~thump ~thumpSomewhere inside the darkest corner of the Glitch, a woman in her 20s ran. Heart thumping so fast as if it would burst out her bleeding chest any second now.~thump ~thumpShe ran like her life depended on it. Although she was dragging her feet with all her might, yet she couldn't escape the sense of a hovering presence. ~thump ~thumpMost of—what seemed like an Armor type Soul Armas—was torn apart into shreds. Her thighs were throbbing with painful muscle cramps, and her waist was bleeding from the entire left side.The Soul Armour over her right leg was completely torn apart, revealing huge burns. The armor above her waist was also gone, exposing

With muffled steps inside the isolated shrubbery beyond the public shelter, Creed stormed through the familiar woods as fast as he could. A slight urgency was buried under his neutral expressions. He had changed his attire from the black blazer to his comfortable hunters' kevlar. Normal articles of clothing couldn't compare to these hunters' apparel. His fingers instinctually slide across the grated surface of the shoulder to discern the microscale weaving on the surface of his brand-new as well as an expensive piece of clothing. Durable, temperature resilient, along with the nano-liquid circuitry for maximum damage repair. His new hunter's kevlar that Creed had ordered from the genome library portal arrived yesterday. For that, he had to make a quick round trip to 'Zerg' to bring his new suit. '5

Under the dimly lit firmament of unexplored celestial fabric, the air whispered nothing, and the ground screamed curses. Seven hushed hunters were now standing in front of a dark space that almost seemed like the edge of the universe. 'So this is the outer region!' Creed gazed at the boundary of the outer region. This was the farthest he had come from the public shelter. 'Damn... Spooky!!' Others just entered the thin dark film as if it was nothing. Beyond this boundary, Creed saw a forest waiting for him. The forest where the Malaka was spotted. Agenor and others have already tied up their mounts outside the perimeter. These beasts attract too much attention, and bringing them any further was a

Creed and Nakiya were already aware of this mnemonic pattern drawn on the wooden cutout. Standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called dots and dashes, used frequently to convey information cryptically. "This is…" Nakiya uttered"Yeah!" Colt replied. "A cryptic mayday!" Creed mumbled inside his head, 'It's Morse code!"Creed's eyes shook in their sockets. His pulse elevated the moment he set his eyes on the blood-stained cutout. A surge of the intensity of thoughts overwhelmed his mind and hit him like a truck. A sense of darkness overshadowed his sanity. His veins had trouble containing the massive blood rush inside his body. His focus on reality seemed to grow wafer-thin, and his

'What is going on?' Creed mumbled, 'of all places, she had to hide here…'Creed could sense a dense, callous aura tangled with the air molecules. A dense shrubbery that he had been constantly seeing everywhere was now gone and was replaced by extremely thick trees, randomly growing from the ground at a sufficient distance of 4 to 5 meters.The entire terrain seemed like a graveyard, except for graves there were trees. The un-rhythm was far more dense here than any other place. The ground was charred, scorched patches were visible on the trees, and a stench of burned flesh lingered. Creed almost felt as if he had descended to hell.Agenor went into deep mulling. This deadly aura surrounding the area contained lust and blood. Not just him, everyone seemed hesi