Free Web NovelChapter 214: Followed Back
A moment later, a dull thud, accompanied by a slight tremor, shook Redwood Town.
Then there was another, then another, then another... each time getting slightly louder, and slightly stronger.
Feeling the ground tremble beneath him, Lucas knew that his worst fears had come true.
The Seventh Order Beast, which he and Christina had just barely managed to escape, had followed them back to Redwood Town.
At the last moment, as he dove through the portal on the other side, Lucas had glanced back at the beast and noticed that one of the few remaining Spatial Tears was actually fairly close to it.
Whether the creature had intentionally traveled through the Spatial Tear to pursue them, or had just stumbled into it by accident, Lucas would probably never know, nor did he really care. The simple truth was, an enraged Mid-Rank Seventh Order behemoth was now chasing them.
The only silver-lining in all of this was that it appeared the beast had been deposited somewhere far off into the Great Western Forest, probably more than 10 kilometres away from where Lucas’ group currently was.
Whatever the case, the priority right now was to find a means of escape.
Unfortunately, Lucas’ head was throbbing, making it hard for him to even remain conscious, much less think straight, so he was having some slight difficulty coming up with a plan of action.
Fortunately, he didn’t have to.
"We have to get to the military camp!" Eris shouted decisively as she tried to pick Lucas up.
Eris had no idea what was coming, but from the terrible condition her little brother and Sworn Sister were in, and from the look of fear that appeared on Lucas’ face when the first rumble reached them, she realized it wasn’t anything good.
She also knew that whatever beast was approaching, it wasn’t moving very fast, as evidence by the slow, plodding tremors. That gave them a short window of opportunity.
They couldn’t stay here, there was nothing left at the Manor, and from what Eris could tell, the Town Square also seemed to be gone, so the only place they might be able to find help now was the makeshift military camp on the eastern outskirts.
With any luck, there would be mounts, or better yet, the Sunchaser, giving them some options.
It was a simple plan, one based more on instincts and hoping for the best than Eris cared to admit, but it was also their only chance, so when she proposed it, no one raised any objections.
One of the youths who had just been rescued by Lucas took over for Eris, grabbing the young boy and throwing him over his shoulder like a sack of wheat.
Rebecca also grabbed Christina, carrying her in a similar fashion.
It was hardly the best way to handle two seriously injured patients, but time was of the essence and this was a far easier way to carry someone while running than simply piggy-backing them.
As for Yuki, she whimpered slightly towards Lucas before scrambling over to Eris’ now free arm and then making her way up to the girl’s shoulders.
Wrapping herself around Eris’ neck like a scarf, the small fox kit yipped a few times before curling onto herself, shivering slightly. Obviously, she was still feeling frightened by what had just happened.
Oddly enough, despite the severe injuries Christina and Lucas had suffered, Yuki remained completely unharmed. Why that was, no one knew. In fact, no one even noticed as they were too busy at the moment to care about such trivial details.
With everyone set, Eris pulled out a Spirit Lamp from her Space Bag, lit it up, and then ran off, circling around the outer edge of what remained of her hometown as she made her way, hopefully, towards safety.
.....
The distance from the bathhouse to the military camp was almost 1,000 metres, so even if they were in peak condition, not carrying any burdens, and running on a smooth, paved road, it still would have taken Eris’ group 3 minutes or more to reach their destination.
Currently, all of them were exhausted, they had to carry Lucas and Christina, and after about 200 metres of rough dirt road, the path actually disappeared and was replaced by a field of sand and sparse trees.
After so many terrible things had happened tonight, Eris wasn’t surprised when another obstacle appeared before her, so she didn’t get discouraged; instead, so only grumbled softly, "At least it’s not a forest."
Feeling the ground continue to tremble every few seconds, and hearing faint roars coming from the distance, Eris was about to plunge head-first into the thin patch of tropical trees when she abruptly came to a halt.
Peering ahead, she swore she saw some kind of light coming towards them.
Had it been any other night, even one of the past few nights after the giant explosion, Eris would have assumed this light was coming from a torch or lamp being carried by one of the soldiers or townsfolk, but with all the fantastical events of today, she wasn’t about to take any chances.
Dropping her Spirit Lamp to free up her only hand, Eris drew her sword and prepared herself for whatever might come.
Seeing this, Rebecca and the others also drew their weapons. None of them was particularly strong or well trained, and the ’weapons’ they were carrying were basically just farm tools, but it was still better than standing around defencelessly.
As soon as she saw everyone behind her was as armed and ready as they were going to get, Eris drew a deep breath and shouted, "Who’s there!?"
At first, the light in the distance halted, but a second later, a shout rang out, "Young Lady Eris? Is that you!?"
Had Lucas’ head not been spinning, he would have felt a wave of Soul Qi sweep over their group in the next instant, signifying that someone in the Sea Establishment Realm had just scanned them with their Soul Sense.
Confirming that it was indeed other humans, Eris hurriedly replied, "It’s me! I’m together with Lucas, Tina, and a few others!"
Not waiting for the other side to respond, Eris sheathed her sword, picked up her Spirit Lamp, and dashed forward.
Rebecca and the others also followed after her, all of them feeling greatly relieved to have finally run into familiar faces.
.....
A minute later, Captain Lana Gage examined the group of children before her and asked incredulously, "What happened to all of you? How did you end up here?"
Before Eris could answer, another deep thud rocked Redwood Town, causing a deep frown to appear on Captain Gage’s face, "Never mind. You can tell me on the way back to the camp."
With that said, Lana signaled to her Squad to assist Eris’ group, especially Christina and Lucas, who were both suffering from serious wounds.
The group, now 18 in total, hurried out of the displaced grove and back to a section of Redwood Town that was still intact where a number of horses and wagons were waiting for them.
Loading the exhausted youths onto the wagons, Captain Gage climbed into the driver’s seat personally and ordered, "Return to base!"
Whipping the reins hard, Lana drew a whinny from the pair of Cloud Treading Colts and the wagon jerked forward, heading down the path that led to the eastern outskirts of town.
"Captain Gage..." A weak voice called out from behind Lana, one she had become quite familiar with over the past 8 days.
"Stop try to move, Lucas!" Eris fretted, "You’re still hurt!" freewёbnoνel.com
Lucas very much wanted to do just that, but he was the only one who knew what kind of danger they were really facing, so he grit his teeth and continued, "Captain Gage, can the Sunchaser take off?"
Pursing her lips, Lana Gage kept her focus on the dark road in front of her as she replied, "The Sunchaser is being readied and will be able to take off soon, but..."
"But what?" Lucas asked worriedly.
Letting out a sigh, Captain Gage’s voice grew noticeably quieter, "But we sent out a number of search parties a few minutes ago, and I doubt all of them are back yet."
Hearing this, Lucas wasn’t too surprised.
It seemed that the military camp hadn’t been affected by the Spatial Storm, possibly because it was outside of its range, or possibly just by luck, but when the soldiers stationed there noticed what was going on, it was obvious that they would send out people to investigate.
Captain Gage’s Squad was obviously one of the teams that had gone to check what had happened and also to search for survivors, which was how they ended up running into Eris and the others.
This was a perfectly reasonable course of action in response to the odd phenomenon they had just experienced, but now, it seemed, it might just have condemned several dozen more people to their deaths.
