29 Chapter 29: Desperate Chase (VIII)
Phew, it didn't sedate me this time. I didn't know if I would even wake up after being forced to sleep. With my body asleep, there's nothing I could do. My body is completely vulnerable. I clenched my teeth and waited for the system.
A ticking timer was present just above the floating prism. Was that the time left before I wake up?
「16 minutes and 48 seconds...」
「Information processing finished.」
「Some information will be left out for the Candidate to find out themselves」
「Immersive Reality Information Sequence starting...」
ARGH?!!
A sudden onslaught of a migraine made me wonder if my head was about to split as the white environment around me started to change little by little into the world I was reborn into.
The high noon sky and the plains where I fell unconscious replaced the white area around me, and in front of me, I saw my unconscious body. Trails of scorched earth and vast amounts of webs covered the entire field as if a battle has just occurred recently.
What the hell happened here? I moved around and felt no sensation. It was as if I was a ghost haunting the battlefield, lost forever. After moving a few meters away from my unconscious body there, I saw a familiar figure surrounded by a sea of flames. It feels weird not feeling heat or anything by the sheer amount of fire.
I walked through the fire and walked up to the figure to further inspect it up close. The Spider-Mantis Hybrid, The Butcher, eugh as horrifying as always. Just looking at it up close makes me shiver. It seemed like time was at a standstill as I observed everything. It felt like I was moving in a picture where everything was already set in place. Hm? Who's that?
A silhouette of an unfamiliar beast was located just above the Butcher, and in between, there were arcs of what I could guess hot air. I couldn't distinguish its features or anything, and it was just a shape akin to what I can compare a wolf from Earth.
I moved towards my unconscious body and noticed that the grass around me was left untouched. A few inches away from the untouched grass were nothing but ashes. Something or someone burnt the area around me yet kept me safe...? I noticed a faint glowing blue paw mark just beside my body.
I glanced towards the Wolf's direction once more and thought. Was it that beast? Wait! The bounty trial! That Wolf was the unfamiliar voice, I heard since it was the only creature I don't remember seeing!
But why was it saving me? Does it not want to hurt me? Does it loathe its former master Jack The Ripper? Well, who would like someone like him?
In this frozen scenery of time, it's fighting the Butcher in our stead. Was it a friend or foe? I shook my head. It called me prey just before I fell unconscious. Of course, it was a foe!
With that fact in mind, I still can't understand why it was saving me? Did it have some quirk of being a sadist like Jack and leaving me for last so that it could torture me? I felt a shiver travel down my spine.
I quickly moved towards a direction where I knew Kon ran to. How far are they? I kept moving for minutes on end until I noticed something weird. The trees in front of me were a bit bent unnaturally at a slight angle. This was an everyday sight, but the occurrence of these trees became more and more frequent as I travelled further.
The more bent trees I saw, the more wider the angles they were bent. This was the sign. This is the work of the ability Ingenium! Elizabeth! I hastened my movement, and finally, I saw them. The trees around them were warped to such a degree that a straight path was constantly made in front of Elizabeth.
Where's Kon? Ah! There he is!
His eyes remained emotionless, but I can sense that he was actually scared of Elizabeth. He still chose to ask her for help cause his only stable food source would have disappeared. A thought occurred to me as I stared at Elizabeth's visage. Her face was covered by a hood of vines, but her expressions never failed to show or was it only me that noticed?
In this scene where I'm currently exploring, time was frozen. I wonder, what was the current present state outside of my consciousness? Has it escalated more than this? Or did things come to a halt? I don't know.
「The Candidate has been proven to have sufficient information about the current situations of the bounty trial...」
「Immersive Reality Information Sequence has finished.」
As the mechanical voice within my head uttered those words. The vibrant surroundings around me began to fade to white as if they did not exist in the first place. After a few seconds, the familiar white environment I was in greeted me. The notable steady humming of the floating prism tickled my ears. Thankfully the intense headache didn't occur again. Phew.
I stared at the timer above the prism and clenched my teeth. Minutes passed by as hours; it was as if I was constantly on an adrenaline rush. It won't be soon until I awaken.
