Hugo kicked the wooden frame in rage, sending the makeshift carriage flying, which was blocking the entrance, "If I had not gotten my hands on the Chronos, I might have killed you in a fit of rage. Rejoice! You'll only be tortured and turned into a slave."

Like a raging bull, he marched in a hefty manner and did not even look at Xahi. She was already overcoming the effects of the drugs he gave her and others.

Hugo had a sturdy build and was 6ft in height. Still, the sight of the human pushing the 3m tall boulder away did not seem believable to Xahi. On top of that, he had done so while holding another human -a boy- on his shoulder.

The beastmaster went into the tunnel revealed after the displacement of the rock. Xahi felt relieved and desperate at the same time. She had listened to the human's words when he entered the cave. They were incomprehensible, but the tone was creepy. They had to get away. Hugo would be back in any minute.

But the drowsiness was lingering on her like metal chains. Nonetheless, she tried her best to wake up her mother, hoping she would.

However, still high on the sleeping drug, her desperate nudges were rendered to soft touches from the highness weighing her down. And a touch was in no way effective to wake a person forced to sleep by a drug used on beasts. Yet Xahi was recovering from its effects with every passing minute.

In only ten minutes, she recovered her voice, "Mumma, please wake up. He is a monster." Xahi had witnessed the crazed expression of the beastmaster when he was taking that boy into the tunnel. Her drill sergeant seemed to be a cute puppy compared to Hugo. She jerked her mother rapidly but to no avail.

"Mumma, please, please wake up," Her slender hands tried to put as much force as she could on her mother's shoulder. But the Chrono with translucent purple-pale skin was dead asleep. Xahi felt as though no energy was left in her mother, yet she knew her mother was still alive.

"Mumma," Xahi's face trickled with tears, but she didn't stop. The teen Chrono sat her mother straight, supporting her with a wall.

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Before she could try anything else, she heard the footsteps, and the voice followed behind it from the end of the cave, "How come you are already awake?"

Xahi’s head snapped back, horrified. Recicating(*) her hands, she took a protective stance, putting herself between Merino and the human.

"I asked you something." Hugo spat out, rolling his sleeves up.

"Don't come near us." She warned, but it came out as a whine. The skin on both of her hands melted like hot metal. Her pinky fingers elongated while others tilted and merged into them. Slithering and convulsing, the skin around her hands crystallized, taking the shape of deadly sabers. Any chopping action from her hands now would cut.

"Oh ho, Recication! I didn't know you were such a gem. A youngling Chrono tryna be all mature.” Hugo replied happily when the effect of racication became visible. The beastmaster’s eyes shone looking at her hands which had turned into crystalline dark blades. The fact that Xahi had her innate weapon to wield, like a mature Chrono, excited him. Her skin had become a more valuable article to possess.

"But girl, I am not in a mood to play." He took a step back and bent his knee, appearing as though a cannon loaded to fire. The beastmaster pounced towards her with his massive muscular frame. Xahi trembled in fear but still completed the motion of slashing in a cross onto the oncoming human but missed. She was no warrior, not even a fighter. More so, the Chrono race itself stays away from fighting bare hands, often relying on the machinery and technology they research. Their ability to racicate was as useful as human canines. Unless trained to harm, racication was a mere skill that granted tools, not weapons for slaughter.

At Hugo’s level, it took him just his agility to evade the slashes. He replied with a punch in her gut, and her concentration broke like a fragile glass, returning her hands back to normal. She was forced flat on the ground, groaning and wincing in pain. Like a sack of potatoes, Hugo pulled her on his shoulder.

"No, leave me alone, you monster." The Chrono threw her long slender hands and legs all over Hugo, but level 18 Xahi couldn't even scratch the human’s defenses, who was at level 435. Hung upon his shoulder and losing control of her basic motions caused helplessness to seep into her mind.

"It would be easier if you don’t struggle," Hugo said, yet didn’t do anything to stop her from yelling or throwing her legs and hands around. He didn't speak anymore and took her into the same tunnel he went with the boy.

Each bump she felt from Hugo’s steps struck desperation in her. It had already been more than two minutes, and they came to nowhere. The girl didn’t stop yelling and screaming and only succeeded in exhausting herself. Finally, when her screams and wails had turned into sniffs and cries, they entered a cavern spread over a few dozen meters.

There he was. At one corner of the cavern's huge space, the boy was tied onto a cross made of wood. When Xahi had begged Hugo, yelling out her lungs, she had also woken up the unconscious Trino. He was witnessing the scene in front of him, scared witless for the unknown girl from the horrific screams he had heard. The fact he was playing a game didn’t exist in his mind anymore. It was a nightmare.