Chapter 697: Panic [Ko-fi Donation Bonus Chapter]
Sylas dashed ahead, weaving through the trees as the sense of danger bloomed fiercer in his heart. He knew that even if he had eyes on the snail, its danger wasn't it alone. Unless it had changed its path since the last time he had seen it, its greatest strength was its ability to control other beasts.
On top of that, Sylas was certain that this beast had trump cards he hadn't seen yet. Otherwise, after so long, it wouldn't still be alive.
Back then, the government had completely surrounded the portal and sent several powerful individuals, only one of whom Sylas had killed. As for Linzie and the other, they should still be alive.
Even if they died, why wouldn't the government have sent more powerful existences?
They had every incentive to try and control such an area, yet they had failed to do so even after so many months.
The more Sylas thought about it, the more he felt the pressure of the situation. His breathing became somewhat labored as beads of sweat began to trickle down his body.
The heat penetrated through his Aether skin and even seemingly down to his very soul. A shortness of breath overwhelmed him, and no matter how deep he tried to breathe, it didn't seem to be enough.
Sylas' steps came to a grinding halt. He stood there in the middle of the forest, heaving.
No matter how he looked at it, it felt like he was having a panic attack. This sort of heat shouldn't be enough to impact him so much, especially not with how powerful his Glass Aether was, immature or not.
'Am I really so weak?'
The thought echoed in Sylas' mind and he felt his stomach lurch. He bent over, heaving, but nothing but small droplets of spittle and acid came out.
He had been too busy to eat much of anything recently outside of pills he formed with his Transmutation Beast Skin.
'No...'
The feelings of danger pinged again and again and Sylas finally looked up.
There was nothing at all above his head... except for Runes.
That was when Sylas remembered another oddity. He hadn't sensed the three men he fought in the cave network earlier despite having been on high alert.
'Domain.'
Sylas finally understood that it wasn't that he was running right toward danger, but rather that he was already in the middle of it.
With a push of his feet, Sylas dove to the side as an arrow whizzed over his shoulder. The feeling of panic in his chest was only growing.
The timing couldn't have been worse. Just as his rapidly beating heart hit a new stage of agitation, another ripple of Aether came out from him, alerting everyone to his new location.
Sylas found his body overheating. His heart was beating too fast and his blood rushed through his veins as though it was racing to find a way out of his pores.
Flashes of red danced in the trees, blending in so perfectly with the foliage that Sylas couldn't even see them clearly. Worst of all, he couldn't trust his visualization to pick up on them. It was as though they were all fleeting.
But the arrows they fired were very real.
Sylas was forced to duck and roll again. He hadn't realized just how much he relied on his visualization until now. Without it, he couldn't read the trajectory of the attacks ahead of time and react fast enough to block or dodge them precisely. His best course of action was just to try and leap his entire body out of the way.
Unfortunately, that was bound to only have limited effectiveness.
A piercing pain shot through Sylas' body, accompanied by a searing pain. It felt like a scolding iron had been pressed so deeply into his skin that it was branding itself right onto his bone itself.
Thoughts didn't come straight and clean. The panic in his heart was only increasing as the danger around him likewise grew more suffocating.
The world spun and his vision blurred. The blood vessels in his eyes dilated and goosebumps flooded his skin.
His heartbeat soared to over 200 beats a minute. He could practically hear it hitting overdrive in his ears. If this continued, he would just directly die. There was no way his body could take this level of stress.
But he wasn't even thinking straight enough to see things so clearly.
All he could feel was that fear.
The feelings of that day amplified in his mind. It was like he was right back there, stuck in a world of endless flames and lava, thinking that the next step he took might be his last.
All the bravado he had had just seconds ago was lost to space and time, buried within him.
THWACK!
An arrow pierced into his shoulder. His body was beginning to slow down, overheating from the excessive use of his heart. He almost couldn't feel the searing pain coming from his arm at
all.
Everything just felt numb.
...
Linzie slammed a foot to the ground, bending down low and changing direction so fiercely to round a corner that she almost looked like a motorcycle gliding around a curve.
Her flexible spear was held out from her body as a counterbalance, and with an explosion of strength from her quads, she shot up and around the corner, entering the forest of red as they colloquially called it.
At that moment, a pulse informed her of Sylas' new position and the intent in her gaze blazed as her squad rushed in an attempt to keep up with her.
She had originally planned to cut through the forest of red as a shortcut despite the danger. But who would have thought that Sylas would actually come closer to her of his own volition.
She pivoted again, rushing toward him.
"Captain! The Fire Monkeys!"
Linzie's only response was a flicker of her spear.
TA. TA. TA.
Three arrows shattered in the air as Linzie burst through their splinters.
Nothing would stop her from taking Sylas Grimblade's head.
A necklace danced around her neck as she sprinted forward like a cheetah through the wild plains, rebuffing the effects of the Domain in the region.