Chapter 76: Until the end (Second part)

I did it again.

This thought immediately crossed my mind when I finally awoke.

I don’t remember how many times I lost consciousness in both of my lives. Be it because of my old hyena master too eager to train me or because of various events outside of my control, I could sadly be considered as an expert in this peculiar domain.

However, of all the various situations I woke up from, this one was definitely the strangest among them all.

My entire body was hurting, without a doubt because of the rashness of my last intervention against a monster hundredth of times larger than me, but at the same time I was feeling strangely comfortable while resting against something warm and soft.

It was a shame that this peaceful rest on something much more comfortable from what I was used to, was completely ruined by a strange and unpleasant smell.

I wanted to immediately determine what my current situation was, but it still took me a few more seconds to fight off the drowsiness assaulting me and open my eyes. The light around me was too dim to immediately realize where I was. However, the not so distant growling sound along with the familiar burning sensation of my thumb, that I finally realized, made my heart skip a beat.

I stood up as fast as I could while wondering why the ground under me was so hot and wet at the same time.

My eyes needed a few more seconds to get used to the darkness, but fortunately, my other senses were quicker to prove useful.

The tension I was feeling disappeared as soon as I realized who was standing near me.

“Where am I?” I asked with a calm voice after noticing that none of my friends were missing.

“You’re not going to like it…” Snorted Jazor.

I was having trouble understanding why he said that until I finally realized that the hand I used to stand up wasn’t simply wet.

It was slimy.

“You’re kidding…” I muttered as an impossible idea fuelled by unpleasant memories of a giant rude hamster crossed my mind.

“We are inside this monster’s mouth.” Softly explained Alianelle who was standing up from behind me.

I turned to look at Alianelle’s face to be sure she was being serious, but it was too difficult to truly make out her face in this almost complete darkness. I could only distinguish her pale face along with tears that she hurriedly wiped with the back of her hand.

I finally understood where I was resting while I was unconscious, but also the terrible anguish she must have felt when she saw me fall from the sky. I wanted to comfort her, to show her that I was alright but I had more pressing questions.

“It swallowed us?” I asked bewildered before immediately realizing that it couldn’t be right.

“No, because of you, a good part of its mouth exploded while trying to expel everything it had swallowed. You were sent flying and the creature fell to the ground. I was able to finish it off quickly once it was lying on the ground, but another horde came immediately after so we had to improvise.” Bitterly explained Jazor.

The ambient darkness preventing me from clearly seeing Jazor’s face a few feet away slowly dissipated as my eyes started to get used to it. The only meager source of light to my left attracted my gaze immediately after his explanation.

A wall of earth with a few holes not larger than one of my fingers was clearly blocking the mutilated mouth of the creature. The few rays of light emanating from the small holes were barely enough to distinguish my surroundings and it certainly didn’t help to alleviate the terrible smell in the air.

I closed my eyes after Jazor’s explanation to sense our surroundings. Numerous dots of light crazily moving around us immediately reached my mind. I thought we were surrounded at first but the erratic movements of the animals and probably deviants around didn’t seem to particularly converge toward us.

It was more like they simply passed in front of us.

I heaved a silent sigh as I finally pieced back together our current situation.

We were hiding inside the Krath’s mouth after Jazor finished it off and sealed the entrance with a wall of earth. He only made a few small holes to give us some light, some fresh air and to let us know about the situation outside.

I certainly didn’t need these holes to notice the large number of animals and deviants alike lingering near us.

“You were right, Jazor. I don’t like it one bit.”

“Well, still you really saved us this time, sissy!”

“Stop calling that, you perverted dwarf!” I answered back softly with a tired smile.

I turned my attention back toward Alianelle who was still trying to wipe her newborn tears staining her pale face.

“Don’t make this face, I’m tougher than I look!” I said jokingly.

I wasn’t really lying to comfort her. Sure, my entire body hurted and I hadn’t fully recovered from my previous overuse of my mana yet, but otherwise I was good to go after a bit of rest. A makeshift bandage made apparently from a part of Jazor’s shirt had also stopped the bleeding of my shoulder.

Honestly, to be able to escape certain death from a giant monster and from what nearly wiped out the city was unhoped for.

I also really wanted to congratulate myself for the reflex to cover my whole body with earth while using my wind magic to slow down my fall at the same time. The transition between different elements was obviously much smoother than before.

I would be much happier with my survival and my obvious progress without the dozens of animals and deviants ready to tear us apart.

“How long was I unconscious?

“Not long, maybe half an hour.” Answered Paul who was near the wall while looking through one of the small holes dotting it.

Not too much time had passed but the explosions above the Advanced town seemed to have receded if not completely disappeared. I didn’t know if it was a good or bad thing though.

I adjusted my clothes and the bandage over my shoulder while carefully moving my painful arm when a horrible thought crossed my mind.

