Chương 120: Non-stop battles

Esha blurred through a tunnel deep beneath the surface, the ground trembling with constant quakes. Her eyes stayed fixed ahead, wary of worms bursting from the walls. The slick, slimy floor almost sent her sprawling, but she caught herself with a curse and pressed on. This cursed tunnel had to end eventually. Her prayers were soon answered as the passage widened into a cavern vast with jagged stalagmites and endless shadows. As she emerged, eight sets of eyes snapped toward her.

They began to move, but her gaze was fixed on the grotesque sight crawling across the ceiling. A massive body of fused, spider-like limbs dragged itself along, and from it dangled eight bubbling pods. Inside each floated a captive. In one of them, Gao floated, clutching the first of four tokens. The clue they'd solved earlier had led them to a strange box that had sucked Gao inside, binding her to the monstrosity along with seven others.

Only the first group to free a captive would keep the token, so she had to act before the others arrived, or the beast would teleport elsewhere again. She sprinted up the cavern wall, activating her dashing skill. From the opposite side, four other competitors arrived and charged at the creature, splitting the defending bug's attention. Of the beasts rushing forward, only two pursued her now. Manageable. A bulbous slug lashed out, trying to clamp onto her leg.

It spat a jet of ooze that shimmered with corrosive light. She activated one of her shop treasures, a shield glowing light blue around her body. The ooze splattered harmlessly against the barrier as she kicked off the wall and vaulted upward. The second worm lunged. Esha drove one blade into a rock for leverage, arched back, and with her free hand, slashed her second blade across the worm's side as it sailed past. It split in a spray of gore, raining entrails as she swung herself clear.

Her momentum carried her closer to the ceiling beast. She reached it at the same instant as two other competitors, a frog woman and a hulking grey turtle man. The cavern ceiling became their battlefield. Hanging upside down, clinging by her blades, Esha whirled like a mini tornado to fend them off. The frog's tongue lashed and recoiled with dizzying speed while glowing claws scraped into the stone to hold its weight.

The turtle pressed forward with brute strength, trying to crush her against the chitinous shell that encased Gao's bubble. And all the while, the monstrous creature stirred, its eight captives gently rocking in their prisons as the tokens in their hands gleamed with promised hope. The turtle man fought with unsettling ease, standing upside down as though gravity meant nothing to him. He pulled out a pair of batons, flinging one at Esha and the other at the frog.

She deflected the weapon with a swipe, only to curse as it snapped back into his palm like a boomerang. He hurled it again without pause. She dodged a snapping tongue and saw the turtle reach for the bubble beside him. A scythe appeared in his hands, its blade biting into the membrane. She had to move fast, so she withdrew two knives, each tied to a rope. Spinning one overhead, she forced the frog to leap back before whipping it toward the turtle. It clanged harmlessly against his shell, exactly what she wanted.

With a flick, she looped the rope around a nearby limb of the beast, then vaulted herself across the ceiling. In the next heartbeat, she was clinging to the bubble that held Gao. A feral grin spread across her face as she slashed into the membrane. The monstrous body beneath them didn't react, its many legs still hammering into the ceiling as it crawled onward. Her speed made the outcome clear: she would break through first. Realizing this, both frog and turtle abandoned their own bubbles to strike at her instead.

Esha laughed. From her belt, she pulled two spider eggs she'd harvested on the surface and hurled them at the charging pair. They burst in a nauseating stench, splattering slime across the ceiling. The reek was enough to disorient them both; the frog's tongue lashed wildly, missing its mark, and the turtle lost his grip. Together, they plummeted into the cavern's shadows below.

"I told you those eggs would come in handy," Esha crowed, driving her blade down. With a final slice, the bubble split open, and Gao spilt into her arms. The token shimmered in her grasp.

"Now, shall we send those fools home?" Esha grinned, dropping from the ceiling in pursuit of the dazed enemies below. Gao summoned a water elemental that cradled her descent, drifting gently after her laughing companion. __ Joe watched as the cloud around the bubble finally dispersed, the giant fish cresting through the open sky before settling onto a vast stretch of yellow vapour. With a puff of smoke, the remains of the bubble dissolved.

