Chương 272: Hunt (II)
General Liam's army broke apart into two. The larger army stayed behind, and the smaller group followed behind General Liam. They weren't many; Zero could see that they were about twenty, and they followed General Liam as if they knew what was going on.
Zero felt that General Liam's army understood what General Liam wanted; he had seen him do a couple of hand-tapping on the other people's hands as it quickly spread through the army. He then walked over toward General Liam as he followed behind him.
"What's going on?" Agnis squealed as she held on tightly to Zero's back. "Where are we? Why are we moving? I can't see!"
"We're moving? What?" Jorge was flat on Zero's back. "Where in tarnation are we going!" He pounded his fist onto Zero's back to get his attention, but Zero didn't reply or overthink it. The reason was that he couldn't hear what Jorge was even saying.
"Zero, where in the blazes are you taking us?" Zeraph sighed; he sat down on Zero's back as his hand rested on his arm.
Zero was able to move around the cave, leaving behind the army. They stepped through a few winding tunnels further away from the dangerous Behemoth. Eventually, as they moved towards the divine source, they arrived after about thirty minutes. General Liam walked towards some steps as he reached over, grabbing the power source. He knew that it was the item they were searching for: the Holy Mantle. It was a simple grab and left; when General Liam touched the source, his body seemed to glow with holy energy.
General Liam tucked the Holy Mantle into his bag, keeping it safe. It was just too easy; there were only two paths to the cave, one with no monster and the other with the Behemoth on the other end. Zero knew when it was too easy, there was always some trap in all of this, and he was right.
Zero felt the ground tremble and the walls shake underneath his claws. At first, it was unnoticeable; only Zero could barely handle it.
General Liam was getting on his horse and then returning to the army hurriedly. The closer they got back to the entrance, the harder the ground trembled.
"What is going on?!" General Liam was leaning over low on his horse. "We need to get out of her fast!"
Zero felt an ominous aura coming from left, and when he turned his other sight, he saw a vast body coming closer and closer. It wasn't a run but a steady, powerful walk that stated that the Behemoth didn't need to rush forward to deal with them. Instead, he felt that the Behemoth was just leisurely taking its time as it made its way toward them.
The rocks on the walls and ceiling started to crumble, falling from overhead. It wasn't just one or two, but many that could kill a man or an elf. Some the size of a human-sized spear fell.
Even the vibration on the ground trembled as he saw spots all over the ground coming to life like rain, and he instinctively knew that something was falling from the ceiling. General Liam's soldiers that came with him couldn't dodge out of harm's way; some got squashed in the process, leaving behind about ten.
They attempted to run but were prevented—their ability to see and hear created a detriment in their movement. What was worse, the closer they got to the entrance, the larger the boulders fell, and worse, the ground shook.
Even Zero was having a hard time not being swamped by the falling hazard that could kill him, especially those shaped into a sharp spears. As a result, zero had to push his senses to the extreme.
The heat sources helped him see, giving him a pretty good image of what was around him, but what helped him was the feeling through his fingers and body. He could feel the vibration through his finger and even the slight vibration in the air. Pushing his body allowed him to experience a new side of himself that he would never have experienced. His intuition became ten times sharper, allowing him to make judgments utterly different from when he could see or hear.
If anyone could see the extraordinary feat that Zero was doing, they would be astonished at the flexibility in his dragon body and sharp instinct. Every time the stalactites fell from the ceiling, Zero barely moved out of harm's way by feeling the air around him, letting it inches away from his scales.
There were more times than he could count where the stalactites had barely missed spearing either Jorge, Agnis, and Zeraph by a few inches if it wasn't for Zero moving out of harm's way. Even Jorge could tell that they were flirting with death with every second of their time inside the cave, and he wanted to get out as fast as possible but couldn't. All he could do right this moment was hold onto Zero's back and pray that he wouldn't get killed.
Even Agnis and Zeraph had to push their senses to the limit, moving around just as fluidly but quickly to destroy any extra stalactites that Zero missed. Of course, zero wasn't a god who could sense every single one, but he could rival a master martial artist with the crazy feat of dodging so many with two out of five senses hindered.
Eventually, they were able to get to the front of the entrance. Almost all the army and the players had scuttled out from the cave and were waiting outside. Quite a few of the players and even the soldiers started to be able to see much faster than they could hear. They knew exactly what was going on and helped ferry the others out.
When Zero, General Liam, and the remaining soldiers spilled out, General Liam quickly used touch signals to move the army into a march away from the cave. But, even though they were moving, they were slow; the ground shook even more viciously as the rocks on the cliff started to break apart.
Zero could feel the rumble of the rocks tumbling down towards them from the side. Then, from the right, a large landslide of rocks broke apart, completely taking out a tenth of the army in seconds. Although luckily, Zero didn't have to hear the screams or the painful sound of bones breaking and being squashed to smoosh; such a thought made his stomach twirl.
"Move! Move! Move!" General Liam yelled; even though nobody heard him shout, they all knew something bad was happening.
The army continued to move forward quickly in a frenzy, trying to get out of the trenches.
Already, a quarter of the players were blundering around as they got trampled over each other, eventually succumbing to the falling rocks. At first, his war horse listened to him but made a blunder and fell, breaking its leg. Then, General Liam was thrown off as he rolled on the ground.
Zero knew instantly that this would be quite a problem; he raced toward General Liam and picked him up like a cub.
"What in the world?!" General Liam threw his hand over his head, trying to throw in a couple of jabs to get whoever off of him, but his swings completely missed. "Put me down! Whoever you are!"
Zero, Seeka, and Valiant pushed through without difficulties, zipping through the land. He could feel the horrible evil power chasing after them leisurely and each step felt like the Behemoth was
that much closer.
Eventually, they could get out of the dangerous cliff as now a good three-fourths of the army
could now see, and only a half could hear. But unfortunately, zero and his companions weren't lucky enough to be given a status recovery, so they were stuck with the ailments for a little longer. He checked how much more time he had before it would expire, and he found out he still had a good ten minutes left.
Ten minutes was a lot of time, especially when they were running away from a Boss class monster that was bent on destroying all the Drezo Regalia, plus he got a horrible feeling that the Behemoth allowed them to take the Holy Mantle instead of the other way around. But, of course, that was a different meaning, stating that the Behemoth could get the Holy Mantle anytime it wanted.
General Liam's sight and hearing finally came around, allowing him to see around him. "Zero?"
He craned his head to see that Zero had him like a newborn kitten. "What? Wait?! The others!"
Zero didn't hear a single word; how could he when he was still under its effect?
"Damn it, Zero! I said stop!" General Liam squirmed, trying to get out of Zero's mouth.
Eventually, Zero noticed General Liam's squirm and stopped, dropping him flat on the ground. He knew he couldn't let General Liam die; he had the Holy mantle with him, making him a priority, even though the thought of leaving all the soldiers left a very bad aftertaste in his mouth.
"We have what we need; there is no rush to get out of here so quickly!" General Liam grumbled and got up to his feet. He glanced up toward Zero, getting a good look at him. "Zero! Are you listening?!" He snapped his finger at him a couple more times.
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