Thump!
I stood in front of a monster, my spear close to my chest. My feet sank into the sand and my breath was rushed. helplessness invaded my mind as I took a step forward.
Dagan stood unbothered, a flash of pride reflected from his eyes as he readied himself.
"What are you waiting for?". His smile widened as he took a stance.
I was screwed, there's no way I could beat him.
Seokjin was knocked out with one punch, that was enough to take me out as well.
'You're weak, you need to flee, you'll die'.
My heart throbbed as my grip loosened.
I took another step.
'I can't fear death'. I repeat to myself.
'Even if I die, I'll regress'. I said to myself.
'I won't fear death'.
I took a step, and then another, and another. Before realizing it, I was already in front of Dagan as my spear dreamed of reaching him.
He dodged by simply taking a step to his side.
'Again'.
I glued my feet to the ground as I swung my spear horizontally, making sure he couldn't dodge this one.
But Dagan instantly cut the distance between us as we faced each other mere centimeters apart.
Thud!
His left arm blocked the shaft of my spear while my whole body trembled from the sudden change.
Gritting my teeth, I tightened the grip of my spear as I felt death approach. My whole body froze as his right fist began moving.
Twisting my body, I let the impact fall completely on my left arm.
A painful groan left my mouth while my feet sank deeper into the sand. Dagan's strike was strong enough to make me drift some meters.
My mind was already fuzzy, but my opponent spared no time and rushed towards me. Only then, at the corner of my eye, I saw it.
An axe was thrown in front of Dagan, saving me from doom.
"D-don't dare to touch him!".
A small smile escaped my lips as Choi Namsu defended me. Everyone could see his body trembling, but that didn't stop him from interfering.
Grabbing my spear with only one hand, I felt its weight.
'If we overwhelm him with numbers, even he will be defeated!'.
With a newfound determination, I looked around, seeing the gazes of tens of companions. if before this they seemed too afraid to act, now they looked more ready to fight.
"Can you handle all of us?". I looked straight at Dagan, my heartbeat as fast as before.
I hoped for him to back down, for our sheer numbers to at least shake his unmovable smirk. But my hopes were in vain.
Slowly but steadily, everyone from Hong Seokjin's group, along with others, began picking up their weapons, preparing to fight. As those who couldn't fight watched from a distance, it seemed Dagan would have to face all of us at the same time. But then why?
'Why do I feel that my death is imminent?'
It seemed like I was the only one to notice the change. It wasn't something visual; Dagan's aura just shifted as a whole. A tingling sensation caressed my brain as if asking me, don't you get it?
"Kill him dammit!".
With a scream, everyone charged at Dagan, everyone but me. Why didn't I get it sooner, it was obvious all along.
I finally recognized what my sixth sense has been telling me. The reason we would never defeat Dagan as we were now was as simple as the difference between a normal person and any novel character.
'Dagan is using mana'.
Just looking at him, I could feel a wave of energy about to burst; the pressure exerted by it made my second return feel closer than ever.
My feet were unable to leave the sand as I observed the massacre that was taking place. Moving in a blur, each one of my companions fell one after another. It couldn't be called a fight. Dagan's laughter echoed as he obliterated each of us.
With only a kick or a punch, anyone who was in his way suffered an absolute defeat.
I saw Choi Namsu swinging his sword in a desperate attempt to harm him, only for his sword to be utterly stopped after slightly piercing his skin.
'Of course, why would he dodge if we can't even harm him?'
I swat profusely. My anxiety rose with every second passing
'There must be a way, there's definitely something I can do'.
'status window'
[Skill Mana sense(F) acquired!]
Identity
[User: Cassian Ardani
Age: 17
Race: Human
Titles: Student]
Progression
[Lvl : 3
Existe?ce rank: f-[ERROR]
Floor: 0]
St?ts
[ERROR]
[STATUS WINDOW CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE]
>Reloading( 0%~~~0.0%)<
I laughed. What did I expect? A magic cheat that makes me undefeatable? I already had one.
'Clear your mind, even if you die, you'll regress'.
I repeated that mantra and once again faced Dagan with clear eyes. As such, he returned a similar gaze towards me.
Looking through each other, I took a big breath and began to charge forward. Grabbing my spear with my only usable arm, I gave it my all.
I ran like death was closing in behind and I put all my feelings into the spear, hoping it would cut through everything.
"That's the spirit!".
That maniac was still smiling, but my mind forgot he was even there, the world and I stopped existing all altogether.
I didn't know if my attack even landed, but I remembered what I felt before Dagan knocked me out.
I felt peaceful.
Thwip!
Before closing my eyes, I heard the sound of an arrow cutting through the air.
***
I jolted awake with a ragged breath. I felt a soft yet crunchy texture covering me as if it were my bed.
