Genetic Ascension

Linzie coughed as all the air in her body seemed to be forcefully expelled by a single blow. PENG! PENG! PENG!

Three Fire Monkey arrows crashed into her body. Luckily, her armor saved her life, but the dimming of the energy seemed to awaken her to her situation.

She sensed several more arrows coming her way, but she didn't have the time to orient herself.

Luckily...

PENG!

A burly man appeared behind Linzie, raising a shield to block the oncoming rain of arrows. Linzie fell to the ground, gasping for breath for barely a split moment before she hopped to her feet.

"He went that way! I almost had him!" She roared out and then grit her teeth.

Without giving her team a chance to reject again, she rushed off.

The burly man looked toward the others and they were forced to follow after.

It was clear to them that Linzie wasn't quite in her right mind, but they had also seen the scene from before. She really had almost killed Sylas. If not for the fact he had used a rare Skill, his head would have already been pinned to the tree.

They didn't reject Linzie this time because her battle sense was clearly still there. And next time, she would be ready for that Skill and wouldn't fall for the same trick.

Plus...

They all wanted Sylas' head too.

This sort of person was the kind that disgusted them the most. They were soldiers, putting their life on the line for the sake of the common people. And yet the likes of Sylas only seemed out to fight for themselves.

He deserved the worst kind of death.

"Let's go, Butch." A skinny man shot off after knocking the burly man's shoulder. "We have heads to hunt. The Fire Monkeys are yours."

Butch slammed his tower shield onto the ground and a ripple of light shot out in all directions.

The screeches of the Fire Monkeys filled the air as they were sent flying away. Then with a stomp, he rushed to catch up with everyone.

...

Sylas dashed through the forest toward the location he felt the Portal in. His gaze had already long regained its composure, but the erratic beating of his heart was taking time to calm, not to mention the overheating of his body.

Keeping up this pace for even several hours shouldn't have been a problem for him, but right now, it felt like his body had already been pushed to its limits and couldn't take much more.

It felt like hot coals were running down the length of his throat and his body's efficiency was down in the dumps.

'I need a solution.'

He didn't even have the time to consider what it meant that he could feel Demonic Runes now. Instead, he pivoted his attention and knew exactly what he needed.

•

BADOOM.

Sylas' heart nearly exploded, but he stripped down the technique of its poison and focused entirely on the ice meant to cool himself down.

Almost instantly, a frosty fog exhaled from Sylas' mouth as his body temperature plummeted.

The soft soil deformed beneath the sole of his feet as he erupted forward with even greater Speed.

Ta. Ta. Ta.

With quick taps, Sylas zigzagged up a tree, jumping between three of them until he soared into the dense foliage and vanished with them.

Almost instantly, a dagger came for his head, but the calmness in his irises didn't fade in the slightest. His hand was already grabbing forward as though he had already predicted the future.

He caught the blade in the palm of his Scorned Wraps, ripping it down and driving his knee right through the face of the Fire Monkey. The feeling of its skull deforming across his bone echoed through his body with a hair-raising hollowness.

The dagger burst to ashes, but Sylas had already let go and continued to dash forward. Gathering Ice Aether in this region was many times more difficult and Sylas realized that he was going to be at a disadvantage.

'They're still not caught up. They're slower than I imagined.'

It wasn't that they were slow, but that Sylas was much too fast. Defensive Treasures were quite common, but more auxiliary ones that could boost Speed or Dexterity weren't as sought after. They weren't necessarily rare, but they weren't commonplace amongst those without certain Classes.

Sylas had already felt that Linzie had control over Wind Aether, so he thought that her Speed would be troublesome to deal with, but she seemed to have placed her greatest emphasis on

Attack.

That and...

'It's possible that they're becoming more cautious.'

The number of Fire Monkeys was only increasing. Although they didn't last more than a single hit against Sylas, if this continued, he would eventually be overrun.

When Sylas felt his body temperature had returned to normal, he activated in full force. Now that his Will had a Glass character to it, there was no longer an imbalance in the activation of this Gene Skill. As such, his Speed shot through the roof without the same overheating issues.

However, this didn't last for long.

Sylas suddenly came to a stop.

Danger.

The rustle of leaves echoed behind Sylas as he felt Linzie quickly closing in the gap, but the main issue was actually ahead of him.

The Portal was surrounded by an encampment of beasts. They were mostly made up of Fire Monkeys, which sounded like good news. But the main issue was that...

They were an organized army.

There were Fire Monkey archers, Fire Monkey dagger and short sword wielders, and most shocking of all, Fire Monkey cavalrymen who rode on the backs of two types of beasts.

One of them was a Fire Wolf that had shocking crimson fur. The other was a Fire Rhino that stood at over three meters tall. The Fire Monkeys that rode on their backs looked a lot more like Fire Apes and wielded anything from large clubs to long spears.

This wasn't a beast tide. It was an organized army.

And their commander lingered right near the entrance of the Portal.

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