Chapter 345: To Late

"Tesia!" Seth called at the top of his voice, as his armored foot stomped upon the head of a flailing defiled.

His frame burst backwards in fluid motion as a female soldier advanced with a dazzling speed, carrying a large war hammer that seemed twice her size, yet she wielded it with the grace of a feather.

The hammer snaked down as it let out a pure white brilliance — Tesia, captain of team delta, an all-female team, carrying a might that couldn’t be looked down on.

And she and a few others had been chosen by Seth.

Seth figured that, before the true threats of this corrupt zone started surfacing, it would be the best chance to train up a few powerhouses that could hold their own against a defiled.

Normally that would be impossible, as defiled were so scarily strong one needed to be at least at the Monarch grade, or Royal, to face them — but fortunately a racial state could allow one to bypass this power difference.

And fortunately, all humans were now bronze, making his target a very possible reach; he just needed to single out the most talented among the soldiers with him and serve them the last blows to his prey.

Not only would they earn stats, but with any luck one of them might just gain a gene skill crystal or a powerful weapon. Regardless, the benefits of carrying them this way were significant.

Tesia’s hammer landed, pounding against the already-weak defiled’s skull; though neither her might nor the weapon’s weight could crush it outright, merely leaving a tiny dent, it was already dying, and the human attack merely accelerated this eventuality.

The female evolver felt a cold flow trickle through her veins, with a refreshing, addicting feel, her cells reinvigorated as the whisper of victory rang in her ears and the system flashed it before her eyes.

Her stats had finally broken through the 300 ceiling; she felt so strong, yet beside Seth she also felt so little. What level was the captain of Division 1 at?

Her heart shook with curiosity, her beautiful violet eyes focusing on his armored frame; she had heard about Seth a lot and had even witnessed his abilities a few times, but still didn’t expect the strength gap between them to be so large.

Her eyes sank down to her status screen, staring at the empty class slot. ’Could this be a factor?’ she muttered to herself silently.

Seth relaxed his large, broad sword upon his shoulders, taking a step forward, his eyes flickering as he scanned the plain; even though this was meant to be useless, Seth still did this in case another breed of corrupt beast lay lurking in the dark.

At least Seth didn’t believe all the beasts of this zone would be stealth-oriented.

Behind him, the soldiers followed his tracks in an organized formation — six individuals, the people Seth had chosen to aggressively level up.

Fortunately, these guys were pretty talented; despite the pace of their growth being so fast, they were able to adapt and keep up mentally with the power-up.

Seth sensed something... crouched behind a tree, his gaze fixed on a particular direction, where light flashed and the wind raged.

Staring at the irregular cloud pattern in the distance, he squinted, "Seems we found Uriel first."

A wave of relief that his friend was alive hit him, and pondering the possibility that the guy might be in trouble, Seth signaled the soldiers behind him to step up their pace, as he bolted directly towards the commotion.

He already began to spot regular four-eyed monkeys, his sword flowing in the wind as though it was a quill in the hands of an author.

Slicing through foes with such grace and skill that didn’t hinder his momentum, an efficient method of not having to slow down while he struck.

Behind him, the six didn’t struggle; in the face of the corrupted, this bunch was far weaker than their defiled counterparts.

Yet while the others struggled, it wasn’t by much; activating their active racial traits, they sliced into the corrupted horde, progressing with an unstoppable momentum, tearing through the wind and foes alike.

Well, that was until something unexpected happened: a four-legged silhouette pounced, and caught out of rhythm, Seth fell victim to a savage round of mauling.

Teeth clamping against his gothic helm, the sudden collision with the animal causing him to miss a pace, and trip, his weapon twisting out of his hands, while the monster scratched and clawed on his armour, sparks spraying from its teeth and claws grinding on the metal.

And unfortunately, Seth realized too late that this monster was a defiled! He hadn’t even gotten a clear glance of the creature, and he never imagined a defiled would be lurking so close.

Plus, this wasn’t a monkey! They had clearly stepped into the territory of another breed of the corrupted; his armour couldn’t hold up.

