Chapter 284

A scythe flashed in front of Ray’s face with blazing speed.

His boots quickly activated just in time, propelling him backward and allowing the sharp blade to tear harmlessly through the empty air.

Before the Aspirant could fully regain his footing, the beast pounced forward, executing a descending swing of its second scythe directly toward the top of the boy’s head.

Ray easily sidestepped the heavy attack, which smashed violently into the ground and cracked the surface badly.

’Hm? An Advanced-rank? Then why is it so much faster?’

Another slash was aimed toward his abdomen, but he jumped backward, vaulting high into the air.

He was just about to activate a destructive skill to finish the monster off when he suddenly paused.

’Don’t want to draw any extra attention here.’

Instantly, sparks of illumination shimmered and coalesced into a golden lasso.

Swinging it forward immediately, the loop wrapped around the outstretched scythe, holding it firmly in place.

Then, yanking it forward with raw strength, he forced the beast to lose its footing and crash into the ground, kicking up a small cloud of dust for a few seconds.

Swinging his free hand through the air, pure, obsidian jagged lines of energy burst out and smashed into the thick armor of the beast, cracking it apart.

Landing back on the ground, he watched as the monster managed to rise in time and bolt toward him.

But with the lasso still secured in his grip, Ray yanked it sharply to the side, causing the creature to steer off course.

It almost crashed into the earth, but it stabbed its scythe deep into the soil, pulled it free, and hurled a massive slab of earth toward the Aspirant.

With a fluid spin, the boy avoided the flying projectile, which crashed into the ground behind him with a loud bang.

"Sheesh."

Turning back around, he instantly crouched down as a scythe flew past his head.

Then, he cocked his fist backward and hammered it forward with all his might.

Bang—!

A chunk of the beast’s neck was blown off as its head was thrown violently to the side, causing it to stagger for just a few seconds.

"I really don’t have time to waste."

Vaulting into the air once more, Ray twisted midair, his right fist drawn back like a coiled spring while his left arm cut through the wind to maintain perfect balance.

Then, with a thunderous echo, he kicked the air and dove back down with immense speed.

Within a single second, his fist drove through the beast’s back with such thunderous force that the earth beneath the shaker’s feet split completely apart.

The boy’s hand literally broke through the heavy armor surrounding its body as he drove his arm deeper, and soon enough, he yanked a gleaming core out of the creature’s chest.

Swaying left and right for a few final seconds, the beast crashed into the ground with a loud thud as Ray descended smoothly with the gleaming prize in his hand.

[You have defeated...]

The boy waved the system notification off, not in the mood to see the exact breakdown of what he got just yet.

Looking down at his hand, he sighed.

"Luckily, they don’t typically bleed. Otherwise, my hand would have been drenched in their stinking fluid."

Sending the core directly into his inventory, Ray looked around and then tapped his temples twice.

His vision changed instantly as he scanned the surrounding perimeter, only to see several purple auras heading his way.

’I need to get out of here right now.’

Tapping the bridge between his temples twice, he deactivated the tracking skill and dashed toward the location where he had last spotted the yellow auras.

Unfortunately, he would have to take a much longer route now in order to completely avoid the numerous purple threats he had just detected.

That damned Advanced-rank beast had just wasted a few precious minutes of his time.

Not like he had a lot of time to begin with.

’Those things seem to even be made of earth but sturdier, as they didn’t crumble like those golems in Planet Palatine after their cores are removed. If only they had flesh....’

Going around a hill, he kept on dashing forward with all his speed.

He refused to slow down or casually walk like he had been doing the time before.

He had spent an hour and a half traversing this accursed valley so far.

He needed to find those humans... hopefully Van and Kai.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard he looked, he was unable to sense any more yellow auras aside from the previous two he spotted.

Which meant that the others had been thrown into a different area far from the Hill Valley.

This theory was further solidified as he recalled from Instructor Sony’s teachings that the beast worlds were incredibly large.

They were almost as large as an entire continent.

So there surely had to be different areas and spots like the Hill Valley where his other friends had fallen into.

Feeling the wind hit his face while the sound of the waves crashing onto the valley reached his ears, he prayed for a single thing in his mind.

’Please... whoever is listening... let Van be safe no matter what and wherever he is.’

Turning a sharp corner and weaving in between two hills, his ears perked up in two different directions. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

He could hear the sound of scurrying heading his way from the right.

While from the left, he picked up a distinct sound.

Spinning around on his heel, he bolted toward his left with all the speed in his body.

Within moments, he could see a medium-sized, tall hill blocking his view.

Swiftly approaching the structure, the sound began to become much clearer in his ears.

It was the sound of steel striking heavy armor.

Followed by the swift whistle of something shooting through the air.

His heart thudded in excitement and anticipation as he reached the mound and then cautiously peeked forward to see what was going on.

There, he could see... one... two... three Advanced-rank Earth Shakers fighting two figures.

Looking closer, he could see one of the figures... a girl perched on a short hill with a bow in hand while sending out arrow after arrow toward the beasts.

While on the ground floor, another girl could be seen dancing fluidly in between the deadly scythes of the three beasts.

A stoic, indifferent, cold expression rested on her face as she sliced one of the scythes off and continued fighting while being supported by the second girl from above.

Ray’s heart thudded for a second more as he recognized the girls immediately.

"Trisha... Chloe..." he softly muttered, while choosing to keep on watching for just a moment longer.

____

A/N: Sigh.... Unfortunately, we didn’t hit the target I set so I guess there won’t be a mass release of 3 Chapters for two days.

Too bad I wanted the book to get it’s first hundred tickets 😭