CHAPTER 145: DESPAIRING
The survivors were spread out in the process of planting the explosives. Hope flashed within their eyes as they worked. Maybe, just maybe, they would live to see the next morning light.
Unfortunately, the budding hope blooming in their hearts was dashed when they heard the next roar.
— GRROOOOAR!
They were already used to the sound of the angry bellows of the gigantic boars, but this one just sounded different. Rather than an angry cry, it felt more like a call, and even as weak as they were, they could feel the power hidden within the commanding voice.
Kael, who was busy digging the ground before the spatial crack, came to a still, his other friends mirroring his actions.
Slowly, he turned his head behind, far to the only structure still standing whole and intact for atleast a kilometer.
There, on the roof of the main building, stood a lone figure, about two meters tall. Donned in a white suit without any form of blemish, the being could have been mistaken for a human if it wasn't for its unnaturally big head, far disproportionate to the rest of its body.
But no one cared about how comical the creature looked.
No.
Each and every one of them felt a chill within their hearts as they gazed at those two eerie, glowing blue eyes that seemed to pierce through their very souls. Contrasted against Kael's piercing blue eyes, the undead's own possessed an eerie light that felt utterly devoid of warmth.
To be honest, Kael had been feeling a bit grumpy inside. Seeing how much his team had grown stronger, he had been wondering if they had actually made a mistake. With the power they possessed, couldn't they have at least escaped the academy long ago? With only the undead to look out for, surely they would have had a great chance.
Only now did he realize why Nathaniel vehemently beseeched them not to dare, with the principal opting to trust in the young boy's class.
For some reason, Kael felt as if the undead was gazing directly at him, and he felt wholly inferior. He felt like there was no measure of resistance he could raise. If this creature far in the distance wanted him to die, he would have to. The gap was insurmountable.
Kael opened his mouth to speak, but his throat felt dry. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down uselessly, as the words refused to leave his parched throat.
And if he was feeling like this, what about the other survivors?
It took all his effort just to move his head away from the creature's gaze to observe the others. And what he saw made his throat sink to the pit of his stomach.
All the survivors who had been planting the explosives with spring in their steps and hope in their eyes were on the ground at this moment, unconscious.
Aside from those around him, Kael quickly took in the sight of only Rose, Sophia, Ben, Iris, Claire, and a cloaked Rachel still standing in the distance.
'This is not good.'
One moment they felt like they finally had a chance to escape, and in the next, they were thrown into a life-and-death situation.
Kael's mind churned rapidly as he thought of ways to get them out of this situation.
With the survivors having spread out, it would prove time-consuming to gather them together.
But it wasn't like they could abandon them.
His eyes suddenly snapped down when he felt a slight tremble in the ground. A feeling of uneasiness was starting to bloom within his heart, and it didn't take long for Kael to know what was coming.
He had experienced something like this before, after all.
Shifting his head back to the undead anomaly far in the distance, Kael saw the creature grin at him, its mouth filled with unnaturally black and sharp fangs that contrasted with its suit.
"We need to move now!"
Kael heard Elena's shout in the background, and his high perception allowed him to feel how they moved quickly around the pile of corpses, working to bring the unconscious survivors.
Kael knew it.
'This won't do...'
Another sound of shattering glass came from far behind him, even as the ground continued to tremble with greater intensity and the cries of Nathan and Rose resounded directly within his mind.
My God! It's another spatial crack!
Is this damn apocalypse determined to wipe us all out tonight?
It took everything within Kael to keep his emotions under control, even under the effect of Godly Focus.
We need to run, and we need to run now! Kael screamed within the network.
But we can't just leave them. Nathan replied quickly.
Kael's eyes flashed with a cold light. He couldn't allow this burden to hold them down. His and his sister's lives would always take the highest priority, his friends included.
But when he saw the principal teleporting around in purple flashes of light, Kael couldn't bring it within himself to speak his mind.
Kicking off the ground, Kael's body streaked through the air as he approached the others.
He arrived before the pile of unconscious survivors the principal and the others had gathered, and without hesitation, he spent a large portion of his system coins.
Several big bottles of water fell on the ground before him, and without any ceremony, Kael weaved his silks around them. Raising them above the survivors, his silks took on a silvery light before ripping the plastic bottles into countless pieces, causing a torrent of water to pour down like a waterfall.
Choking sounds quickly resounded within the area, but the waking survivors didn't even get the chance to come to as they heard Kael's cold voice drift into their ears.
"If you want to live, then fight. We don't have the luxury of protecting everyone anymore. If you can't keep up, we will leave you behind. I won't let your weakness get the rest of us killed. Understood?”
Roars filled the surroundings, as the sounds of rapidly shuffling feet filled the area. Hundreds of undead emerged from the darkness around them, and among their ranks were the slithering remains of massive centipedes, the charging skeletons of corrupted wolves, and rotten bodies of huge rats.
But that wasn't all.
Boars now six meters in height emerged out of the spatial cracks, their hides glowing with a metallic sheen. No more were they of Common Rank, with their ranks filled with Rare and even Elite beasts. And behind them stood two Epic-Rank boars, their sizes almost seven meters, with huge tusks jutting out of their mouths.
Yet again, that wasn't all.
From the newly formed spatial cracks, a massive bear with dark brown fur emerged, its glowing crimson eyes fixing onto the rapidly approaching undead before a deep roar escaped its mouth, its forelimbs raised with its claws spread wide like curved blades.