Chapter 8 - The Lake

Kyles whirlpool was like a bottomless well that no matter how much you put in, it wouldn't fill.

Kyle was steadily progressing further, killing everything in sight. With every kill, Kyles body got bigger and stronger and controlling his body became easier and easier. The problem was that enemies were getting much stronger too. His only problem was that he couldn't afford a fight with multiple enemies; he had no experience just yet with that type of combat.

The hardest enemy so far was a wolf that was protecting his pups. As soon as Kyle saw that there were pups, he switched the directions where he was running. He needed energy, but he was a good person in heart, he couldn't go this far for it. But, the wolf without letting Kyle ran away, with saliva on his mouth ran straight at him, abandoning his pups. This forced Kyle to fight.

Either way, the final stretch to the lake was insanely hard, with the fire energy swirling and intensifying. It was harder and harder to breathe for Kyle.

Once Kyle saw that the water was around 100 metres in front of him, he rushed straight at it, ignoring everything in his path. All of the beasts went crazy when they saw a human ignoring them, but Kyle couldn't think straight anymore.

Humans body consists of 80% water, and without a constant supply, no one can survive.

'I have to drink to think straight quickly. I can worry about beasts after,' Kyle dropped to his knees and started drinking straight out of the lake, like a crazy person. The lake was still and very clean. It was unbelievably large, and it seemed more like an ocean as Kyle couldn't see the other bank of the lake.

Up to this point, every beast that saw him rushed straight at him, but once he got to the 50-metre radius, every beast stopped and had to walk towards the lake.

Kyle, looking back, didn't understand why was he not being attacked? Now that he has drunk his fill, he was ready to defend.

But, the beasts seemed to ignore him and rather get into the dazed state, walking toward the bank to drink the water as well.

While fighting his way to the lake, Kyle chose to not absorb some of the animals' energy. Now that he had such an amazing knife, he could use other parts of the animals to get some necessities. He had used leather of boars and wolfs to create a couple of pouches that he could tie to his earth belt with a plants fibre.

This pouches would allow Kyle to survive away from the lake for a couple of days to a week. Kyle used this moment of stillness to fill some of the small pouches he had. He also drank some more as to not be in the same situation as the day before.

The biggest problem right now was the animals that behaved so different from anywhere else in the forest.

Suddenly, Kyle heard a voice. Some strange lizard swam to the top of the lake and walked onto the bank. The lizard was green in colour with multiple black scales, that looked like spikes covering it.

"You human. You are not allowed to the sacred Lake of the Abyss. These waters are only for those that are from the beast race. The only reason you are not dead is that the Head of the Lake set a rule of no violence around the 50-metre radius. Begone!" The lizard spoke in the human voice.

'Another talking animal. This is the first time since the Catter left me here' Kyle thought in surprise.

"I was too dehydrated, I had to get water, and this was the closest lake!" Kyle protested, "Who is to say that this lake is not for humans like me? This is nature and who dares to claim it for themselves?" Kyle tried to walk backwards slowly to escape if anything went south. 'I am talking to animals now, how great.'

"The Head of the Lake dares to! If you don't like something, how about you challenge him," smirked the lizard as if saying that it is an impossible feat to pull off.

"You also have a choice to be accepted as a visitor, but you will have to defeat a guardian, our head will choose. Right now it would be suicide for you. Please don't bother me anymore. Get stronger, and then I might allow you to try." The lizard looked at the small pouches on Kyles belt, "For the time being you can drink out of the paddles if you insist on staying in the beasts forest!" Lizard laughed, turning its back and diving deep into the lake.

Kyle turned his back, and as soon as he started retreating, the animals turned to him and started to also slowly go to his location, not daring to attack while still being in the 50 metres radius. Kyle knew that either the whirlpool would slowly kill him from the inside, or the beasts would kill him.

His only option was to fight, and if he died at least, it would be while fighting. 'My best option is to take an advantageous position. There are at least 100 beasts here, all of the different threat levels. None of them seem to be anything special, but I wasn't able to fight even 1 on 2, how will I fight 1 on 100…"

Kyle stopped just at 45 metres radius and looked straight ahead. He saw a mountain that had a dropping edge that was around 200 metres in height. It had a tiny steep path leading up to it. 'Although I could try to defend from the top of that mountain, but getting there faster than beasts with claws is just a dream. Also, the flying beasts are going to be a problem once I am there. There got to be a better place to fight.'

While Kyle was deciding on the place to fight, beasts got ready into the position and were ready to pounce at Kyle at the moments notice as he exited the 50 metres.

Choosing the wrong terrain would be akin* to suicide. He had to find a narrow and well-protected path so he can't get surrounded.

Kyle suddenly remembered that the only way he could fight like that would be inside of a cave. Kyle had exactly the same cave. The one where he spent the night the day before. It was also very well protected with spikes next to the entrance as well as a bunch of pits and traps all surrounding it. It was the perfect place to take a battle.

'The only problem is that my cave is at least 2 or 3 kilometres from the lake. The path could be filled with monsters. I would create a train of beasts following me.' Kyle contemplated. He looked back on all of the beasts with their fangs at the ready, and he decided to go for the next best thing - 'I will run in the direction of the cave, and if I find anything that even remotely looks like a cave that I can protect myself in, I can go into there to fight. I have to take this fight anyways. Just need to set it up correctly.'

As Kyle was sure of what to do next, he looked one last time to the hoard of beasts and dashed straight ahead, not looking back. Kyle tried putting the energy from the whirlpool to use, but the whirlpool only drained him and gave nothing back. He had to do this on his own.

Kyle ran so fast that his legs felt as they were about to explode, he couldn't look back to see if any of the animals got close to him and so Kyle used his instincts to dodge whenever an animal got close to him and pounced at him. He has managed to dodge a lot of the hits, and it was for sure the [Increased Luck] attribute helping him. The only problem was that more and more animals got close to him, and he had to dodge constantly. This slowed him down even more.

Finally, Kyle got to the finish line, and he could already see his cave right in front of him. 'Finally, just a bit more…' At the same moment when Kyle saw his cave, a roar sounded from it, and a huge lion, the height of a full-grown man, started rushing from the cave directly at him. The speed at which he dashed was incredible.

'It would be impossible to slide past him. And I was so close to the cave!' At this point, Kyle suddenly changed the direction 90 degrees to the right; the only place he saw no beasts chasing him. There was another cave that he initially considered when he was looking for a place to stay. The only problem was that he couldn't check if anything were living in it, that is why he didn't choose it. Now though he had no choice.

The cave was located atop a small hill and went deep inside the mountain. It was gorgeous at the entrance with some unknown rocks or crystals showing, but once you went deep inside, it would be impossible to see anything. That was certainly a disadvantage if he ever got pushed further into the cave by the tide.

The lion was still following him and roaring at the beast tide and at Kyle. It was roaring as if telling everyone that it is his prey and everyone should stop aside. Although some of the animals really did stop, the most kept on following Kyle.

The cave was directly in front of him and gritting his teeth and clenching his fists he dived right inside.

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Akin* — of similar character.