The Copy Mage

With his wooden spear tied to his back, Damian cautiously walked deeper into the forest.

Damian could see that the mountain in the centre, was a few kilometres away from where he currently was and that distance was mostly forest land.

However, the weather and environment made it more of a tropical rainforest, which was arguably more dangerous than a normal forest with all the dangerous and poisonous animals that could be found there.

Damian could see all kinds of tropical birds stood in the trees and flying above him, while he also saw all kinds of large insects that he avoided, staying cautious.

Hearing hissing from behind him, Damian turned to see a snake stealthily slithering towards him from behind and dashed away, without even attempting to fight against it in the weak body he was in.

After running away for what felt like half an hour, avoiding and rushing away from any animals he came across, Damian felt as though his heart was going to leap out of his chest.

Only after running, his entire body was drained and tired while panting for air.

Leaning against a tree, Damian caught his breath while cautiously looking around him for any animals.

In the distance, he could hear faint wooshing sounds and instantly rushed towards them.

"It really is a river" he exclaimed joyously as he saw the flowing river before him.

Damian rushed towards it and began to wash his face and drink the water that as it went down his body, relieved his thirst and he felt as though he had nourished his internal organs.

After drinking an entire litre, Damian sat down to catch his breath and allow his body to rest.

He began to feel a sharp pain from his feet that had deep scratches and scrapes, with blood leaking from them, but he had never noticed because his body was warm and he was too occupied running away from the animals.

Washing his feet in the water, Damian wrapped large amounts of leaves under his feet and finding another vine, he tied the leaves tightly around his feet, making a pair of sandal of sorts.

As he sat beside the river, he suddenly saw the snout of a crocodile reveal itself as it attempted to sneakily attack him.

Seeing it, Damian instantly jumped up and made a few metres distance between himself and the crocodile as he watched the crocodile waltz out of the water and stand on the river bed, glaring at Damian.

Knowing its speed wasn't fast, Damian wasn't scared of it being able to reach him, but he felt intimidated by the 3-metre long crocodile that had glaring red eyes and dozens of sharp teeth that could pierce into him with ease and pop him like a balloon.

Not turning his back to the crocodile, Damian walked backwards away from it slowly, and after seeing that it wasn't following him, turned around and ran along the stream.

"If I follow the river, I may be able to find the cave I am looking for" hoped Damian as he saw the crocodile laying where he left it basking in the scarce sunlight that managed to penetrate through the dense trees.

Just as he had hoped, as he continued down the stream for 50 metres, he saw a cave near to the waterfall where the river began.

[This is almost too convenient and I don't think it would be this easy without there being a trap] thought Damian to himself cautiously.

Taking the spear off his back and holding it tightly, Damian approached the cave carefully, assuming that there would be some sort of inhabitant.

Peering into the cave from the side, as soon as Damian saw what was inside, he was struck with fear.

[Its a leopard] he screamed within his mind, terrified of the sleeping monster within the cave.

Just as he was about to silently walk away, Damian saw the sleeping leopard's eyes suddenly open and glare at him.

"Damn it" screamed Damian, instantly running as fast as his weak body could take him away from the cave.

The leopard seeing Damian's size, speed and weak body was amused and didn't rush to chase after Damian.

But after a few seconds, it strolled out of the cave then bolted after Damian who was running back along the stream.

[Think Damian, you can't die now and you don't know what might happen to your real body. So think of something] he screamed to himself as the adrenaline began to rush around his body.

Damian's heart was beating at rapid speeds as his mind was overwhelmed with fear, but screaming to himself he managed to think of a plan that would be extremely risky, but probably the only way out of his current situation.

Dashing towards where he had left the crocodile laying, Damian hoped he could get the crocodile to fight with the leopard for him, but not seeing the crocodile his heart slumped.

[All I can do is pray that the ice leopard can't swim] thought Damian to himself.

As Damian approached where he had seen the crocodile, the leopard was merely a few metres behind him and was gaining on him at rapid speeds.

The leopard wasn't even running at its full speed and was merely jogging, yet it was gaining on Damian easily.

Stabbing his spear into the ground, Damian used the quite flexible spear to fling himself to the other side of the 5-metre wide river, using his momentum and his spear to aid him as he landed crashing onto the other side of the river.

Looking at the leopard, Damian hoped that it might have stopped, but he wanted to cry when he saw the leopard pounce into the air and over the river with ease.

Just as Damian thought it was over, seeing the leopard midair coming towards him, a large green crocodile, with its jaw unhinged, jumped up from the water.