Only he and Corel remained; every other competitor had been sent home, except the two he'd been forced to eliminate for his Harbinger quest. The numbness creeping in from that thought unsettled him. He pushed it aside as their feet sank onto the cloud's rolling surface, soft and unstable like a waterbed. A new notification shimmered before their eyes. Cloud Berries are maturing all around you. Harvest each of the ten types of berries before they are all consumed by the cloud mites. Prize, first token of entry.

"What is a cloud mite?" Corel asked. As if her question were a summons, hundreds of spider-like shapes wriggled free of the cloud, dog-sized mites that bounded across the yellow surface in every direction. At that same moment, berry bushes sprouted, filling the air with a mouthwatering sweetness. Joe broke into a sprint toward the nearest bush, as a swarm of twenty mites converged on it.

"Let's move fast!" he shouted, as he dove into the mob, swatting the mites back to snatch a handful of fruit. Gorgo berries. 1/10 berries harvested. And so the 'great berry hunt' began, though it was more like a desperate extermination. The pair dashed through the sprawling cloudscape, crushing mites underfoot and clawing berries from bushes before the creatures consumed them. Within twenty minutes, they'd managed only four types. Worse, the bushes were vanishing fast, swallowed up by the swelling tide of mites.

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"Any idea on a better way to do this?" Joe panted, eyes darting across the shifting cloud for a glimpse of their next target.

"No," Corel admitted, frustration edging her tone. She slashed at a cluster of mites, only to watch another bush sink beneath their bodies.

"None of my skills are cut out for this. There are too many bugs."

"Fuck," Joe replied. Then he crouched suddenly.

"Okay, jump on." Corel leapt onto his back. A heartbeat later, the world warped as Joe vanished, reappearing high above the ocean of clouds. He stretched out a hand, activating Seeds Will Grow. At first, nothing happened. Then the cloud rumbled as hundreds of shoots of corn erupted, scattering waves of mites like bowling pins. Joe slammed his fists together, unleashing Farming Perdition and flooding the corn with mana. Every mite convulsed mid-crawl, their bodies locking up as the skill seized their muscles.

A heartbeat later, the cobs exploded, showering the cloud in lethal kernels. As the mites reeled, Joe narrowed his eyes, activating Nature's Botany on the berry bushes below. To his surprise, faint hues shimmered around them, subtle variations in glow. Some matched, others stood out, and a pattern emerged. He Space-Jumped, landing beside one bush. Corel leaned down, snatching a handful of fruit.

"Gorgo's," she confirmed. Joe noted the hue, then jumped again to another slightly different glow.

"Thero berries," Corel said, unimpressed. They'd already found these as well. Three more jumps, and at last, an orange-tinged bush.

"Histo berries. That's new," Corel grinned, clapping once.

"I think I've cracked it." Joe tapped her leg, and the pair blurred across the cloud, hopping from hue to hue. Within minutes, they'd gathered nine out of ten berries. The cloud quaked beneath them. A monstrous mite, ten times the size of the others, heaved itself up, a full berry bush sprouting from its head like a crown. Joe stared.

"You have got to be kidding me." Corel tightened her legs around him, eyes sparkling.

"The last bush. Go get it!" He groaned, but obeyed. The battle that followed hardly deserved the title, twenty minutes of dodging, hacking, and jumping until Corel whooped in triumph, clutching the final berries. A token materializing in her hand, glowing with their victory. With grins splitting their faces, Joe leapt them off the cloud. Only as they plummeted through the open sky did he realize just how high up they were.

His stomach lurched as he prepared for a rough landing until he spotted a glint of blue below. A lake. Chaining Space-Jumps, he and Corel soon splashed into the water in a froth of spray. Gasping, soaked, they hauled themselves free. With the first token secured, the hunt continued. Hours passed as hundreds of competitors were ejected in defeat, their stars shattered and hopes cut short.

The first major shock came when the number two-ranked, Target Practice, was suddenly eliminated, failing to secure a second token. Joe skimmed the lists while running, chuckling as he saw Esha and Gao, Tevenny and Valeri still in the competition. They had a symbol by their name indicating they had claimed a token, just like he and Corel, and he hoped they were on their way to a second. Without any warning, a sharp pain lanced through the back of Joe's neck as a notification flashed.

