34 Dwindling Numbers (2/2)
Sensing a dangerous sense of foreboding, the Lizardman attempted to flee. The moment his thought entered his mind, the enraged howl of the Beastman echoed, ”Explode!”
At that moment, his gauntlets exploded into thousands of pieces and the shrapnel from the explosion flew towards different directions. Obliterating everything in its path. The body of the Beastman laid on the surface of the branch like a punctured balloon. Both arms and the head of the corpse had turned to a mangled mess, with only a thick remnant of flesh, bone and blood left behind.
Meanwhile, a pillar of water stood two feet away from the corpse of the Beastman. A few seconds later, it revealed the injured body of the Lizardman. Although it had several gory injuries on its body, the most frightening one was the one on its left leg. In fact, from its knee downwards was missing.
Although he survived the blast, from this current demeanor, he did not look like he would last long.
”Bastard… I fell for his trap. I was too careless. Damn it! I should have expected it…”
As he bitterly complained, he heard the sounds of footsteps echoing from the distance. Which made his face distort in terror. In his current situation, he doubted if he would even survive his injuries, not to talk of surviving another battle. However, the survival instincts of the Lizardman kicked in.
'If I hide in the water, I'll be safe. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to recover. Yes, I must recover. The kins of that bastard will suffer for this!'
Dragging his injured body on the wooden surface, he approached the edge of the branch. Rolling over the edge, he sighed in relief as his body fell upended. As he fell, he noticed that he could not hear the footsteps anymore. Normally, he should have been elated, but he suddenly felt terrified. With less than ten meters before he dived into the murky waters, his eyes dilated and his body shivered tensed in response. Because, he could see a seven feet tall abnormality which resembled an Ogre, but it had glistering metallic skin almost like steel. And its eyes had no white in them, only an endless black like the depths of the abyss. What terrified the Lizardman was not the hulking body of the beast, or its bloodthirsty look. Rather, it was the blackish aberration which phased in and out of the Ogre-like beast. The unknown beast demolished everything that stood in its path while making a beeline movement towards the Lizardman's falling body. Although it moved at a speed which made the Lizardman terrified, he was certain he would have entered the water before the beast arrived. Although injured, he did not believe such a beast could catch him if he escaped underwater.
With only inches separating the water surface and the body of the Lizardman, he became elated. However, his joy was short lived. Because, two figures suddenly emerged from the depths of the water. At that moment, they grabbed the falling Lizardman and sent him back into midair. This time around, he flew in an upright position. Before he could even identify what or who sent him into midair, his pupils dilated. Because, only a few inches separated his head from the massive fist of the armored Ogre.
Before he could utter a word, the fist of the armored Ogre struck his head, and it exploded into a rain of flesh, bone and blood. The now headless corpse of the Lizardman slammed against an oak tree in the distance. At that moment, the armored Ogre screamed like an enraged beast who was not satisfied with slaughtering its prey.
”Whe… Where others?” The ghoulish voice of the monster suddenly echoed. At that moment, the two figures who foiled the escape of the Lizardman emerged behind the Ogre. If they James could see them, it would leave him slack jawed. Because, the two figures were the corpses possessed by Nether.
Opening their mouth, a series of ear-piercing shrieks echoed. It resembled the sounds of agony of a damned soul. The sound only lasted for a few seconds, before they closed their mouths. Saying nothing in response, the armored Ogre and the two corpses ran towards the depths of the swamp.
A few minutes after they left, a strange phenomenon occurred in the swampy region. The greenish murky waters of the swamp emitted a blackish wisp which spread at a rapid pace. The moment this wisp appeared, the corpses of the Lizardman and the Beastman exploded simultaneously. However, their blood congealed into worm-like creature. The moment it appeared, it flew towards the opposite direction of the black wisp.
…
In other parts of the forest, the same phenomenon was also taking place. The congealed blood of the youths who fell to the Nether advancing cycle flew towards the opposite direction of the plague-like wisp. Just like Henriksen explained, it did not affect the vegetation or the beasts in the forest. Only the youths met a miserable end at its hands.
Only two hours had gone by since the Nether Advancing cycle started, however, it had claimed the lives of ten of the surviving fifty youths. And it had covered a distance of two thousand meters.