God Class Awakening: Ascension of the Demon Hunter-Chapter 48: A Series of Unfortunate Events. 2 in 1 (2and3/3)
The sandworms moved with so much speed that Vale wasn’t able to keep up with them as they streaked through the sand.
He didn’t plan on observing them, though; without waiting to see if he could perhaps put up a fight, he turned around and began sprinting in the direction of the inverted forest.
If they had continued at their prior speed then it would have taken at least five hours to close the distance. This would have been the safest scenario. However, with the current situation, their best option was to sprint forward, hoping they would reach it in time.
The ground shifted under his feet as Vale pushed himself forward with all his might.
Some of the sandworms going in the direction of the noise seemed to notice him as they cut off from the main group. Vale could only sigh in relief when he looked back and noticed only a few of them chasing him.
They were still more than enough to put an end to his fickle life, though.
Currently, unless he used Primal state again, he would have no chance against even a single sandworm. The earlier fight with the warrior beetle had damaged his hands and if it hadn’t been for Primal state he wouldn’t have been able to use them so well.
Now that he was back to normal, all he could feel was an intense pain coursing through his arms. Still, he wouldn’t let that slow him down. At least his feet were working fine.
It didn’t take long for him to catch up to Roxy and Rein.
Looking back, over ten sandworms were tailing them and from the looks of it, they were going to catch up soon.
Especially with Rein not being as fast as either of them.
Things weren’t looking good for the trio and from the looks of it, it was only going to grow worse.
As he continued sprinting forward, Rein and Roxy, a few meters ahead of him, suddenly stopped moving as their quick feet came to an abrupt halt.
Vale was just about to shout, yelling for them to continue moving when he noticed why they stopped.
Up ahead, a sandworm was rushing towards them at full speed from the front.
Roxy immediately pushed Rein to the side, using the same force to push her body out of the way. The next second the worm jumped out of the ground and instead of biting on the human, it bit on air.
It burrowed into the sand almost as quickly as it came out.
Vale exchanged glances with Roxy, and as her eyes flickered over Rein, he immediately knew what he needed to do. Right now, the sand worm would be able to attack before both of them got to their feet.
So the best option was for him to take away the weaker person, Rein, and hope Roxy had an ace up her sleeve.
Seizing the moment, he bent low while still running, and picked up Rein in a single, calculated, and swift motion. The flustered girl grabbed onto him tightly as she shivered uncontrollably in his hands. Her face was buried deep in his chest as she sobbed lightly.
"I don’t wanna do this." Her voice was muffled by his clothes, but he could hear her as clear as day.
He didn’t want to do this either. He didn’t want to do any of this.
Not in his past life, not in his current one.
But he knew deep down that for the sake of survival he had to do it all. He had to survive. No matter what.
Perhaps there was a breaking point where he would lose his urge to survive, but for now, he hadn’t gotten there. So that meant he would have to keep running. Keep striving to stay alive.
He threw one last glance at Roxy who was still trying to stabilise herself, before zooming past her.
The sandworm that attacked them was still there, lying in wait buried beneath the sand, and it had no plans of giving Roxy any form of respite.
It jumped out of the soil and attacked with its usual ferocity. Roxy, seeing the approaching danger, immediately created a make-shift shield in an instant.
The crude sheet of bluish metal was destroyed upon impact, scattering into a million pieces that vanished as easily as they appeared. The brief moment of impact had given Roxy the time she needed to get out of the way.
The sand worm wiggled and then slithered towards her, but she was already anticipating this attack.
She stretched out her hand and multiple threads shot out from within her palm, wrapping around the creature before it could even react.
The sandworm seemed to sense the danger that had come upon it as it tried to dive back into the sand.
Roxy smiled when she saw this. As the worm tried to burrow into the soil, it soon realised that it couldn’t go into the ground. After the first attack, Roxy had used her mana to form a thin plastic film over a five-metre radius.
As the sandworm tried to retreat, all she needed to do was harden that film, completely stopping its retreat.
The creature seemed to realise something was wrong as it turned to the human. If it couldn’t go into the sand then it would just kill the human first.
In the next moment, it charged towards Roxy with intense bloodlust.
Roxy didn’t feel anything other than disgust looking at the approaching creature. She threw her hands towards the ground and immediately, the strings connected to them tightened.
The creature froze as the strings around it dug into its flesh.
Roxy wasn’t done yet. With an intense groan, she pushed even further, and the threads went all the way through. Slicing the creature into pieces.
