Chapter 124: Haha... I survived
"What the hell was that...." Eva’s voice trembled with fear, her body still shaking from the lingering effects of terror.
Ethan was deathly pale, sweat covering his forehead and soaking his back. All his instincts screamed at him to run at that moment — an overwhelming wave of dread overwhelmed him, something he had never felt before.
"We need to be extremely careful here and build our strength faster." Ethan’s voice was steady and laced with a sense of urgency.
"Hmm..." Everyone murmured in response, breathing heavily as they sat on the grassy ground. That’s when Aaron realized his suit had been torn from the shoulder all the way up to his neck.
"I might have inhaled the outside air." His abrupt words made everyone’s heads snap toward him.
As soon as Eva saw the tear, her eyes widened and her heart tightened at the thought that her brother might be poisoned.
Her body reacted before her mind caught up. She instantly wrapped Aaron in a green energy dome. A stark look of panic spread across her face as she continued to pour her powers into him.
"Eva, calm down, I’m fine. If the air were poison, I would’ve died already, since it’s been a while since I breathed it in...and your powers can’t cure poison." Aaron said softly as he stretched out his body, trying to show her he was truly okay.
Eva still had doubts and was prepared to use her cloud rain to heal him, even though she didn’t know how to control it yet.
"I’m fine, really." Aaron repeated himself several times before Eva finally withdrew her powers. Ethan and Julian let out a sigh of relief, grateful that nothing had happened to Aaron—her behavior clearly showed how much she cared about her brother.
"If you feel even a slight reaction, anything, even if it’s just a muscle twitch, let me know right away," Eva said softly, her expression showing a rare seriousness.
"Alright, my sister loves me the most~" Aaron bragged, throwing Ethan and Julian a smug smile. He was elated by her concern and care for him — they ignored him, their minds returning to the important issue at hand.
"Should we stay in here for today or head out?" Julian asked aloud, and everyone immediately remembered the intense fear they’d felt earlier, and they all frowned.
"We should stay here today; we don’t know if that thing is waiting for us outside. No way I’m going out today after that dreadful feeling." Eva shook her head violently — she wasn’t going to die like prey in a predator’s jaws.
Alright, it’s decided—we’ll stay here today. We need to rest and recharge for tomorrow." Ethan pulled his sweat-soaked hair back with a grimace.
He received their nods in return, and he wondered if they could survive the surface—a sense of doubt, fear, and uncertainty took hold of his heart. He clenched his fist tighter and suppressed his emotions, knowing they’d endanger everyone if he let his feelings cloud his judgment.
Wolfy sensed his master’s turbulent emotions, gently nudged him, and let out a soft howl as if trying to comfort him. Ethan looked down and saw the bruises on Wolfy’s body from the fight with the winged tigers. He stroked Wolfy’s fur and silently offered a thank you.
His eyes flashed with a determined glint – he had to become stronger if they were going to survive here and build a stronghold for Oasis City.
As Eva approached the makeshift tent, a dull ache spread through her stomach. It felt bloated and stiff, causing her to frown, and she gently rubbed it. "Maybe I overate," she thought to herself.
She entered the tent and headed straight for the bed in the center, feeling suddenly exhausted. She thought she had strained herself and needed to rest to recharge her energy.
She could hear the sounds of digging and construction all around her, but they didn’t bother her. In fact, they had the opposite effect – they made her feel sleepy.
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Selina dashed through the trees, her face flushed from exertion and her chest tightening with pain from running without a moment’s rest.
Her eyes were haunted with a permanent fear, as images of blood-soaked limbs and bones replayed in her mind like a broken record, a constant reminder of what had happened just minutes ago.
*Earlier*
Selina blinked, trying to get used to her surroundings, and a gasp of awe escaped her lips when she saw a clearing covered with pink petals like flowers.
"Beautiful." A woman gasped beside her. Everyone was amazed by the clear blue sky, the cool breeze brushing against them, and the sun shining overhead.
They were amazed by everything they saw; it was so different from the dark, cold feeling or the artificial sunlight of their underground cities.
"Everyone should be on guard!" Zoey shouted. For some reason, the flowers around them gave her an eerie feeling; her instinct, honed by serving the dungeon, warned her to leave the area.
"Don’t be so overly cautious, learn to enjoy such a beautiful sight, something we’ve never seen before in our lives." A man laughed at Zoey’s caution and advised her to enjoy the sight; he even went so far as to touch the petals to prove it was harmless.
Alarms blared in Zoey’s mind, while the other team members watched with a curious yet relaxed expression and bent down to touch the petals nearby.
"See, nothing happened—" The man froze as the petals around them suddenly floated into the sky like they had been blown up by the wind.
Everyone’s expression changed slightly to one of caution, but as they watched the petals swirl around aimlessly, they relaxed and enjoyed the sight.
"Everyone, run!" Zoey leapt onto her cheetah beasts; her instincts screamed louder in her mind, sending her heart racing in her chest, as sweat droplets began to appear on her skin.
Zoey’s intense emotions caught Selina off guard, and she stepped away from the petals. She was about to scold herself for being so scared, but what happened next left her reeling in shock, her knees buckling, and her mind going blank.
The pink petals swirling around suddenly rushed toward them. The petals enveloped the man who had touched them earlier.
"Argh! Save...me." The man’s heart-wrenching scream chilled them to the bone. They watched wide-eyed as blood pooled on the petal, turning it bright red. The man’s voice faded until it was gone.
Some people reacted quickly and ran with their beasts beside them; they didn’t want to know what happened next. Their thoughts now were to get far away from here before the petals targeted them next.
When the petals released the man, only his bones were left, hitting the ground with a loud clatter that echoed through the clearing, followed by screams and retching.
Selina’s adrenaline surged through her, and she ran like never before. At the brink of death, she forgot her so-called image; she just wanted to survive.
Zoey was leading them; her best paws thundered on the ground, kicking up dust and sand into the air as they headed toward the forest.
The petals chased after them relentlessly, and the pained screams of people caught in the chaos battered their ears like a drum. From the corner of her eyes, she saw some petals covering a man’s arm like a lotus ravaging a field of crops, and what was left were bones.
Another group of petals circled the man’s waist, blood spurted, and the man felt the excruciating pain of having his internal organs eaten by tiny teeth.
*Now*
Selina crashed into a tree. She couldn’t feel her legs and didn’t know how far she had run, but the petals had stopped chasing them as soon as they entered the forest, and they were terrified to stop.
"Haha... I survived." A woman laughed with tears running down her face.
A group of twenty lost eight people and beasts at once.