Dreamland: Freedom (Terror Infinity, Ultimate Evolution)

Eden sat on the front porch while waiting for Whitney to be ready, his 1911 holstered at his hip and the Mossberg in his hands, staring at the still-burning barn not so far away.

It was falling into pieces as it had been completely consumed by the flames. If everything else had not been enough, Jason's corpse should have been crushed by the falling pieces of the roof, but there were still no notifications.

This meant killing Jason either did not give out any reward, or he was not dead yet. There wasn't much more Eden could do to Jason now, though, as burning the corpse, smashing his head open, and burying it under a burning barn was about as much damage as he could do.

After a few minutes, Whitney returned, clean for the first time in more than a month, and in some of Jenna's clothes.

Everyone was tense about the possibility of Jason still being alive. Since it came from Eden, the self-proclaimed monster hunter, they all felt like it was a real possibility and could not wait to get out of there.

They silently got in the car, with Trent driving, and Eden sat shotgun this time, while the rest tried to fit behind. No one was sent in the trunk this time, and they could not care less who was sitting next to whom.

As Trent sped off, blowing past the speed limit, Eden turned to look at Whitney and asked, "You spent six weeks with Jason; do you think you could go back to his hideout if needed?"

Cliff looked angry at the question, and Whitney was terrified, so Eden quickly added before either of them could speak, "If Jason attacks us, which is very probable, then it means he can resurrect, and whatever allows him to be revived should be hidden in his base. So, could you?"

Whitney's face was pale at the prospect, but she still nodded weakly, so Eden followed up, "Good. Did anything stick out to you while you were there? Something of value?"

Whitney thought about it for a moment before showing him her necklace, "Jason has this weird obsession with his mother. I think he believes I look like her, and that's why he kept me alive."

Eden grabbed the pendant, but seeing no status page appear, he shook his head and asked, "Anything else?"

Whitney shook her head and apologized, "Sorry, nothing that comes to mind."

Eden hummed slightly when suddenly he felt a strange feeling. A feeling of danger.

The world suddenly slowed down to a crawl, so much so that it looked completely static. Eden wanted to look in the direction of the danger, but even his body had been frozen in time.

So, Eden decided to trust his strange instinct and tried to raise his arm. It moved painfully slow in his perception, but it still moved. As he was looking toward the back of the vehicle, Eden could not even see what he was doing, as the danger he felt came from the front.

Still, he grabbed at the supposedly empty air, only to feel something in his palm. Finally, as Eden's eyes managed to turn enough to see what exactly he had grabbed, he saw the tip of an arrow, aimed directly at his head. Eden could feel the friction of the spinning arrow in his hand, but he grabbed it even harder as time regained its normal course.

There was a loud sound from the windshield breaking, and everyone looked in shock; to them, time had not slowed down. All they saw was Eden reaching out behind him and stopping an arrow mid-flight.

If they had somewhat doubted his identity as a monster hunter before, it was now cemented in their minds.

As for Eden, he threw the arrow down, his hand left bleeding and slightly burnt from the friction alone. Although he had somehow managed to catch it and avoid an instant kill, the momentum of the arrow had been enough to damage his hand.

Eden did not doubt in his mind about who had fired the arrow. If anything, he was surprised he had even managed to catch it, considering Jason's strength, though Eden supposed the strength behind an arrow also had to do with the bow it was shot from.

Before he could warn the others, another arrow was fired, this one aimed at the tires, blowing one of them. Trent did his best to control the car, but they were going too fast, and he quickly lost control as the car veered off the road, flipping over.

Thankfully, Trent had been smashing the brakes, so they had lost a lot of speed before crashing, and now, even as the car was flipped upside down, the shock had not been too violent. At least Eden, with his 7 in Physique, was completely fine from the car crash.

That was not to say he was safe, however.

Smashing his way through the already damaged windshield, Eden saw Jason standing in the distance, without a mask, and with a bow in hand. Seeing he was about to take another shot, Eden raised his Mossberg by reflex, and the previously skilled Eden turned near-perfect as he did it all in one smooth motion, managing to fire before Jason.