There was no time to celebrate the kill as the other approaching sandworms were already upon her.
She let out a frustrated sigh; she hadn’t expected to expend so much mana so soon.
Looking at her wrist, the numbers read 43 and it was steadily decreasing. This was a simple skill she had created to track her own mana usage. If the numbers reached zero then she would have another blackout.
Still, in the current situation, she couldn’t afford to be greedy with her mana.
So...
She pushed her frame upwards and controlled her body to ignore the laws of gravity, letting her float in the air. Normally flying was easy for her. But right now it was just a way of draining mana.
The incoming sandworms attacked the spot she had previously been but didn’t find anything. So they continued to their next target. Vale, who was now being weighed down by Rein.
Vale turned back and saw Roxy in the air. And all he could do was stare with his mouth slightly agape, while his legs kept moving. For some reason, he felt he should’ve expected that.
But now wasn’t the time to try to analyse what should be possible and what shouldn’t.
The sandworms were all locked on him and it would take a miracle for him to escape, especially now that he was carrying Rein who clung to him as if he were the only real thing left in this cursed world.
He could still hear her sobs beneath all the chaos and he couldn’t help but feel for the girl.
Unlike him who had been an experienced demon hunter and lived life on the edge or Roxy who most likely had her fair share of evils, this poor girl’s only sin was being born in the prison realm.
She didn’t deserve this, but alas, fate happens to everyone. Vale could only shake his head.
All through this his legs didn’t halt for a second. But he wasn’t fast enough as the gap was gradually closing.
He had no thoughts of dropping Rein to increase his speed, that wouldn’t help much. Still, if he had a dollar for everything he was running while carrying something or someone, he would have a couple of dollars.
The distance to be covered had drastically reduced and the giant golden pillars revealed their true size.
If this were any other time, he would at least appreciate the beauty that was this ’forest’ but right now, he could feel the ground shaking beneath his feet. A sign that the approaching doom was growing closer.
Roxy had a concerned look as she flew closer to him while glancing at her wrist: 31 it read, making her even more hesitant to take any action.
Something told her that he would be able to make it on his own. But something was clearly wrong as one sandworm, which had already arrived beside him, jumped out of the soil towards him.
Vale wasn’t able to think as the large jaws were about to close on him. He sent out a fist and redirected the monster to the side.
Even though he avoided immediate mutilation, the energy transfer from the creature made it so that he was thrown off balance, causing him to waste several precious seconds stabilising himself.
Roxy noticed the gravity of the situation and materialised a spear in her hand. It glowed with a blue shimmer and left a trail in the air as she threw it towards the ground.
It pierced into the ground, killing the closest sandworm to Vale. But that single attack alone had caused her numbers to go down to 21.
She wasn’t done though. She materialised another spear and threw it towards the ground, killing or at least disabling another sandworm. Her numbers went down again, this time stopping at ten. She couldn’t throw any more spears.
All she could do was hope.
Vale discerned that he would reach the forest in about ten minutes. Because of Roxy’s help, it seemed possible now. There was hope.
But that hope was fickle and in a moment it could be shattered.
But it didn’t get shattered, not after a minute passed, and not after the next. For a moment he felt he would soon truly be safe.
And just when it seemed the tribulation had passed, the ground beneath his feet began to shake.
His heart immediately sank as a bad feeling welled up in his chest. And the feeling only grew worse as the shaking became more intense, throwing him off balance.
In front of him, multiple sandworms revealed themselves. They had previously been stationary, so he hadn’t noticed them. But as he looked at the crowd in front of him—and the one behind him.
All he could do was smile bitterly. The situation was... hopeless.
So, he stopped running. The ones behind him had also stopped and seemed to be gauging his location.
There was a strained tiredness in Vale’s voice as he let out a sigh. He was reluctant to do this. But it wasn’t like he could change what was happening right now. Perhaps if they hadn’t encountered that golden sandworm things wouldn’t have gone south.
Roxy’s face was pale as she noticed that Vale was now surrounded. She looked at her wrist. The numbers had gone down again, now settling at 7.
She bit her lip, thinking of what she could do to save him.
There was indeed something she could do. A final resort. But that would cost her...
"I’m sorry," she whispered through clenched teeth and turned her face away.
Vale gently placed Rein on the sand as he drew his dagger. If he was going down, he would go down with a fight.
He entered a fighting stance staring at the sandworms that had revealed themselves.
This was... his last stand. Then all at once, all the sandworms rushed at him.
"How regrettable," he muttered. "I was starting to like this life."
