"Come on, you stalker snake, why don't you try to catch me!!!" Shouted Jay, who was currently running around the forest, always careful not to get out of the range of Kesar's elemental zone.
Behind him was crawling none other than the main body of the Aqugas snake at a great speed, it seemed to understand Jay's provocation and quickened its pace.
It had already been a few minutes since he had started to "confront" the snake in order to gain time for Kesar, as for the small snakes that were chasing him at the beginning, they had fused with Aqugas snake again after Jay had used them as a test subject for his wind control.
Like the previous time, he really didn't want to come into contact with the small snakes, so he just kept dodging them, hitting them with the occasional wind cut from time to time or sending them away by blowing with some force.
Despite their fervent efforts to try to catch him, either by attacking all together or from Jay's "blind spots", the result was the same, they always missed by a hair.
Seeing that they were ineffective, the Aqugas snake ordered them back and took matters into its own hands, resulting in the current situation.
The reason Jay didn't do this before was because Kesar was in a vulnerable situation and he couldn't afford to put him in danger, but now that he was alone, that had changed.
The chase continued for a while, with Jay trying to take any possible turns and even using trees to make sudden leaps in another direction in an attempt to widen the distance between him and the snake.
However, the Aqugas snake was simply too fast, not only preventing Jay from being able to widen the distance between them, but was even getting closer and closer to him.
'It's definitely faster than before, will it have to do with the size...?' Jay thought as he noticed the snake's abnormal speed, a bitter smile forming on his face, 'And it hasn't hit any trees so far... this definitely doesn't look good.'
Just as Jay was thinking, the snake had been avoiding the trees on purpose as smashing them would only slow it down, this was something it had learned very recently with one of its prey that also managed to avoid its initial surprise attack.
The only consolation Jay had was that the snake would occasionally slow down as it launched its tentacles in an attempt to catch him, something that failed spectacularly due to the previous training Jay had dodging them.
'Looks like I have no choice, I'll have to climb a tree again.' Jay thought, looking for a tree that was easy to climb as he ran at full speed.
Since he had an obvious disadvantage running on the ground, he decided to use the same strategy as before, jumping between trees, where the snake couldn't personally chase him.
However, just as he found a suitable tree and was starting to prepare to jump, his radar detected an incredibly fast and thin life signal coming towards him.
"Sh*t!" He shouted as he moved to the side in a rush, even using Phantom Trace's third and fourth step to avoid a direct hit.
Due to its speed, there was no way to dodge the attack, so he could only grit his teeth and try to minimize the damage.
*CHAK!*
"Argh!"
A relatively deep cut appeared on his side, product of the tentacle that had been launched against him at full speed, which didn't stop until it hit a tree.
'Looks like it won't let me off that easy, huh...' Jay thought as he quickly resumed his march, taking advantage of the fact that the snake had apparently stopped in order to throw that tentacle. As for the cut on his side, he was used to simply enduring it, especially in that area.
Although Jay was also aware that the snake had been watching his actions very closely, he really didn't think the snake's reaction would be that decisive.
The snake then began to chase Jay again after the tentacle it threw returned to fuse with its body, the whole process only lasting 2 seconds at most, so Jay couldn't distance himself too far either.
While this last attack had been fast and strong, the Aqugas snake didn't want to use it too much as it requireda lot of concentration to be able to aim correctly, which meant standing still until the tentacle returned, allowing its prey to be able to distance itself further away.
However, to prevent this incredibly annoying prey from climbing a tree, the snake was willing to take this risk.
'Just how many tricks does this snake have?' Thought Jay, whose ribs seemed to be a preferred point of attack for the snake.
While he had decided not to be impressed with this snake anymore, that was a pretty hard thing to do.
Unfortunately, no matter how much he thought about it, that wouldn't change the fact that right now he needed to think of something fast so he could hold out until Kesar arrived.
'Haa, I definitely need to get stronger, I won't always be able to escape this way...'
With those thoughts as his last thoughts and reaffirming his determination, Jay decided to try to make the most of this situation to once again reach his limits and improve his reflexes.
Of course, the difference now was that the difficulty had grown exponentially.
***
More minutes passed, until it became a quarter of an hour exactly.
"TAKE THIS!" Shouted Jay, turning and waving a large branch, hitting an approaching tentacle, successfully repelling it thanks to the branch being coated in wind so that the tentacle couldn't hold on to it.
Without wasting any more time, he resumed his march at high speed, just in time to avoid another tentacle that dug into the ground where he stood.
His appearance was now a clear indication of how difficult it had been for him to continue escaping from the Aqugas snake, with his tank top now in tatters and exposing much of his torso on which several bloodstains could be seen.
However, that was not something exclusive to his torso, as those stains were all over his body, even on his face.
This was a natural outcome, after all, they were still on land, a place where the snake could move ridiculously well and where there weren't too many obstacles or shields for Jay to use, increasing the frequency at which Jay received injuries.
But as if that wasn't enough, the snake also improved its tactics, learning to better control its fast tentacles to make slight curves at the cost of losing some strength.
