Chapter 67: Venturing into Stellar Rift (Part-6)
Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Fan Yujing and Keith charged forward with their sword and sabers raised high.
Behind the enemy, Lin Fang had gone unnervingly still. Taking a deep breath, he glanced at his reserves. "Only 10% of mana was consumed so far. But then again, it is not doing much damage to this monster. I have to go with a big attack."
Taking a deep breath, he tightened his grip on the daggers and poured more mana into them.
He then dashed forward, building speed, and then kicked off the ground with explosive force. His body soared upward—thirty, no, forty feet into the air.
"Activate, Skill—Twin Fang Slash!"
A massive cross-shaped arc of energy erupted from his daggers, slicing through the cavern like a flash of lightning.
The attack struck the beast squarely on its spine.
BOOM!
A violent explosion rocked the chamber. Shockwaves blasted through the battlefield, flinging Keith and Fan Yujing away from Black. The affected direwolf tumbled onto its rear with a grunt, bruised but alive.
As the smoke cleared, the skeletal behemoth collapsed, its bone frame shattered and caved in from the devastating strike.
Lin Fang landed lightly on his feet with his back straight, the twin daggers gleaming in his hands. His eyes never left the crumbling monster.
The battlefield had fallen into stunned silence.
Keith stared at Lin Fang, disbelief and awe warring on his face. "Captain... is that—"
Before he could finish, Fan Yujin scrambled to his feet, brushing dirt off his uniform. "That weapon is atleast an Earth grade."
Keith blinked. "But those cost millions of credits. Do you think it is Li Xue?"
Fan Yujing shook his head with a hardened gaze. "We can think about it later. Right now, the situation doesn’t seem good."
"Eh?" Keith then followed his captain’s eyes as they swept the battlefield.
The destroyed bones of the Elephantine Skeleton Demon twitched unnaturally. Some fragmented pieces reattached themselves, cracking and snapping into place.
As its core inside the ribcage thumped loudly, he skeletal beast started regenerating. Its bones were reforming back to their place. The destroyed bones regrow as if nothing happened.
Fan Yujing’s lips pressed into a thin line, watching the scene. "We have to leave before it regenerates completely."
Lin Fang, seeing the mana around his daggers dissipate, made the same decision instinctively. He didn’t waste time. Instead, he barked a command to the direwolf that was snarling at the enemy.
"Black, Return!"
In an instant, the giant direwolf reverted to its puppy form. Lin Fang scooped it up, clinging tightly to the soft fur, and sprinted forward with all his strength. "Run!" he shouted, motioning to the others who were retreating alongside him.
As they fled, Fan Yujing commented over his shoulder, "I now understand why Master Li took you in."
Lin Fang didn’t respond to the comment. He focused only on the path ahead, dodging jagged roots and uneven terrain.
For two and a half minutes, they raced across the grasslands, dodging weak creatures and low-level hazards alike. But soon, the cooldown of Combat Merge hit. Lin Fang’s speed eventually plummeted, and his movements slowed by nearly tenfold.
And very soon, the distance grew between them. Within moments, Lin Fang was left behind, clutching the direwolf puppy as the vast, sunlit grasslands stretched endlessly around him. Keith and Fan Yujing, who were racing ahead for their lives, didn’t look back to check on Lin Fang at all.
As a result, they were separated, and Lin Fang found that all around, monsters roamed in the grasslands, but since these were low-level, non-hostile creatures, none exceeded level 20. Lin Fang was more at ease as he moved toward the distant swirl of the giant portal, where he had entered from.
For a while, there was peace. No monster is attacking him. Since they were all live weak monsters, they couldn’t sense the presence of Nemesis floating above Lin Fang’s head, and because of Lin Fang’s non-killing intent, they seemed as if they didn’t care about his presence. They continue to roam around, some eating grass, some sleeping, and some playing with one another.
However, this peace didn’t last for much longer for Lin Fang.
Barely ten minutes passed, and the atmosphere shifted. The grass around him trembled, and the previously docile monsters scattered in panic. Black let out a sharp whimper, nuzzling Lin Fang in warning.
Lin Fang couldn’t help but freeze in his spot and turned at the sudden development of the signs, squinting into the distance. Slowly, a horrifying shape materialized over the horizon. The Elephantine Skeleton Demon—the same Lord Tier undead—was advancing, hammering the ground with each step.
"F**k..."
Lin Fang tensed and didn’t hesitate to open Nursery Pen again. This time, with a tap, he selected Cloud, the level 23 Smilodon. The creature materialized in the world, its small form trembling with latent energy.
Lin Fang didn’t stop there. Seven Growth Pills later, he had boosted the sabertoothed lion to level 30 in record time.
By the time the Elephantine Skeleton Demon reached Lin Fang, the direwolf returned to its giant form and now was seen standing alongside Smilodon, the sabertoothed lion, while Lin Fang took out his daggers again to resume the fight he had put away earlier.
"Attack!" Lin Fang barked, gripping the twin daggers tightly.
The Smilodon responded immediately, charging toward the undead lord. Its roar echoed across the plains before unleashing a heated wind blast to incinerate the enemy.
Seizing the moment, Lin Fang jumped, crossing his arms with the twin daggers in hand, and released the arc of energy slashes once again: Twin Fang Strike. A glowing cross-shaped arc of raw mana surged toward the monster.
But this time, just before it could hit, the undead beast’s eyes blazed with a sinister light. The attack ricocheted violently, slamming back toward Lin Fang instead.
"Wha..."
Lin Fang blasted away, but before he crashed, its trunk extended and captured him.
Meanwhile, Smilodon, with its quick reflexes and acute senses, pulled up abruptly and ran away, prioritizing its own survival. Black was also trapped, surrounded by the throng of skeletal minions, clawing and striking desperately to break free.
Lin Fang’s heart clenched at the sudden reversal of the situation. He shut his eyes for a fraction of a second, a rush of regret washing over him. Why face this monster head-on? Why didn’t I just run away? Am I going to die. Please anyone help me...
"Argh..."
Faces flashed in his mind—Zhi Yan, his late father, Li Liu—all the moments and sacrifices that had led him here. He felt a surge of determination. He couldn’t let everything vanish in a single misstep.
Grimacing in pain, Lin Fang tried his best to get free, but the Undead Elephant Skeleton Demon’s trunk grip over him was as tight as steel. The daggers left his hand and fell to the ground.
Slowly, as the grip over his body tightened, his breath became heavy, his bones were being crushed, his mana burst out and went out of control, and his death was closing him with every second that passed by.
At that moment, the thoughts of negativity took over his mind.