Bab 44: Spending Qi (2)
Kai had never actually seen a [Grade-3] beast before so the severity of the situation wasn't registering in his mind.
He came back to reality and took off as soon as he noticed it turning towards him. The beast had arrived too suddenly and Kai didn't know if this was something he could fight, so he decided to run away for now. Luckily it had appeared between him and the path to the deep nest so he ran towards the exit as quickly as possible.
As he ran, he heard a loud screech followed by something hot and heavy-hitting his back. The impact propelled him forward, crashing hard into the tunnel wall.
Kai felt a scorching pain on his back then quickly noticed that he was lying in a small puddle of what appeared to be lava. His scales covered in Qi were still active so he hadn't instantly burst into flames yet, but the scales were slowly taking damage and some had even started to get charred off.
"Crap!" Kai yelled as he activated [Hare Leaps over Moon], forcing himself out of the lava pool. He reappear a few meters away but didn't look back as he kept running towards the exit. His clothes had mostly been burnt off and his backpack had already been incinerated. since it was part of the impact zone.
Kai kept running as far as he could, but the massive creature was hot on his tail. It was still able to move quickly despite its large size, using its countless legs to propel itself forward.
It spat out a few more balls of lava at Kai, but this time he heard them coming and avoided what he could thus only suffered minor injuries. Kai already had severe burns on his back from where the first lava ball had hit. His backpack and the Qi-enhanced scales had taken the brunt of the attack with his backpack burning away and his scales taking heavy damage. Despite this, he still felt that the scales were slowly regenerating which was good news.
Kai soon reached the cave's exit and jumped out of the entrance without hesitation. The entrance was small compared to the [Rock-Wyrm Queen] so he doubted that it would follow him this far, but he still kept running just to be sure.
The earth beneath him rumbled violently for a while but soon calmed down again. Kai breathed out a sigh of relief as he fell to the ground. He panted heavily while carefully scanning his surroundings. When he felt assured that there was no immediate danger, he took the time to analyze the damage he had suffered.
His injuries were bad but not as severe as he had originally thought. Only his back was badly burnt.
"This fused D-Rank skill is really impressive". Kai had to admit that the skill's defensive capabilities were beyond his expectations. The hard scales had successfully protected him from the majority of the lava damage.
Kai felt that the lava that the [Rock-Wyrm Queen] had used wasn't ordinary. He could feel traces of Qi within it, making him believe that it was much more dangerous than natural lava. So the fact that his new ability was able to nullify a large majority of the damage said wonders about the skill.
"Why did a Queen appear now all of sudden. It doesn't make any sense", Kai questioned as he stood up. Hours had passed since his massacre so Kai didn't understand why it would appear when the damage had already been done.
Before Kai could think deeper about the issue, he noticed that his clothes had completely burnt off and only a few strips of cloth remained, meaning he was essentially naked. Kai looked down at his body and once again admired the beautiful and sturdy brown scales adorning his entire body. He was naked, but he never felt safer.
"I don't think I can go back to the town looking like this..."
Kai thought about what his next move would be. He couldn't stay here any longer lest the [Rock-Wyrm Queen] decided to come up to the surface looking for him. Also if that kind of monster was out here, who is to say what other dangerous beasts could be lurking. Kai didn't want to let his recent power gains cloud his judgment so he had to tread carefully.
At that moment, an interesting idea popped into his head. He closed his eyes and sensed Mina's location. After a few minutes, he was able to identify here location relatively close to the surface. He didn't know the exact layout of the cave, but he at least had her general location.
Kai activated his unnamed 'telepathy' skill and tried to make contact with her.
"Mina, can you hear me?..."
"Master?!, where?...how are you in my head?", Kai heard Mina's surprised voice in his head.
"Good, it worked!" Kai murmured as he patted himself on the back.
"I need you to tell me what's going. I need to know who took you, how many there are and how strong they are?"
"I'm sorry Master, please forgive me for bringing you trouble. Is Ryu OK?", Mina said in a panic, still clearly shocked by the entire ordeal.
"He's fine, now let's get back to the topic at hand. We don't have much time..." Kai looked at his Qi which reduced by 1 as he spoke. This was costing him [1 Qi] every 30 seconds so he wanted to get the information as quickly as possible.
"I don't know who they are, but I do know that Jurgen betrayed the village!. He helped them take me. I got knocked out and chained with the other captives and put in this cave. There is also a massive door made out of what looks like steel. I've seen at least 10 different people in the cave. None of them should be more powerful than [Mortal Grade-3]"
"Good, are there any hidden caves or locations where more of them could be gathered"
"I don't know, but this cave only had one entrance. They periodically take people down to the lower levels but I don't know where that leads to..."
"Hmm...I see, thanks Mina. Make sure to keep tracking their movements. I'll be there to save you soon"
"Master...", Kai heard her choked up voice that seemed on the verge of tearing up.
Kai needed a bit more information to be sure, but from what he heard, grabbing her and running out quickly wouldn't be too hard.
Hadiah
-- Hadiah diterima Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
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