「8 minutes and 21 seconds remaining...」
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"YOU WON'T ESCAPE!" roared the Wolf as it began to trail behind them, burning right through any obstacle.
Elizabeth quickly glanced over her shoulder as she ran with Vaeden and Kon in tow, "How is that not slowing it down?!" She yelled in frustration. Kon shook a little in fear as he heard Elizabeth and remained quiet.
Kon slithered to her nape and started shooting more of his slowing toxin towards the Wolf.
PSHT! PSHT! PSHT! PSHT!
Four shots of the slowing toxin were shot out of his tube-like mouth and targeted the Wolf in quick succession.
Pssssst...pssst...pssst....pssssst...
Before they could even make it close to the Wolf, the toxin evaporated instantly as it reached a certain distance near it.
Undeterred by this, Kon kept shooting. Instead of directly aiming at the Wolf, it shot at the ground, hoping that the Wolf would step onto it, but Kon had something else in mind.
PSSHT! PSHT! PSHT! PSHT! PSHT!
Sizeable puddles formed behind Elizabeth as Kon kept shooting his slowing toxin. He made sure none of it would splash onto Elizabeth, or it would mean the end for three of them.
"YOUR EFFORTS ARE FUTILE PUNY INSECT!" shouted the Wolf as the puddle on the ground was instantly vaporized as it met its range.
"Wronggggsss...." said Kon in a monotone as it expected his toxin to be reduced to nothing but mist.
The purple mist that emanated from the vaporized toxin puddles were inhaled by the Wolf. Once more, a system message rang within his mind.
「You have inhaled toxic fumes, fatigue is more likely to come sooner. Stamina usage increased by 15%. Due to the increased potency of the toxin due to vaporization, stamina usage is further increased by 5%.」
As it quickly understood the system's message, the Wolf clicked its tongue in frustration, but that only lasted a few seconds. If the toxin was found in its lungs, it simply had to exhale it, right? that was the train of thought within the Wolf.
Embers began to exit out of its snout every time it would inhale until it eventually opened its mouth.
Kon looked at the actions of the Wolf from Elizabeth's nape and instinctually retreated and warned Elizabeth, "Neeeed....dodddgeeee...noooowwww..." His voice remained monotone, but Elizabeth understood that it was a dire warning.
The trees that were closing the path behind her came to a stop, and a massive shield made of Earth arose from the Earth. Precisely as the shield finished erecting, a deafening boom was heard behind them.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The ground shook a little from the force. Nonetheless, Elizabeth remained stable.
"What did that guy just shoot?!" asked Elizabeth, out of breath. Kon stared at her as his antennas moved quickly, sniffing the air and noticed something. Ignoring Elizabeth's question, he crawled back to her nape and saw a plume of smoke emanating from the destroyed shield.
Purple coloured flames littered the area around the Wolf as it walked out of the smoke. With its mouth still open, purple saliva dripped from its hanging tongue. A wide grin was plastered on its face as the system message rang within its mind.
「Due to the fumes in your lungs, your ability 「Flame Breath」 has been temporarily infused toxin.」
「Temporary Skill Acquired」
「Crippling Flame Breath」
「One more usage remaining...」
「HP will continue to decrease by 1 per 3 minutes due to the toxin's effect」
「Temporary Skill will disappear after 15 minutes.」
And with that system message, the broad grin of the Wolf became more sinister as purple fumes began to exit its mouth. Kon felt the air with his antennas and noticed that the smell was the same as his toxin, yet more potent.
What Kon used to create a disadvantage for the Wolf turned into a burden for them. The Wolf quickly began its chase once more with a new weapon in hand.
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「Hey there! Author here, I wanted to put this in the Author's thought, but I'd like it to be read here so that most of my readers would know about the news I'm going to put up. Recently I got contracted, and I'm interested in applying for the MGS」
「MGS - Minimum Guarantee System, makes me update 1.5k words EVERYDAY so that I can monetize my work as an author! Yep! By next month I'll be starting to upload daily from now on! Thank you for being patient with my irregular updating schedule!」
「And on that note, I'll be going on a hiatus until next month so that I could stockpile chapters and be consistent with my writing! :)」