“We can’t stay here, Jazor! I already confronted something similar to a Krath before meeting you and several of its brethren dragged it under the ground after its death. I can’t sense anything under us yet but we will all be doomed if this really happens.” I quickly explained while sensing as far as I could the ground under us.

My sudden remark clearly surprised Jazor, but after a few seconds of thinking, he simply asked.

“Did it look the same as this one?”

“Well, the color was slightly different, the scales were a lot less hard and it was much smaller but it definitely had a family trait with this one.”

“Krath can have really different sizes but it’s rare to encounter specimens smaller than this one. We should count our blessing that this one was probably still in its infancy stage or we will be all dead. If you killed something so different and even smaller than this infant then it was probably a subspecies. One that lives in a group which is different from the solitary Krath. Luckily for us...”

“Are you sure?”

“Trust me. Krath are among the most dangerous non intelligent animals in the wilderness. They can wreak havoc in a city pretty easily so many subjugation missions are directed at them. I lead many of these missions because my earth magic able to bypass their defenses is particularly effective against them.

“Shhh”

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Before I could heave a sigh of relief at the revelation that we had few chances to be dragged under the ground to be eaten by another worm-like monstrosity, Paul suddenly interrupted us to shut us up.

The ring on my thumb started to grow hotter as Paul slowly backed away from the wall of earth.

A deviant had stopped near the beast’s mouth.

I didn’t know what specy this deviant originated from, but Jazor could probably take care of it. However, if this thing really managed to find us, we would be swarmed in an instant by the other lurking animals.

We waited while holding our breaths for several long minutes.

The heavy silence in our dim improvised cave of flesh was disturbed by the sound of hooves, growls and howls of various kinds of animals. The number and intensity of the noises around us kept growing and made me finally realize the true amplor of what was happening behind this thin wall of earth.

Finally, the heat on my thumb receded as the deviant slowly walked away.

None of us could prevent a sigh of relief from escaping our respective mouth.

I was the only one able to clearly sense what was happening so I couldn’t know if Paul, Alianelle or even Jazor truly realized the number of animals that went away to follow the deviant.

The stench of the Krath was obviously masking our own body odor and helped us hide from the nearby animals, but I finally realized that it was only a matter of time before something with better sense found us.

“We can’t hide here forever. The longer we wait, the more we risk being spotted, surrounded and killed.” I finally muttered.

“Yeah, we were lucky this time but it was a close call.” Confirmed Paul.

“As if I didn’t know that. If you have a solution then feel free to share it with us!” Answered Jazor with an irritation rarely seen in him.

“Can’t we just wait until you recuperate enough strength to use your magic and get us the heck out of here?” I finally proposed after a few seconds of thinking.

“It would be a good idea if we weren’t four. Even if we do as you suggest, with my remaining strength, I will only be able to get us a few miles away.”

“A few miles? Seems good enough for me! We could go take shelter in the Beastman camp as we discussed earlier.” I replied with a brighter expression.

“It’s north of the city, right? We are already several miles at the east of the town so it will take us a while to go there by foot without Jazor’s magic.” Added Alianelle with her usual soft voice but who was obviously sharing my enthousiast at the prospect of being able to leave safely.

“I agree.” Finished Paul while grimacing because of the surrounding stench assaulting him now that he wasn’t close from the wall.

“None of you seems to really realize what is going on!”

Our shared opinion was completely shattered by Jazor’s angry voice.

For a few seconds, we were all taken aback by his reaction and unable to answer his sudden outburst.

“What’s happening out there is not an isolated phenomenon!” He finally declared with a heavy expression completely different from his usual self.

“What do you mean?” I asked with a grave voice.

“The entire wilderness will soon succumb to the ambient frenzy and we are in the middle of it all. If we do as you all proposed, then I will lose my ability to use magic for some time. You’re quite strong, Sillath. Honestly way stronger than any kid I ever saw, but even you won’t be able to protect the three of us on your own”

I could only nod after his angry explanation filled with his previously hidden frustration. Even if I was in my best shape, I knew that I couldn’t make this kind of promise.

I was already lucky to have survived against the Krath, but things won’t always turn in my favor.

There were too many different kinds of animals and magical creatures that I didn’t know anything about.

It was almost a foregone conclusion that sooner or later I would meet an animal with a bad affinity against my magic, a group too large to confront or simply an intelligent magic beast stronger than me.

“When will it stop?” I finally asked while dreading Jazor’s answer.

“It won’t…”

The three of us gasped after Jazor’s words.

“What do you mean by it won’t, Jazor!” Exclaimed Paul without hiding the fear in his voice.

“You don’t understand? This was the purpose of all these explosions without any apparent target. The wilderness itself was the target.”

“...”

“To break the balance and awaken its fury against those who are not welcomed on these lands.”

A heavy silence settled between us as I replayed Jazor’s words with a heavy meaning in my head.

The fury of the wilderness...

