Foreboding Storm - Chapter 126

This was a gaze filled with bloodlust and cruelty. It was a gaze deprived of everything but violence. Princess Qamari tightened her hold on Skyler, the fine hairs on her skin rising as she slowly backed away.

Because at a speed visible to the naked eye, the savage gaze changed from one to two, and from two to eight. Before three breaths of time even passed, Princess Qamari and Crown Prince Lail were surrounded by thousands of crimson orbs overflowing with brutal savagery.

“On the count of three, we turn and flee.” Confronted with a beast horde, Princess Qamari was no longer in the mood for a direct clash. Not when the creatures she was about to confront were hungry magical beasts.

Crown Prince Lail’s wasn’t in the best of conditions. His encounter with the foliage exhausted him, both physically and mentally. Therefore, the moment his gaze collided with the red glowing eyes, he had already prepared himself for a deadly chase.

“I have no problem with fleeing. But outrunning magical beasts is impossible. How do we escape the radar of this batch?” He helplessly asked.

“We will think about that later.” Princess Qamari silently continued backing up, her eyes never leaving the red orbs as she spoke. Just when she was about to begin counting, more thunderous footsteps echoed in the cave and shattered her calm façade.

She grabbed Qaliq’s hand and turned, dashing in the direction she came from.

“Roar!”

The ferocious beasts’ red orbs turned even darker upon sighting their fleeing figures. With an enraged roar, they stomped their feet and gave chase.

“BOOM!”

“BOOM!”

The entire cave shook and trembled, the ground vibrating from the numerous, large magical beasts running in the same direction at the same time. Some parts of the cave, unable to withstand the intense vibration and tremor, crumbled and fell apart, directly crushing the beasts in the back.

As the beasts drew closer to the fleeing figures, sharp spear lights and sword auras shot out, obliterating life as they formed obstructions.

Princess Qamari swung her sword backward, releasing more sword lights that instantly severed the limbs of three behemoths. Their large bodies crashed to the ground, bringing down the large figures of the beasts behind them in the process.

“Bang!”

Crashing sounds resounded as more beasts dropped wailing painfully as a result of the collision. The enraged, painful shrieks caused the crumbling cave walls to collapse even faster, burying the motionless magical beasts alive.

“Keep going!”

Crown Prince Lail and Princess Qamari took turns hindering the beasts, taking advantage of the moment they tripped over one another to widen their gap. In such a manner, they escaped from the precarious situation and returned to the dark cave.

“Huuu, that was close. We need to keep going. Otherwise, those beasts will catch up to us.” After a brief pause to catch their breath, Princess Qamari and Crown Prince Lail got back on their feet and continued deeper into the tunnel.

Cave entrances of various sizes decorated the dark walls, the growls of magical beasts reverberating even louder from each one. As they passed by another dark tunnel, Crown Prince Lail’s blood turned cold as icy fingers traveled down his spine.

Gripping his spear tighter, he turned to Laila to find the same unnerved expression on her face. What’s more, her golden eyes flickered with a silver glow that made him breathless, causing his heart to pound painfully in his chest.

Shaking his head, he stretched out his hand and pulled her into a tunnel on the right, narrowly avoiding the deadly sharp claws of the creature.

“Grrrrrr!”

The creature growled in anger and turned to the cave they entered with a bloodthirsty gleam. Princess Qamari and Crown Prince Lail turned and ran.

“Roar!”

The magical beasts, headed by the Blood Bat-Lion, chased after them with ferocity two times greater than the batch they first encountered. Their thunderous roars made the entire tunnel shake and the ground tremble.

However, that was the least of Crown Prince Lail’s worries.

As he pulled along Laila, he repeatedly glanced back, a strange restlessness far greater than any he had experienced so far, cloaking his heart. There was an unshakable, ominous feeling in his guts driving him forward, forcing him to push his limits as he ran.

But no matter how long or how far they ran, the ill-feeling did not fade away. Instead, it grew stronger.

“Laila, something is wrong! These magical beasts, they seem to be playing us!”

