Rustle!

The leaves rustled as a gust of wind found its way through them.

A man who looked to be in his early 50s was running through dense Mowry Woods using his wind-element spell. This man had shoulder-length white hair that was tied nicely in a bun.

The man's white beard was thick and his white mustache was about 9 inches long from both ends, giving him a distinct visual look. Apart from his shoulder guards and a right shoulder strap running towards his left waistline, he wore nothing over his torso. As a result, his muscular physique was now bathing in the moonlight.

He was wearing an oversized belt that had the skull of some monster as its motif. The white-haired man was also wearing leg guards over his cargo pants. However, one could tell that his leg muscles were as impressive as his biceps.

This man had light brown eyes that were fixated on the scenery in front of him. However, it looked like he was ignoring them. He was making use of his mana sense more to find his way forward in the forest.

The man had various piercing and slash wounds on his torso and arms. He looked to be in severe pain while he was running. He had already drunk the healing potion. But it wasn't of much use because Raina's mana had invaded his body.

The foreign mana invasion was festering inside his wounds, dealing damage over time and making them spew blood now and then. But he couldn't tend to his wounds at this point. His priority was to get away from ground zero as soon as possible.

This white-haired man was not alone in his suffering. There was someone else following him who was in a much more dire condition than him.

"Aaaaaargh.h. Fuccck! Bahlam, maybe this is enough. We should take a breather before going any further."

The man following white-haired Bahlam spoke to him in a voice coaxed with pain and urgency. It was apparent to Bahlam that his fellow Spider was having a hard time running away with him any further.

"Shut your fucking mouth, Polo. Do you think I am having the time of my life here running away like a scared rat? Here. Drink this. I can't help you any more than this."

Bahlam slowed down his speed and threw a vial at Polo. The mask and hood-wearing Polo was able to catch the vial in his hand while still following Bahlam from a distance. He uncorked the vial and used his mana sense to gauge its contents.

"Forbidden potion? Are you trying to kill me, you scumbag?"historical

Bahlam snorted and replied without turning back.

"Don't expect me to carry you on my shoulders, Polo. The potion will boost your stats and make you forget about the injury.

You may experience side effects from the potion, I don't know. But we could always find that out and deal with it afterward. It's still a better choice than staying here to be targeted by that bitch Raina."

Bahlam said before speeding forward. Polo knew that he would be left behind if he didn't drink the potion. Gritting his teeth, he metaphorically bit the bullet and emptied the vial's contents into his mouth.

Bahlam and Polo were the only Awakened rankers who managed to get away from Raina's ambush on them. The three Awakened Spiders died from her sudden attack, halving Bahlam's team strength instantly.

Yana Shiran had managed to slay an enemy Awakened ranker assigned to her. She then concentrated her efforts on dealing with the rest of the Meta Spiders in her vicinity that weren't teleported.

Almost no Meta Spider was able to get away from the ambush. Raina had planned her attack so well that she didn't allow Bahlam's counter plan to get executed. Thanks to the edge the Stardust guild's Meta-ranked members had gained inside the isolation barriers, the isolated spaces had become forcefully summoned Spiders' resting grounds.

Bahlam would have died under Raina's attack too. She had personally confronted him in close combat, making use of her assassination and close combat expertise to overwhelm him. He had used a lot of his valuable trump cards to get away from the special unit leader of the Stardust guild.

Polo, on the other hand, only managed to get away because his enemy showed a careless opening in her defense. And he was able to use it to his advantage. Although he was still injured because of his self-harming counter, he managed to kill the enemy Awakened ranker– a feat even Bahlam was not able to pull off.

Polo later used Bahlam and the opening created by him to run away from Raina's group. At that point, both Awakened rankers had stopped caring for their Meta-ranked juniors. They used them as distractions to escape.

Raina had achieved a huge success in her ambush on Spiders. But she still wasn't satisfied because Bahlam managed to escape. The latter knew she would be desperately trying to finish what she had started tonight, getting rid of Bahlam once and for all.

***

Twilight hours of the same night.

A long-stretched prairie outside Mowry Woods.

Polo wanted to yell his loudest when his muscles started atrophying because of the forbidden potion's side effects. However, he shut his mouth tight and suffered through hell on his own. He did not have a choice anyway.

Bahlam would have severed his head if he had tried to yell out and made their presence known in any way. They were both trying to catch their breaths after successfully managing to get out of the woods.

After leaving Mowry Woods, Polo's injuries had somewhat healed. But he couldn't get rid of the side effects caused by the potion.

"You know Polo, as far as the side effects of the forbidden potions are concerned, the one that you are having is pretty mild."

Bahlam said in a hushed voice. He was sitting over a large rock, which was placed about 7 meters away from the tree under which Polo was resting. The assassin was visibly furious after Bahlam's comment. But he chose to keep quiet for the time being.

"Hm? Someone's coming!"

Bahlam alerted his buddy and exhibited stressed expressions for a short time. Polo cursed his luck when he heard the warning. But Bahlam's next words put him to rest.

"Um.. false alarm. I can sense the tracker rune. It seems that someone else apart from us managed to escape from that death zone."