For all his increased speed and mobility within the shadows, Julian felt absolute horror as the vampires were able not only to keep up with him despite his shadow cloak doing its best to blend him into the darkness, but the blood suckers actually began gaining on him as he darted through the forest, taking sudden turns to throw off his pursuers but they seemed to have locked onto him somehow and even ignored a nearby spotted deer he purposely led them too, the vampires showing no interest in the creature, one of them simply slicing at it with it's sharp black claws, the deer's guts spewing into the air as the vampires breezed passed.
At this point, Julian was cursing repeatedly, his mind going into overdrive to think of some way to get him out of this, fear and adrenaline pushing him to move even faster than he had ever moved, even gaining a new level in his shadow stride skill from how much he was relying on the boosted speed he got from the ability.
Skill: Shadow stride has reached level 7
Yet no matter how much he maneuvered into difficult spots, leaping over tree stumps and dense patches of vegetation, doing everything he could to confuse his pursuers as he avoided running in a straight line, his body entirely shrouded in his shadow cloak, yet it was all to no avail; if anything, it was his body that was failing to keep up. The vampires moved at superhuman speeds, their bodies seeming to defy common sense as they leaped over fallen trees, staying airborne for far longer than should be possible, while also making sharp turns that defy logic, sometimes twisting and moving even in the air, staying on him no matter what he tried.
Since he had mostly been jogging to get from one place to the next, he had only ever gone full speed for very short intervals when he had launched his surprise attacks. As a result, he was tiring fast now that he was running at top speed over an extended period of time. He cursed himself for not investing a few points into endurance, but he had never expected anything to so easily see through his stealth skill and simply run him down. He still wasn't sure how the vampires were able to move as fast as they were, but that female vampire had said something about smelling his blood? Could that be how they are locating him?
It sounded absurd, but if these were indeed vampires, then perhaps it's not really as far-fetched after all, and he doubted [Shadow cloak] did anything to mask his blood, simply dimming his presence when in the shadows.
I got to stop them from sensing my blood...
He really only had a single idea for how he would do that: go to a place that is already covered in blood to hide his own. He had no idea how acute their alien senses were, if they could somehow distinguish the scent of his specific blood, or if it was linked to him being a human, as the vampire had specifically called him a human after sensing him.
If all else fails, I'll have to see if I can't find my way back to the others and use them as bait to get rid of these bloodhounds off my tail. I just don't think I'll last that long running at this speed.
Just then, he heard the sound of chaos in the distance. Changing course, he ran in the direction of the commotion, hoping to stall the vampires with something more challenging to fight as they clearly didn't care about random deer or other low-level beasts that lurked within the woods. Hell, they even left the earth bears and wolves behind in favor of hunting him down, so they clearly had a preference for what kind of blood they desired.
At the speeds he was moving, it didn't take long for him to approach the sound of the nearby fight, the scent of iron in the air reminding him of the carnage he had seen around the vampires, but this one seemed somehow even more oppressive, roars so loud they reverberated within his bones causing him to second guess wether getting closer was actually a good idea, but with the vampires gaining on him, their piercing red eyes tracking his every move despite the shadow cloak, he knew it was his only chance to escape.
With a final burst of energy, he crested a small forested hill and found a valley beyond it, a gap in the vast forest where the tall trees gave way to lush grass and various exotic looking plants, even the sound of a distant river and the far off glistening of moonlight reflecting off a small snippet of running water he briefly spotted far on the horizon. But he didn't slow down in the slightest, spotting the source of the commotion, his eyes widening as he found a several dozen creatures engaged in pitched battle with beasts and monsters.
Instead of the large wolves or bears he had seen within the forest, the valley was filled with the screams of bipedal lizards, a sort of upright lizard with the head and scales of a crocodile, their surprisingly human arms and legs covered in dense, brown scales and tipped with three sharp blade claws each. They were quite unlike anything he had seen before, but many already lay in the grass, their limbs severed and guts exposed, gore spilling out everywhere and tainting the beautiful landscape.
His curiosity about what sort of monster he was looking at suddenly reminded him of his ability to identify creatures, and he randomly selected one of the strange bipedal lizards to scan.
[Iguanasaurian - level 9]
He was shocked at their high levels since there were at least a hundred of the creatures, but he soon switched his attention to the beings completely eviscerating those vaguely humanoid crocodiles, their own bodies significantly larger than the lizards, powerful own claws shredding thought scales and bisecting the creatures, moving at shocking speeds for their size, the furred creatures roaring with shocking power and moving with clear coordination, the large creatures reminding him of the wolves he had killed, although these creatures were closer to werewolves if anything. The ease with which they were slaughtering these iguanasaurians made him wonder if they would also be able to deal with the vampires on his tail. After all, he was confident that this horde of humanoid lizards would have been impossible for him to deal with, yet these werewolves appeared to view them as little more than an anoyance, already dropping close to half of the iguanasaurians, the creatures seeming to hesitate to keep throwing themselves forward uselessly and beginning to stay back, similarly to how the wolves had acted after many of their kin had been slaughtered by the vampires.
Out of curiosity, he also scanned one of the large werewolf people as he angled his trajectory towards the scene of the battle, making use of the shadows from the sparse trees in the valley to keep his shadow strider skill active, since it was the only thing that was giving him the edge he needed to stay ahead of the vampires.
