Ascenders Rift

Swoosh! A chilly wind blew across a silent battlefield, filled with the corpses of three mutated gray wolves. The lights from starry heavens and bright moon, acting as a witness to their demise, as it vaguely illuminated their surroundings. Looking on the ground, one would see that their blood had yet to dry up as one could easily infer that their battle concluded not too long ago.

Shuffle! With the sound of a few rustling bushes, a man with glasses dressed in a suit had appeared. He glanced at the corpses and stepped forwards, pausing at their position before he stooped over and pressed one of his fingers onto the blood.

After doing this, he lifted his finger and placed it onto the tip of his tongue. His eyes behind his glasses gleamed in a reddish light as he smirked and spoke, "Oh, a quick and decisive bout. Excellent! Evan, you are far more capable than I've thought, all the better than I strive my best to capture you. This blood is still fresh; you shouldn't have gone too far."

As Ralph said this, he placed his ear on the ground as the night winds and noises of the wild creatures faded from his senses. Soon, he had managed to hear some human-like sounds in a variety of directions.

"Evan... I'm coming for you..." Ralph said in a humming manner as he licked his lips.

Not long after, his body vanished as he used some unknown technique to accelerate into the mountainous woods.

A distance away from that scene, Evan was moving ahead at a rapid pace, he ran quicker than an athletic runner and maneuvered through the woods and jagged hills no different from a nimble ape. He jumped from tree to tree using an astounding level of grip force to grab onto their branches.

At this time, he was holding onto a reasonably wide branch which he swung himself over before balancing on it's top with his feet in a crouched down posture. Looking before him, at a moderate distance away, he saw a precipice with a deep river that ran throughout the entire mountain range. On the other side of the river was a similarly tall cliff-face, being roughly 270 meters away.

However, standing in the path that led to the precipice was a huge bear, far from the average class. It was double the size of an adult bear with a dense brown-reddish fur. Carefully looking, one would even notice that its claws were long like knives, as they glowed a baleful hue.

Evan's eyes sunk as he saw this bear, he couldn't help but curse in his mind, "Oh crap! Of all creatures, a bear... and one that's on the verge of becoming a Razer Clawed Scarlet Bear. This thing is not like those wolves; I won't be able to face it in a head-on battle."

While Evan was thinking of how to find a way out, a voice soon sounded in a location not too far away from him.

"Evan... I know you're here, come on out!" Ralph's voice echoed across the silent night.

Evan's face turned grave as he thought, "Shit! Now he's even caught up with me; this is not good. I must risk it... I have only one chance, hook the rope, and jump in one swift movement"

Evan took off his backpack to lighten his load; he looked at the somewhat dried up scratch wounds on his arms and took out two containers from his bag. On the surface of these tubes, were the words, Dyothia Healing Paste.

"I'll keep these just in case..." Evan said as he pocketed the containers in some belt-like slots on his trousers. He then took out his rope and placed it over his shoulder while connected one end with a hook, after fastening the knot tightly he then put the hook over his other shoulder and looked ahead of him.

The bear was disturbed by the previous noise, it lifted its head and sniffed before its eyes gleamed in a reddish light as it roared.

Roar! Its shout sounded across the area, reaching the location of Ralph. Ralph was now looking at a corpse of a nearby human, but was he heard this sound; his eyes lit up as he shouted, "Haha! Evan, I've found you."

As he said this, his figure vanished yet again, merging with the dark as he became indistinct. Evan wasted no time, as he saw that the bear had become slightly distracted; he shouted in his mind before running, "It's now or never!"

Whoosh! Instantly, his body moved like cheetah's, sprinting with maximum power in both of his legs as if he'd been boosted by adrenaline. The bear certainly noticed this; it was enraged that a human would dare to move like that around it. However, before it could vent, someone else came into its vision.

Ralph was previously excited when he arrived at this position; he was even happier when he saw Evan perched on top of the tree branch as if he could hide from his senses. He was moments away from sneaking up on him, but before that happened, Evan and ran away.

Ralph was angered by this; he shouted in a rage as his body 'swooshed' forward like an arrow in flight, "Little brat, stay where you are!"

