Chapter 17: Chapter-17: Cataclysm-5

As soon as Dave got on the horse and pulled his reins, the horse started running at full speed. And when he was riding the horse toward the horde of monsters, he started to think that maybe he didn't think this through…

Thanks to a rich customer of his back when used to sell weed, he had the experience of riding horses. The customer’s dad used to breed horses for races. Thus he had ridden all sorts of horses when he was a teenager. But the difference between those horses and this one is that those horses used to have saddles and leather seats on their back. And those things helped a lot in riding.

But this horse didn't have anything on his back nor did he have any sort of support for his legs, which was making him ride very hard. But the horse did help in getting the job done. With its speed, Dave was able to gather the attention of monsters thus shifting them from their current path…

With monsters at his back, Dave started leading them in another direction far away from his friends. While riding, he started appreciating the horse more and more as this thing had a lot of stamina and was perfectly keeping up with his running requirements.

After running for a few minutes, he started noticing that fatigue was catching up to the horse. He was slowing down. He then looked back and saw that big monsters like the giants and porcupines were not following him anymore. Seeing this he hoped that they hadn't gone in the direction of his friends. While small monsters like wolves which were being ridden by green color humanoid figures were now chasing him. And they seem to be getting closer to him.

Looking at the situation, he knew that he had to formulate a plan and fast. It was then he started looking around and saw that there was a patch of land in some distance, and that patch had a lot of dense vegetation of trees. From where he was, the trees looked very dense. And in the darkness under the canopy of trees would give him a higher chance to get rid of those monsters at his back.

Thus he instantly changed his direction and started making his way toward the trees. His horse was slowing down every second, but Dave still pushed him as hard as he can. While running towards the tree line, he then remembered a scene from the old action movies that he once watched. In that movie, the protagonist gets stuck in a similar situation that he was in.

So when the protagonist gets near a patch of land such as the one in front of him, he jumps on the branches of the tree and leaves the horse running. The running horse then creates a distraction and lures away the enemies far away from him. Remembering the scene, he started to think that he should try the same maneuver. But the problem was that he was having doubts about whether he would be able to pull it off or not.

Dave in no sense was an athletic man. He was a little bit muscular because of his work in storehouses in the past. But still, he didn't have enough muscle power to pull himself up a tree branch or even perform a pull-up. Thus he was having doubts. But it was then he remembered that when he killed the giant porcupine, he got 5 stat points that he never used.

Thus as fast as he could call his status window and then opened his stat window. And then invested all of his stat points in his strength…

And as soon as he got into the line of trees, he saw one of the trees had a fat branch on it which he could grab. So when he got near the tree, he instantly jumped up while taking the support of the horse and grabbed the tree branch. And the increase in his strength stat gave him enough boast in strength that he was able to pull himself up the branch.

As soon as he got up, he saw that his horse ran straight deeper into the tree line. He then summoned his sword from his inventory and waited. And soon enough small humanoid figures riding wolves entered the tree lines and they all followed the fleeing horse deeper into the tree line.

He stayed there for a good 10 min or so to make sure that those guys have left. And only after he was sure that he was safe, Dave finally came down. Now alone in a dark tree line, he started thinking about what he should do.

There were 2 options in front of him. He could either stay here or make some distance between himself and this patch of land. If he goes back to the grasslands, then there was a chance that any monster could spot out in the open and attack him. But if he stays here then there was a chance that those creatures riding the wolves could come back to look for him. And he doesn't know whether he was up for a fight or not…

After thinking for another minute, he decided that he would stay here for the time being. This way he would be hidden from the majority of big monsters out there which he was sure could kill him within seconds.

As he made his decision he brought out his shield and started going deeper into the tree line. He wanted to scout the area to see whether there are any monsters in there or not. And he was grateful that he did it. As he made his way deeper into the tree line, he was assaulted with a smell. A smell that he was familiar with. The smell of blood.

He raised his sword and put up his shield and started making his way toward the smell. He wanted to see where was the smell coming from. There was a chance that there was no monster around here and the smell was just coming from the dead body of an old animal. But alas, he was wrong…

From the smell he could tell that beyond the fat tree in front of him was the source of the smell. He crouched down and slowly started making his way toward the tree. There were old leaves on the ground which when stepped upon could alert any monster around him. Thus he was extra careful when making his way toward the tree.

As he got to the tree, he slowly peeked beyond the tree. And when he did, he was shocked as there was nothing beyond the tree. There was a small clearing just beyond the tree from which the moonlight was making its way through the canopy of dense trees. But other than he could spot anything. So he instantly got up and walked into the clearing. And sure enough, he soon saw what was the source of the smell.

There was a huge amount of blood spread all around the clearing. Most of it had steeped in the ground, but still, there were small puddles of blood all around the clearing. Seeing the amount of blood, he crouched down and inspected one of the puddles.