[Lycan - level 12]
Something about that name sounded familiar, a nugget of information stored deep within his mind that resonated with the word, but he was in no position to think about it as he sprinted for all he was worth, the vampires now also cresting the hill and entering the valley, their eyes only now breaking contact with Julian as they were clearly excited by the thick scent of blood in the air, their gazes drifting towards the ongoing battle.
Breathing heavily and feeling the muscles in his legs begin to waver, he rushed around some of the stragglers from the battle and tried to get as close as he could to the center of the conflict in hopes that the vampires would forget about him in exchange for joining the fight, where blood and violence were aplenty.
Unfortunately, that meant he had to get real close to the scaled lizard things, forcing him to lash out with his daggers a few times to clear the path for him, but the injuries he inflicted were hardly lethal, mainly slicing at the back of the knees to trip the creatures and allow him to go around or jump over them. He was going so fast that he feared he might break a bone if he slammed into the scaled lizard at his current speed, yet he refused to slow down in case the vampires had caught up to him now that he was out in the open with little in the way of shadows to conceal him.
It was unfortunate that [Shadow stride] doesn't work despite it being night, forcing Julian to be within an actual shadow for the boost to his speed to apply, yet he accidentally discovered that the shadows of the many iguarnasaurians served that purpose for the brief moments he was within them, allowing him to continue hiding his presence despite being within a field surrounded by hostile threat, most of whom only saw a small blip of his passage before he disappeared back into another shadow, his skills activating in halting spurts but at least providing some amount of cover, the rogue glancing back but failing to spot the vampires.
He felt surprised for a moment, not having been sure if this was truly enough to stall them, but too relieved to question it. Until he noticed limbs flying into the air and screams from the lizard creatures as they were assaulted from two fronts, the lycan now pushing forward and tearing them apart while the vampires ambushed the lizards from the back and began causing outright chaos. If the fight wasn't all but over before, it definitely was now, as in a surprisingly similar fashion to what he had seen with the wolves, the bipedal lizards began spreading out and running away in all directions.
Julian had assumed that monsters created by the system would be closer to mindless bloodthirsty beasts with no sense of self-preservation, but found that these monsters were surprisingly intelligent and not afraid to admit when they're on the losing end and simply run away.
He found a line of boulders that was partially covered with the mostly intact bodies of the iguanasaurians, which produced a fairly large shadow and figured it was a good a place as any to hide and hope the vampires leave, or at least that these other creatures didn't decide to run after him instead.
He tried to keep his ragged breathing under control as he focused on his shadow cloak skill, hoping to at least recover some energy if it turned out he needed to run again. When the last patch of cornered lizard beasts where culled, the vampires and lycan stood across from each other, Julian having a good view of both sides. A standoff ensued for a few tense moments until one of the lycan did something unexpected, it spoke.
"Be gone, creatures of the night. This is pack territory; any further invasion into these lands will be met with extreme and immediate violence." Came a rumbling voice, a lycan larger than the already very tall creatures stepping forward, his claws glistening with blood as he bore his fangs, staring down the vampires.
The vampires seemed to hesitate, facing the lycan, the large werewolves greatly outnumbering them and all on high alert, ready to pounce at the first sign of aggression. A moment passed where Julian was sure the black haired female vampire was about to pounce, but a glance at her companions told her they didn't feel quite as confident as her. She sneered, eyeing the lycans distainfully before turning her nose up at them.
"We will see about that." That was all she said before the three blood suckers rushed back into the woods with supernatural speed. If Julian hadn't invested the majority of his points into speed and had a way to move significantly faster through shadows, then he was certain he would have died this night. Yet as things stood, it seemed that he had swapped one alien threat for another, the lycan clearly being one of the other sapient races the system had warned him about upon arriving in the tutorial.
He continued trying to get his breathing under control, his chest still heaving from the intense long-distance sprint, but his heart nearly stopped when the same large lycan that had spoken turned to look directly at the spot he had hidden.
Goddamn it, can all these alien fuckers just completely ignore my shadow cloak skill? I don't think I can outrun these freaks, though, their definitely far faster than they have any right to be.
Taking a deep and resigned breath, he took the only option he had left: diplomacy.
Deactivating his skill, he crawled out from the boulder's shadow with slow and deliberate movement, raising his hands non-threateningly, his heart beating out of his chest as all the canine faces turned to him, a chill running down his spine, his instinct telling him to run, but he knew that would only result in his death. Swallowing heavily, he opened his mouth and hoped it wouldn't be his last words.
"I mean you no ill will, nor do I wish to infringe on your territory. I was simply running from those vampires." He said, his voice less steady than he would have liked, but blamed it on still being out of breath as he tried to avoid looking at their inhuman faces too much.
The lycan that spoke stepped closer, Julian doing his best not to flinch as he approached, the lycan audibly sniffing the air before it stopped a few meters away.
"You are fast, for a human. Don't worry, we shall not attack you like those blood parasites; we are not savages." The lycan said, his words surprising Julian, especially considering their appearance.
The lycan seemed to guess his thoughts as it let out a gut rumbling noise that took the rogue a moment to realize was laughter.
"You clearly haven't encountered our kind before, nor the parasites I imagine. Tell me, are you one of those races from another world?" The lycan asked, his voice turning intrigued as he looked at Julian appraisingly.
Julian let out a small sigh.
It seems today isn't my last after all.