Tribe Conquest: Harem starts in a tribe!-Chapter 3: Survive Until Dawn(2)

’Those bastards are throwing stones? Do they really want to kill me?’

Eric raised the shield with one hand, angling it over his head and back as he ran.

Whoosh!

Clank!

The impact rang through the shield as a stone slammed into it from behind. The sound was sharp and jarring, far louder than he had expected. The metal shuddered violently, the force traveling through his arm and into his bones.

If he were still in his previous body, that blow would have sent him crashing to the ground.

Whoosh!

Stones kept flying past him, slicing through the darkness like bullets. Most missed, striking the path or vanishing into the trees.

Then another one came—fast, precise—and struck the shield dead center.

"There! I hit him!"

A shout came from behind, only a few hundred meters away from him. It sounded distant, and that realization sent a chill through Eric.

’They were throwing rocks from that far?’ he shuddered. ’And they still carried this much force?’

He didn’t want to imagine just how strong they were to be able to accomplish such a task.

It was only thanks to the darkness between them that their throws were missing this frequently.

If they could see him, Eric would be dead by now.

Feeling the cold gusts of air against his skin, Eric grit his teeth and muttered under his breath.

"No, this cannot continue. What if their rocks hit me in the leg where the shield doesn’t reach? They are throwing rocks blindly on the narrow path I’m running on. I need to get away from this path."

He looked around in the darkness, but on both sides was only thick, heavy greenery — trees, bushes, and herbs. This greenery could be hiding parasites or poisonous insects, and Buan’s body wasn’t strong enough to resist them.

The unknown was the most terrifying, and he didn’t want to dive into the luscious greenery to find out.

Still, he kept scanning the sides as he ran, checking for any escape from the straight path.

While being in the constant fear of getting hit by those bullet-like stones, Eric saw a small boulder of roughly four meters reveal itself in the darkness. It was on his right side, covered by only a few sparse shrubs — thin, dry, and didn’t look as dangerous as the rest.

’Let’s take a risk. I might be able to hide until dawn behind this boulder."

He abandoned all pretense of caution and sprinted for the boulder, using his shield to carve a path through the shrubs. He didn’t overdo it — to not make it obvious that he had come here to hide. He even went through the effort to nudge some of the shrubs back in place to look as natural as possible.

Once he was behind the boulder, he released a long, silent breath and sank down, setting his shield beneath him as a makeshift seat.

’Alright. Now all I have to do is stay quiet and not make any sound.’

He slowed his breathing, crouched lower to shrink his silhouette, and wrapped his arms around his knees, pressing them tightly to his chest.

Small black bugs crawled nearby—annoying, but nothing lethal. The boulder’s shadow swallowed him completely, blending him into the darkness. No one would be able to distinguish him from the darkness unless they were looking for him specifically.

However, due to this reason, he could only see ten meters around him, and that too with effort. The insects chittered around him, only their sound chasing away the eerie silence. The damp scent of dirt and crushed shrubs filled his nose.

A cool breeze brushed along his left side, seeping through his fur clothes and raising goosebumps along his skin.

’Just what wrong did I commit to deserve this?’ he cursed in his head, unwilling to let even a mumble escape his lips.

Whoosh!

The stones were still whistling above the narrow path, their dropping thud coming from farther ahead.

As Eric counted the moments of silence, shivering behind the boulder from cold, the steps of the pursuers turned continuously louder, indicating their approach.

Thush! Thush! Thush!...

The sound of their hurried steps squelching against the wet grass was unmistakable. As the sound grew louder, their voices cut through the darkness:

"Why isn’t any sound coming now?"

"Are we really missing every stone throw?"

"But we were hearing metallic sounds before. Our stones must have struck his shield."

"Has he abandoned this path to hide in the bushes?"

Eric’s eyes widened in horror as he heard that, his heart hammering against his ribs.

’Don’t tell me they have already figured out I’m hiding instead of running from them?’

Sweat rolled down his temples as he listened to the continuously growing voices.

"Do you think that coward can hide in these thick bushes in the darkness of the night?"

"Yeah. He probably just ran faster. We all know how quick that weakling is."

"Hahaha!"

Their laughter rang out, careless and confident, as they entered the boulder’s range.

"Then we should speed up if we want to catch him."

As if agreeing without another word, their footsteps grew hurried, as they approached the boulder.

Eric’s heart pounded in his chest from anxiety and fear as beads of sweat formed on his forehead. His breath seemed to have been caught in his throat, shallow and useless.

He pressed his back harder against the cold stone, willing his lungs to quiet. One breath too loud—just one—and it would all be over.

The footsteps grew closer.

A shadow swept across the ground as one of them ran past the boulder. Eric froze, muscles screaming as he held himself perfectly still.

More footsteps followed—fast, careless, confident. They thundered by on both sides of the rock, chasing a phantom version of him that was still sprinting, still panicking, still loud.

Eric counted their steps in his head.

One. Two. Three.

A pause.

His pulse spiked. Had someone stopped?