Return of the Fallen Volume 6 Chapter 7
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch7
Kazuki ran through the darkness, fleeing away from whatever was roaring behind him.
(I need to hide.)
As he ran through the dark, he encountered those same bug creatures several times, clicking and clacking their legs together, they honed in on him. However, now that he knew their weakness, he dealt with them quite differently and easily.
Running through this seemingly infinite trench, he grabbed a handful of small rocks while passing the bugs. As soon as they flexed their many legs and jumped at him and were in the air, Kazuki loaded his arm, wrist, and hand with ki. With pinpoint accuracy, he launched these rocks in quick succession and punctured through the cone-shaped holes on their back.
These ears of theirs were the perfect target. With speed faster than an arrow, these small rocks pierced into their ears and tore them up. The reaction from this was the same across the board. AEach of the bugs hit would fall out of the air and twitch before bleeding out of the top of their ears. After that, whether they survived Kazuki’s attack or not, they would attack no more.
Kazuki ran into small groups of these bugs several times. Each time the group of bugs consisted of between 5-10 of them, no more and no less.
It’d be much easier to simply shout with ki instead of ruining his momentum every time to scrape the rocks up off the ground but that would be a disastrous thing to do at the moment. The noise of his shout had attracted some unknown magical beast. For him to shout once again, who knows what he might summon up this time.
No, Kazuki moved swiftly and silently like a shadow in this world of shadows. He blended like a leaf upon a tree, natural with a small glance but if observed carefully and long enough, only then would one pick out his obvious figure.
Kazuki kept moving along the cliff wall, being sure not to get too close to the spikes so he doesn’t kill himself but not too far away from it either. Wit h his ki he could sense around 10 feet away from himself, beyond tat, using his hearing he could hear an ant walking alongside the ground, almost a mile away and with ki enhancing his hearing he could hear beyond even that. Listening as he ran, he would toss out a few rocks opposite the wall, launching them far away. No matter how far he threw them though, they would hit nothing. Finally, he threw a rock with all of his strength and ki enhancing it.
*Tok*
A small bounce without an echo.
Kazuki didn’t know if it was the other side of the trench but at least he got a scope of how wide the trench below might be. This though caused him to worry.
(Damn, for the other side of the trench to be at least 6 miles wide…and I can’t even be sure if what I hit was the other side. It could simply be a small hill or some other formation. Down here there’s no telling. The other side of the trench might actually be even further away but the question is how big.)
After several hours of running, Kazuki no longer ran into those bugs and the roar in the distance grew fainter and fainter. Kazuki stopped for a moment and took a short break.
Even though he could normally run for weeks without rest, the dense dark energy inside of him was leaving him feeling incredibly heavy and he was sweating quite a bit.
(The dark energy down here is simply too much. It’s dragging me down and making me exert myself almost a hundred times more.)
Kazuki’s breath was ragged and his body still ached from his injuries.
*Drip*
Kazuki’s ears suddenly perked up. Out in the distance, he could hear something dripping and he became alert once more. The black ruler around his wrist snapped forward and was already in his hand. Kazuki listened for a few moments in silence.
…
*Drip*
…
*Drip*
Beside the dripping, he could hear nothing else. No clacking from the bugs, no movement from another creature, just the dripping. Kazuki leaned down and quietly grabbed a rock before tossing it toward the dripping noise.
*Tak*
The rock bounced off of something but again there was no other sound besides the dripping.
Kazuki wondered if the noise could be water and actually grew a little excited. He could last a month or so without water but quenching one’s thirst, when they were thirsty, was a natural human instinct and it was one Kazuki wouldn’t deny if he didn’t need to.
Kazuki slowly and cautiously inched his way toward the dripping. He found a small crevice in the ground. It was slightly bigger than Kazuki. Stretching his ki into this hole, he found the end to be only about 6 feet deep and the width was only around 7. at the lowest point, there was some liquid dripping down into a tiny pool of water, no bigger than a handful. Besides that though, Kazuki could sense nothing else inside, it was empty.
Before he entered the hole, Kazuki sensed around for something that he could use to block the entrance if need be and after a few minutes of quietly searching, he found a small boulder that could be used to plug it.
Picking it up, he squirmed his way inside while dragging the boulder toward the hole until it was lodged well enough.
Kazuki now found himself inside of this tiny hole. It was big enough to lay down and spread out but just sitting up required him to hunch over like an old man. If he tried to sit normally, his head would only smack the top.
Kazuki didn’t care about any of that though. Kazuki crawled toward the small puddle and gave it a sniff.
*Sniff Sniff*
*Ugh*
There was a faint acidic odor to it but it was definitely water.
Kazuki was thirsty but he wasn’t that desperate. Sure he could take the burning, it shouldn’t harm him too bad but the smell was quite powerful. Up close it was like hot garbage mixed with maggot juice. He could use ki to seal his sense of smell as well as block his taste buds but again he wasn’t that desperate. After a while when he recovered fully, he would go out in search of a way out of this place, as well as for resources. If he couldn’t find anything, and the time came, then the time came, simple as that.
Kazuki laid down and the hard flat surface and went to work on his body. Starting with the most important and working his way through, he went on a healing spree of sorts. At the same time, while he lay for rest, his mind raced like a rushing river.
(Asuna, Nunully)
Two faces appeared in Kazuki’s mind and he felt a trace of bitterness in his heart and pain to match it.
(That fall, they must think I’ve died. Damn it! No doubt the others are upset as well…Well except maybe Shin. He’s probably just glad it wasn’t him. No don’t think like that, even Shin isn’t cold like that. He’s probably getting drunk off his ass though. Mei though, she’s gonna be sad for a while. Tsura’s gonna be busy taking care of her.)
Kazuki shook his head and threw those thoughts away. Now was not the time to think about such things.
(I’ll get out of here, I’ll escape so there’s no need for such sadness. I should focus more on how to survive and not get distracted. First things first is this aura inside of the compass and me. I’m slowly absorbing it from the compass and I can use it like it’s my own but in the end, it’s not. From Glacious’s memories, an aura is an energy that comes directly from the soul.)
Kazuki held the compass in front of his face and questioned.
(For aura to constantly leak out of this compass as well as me being able to use it, just who’s godly aura does this belong to. Father where did you get such a treasure.)
Several mysteries appeared. When he conversed with Retsu Gai the large centipede monster with the human face. Retsu Gai was the one who told him there was a godly aura coming from his golden compass. Kazuki got his compass from his father while his sister Fera received an identical but black compass from their mother.
(For there to not be one but two treasures of such caliber, that is not something that can happen naturally. Not only that but the technique mother used on Kai and me to steal our Mage cores, that is not something I’ve ever heard of before or seen since. It was a technique not of this realm but could it be from a higher one. For father to completely disappear one day without a trace. These things, are they connected, or am I just jumping to conclusions? Two treasures, both with godly aura. Disappearing without a trace and using otherworldy techniques. These compasses, do they truly not come from this world?)
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