“We won’t survive. It has already happened in the past so I know. Even completely pacific species afraid of men like the Falor are completely unable to control themselves and it will only become worse.”

“Don’t say that, we will be safe as long as we can reach this Beastman hidden village” Paul weakly said while I remembered the horse-like horde of Falor covered in green flames that nearly trampled us to death less than an hour ago.

“You don’t want to understand! Everything that was built in the wilderness, everything the animals magical or not have tolerated for years will be erased. They will try to destroy everything, probably the village you just talked about too.”

I stayed silent as Paul was also momentarily stunned by Jazor’s explanation and outburst.

“All of this is my fault… If you hadn’t gone to save me, things wouldn’t have turned out that way!” Suddenly exclaimed Alianelle without hiding the guilt in her voice.

“No, the responsible for this disaster is the one who killed the Ryunno clan member. In fact, Sillath’s stubbornness to rescue you has probably saved us all. if we hadn’t gone after you, we would have been completely caught unprepared.”

Alianelle didn’t answer Jazor’s comforting words.

None of us did.

What he said was probably the truth, but it was obvious that he didn’t have the heart to console her further. Our situation didn’t allow for this kind of feeling.

“Well, in the end it’s all the same. We’re going to die here…” Finally concluded Jazor with self-mockery.

Despair definitely made its way onto Paul and Alianelle’s face after his last hopeless words.

I should also feel the same.

If everything he just explained to us was true then our chance of survival on our own while being already wounded was beyond low.

However, maybe because I already survived worse not long ago, I could only feel anger at Jazor’ sudden pessimism.

“Don’t give up!”

All three of them raised their heads to look at me after my sudden outburst.

“How can you say that in this situation?”

I didn’t shrink in front of their respective gazes or after Jazor’s angry voice, probably a little too loud in our situation.

“Simple. I should be dead. If not for you Jazor, I would be dead. You gave me hope when there was none to find so I’m sure as hell that I won’t let you give up like that!”

“...”

“I came close to death so many times already and if I have learned one thing, it’s that you mustn’t give up.”

I never saw Jazor like this. This easygoing, rude but kind dwarf that saved me from certain death never lost his will to fight like this.

Maybe he was right.

Maybe there was no hope left for us.

Even so, I refused to surrender to my fears, to my despair.

Never give up to never regret and to bring hope for a better future.

That’s what I chose.

That’s the answer I reached after everything I went through.

So I couldn’t let Jazor give up like that.

“Mustn’t give up? How can we survive in this situation?” He muttered in disbelief faced with my stubbornness.

“I can sense it. Certainly there are many animals nearby but we are not encircled. It’s not the corpse of the Krath or us that is attracting all these animals. It’s the Advanced town.”

“Then…”

“Yes. The town will continue to gather their attention for a while so we must use this time to leave as far away as possible. If you lose your entire strength just to take us a few miles away then it’s not worth it.”

I took a deep breath and stretched my neck to loosen up my tension and the residual pain of my fall.

“We will make a break for it when this horde is far enough, then we will go east. If there is no safe place nearby then we will have to find one further on. We will have much higher chances to find a fortified Advanced town still standing the closer we are to the Dorell Kingdom.”

“As soon as we get out, we will be swarmed. I can’t use the same magic I used to get rid of the horde of Falor anymore. It’s suicide!”

“Maybe but it’s still better than to let our only chance, no matter how thin it is, disappear without trying. We are too deep into the wilderness to hope for any kind of rescue. If we stay here then we die, it’s as simple as that.”

“You…”

Jazor was momentarily left speechless after my words.

“Sillath is… I agree with him!”

While Jazor had still trouble accepting my words, the soft but determined voice of Alianelle reached us and made us turn our heads to look at her.

This innocent young girl who was brutally plunged into hell just the day before was probably the most afraid by this situation.

However, she didn’t flinch in front of our eyes when it was her turn to express her determination and face her fate.

“Sillath is right! I know that I don’t have any right to say anything in this situation. I’m so powerless that it's frustrating… I’m so ashamed to be so weak and useless but I trust the both of you. If we wait anymore then it will really become impossible to break through.”

“Alianelle, you…” Paul muttered confronted for the first time with his own daughter’s bravery and stubbornness.

“If there is a small chance, then let’s take it. Together!”

I couldn’t restrain a smile from forming at the corner of my lips after her words.

Jazor’s angry expression also loosened up and a small sigh of clear resignation escaped his lips.

“Scolded by children. If my master saw this, she would definitely make fun of me for the rest of my life...”

“It will be our secret then.” I joked.

“If we die, I’m so going to haunt you sissy!”

“Then you better not go dying on your own.”

We waited long minutes after this last exchange. My senses were put to the test as I concentrated as hard as I could to find a single opportunity to escape.

When the majority of the horde was far away and the ring of calamity on my thumb was completely cold, I didn’t miss it.

“Let’s go!”