Evan knew that with his enemy's senses, he would be caught sooner or later, but he also knew that bear wasn't going to be easy to handle. That's why the moment he ran off, he ran in a direction close to the area of the bear.

The bear seeing the two coming in its direction was angrier, it looked at Evan before shifting its sights onto Ralph with more anger because of his previous shouts. With a roar, the bear charged towards him moving at speeds, no inferior to a car.

Ralph was angered by the bear's arrogance; he glanced at it with a cold look in his eyes as he shouted, "You damn animal! Get out of my way!"

Not long after his shout, Evan, who was a distance away, heard a series of strange noises behind him, following a loud boom.

Ka-bang! With the sound of an explosion, specks of dust kicked up from behind along with a shockwave that pushed up him into the air, throwing him off balance.

'Holy shit, I knew he wasn't anything to scoff at, but damn! How can he be strong so early?' Evan cursed in his mind, as he glanced at the scene behind him while he was tossed into the air by the shockwave.

Though the scene behind him was dark, he was able to make it out with his night vision lens. He could see that a dust cloud covered the entire region, and both the bear and Ralph had vanished. However, that was not the end of his problems; the force of the explosion was too high. It pushed Evan so far that he had unknowingly arrived more than 250 meters beyond the precipice. At this height, there was only a little less than 20 meters left to reach the other side, but sadly, he had already begun to fall into the deep valley.

"There's only one chance! I can't miss it!" Evan shouted inwardly as he tried his best to keep himself calm, he grabbed the rope and whirled it around in the air before tossing it with all his power at a nearby tree that grew around the cliff's edge.

The hook and the rope continued to extend forwards, causing Evan's eyes to show a hint of anxiousness as he yelled, "Reach for me!"

The hook 'whooshed' through the air, rapidly unfurling the bundle of rope in his arms, and by the time it was on its final coil, the hook had narrowly arrived its destination. Quickly, it spun around the tree limb, followed by a 'clicking sound,' by which it extended latched onto the tree-branch.

Evan seeing this was excited as he grasped the remains of the rope in his arms and said, "Haha, I knew my luck wasn't so bad," He wiped the sweat from his forehead, feeling a little better, but the rope had continued to swing forwards headed for the other cliff face.

"Shit!" Evan cursed once more as he saw this, he promptly acted by extending his legs forwards as both of his arms were placed before his face while they gripped the rope tightly.

Bang! Not long after, he smashed into the wall, luckily for him though his strong legs had counterbalanced most of the force.

"Haha... sigh, life definitely isn't an easy chore..." Evan said in a self-mocking manner as he saw the bruises on his arms. He shook his head and prepared to climb the rope before something unexpected happened. However, there was a change.

"Evan!" Ralph's angered voice sounded from far behind him, looking back Evan saw that Ralph was standing at the precipice that was more than 270 meters behind him.

"No matter how good you are, you could never be more than a Level 2 in this early stage. You won't be able to jump this far." Evan thought to himself, he glared at Ralph and gave him a middle finger as he shouted, "You damn stalker! Why don't you try and catch me now, you son of a bitch?"

Ralph looked at the figure that was hanging from the rope on the far side of the mountain range as he gritted his teeth, he then shouted in a cold tone, "Evan, don't you think that you'll be able to escape. I'll find you again, you hear me, I'll find you!"

Evan smirked as he replied, "You don't have to worry, you need not look for me, for in a few days, I will find you."

Ralph was surprised at this, he mocked, "Haha, you foolish boy, do you know who you're dealing with, what I am truly capable of?"

Evan no longer replied, focusing his time to climb the rope to the top of the other ledge. He no longer wanted to continue this one direction conversation, of a typical villain and hero in fiction.

"You...! That blasted boy! When I capture you, and I will! You will rue the day!" Ralph said with a snort as he turned around and vanished.

Evan who had by now climbed up to the other side of the mountain range, wiped the sweat from his face, he looked back with a cold look on his face he pondered, "I'll be sure to pay back at the appointed time..."

Not long after, he dragged his wounded body into the distance, fading into the dark of the trees and bushes.