I upped my pace, Crudia already making distance between us, her fuzzy fur reflecting the sunlight as her feet hit the ground twice as fast as mine. What I’d give for her speed sometimes.

  The alabaster-white snake-dragon was far away, but he’d close the distance soon, and the city Mark set us in was still nowhere to be seen. A thick mist obstructed my view, like steam from a hot shower filling the bathroom. Wherever the city was, the map was not showing it yet either.

  “Can you run faster? A skill?” Mark shouted from behind.

  “I’m doing my best!” I retorted, gasping for breath. The passive, [Sprinter], was pulling some weight here, but it wasn’t enough to outrun the weird sky snake. Dash was one of my best skills overall, but it would not help me gain that much distance.

  Surely I could outrun it even without skills, though! The thought of maybe attempting to fight it, to deter it from attacking me, flashed through my mind. Maybe if I could [Analyze] the thing, I’d know better.

  I took a look back, and I couldn’t stop shivering at the sight.

  Already, it was coming closer at a terrifying speed, each flap of its building-sized ‘fins’ bringing it that much closer. Its sleek body, slightly less inflated now, continued descending from the sky, its giant maw in full display. The teeth, serrated and visibly sharp, must have been as big as some of the city buildings from before!

  Yeah, not fighting that yet! Maybe if I had Xila’s wings, but I hadn’t selected an evolution yet, putting that option out of the table. How embarrassing, having to run from an enemy.

  “We’re not gonna make it!” Mark shouted, switching between looking at me and the beast behind. Crudia was already sprinting further up, gaining more distance from me with each step. As if sensing my gaze, she looked back, her expression turning into panic.

  I saw her slow down, probably waiting for me to catch up. Mark’s warning was correct. I’d not outrun it. Time to change tactics.

  “Don’t slow donw! I’ll catch up!” I barked, praying she’d listen. Her face went through several states. Confusion. Anger. But finally, acceptance. She regained the speed, and the distance between us continued increasing once again.

  In the distance, the mist started disappearing into a shape of a city. Ebony-black walls surrounded a city with tall, needle-like buildings, spearing into the sky as if reaching for something there. A shimmering glow in the shape of a globe surrounded the city a small distance out, hexagonal shapes refracting the beams of sunlight into the colors of the rainbow, which in turn, shone on the weird desert-cloud combination on the inner city of the barrier.

  The cold air battered my skin, making me reminisce about my first night on the first stage. How similar in some aspects. But the wolf was beatable. I wasn’t so sure about this one.

  “Mark, I won’t outrun it. Any ideas?”

  I expected Mark to rebuke me somehow, to say running was my only choice, but instead he remained quiet for several moments, thinking. The thing continued closing too fast for you to think, Mark!

  I turned around for a second, finding the beast twice as close to me as before. It would be right at my location within twenty seconds. I used [Analyze], the system finally letting me see.

  The Sky Dragon

  Creature

  Level: 80

  Rank: Rare

  These things look like weird white snakes slithering through the sky, don’t they? On the less obvious side, did you know they do so by absorbing mana and constantly using it to lift their bodies up? They learn to do so about 2 minutes after birth!

  These things are apex predators on their home planet, the gas giant so dense that it allows them to ‘swim’ in the air. One of the players in the former season was this creature. He managed to place second - meaning that he died right before the end. How exciting, right?

  Usually placed on the 6th floor and up, we’ve decided to utilize them a bit sooner for this tournament. To make it a bit more interesting, you know? Watching you creatures travel long distances with nothing that dangerous attacking was getting quite stale, after all.

  What a bunch of crap! There was no chance of me winning a fight with it! Or, almost no chance. Maybe there was a way? Surely killing it would bring me to the max level, at least!

  “Wait for it to close distance, and [Dash] when it’s about to eat you!” Mark suddenly interrupted my thoughts. His brow was furrowed from concentration, still swapping in between what he was looking at.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  “You can’t be serious!”

  “No other way! See the barrier? We’re safe beyond it. Just trust me!”

  Great. How marvellous. Waiting to use my ability until the very last moment really was what got me going. Sighing, I did my best to keep running and watch where I was stepping, focusing everything into waiting for the right moment. “Tell me when it’s close!”

  “That gives you, like, ten seconds, Shrimpie!”

  “Just tell me!”

  He nodded, coming to hover right in front of me, yet looking above. “Not yet.”

  Fucker, you need to tell me when to dash, not when not to!

  “Not yet!” He repeated, his voice carrying more weight now. I’d probably tell him to fuck off already, were I not running for my life. Did he seriously not realize how jumpy I was?

  The weird combination of sand, rocks and for-some-reason solid clouds started being replaced by copperry-yelow brick path, letting me up my speed a little more. I couldn’t hear the dragon—awfully quiet for something so large—but when Mark shouted out, I was ready.

  “NOW!”

  Before I even thought of using the skill, a giant shadow appeared where I was, and a giant maw opened above me. Air battered my face as I [Dash]ed forward, and a boom reverberated from behind, the force of the jaw shutting so large that it almost sent me flying.

  I didn’t stop running. Could not afford to. The bricks that I was thankful for a few seconds ago flew all around me as the dragon-thing slid on the path, making me wonder why I was ever thankful for them in the first place.

  The barrier was so close. Just a few more seconds.

  “He’ll catch up!” Mark sounded terrified as he tried to motivate me on.

  I had one skill that could help. [Wall up]. I used it and thought of the bricks just beyond my feet forming into a thick wall. They probably wouldn’t stop the beast, but surely they’d slow it at least!

  They, instead, broke into sand, and without even looking back, I knew that he’d just break through. Honestly, it would definitely break through the wall anyway.

  But, for whatever reason, and I didn’t really care why, the sounds of a beast too big for its own good mixed with the sounds of bricks being crushed to dust suddenly stopped, and I finally made my last rush toward the barrier. It resisted me slightly, as if I were passing thought a gel wall, but I was on the other side in a moment.

  “Good thinking, Shrimpie!” Crudia said as she hugged me around the shoulders in a victorious gesture. “I wouldn’t have thought of that!”

  Thought of what? I did my best to hide the confusion from showing on my face, not wanting to show the fact that I had no idea what I’ve done.

  “I have to admit, I wouldn’t have thought of that in your shoes.” Mark nodded, agreeing with Crudia on me being awesome. That would never stop feeling amazing.

  Deciding that I, too, wanted to see what they were so impressed about, I turned and looked at the giant beast behind us again. It was squirming on the ground, silently, like a fish taken out of the water.

  My mind raced to what I did to make it feel so much pain, but Mark answered before I could come up with the conclusion. “Sand in its eyes, huh. Wouldn’t have thought of using sandstone that way. Brilliant.” He clapped my shoulder, and hovered into the air again. “Anyway, the city is just ahead. Shall we?”

  “Let me catch my breath.” I inhaled deeply, my exertion already having a lesser effect because of the [Sprinter] passive, and looked at the barrier again. It looked gorgeous. The colors it reflected, the bubble-like appearance. It looked magical, in the whimsical way nothing else had so far. It looked… soft.

  “Are you sure it’ll protect us from that beastie there?” Crudia asked Mark, her ears perking up.

  “Yeah, I’m sure. I learned that in the guides. Remember reading about it.” Mart replied, almost offhandedly. Good thing he was here, or we’d probably continue running.

  The dragon beyond the barrier finally stopped moving around, and stood on its four stumpy legs. Its eyes, four of them I realized, locked onto us, the turquoise color visible from far away. It lifted its head, sniffing, and then lifted into the air again, continuing in the path it was on before.

  “Well, that was fun.” I said, finally turning away from the barrier. “The gods are really just fucking with us now, aren’t they?”

  “It’ll get worse. I’ll explain when we’re inside the city. First thing, we need to get you to start a guild. You have any gold on you?”

  I automatically went to reply that Martin stole all of it, but that was no longer the case. The dragon had heaps of gold once it was dead, and we collected a lot from the armies as well. “About six thousand in my inventory.” I said, surprised at the number myself.

  “Me too, me too!” Crudia jumped in the air, smiling from ear to ear.

  Mark only nodded to himself, scratching his chin. “Good. We’ll be one of the first, I think. And then we need to hunt for players so we can raid dungeons.” He started hovering to the city now, apparently tired of the notion of answering our questions.

  “What about Bryga and Fink?” Crudia asked, and then her ears pressed onto her skull as she realized her mistake. “Dusk, I mean. What about Bryga and Dusk?”

  I grabbed her shoulder, gently pushing her after Mark, yet keeping the hand in contact at all times. Mark had a soft tone as well, clearly caring not to make Crudia sad as well. “We’ll contact them. Or you can text them now, if you want, but I’d say we give them an hour or two before we do so. I don’t want to distract them if they found themselves in a situation similar to ours.”

  “So, they won’t be in the city?” Crudia asked, hope audible in her tone.

  “Almost definitely not. The map should be a lot smaller on this floor, especially if they want the players to group up into teams, but it’s probably going to be large still. Hopefully, they aren’t many islands away. I don’t think we’ll meet such strong players that easily.”

  “Wait, islands?” I asked, suddenly realizing that this cloud was really too small for all of the remaining players to be at once. The edge of the cloud, where we appeared, did make the island look small, but I hadn’t thought much of it at that moment.

  “There’s probably hundreds of them.” Mark nodded, continuing his path toward the city. “We’ll just have to hope we manage to travel in between them without those things hunting us down.” He pointed towards the sky, and the meaning was clear immediately.

  We could say goodbye to safe travelling, that was certain.