Chapter 60: Off The Oasis
Rion lifted his left leg, and the thin grass-like vines broke.
White sparks materialized around Sera and Kalien’s hands as they took out their weapons and raised them toward Rudy.
Rudy gritted his teeth, and his eyes turned utterly cold.
"It seems I have no other choice," Rudy stated as he retrieved his crimstone sword from his spatial ring and swung forward.
Kalien jumped forward to block his sword, and as their weapons met, he was sent skidding backwards.
His palms burned, and he exclaimed with a pained expression, "What the hell? How are you so strong?"
Rudy ignored his rambling and slashed toward Sera, who was preparing her strings.
As the sword neared her, her strings coiled around its blade and tried to crush it; however, they could do nothing to it as it was made from Rudy’s and a deviant fiend’s blood.
Her expression soured, and she growled, "Stop this madness!"
Rudy’s lips arched upward. He flung his sword away, and as Sera’s strings were wrapped around her, she was thrown off her feet.
"I feel like going mad," he said, and grabbed Sera’s strings.
Sera and Kalien stared at him with complicated yet furious expressions. None of them wanted to hurt their friend; however, they couldn’t forgive him for contaminating the water and angering the spring goddess.
At the same time, the trees around them shook loudly. The fruits fell and slammed onto the ground, bursting like blood bags.
The grass wiggled and snapped towards Rudy, but they couldn’t do anything because of the obsidian aegis.
With each passing moment, the trees got louder, and their roots had burst out; it was as if they were trying to free themselves from the ground.
This greatly worried Rudy, and he needed to leave this place as soon as possible, but he had to first deal with two ludicrous irregulars who were, unsurprisingly, useful for now.
"I have no other choice," he mumbled under his breath, and the long crystal sword in his hand gleamed red.
The two looked at his sword as if they couldn’t believe that even after everything he had done, he was ready to make things worse by attacking them.
Sera’s lips parted, and Rudy shot forward.
His armored feet dug into the ground, and he appeared right before them.
Their eyes widened at his unimaginable speed, and both of them raised their weapons while channeling their essence into them.
Rudy’s red sword collided with Sera’s golden chakram and Kalien’s silver-lit sword; the two weapons ground against Rudy’s blade.
He pushed the sword with all his might, Sera and Kalien gritted their teeth, and sank as the ground began to give way under the weight of his attack.
Golden strings seeped out of Sera’s hands and seized Rudy’s sword.
Rudy smirked at her foolishness and hammered his left hand at the flat side of his sword.
The two instantly lost their balance and stumbled backwards. Rudy followed them, and the grass vines coiled around his feet.
They fell apart as he walked and brought his sword down at Sera. Unlike before, Sera and Kalien didn’t block together; instead, Sera’s strings snapped at him from the right, and Kalien swung at him from the left.
Rudy side-stepped to dodge the strings, but Kalien’s sword managed to graze his cheek.
Foreign essence entered his wound, and he felt as if the world had turned faster.
’What is happening?’ he thought, and Sera leapt at him with her chakrams glowing brightly.
Rudy blocked her strikes, and then Kalien joined her as well.
The two no longer cared about hurting their friend and fought with everything.
Kalien, aware of their advantages and disadvantages, only attacked his head, which wasn’t protected by the black armor.
Rudy’s face turned bloody, and the world seemed to turn faster.
A tremor ran throughout the oasis, followed by a loud creak.
Rudy’s expression hardened, and he spat inwardly, ’Do I have to use everything?!’
Red wisps escaped his essence core and merged with the blood on his face, and as Sera and Kalien continued their attacks, the blood shot out of his wound and covered their eyes.
Their vision turned cloudy red, and with this final opportunity, Rudy grabbed both of them by the arm and flung them off the oasis.
With his strength enhanced by the essence, he sent them flying off the oasis, and they crashed into the pale desert.
Rudy took a deep breath, and a shadow dwarfed him from behind.
’Shit!’ he slowly turned his head to the back, and his gaze fell on a dark, crooked tree with a wide, vertical maw.
The branches creaked and snapped towards him.
He immediately jumped away and dashed towards the two with a horrified expression.
The other trees also burst from the ground and followed behind them.
A cacophony of creaking branches and snapping wooden maws echoed throughout the area.
Using his essence, Rudy jumped off the oasis and rolled into the hot pale sand, which no longer felt as dangerous as it used to be.
Raising his head, he looked at the oasis with a worried face and whispered, "Don’t come, don’t come."
As he had wished, the trees stopped at the edge of the oasis, and after a minute, they turned around and returned to their previous locations.
Rudy fell into the sand and took a few deep breaths before once again rising to his feet and making his way toward Sera and Kalien.
Sera stared at the oasis with a bitter look while Kalien looked horrified.
Hearing the clinks of his armor plates, Sera turned her head towards him and asked, "What took you so long?"
Rudy stared down at her face and stated, "Do you still want me to continue my act?"
Sera looked away from him and rose to her feet. "As long as I reach the return beacon, I don’t care what you want to do."
Kalien glanced at the two and muttered under his breath, "Monsters... both of them are monsters..."
