CHAPTER 142: CHAPTER 142 - SSS-RANK

Logan’s eyes widened as the Treant walked through the city.

He clenched his hands tightly as he saw the collapsed buildings and huge craters everywhere in the road.

Wolves tore the remaining corpses in half, the streets already stained with blood from earlier attacks.

There weren’t any signs of life or structures anywhere he looked.

These weren’t just Alvarez pawns. Families lived here. Kids went to school. Mercenaries came in from nearby towns for work.

’All those people...’

He gritted his teeth, glancing down.

"Fuck..."

The Treant had just crushed a ruined car beneath its feet without pause. Beside it, a limp arm still dangled from a pile of rubble.

Logan’s throat tightened.

"This was never supposed to happen..." he muttered, clenching his jaw.

Even if this did huge damage to the Alvarez family, he still felt immensely guilty for the hundreds of people who lived here.

He shook his head, pushing the guilt out of him.

’I need to focus on my survival before I focus on others,’ he thought, closing his eyes for a second.

Logan looked around carefully.

’I need to get off this Treant’s back,’ he thought. ’And go as far away as possible from here before an SSS-rank comes.’

If an SSS-rank indeed came here to clear the creatures, he’d get noticed in an instant and his disguise suit wouldn’t help him. From there, it wouldn’t take much for someone to blame him for the dungeon break.

Logan exhaled sharply, his eyes scanning the swarm of monsters still rampaging below.

Treants, wolves, serpents — hundreds of them still stormed the ruined city streets, tearing into everything that moved.

There was no way to climb down without being torn apart.

’I need to find the right time,’ he thought, searching for the place with the least number of creatures.

As the Treant continued walking, the creatures mostly split up, some still following the same direction, but more than half splitting up to head in other directions.

Explosions echoed in the distance. Logan knew time was running out.

’Go,’ he thought, having found the direction he wanted to jump to.

He quickly activated his advanced Flaming Body technique before channeling fire mana through his back.

His skin quickly glowed a yellow color as two large wings of fire were shaped behind his back.

At the same time, the Treant under him let out a loud groan, finally noticing Logan’s mana signature.

Logan narrowed his eyes and shifted into position.

’Now!’ he thought, using all the strength in his body to jump away.

Logan soared through the air.

But behind him, several tree roots chased after him.

His instincts screamed at him to move as they got closer.

Time seemed to slow down for Logan.

’I have no control over the wings,’ he thought, forcing himself to stay calm.

’Can’t go down,’ he thought, eyes darting to the sea of monsters below. ’Can’t go left, right, or up either.’

He breathed heavily as he glanced at the tree roots behind him, a wave of helplessness washing over him.

His mind raced for a solution, but the roots didn’t leave him a lot of time.

Then, an idea hit him.

’I could boost myself forward,’ he thought, eyes widening. ’Like a flying shuttle does.’

Without hesitation, he gritted his teeth as he split his mana up into three pathways, something he’d never done before.

He focused hard, struggling to keep all three streams under control.

’Don’t lose control,’ he thought, jaw clenched.

If he did, his wings or Flaming Body technique could fail.

On the outside, yellow flames suddenly shot out of his palms, propelling him forward at three times the speed from before.

The roots missed him by a few feet, still trying to curl around the place he’d just been.

’Can’t hold this for long!’ he thought, eyes scanning for a place to land.

The monsters below shrank from view as he shot through the air.

’That’s it,’ he thought, feeling his concentration slipping.

His wings vanished as he tore through two trees and slammed into the ground.

"Ugh," Logan said, head spinning.

He raised his hand to his head, narrowing his eyes as he examined his surroundings.

It was completely silent around him, with no creatures or chaos in sight. Even the Treants had disappeared from his view.

Pain stung his arms and legs as he glanced down.

"I’m bleeding a little," he muttered.

The crash had scraped off the layer of skin in more than one place, letting blood slowly leak out.

Using his remaining fire mana, he quickly healed the wounds before standing up.

’It won’t be long before creatures catch up,’ he thought, hand still on his aching head. ’I have to move now.’

Logan quietly moved through the forest, trying to get away from it all.

Every step sent aches through his body, and sharp pain stabbed at his core from overuse.

Far behind him, the black smoke had finally risen high into the sky.

Logan didn’t look back, still clenching his jaw as he started jogging away.

As he jogged, he opened the hologram from his watch and quickly searched for a town near him.

’A car or truck would be nice,’ he thought, exhaustion setting in.

He didn’t know how to drive well, but he knew enough to start a car and hit the gas.

On the top right of his screen, he saw several dozen notifications from messages he hadn’t looked at since the attack on the Mercer Building.

’Focus,’ he thought, shaking his head. ’One mile away from the nearest town.’

Suddenly, a loud sonic boom echoed through the air.

Logan froze, breath catching as he looked up at the sky.

’That wasn’t an explosion.’

Then, in the far distance, something rose above the forest.

"A ... tree?" Logan muttered, eyes wide.

It wasn’t just a tree.

A colossal tree towered over the forest, casting a shadow across the mountain range.

Thorny vines lashed out from the tree, chasing someone as golden sparks flickered in the air.

Logan stared, frozen.

He didn’t need a report or confirmation to recognize it.

’It ... has to be that humanoid plant creature.’

But for it to be pushed that far...

’Someone strong is fighting it.’

’No, not just strong. Only an SSS-rank can fight a creature like that.’