World's Last Hope-Chapter 65: Luring Out

"You want me to blast our way to the cathedral?" Aria asked, trying to follow Eric’s plan.

"Yeah, think about it. That thing moved so fast that even you, a Grandmaster, weren’t able to see its movements."

Eric’s lips curved into a menacing smile. "But what if we expose it to the outside? It seemed perfectly happy staying in the darkness of the cave. Maybe there’s a reason for that?"

"This might work, but we still have a problem," Olivia muttered.

"Princess, your attacks will create a lot of noise, and as a result, it’ll attract the attention of the nearby monsters."

"That’s true," Eric admitted. "But as we all know, the two primary monsters in these lands aren’t exactly friendly with each other. If we’re lucky, they’ll start fighting one another and hopefully ignore us."

He pointed down.

"Once Aria creates the path, the creatures might sense that their territory is being invaded. They could end up fighting the guardian to defend it from outsiders."

Aria closed her eyes for a moment, most likely considering whether the plan was solid.

After a minute, she sighed. "Okay, let’s begin right away."

Eric nodded, and he and Olivia made some space for Aria.

Gripping the sword handle tightly, Aria began slashing. Each swing of her sword created a small explosion, slowly digging into the ground as she went down.

Eric almost stumbled due to the sudden movements of the ground, mimicking an earthquake.

He couldn’t help but mutter, "This strength... It’s almost like she doesn’t have to worry about her life, as if she’s strong enough to simply push past anything."

Olivia’s eyes darkened. "Don’t do it, Eric. This is the first mistake you can make in the Death Zone," she said firmly, looking him directly in the eyes.

"You NEVER get comfortable in the Death Zone. Once you do, you’re as good as dead."

Eric nodded, realizing his mistake, and summoned his sword.

"These guys sure don’t waste any time," he muttered as his gaze shifted to a few dozen spiders, each towering at almost ten meters.

"We take care of the little ones while the colossal ones fight among themselves... hopefully," he said to Olivia, digging his foot into the ground before dashing toward the enemy.

In the next moment, his sword sliced through the leg of one spider, causing it to collapse to the ground. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Now fallen, Eric was able to reach its head. Without wasting any time, he brought his sword down on the monster’s head, killing it instantly.

Of course, he tried to aim his slashes carefully so the blood wouldn’t spray onto him, potentially damaging his armor.

There was no time to rest, as another spider was already upon him. However, in the next moment, its head suddenly burst apart as Olivia appeared atop the creature’s body.

It was a strange feeling. Before, Eric had tried to avoid fighting these monsters whenever possible. But now, with a comrade fighting alongside him, he felt brave enough to tackle any challenge.

Maybe it was because he trusted Olivia, or maybe it was the effect of his trait, ’Charmed.’

Not wasting time on pointless thoughts, he focused on the next enemy at hand.

*****

"I’ve got twenty! What about you?" Eric called out, panting as he took down another spider.

"You’ve still got a long way to go! I’m at fifty!" Olivia replied with a smirk as she charged at the next enemy.

They had been fighting for some time now. Throughout the entire battle, the ground beneath them hadn’t stopped shaking, as Aria was still slowly carving her way through the earth.

Eric threw a glance toward her from time to time. She was now nowhere to be seen, the giant hole she had created was deep enough to completely obscure her.

The next moment, Eric froze as the ground shook again. But this time, it wasn’t because of Aria’s attacks.

"So, they’ve come," Eric muttered as he shifted his gaze to the east.

Slowly, a colossal spider, about 200 meters tall, appeared in view.

Eric instinctively tried to hide himself from the spider’s line of sight, knowing that his soul was highly desired by these monsters. For a brief moment, he felt worried that the spider might attack Aria.

But then, on the opposite side of the spider, a colossal butterfly appeared.

"Just like planned," Eric muttered, returning his focus to the enemies in front of him.

Trying to ignore the monstrous roars behind him, he cut through the smaller creatures as quickly as he could.

But there was a problem.

He was getting overwhelmed.

The enemies were slowly increasing in number, while his stamina was steadily depleting. He was nearing his limit.

"Olivia! I don’t think I can go on for much longer!" he warned, taking ragged breaths as he fought.

"What?!" Olivia sounded furious.

"When you were locked in with Aria for two days, you were tired, but you didn’t stop, did you?! You lazy fuck, don’t you dare stop now!" she shouted in frustration as she faced nearly three times as many enemies as him.

Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Eric gritted his teeth, trying to push through his exhaustion.

The roaring behind him grew louder. Curiosity piqued, he allowed himself to glance back for a moment.

It seemed that multiple colossal monsters were now locked in battle around the massive hole Aria was creating with her relentless attacks. The hole was so deep that the vibrations from her strikes against the ground were almost too faint to feel.

"How much longer?!" Eric cried in pain, his voice strained as he felt his armor slowly melting from the monsters’ acidic blood.

He was having trouble finding where to step, as the ground was filled with so many bodies that it was virtually impossible to avoid them.

And because of the creatures’ acidic blood, his feet had long since begun to melt. His armored boots were gone, and now he could feel the acid eating through his very skin, muscles, and even the bones at the bottoms of his feet.

But nevertheless, he pressed on.

Just as he was about to be overwhelmed, Eric suddenly felt himself being lifted and hurled toward a tree. Acting quickly, he used his sword to pierce the tree, stopping his fall. He clung to the trunk and gazed at the spot where he had been standing just moments before.

There stood Aria, her hair messy and her eyes heavy with exhaustion.

Not waiting, she grabbed Olivia as well and sent her toward the same tree.

Jumping effortlessly dozens of meters into the air, she grasped the tree and began to climb.

"It’s done!" she shouted between ragged breaths.

It seemed that she wanted her and her companions to get as high in the tree as possible—most likely to stay away from the incoming danger.

Eric shifted his gaze toward the massive hole Aria had carved into the earth.

A shiver ran through his body as he saw something dark slowly emerging from the depths.

It seemed they had finally succeeded in luring out the guardian.