Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening-Chapter 176: Home
’How much longer do I have to stall for?’
August’s eyes flashed taking a look at the monster preparing itself for another attack.
His facial expression had warped and he had temperament of someone who was barely containing his irritation, a complete change from a few minutes ago where he looked forward to the attacks of the monster.
"Pathetic human, don’t you dare look down on me!"
The creature spoke once more noticing his distracted pose.
The vertical blood red eyes on its forehead had blood flowing from it, and the creature was dripping with visible aura.
SWOOSH!
Then came a sudden gust of wind pushing the mist in the sky apart revealing the mirage of a giant eye hovering and locked onto August.
"You’ll regret it soon enough!"
The creature spat before launching towards August like a cannonball.
August, his opponent, reacted in kind, raising the green training sword and coating it in a solid layer of purple aura.
’Wouldn’t hurt to kill you while I wait.’
His movements were slow, unlike that of the creature attacking him which already had several tentacles aimed and coming from different directions.
August brought his raised hand down and the creature couldn’t process what followed.
BANG!
One strike.
It was one simple strike downward. The fall of the sword could be seen so clearly, it felt like time itself had slowed down and space had bent a knee.
The tip of the sword grazed the ground and what appeared like a single sword stroke appeared to me multi-directional, slashing through half the tentacles aimed his way and taking the hand of the creature along with him.
"Blerrghh!"
The creature was forced to its knees, throwing up several mouthfuls of blood.
The creature was one of intelligence and right now, it was intelligent enough to note that it had severely miscalculated.
That attack had been enough to kill him, but August didn’t intend to do so. The amount of control in that single strike spoke volumes about their difference in power. Not a single structure around them had been affected.
The creature which had just gained its intelligence had never had to experience the feeling of wanting to eat its own words, well this was a first for it.
"Tsk! I thought I said not to break too quickly?"
August’s voice reached it and he looked up to see his eyes not even on him, looking up to the sky as if waiting impatiently for something.
"Dammed VOILDWALER!!!"
The enraged creature screamed and the eye hovering above in the sky glowed intensity before shooting a huge laser to its locked on target, piercing through August’s barrier like crumpled paper.
"Hmph!"
The creature snorted, seeing the brunt ground where August stood previously. To think that was all it took to end the enemy.
Still, it couldn’t shake off the doubt in its mind as it’s eyes darted around with concealed fear.
"You’re wrong, you know? I’m not a void walker!"
"I prefer you see more as a phantom of sorts"
The creature jumped back and away from the voice, staring in its direction to see an unharmed August, still with the sowed lightly on his shoulder.
"Tch, just die!!"
The creature spat full of venom as the eye locked onto him once more and readied another laser.
"You’ve finally found a way to pierce my barriers and that’s where you’re going to stop?"
"Don’t tell me that’s all you’ve got?"
August narrowed his eyes and the creature felt a deep sense of oppression press on it, forcing it to the ground.
"I-I-Impossible!"
’This pressure... it’s like them!’
Its perception of August had warped from his human figure into something much worse as it was being reminded of its masters that had sent it on this very mission.
They were the only ones this child of a monster had ever encountered who gave off this level of pressure and oppression.
Being reminded of its terrifying masters, the creature finally understood what it had failed to grasp all this time, despite it being so obvious.
The human in front of him was only toying with it, never having regarded it as a worthy opponent.
’Still, I’d rather die than go to them empty handed!’
The monster stumped the fear that had been taking hold of it and ignored August’s words, sending another beam his way.
This time, it didn’t take a second before another one was shot in a different direction as it kept the eye locked firmly onto its target.
"I really thought you bad more to offer!"
August’s voice was deep and a small flash came from within the burning red of a beam before it split into two, taking the hovering eye along with it.
"Comon. Give me more, won’t you?!"
August appeared right in front of the creature, grabbing it by the face before proceeding to slam it inro the ground.
The skull within his palm had already start to deform under the pressure and a beam shot from the eye on the creature’s head, piercing through the hand covering it, heading straight for August only to get stopped by a stronger barrier.
"Ahh, you’re still a child"
August let out a sigh of disappointment, raising the creature to eye level by the head.
"I’ll let you live. Pass on a message for me, will you?"
His words echoed lightly snapping whatever restraint the creature had left.
"You arrogant little human!"
Several more of its tentacles exploded forth from the ground, encasing August and the glowing body of the monster in a tight dome.
The monster had decided on relegating its life, hoping to bring down August by self destruction.
BOOM!
A muffled explosion was felt from within the dome and the tentacles lost their strength, falling to the ground and revealing a scorched earth and an unarmed man at the centre of it all.
"Well, that was a wasteful way to die."
He said, dusting the ashes off his robe, looking back up to the now clear sky.
It was night time and the dark sky of the planet could finally be seen again without the interference of then fog.
August simply stood there in wait, and several moments later, a red flare appeared in the sky.
"Finally!"
He muttered, a small smile appearing on his face.
Shortly after, a couple of presences appeared entered the outpost.
It was Orion, Lira and Alex, accompanied by instructor Serena.
The three receuits were in extremely bad shapes with Lira and Alex looking like they could die any moment, at the slightest touch.
Orion was the only one who looked stable on his own two feet. That wasn’t to say he was fine, far from it in fact. He had the harshest wounds out of the three of them and if his ability didn’t include energy control, he might have been like his other two teammates.
"You didn’t have to take so long, you know?"
August said with a raised eyebrow, taking a glance at the states of the three recruits, probably noticing that they were missing a one.
"I’ll be heading back to camp. Don’t stay out too long."
Serena said, walking past it along with the recruits.
"Tch! So much for waiting!"
August kissed his teeth watching them walk away from the outpost.
’She could have at least asked me to send them back. That was one of the reasons I was sent after all...’
’Speaking of reasons...’
August’s eyes widened, realizing that Kieran and Jake had yet to make it back up.
He had totally forgotten about them.
.....
Back in the underground structure, Kieran had crawled his way back to Jake.
Unlike before where he had been injured cause of the residual aura, the monster had tried to kill it and it would have succeeded if not for August’s intervention.
Even then, he didn’t come off without any injuries. He couldn’t even walk and had been throwing up mouthfuls of blood along the way.
It had been a while since August had gone to the surface with the creature and he could tell that the fight had ended.
In their favor, probably, since the monster hadn’t come to have them as some recovery snack.
As for August,
’I’m pretty sure he forgot we about us’
Kieran thought about the habits of his instructor with a small smile.
Because of everything that had happened, their plan and purpose of coming here in the first place had gone to waste. They couldn’t even take care of themselves and Kieran doubted Orion and his team fared any better than they did.
’Sigh...we’d just have to find another way."
Kieran closed his eye, trying to filter out the pain.
His mind was still on their original goal and this was nothing more than the result of a couple of unfortunate circumstances, at least he thought.
"Ah, there you are!"
"I thought you had died on me for a second there!"
August’s voice echoed through the place, rousing Jake and Kieran from their thoughts and they opened their eyes to see the excited face of the instructor.
"Well, kids. Let’s go back home shall we?"
