Chapter 6: Dice With Death

Franswift and Joe ran in the middle of the street. Franswift was in the lead as he rushed forward. He held his shield in front of him to ward off and bash any beast appearing from the front. Joe, in the back, was also able to fend off the beasts that came after him.

Subsequently, they rushed into the alleys before a beast could take the opportunity to attack them from the back. Right when they entered the alleys, Franswift let joe run in front of him while he stood still. The troublesome part appeared. The consequences of them passing through the main street was the beasts would chase right after them in the alleys. If they were to continue to run in the alleys, they would be cornered in no time. One had to delay them somehow, then rush back into the alleys and try to lose them.

He had already entered into focus the moment they rushed into the main street. He scanned the types and number of the beasts behind him, then put the spear on his back and took out a javelin. Settled on his target, he threw the javelin into the crowd of beasts, aimed at the paw of a juvenile summer bear known for being easily irritated.

When the javelin pierced the summer bear, it roared in pain and rioted between the other beast. Before the bear could focus on Franswift. He threw another javelin and injured a red boar, which in turn also caused another rampage. Instantly, both of them clashed and chaos appeared between the beasts.

Franswift began to back off in preparation to run, while the chaos was still buying him time. But, he abruptly froze in his place, seeing that a group of beasts was rushing through the chaos towards him.

Five tigers with a third eye on their forehead and double the size of the normal tiger. Even if he started running now, he could at most afford ten seconds of running before he got caught.

What do I do? The thought froze his mind, not giving him any chance to make a plan. His instincts kicked in and he regained his composure. His teeth gritted, he pulled out his spear. I hope I will be able to fend them off before the other beasts settle down. But he knew that was a farfetched idea, nevertheless, it was a do or die. He steeled himself to get out, even if it meant losing some limbs in the process. As the tigers were a second afar from breaking away from the beasts, Franswift heard a shout coming from behind.

“Get away from there now!”

The moment Franswift heard Joe’s shout, without a thought he ran towards him. As he retreated, he saw a bead landing between the beasts followed by a loud explosion enveloping the beasts. Taking a hold of this opportunity, he followed Joe as they both ran into the alleys.

After switching between alleys time and time again, they finally lost the beasts chasing after them, and they sat down to take a breath.

“Thank you,” Franswift said sincerely. He optioned not to ask about the bead. Smugglers were not the most honest people to deal with, and joe stayed back and helped him when it was not part of the deal. That was already enough for him now.

Joe sighed at the sight of Franswift who was thanking him. It did go through his mind to leave Franswift after passing through the main street. But when he saw him taking the rear on his own accord, trying to protect him instead of using him as bait and following some verbal deal they made at the beginning. He decided it was beneficial that he would at least try to save him. The kid was at least trustworthy enough to leave his back to. Given that he also wasn’t sure he would be able to survive alone.

“Don’t mention it. As long as you don’t betray the deal between us, or you are in an absolutely helpless situation, I will not abandon you. I also need you to escape,” Joe responded.

After taking their breath, Franswift and Joe navigated through the alleys again. They avoided all the paths that had some beasts in them, to not attract any attention if they engaged in any type of combat.

Alas, as they neared the end of the path they hit a dead end. No matter which path they took, it had some beasts in them. In order to go to the smuggling point, they had to go through one of them. Their only other option was to take a longer path, which they didn’t know if they were also occupied with beasts. Even if they weren’t, they would be caught nine of ten times by beasts, as at this point they had almost flooded the entire slum.

Franswift looked at Joe and said, “We have no choice, we will take one of the shorter paths due to the uncertainty of the longer ones. Just stay here and I will deal with it.”

Joe nodded and let Franswift go, but he still had his eyes on him in case of something unexpected.

Two three-eyed tigers were eating their fill in the alleys when they were suddenly interrupted by few stones thrown at them. They glimpsed the human who threw the stones out of the corner of their eyes, but the moment they turned around, he vanished around a corner. They quickly chased after him, but when they reached the corner, the human was nowhere to be seen, only a shield laid down on the ground. They momentarily stopped, then slowly advanced looking for him.