NeoRealm - Staring back into the Future

Chapter 407 - Fox Head Yet Not Really


Without stopping to finish the three downed monsters, Jason begins to struggle through the grass back towards the road. As he reaches the halfway point, the first reinforcements arrive, another trio of the strange monsters, though instead of chasing him, they go to check on the downed monsters. Once there, they chitter away to themselves and the oncoming hoard Jason can hear behind them.

As a silence falls over the field of grass, Jason takes a quick look back, only to see the three that had just arrived, now leaving. Instead of chasing him, two of the monsters are using their backward facing arms to carry the one that likely had its neck snapped going by how the hand was lolling to the side. The third newcomer, on the other hand, stays behind, watching him as he runs away.

Then another trio, and another, and even more show up. The other two injured monsters are assisted back into the multi-story tall grass as the remaining monsters all glare at Jason. They don't seem like they are too keen on trying to follow him to the road, but he can tell. If instead of heading directly for the road, he had stayed close to the tallest grass, they would have come at him.

It was only their stooped forms and ungainly movement on the ground that meant they weren't willing to risk coming after him. Still, as Jason reaches the road and begins to jog along it, he can see glimpses of fox heads peeking out of the grass canopy on both sides of the road. They know he is there and if he ever strays too close to them; they aren't going to let him go easily.

The worst part of this for Jason, is the fact that the grass seems to go on forever. Though he does take some comfort in knowing at least one reason, the grass near the road has been kept trimmed down. There are even signs of the shorter grass being a different type of grass to help prevent the really tall grass from getting too close to the road even if someone doesn't come by to maintain the road.

Too bad as the groups of taller grass which Jason now recognizes as being the same as the tree height grass show, the non-native grass isn't completely able to keep the other grass away. In fact, as he takes his time to observe the various pockets of the stuff, he can tell that the only reason they aren't taller is because they need the support of the whole to grow to full height.

And while this symbiotic relationship between two grass variants which allows them to grow to absurd heights is interesting, the monsters living there aren't forgiving. At least, the insectile fox headed monkey limbed variety was not. It is hard to see but Jason suspects there is a reason he is only seeing them pop their heads out of the canopy of the grass and not lower down. That, however, doesn't make him feel any safer.

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Not only that, though, with the way they are tracking him, he isn't going to have a chance to rest until he leaves them behind. After all, sure, they currently are sticking to their home turf, but since the first group was willing to come down to attack him, there isn't anything saying they wouldn't do the same when he makes camp.

So Jason continues to move, not quite a job, but at a pace that eats up the ground. Each step looks like a badly done stop animation film as he seems to jerk forward as he invests much of his loose Energy into his movement technique. His feet pounding on the pavement below in an almost hypnotic pattern.

Still, he can see the occasional fox head poking out from way too high up to be an actual fox. Though as time passes and he takes some time watching them in turn, he starts to doubt his opinion on what their heads look like. Sure, there is something of a vulpine feel to it, but certain qualities, even at a distance, start to stand out.

The ears are too low on the head. Their snout is quite wide yet thin. Even their eyes, a detail he can barely make out even after putting some Energy into his own eyes, are wide set in an almost herbivorous sort of way. In fact, the more he looks, the less like a fox they look. Now, he does admit that maybe their faces change with the area. After all, it has been most of the morning since he started trying to leave them behind and so these likely aren't the same ones from earlier.

That doesn't change a feeling, an off-putting sense, so of course he takes a screenshot. A quick check of that picture shows them looking exactly how he felt they did, an eerie near fox face. On the other hand, Jason very much feels like when fighting them they looked a lot more like fox heads.

At this point, though, all he can do is shake his head and continue moving on. The grass doesn't seem to stop, so neither can he. With how many heads watching him, Jason can tell that they are waiting for something. A thing that he is willing to bet would likely be him taking a break. So he doesn't.

The hours pass by as Jason continues his walking jog, not even stopping to get his and Lily's lunch out of his backpack. Instead, he eats on the move and feeds Lily by carrying her in his arms while holding various greens and hay for her to nibble on. That and he leaves a pile of food in with her in case something happens when night begins to fall.

Then he turns his attention to maintaining his movement. As it is, his higher stamina combined with the endless runner bonus has kept him half fresh, but it can't last forever. So all he can do is delve into whatever it was that had allowed him to run nonstop for days not that long ago.

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