Chapter 361: No Choice
Brandon, Jack and Elaine stood in a circle, the trio looking quite beat.
Jack and Brandon had their hair and skin covered in dry, crusting blood flakes, open wounds decorating their physique.
All exhausted, but refused to back down, their hawkish gazes trained upon the sanguine figure standing at their center.
The mantis-like charmed beast, stood high, the carapace of its armour riddled with cracks, one of its pearly eyes ruptured into a purple pulp.
One of its scythe-like claws was broken, and one of its four spear-like legs was missing.
The humans weren’t the only ones in a dire state, all parties had been under a constant exchange through the changes.
And now that the zone had been elevated to an abyssal zone, though the crew didn’t know why this was.
They still held their bombardment against the beast, it wasn’t until the force in the air began to experience shocking changes and started to seriously affect their battle performance that they halted.
The more they used their essence, the deeper the claw of the corruption sunk into their bodies.
Their muscles were going stiff, seriously impairing their reaction speed and movements.
While their essence flow had been influenced, now slower, it fucked with their skill activation speed and capacity to deal damage.
The debuffs the zone had placed upon them might seem more like inconveniences, but in a battle of their level, every disadvantage carried real weight.
It all compounded into serious impairments that made the three reluctant to continue their attacks.
Because the more they moved the more essence they expended the more vulnerable they became.
They might still keep the advantage now, but that wouldn’t last for long.
And this monster was a sinister beast with no mercy, the moment it seized a chance when they were caught lacking and they would be sent straight into the afterlife.
The three stared intently at the monster, the remaining soldiers hiding in the far distance, still active and ready to reinforce their leaders.
The battle had sunken into a stalemate of sorts, the charmed beast’s intelligence shone through its remaining, singular, pearly black eye.
It quickly assessed its situation, it was obvious that it couldn’t defeat the three anytime soon, though it did not know how the changes to the zone affected its opponents.
The monster could feel a slow empowerment, as the abyssal force surged into its being, elevating its prowess by the second.
All it needed was time, and right before their eyes for the first time since their interactions with the corrupted they witnessed a charmed beast flee straight into the dark in an instant.
The beast never released an intent to attack, which caused Brandon and the others to react too late to its escape.
And before they could even mobilize essence to attempt a catch-up, the beast was long out of sight.
No one felt relief, sharing exhausted but still grim glances, they remained silent for a brief moment.
The three silently assessed their situation and weighed their options.
Jack quickly understood that things were about to get several times worse.
Their foes from here on out would only prove to be stronger while they themselves grew weaker.
It was a crippling disadvantage no matter how one looked at it, and if they wanted to take things safe their best bet was to retreat back to shore and right out of this zone.
But that was the problem...
After they retreated, then what?
They’d still be stranded in the middle of the sea, with no land in sight, and maybe even fall into other more deviously difficult corruption zones out there.
And worse at least this was land, they stood a chance, but in the sea?
Even if by some miracle they avoided corruption zones, what if they fell into the hands of the sea races?
If they were all killed that would culminate into being a fatal blow to the overall prowess of the human race.
In the end their teammates were probably on this island somewhere, they had to at least try in searching for them.
The three reviewed the system notifications, then glanced at one another...
"Sigh... we have no choice, we have to find a way to clear this zone if we want to get out of this alive." Jack started.
And Elaine nodded, her delicate face having an excessively pale expression while still filled with streaks of drying blood.
"I agree, we need to turn this island into a safe zone or else we have a harder chance surviving in the unknown sea out there." Elaine seconded Jack’s words.
Brandon said nothing but still showed his agreement with a brief nod.
His eyes flickering as he tried to process the situation.
By now his mind had completely recovered from the time reversal, he had shelved the experience into the back of his mind.
Maybe after they were safe he could revisit the topic, but if he didn’t get his mind clear about it, the future he was trying to avoid might end up being his sentence.
And this time it might remain irreversible...
Snapping out of his daze his expression grew solemn...
"Everyone gather around!" Jack ordered with a loud bark.
Causing the evolvers to burst right out of hiding, gathering around the three.
The evolvers were all rounded up most relatively unharmed, their eyes still carrying remnant fright at the thought of the charmed beast.
Without a doubt that monster would be back, the same beast that fought their all-powerful leaders to a standstill.
And this time things wouldn’t be the same as the odds were unfairly skewed into favour of the corrupt.
The humans grew weaker while their foes grew stronger.
The soldiers weren’t blind they could clearly see that they currently had no advantage over these creatures and if they were to survive they had no choice but to keep moving.
By killing more, they would get stronger, giving them greater chances to clear this thing.
The crew needed no motivation, their morale might be low but their will to fight never dwindled.
Staring at their crew, eyes battle-ready, the three leaders felt content...
Only with a unified mindset would they stand a chance...
Before the crew could even properly bask in their reprieve and recover, the trees around them began to rattle.
The flow of abyssal essence in the air became denser... this time the presence of their foes wasn’t undetectable.
Glowing eyes, carrying a feral craze, shone through the dark of the surroundings, a sea of crimson eyes lighting up and surrounding the group.
The readied soldiers got into a battle-ready stance, Brandon was just about to walk forward to lead the attack.
But he felt an arm on his shoulder, looking back he saw Jack, the culprit, shaking his head.
Elaine stepped forward beside Brandon speaking, "if we want to survive this we can’t keep carrying the others they also need to grow stronger."
Jack nodded, "Till we spot defileds or charmed beasts, we will recuperate and let them handle it."
Blinking Brandon shifted his gaze back to the soldiers backing the three, he understood that if they took this route people would die.
Elaine and Jack probably understood this too, but they were left with no choice, if they wanted to get through this death would serve as the filter to forge the strongest of evolvers...