Limits

I waited for her to come back for a while but there was no sign of her. 'What the hell does she want with me? Am I supposed to sit here like that for hours?' I thought and stood up to take a look around the place. I checked out the room in more details. There wasn't much in that room. A wooden desk with a chair as well as the wooden bed I was laying on. Besides those things there was also a bookcase but with only a few books.

I walked over to the bookcase and checked out the titles. "Empire of Endros", "Common Language", "Tales of the King Laris", "What the hell? These books are the most common books one could find in any village. I assume in cities as well" I said out loud. 'This doesn't make sense, she only has a common language book and some tales, written to inspire kids. Not even true or historic events. She also has a book about Endrosian Empire, which is available in every village or at least, it was in my village' I thought.

I knew these books very well, I read them as a child. 'Why would she need those types of useless books? Maybe besides the Common Language book. It was used to teach kids how to speak and read the human language. Maybe that is how she learned our language. Although there are many words she used, that were not in that book. Weird' I thought.

There was nothing else in the room besides the exit. I decided to explore that place a bit more. When I entered the corridor, I saw two rooms. One on my left and one on my right. I tried one on the left but the doors were closed. I then tried the one on the right and the doors opened. Behind the doors, was a room that looked like a toilet. 'Nothing interesting here' I thought and closed the door. I went further down the corridor and saw an exit. I thought 'Should I try running away? I mean, I don't know where she went so maybe she will return late and I will be very far away'.

As I thought about that and took a few more steps towards the exit, the doors on the left suddenly opened and she came out. I turned around and said "Did you figure out what you want from me or can I just leave now?". I could see the struggle on her face still. I decided to reassure her "I don't care what you do and who you are. I'm not a person that sells people out. Even if I leave this place, I will not tell anyone that you live here. I simply don't care. I have my own stuff to take care of. If you want to stop me then either state your business or kill me".

As I finished saying that, I turned around and started leaving. She called out "Wait!", I stopped and turned around. She seemed to struggle about something but still didn't say a word about it. I thought 'This is pointless' and walked towards the exit of the cave. As I walked, I heard something flying towards me. I jumped to the side in order to avoid the attack. I knew she was shooting her arrows at me and I wouldn't be able to fight her with my current strength, my solution was to dart towards the exit.

'If I have to die, I will at least put up resistance or try to run away' I thought as I ran at my full speed outside the cave. More arrows were shot at me but I evaded them all. I was stunned myself that I was able to do that. I thought 'Maybe she lost a lot of her focus, due to those thoughts she has and is not able to aim at me properly. This is my chance!'.

Outside the cave, I saw the forest spanning for as far as the eye could see. I ran between trees and tried to utilise my new skill Nature Path. The arrows were still flying at me but thanks to the coverage of trees, none managed to hit me yet. I ran and ran and ran, until I realised that no more arrows were flying at me. I thought 'Did she finally give up?' but I was wrong.

She appeared in front of me in the distance. 'Fuck' I thought and changed the directions. 'What the hell did I do to deserve that? She must be out of her mind. She won't let me leave and won't tell me what she wants from me. She is insane!' I thought and ran again. I ran for a longer period of time now and was already getting tired. I was using my full strength continuously, yet she was still behind me. 'I will have to either face her or try to run till I collapse. Maybe she will lose her strength and give up when she feels tired' I thought as I ran. Facing her would be the last resort, I had very little chances of doing something against her.

The cat and mouse game commenced as I tried to get away from that lunatic creature. After an hour of such running, I was barely able to walk. There were no more arrows coming at me and when I turned around, she was nowhere to be found. I thought 'Finally! I lost her'. I quickly took out some food from my bag and started eating to restore my strength.

After 20 minutes, she was still nowhere to be found and my strength recovered a bit. I wasn't at my peak condition but I didn't care. I checked the sky and ran towards north. I thought 'Maybe she will not follow me north. I have to get as far away from here as I can. With regular stops to replenish my strength, I should be far away from here before the nightfall'.

I ran again. Then rested, then ran and so on until nightfall. 'I should be safe now, right? She wouldn't follow me that far' I thought. I had no more meat in my bag, I was quite hungry and tired. I didn't try to hunt anything while I ran, I was focused on running away as far as I could. I decided to try and hunt something, even rabbits or deer were alright at this point. I search for prey around the area but I could find nothing. I went further north and searched more. I was finally able to find a group of bears after a while. There was a problem though. The group consisted of 11 silver bears. I thought 'What the hell is this?'.

'I wasn't able to find any elite bears in the past. The part of the forest that I used to live in, was void of those creatures and now, 11 of them appear? What is going on here?' I thought and then I realised something. 'Wait. I know why there were no elite animals in the part of the forest I used to live in. It's because of her. I'm sure of it now. She must've killed all those creatures and buried them or something. She really is insane!'.

I would be able to take on that group of Silver Bears normally but my current state was not the best. It would be much harder to kill them now. I decided to have a go anyway. I needed meat and this was meat. 'As long as I can kill couple of them quickly, I should be fine' I thought.

I approached the bears stealthily and with their backs turned towards me, I launched my attack. "Swoosh! Swooosh! Swoosh!". I threw the daggers at 3 bears. This time, I was much stronger compared to the first time I met a Silver Bear. The 3 bears died from my daggers and I quickly engaged the rest of the Silver Bears in close combat. I managed to kill 2 more bears due to the surprise attack and there were only 6 left. 'This is much more manageable now but I also used a lot of my strength. I need to watch out' I thought. As I was about to take the life of another bear, I heard "Swoosh!" and the bear that was pouncing at me was killed.

I turned around and saw… her. 'Fuck! this is just preposterous. She even followed me up to this point!' I thought and quickly exited the fight. 'I have no more strength to run and besides, she caught up anyway. Think, Think!' I thought. Then an idea sprouted inside my mind. 'Maybe I can use those bears as distraction and try to kill her. This could be my only chance!' I thought. With that as my last resort, I made the bears follow me towards the insane creature shooting arrows from afar.

As we were getting closer, she started killing of the bears. I sped up and chased after her. As I got closer, the last bear died from her arrow. I gritted my teeth and launched at her. "Booom!" but I hit nothing.

"Well, it seems I'm dead". With those final words, I closed my eyes and awaited an arrow that would end my life but it never arrived. I opened my eyes and noticed her standing in front of me, like a statue. I was lost 'Can I even die? With this thing around me?' I thought.