The Greatest Sinner

Immediately after the shaking began, Evan leant tightly against the wall, and his horse ran far ahead in fright. Evan didn't try to stop his horse, he needed to make sure that nothing would happen to him.

Nevertheless, the worst thing that Evan could have imagined happened - the violent jolting caused a veritable rock avalanche. Dozens of huge boulders were flying right at him and Evan needed to do something urgently.

"Fuck!" Evan didn't expect the situation to suddenly take such steep turns.

"Well, why the fuck is this happening right now!" Evan shouted loudly and quickly sprinted off the ledge.

It was his only chance of survival. The rocks could tear down the entire trail and crush anyone who got in their way. If he didn't want to be buried under a pile of rocks, he had only one choice - to jump.

Whoosh.

In flight, Evan unfolded the white blade of the "Reverse Death" and thrust the scythe into the stone wall with all his might. He had no other way to stop his fall and save himself.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

At the same moment, numerous sounds of stone boulders hitting were heard. The blade of the scythe cut through the rock and Evan slowly made his way down, but after the rocks had fallen there was another problem.

The boulders had collapsed the narrow path, turning it into another avalanche, only this time of earth and stone. Evan descended too slowly, he had to decide something urgently.

Whoosh.

The next moment Evan pressed harder on his scythe and his speed increased, the blade began to cut through the rock much faster, but it wasn't enough. Soon, the avalanche could have reached him and buried him alive.

Fortunately, thanks to the timely action he had taken, Evan was about twenty meters far from the ground. Jumping from that height was truly suicidal, but Evan had a plan.

Whoosh.

Evan bounced sharply off the wall and jumped to the side of the nearest tree. In the "Half-Dead Forest", the big trees were very tall, so twenty meters was a pretty normal height for jumping into a tree crown.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

Evan burst into the foliage breaking many branches with his body and reflexively clinging to the tree trunk. He was saved, but the avalanche wasn't over yet.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

Tons of earth and huge boulders collapsed on the big tree, under such colossal weight it tilted and began to fall slowly.

Bam.

The moment the tree touched the ground, the avalanche also stopped moving. Evan jumped off the branch and looked around, muttering: "Why couldn't this have happened after I would have crossed the damn woods!"

Bam.

With anger, Evan slammed his fist into the trunk of the tree, causing a layer of bark to break off and fly off to the side.

"Ugh, okay, at least I`ve made it at least some of the way. The rest of us would either have to go through the woods, or go around. To hurry up was the right decision, but I made it too late!"

Evan glanced at the nearby tree and then at the path on the rock.

<Hmm, that powerful landslide has completely destroyed such a long path, no luck. I wonder what happened? Was it really just a simple earthquake?>

Evan thought about what he should do next. The "Half-Dead Forest" was a dangerous place, but going back and looking for a detour was a very long and bad option.

<I must be careful and cautious to avoid other trouble in this place.>

Crack.

"Yep...looks like today is clearly not my day..." Mumbled Evan as he watched the monster approaching him.

Evan didn't expect to meet anyone here, he thought that all living creatures would run as far away as possible when they heard the loud rumble of the landslide, but this monster seemed to be attracted by the noise on the contrary.

The monster itself looked pretty strong. It had four clawed paws, long, black fur, and bloodshot eyes. The most interesting detail of its body was its tail, with many black, sharp spikes at the tip, which was obviously its main weapon.

Whoosh.

Evan quickly prepared for battle, he clutched his scythe tightly and watched his opponent closely. If it had been a man or a beast, Evan would have tried to avoid the fight, but from Demien's story, Evan knew that for a monster, a man was the best delicacy possible. The young man moved closer to the fallen tree and simply waited for the monster's actions.

The monster slowly circled around Evan, as if trying to find the right moment to attack. Nothing happened for a while and the two of them just watched each other.

The tension in the air grew with every second, Evan didn't know how strong this monster was, nor was his opponent aware of the young man's skills.

Whoosh.

Suddenly the monster pointed its tail at Evan, and the next moment several long, black spikes flew toward the young man.

Evan could have attempted to deflect them, but he instinctively decided to take cover behind a tree trunk. He quickly jumped to the other side and the spikes sunk deep into the tree. Moreover, the force of the shot was so great that the sharp ends of the spikes showed from the other side of the tree. They practically pierced through the huge trunk of the tree.

<Yeah, better to dodge those thorns, if I miss even one of them, this will probably be my grave.> Evan thought to himself and climbed up the tree trunk.

He wasn't going to get close to the monster, it was too dangerous. Evan was sure that his opponent's claws would easily tear him to shreds.

Whoosh.

Evan's "Warp" spun and mana gathered at his hand. The next moment, a snow-white beam flew out toward the monster and instantly reached it. With casting the "Magic Missile" Evan was about to inflict serious damage on his opponent, but when he saw the result of his attack he was stunned.

The monster was perfectly intact, not a scratch on it. At most what Evan had achieved with his attack was a burnt patch of the fur where the beam had hit.

Whoosh.

The spikes flew again, and Evan ducked and retaliated with "Magic Missile". He didn't intend to damage the monster with this attack, Evan wanted to blind his opponent by hitting it right in the eye.

Unfortunately, Evan didn't succeed, the monster was much stronger than him. Evan wasn't thinking about winning anymore, he was looking for a way out of this trap.

Whoosh.

When it saw that his spikes had once again been dodged, the monster grinned and charged straight for Evan.