Defiled were at least of the Royal grade, meaning armour of the same rank and grade could try its best, but at the end of the day, it could only resist so much before it slowly began to crumple under pressure.

"Fuck!" Seth hissed under the heat of the situation; without thinking, he summoned the grim spear, the weapon lighting up as the buff from his gene skill settled upon it.

He didn’t hold it, instead manipulating it with his mental wave; the spear snaked through the wind, skewering into the defiled and injecting a heavy flow of bone-corrosion poison.

The monster lost grip over Seth instantly, letting out a pained whine, its eyes reddening and bulging out of its skull as its bones sizzled and corroded into soup.

The monster collapsed dead beside Seth’s frame; he let out a bout of heavy, tired breaths, glancing at the monster. "A cat?" His brows furrowed.

The monster, just as he stated, bore the enlarged form of a blackened house cat, its frame beginning to sag as the bones supporting its structure dissolved.

Seth was confused; he never expected that single strike to kill the defiled — it didn’t make sense.

Alas, he didn’t have much time to stand around trying to figure out why a defiled was so easy to kill — he needed to check on Uriel.

Glancing back, Seth realized two more defiled were engaging the soldiers. He quickly assessed that they weren’t under any threat — the six talented evolvers were already showing their worth, engaging the corrupted evenly.

So they didn’t need his help. The earth creaked underneath his feet as his frame lunged forward towards Uriel’s direction; for some reason, Seth felt uneasy the closer he got towards his friend’s location, and this wasn’t a good sign in any way.

Taking a deep breath, his frame burst out of the last cluster of foliage separating him from his friend; the sight before him brought a chill to his heart.

He was... too late!

Before him, lying in a mangled mess and a pile of bloody meat and gore, were none other than humans.

The soldiers were all dead!

In the distance, Seth caught sight of myriad large-sized creatures feasting on the corpses.

His division members, Lucas and Dorian, fellow division captains, and lastly his friend Uriel, all lay dead, some with an incomplete corpse.

Seth raced towards Uriel’s twitching frame, missing his lower half, as all the beasts present turned his way, eyes flashing with cold ferocity and boundless hunger.

These beasts, similar to the one that just attacked him, now only bigger, were seven in number.

Seth arrived before Uriel, his heart racing with fear of loss, as his friend’s twitching body tried to reach for his lance, his eyes cloudy.

The poor guy probably couldn’t see Seth.

"No..." Seth whispered with a shaky voice, collapsing to a knee beside his friend, his hands shaking as they reached for him.

He tried to inject a flow of vital essence into Uriel’s body, but his dying body resisted the flow.

"No, Uriel, accept it!" Seth screamed, all to deaf ears.

He discovered his friend’s ears bleeding — clearly, his friend had gone deaf.

It all didn’t make sense to Seth. How could Uriel and the other two be overpowered and killed so easily?

His mind raced with a thousand thoughts, and his killing intent swelled, his eyes losing their purple shade and going red.

His blood began to boil in response to his fury, his Asura King lineage flaring alive.

Around him, the predators watched Seth with cold indifference as his frame flared with boundless strength, his armour disappearing and scales beginning to crack out of his bare skin.

He activated his Draconification gene skill, blinded by the rage of the moment.

He couldn’t accept that Uriel would just die like that.

It made Seth’s heart burn with guilt — if he had gotten here sooner, would anything be different?

If he had retreated towards another direction in his dragon form, would that have prevented all this?

Seth remained silent, his outer frame calmly kneeling before his dying friend, while the wind around him began swirling in a storm.

The monsters from around encircled him, their lightless eyes eyeing him with hunger.

Seth’s energy began to build, his mind overloaded, as it readied to erupt.

The world came to a brief halt as the beasts from the sides got ready to pounce, Seth’s mouth cracking open, ready to let out a cry of grief.

All in this split instance, the struggling Uriel, blind and deaf, and with a dwindling will, finally made contact with his lance.

A connection between the dying evolver and the stars snapped into place.

A constellation in the skies flared to life in response to Uriel.

With one last dying breath, Uriel whispered, chanting the name of his time-related class skill, "Return to Point."