Chapter 161: How To Describe 'Screwed'?

*SCREECH*

It was fast and Lee barely saw it coming from the side. He couldn't see it clearly, but his mind yelled that it was something dangerous.

The footing was uneven, but Lee managed to jump. But because the stability was poor, he couldn't acquire the necessary acceleration. Thus his left leg's heel was hit by something which Lee evaluated to be an iron rod. It was that painful!

The object had only brushed past his heel, and Lee spinned in mid-air and fell on his back losing balance. Before he could jump up and figure what the hell it was, a club came and hit his cheek with so much strength that he rolled back in the received force.

'Bloody hell.'

Lee became enraged. He was fuming with anger as he was being thrown away like a doll. He immediately got up on his feet, and without wasting a fraction of a second, he leaped up high. What he saw from about 10 metres height, made him ask himself-

"How am I supposed to defeat them all?"

His surprise was not groundless. There were Glass Scorpions, Goblins, Giant Rodents, Sabertooth Bugs, Stone Snakes, Poison-spot Hornets, Purple Weavers, Six-legged Jaguars, Bloodwood Chimeras and many more. He could only spot a very few species among them within the short timeframe, but he now has a statement to describe his situation - Screwed!!

The build of Glass Scorpions were not easily forgettable for him. He had fought an adult scorpion before. But the smaller build of the Glass Scorpions on the floor dictated the immature offsprings of a ferocious parent. It was one of the seven little glass scorpions that whipped at him, which in turn hit his heel and made him fall after a mid-air stunt.

The short and stock shape of the club in the hands of the goblins gave him a hint about the culprit behind the strike he received on his face. His eyes also spotted the Poison-spot Hornets homing in on him. He became aware that neither land nor air was safe for him. His only chance was to fight, or flight.

A Six-legged Jaguar pounced on him as he was descending, but Lee carefully tackled the incoming beast and made it his cushion to pacify the touchdown. His knees immersed into the beast's underbelly as his hands spread out its fore and hind limbs. The impact was greatly reduced and the jaguar immediately sprang on its feet and then threw its claw at Lee.

By his time, Lee had rolled forward and was sweeping Sabertooth Bugs around with his feet. The unusually sharp and slightly large teeth of the bugs, when compared to their one and a half inch size, were catalogued as poisonous. The jaguar had to reconsider the consequences and abruptly retreated when it saw the bugs flying at it.

Stone snakes, as the name says, had an outer layer made up of mineral deposits. They vary in colours which indicate the mineral substance on its skin, and are omnivorous, normally. The majority of shades of red Lee saw when he was airborne, pointed out that there are more snakes with iron content on their scales.

The disorienting noise made by the Stone Snakes when crawling at Lee greatly reduced his auditory perception. The presence of Giant Rodents that reach more than a metre length, stacked the level of difficulty with the snakes. The nimble four-legged animals had a conflict with the snakes, in order to secure their food source.

Lee began to use the walls as a means to evade from cornering, but that method proved ineffective because of the Purple Weavers. Those were a special type of spiders which can produce webs from the abdomen, as well as spit from their mouth. Their purple coloured webs were extremely sticky and deliver a burning sensation when came in contact with skin. They had the walls as their territory, and Lee learned a lesson as his legs received the burn when touched by a strand of web.

Lee had no safe spots on the land, as he dodged the strikes and blows by a hair's breadth. He soon began to show signs of tiredness, and confirmed that the beasts hunting him were not ready to leave him alone.

Two options were in front of Lee. One was to dive into the water which may or may not be safe, and the second was to enter that path among the four, which all the beasts purposefully avoided. Lee was intrigued by this detail as he saw that one among the lower pair of caves were intentionally avoided by all the beings. He also noticed that no beast exited that particular cave.

*puchik*

A jaguar bit the calf of his right leg, and Lee brought down his fist and broke the beast's skull. Anger and pain had fuelled him for that single instant, when he successfully knocked out the being. The smell of blood immediately spread across the area.

Analysing that no beast around him has an aquatic adaptation, Lee sprinted towards the pond. Drifting over the short grasses, he leaped forward with the stinging wound in his leg. As he got closer to the pond, the beast began to decelerate. Lee noticed this change, and also came down to a halt as he reached close to the waterbody.

Reluctance and fear was visible in the eyes of the Six-legged Jaguars as Lee stared into its eyes. The rodents tried to get near the area, but unconsciously stepped back in fear. Stone Snakes and Glass Scorpions advanced forward, despite the lingering sense of an unrivalled threat, and wanted to retreat. Lee found that the beasts are hell-bent to have him, and dived into the water, and disappeared.

=+=+=

19 HOURS TO COMPLETION.

=+=+=

The surface of the water calmed down quicker than usual, within seconds. The pale green colour of the liquid was also unique. As the beasts eagerly waited for Lee to surface as a half-eaten corpse with decoration of blood, their expectations did not bore fruit. But a completely different event occured!