In response, Jay got himself a branch so he could block those attacks, reaching a point in the chase where both parties were pausing to defend and attack respectively.
"Ouch, this is starting to get dangerous..." Jay said as he kept running, a slight muscle pain assaulting his entire body.
Even though he still had energy to last for a bit longer, the consequences of having used his muscles to the max a few hours ago were still present, making his body a little harder to control.
Jay knew this would only get worse as time went on, so he needed to find some way to break this cat and mouse game, especially if this gave him a brief break.
As for the snake, although Jay had the impression that it had become somewhat slower, he wasn't really sure as the difference was minimal.
"LET'S GOO!!"
At that moment, he decided to run at full speed towards a tree, preparing to jump into one of its nearest branches.
Seeing this, the snake immediately launched another tentacle to intercept him.
However, before it arrived, Jay jumped once, taking off from the ground, and without his momentum slowing even a little, he jumped again, using a transparent air platform as a support.
Thanks to that momentum, Jay managed to climb the tree while the tentacle simply followed its path until it stuck into the tree trunk, creating a deep hole.
'Now, jump like there's no tomorrow!' Jay shouted in his head before jumping into another tree at the same time as he let go of the branch he was holding so it wouldn't affect his balance.
*TRRR*
The sound of something being pressed hard reached his ears, causing him to have to turn towards the source of this particular sound.
On the ground, the snake Aqugas was rapidly climbing a tree, which produced that sound was nothing more and nothing less than the tree's trunk being crushed due to the force the snake was exerting on it.
Apparently, the snake was not at all pleased that Jay had managed to climb a tree, taking its anger out on this unfortunate tree.
Then, just as it was at the top of the tree, the snake leapt towards another tree making use of its tentacles at a surprisingly fast speed.
"GIVE ME A BREAK, DAMMIT!!!" Jay didn't want to see anymore and started to run away, refusing to acknowledge that this snake could also chase him from tree to tree.
Unfortunately for him, the snake couldn't care less about what he was feeling and simply continued to chase him, albeit at a slower speed than before and unable to throw tentacles from time to time.
Due to his familiarity with this sort of thing, Jay was able to secure a slight lead, but as if to prove that he wasn't going to let it go easy on him, the snake wasn't far behind either.
But just as it looked like a new chase was about to begin, Jay suddenly stumbled, causing him to lose his balance for just a moment.
'Sh*t!'
*BAM!*
Unfortunately, that moment was enough for the snake to take advantage and hit him hard using one of its tentacles, crashing Jay to the ground.
"...Good thing I have the body of a rank (D+) pugilist!" Jay said feeling grateful for his body's resistance, quickly getting up to continue running away before the snake came down from the tree it was in.
'Just how much longer until Kesar is done?!' He wondered.
It was clear that the snake was learning to deal much better with him, what was worse, he was already far from being at his best, something that made things easier for the snake.
The reason he had stumbled earlier was also because of this, he was no longer in a position to exert his full strength, so he miscalculated a jump.
With a heavy sound, the snake came down, practically launching itself towards Jay as soon as it had touched the ground, its movement was fluid and efficient.
Only in a matter of seconds, it managed to reach Jay, however, the Aqugas snake didn't catch him, instead doing a great twist before again hitting him hard with one of its tentacles.
Although Jay tried to evade it as best he could, the blow still connected, sending him flying into another tree.
*BAM!*
From this action alone, it was clear that the snake did not want to kill him, at least not yet, for if that were the case, it would not have struck him, but would have caught him with its tentacles before drowning him.
This was because the snake had already realized for a while now that its prey was finally reaching its limits and could no longer put up much resistance, so it wanted to make it suffer to get even for the bad time it had earlier.
"Ouch... I don't think I'll be able to run anymore..." Jay said as he slowly stood up, his left leg shaking a little.
This time the hit did manage to hurt him, especially his left leg, something that would undoubtedly greatly worsen his mobility.
The Aqugas snake then slowly advanced, standing in front of Jay and looking down at him from above. Although one couldn't tell what kind of expression it had due to the lack of facial features, one thing was for sure, it wouldn't let Jay escape.
"Alright... let's do this then." Jay said as he got into a position to be able to throw a punch, a large amount of wind gathering around his right arm and legs.
With the snake being in front of him, he had no choice but to give it his all and create an opportunity to be able to escape.
In his mind it was simple enough, activate Overload, use the fifth and sixth step of the Phantom Trace to vanish from the snake's sight and again use the air jump to get as far away as possible, preferably towards the center of the elemental zone.
'It has to work...' He thought, putting more strength into his legs so that he could escape as soon as the snake attacked him, which would be the best time to move.
Although he hadn't mastered the air jump and the odds of it failing weren't low, it was the only way he could think of to get out of this situation.
*SWOOSH!
Suddenly, an extremely cold wind current swept the surroundings, focusing especially on the ground where the snake was, several ice thorns appearing where the wind current passed.
Then, accompanying that wind current, a wall of ice appeared in front of Jay, separating him from the snake.
Finally, his reinforcement had arrived.