Despite the distance and hurried shot, Eden accurately hit his target, which was even more impressive considering it was the bow in Jason's hands. Eden did not have the time to ponder his sudden, unnaturally perfect shooting skills as Jason suddenly disappeared.

It was not a 'Slasher teleportation', where the protagonist would look away and the killer would vanish out of thin air because Eden's eyes never left Jason. Instead, one moment he was far in the distance, and the next, Jason was just a few meters away from him, now with a machete in hand.

Although he was incomparably shocked at what he had just seen, Eden instantly raised his rifle and shot Jason's unprotected face.

His face blew up, blood shooting out everywhere, yet it barely affected the giant man, only staggering him for a moment. The Mossberg might not have the Stopping Power special skill, but getting shot in the face was probably disorienting in any case.

Seeing this, Eden swiftly re-chambered a round and aimed for Jason's knees this time, the strategy having already been proven useful before. His hands moved with unexplainable ease as he rapidly emptied his rifle into his knees, stopping Jason from moving any further.

Jason might be tough, but the Mossberg dealt even more damage than the 1911 per bullet, so his left kneecap had been utterly destroyed by the third bullet, and the last two seriously damaged his right one, forcing him to buckle down.

Eden knew that this would only be a temporary setback for Jason, so he yelled at the others, "I'm going to attract his attention! Whitney, bring everyone to hide around the camp, and don't split up!"

It was no coincidence that Jason had stopped them right next to Camp Crystal Lake.

Without waiting for an answer, Eden ran first toward the forest while making sure Jason was following after him.

Whether Jason wanted his mask back or out of sheer revenge, Jason did not even throw a glance at the rest of the group as he followed after Eden, with a limp in his step that barely seemed to slow him down.

Eden did not know how in the hell Jason was walking with a shattered kneecap and a half, but he sure was. Since it was empty and would be cumbersome, Eden had left the Mossberg back at the car, so he used his 1911 to kite Jason, who was somehow still faster than him, for as long as possible.

Fortunately, while slightly faster than Eden, Jason was still slowed down by his knees, and Eden managed to reach his destination, Camp Crystal Lake, by the end of his first magazine. On the way, he noted that instead of getting staggered for two whole seconds with each shot, as Stopping Power's description said, Jason was staggered for around half a second instead.

Eden already had a hunch the stun was not two seconds long before, but he never had the time to count until now.

Quickly reloading, Eden inwardly reminded himself that he only had 8 bullets instead of 9 now, since he did not have any round chambered, as he reached deep into the camp.

Eden ran up to the largest building in the camp, the old main building where the counselors and the children used to live before Pamela Voorhees' slaughter. He had picked this place precisely because it was the biggest building, and thus where he would be able to kite Jason the easiest.

After all, Jason's Agility was by far the weakest of his three, while it was Eden's best.

Aided by said Agility, which had reached 7 thanks to holding his 1911, Eden climbed the side of the building rapidly, but midway through it, as he looked down to see how Jason was keeping up, he found that he had disappeared. Hearing a creaking sound above, Eden looked up and saw Jason already standing on the first floor's roof, his machete raised.

Moving at the last moment, Eden flipped to the side, barely holding on as he dodged the downward swing by a hair, before quickly climbing through a window.

Inside, Eden stopped for a moment to catch his breath. This altercation had confirmed one of Eden's guesses: that Jason was not only inhumanly strong but also could teleport.

From what he could remember, this ability was never directly shown in the movies, but it had been speculated by the community more than once that Jason was capable of it. Whether that was really the case or the movies were just too mediocre to have consistency in Jason's movements, no one knew, but Dreamland had translated that into teleportation.

Eden did not get to dwell on the matter for long, though, as he once again felt danger, and while time did not slow this time, Eden still rolled forward.

He had acted just in time, as, at the same moment, the roof right above him was brutally smashed open as a giant man came through. Had Eden not moved, Jason would have crushed him under him.