'We're almost there' thought Fredrick as the bottom of the mountain came into view.
And at the bottom of the mountain, there was a particular cave, one very well hidden that even Fredrick would've missed it if it wasn't for the tamer slave he brought along and Ezra's plan.
'So, how do I go about it?' Fredrick asked himself as his eyes darted all over the place, quickly formulating a plan as he stole a glance at Rowan, who was chasing him with utmost fervor.
'That should work' Fredrick thought as he began putting his plans into action.
He began to reduce his speed, thereby letting Rowan close the gap and gain on him. After that, he took out a small sack of beast blood and poured it in his mouth while covering it.
Looking from afar, one would think Fredrick was trying to stop himself from coughing or regurgitating, especially when they see his cheeks swelling up a little. This was in fact the beast blood, and then-
*Blerghhh*
-he would suddenly puke out a lot of blood as he had been doing all the way here.
If Rowan's mind wasn't completely clouded with greed, he would've noticed the peculiarity of how Fredrick's face never grew pale or didn't even seem to be affected by the loss of so much blood.
At this point, Rowan had gotten within ten feet of Fredrick as they kept running and turning. A few more feet would allow Rowan's great sword to directly hit Fredrick.
And that was what he was counting on!
They had now arrived at the deepest part of the forest, a few minutes away from reaching the mountain's bottom-
'Yes, now there's nowhere left to run!' Rowan inwardly rejoiced because it meant the chase was about to come to an end.
-when Fredrick did something unexpected!
As if expecting it, which he was, Fredrick ran towards the tallest tree a dozen feet away from the mountain.
Rowan's eyes darted and his mind whirred as he tried to figure out the meaning of such an abrupt change in action. And it didn't take him long to figure out what Fredrick was about to do.
But when he did though-
'No you don't'
-his face morphed into an ugly scowl as he increased his speed to the max. He would never forgive himself if such a treasure escaped from his grasp, especially when he was so close.
What would a predator do when his prey, which was almost in his grasp, was about to get away?
Rowan's reaction was a prime example of this as he chased Fredrick with fervor and desperation. Fredrick 'managed' to keep the ten feet distance between them before running up the tallest tree, with Rowan right behind him, through a branch very close to the treetop, like an airplane about to take off, and jumping towards the mountain, intent on grabbing it.
Alas, Fredrick 'seemed' to have omitted the variable called Rowan Everdust from his calculations.
Given that Rowan was hot on Fredrick's heels, they both jumped off the same branch of the same tree within the interval of a few seconds. Rowan was right behind Fredrick and both were suspended in the air.
Using that chance, Rowan was able to close the gap between them while they were both falling.
Without hesitation, he unleashed his aura coated greatsword with the intent to kill and smashed into Fredrick from behind, blowing him away like a swathed fly right into the mountain.
*BOOOM*
The reverberation spread like an echo across the entirety of the forest.
The adventurers could only look from below as Fredrick's body smashed into the mountain at terrific speed and blew chunks of rocks all over the place.
The adventurers quickly moved to dodge the rocks heading their way.
In the midst of all this, neither Rowan nor the adventurers had seen Fredrick drop ten small vials containing a transparent liquid out of his spatial ring the moment before Rowan's sword hit him.
Rather, they couldn't have known considering the large chunks of rocks that were flying all over the place.
Even Rowan was hit by a few, which sent him flying back into the ground with a few injuries.
The rain of stones bounced all over the place, crushing more than a few beasts and injuring many more.
It lasted for two minutes, wrecking and breaking most of the nearby trees before it was over.
A deceitful silence permeated the air for two minutes before the sound of a rock was heard.
We see Rowan pushing a piece of rock bigger than him from on top of him to the side.
His majestic appearance was nowhere to be seen at this moment. His golden armor had dimmed tremendously with dust and dirt covering a large part of his body.
Nevertheless, the quality of the armor stayed true as it was tremendously dirty but sustained little damage.
Rowan looked at the scene around him as he found himself wondering.
'Am I this strong?'
It was a genuine question as he was the one who struck Fredrick into the mountain.
But even he doubted whether it was actually his power when he looked at the mountain, which now had a wide and deep crack at one side of its base.
But before he could go to the mountain to look for Fredrick's body - after all, there was no way any ordinary Expert Knight could survive such an attack, especially not one who relied on artifacts to increase in power - the cracked part of the mountain lit up with a dazzling blue light.
The next instant, blue particles rushed into the atmosphere, invigorating Rowan as he found himself regaining strength without any potion.
His mana was regenerating at a fast pace.