My head was burning, and I couldn't feel my left arm. I was drowsy and my vision started getting blurry. Right then, I remembered what had happened before.
As I forced myself to stand up, someone interrupted me.
"Lie down, you are still hurt". Just hearing his voice made me ease up instantly as I recognized him.
Looking at me, Jiwon gave me a small smile and offered me a sip of water. I took some breaths before fully calming down.
"What happened?". I asked curiously as we were inside a hut of some sort.
"Well, it all started when we left to explore the island..."
He then started explaining how they encountered wild animals, fought them off and learned quite a bit about their own skills and traits. After some time, they felt ready to return, but on the way back they found some tribesmen.
They were initially wary of them, but after some time, they bonded and offered to guide them to our settlement.
When they arrived, he explained to me how, after Seyeon stopped Dagan from killing me, the tribesmen helped de-escalate the situation with Dagan, prompting him to retreat.
"What's wrong with him?". The two times I interacted with him ended in bloodshed.
"Well... I've been told he's the second hand of the tribe's chief and he lets him do anything he wants". Jiwon wore an apologetic smile.
"Luckily, no one died thanks to everyone standing up against him. I didn't even fight him, but I could tell I had no chance against him".
I chatted a bit with Jiwon, it seemed our situation was almost settled. Seyeon talked with the chief and convinced him to let us stay in the tribe for a while. Everyone was still on edge but Jiwon assured me that we wouldn't be met with more trouble. He then went off to hunt some animals with Seyeon and the others to level up.
Being left alone in the hut, I began pondering. My luck was strange. In the first loop, I'd been unlucky with everything; wild animals, Dagan, all of it. And now, in this loop, he showed up at our settlement as if he had a tracker locked onto me. Also, when he almost killed me, I was narrowly saved by Seyeon.
Apart from that, this whole scenario seemed weird. We had to escape this island, but there wasn't an imminent danger to look out for. What offset me the most was the wording. We had to 'escape', which meant that the island was dangerous.
More importantly, how could we escape? We didn't have any boat of sorts and even if the tribesmen had canoes, would they have enough for the 100 of us?
'Nothing can be done by just sitting idly'.
I had two objectives for the next days.
1. Learn how to use mana.
2. Investigate the village.
With that, I exited the hut.
***
Four days passed in the blink of an eye, and nothing grand happened. I took walks around the tribe trying to discover anything useful, but the things that I learned left me with more questions.
The tribe members were hell-bent on believing nothing existed outside the island. Jiwon told me that we were going by the lie that we lived on an undiscovered part of the island.
Also, there was the mystery of the chief. Every time I saw him, he walked around with his men. Always unapproachable, even the tribe members feared him. But they still revered him as if he were a god.
I had also tried using mana these days. I could faintly sense it, but no matter how much I focused, I couldn't do anything with it. I learned that the tribe members called that energy U'shara, and that strong hunters from the tribe were skilled at using it.
I've tried everything, from meditating, chanting and even praying. From the people that were summoned with me, Seyeon was the only one who knew how to wield it, but her explanation of it wasn't of any help.
Swosh!
Swash!
I was swinging my spear, as I didn't know what to do next. I couldn't go hunting because my arm was broken and I couldn't learn anything useful from the tribe. Also, tonight I had scheduled a talk with the blonde girl.
'It's so frustrating'.
Even what I was doing now seemed useless; swinging a spear with only one arm couldn't even be called training.
'At least this place is quite peaceful'.
I thought to myself as I looked around, yesterday I found this spot, it was devoid of anyone, and I could do whatever I wanted in peace. As I admired the views, I saw a pair of gray eyes looking at me.
"...".
"...".
An awkward silence ensued as both of us refrained from opening our mouths.
"What are you doing here?". He was a tribe member. He wore the usual leather wrappings I had seen these past few days and had a small blade on his side.
"Training with the spear". I answered him with that, and he looked at my left arm.
"Isn't your arm broken though?".
"Doesn't matter".
He didn't ask more questions as if he had lost all interest. Then he just laid down on the grass motionless.
"This is my napping spot, it has quite the nice views, doesn't it?". He chilled on the grass. I felt like the earth would swallow him at any moment.
"Yeah, it is quite nice looking at that, I'll step away a bit to not bother your nap". He then nodded at my words.
He was taller than me and was quite skinny; nevertheless, he exuded a weird aura around him.
leaving him be, I continued with my training.
***
As night finally fell, I had to meet with one last person.
Sitting alone on a campfire, a blonde girl was wearing a blindfold. Even though she was blindfolded, she gazed straight in my direction.
Yesterday, she told me that she wanted to talk with me about a certain 'vision' she had.
This girl in front of me could see the future, and apparently, what she saw was my impending death.
'Luck really isn't going my way'.