Super Gene

Han Sen may have led the retreat, but he did not feel safe. A frightening chill latched onto him, and he imagined the beady, stabbing gaze of the raven targeting him.

"Damn it! What is going on?! What has it taken the others so long to get moving?" Han Sen was bewildered, but he couldn’t spare the time to think it through. The best he could do right now was escape with his life, leaving the mountain behind.

Han Sen did not dare summon his wings to fly off. Expecting to outpace a super creature that excelled in flying was a fool’s hope.

They were all now running down the mountain as best as their legs could carry them. Not once did they see another creature on their rapid descent. There was only the black raven callously mocking them from the sky, watching them all flee in terror.

It was the de-facto emperor of the skies, that was clear. With its presence, nothing else would dare creep out from hiding.

Han Sen looked back and spotted the shadow of the black raven overhead. Although it was not a particularly large creature, it scared Han Sen as any other super creature would.

The raven glided casually through the air, not even exerting the effort to flap its wings. It made no difference, however, for no matter how quickly they ran, it still followed them closely.

They had run less than a kilometer when the raven cruelly looked upon its prey and let out another heart-stopping screech.

Caw!

The sharp noise echoed across the land. In the next second, the crow reached a speed that suggested it was teleporting and flew down behind the last evolver in their party. The inky wings looked as if they were able to absorb light and, in a flash, brought it down across the evolver’s neck.

The raven’s speed did not allow the evolver a chance to react, and all it took was one quick slash. The head of the evolver was hewn from her neck. It twirled in the air after its detachment, painting the rocky trail in crimson.

With the raven’s speed, it could have easily avoided the blood that gushed from the severed head and exposed throat. But it didn’t. It allowed itself to be showered in the blood, its eyes squinting in pleasure. It extended its wretched tongue to taste the blood rain that descended from its gruesome kill, and it looked delighted.

The people in front watched it happen, and it made their skins crawl and their hair stand on end. The unfortunate victim was not an elite evolver, but she didn’t even have the time to fight back, no matter how hopeless such a deed would be. Removing her head so effortlessly was little more than a show of power for the raven.

No one dared to slow down, and they continued their rapid descent. But the raven wasn’t keen to let any of them go so soon. With its murderous eyes, it painted a few more of the fleeing evolvers.

"Help me!" The evolver who was furthest behind could feel what was coming. And could not do anything save cry for help with a trembling voice.

But with what had just occurred, who could be blamed for not slowing down and attempting to save him? Everyone had been rattled by their nemesis, and no one dared to slow down to watch it descend upon them. With its unfathomable speed, it had near-enough warped behind the previous evolver to decapitate her, and no one wished to suffer the same fate.

It was so quick, they wouldn’t be able to dodge any potential strike, let alone fight back against the foe.

Han Sen activated his gene lock to enable his supreme abilities of sense, but even he was unable to witness it fly down in the manner it did. By the time the raven disappeared, the wing was already slicing through the evolver’s neck.

The distance it covered, to go from the sky to the running evolver, could not possibly have been crossed through speed alone. Han Sen was beginning to believe it did indeed possess teleportation capabilities. Otherwise, it could not have evaded his senses.

Caw!

Another screech sounded, and the head of the raven turned towards the mountain trail once more. This time, Han Sen applied greater focus to his senses to analyze the movement of the raven.

But it revealed naught. The moment it decided to fly down, it escaped his senses again. The moment the raven re-revealed itself, the head of another evolver was in the process of being lopped off.

In this moment of fright, Han Sen was shaken by the sight of Chen Ran running past both him and Queen.

"The talents of the Chen family are not understated." Han Sen gritted his teeth to push on and keep running. He tried the best he could, but he could not keep up with Chen Ran, who outpaced them all.

Not long after, another screech sounded. It was like the tolling of Satan’s own dinner bell. Upon hearing it, everyone clutched their chests in the hope it wasn’t them who was next up for a deep-six holiday.

The further behind in the group you were, the tighter the fear gripped your heart.

A person who was weaker than the rest was now lagging behind. In this moment, he noticed his position amongst his compatriots. Three people had been recipients of the raven’s wings by this point, and just as he expected a wing to greet his neck, his shaky legs tripped on an exposed tree root.

"No! Help me! Aaaargh!"

The scream of another hapless victim smothered the depleting hopes of escape by those who remained. In truth, they were now fleeing through a valley of death. Han Sen was beginning to realize at the speed they were running, they were all going to be killed before they could even descend halfway down the mountain.

The raven was playing with them. It seemed to take pleasure in killing them, and if it wanted them all dead, that was how things were going to go. If they were lucky, they’d only be alive for one more kilometer.

"If we continue going like this, we aren’t going to make it!" Han Sen slowed his speed down to run alongside Queen.

"If we cannot beat the beast, there is no way to escape this predicament," Queen said, and Han Sen understood what she was implying.

Queen had come to the same conclusion as Han Sen, when analyzing the speed of the raven. Try as she might, she was unable to track its attacks. And if they could not do this, they could not fight it. If the raven came for them, only death would quickly follow.

"How about we split up?" Han Sen suggested, frowning.

"No! What good would that yield?" Queen vehemently objected. With the horrible speed of the raven, it would make no difference. If anything, it would only result in a quicker death.

"Do you recall the creature riding a red cloud, further down the mountain?" Queen said.

"Are you suggesting an enemy of our enemy is our friend? I’m not sure that would work. For all we know, we’ll simply end up getting sandwiched between the two. If that were to happen, a grisly death would surely await!" Han Sen understood what Queen was suggesting.

"Well, we have to do something! If all we do is continue to run, we’ll die no matter what," Queen objected.

Han Sen reconsidered her suggestion, thinking she might indeed be on to something. To keep running would result in certain death, as they were getting picked off one by one. A simple escape was off the table.

"Even if we tried, the creature that roams these slopes is too far off. For all we know, we may be killed before reaching it." Amidst their discussion, someone screamed from behind.

Before the evolver was killed, he had stopped in an attempt to fight the raven. But before he could strike, the wings of the raven was scissoring his neck, leaving a wretched blood-fountain stump atop his shoulders.

Queen’s eyes went cold, and her signature purple light began to flow in and around her body. All of a sudden, a long scream sounded through the air. It was not the work of the raven, but something else. The sound was deafening, drowning out the noise of the mountains and surrounding landscapes.

As Han Sen pondered Queen’s reason for using her purple light, he suddenly heard the sound of a horse neighing from further down the mountain. Then he heard the stampede of hooves drawing nearer. Something scary was coming their way, and its speed could not be rivaled.