Chapter 203: Free Fall
Chapter 201
One moment Ray could be seen grabbing Van.
One moment he could see the clear skies and meadows of flowers, and the next moment,
Flap—! Flap—!
He was falling?
Everywhere was pitch black.
Actually, with his superior eyesight, he could see almost clearly.
Not as well as before, but still... he wasn’t totally blind. Right?
He felt his body pass through the gullet of the strange.... What even was that?
He didn’t even know what to call the bizarre creature.
All he could feel was that he was plummeting at a rapid velocity.
It felt like he was sinking, descending deeper and deeper into the unknown.
’Wait. Where is Van?’ Ray worriedly thought as he began looking around for his companion, but the boy was nowhere to be seen.
The moment the Aspirant had spotted those branches, he had rushed to grab his friend and they got swallowed together, so where was he?
Now Ray was genuinely concerned as he kept falling.
’Huh?’
He blinked as he continued to plunge.
Several seconds had passed and still, he hadn’t reached the bottom of wherever he was heading.
Where was he even going?
He was just free-falling at blazing speed, yet he hadn’t landed nor crashed into a floor.
Come to think of it; what would he encounter at the base? Spikes? Lava? Beasts? Demons? Aberrants?
For all he knew, he could be falling to his death at this very moment, yet he still hadn’t made impact.
Looking around the space, he could see that the walls were far beyond his grasp.
Hence, he had no choice but to wait.
"Argh...." He suddenly yelped loudly.
His legs had been abruptly yanked forcefully by a strange suction force.
Earlier, if it felt like he was falling through space, it now felt like he had crashed into a body of water.
It wasn’t a pool of liquid per se, but that was the same sensation he experienced as he was dragged into the depths.
Passing through a barrier of some sorts, his previous high-velocity speed drastically reduced; he was being slowly sucked in now.
His falling speed had just begun to level out when—
"Shoot! I can’t seeeeeee!" A loud shout broke out from above the Tribrid.
Quickly glancing up, Ray’s eyes widened in delight.
Then despair. Shock. And finally, pure panic.
"Van! Watc—"
"AAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Van screamed as he fell on his backside, then—
Wam!
Van’s rear smashed into Ray’s face, as the Tribrid had been gazing upward just a second too long.
He could feel the warm, solid weight directly on his features.
"Fuck."
Instantly, their speed increased dramatically.
They fell with such force that in a second, they passed through the strange suction zone and were now falling much, much faster than before.
After passing through the thin air, Ray could now see much more clearly than before, considering that Van had managed to move away from his face.
And now, the Tribrid’s eyes widened in horror as the ground rapidly approached them.
’Well, at least there are no spikes. But wait! I’m about to fall to my death?!’
He panicked for a moment before a thought occurred to him.
’... I wonder; can my body endure a fall from this height? After all, I’m no longer human. Ah shucks... I don’t want to fucking find out!’ He screamed in panic as dread filled his heart.
"AHHHHH! We are going to die, Ray! This is not how I fucking envisioned I would go! What happened to growing old and then dying naturally?!" Van screamed into the air, tears now streaming from his eyes.
Well, not actually falling—just splattering all around the empty space.
Before Ray could think of a way to lessen their impact, it was too late.
He was just a few mere seconds away from the ground when he reached a sudden decision.
Glancing at the falling Van, Ray reached out, grabbing the boy’s hand before yanking the crying teen toward his chest with full force.
Now, they were locked in a tight hug as Ray’s back faced the ground while Van’s back faced the open ceiling that was miles away from their reach.
The Aspirant could see the stems and vines from that demonic flower’s root in the slightly open gap where they fell from.
But unfortunately, they wouldn’t be able to reach for safety because—
BAM—!
Ray’s body collided with the ground with full force, a crash that still sent his frame ricocheting across the slightly rocky earth.
His teeth were grinding continuously as he struggled to control his bouncing form, which he fortunately managed to do in time.
[-5 HP]
The duo came to a skidding halt, with Ray huffing and panting in significant pain.
"Will you get off of me now?" he growled, his voice strained.
Soon, Van rolled away from Ray’s body and lay on his back too, panting exhaustedly.
’Gu-Guess my body was able to endure that fall. I had been tempted to summon Bruce and have him transform into a werewolf—maybe that would have helped a little—but I’m glad that it worked out... well. Though I’m a little sore.’
Ray rubbed the back of his head while he was still seen heaving, the impact obviously taking a toll on him.
Still on his back, he twisted and turned his cranium to see that they had fallen into a large cavern of some sorts, featuring quite a number of holes or... tunnels in the walls that seemingly led to only heaven knows where.
’Wh-Where are we? Underneath the planet? Or in the beast’s stomach?’
Van, who was beside him, was frantically touching around like a blind man.
"Why is it so freaking dark in here? I can’t see anything!"
Annoyed, the boy quickly felt his arm and then traced his wrist before tapping on his bracelet, which immediately illuminated the space around him with a ghostly blue light that spread five meters around his position.
Ray winced and shut his eyes for a moment at the sudden illumination before slowly opening his eyelids to see Van looking around with a confused expression on his face.
"Where are we? And most importantly; how do we get out of here?!"