Chương 541: Chapter 510: The Last Sirokkar

Time was running out, and those tunnels were stupidly long every single time. The next issue was that they could now hear their pursuers behind them. It wouldn't take long until they caught up, which meant it was time for drastic measures. Thalion didn't want to die or risk his life needlessly, but right now there simply weren't any good options left.

"Ricarda, give me the big crystal," Thalion said the moment they entered another control chamber.

"You and Pikar are taking a different route while I head for the fifth floor. That way the hunters need to decide, and I don't think they want to miss out on my bounty." This was straightforward, and they understood immediately.

"Take care and make sure that you go in a roughly straight line. I think the stronger teams will gather around the fifth floors," Pikar shouted before exiting through the right gate Thalion had just opened. Ricarda wanted to follow, almost happy that she didn't need to travel with Thalion any longer, before he interrupted her.

"Ricarda. If Pikar doesn't make it out alive, you don't need to come back." She had to swallow hard when hearing those words, and her whole face grew pale before she nodded and sprinted into the right tunnel. It was harsh, but Thalion didn't trust the elven Chosen fully, and he didn't plan on becoming buddy-buddy with her either way. The alliance right now didn't require Ricarda to survive.

It would definitely be better if she did, but the reason he was receiving this much support wasn't because of the elven Chosen. Now he needed to stay alive and win this system event. Ricarda's crystal gave him another two hundred thousand points, while being this close to the hunters had already rewarded him with roughly fifty thousand points. In his opinion it was crazy that they still didn't know what the reward for the top positions would be.

He waited a few seconds before opening the panel in the middle and activated Scarlet Maelstrom to shoot down the open tunnel. His two companions had slowed him down a bit since he couldn't use his best movement skills without risking injuring them. Now those shackles were off, and Thalion could finally let loose. The next chamber should be one that led to the fifth floor, which sounded good for a last standoff.

Thalion had no idea what affinity that D-grade would have, but he hoped that, should the hunters get close enough, it would create enough chaos for him to get the kill and maybe even leave the place alive. So far he was still in first position, with none of the others catching up anytime soon. Maybe they were simply waiting until the last second to concentrate the loot on one individual, or they just didn't have enough. Blasting down the tunnel, Thalion felt the hunters getting closer again.

They must have realized that he was moving much faster now, which also led to them speeding up drastically. Thalion hoped it would leave them exhausted because, when it came to mana expenditure, he was completely fine. Yes, it was ticking down slowly, but with a short pause it would refill in no time. Currently his location was being revealed every few seconds, which didn't help ease his mind in the slightest.

On the positive side, he was gaining far more leaderboard points compared to the elven Chosen, who were likely his only real competitors. He could hear footsteps echoing through the distance behind him, growing closer and closer, which was crazy considering how fast he was moving. Well, probably one of the advantages of being D-grade, Thalion thought grimly while pushing onward. Since he no longer had Pikar with him, he paid attention to the wall paintings and statues, which now began to display some sort of story.

With Thalion moving past them so quickly, it was almost like watching a short movie. At first there was a kingdom, and some sort of alien desert fox lay before the gates looking quite happy. Those foxes seemed to be some kind of spirit animal for the Unari. The people brought them gifts, food, water, and often even showed them their babies. At least Thalion saw multiple images that reminded him a bit of Lion King by how they held the children up.

Then everything changed drastically as some sort of four-armed apes arrived and hunted the desert foxes. The creatures seemingly had no real means to fight back and were either slaughtered or forced to flee. After seeing all that, Thalion still had no idea what made those foxes so special. He liked how they looked though. Their build was leaner, almost cheetah-like, and it was clear that they should be extremely fast.

After the foxes were gone, the people themselves began to change as green tumors grew across their bodies, which must have been the beginning of the end. The apes were still there and, in contrast to the Unari, their fur had only turned green without any tumors or sickness visible on their bodies. From there on the images were destroyed, which was honestly annoying since that part was probably important.

Some weren't fully erased, but Thalion also didn't exactly have much time to stop and observe them with the hunt right behind him. Only on one mural did he catch half a face of what could have been one of the desert foxes. With all that confusion, Thalion appeared in the last chamber with only three and a half days left in this system event.

Time here passed far faster than on New Earth, which meant the clock was running out quickly, and this would likely be his last fight if he didn't continue running, something he hadn't planned on doing. He hoped the arena would be large enough to evade the hunt until the event ended. By how his danger sense spiked and his points kept rising, the hunt was definitely closing in, and worse, it wasn't the only one.

Thalion had of course thought about turning toward a different gate, but currently he could also feel danger coming from each tunnel, which likely meant multiple hunting parties were on their way toward him. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. That basically left him no choice. After praising his title one more time, he headed down the stairs which likely led to another corrupted kingdom.

This time he didn't need to travel downward for long before entering what looked like a giant biosphere. A massive jungle spread out beneath him, and in the middle a colossal temple stretched toward the ceiling. The other kingdoms had mostly been buried beneath sand, but here it seemed as if everything had somehow been preserved. The area was so enormous that Thalion had no trouble using his wyvern form, which he immediately did.

As a wyvern he could fly quickly while recovering the mana he had lost from using Scarlet Maelstrom for hours. He kept his aura concealed to avoid drawing too much attention. That this biosphere was so large was good because otherwise evading the hunters would have become almost impossible once they entered. The air thundered beneath his wings as he moved forward while constantly observing the jungle below.

