Defiance of the Fall

CH 597

Default Dyslexic Roboto Lora

the tentacle flashed forward with unprecedented speed, immediately snatching up Zac by his waist.

’

A crushing pressure threatened to grind his pelvic bone to dust, but Zac ignored the pain as he desperately cut into the hands with everything he had.
The sanguine glow of the first rune on [Verun ’s Bite] had already been activated again, quickly burning through the small amount of E-Grade blood he had managed to gather since the battle with the Lunar Wolves.

Every swing contained enough force to turn a Middle E-Grade Warrior into paste, but the only effect was small scars like the earlier ones appearing across the hands.
But the barrage also increased the speed the appendage destabilized, and Zac suddenly found his axe striking air as the appendage disappeared with a pop, just like the Void Bubble from before.

The implosion made Zac helplessly hover in the air for a short moment before a huge force exploded outward, slamming Zac into the Memorysteel wall.
However, luck was on Zac ’s side one final time as he had been thrown right next to the gate.
He quickly crawled through the barrier while dragging the chains with him.

It was just in time as well since the last two tentacles finally managed to break through the cloud of desolation just as Zac passed through the red barrier.
His whole body was hurting, but he arduously got up to his feet in case the hands tried to force their way through the gate.
He didn ’t want to use it, but he still had the second skill of [Love ’s Bond] to block the path in case that happened.

But the tentacles stopped right outside the barrier before they started to retreat into the void again.

A surge of relief almost made Zac pass out, but his eyes suddenly widened in shock when he saw that none of the three scouts he had carried on his chains was moving.
Blood was streaming down his mouth because of internal injuries, but he ignored his own state as he frantically reached for the people on the ground.

Thankfully it turned out that none of them were dead, but they had rather been rendered unconscious some time during the battle.
It was no wonder considering the speed Zac had moved around to avoid the grasping hands.
Just the g-force alone would probably have been enough to kill a normal human.

Add to that the scout ’s conditions, the sparse oxygen, and intense pressure from the Void Creature and it was almost a miracle they were still alive.
The demon and the Valkyrie he carried outside were sitting just a few meters away, and he was blankly staring at the Void through the barrier like his soul had left his body.

Zac threw a Cosmos Sack full of first-aid items to the demon, dragging him out of his blank state before he quickly fed all the unconscious scouts healing pills himself.
Their complexions quickly improved, and a few of them even started stir like they were about to wake up.
A prompt appeared the next moment, allowing Zac to breathe out in relief.

He had passed the quest, albeit barely.

’

It seemed like the Void Creature really didn ’t dare pass through the red barrier for some reason.
Of course, the terrifying tentacles were on their last legs because of the Axe of Desolation, and it was possible that the creature simply didn ’t want to lose two more appendages and cut its losses.

Seeing that he had escaped death once more Zac simply slumped down on the ground, a wave of exhaustion hitting him like a punch to the face.
However, he knew that he still was at the edge of the Wasteland, and a new horror could appear at moment ’s notice, quest or no quest.
He quickly took out a healing pill and two D-Grade Nexus Crystals to restore his energy as quickly as possible.

The first of the unconscious scouts roused themselves a few minutes later, prompting Zac to open his eyes again.
It was the man who had spoken up just before the Void Creature appeared.
He blankly looked around like he was surprised to be alive for a few seconds before he spotted Zac seated against the wall.

“I- Ah, I’m Jonas, Jonas Marshall,” the man said with a hoarse voice.
“Thank you for saving us, from the wolves and that…
thing.
I didn’t mean to order you about earlier, I-“

“It’s fine,” Zac shrugged, his voice equally hoarse.
“I simply sensed something was wrong.”

Of course, that was only part of the story.
Another reason for the scathing glare was the fear this guy had put him in harm’s way.
He thought the training quest finished at that point and was afraid that the call for revenge would trigger the third part of his training regimen.

But no prompt had appeared as a result of the man’s words, which was a huge relief.

The next logical step would have been to enter the Wastelands, and Zac was in no mood to risk his life against spatial storms and Void Creatures.
He knew the System’s preferences, and he wouldn’t have been surprised if it kept escalating the conflict through quests until he had eradicated the whole Lunar Tribe before it turned him toward the Core Sector.

”And we can’t follow those werewolves as we are, even if that monster wasn ’t around,” Zac added as he got to his feet with a grunt.
“A place called the Wasteland is in that direction and we don’t have the equipment or understanding to cross it.
It ’s apparently full of the things we just encountered.”

The others visibly paled at that as they threw a few fearful glances toward the barrier.
The horrifying appendages were gone for now, but that didn ’t mean there were even more of them waiting in the darkness.

’

“Let ’s go,” Zac said.
“We can ’t stay here any longer.
We’re returning to our base camp.”

The scouts were more than willing to comply and they immediately got themselves ready to travel even in their pitiable states.
The demon wordlessly kept carrying one of the unconscious scouts on his back, while Zac carried another two on his chains.
The last 2 managed to walk by themselves, albeit barely.

None of them were in any mood to talk, and neither was Zac.
This encounter had been much too close for comfort.
Worse yet, this was just the second of ten quests.
He didn ’t even dare to think what fresh hell the System would put him through next.
So it was in an oppressive silence the group scurried away from the Relay Station, following the same route that Zac took on the way in.

They quickly reached the alcove where Zac had left Leviala, and the Cartava Scion was still sitting there, fretfully peering around the corner.
When she saw Zac ’s and the others ’ states her eyes widened in shock as she got up to her feet.

“What happened?” Leviala hesitantly asked as her eyes peered at the group behind Zac.