The instant his words rang out, a fiery ball of fire with a destructive might beyond their comprehension, scorching everything in its path, descended upon them. Hot and furious, the fireball lit the tunnel as bright as day, its glorious beauty belying its deadly might.

Princess Qamari’s eyes widened in shock as the fiery ball’s speed increased, shortening the distance between them.

“A level 1 magical beast!?”

Since she joined the Sealand Academy, this was the first time that Princess Qamari had encountered a level one magical beast. As a magical beast that entered the Elemental Drawing Stage, similar to magicians, the beast awakens an elemental ability suitable to its nature that it could control at will.

Princess Qamari had encountered lots of magical beasts that possessed strength, speed, and intelligence that far surpassed ordinary wild beasts. But she had never come across one that entered the Elemental Drawing stage.

As such, on meeting her first level 1 magical beast, she was beyond stunned, because the beast’s fire ability could rival a level 2 Elemental Drawing Stage magician.

“No wonder. No wonder they are so hard to deal with…” She sighed. In her lamentation, she heard Qaliq scream from her side, the anxiety clear in his voice as he scanned for another tunnel to turn into.

“These are level 1 magical beasts! Level 1! We can’t overpower them or outpace them. They know this as well. Our only chance at escape is these tunnels. Unfortunately, we do not know what is waiting for us on the other side. It could be a clear path or another one infested with more level 1 magical beasts. Either way is a dead end.”

The fiery ball was still chasing after them, its scalding heat branding their skin as they ran with all their might. Princess Qamari understood Qaliq’s anxiousness, her heart thumping in her chest as the beasts followed with amusement in their bloody pupils. Once they fell into their hands, they could forget about dying an easy death.

These beasts were far more powerful than the Blood Bat-Lions, their cruel eyes flashing with a keen intelligence that could rival humans. As such, there was no doubt that they knew the methods of torture.

Sweeping her sight around the tunnel, she telepathically communicated with Skyler, tasking the sword to search for a safe tunnel with her heightened senses. As the distance between themselves and the fireball decreased, Princess Qamari’s cold eyes gleamed with a silver radiance.

Skyler had spotted an opening on the left of the tunnel.

“Princess, this is your chance! On the left of the tunnel, I perceive strong elemental energy. There is a great possibility that the path may lead to the Magical Kilin’s location. As an ancient beast, its aura alone is enough to deter the level 1 magical beasts!”

“We will take the tunnel on the left!” Crown Prince Lail and Princess Qamari exclaimed at the same time, startling each other.

Similar to Skyler, the Black Serpent had been searching for an escape route as well. As a spiritual weapon, even though its ability wasn’t at the level of the Golden Sword, it had the ability to detect the fluctuation of elemental energy in the environment.

As such, it was able to discover what Skyler discovered.

The two only exchanged a brief glance before dashing towards the tunnel.

“Roar!”

The beasts, as if sensing their plan, roared in rage and unleashed their full might. With their playful attitude gone and their attacks meant to kill, the fireballs released charged forth with three times the speed of the first one. They collided with the first fireball and expanded in size and might, while racing towards the two figures with greater ferocity.

Princess Qamari sensed the powerful heatwaves before they even reached her. Without thinking, she used her light magic and propelled Crown Prince Lail’s figure forward, smashing him into the tunnel as the giant fireball ruthlessly slammed into her back.

“Laila!” Too late, Crown Prince Lail paused and screamed in fear. Running out of the tunnel, he grabbed her flying figure with trembling hands and leaped back inside, narrowly missing another fireball that sailed past his back.

Her move caught him off guard as he didn’t expect the barely friendly woman to take such a risk for him. By the time he sensed what she had done, the fireball had already hit her back, covering her figure in a fiery flame that torched her from inside out.

“Ahhhhh!”

In his arms, Princess Qamari screamed in agony, her shrill shrieks piercing his heart.

The resulting pain was beyond either of their imagination.

“Laila!”

“Master, this is not the time to stop. If we get to the location I detected on time, there is hope for her.”

Crown Prince Lail got to his feet, using his magic to carry her flaming figure, as he dashed through the dark tunnel and raced towards the location the Black Serpent perceived.

His chaotic footsteps and lonely back bespoke of the dark void creeping in his heart.