Chương 296: Chapter 292 - Jurassic Valley (XLIX)

Jack sat back on his fancy futuristic chair, reclined just enough, hovering in the virtual void. Earth glowed below, the Milky Way a river of stars behind him. Holo-displays floated all around—match replays, live feeds, forum threads stacked like cards. His fingers brushed the controls built into the armrests as he scrolled. Jack smirked and dove into the latest comment war. The Shadows' last screening had set the forums on fire. He hadn't planned on getting dragged in—not again.

But here he was, thumb hovering, pulse ticking up as old memories stirred of his days as an infamous keyboard warrior. He stared at the screen, jaw tightening as he scrolled past the endless stream of takes—absolute shit like " Leonie solos Gen-1's seven"and" Gen-1's old school" popping up over and over. Jack clenched his hands, forcing himself to breathe slow. Nah. Too old for this shit. He lingered on the thread another second, watching the shitstorm spiral, then killed the window. What else…

let's—" ALERT: Grade-1 notification for all users. Feed from Gen-1 will now be screened." Jack's eyes shot wide, breath hitching as he nearly toppled from the virtual chair. Gen… Gen-1!?

"MEI, clear all this shit. Now! Get that on!" he barked. In an instant, the cluttered threads and floating windows vanished. The virtual space dimmed—the view of Earth, the stars, the Milky Way—all gone. In their place, a single massive display hovered before him. A steady voice came through.

"Welcome, everyone. Apologies for the sudden cut-in, but this simply can't wait. No preamble—Gen-1's feed is live." The screen filled with a mountain range—lush forests, towering cliffs… and corpses. The camera zoomed. Blurs at first, too fast to process.

"Let's slow that down. What you're seeing… is not playback lag—it's the speed of combat. Rewinding…" The footage rolled back, clarity sharpening: Ayu, moving like lightning across the stone, severing Xok'al heads in clean, brutal arcs.

"There it is. That's Ayu. And—wait… aren't those…?" The camera shifted, highlighting the bodies.

"Yes. Confirmation just in. These creatures match the seventh boss in both form and function—at least the two-tailed variants. The three-tailed… we're told they're faster. Much faster than the seventh boss." Jack felt the chill race down his spine.

"Which means—Ayu is, without question, now multiple times stronger than the force Gen-1 once faced at their limit." Jack's jaw clenched. Multiple… times? By herself?

"And she's not alone." The view panned back. Another figure—steady, almost casual—holding two sharp blades loose at his sides, walking forward.

"There. Alonso. It looks like they've abandoned or outgrown the black armor granted by the bosses in the earlier stage. And—oh… oh my." The feed locked on: the floating corpse of a three-tailed Xok'al, its throat gashed clean through. The limbs moved—slicing down a charging two-tailed brother—while projectiles veered harmlessly aside, pulled off course mid-air.

"Ladies and gentlemen… it seems Alonso is manipulating the corpse's limbs with EM control—using the dead to slay the living—while simultaneously magnetizing incoming fire to protect himself. This… this is beyond remarkable. We are witnessing power that defies every benchmark we've known… several times beyond." Jack just stared, breathless. The seventh boss had once seemed an unshakable peak. Now Ayu and Alonso carved through stronger versions like reaping crops. Could this strength even be contained?

Could the world handle this? And yet—beneath the awe—Jack felt it. That pull. That hunger. The craving to be there. To reach out and seize the promise The Tower offered. But then the display flared—flashing fast, the image shifting violently as Ayu appeared, intercepting a blur of motion.

"Is that… is that a four-tailed variant? A four-tailed version of the seventh boss?!" The commentator's voice wavered, caught between shock and dread. The feed showed Ayu's body straining, feet dragging deep furrows in the rock as she tried to hold the charge. Alonso, behind her, struggled to move—his frame tense, locked, as if the very air fought against him.

"What is happening?! Is this the true boss? Is this why the feed is active? That strength—to push back Ayu like this… and Alonso—Alonso can't match its EM field! That could only mean… its EM control is vastly superior! And—oh! That hit hurt—Alonso is down! He's slammed into the mountainside!" Debris rained down as the focus followed his fall. The feed snapped back to Ayu—her body weaving through brutal strikes, evasions so sharp they seemed impossible, yet not enough.

The creature's blade burst through her defense—a savage arc that nearly severed her left arm, sending her tumbling back.

"This… this is hard to watch. The Tower—why is it pushing them this far? What is this thing? Ayu—she's standing! She's not backing down! But—oh no. No. The creature isn't going for her… it's going for Alonso!" Jack's heart hammered as his hands hovered at the edge of his controls, ready to tear the VR rig off and run to his friend who was about to be sent back—but unable to look away from his final moments. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

The display zoomed in on the scene, slow motion catching every detail: Alonso, barely standing, swords hanging low, blood dripping from his head, gaze fixed forward but unfocused. In front of him, the four-tailed Xok'al loomed, axe-shaped limb raised high. Jack tensed. This… this was it. The blade came down and— Missed? The air split with a gust, dust whipping outward—yet Alonso stood untouched.

The camera zoomed in as the Xok'al staggered back, a thick arc of blood spilling from a deep gash slashed clean across its chest. For a moment, the world held its breath.