The puddle looked like it was made of a red glob. But upon steering it with his sword, he saw that the whole puddle was made not made of red glob, instead, there was a thin layer of red glob formed on it. Seeing this he started sweating profusely and instantly got up. He put on his sword and started looking around wearily…

Blood is a miraculous liquid. It helps humans and other creatures seal their wounds. It helps in sealing as blood has a very interesting property. When it is exposed to air, it starts drying up. And after it had fully dried up, it seals the wound.

The thin glob was the proof that the blood had been there for some time. But when he stirred the puddle he saw that most of the liquid hadn't solidified yet. And there was only a thin layer of the red glob in the puddle. Which meant that this blood was not as old as he previously thought.

Now alone in the clearing, Dave started cursing himself. Staying here was the dumbest idea that he had. He should have made some distance between himself and this land when he had a chance. Now he was stuck here.

While looking around him, he was getting worried that he wasn't able to see much. There was some light in the clearing, but beyond that, he could not see anything. He looked around and saw that he was surrounded by darkness and there was apparently no way out.

He started looking around him wearily as he wanted to see whether he could see some silhouette of a monster or anything around him. But sure enough, he couldn't. As he could not spot anything he started to think that he may be wrong. After all his information about the blood and its properties comes from survival shows that he used to binge-watch on Earth. And as he started to doubt his knowledge, it was then he heard it…

CRACK

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It was the sound of leaves cracking. Someone was here. He then started looking in the direction where he heard the crack from. But it was then he heard it again.

CRACK

But this time he heard the noise from his back. He instantly turned around. And still, he was greeted with darkness and nothing else. He then heard another one.

CRACK

But this time, the sound came from his right. He turn there but he could not see anything. And then hell was sent loose. He started hearing cracking noises from random directions. He was surrounded by multiple creatures or humans from all directions.

Seeing that he had been surrounded, Dave started sweating more heavily. He didn't know what had surrounded him and what he could do to get out of this situation. It was then he heard it…

ROAR!!!

When Dave heard the roar, he damn near pissed himself. It sounded terrifying. But the most terrifying thing about the roar was that, after it had sounded, the land was once more engulfed in pin-drop silence. No more sounds of the crackling of dried leave reverberated around him. And it was only after a second or so, he started hearing something terrifying…

GRRRR

It sounded like a slow growl of a dog. And then he heard the sound of branches crackling. But the sound came from above the ground level, from the tree line. And before he could spot or see anything something landed in the clearing, in front of him. It was then Dave saw the thing that had been terrifying till now.

It was a humanoid beast. It had grey fur covering all of its body. For hands, this thing had claws while this creature's hind limbs were shaped similarly to that of a dog. But the paws of the creature were big enough that it could stand on its two hind limbs. The thing is exactly like a werewolf that he saw in a movie once. But unlike a werewolf, this creature had a human-like face.

It had big black eyes. While there were two long slits for its nose. It had a rather big mouth with strong, sharp, and pointy teeth which were covered in blood with his front paws.

As Dave saw the creature and sense the blood lust in his eyes, he felt like crying. He was scared. He wanted to run away but in the back of his mind, he knew that he was surrounded and there was no way that he would be able to run away.

It was then the creature leaped at him and tried to scratch him with his paws. Luckily Dave’s reflexes kicked in time and blocked the blow with his shield. Sparks flew out as the shield was scratched by the creature’s claws.

The creature was very aggressive, as it saw that his attack before was nullified, he used its other claw to scratch him. It was an instinct or maybe it was reflex, but before the creature's other claw could make its way to Dave’s shield, he swung his sword towards him…

When Dave first came to this world, he tried using his sword. He tried to swing and saw that it was pretty heavy and it would take a lot of time to get used to the sword. But now as he swung it, the sword felt very light. In fact, it could be said that it felt too light.

And as soon as his sword touch the creature's skin, it cut through it like it was melted butter.

GRRR!!!

The creature growled and stepped back as it felt the big cut on his torso. The cut was big and seeing the cut made by him, Dave got a pretty big confidence boost. He realized that maybe investing all of his stat points in his strength had given him a very significant boost.

When the creature was angered by the cut. He started taking a few steps back. Seeing this, Dave thought that the creature was retreating. But he was wrong.

After taking a few steps back, the creature got on his four and came at him with great speed. As it came closer, it jumped on him. Dave was startled by his move. So he raised his shield in the creature's trajectory in the hope to block its attack. And he was successful in blocking the creature’s attack.

But the momentum from which the creature came at him was too much for him. The momentum forced him to fall back. But while falling, Dave had an idea. He immediately thrust his sword forward, toward the creature's stomach.

And sure enough, while falling he was able to feel the blow landing sucessfully. But the creature didn't die with the blow. As they fell to the ground, the creature started struggling and waving his arms and legs around. While Dave tried to push away the creature. And it took only a few seconds before the creature stopped struggling.

It was then, Dave pushed its body away from him and got up. He instantly pulled out his sword and looked around. The tree line was engaged in silence once again. But it was then slowly three more creatures came from the darkness and started growling at Dave.

Seeing this, he just cursed his bad luck. He then got into stance and started thinking about a plan on how to handle the situation.

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