You have been marked by a hunter. Fear courses through your veins. Joe skidded to a halt, raising his hand. [Hide!] - Joe. Just as he sent that message, fourteen poison-laced arrows ripped from a bush, screaming toward him. His barding sprang up around him, but the arrows tore through it like paper, punching deep into his chest. He spat blood as the impact hurled him into a massive rock, which shattered on contact before tossing him into a brutal tumble. [Run now! Don't worry about me! It's Kilch!!!!] - Joe.

Corel hesitated only a moment before swearing and vanishing into the brush, ducking low. She needn't have worried. The hunter's eyes were fixed solely on Joe. Clambering upright, Joe yanked the arrows free one by one, each spurt of blood darker than the last. By the time he pulled the final one, Uriel's light activated, purging the corrosive toxins from his veins.

'I hate poison,' Uriel snarled.

"Me too," Joe agreed, spitting another mouthful of blood. Poison and toxins were cowardly weapons, slow, hidden killers that robbed battle of its thrill. His Nature's Healing knit his wounds slowly as he straightened.

"Come out! Kilch!" Joe roared. A shadow shifted above. Kilch crouched on a high branch, cold eyes boring down.

"You removed my poison? How?" his beaked mouth hissed.

"You don't expect me to answer that, do you?" Joe shot back, gaze darting.

"No. I don't." Kilch vanished. The mark seared into Joe again. He Space-Jumped three times, landing in a small clearing and froze as the predator's gaze locked on him once more. Doom pressed down like a weight. Then the trees erupted: twenty arrows screaming straight for his heart. Joe bolted, but the arrows moved too fast. He poured mana into his stream, coating his body as he curled tight into a ball. The storm of arrows hammered into him, ricocheting off his glowing shell.

The impact launched him sideways, slamming him into the dirt in a spray of earth'He can see the mark,' Uriel whispered, her light cleansing him again and stripping away the second brand. Fuck, this hunting bastard was annoying. The pain from those arrows bouncing off his Mana Stream was brutal but bearable. Internal injuries slowly knitted as he popped a healing pill into his mouth, finally landing on his feet after ricocheting off a few trees. Corel's dot flickered not far away.

[Head north, I'll circle round and try to meet up when I lose this guy.] - Joe. [Are you okay? Can you get away?] - Corel [Yeah. I have a skill that counters his poison. So I just need to lose him and jump where he can't track me. I got this.] - Joe. Joe had never been hunted before. He quickly learned it was nothing like fighting beasts or even assassins. Escaping a predator born for the hunt was hell. Five hours.

That's how long Kilch stalked him, five hours of arrows flashing from nowhere, five hours of shadows he couldn't strike back at. Not once did Joe land a blow. Kilch struck from ranges Joe couldn't counter and stayed invisible to his mini-map. Joe was running blind the entire time. But at last, he broke free. Exhausted and bleeding, he reunited with Corel, who, to his shock, had managed to secure two more tokens during his flight.

"How the heck did you get two more tokens? Tell me everything!" Joe demanded in excitement as they slumped in a small cave along the mountainside. Corel's eyes gleamed in the flickering light as she spun her tale. Heroism, danger, and a dashing green adventurer securing her prize. Joe chuckled. She was starting to sound suspiciously like him. She just needed more flair, a little more exaggeration of danger, and she'd be a proper storyteller.

A notification reminded them that the fourth token wouldn't appear for five hours. With nothing to do but wait, they settled in, ate, and let the cave shield them. Joe's vision pulsed. Three red dots appeared nearby, and a message burned across his sight. Kill your targets!

"Fuck. I'll be right back. System quest." Joe groaned, rising. Corel shot him a worried look, but didn't stop him as he vanished from the cave. What Joe thought would be a quick task turned into a two-hour jaunt around the jungles nearby as one after another of his system-ordered targets appeared and attacked him. Once the two hours were up, his 'quest' was at 11/12 and he finally returned to the cave. Corel was napping inside.

He sat down next to her, watching her slumber lightly, feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders.