"Damn it! Dodge them!"
Luo shouted, then grabbed Shun De's exhausted hand and yanked him away from the falling rocks with tremendous speed.
On the other side, Cha Ji managed to dodge a boulder by some miracle, but got separated from the other two as the rocks collapsed around them.
As the stones kept falling, Luo found himself forced to carry Shun De and move with him, trying to dodge the large boulders crashing down from the ceiling.
But avoiding the gravel and smaller rocks was nearly impossible.
As for Cha Ji, thanks to his lighter weight, he managed to move faster and dodge a greater number of rocks.
"Aaagh!"
Suddenly, a rock crashed down onto his head.
Blood poured from the wound, and his body nearly lost its balance and collapsed unconscious, but he gritted his teeth and fought through it, then began pulling away from the collapse zone as fast as he could manage.
The sound of rocks slamming into the ground was so deafening that Luo couldn't hear Cha Ji's shouts.
He tried to get closer to him, but it became impossible.
Every time he tried to advance, another rock would fall in front of him, forcing him to change direction.
In fact, the distance between them kept growing wider and wider.
Luo himself wasn't safe from the danger either.
Rocks kept falling on him constantly, but he'd activated his hardening Phantom, so the smaller rocks couldn't stop him.
As long as he could dodge the massive boulders, he'd be fine...
mostly.
As for Shun De, cradled in his arms, he started shouting from behind, utterly helpless:
"Let me go! I can walk on my own! You think I can't protect myself?!"
Luo gave him a look of disgust.
Shun De, in truth, wasn't doing anything but letting himself be carried, while Luo kept risking himself to protect him.
If this bastard actually wanted to help himself, he could've freed himself on his own.
But Shun De found nothing to say back to that look.
"..."
Luo kept carrying him without saying a word.
A tremor.
Another tremor.
Then...
the sounds stopped for a split second.
All three of them instinctively lifted their heads.
In the next instant, a massive tremor boomed from deep within the cave.
It wasn't like any tremor before it.
The ground began shaking violently, the walls trembling around them, then part of the ceiling split open.
And from above, a giant crystal began breaking loose from its place.
Luo's eyes widened.
"What...?"
Then the crystal fell.
CRASH!!!
It slammed into the ground with tremendous force, shaking the entire cave.
And the area between them split into two halves, the giant crystal settling in the middle like a massive barrier, cutting off the path between Luo and Shun De on one side, and Cha Ji on the other.
Fortunately for them, they'd already moved a safe enough distance away before it fell.
But unfortunately for them...
the way back had been sealed off completely.
They could no longer return to where they'd come from.
Worse still, they didn't even know what had happened to Cha Ji.
"Cha Ji!"
Luo shouted, but his voice vanished amid the noise.
And suddenly...
a storm of dust and debris swept through the cave.
Dust spread everywhere, blocking visibility entirely.
Even the glow of the lit crystals could no longer cut through the thick cloud that filled the place.
Luo raised his arm in front of his face, trying to protect his eyes.
"Damn it..."
He could no longer clearly see Shun De, cradled in his own arms, let alone know where Cha Ji was.
And the falling rocks weren't the only problem.
The green blood left behind by the worms had coated the cave floor, making it unbelievably slick and sticky.
Every step now carried the risk of slipping, ever since the start of their flight.
Amid the dust, the tremors, the falling rocks, and the ground stained with green fluid...
the three of them no longer knew where Cha Ji was.
They'd entered the cave as three...
and now they'd lost one of them, trapped on a different side of the collapse.
Luo found a nearby narrow passage untouched by the collapse, and hurried toward it, still carrying Shun De.
His goal was clear; he'd set Shun De down inside to let him recover part of his energy, then go back to search for Cha Ji.
He wasn't ready to lose a companion this fast.
After the giant crystal fell, the tremors suddenly stopped.
The stop was so abrupt that the silence that followed felt even more terrifying than the sound of the collapse itself.
Luo stayed still for a few moments, listening carefully.
No tremors.
No falling rocks.
Just the sound of debris settling into place.
Once the dust began gradually clearing, Luo was able to see his surroundings more clearly.
He set Shun De down inside the passage, then turned toward the direction he'd last seen Cha Ji.
He had no idea of his condition, or whether he'd even survived the collapse, but he had no intention of giving up.
Luo clenched his fist, then began moving carefully toward the other side.
He had to find him.
By any means necessary.
Luo finally reached the front of the giant crystal.
He raised his head toward it.
It was so towering that climbing it was out of the question, especially since his own body had already reached its limits after the fight and the collapse.
He stood there for a moment, staring at it, trying to think of a way across.
He found nothing.
He had only one option left.
Recover part of his energy first, then use his own Pattern to leap to the other side.
Luo sat down, leaning against one of the walls, and closed his eyes, trying to steady his breathing and recover whatever energy he could.
Meanwhile, on the other side...
Cha Ji opened his eyes again.
It seemed nearly impossible that he'd survived at all.
And yet, he was still conscious.
He tried to take a breath, and the air came out of his chest with difficulty.
His body was shattered, his limbs barely responding to him.
He felt a strange coldness on one side of his body, then realized why.
One of his hands was no longer there.
His mind froze for a moment.
He didn't think.
He didn't scream.
His body had slipped into a state of automatic panic, while blood poured rapidly from the wound.
He tore off a piece of his clothing with his one remaining hand, then pressed it against the bleeding, trying to stop it.
But even this simple motion was agonizingly difficult.
He could no longer feel his limbs properly, his vision blurred, his thoughts fragmented.
His body was shattered from the impact of the rocks, and every attempt to move only made the pain worse.
And yet, he kept trying.
He wasn't thinking about the exit.
Or the reward.
Or even the cave.
He was thinking about one thing only...
staying alive.
Nothing drove Cha Ji to fight except his need to support himself, alongside his genuine passion for combat itself.
And yet, he carried a natural fear of direct confrontation.
That's why he loved decorative, long-range attacks like fireballs. Even though his real specialty was poisons, and even though he held far more power than his attacks suggested, he insisted on using fireballs in most of his fights.
He'd even mastered them to an astonishing degree.
He could shape them, launch them, and control them with a precision that turned that simple attack into his own signature style, something that set him apart from everyone else.
The whole time, he'd tried to carve out his own different path.
Tried to stand out.
Tried to grow stronger.
But after all those attempts...
he'd ended up as nothing more than collateral damage, because of some madman who wanted to write stories.
Cha Ji tried to resist.
Tried to open his eyes.
But his eyelids were too heavy to lift.
His consciousness began fading bit by bit, the world around him growing hazy and distant.
Then...
he managed to open his eyes...
and saw a glowing blue light right in front of him!
'The hawk??'