wolves appeared in the darkness. Fortunately, their ire was fixed on the killer of their companion.
Matt took advantage of that instant to escape, without giving a single glance at the fierce battle unfolding behind him.