Chapter 419: When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade... Then Wonder Why Life Never Gives Whiskey!
I thought I was the dumbest person alive. I was convinced they didn’t make another like me...
Until I met this guy Altharion you see.
He clearly... clearly thought that the best thing to do after telling me that going to their skyline was to chop down the forest of their trees?
’No, it’s clear. This bastard must be here to jeopardize me.’
What other explanation was there? Either he had nothing inside that head of his, which meant, he was irredeemably stupid.
But no!
’With that fake smile he had been putting on the whole time, there’s no way he’s that dumb!’
I backpedaled as fast as I could. While I wanted to scream at him, it immediately dawned on me that if the bastard wanted to jeopardize me, it would have been me playing into his hands.
So I thought to myself.
’What is the most unexpected thing to do in this situation?’
His plan seemed to have worked, the bird that was standing on that tree rolled downward, too late to fold its wings and take off. But a deafening crash also covered the forest.
But Altharion did not care about any of that. He bolted forward, and brought the hammer down on the bird, elegantly severing one of its wings.
In the meantime, I pivoted and ran away from the scene.
He shouted from behind.
"Hey! This is unfair! How in the —"
I couldn’t even hear anymore because I had shot away from him as fast as I could, using him as a distraction to deal with the birds. And circling the whole place to silently cross the forest.
The sound of their clashing became more distant. The last thing I caught in my peripheral vision was those birds, descending in a hurricane of claws.
They might be wary of me due to my flames, but there was nothing stopping them from shredding him apart.
’It won’t be enough to kill him sadly.’
Even though Apex-tier Beasts were not to be looked down on, my gut told me that he was going to come out of it somehow.
For me however, I needed to go beyond this territory and reach where White Feather had last felt her daughter before summoning her back.
I ran through the forest, in the pale light of the darkness and biting cold winds. For a moment worried about the strange Altharion, almost blaming myself for using him.
But I focused all of that energy on running.
For a couple of seconds, I was doing nothing but running through the forest, leaping over small rivers and jumping in some instances because of the heaps of snow.
All was well until I got rammed into.
What I knew was that I smelt something that made my stomach turn. Then the next instant, a powerful creature crashed into me from the side.
With a vicious force, my momentum was torn to shreds, I flew away, slamming my head and neck into the nearby tree before falling. I heard something snap around that area and then for a good few moments, my sight was gone.
It returned almost as quickly and I tried standing up, aware of the danger before me. But I could not stand up. I could not move my legs.
I immediately registered all that was going on around me with Enhanced Sense.
I was still sprawled on the ground. The cold snow was seeping into my cheeks. But the situation was not as good as it looked.
There was a creature... that was coming closer to me.
From the spirit essence it was giving off. It was most certainly an Apex-tier Beast. However... its level, what I feared may be its level from the kind of pressure that rolled off it, made my heart shudder more than once.
What I wanted the most right now was to stand up and not be in this situation, of all ways I had considered dying. I was yet to sit with being eaten by a damn beast.
A low, vibrating growl crawled out of the creature’s throat.
I could feel it coming closer; it was like a heat, consuming the cold and rolling closer to me. The creature finally opened its vicious maws and took one powerful leap.
My eyes turned in that moment. Even though my neck and spinal cord were messed up, that was not to say I was out of options.
I vanished immediately and reappeared somewhere behind, where my eyes had stuck to.
The cape manifested around my body, at the same time, two knives of flames manifested at my feet, instantly burning away my boots and keeping me in the air.
My vision was crooked because of my neck and even though there was no strength in my legs, I couldn’t feel them at all. I didn’t need to feel them before being able to use the flames.
It was sort of like muscle memory. When I willed it, the flames condensed at that point.
I stared down at the beast, which in turn glared upward at me.
The bastard was a fiercely tall creature with silent menace, and obsidian fur that bristled like iron needles. It had elongated claws that gleamed like bloodstained daggers and its ember-orange gaze carried the suffocating dread of a nightmare made flesh.
My face twisted with rage.
"Listen crackhead. Now, I’m angry!"
This Nightmare raised his head and then looked at me with those glowing eyes. And the most shocking thing in my life happened.
A thick voice reverberated.
"I don’t appreciate that height, boy. Come down."
’Huh...’
If only I could properly look down. But I couldn’t because the damn thing broke my neck. And I had to get a fair amount of sex before all of me could be whole.
The dilemma though...
How was I supposed to have sex when my spine was broken?!
I thought about everything that was happening to me right now, besides the fact that a creature had just spoken right before me.
Flames covered both of my hands and then I glowered down at the creature.
The beast’s thick voice resounded again.
"Choosing to ignore me? Don’t blame me for what happens next."
Suddenly, this damn creature expanded, and continued to expand, growing taller.
I heaved a tired sigh.
