Chapter 201: Where You Pull hardest
Dylan shook his head sharply. Fear mingled with a new, raw adrenaline that his core seemed to amplify. Every heartbeat pounded like a hammer blow in his chest, yet also like an overheated engine, ready to explode.
In that instant, without hesitation. Julius’s words had etched themselves into his mind with the coldness of a blade.
They raced down a steep slope, sliding over dead leaves, thorns tearing at their clothes. The ravine unfolded before them—a dark, deep gash in the landscape, split by a furious torrent whose roar rose like a warning. It was indeed a bottleneck. A perfect trap.
"Now!" Julius bellowed, his voice ragged from exertion and the wind howling through the pass.
And yet, he still hadn’t mentioned jumping.
Julius spun abruptly, driving his sword into the damp earth. With a swift motion, he tore a small metal sphere from his belt—a magnetic pulse grenade, recognizable by its blue-ridged casing.
He activated it with a press of his thumb and hurled it not toward the ravine ahead, but behind them, onto the path they had just descended, where the first pursuers emerged from the undergrowth—silent and deadly as serpents.
"Down!" he roared, throwing himself to the ground and dragging Dylan with him.
The explosion was muffled, almost stifled, but its effect was immediate and terrifying. No flames, no violent blast. Just an invisible wave of energy, an electric crack splitting the air. The impact wasn’t lethal, but it was disruptive enough.
Muffled growls, rare curses in the usual silence of the Net, rose from the assault team caught off guard. The invisible rays had fried their systems, blinding and paralyzing their precision, leaving only close combat as an option.
"GO!" Julius bellowed, surging up like a wounded but determined beast. He pointed his sword toward the steepest side of the ravine—not toward the obvious ford below, but toward a rocky overhang halfway up, barely visible beneath a cascade of thick vines. "UP THERE! JUMP!"
Dylan didn’t hesitate. The fear was still there, icy, but it was now drowned out by the survival instinct his core pulsed through him. He took a running start, his battered feet finding improbable purchase on the slippery rock.