World's Last Hope-Chapter 112: The High Grade Threat
Kyle held his breath as he shifted his gaze to Master Talon. "I am sorry? Uninvited guests? You can’t possibly mean—"
"Less talking, more watching, boy," the Master spoke as he tightened his grip on the sword he had summoned.
Kyle inhaled deeply, gulped audibly, and pointed his spear forward to where the Master was looking.
He remembered the words that Talon had told him before, ’In the death zone, anything could and will go wrong.’
He gritted his teeth. It seemed that something had indeed gone wrong.
The others Awakened heard Talon’s warning and, as such, gritted their teeth, awaiting the next move.
The distant murky water moved.
And then, out of it, three fish-like creatures showed themselves for a moment.
They were green in color, perfectly blending with the surroundings. If it wasn’t for the water that moved in response to their movements, they would have been invisible.
"Stay behind me!" the Master commanded as he took a step forward, ready to face the monsters by himself.
’We will be fine, right?’ Kyle tried to reassure himself. They were in the company of a Master, so everything should be fine.
’No,’ he shook off the thought. They were in the death zone, so one must always expect the worst.
And the worst was that Master Talon would die facing the creatures, and they would be left without a guide—meaning they’d be basically doomed.
He was about to step forward, planning to offer his support, but was stopped by Talon’s shout.
"Don’t worry, I will be fine! Just stay behind me or you will get in the way!"
Seeing that the Master was right, Kyle bit his lower lip and didn’t move.
’If I step forward, I will only make myself more vulnerable, and if that means Talon will have to protect me, I will only get in the way.’
It was frustrating not to be able to do anything in this situation.
He shifted his gaze to his comrades and saw that all of them had their eyes wide in horror, and their hands, with which they held their weapons, were trembling.
Kyle couldn’t blame them.
Unlike the first fight, which was most likely planned by the Master—he probably hadn’t considered being attacked by unknown monsters... or maybe he did? He had personally told Kyle to expect the worst, so wasn’t it logical to assume that the Master had accounted for something like that happening?
The fish-like creatures had almost reached the Master, and the Awakened held their breath, knowing today they would witness a Master in a fight.
Finally, reaching the Master, the fish-like monster at the front jumped and opened its massive jaws.
Even from a distance, Kyle gasped as he saw how many rows of teeth the creature had.
Master Talon didn’t falter, however. He moved to the side, avoiding the creature that had just lunged at him.
In a blink of an eye, he moved his sword and pierced the creature’s abdomen.
The creature screeched as its crimson eyes began to lose life.
The other two didn’t wait, however. Another lunged forward from the water at the man’s face, while the other remained in the water and clamped its jaws onto Talon’s leg.
The Master grimaced. He moved his free hand, lunging in, staring into the creature’s throat, and smashed its insides. Simultaneously, he moved his sword and pierced the creature that was biting his leg.
The whole fight didn’t take longer than thirty seconds.
A silence befell the swamp as the bodies of the fish-like creatures began to taint the already murky waters with their black blood.
With a sigh, the Master glanced at the Awakened.
"And another lesson, just because you have managed to win a hard fight, that doesn’t mean that more and stronger monsters won’t come out of nowhere and attack you."
The Awakened nodded as their gazes shifted between the Master and the dead monsters.
He smiled as he saw them.
"Okay, enough training for today, let’s head back."
At his words, the Awakened, despite still being in shock from witnessing the precision with which the Master was able to move, smiled at the thought of returning to the safety of the city.
After all, in the entire world, there wasn’t a safer place behind its walls.
*****
Eric, Aria, and Olivia arrived at the castle.
"For fuck’s sake, can’t we rest a bit at least?" he muttered in frustration.
Just recently, they had managed to repel an attack on the city, and now they were needed again?
Eric doubted that they were called over because the Saint wanted to reward them.
"With more power comes more responsibility," Aria spoke as she nudged Eric to walk faster.
He sighed. He knew she was right, but he didn’t want to do anything at the moment and just wanted to sleep.
"No need to complain," Olivia joined in as well.
Reaching the room, they entered. Their presence was needed in the Grand Room, and by the look of the few hundred Masters already present, it seemed that most of the people were already there
Quickly sitting down, the trio waited as they observed the faces of the people present.
It was evident by the confusion on the Masters’ and Grandmasters’ faces that they too didn’t have an idea as to why there had been another grand meeting so soon after the last one.
It didn’t take much longer for the remaining people to enter, and at last, Saint Gabriel showed his face.
One look at the man and his dark expression, and it was clear that he wasn’t bringing good news.
As he sat at his chair, everybody held their breath, awaiting his next words. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚
"First of all, I want to thank Grandmaster Aria and Olivia, as well as Master Eric, for playing a huge part in stopping the spiders attack. The fact that you have managed to stop seven Grade-5 monsters is impressive on its own, but with so few casualties as well, is an achievement worthy to be celebrated," the Saint spoke coldly as he shifted his gaze to the trio.
A few murmurs were heard around the room as it seemed that not everybody was informed about the grand achievement the trio had done.
"But sadly, we aren’t here for celebrating, as a new threat has appeared and is closing in," Gabriel’s expression hardened. Hearing his words, so did everybody else.
"This new threat that I managed to detect is a High Grade-6 monster that is slowly approaching the city."
A few gasps were heard in the room, but no one dared to interrupt the Saint.
Eric’s body got goosebumps at the mention of a High Grade-6 monster. It had been so incredibly difficult to kill the spiders, which were considered Mid Grade-5 monsters, that he shuddered at the thought of facing a monster that was High Grade-6.
’Wait a moment,’ Eric’s crimson eyes widened in realization. If there was really a monster of that level approaching, wouldn’t it mean that the only person who could stand against the abomination would be the Saint?
But even if he was a Saint, would he be able to match the strength of a High Grade-6?
For all Eric knew, even Grandmasters were struggling against creatures at their level if they were high, and would often rely on the help of a second Grandmaster to get rid of the threat. Just because Aria and Olivia were the exception didn’t mean that the others were as well.
The problem was that if the Saint couldn’t best the monster in battle, there would be no one else to offer help, as they would be too insignificant against the creature.
"You might be wondering why I am not providing a map of the creature’s whereabouts. The reason is that this monster seems to have some kind of camouflage that makes it impossible for me to detect. The only reason that I was able to detect it in the first place was because of sheer luck."
Hearing the words of the Saint, Eric gulped audibly. If the Saint wasn’t able to detect the creature, didn’t that mean that the creature was stronger than the Saint?
Unable to contain himself, Eric asked.
"Saint Gabriel, if the two of you fought, who would come out on top?" At the cursed one’s question, everybody watched what the Saint was going to say next. His words would define the plans that they would have to come up with from now on.
If the Saint was stronger, then all would be good. The Grandmaster present would just have to give the Saint space for the fight and ensure no one interrupted them. Of course, battling between two grand powers could wreak great havoc, but as long as the city stood, all would be well.
But if the Saint was weaker than the entity... then only the gods could help them.
Gabriel’s eyes darkened even more before speaking.
"Sadly, if that battle happens, the outcome will be dire... as just from the second I felt the entity, I knew that I was weaker than it."
