16 Past and Future

As Nathan finally got back to the pace of the battle, he immediately recalled the ice that hit the bird.Only then was he reminded of the ice that hit the bird.

A girl who seems to be around the age of 6 is standing just outside the dome with her hands, showing her palms glowing with teal mist. Dressed in a chromatic robe, her expressionless face gave her a very inhuman feeling.

Besides her is a tall and brown middle-aged with an unkempt beard in his face wearing a traditional Native American garb. A red circle appeared at the tip of his finger as a red beam of flames shot out.

The speed was too fast for the snake to dodge as it got hit in the head, turning whatever was in its head into ashes.

Nathan stared towards the two humans with grateful eyes. Even more surprising is that one of them is a kid.

"Thanks!" Nathan shouted.

"It's not over yet," the man replied, still focused on the lizard.

Nathan turned his vison over to where the man is looking.

There he saw the lizard with his back in front him cowering in a wall of earth in front of it. It seems like it was shocked by the appearance of the two humans and an ice spike that pierced its wall.

The lizard then turns its head towards Rem, where they locked eyes. Understanding what the other wanted to do, both began to plan their escape.

"Mission failed," they both deemed.

Rem immediately jumped away with the boost of [Gale] that he copied from the rabbit earlier.

The lizard increased his offensive as he stopped trying to save his mana for later use. He already decided to escape anyways as the human guard is way too black-hearted with his spells.

Seeing through their intentions, the kid began to cast another ice spike towards the trajectory that the monkey is heading but missed.

Her calculation was perfect. She just moved too slow. But it was fine, she really did not expect to get the kill the monkey by herself and moved to a spot where she won't bother the man.

Nathan saw this and did not do anything, his mission to guard not to flank. He won't forget his main objective just for the sake of removing a hindrance.

Rem began to escape. Besides Ji, most of the other beasts were undeveloped and did not even bother to have names. Most of the creatures under Ji are either bred failures or non-modified animals that gain wisdom through the white orbs.

But wisdom was never the beasts' strength, it was their powerful instinct that humans lost as they grow.

While the humans have successfully utilized wisdom to be the dominant race on planet Earth, the animals that have survived the course of time under the human's assault had evolved their instincts enough to create their own cooperation.

But of course, just like humans, racism is prevalent in the animal kingdom. The law of the hunter and the prey remained and transformed into the prey obeying the hunters.

The man couldn't find the time to fire back to the lizard as spikes quickly sprung up from the ground in a successive manner.

With stable footwork, the man kept dodging the spikes with only [Wind Steps] as a boost.

If the lizard could express its feelings on its face, it would have contorted to the point that one could call it warped due to helplessness and desperation. It really wants to escape now.

Under pressure, the lizard's earth spells were incredibly precise and quick, and with one slap to the ground, blocks and spikes made of earth spawn.

Just as Nathan was about to give a helping hand, the lizard blocked his view with a solid earth block. He immediately moved to a position where he would be able to see the lizard. However, his own maze prevented him from doing so in the shortest time.

Few more seconds had passed, and the man felt like something was wrong.

Then, the man realized his mistake. The lizard is trying to block him!

However, it was already too late for the man to make amends as he remained passive.

When the assault halted, the man immediately brought down the earth that blocked him only to see that the lizard has dug away.

Nathan was also only able to see the hole that the lizard left without closing it.

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When Rem saw the eyes of those who remain, his will to escape grew even more.

His paws glowed brown as he immediately invoked [Earth Manipulation] to the spot where he lands and made a hole. Besides the lizard, all of his comrades are down, he was only coerced by the snake to do this, if he knew it was this troublesome, he would've ignored Ji and deserted.

Thinking about it, he realized that Ji was very weird. Ji's aura had the presence of a towering giant but with the essence of an ant. "Did something happen to Ji that relates to a breakthrough?" he thought.

Rem's monkey brain began to feel weak as he met up with the lizard.

"Let's bail." the brown monkey decided.

The lizard nodded as the two of them glowed brown. "Enough of this shit," they thought.

"You should name yourself now for surviving this." the monkey said.

"I like the sound of 'zard,' so call me that." the lizard pondered and answered.

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As Nathan was feeling grateful to the two newcomers. He looked over to them and said, "Thanks."

Nathan wanted to say more, but out of all the words he found in his vocabulary, all he was able to muster up and say was thanks.

The little kid remained silent as she got close to the man and grabbed his arms.

The man, however, looked at Nathan with surprised eyes. Looking around the shifted terrain and the dome of trees, he said, "Is this your doing?"

"Everything besides the trees," Nathan answered shyly.

"I see," the man nodded. "My name is Himel, this little girl is called Aia," Himel introduced.

"I'm Nathan, the one currently breaking through is called Vin," Nathan replied back.

Just as Himel was about to inquire more, the girl suddenly blurted out, "Subject G03-023 detected, obtaining commands, connection failed."

"System detecting error... Missing link... Unknown spatial coordinates... Attempting system reboot." she continued.

Nathan stared at Aia curiously while Himel just closed his mouth, he has heard Aia spout nonsense over the past few days.

"System failure. Resuming the human psyche," as soon as Aia spoke this, her eyes regained its shine.

Nathan looked at Himel as the other shook his head. He then looked at Aia.

"What was the date before you arrived here?" Nathan asked.

"SUT January 23, 12," Aia answered meekly.

"When is that compared to Earth years?" Nathan continued.

"AD July 19, 3014," Aia responded.

Himel was left in shock at this exchange. He then looked at Nathan and asked, "What about you?"

"I was from January 16, 2020, from Earth. You?" Nathan responded.

"That... I was from May 13, 592... From Constantinople," Himel returned.

This time it was Nathan who was shocked. "Holy shit," he exclaimed.