Such a development made Rowan's mind go blank for a few seconds, before going back to his senses as his heart began pounding like it would explode.
It wasn't pounding heavily out of anything else but excitement as Rowan's thoughts whirred at breakneck speeds as he thought…
'C-Could it be?!'
…!
The mere thought of it made Rowan shiver in excitement. If it was what he thought it was, and it seemed highly likely that it was what he thought it was, Rowan couldn't accurately fathom what would happen next!
Enough thinking. Since it was right in front of him, he only needed to check.
And so he moved with more fervor than before as he ran towards the cracked area of the mountain to ascertain his findings.
But before he could do so-
*BOOM*
-the ground shook and quacked, throwing the overly-excited Rowan off his feet.
Two adventurers died with rocks crushing them into the earth. They were simply unlucky.
The other twelve - with four spotting heavy injuries, three spotting light ones, and the rest being lucky enough to have stayed unscathed - quickly grabbed hold onto what remained of the devastated trees as they desperately tried to avoid the fate of the last two.
As this was happening, the adventurers spotted another group arriving at the scene.
Muscular men who stomped their feet into the ground to not get thrown off balance while holding trees for support.
The Red Wolf guilders had arrived.
But they weren't the only ones, far from it.
A little distance away from them was the adventure group Cabrera had implicated, who were then chased by some of the Red Wolf guilders.
All of them were now dirtied as they held onto trees.
Away from them were the nine members of the White Iron guild that had followed Cabrera's trail to seek revenge for the death of their guild mate, Arvin.
They were in an equally pitiful state, with most of them kicking off the rocks that fell on them.
Speaking of Cabrera, one would find him far closer to the mountain at this moment as he coughed out stone dust from his lungs. His already dirty clothes could now be said to be filthy.
Three dozen meters away from his location…
"AHH!"
The familiar figure of Motavu erupted from within the ground with his muscular body comparable to that of a gorilla now completely covered in dust.
He could not care for his appearance at his moment as his eyes darted all over the place, quickly pinpointing Cabrera's location.
'I've got you now' he thought, completely oblivious to the fact that mana was very rich in the atmosphere. Or maybe he just couldn't be bothered at this moment as he moved to catch Cabrera.
But before he could go far-
*BOOM*
-the ground shook once more, this time far more than the last.
With it, Motavu was thrown off balance and back into the ground as his head popped yet another vein.
It seemed even the earth was against him capturing Cabrera.
'Then I will defy the earth!' Motavu decided as he moved to get back on his feet.
But before he could do so…
*BOOM*
The quaking ground forced him back on the ground face flat.
'F*ck' Motavu couldn't help but curse it all.
And it seemed the earth heard his words, because…
*BOOOOM*
The ground quaked once more. This one was triple the first one as everyone, from beast to men to trees, everything was shaken off balance for a whole minute.
Rowan had also planted his feet into the ground after suffering a fate like Motavu's when he tried to get into the cave.
A minute passed and the shaking stopped once more but no one moved, allowing an eerie silence to permeate the atmosphere.
But it didn't last long.
Just as they feared, another tremor resounded.
*BOOOOM*
This sound was the same as the last, but the effects were not.
The mountain vibrated as if it were shivering, and from it, several chunks of stone, far bigger than those Fredrick broke off, fell to the ground.
*Boom*Boom*Boom*Boom*Boom*Boom*
The adventurers felt like crying.
What was this? They had come here chasing someone and now it was raining boulders all of a sudden.
Rowan ran with all his might, but not towards the mountains this time, no, he ran for cover as he feared for his life!
Cabrera ran into the cave opening Fredrick had told him about and barely managed to break through the entrance before a boulder landed in his former position.
Motavu wanted to chase after Cabrera, but even he knew when to stop.
After all, he could only take revenge if he was still alive.
Dead men tell no tales.
With such reasoning, he did the only thing he could. He dug into the ground like a mad dog and used a chunk of stone to shield himself from the falling stones.
The Red Wolf guilders, the adventure team and the nine members of White Iron quickly ran deeper into the forest as the range of the falling rocks now was far wider than the first.
All this happened simultaneously within the span of forty seconds, before the second shower of rocks rained down and once again devastated the already devastated forest.
But it didn't seem to be over yet.
Even in the wake of the current disaster, the hissing of a snake rang out. It was loud enough to echo across the forest.
-Within a cave that glittered and shimmered in blue light-
Fredrick smiled at the sound of hissing.
'It's here'
Yes! It had arrived, the final piece that was needed to begin the final act of this spectacular show.
The challenger had arrived.
The final battle would soon commence.
Fredrick grinned as he thought of this.
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