CHAPTER 392: FALL OF AN ALPHA? [10]

With the thunderous slam from the Alpha, a wave of stone—10 to 12 metres tall—rushed towards them like a menacing tidal wave along with its wall of fog in the form of dust.

Zeke widened his eyes as the wave of destruction approached them at unprecedented speed.

Even with the buffs applied to his body, that was far from enough to avoid an attack of this scale.

Tossing his guns into his spatial ring, he rummaged through the spatial storage for anything that could be of use in their current situation. And as he was doing this, Viesta had already begun her preparation for escape.

Spinning her lasso in her right hand, she glanced up. She looked towards a platform sticking out from the side of the wall above them—one of the many resting spots Millis had created throughout this battle.

Then, with a heave and a twist of her arm, she chucked it upwards and managed to wrap it around the platform skillfully.

After tugging and making sure it was secured, she wrapped her other arm around Zeke’s waist and then aimed her Sound Blaster towards the ground.

Click. CHING!

Zeke, who was startled by her sudden action, found himself in the air as a powerful force from Viesta’s weapon shot them up into the air, at least a dozen metres into the air.

After just narrowly avoiding the uprooted and having to endure a wall of dust, they slowly pulled themselves upwards, intending to get up towards the platform.

Zeke, who had released himself from Viesta’s hold and wrapped his hands around the rope of her lasso, began to slowly climb up along with her.

He coughed as he accidentally breathed in the dust. After wiping his eyes a bit and enduring the murky wall of dust, he glanced at the wall behind him and found it rather familiar.

It was bloody and had several empty bullet cartridges scattered inside it.

This was where Lillian was left injured and where he had been teleported to in the nick of time.

By now, the blood had already dried up and was covered in dust. However, he couldn’t help but feel a horribly bad premonition inside his chest, which clawed at his mind.

"Hu... Huu..." Taking in a deep breath and letting it out, he looked upwards. He had already masked himself and Viesta under his [Transparent Curtains], so they shouldn’t be discovered by the monster.

That was... If something unfortunate were to happen.

Viesta, having finally reached the top, looked over the dust cloud and found it still lingering in the air—hiding the beast, who was the cause of this.

Looking across, she found Millis waving at her with her usual grin. Viesta found the woman’s positivity infectious as she smiled back with a wave.

Then, she looked down at Zeke, who was covered and surrounded by lingering dust. He was making great progress towards the platform.

She knelt down, she held a hand out to Zeke, whose gaze lingered on the centre of her palm.

He then raised his hand towards hers slowly; however, as though hesitation suddenly took over, he moved past her hand and grabbed onto the edge of the stone platform instead.

Viesta, seeing this, didn’t find anything wrong and instead took a step back to allow the man onto the platform.

With the help of the lasso and the stone edge, Zeke slowly climbed upwards. However, suddenly, the two froze as Millis’s voice reached them in a high-pitched tone:

"IT’S COMING!"

Instantly noticing caution laced within the woman’s voice, the two looked to the side and found the dust cloud in front of them seemed to darken slightly.

Following that, a harsh gust of wind crashed into Zeke’s body, causing his hair to rustle and the rope to move back and forth rapidly.

Zeke, who had his eyes closed to protect them from the dust in the air, opened them a split second later.

As the dust parted, the Alpha revealed itself—leaping through the air and towards his current location at least several metres off the ground. He widened his eyes as time seemingly slowed down.

He looked into the eyes of the beast and noticed how each and every single working eye was settled on his figure.

Shouldn’t he be invisible? Shouldn’t he be hidden from its predatory eyes?

...

He was.

The radius of his spell was still up; it was still working. And yet, the beast had leapt towards him as though it knew where he was.

How?

He watched as the beast raised its claw and swung it at him diagonally. Zeke carefully watched as the dust in the air wrapped and folded around the arm of the monster like cloth.

And at that split second, he came to realise how he had been discovered.

Had it somehow utilised the dust in the air to figure out his location!?

Time resumed its usual pace.

The Alpha’s body glided through the air as its whiskers lashed out like sharp tentacles to Zeke’s immediate position.

The pupil of Zeke’s eye constricted. What can he pull out to save himself!?

The answer was...

But a simple metal shield, he managed to pull out and shield the entirety of his body.

Holding onto the rope in between his thighs and grabbing onto it with one hand, he braced for impact and watched grimly as the monster’s whisker tore through his shield like paper.

The arm holding the metal shield went concerningly numb as he watched another hole appear through his shield, which had begun to fold inwards.

Zeke’s eyes then shot wide open as he felt something pierce through the side of his waist, completely ripping through the part of his armour that was covering that side.

He winced and found it was just a deep gash instead of a hole. Zeke was fortunate that his spell was still active, or else the Alpha’s accuracy would’ve been a lot more fatal for him.

Zeke then watched as the Alpha’s other whiskers shot around him, striking the wall behind him. He breathed a sigh of relief.

But, as though the world didn’t wish for him to have even a single moment of relief—

"U-ugh!"

—He felt an uncontrollable urge fall upon his muscles.

His legs and right hand released the lasso, causing his swift descent as his control of his mana went rampant—leading to the deactivation of his spell.

The Alpha, being able to see him, raised its claw and swung it horizontally at him—crashing into his shield, which still remained attached to his arm, and launching him into the wall.

DUM!

Zeke’s back slammed harshly into a bloodied and dented part of the wall. His mind was dazed, and his vision blurred. The shimmering glow around his body continued to dim.

Fortunately, his vision in his mechanical eye still worked.

Looking up, he watched as the Alpha seemingly turned its body to the side and faced its shoulder at him.

Zeke widened his eyes slightly as he muttered in disbelief, "A-a shoulder bash—?"

DUM!

The wall behind Zeke cracked open and crumbled, causing the man’s body to break through and be sent further into the earth before ending up in a large, spacious area.

This was the area Millis had opened up just a dozen minutes ago.

His body, bloodied and bruised, bounced several times on the ground as both shattered debris and flames—from Torchplants—landed around him.

His armour was completely destroyed by the Alpha’s savage and unexpected attack.

Skr...

With a final bounce and skid, Zeke’s body finally came to a stop as his eyes had fully rolled back to his head; he had lost consciousness.

He was lucky his 2nd Tier body and the variety of buffs around his body, which had now disappeared, managed to keep his body intact.

But not only that, but if this open area behind the wall wasn’t there, he would’ve most likely been placed into a more dangerous and injured state.

Viesta, who watched as this happened with a grim expression, saw as the Alpha began to slowly climb into the hole it had created.

And just as she was about to do something, she watched as a blur shot through the air and crashed into the back of the Alpha with a strong force behind it.

The Alpha, noticing something dripping through the cracks in its armour, turned back and was immediately met with a fearsome barrage of liquid spears.

The monster let out a fearsome roar as it closed its eyes and shielded them with its arms.

When the storm of projectiles finally ended, it looked in between the gaps of its arm and found translucent lines of considerable length all stretching towards one person hanging off the side of the wall.

This person held onto a black hilt of what could be a long black blade.

It was Lillian, along with the Black Maw.

She had finally woken up.

A flash of both irritation and humiliation passed through her eyes as she watched her Parasitic Lines glow both a light blue and a deep red.

Lillian then yelled mockingly:

"You’re done for now, rodent! My attack had already made contact with your skin!"