19 Sanguine Canyon

Jerouch waved his hands and watched as the silver snake was burnt to a crisp by his fire arrows, which impaled the creature from all sides.

Splash!

The sound of water splashing travelled far and wide as Jerouch set his foot in the shallow stream before him.

'' You've scouted this place well, right? '' Jerouch asked the roc, which simply screeched in affirmation from where he was hovering in the sky, casting a big shadow on Jerouch.

They were at the mouth of a canyon that had a sanguine stream flowing between two tall sapphire mountains.

Even with Jerouch's perception, he couldn't see the top of each mountain, and the weird thing was that until they got close to the canyon, the mountains weren't visible at first.

Jerouch didn't overly depend on large bird's.scout as he did his too. However, he detected nothing fishy.

' i can't detect anything, but why does the atmosphere feel grave? ' Jerouch wondered, and he made a mental note to tread with utter caution.

His brain was telling him to leave this place, which was quite logical. But his body acted differently.

He didn't know why, but something was pushing him to go further.

He glanced up again, and that giant body flying above gave him a bit of confidence.

Likewise, he proceeded to walk in the sanguine stream, which rippled with each slow step that Jerouch made.

They had not encountered any monsters since they started walking in the canyon, and the flying behemoth shielded Jerouch from the scorching sun.

Two hours later, they were still in the canyon, and the eerie feeling had thickened.

Jerouch's heart thumped in short but loud beats, and he even wondered if the heart would stop working anytime soon.

The feeling of being pulled toward a spot, however, increased.

He could feel it. The more he moved forward, the stronger he felt the need to get to this place as quickly as he could.

Good enough, he soon saw a crack in the mountain on the left. The crack was large enough to allow three burly people to pass freely.

' It's coming from there? ' Jerouch had a frown on his face as he thought about whether to delve into the crack or not.

' Hmph,' He harrumphed and shrugged his shoulder.

Signalling to the roc, he turned to his nine o'clock and approached the crack in heavy steps.

As Jerouch got to the crack, he could feel as though he were being watched. Furthermore, there seemed to be a heavy pressure mounting on him.

Taking a soft breath in, he released a heavy breath and stepped forward to enter the crack, but…

Bam!

He collided with an invisible barrier guarding the entrance, the crack that is.

' Huh? ' His eyebrows arched, and his face wrinkled in confusion.

Jerouch walked forward again, not minding his muddied robes. He rubbed his hands in the empty air, and he could feel it too.

He tried punching the barrier, but it was as if he collided with a mountain.

Instead of the barrier breaking as he presumed, it was his fingers that fractured instead.

' Heal. ' He called out in annoyance.

As though sensing his frustration, a tiny, sharp object suddenly came out from the inside of the crack at a speed that Jerouch couldn't react to.

Not even the roc sensed this tiny needle that pierced Jerouch's thump.

'' Argh! '' Jerouch jerked his hand backwards. Shock, confusion, and terror left his mouth agape, but before he could even process anything…

Woosh!

A silver light shrouded him and the roc, and a dense spatial wave spread out, enveloping these figures.

'' W-What the heck just happened? '' Jerouch asked no one, as he fell to the ground on his back with a heavy thud.

Not only him, but also the roc had found himself hitting the ground.

' Very good, my bad luck won't let me breathe freely,' he muttered, as he heard the sound of something crawling on the ground.

He knew well what this sound meant , which unleashed an awful memory of his time on earth.

' Cave and snakes…that's the worst combo to creep someone's soul,' he cursed as he quickly got up and stood in a battle formation.

The roc, too, being a monster, had also sensed them and was also on high alert.

His wings spread out, firm and sharp like a sword, and his eyes were dead set in the far distance where the sound was coming from.

Jerouch looked back to see if there was any escape route, but behind them was just a dead end.

The cave was dark, and it had blood-red liquid flowing on the walls.

Now that Jerouch looked down, he could see skulls scattered on the ground.

Both those belonging to humans and monsters of different species.

' We can't allow being cornered here, we need to push forward,' Jerouch said inwardly, seeing that they could be trapped since their enemies were coming from the front, and they were too close to the dead end.

He and the big bird seemed to understand the situation, and they both charged forward.

However, as he got closer to the oncoming enemies who were still in the dark, his eyes soon twitched, hearing the sounds multiplied…

—

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