"This… what just happened?" Ayu stared at Alonso, her eyes wide with absolute disbelief. Her senses had to be lying—had to be—but the truth was right there, clear as day. Alonso stood untouched by the devastating downward slash. And instead… the commander Xok'al bled, a deep wound carved across its chest. What did he do? It couldn't have been that mysterious sword intent of his—she knew its limits. No, that wasn't it. Besides, she hadn't seen his blade move. She hadn't seen him move at all!

Then her gaze sharpened, catching it—a single bead of blood gliding along the edge of one of Alonso's swords. Ayu clenched her teeth and launched forward. Whatever the hell just happened—she wasn't about to stand idle. She drove her feet into the dirt, ignoring the scream of her torn left arm, bones grinding, ligaments barely holding. But before she could close the distance, the Xok'al commander lashed out. Two bladed tails slashed wide at Alonso, the other two fired projectiles aimed square at his head and chest.

Ayu's heart pounded—she wouldn't make it in time. She braced for the worst, desperate for another miracle. And then— The air shifted. Something subtle. Almost nothing… but not. Alonso vanished—no, he was there… but wrong. Like he existed and didn't at the same time. The projectiles smashed into the rock behind him, bursting in sharp, echoing booms. The slashing tails carved nothing but air—only for another arc of blood to spray wide.

And dropping with a thud to the ground was one of the Xok'al's tails, cleanly severed. Ayu's steps faltered as the Xok'al recoiled, its stance shifting—more guarded now, its eyes darting, uncertain, confused. That's when Ayu noticed it. Alonso's gaze was distant, lost—yet the air around him felt… wrong. Not like the Alonso she knew—the one who fought with balance in every strike, with solid footing, will, and flashes of that reckless wit. No. What surrounded him now was colder. So much colder.

And those eyes—those weren't her Alonso's eyes. She knew him too well. Even in a trance, even at his lowest, there was always something of him there. A fire. A spark. That stubborn resolve to fight until death if he had to. But this… This was empty. Cold as iced blood. This wasn't him at all. It was like something had taken over his body—something cold, ruthless, unstoppable.

"Alonso…" Ayu's voice came out barely a breath as she froze. Every instinct screamed to move, to help him—but something deeper held her still. Whatever was happening—she couldn't stop it. The commander Xok'al shrieked, blood gushing from its severed tail. It began circling, warier now. Alonso stood loose, unguarded, his body looking as broken as before. And yet—not even the Xok'al's longer tails, with their jagged blades and cannon tips, dared test his range.

Instead, its back suddenly arched, flesh tearing as sharp, metallic bone-shaped blades separated from its spine with a wet, sickening rip, blood spraying in thin jets. The double-edged blades hovered, glinting under the light—grotesque, polished, shaped like jagged shards. They began to spin, slow at first—then faster, faster, until the air itself seemed to scream. A high, vicious hiss filled the clearing, the sound of metal slicing wind at brutal frequency. And then—they shot forward.

The blades tore through the air like a storm of razors, the force so fierce it left shockwaves in their wake. They punched clean through where Alonso's neck and legs were in a blur too fast to follow—then smashed into the rock wall behind, detonating on impact. The mountain face split and splintered, tons of stone blasted apart as the echoes of the deafening boom thundered across the peaks. Dust and shards rained down in a gritty cascade from the aftermath.

But even before the dust settled, Ayu caught sight of the Xok'al shooting out through the cloud of dust, dashing back—blood spilling from a fresh wound she hadn't even seen land. A deep gash ran from its shoulder to its neck, a cut that should've been fatal… yet the creature kept moving. When did that— And Alonso… where was— And then she saw him. In front of the Xok'al… no… next to… Wait.

Her eyes widened in disbelief as, for a brief instant, she saw not one but two Alonsos—each holding a single sword, one in the left and one in the right, at both sides of the frozen Xok'al. Ayu was stunned, unable to grasp what was happening… but then the figures vanished. Both Alonso merged into one, materializing just a few steps behind the Xok'al—just before faltering and falling to the ground, unconscious. Ayu's jaw dropped, but she knew he was fine. At least his body was—mostly. However…

something else was not. Two arcs of blood sprayed from the Xok'al's chest, forming a deep black-red cross in the air before it. Moments later… it fell. The commander-level Xok'al… was dead. Ayu didn't hesitate. She sprinted to Alonso's side, scooped his limp form into her arm, and took off. The waiting Xok'al surged forward—but she was faster. With each stride, she widened the gap, until their pursuit became futile, their figures shrinking in the distance.

Meanwhile, high above, concealed behind a jagged boulder, stood a figure cloaked in the mountain's shadows. Grandmaster Makoh watched in silence, his gaze steady, his posture still. His keen eyes followed Ayu's retreat—but his focus remained on the one in her grasp. Between his fingers, he rolled a shard—long, curved, like the polished fang of some great beast. A tool meant to intervene… if intervention had been needed. But in the end, his hand had stayed. He had expected this trial to challenge his student.

To humble, to temper, to teach. And yet—what he had witnessed defied expectation. That aura… that presence… It did not belong. Not to the world as Makoh understood it. Not to the natural flow of earth, wind, and life. It unsettled him. If not for the weakness and limitations of that human body… what might that thing have been capable of? And more—what was it? A blessing like Ayu's? Or a curse that would one day consume him? Makoh's claws flexed once, then relaxed.

"These outsiders…" The shard slipped back into his palm. His thoughts lingered for a breath longer—then, without a sound, he was gone, as if the wind itself had erased him from the peak.