Chapter 211: Hunted by the Beast Lord

The massive serpent lunged, jaws splitting wide in a devastating strike. Luke had missed. The Beast Lord had dodged in the final instant. He had poured everything he had into that arrow, and still failed. The creature’s mouth came down fast, fangs gleaming. Even the one he’d broken earlier had fully regenerated.

[Stamina: 1/1970]

With the last flicker of energy left in his body, Luke threw himself backward, rolled hard, and plummeted off the edge of the wall. He fell, crashing through branches and slamming into tree trunks as he tumbled into the sanctuary below. Above, he heard the thunderous crunch of the serpent’s bite ripping a chunk from the wall and swallowing it whole.

Branches cracked around him as he yanked open his cloak, letting it catch the air just enough to slow his fall. He still hit the ground hard, pain radiating through every limb, but no bones were broken. He was lucky, or maybe just tough enough now that it didn’t matter.

“That bastard… really does have a perception field.”

Still lying on the ground, Luke yanked a vial from the pendant around his neck.

[Stamina Potion (Common)]: A potion that restores 503 stamina.

Luke reached for the pendant and closed his eyes, focusing. He still had three stamina potions left. That was the most he’d managed to craft with the materials he had. They were high-quality, far better than average, but even so… only four.

The real problem came after. If he took one more, the system would register a total of 1,000 stamina recovered, immediately triggering a cooldown period where no potion-based regeneration would work. During that time, he wouldn’t be able to recover stamina at all.

And to fire another arrow like that, using Force Infusion at full power, he’d need to be at max stamina again. Which meant he’d have to survive, somehow, for twenty to thirty minutes in a one-on-one against the Beast Lord.

[Stamina: 88/1970]

It was climbing. Slowly. He chugged another potion. Then he ran. The sanctuary wall had nearly vanished, the last roots and vines slipping back into the earth. Nothing stood between him and the Beast Lord now.

“Come on, little rat!” the serpent called, voice thick with venom and amusement. “Let’s play!”

It could sense him. The mark was still there. The Beast Lord surged forward. Luke bolted, dashing through the trees and away from the sanctuary. No point staying here anymore, no cover, no advantage. The serpent chased him relentlessly, sliding at incredible speed through the terrain.

Luke pushed everything he had into his stride, triggering Dark Dash, and leapt high. His cloak snapped open midair, gliding him toward a nearby building. Behind him, the Beast Lord slammed into another structure, fangs bared. The serpent locked eyes with him. Its mouth opened. A jet of acid shot through the air. Luke vaulted higher, barely dodging, and dove through a shattered window into the building.

Still running, he pulled the bow from his inventory, not even slowing as he nocked an arrow. Just as he passed another broken window, he loosed it. The shot hit the Beast Lord squarely. But the serpent didn’t flinch. It knew. The arrow carried no stamina. No power behind it. Just a warning shot. And the Beast Lord didn’t care about warnings.

Luke dove headfirst through a shattered window, just as the Beast Lord emerged onto the street. Midair, he fired an arrow at the serpent, but before the shot even landed, he dismissed the bow and drew his kukris. As he hit the ground, he rolled and used the momentum to vanish into the fog he quickly conjured using the power of Wraith Form.

His mana control was leagues beyond what it had been before. He didn’t just turn into mist. He created multiple copies of himself, foggy silhouettes scattering in every direction. Each one carried a signature of his mana, enough to throw the Beast Lord off. The mark still let the creature sense him, but now it was reading him in too many places at once.

As he sprinted down the alley, Luke reached for the ground with one hand, casting corrupted roots from the earth. More mana. More misdirection. He wove the roots through alleys and buildings, laying a web of false trails. Then he ducked into a half-collapsed house and crouched low inside, kukris at the ready, sweat pouring down his face. Out on the street, the serpent struck the mist with violent snaps of its jaws.

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“Little rat,” it hissed. “Still hiding? Afraid?”

The Beast Lord slithered forward slowly, its perception field scanning every thread of Luke’s mana. But Luke had flooded the area with it, enough to overload even a predator like him.

“I’ll give you credit,” the serpent said. “You’ve gotten good at this trick.”

It lunged again, biting through the roof of a nearby building and swallowing the entire thing in a single crunch. All it found inside were roots, twisting, tangled, exactly in the shape of Luke’s mana.

The monster clicked its tongue in irritation.

“Always with the misdirection.”

It continued slithering along the road, peering into buildings, each silhouette of mana a perfect mimic of Luke. More roots. More traps.