From time to time he spotted statues of those four-armed monkeys, but otherwise there seemed to be no life in the jungle. No rats, no birds, not even a mosquito. A sharp sense of danger made him glance backward where he spotted the first hunters standing at the same place from which he had started his flight, overlooking the entire arena. He had to admit that this was a bit too early. He had already made a lot of distance, but he had hoped to at least gain a few more minutes.

They were equipped with bows, arrows, swords, and spears. Every hunter wore armor glowing with runes Thalion had never seen before, but the most interesting part was that they seemed to have ridden here on creatures resembling velociraptors with three glowing blue eyes on each side of their heads. Thalion kept an eye on the hunters while moving toward the towering temple in the distance, from which he could already hear the first sounds of battle. That instantly sparked excitement and hope inside him.

If there were more people here, then there would also be more distractions for the hunt and maybe even a chance for him to snatch the final reward. The closer Thalion got to the temple, the more confused he became because now loud chanting also reached his ears, or whatever passed for ears in his wyvern form. The temple gate stood open and was large enough for him to fly through as a wyvern, but doing that might spook the other trial takers who could potentially become allies if they were human.

The wild hunt was only hesitantly spreading out for now, which was very good for Thalion. Buying more time was important, and this stage was large enough that he could continue evading them for a while longer. Hopefully he wouldn't need to, but it was far from the worst-case scenario. He smoothly shifted back into his human form a meter above the gate and let himself drop down. Now the chanting was incredibly loud, and one could barely make out the sounds of battle in the background.

Here it looked like some sort of spatial distortion was at work because the inside of the first hall already looked almost as large as the entire temple from the outside. Thalion had always wondered what would happen to the people inside should such a structure collapse or the spatial manipulation fail for even a second. So far the entrance hall looked mostly clear aside from some destruction, a few dead monkeys, and several horribly malformed Unari. They looked terrible even before they had been killed.

More like green zombies than actual people, and even that was probably flattering them. Death had definitely improved their appearance. Following the trail of corpses, Thalion shot through the temple using Telekinetic Dash until he entered an absolutely enormous chamber at least five times larger than the temple itself. In the middle, upon a massive altar, stood one of those desert foxes chained in place. This one looked like an extremely potent exemplar.

In contrast to most beasts that grew bigger, bulkier, or more dangerous in battle as they evolved, this alien desert fox looked even more attuned to speed and elegance compared to those Thalion had seen in the wall paintings. Sirokkar — Level 195 Before the desert fox stood the king of the Unari, both hands raised upward while chanting something. In front of him sat a row of malformed Unari, and before them a human party fought against a group of massive apes and corrupted Unari.

Every Unari besides the king was horribly mutated, with multiple tumors growing from their flesh. The apes also carried signs of corruption, but nowhere near as severe as the Unari. There were over thirty humans, all around middle or even late E-grade. Those at the higher levels should have participated in the first system event to have advanced this far. Failing this trial as well would likely be close to a death sentence, and currently things didn't look promising for them.

They only had a few points, most of which likely came from the hunters closing in. A bit unfortunate, but Thalion couldn't help them right now. He was far more interested in the fox that constantly watched him. TheThe creature had three irises within each elongated eye slit on each side of its head, giving it an almost complete field of vision similar to the four-armed monkeys.

"The time has come, dear citizens. Finally, with the last abomination collected, we can return to the surface," the king proclaimed, both arms spread wide. With a quick motion, a ritual blade appeared in the king's right hand. His citizens were already so far gone that they didn't even react. Only a few apes began to applaud, or at least that was how Thalion interpreted their loud screeching. The almost pleading look of the fox remained fixed on him, but Thalion didn't have time to save the beast.

Nor did he truly want to. The temptation to acquire that form was simply too great. Its race should possess an incredibly high rarity. Maybe even Empyrean or something close to it, Thalion guessed. The ritual blade in the king's hand glowed with a sickly green light which Thalion strongly suspected to be the origin of the tumors and the ruin of this kingdom. He activated his bloodline skill and teleported forward, appearing roughly fifty meters above the fox.

A violent hum shook the chamber as Thalion swung Saranya downward while activating the active skill that unleashed an invisible arc of destruction. The humans stared in open-mouthed disbelief. The apes roared while the corrupted Unari merely looked upward with hollow eyes. The king was the only one who reacted in time. With a furious roar he raised his blade and blocked the slash. The fact that he managed to stop the strike with only one hand was insane.

Thalion had swung with all his strength while using both hands, and the king had still almost lazily deflected the blow. The fox in chains wasn't as fortunate. The slash cut it cleanly in half, which genuinely pained Thalion, but there had been no chance to free the beast before the king completed the ritual. Thalion imagined dying probably sucked either way, but since the king was obviously an enemy of the fox, it was better that Thalion received the experience.

Besides, death by Saranya was likely far kinder than whatever the ritual blade would have done.

"MURDER!" the king roared as he suddenly appeared before Thalion, thrusting the ritual blade straight toward his chest. Thalion was honestly surprised by how lost some people became after the system arrived. Didn't the king realize what he had done to his own people? Even the apes had clearly suffered under his rule. To avoid the stab that would otherwise have pierced his heart, Thalion activated his bloodline skill once more and appeared beside the fox. He placed one hand on the corpse and activated Acquire Form.