Skill-Eater: Prison World Saga-Chapter 153: Chase

Edge had no idea what would happen next. All he knew was that he had to lead the beast away from his team before it killed them all. He ran from the decimated farmstead, with the multi-ton predator hot on his heels.

He was certain that Trapper’s crew would use the distraction to get away. All he had to do was stay alive while leading the behemoth in the other direction, find a chance to break free, then circle back and rejoin the others.

It was easier said than done. The creature was roughly ten times taller than himself and several times faster. In a regular race, Edge would have been caught within seconds, even with his considerable lead. But on Ord, skills were just as important as physique and technique. He was running low on mana, so he couldn’t afford to use shadow step too often, but he had plenty left in the tank to leap for all he was worth.

He prayed that a creature of such immense proportion would focus its development on pure offense and defense. If the beast had any mobility skills, it was going to end his day in the worst possible way.

Over the next thirty seconds, the giant dino closed most of the distance between them. Edge could feel the ground thundering with every step it took, pounding alongside his own ragged heartbeat.

Each leap across the verdant soil increased his velocity. By the sixth consecutive jump, he was flying across the landscape in a streaking blur—the wind tugging at his cheeks and flattening his features.

He wanted to use his free attribute points, but he was worried that the side-effects would make him stumble at this critical juncture. If he fucked up even once, took a bad landing or was caught by a protruding branch, the beast would catch him before he even knew what hit him. But for now, Edge had built up enough momentum to pull slightly ahead, bouncing like a madman with the angry giant following in his wake.

Even though leap was mana efficient, he couldn’t keep this up forever. But he didn’t have time to worry about that right now. He had to lead the behemoth far enough away, then find some way to shake its pursuit before circling back to the crew.

At the apex of each jump, he peered into the distance while looking for terrain that might give him a chance of getting away clean. However, there wasn’t anything of the sort. If I want to outrun it, I’m going to have to blow through the rest of my mana.

As soon as Edge judged that enough time had passed for his friends to flee the farm, he shadow stepped. The extra speed and reduced weight of his altered state let him jump even faster, until the beast was several hundred yards behind him.

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The instant that he came back down, he surged into the brush before activating conceal to erase his trail. He stepped and concealed three more times, until he was far away from the last place that his trail was still intact. He left conceal on after the last step, praying that his efforts had been good enough to outfox the behemoth predator.

With any luck, it’s specialized to find food scaled to its size, not small creatures that would barely be a snack. Edge was down to the dregs of his mana. If this effort failed, his only chance was to use [Overdrive] for one final push, after which he would be completely defenseless if the creature found him again.

He could hear it stomping through the overgrowth. Its colossal snout sniffing at the air. Thank the gods that we used the scent erasing ointment.

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Over time, the sounds began drifting in the other direction. Edge wasn’t taking any chances. He kept conceal running until his reservoir ran dry, then poked his head out of the bushes and took a long look around.

He could hear the beast rampaging somewhere to the north, but it was clear by now that it had lost track of his location. Part of him wanted to remain hidden until it left the area, but he knew that it was time to get away while he still could.

He began heading south, focusing on stealth until he was sure that he was out of range of the beast’s ears. Ten minutes later, Edge hadn’t seen any sign of pursuit, and the crashing and growling had retreated into the distance.

He let out a shuddering sigh of relief. It had been close, but he’d pulled it off. When he ran past the ruined farmstead, Trapper’s crew was long gone, although the wagon was still there.

Figuring that the veteran hunters would try to get as far away as possible before going to ground, he kept moving. He had regained enough magicytes to start leaping again, so Edge began bouncing down the road. He caught up with the crew twenty minutes later—sitting on the top of a low hill while watching for the beast. The hunters saw him coming and began to wave, although they didn’t call out under the circumstances.

“That was completely fucking insane,” Jumo whispered as Sasha drew Edge in for a fierce embrace, followed by the rest of the crew. “Did you really just steal the kill from that thing?”

“That lizard was ours, and it seemed like a good way to piss it off.”

“Piss off the walking mountain of tooth and claw.” Jumo let loose a nervous chuckle. “Not your most conventional strategy, but I’m not complaining under the circumstances.”

“Too bad about the padamas’s remains,” Violet added. “At least we completed our mission and gained some experience during the exchange. Should we keep going and explore the borderlands, or head back while we can?”

“Puppet Town is relying on us,” Trapper replied. “We’ll pick a survey spot that’s further to the southeast before heading back. It will overlap a bit with one of the other teams, but we can’t afford to run into that giant again.”

She turned to look Edge in the eye, then broke into a beaming grin. “That was kind of crazy, but also some amazing work. I don’t think we would have walked away if you hadn’t…” her words cut off as his Guide appeared of its own accord and flashed a message in front of his face. The rest of the team had received it too, judging by the blank look in their eyes.

Uncertain as to what was happening, he shrugged and started to read.

You have accomplished a notable feat and have received a quest from the System.

Quest: Defeat the garax (behemoth-class beast).

You have stumbled upon a rare opportunity. A chance to fight an unknown beast far above your stage. Far above you in pretty much every conceivable way, now that I think about it.

The odds of killing it are laughably poor, but I’m really (really, really) hoping that you’ll give it a try. The entertainment potential of such an ill-advised encounter is making my circuits tingle.

You’ve already managed to piss the garax off, which is a fantastic start to the story. To incentivize you to see it through to the end instead of running like a coward, I’m willing to sweeten the pot.

Will you risk it all for the sake of gaining an incredible treasure? Please do, this is the best shit that I’ve watched all week, and I don’t want it to stop.

Note: This quest will expire in one hour.

Rewards:

2 Skill Merger Tokens

Use these tokens to merge the skills of your choice into a new, potentially awesome skill. Warning: Skills that have low compatibility may form a power that is inferior to both components or even fail—destroying both parent skills in the process.

Implant: Auxiliary Skill Slot

An auxiliary skill slot can be used to socket an extra skill, beyond the limit of your core. The skill placed in this slot cannot gain experience, cycle-up, or be merged or altered in any way, although it can be Absorbed and replaced with a new skill at will.

This is a passive, structural implant. As such, it does not require an aether charge to function.