A Cold-Blooded POV

It has become unbearably peaceful, most rejoice and celebrates such prosperity, yet I am unable to enjoy such blissful days. Being stuck in a research room has led me to discover many things I wish I hadn\'t.

I fear for whatever the Labyrinths and Dungeons have planned for destiny, humanity may not be spared.

Excerpt from \'Agenda of ???\'. Page 4. By Milton the Heretic

***

Hiss!

The hiss bounced off the walls of the cave. Ethoss pinpointed where the hiss was coming from, the echo was traveling from one of the other tunnels that lead to his cave.

He had always wondered where the other two tunnels that his mother created led, yet, he felt he wasn\'t strong enough to enter any of them, which is why he continued to only go to the forest expanse.

However, the aura that crept from the middle tunnel was dense and with each step, the monster took it grew more and more overwhelming.

Ethoss\'s instinct and mind were at odds with each other. His instinct told him to guard his territory no matter if the invader was strong, yet, his mind was telling him to run.

It was like an unscratchable itch; a war within his psyche. It was in his species\' nature to stand guard and fight to the death no matter what disadvantages he had.

Yet, logically, he knew that if he fought this monster it would inevitably result in a useless death. He could easily flee today and come back to fight another day when he was stronger. These thoughts plagued his mind, like a tug-of-war game.

Hiss!

The dense aura enter its all-time high and Ethoss instantly felt like submitting himself to whatever was entering his cave. It was now or never, he had to choose, whether to fight and die or flee to live another day.

He looked towards the three cave exits and activated his Camouflage skill, he made sure to press himself against the wall as hard as he could, he couldn\'t allow the creature to spot him.

Entering the cave\'s domain, a large blue scaly claw appeared, then another. The monster was some sort of reptile, however, Ethoss could tell that it wasn\'t related to him in any way.

Its scales were a deep ocean blue with purple stripes that slanted across its back. Purple spikes adorned the reptile\'s back-spine area, leading down to its tail.

The reptile looked amphibious like it belong in the water, it obviously wasn\'t born to live up in the forest expanse, but it could walk on land just as fine.

It entered the cave flicking its tongue. Ethoss stood perfectly still, blending with the same walls, his heart being the only thing that jumped. The reptile was near 3x the size as himself.

It looked around the cave with observant eyes then moved in deeper. As soon as it passed Ethoss he began to slowly move toward the exit, he couldn\'t stay in here any longer, the aura and killing intent the reptile was carrying with it was drowning him. Any more and he would definitely succumb to his instincts.

As stealthily as he could, he moved closer to the exit. His goal was to sneak out of the cave unnoticed by the giant reptile, he would then work towards getting strong enough to keep his territory safe.

Just as he was about to get in a range where he could dash out of the cave completely, suddenly, a blue claw crashed down in front of him narrowly missing his snout. It cut clean through the cave walls.

The reptile repeatedly licked the air, Ethoss finally remembered, this monster was a reptile-like him which meant that it must also have the ability to taste scents in the air.

Not to mention, the reptile is highly evolved, even higher than the blue tiger, its sense of smell was probably mutated much more than his. This meant that it would probably be able pinpoint his location if given enough time to.

Ethoss eyes grew wide, he couldn\'t wait anymore, he had to make a run for it. As soon the reptile went claw at another section of the wall close to himself Ethoss took off, with his Camouflage subconsciously deactivating. The reptile immediately eyed Ethoss and followed right behind him.

Ethoss activated his dash skill, gaining even more speed, however, the giant reptile was right behind him, not losing any distance between them. The cave was narrow, it wasn\'t a lot of space to shake the monster.

Chomp!

Feeling an electrifying pain in its rear end, he glanced back. His tail had been bitten off completely! The giant reptile chewed the green tail gluttonously and blood fell from the corner of its mouth. Ethoss hissed in pain, however, he continued to run. If he stopped running he would be killed and eaten immediately.

He finally entered the forest expanse after a couple of seconds and the giant reptile still hadn\'t gotten tired or stopped chasing him. He began using the trees to slow it down, he jumped on a tree and climbed it. However, the reptile simply swung its tail, breaking the bark.

Ethoss hissed in annoyance. Why was this reptile so obsessed with him? Even he could sense other monsters that would be way easier for the reptile to hunt, so why was it only chasing after him?

He dashed again jumping onto another tree branch and kept running to hop onto the next.

[Dash has reached level 5, upgrade available]

[Would you like to improve Dash to Rapid Dash? This will cost 1sp]

The metallic words echoed in his mind. He confirmed instantly, the upgrade came at such a vital time and he would not pass up the chance to get even faster and put more distance between him and the giant reptile. Immediately after the upgrade was made his speed boosted dramatically.

He ran jumping from tree to tree while the reptile followed behind knocking down tree after tree, leaving destruction in its trail. Soon after a familiar scent entered Ethoss\'s taste buds.

The sweet and soothing scent was the same scent he sensed when he fought the tiger, it was the lake. He changed his trajectory, moving to the lake.

The reptile seemed confused about why he made such a weird change of routes, however, it seemed even more determined to get Ethoss in its jaws. If one looked close enough one could see the hatred deep in its eyes, as if it had already encountered Ethoss once before.

Ethoss quickly made it to the lake with the help of his new speed, he jumped off of the branch landing directly in the lake. As the reptile came into view, coming from behind the bushes it saw the lake. It had been focusing on Ethoss so much so that it hadn\'t even realized the smell of the lake.

Ethoss looked at the reptile and then glanced at the surrounding monsters around the lake. He had seen before that no monsters would attack each other as long as it was around this lake so he chose to come here to test his theory. Would the reptile break the unspoken treaty or will it give up and leave?

The reptile glared daggers at Ethoss, it was obvious that it wanted to tear him limb from limb, and yet, it never moved from its spot.

It looked around at the other monsters that had been eyeing it for making such a dramatic entrance, the reptile could easily deal with such low-tier monsters however, attacking would mean breaking the serenity of the lake. It hissed lowly, then turned around giving up on attacking, and retreated back toward the cave.

Ethoss watched as the monster left silently without making a fuss. He was honestly shocked at the reptile\'s actions, he expected to have to run from this lake as well, however, there really was some sort of peace treaty at this lake.

Ethoss felt a complex feeling he hadn\'t felt before, the seed of inferiority planted itself in his heart, and he didn\'t like it at all.

Soon his adrenaline vanquished and exhaustion took its place, his rear end was also still hurting from his tail being bitten off.

But the lake water wasn\'t red from his blood, instead, it seemed like as blood entered the water it would purify itself immediately. He could also feel an itch that was building in his rear end. What was happening?