Chapter 858 - I Can Sense Her
Krune manipulated his shields to circle around him as he crashed into the boulder, using the momentum to send it flying for a bit. His crash only sent the boulder flying for five meters along the width of the path, not enough to send it flying over what spanned probably ten meters.
One of his shields slammed onto his feet while radiating a rainbow light as he emitted Godly Energy once again, using the same technique as before to fly forward. The built-up momentum caused him to slam into the boulder. He had to repeat the move a third time to send it flying out of bounds.
He couldn't relax just yet, though. Another boulder was heading towards carriage number 89. Stepping on his shields, Krune shot forward, closing the gap as fast as possible before slamming into a boulder once more, feeling like he hit a mountain as his internals trembled.
Blood gushed into his mouth as he controlled himself, sensing that this particular boulder was ten times heavier than the rest. There wasn't much time for him to send it flying over the path.
At this rate, it was bound to crash into the carriage and crush it, perhaps even crashing against the path. His mind spun to its limits as his Mental Energy was consumed to think faster.
Not even an instant later, Krune took out a junk material from his storage ring and slapped it onto the boulder. He poured his Godly Energy into it like crazy, changing its structure not to resemble his. After that, he kicked the boulder with his legs, moving back as he slammed a rainbow-colored shield at the junk material.
"Argh!" The massive consumption of Godly Energy caused him to shout as he activated his Balance Laws to the limit, slamming the shield as hard as he could towards the material.
The Balance Laws interacted with the Godly Energy in the junk material, repelling it with great difficulty, for the boulder was just too heavy for the quantity of his law to affect. The boulder creaked in response, moving as it crashed into the edge of the path before falling over.
"Phew!" Krune crash-landed on carriage number 89 as all his shields plopped beside him. He was panting in exhaustion as he thought to himself, 'I have to keep this up for two days?'
For a moment, hopelessness and despair almost struck him, making him realize his early days where he was insignificantly weak.
"Krune, are you alright?" Vardin shouted while asking, slashing a medium-sized boulder into two before kicking the halves over the path. His shout barely reached Krune amid the sounds of the falling, crashing boulders.
"I'm fine!" Krune shouted back. "The last rock was too heavy, that's all!"
He continued to gasp for air as his eyes focused on the clouds, watching numerous boulders pierce through it as they fell without stopping. Krune took control of his shields once more, flying them in his range as he swatted the rocks without rest.
The four caravan members on carriage number 89 were working non-stop. Their task was to focus on the smaller rocks. So, they didn't target the bigger ones that were beyond their power, leaving them up to Krune.
Krune had to dart to and fro between the five carriages and block the boulders one after another. On top of that, many rocks were not like their appearances, making the area more dangerous than it already was.
His legs hurt after stepping on and getting repelled by the shields all the time to travel. His body was getting damaged from overexertion. He was doing a lot of work. Everything would have been easy if the range of his divine sense could encompass all five carriages.
Each carriage spanned the length of 20 meters while the Zenith Plugger pulling it was almost another 20 meters in length. So, defending five carriages meant that he had to protect a length of 200 meters. His divine sense only spanned a range of 20 meters at present.
In the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm, a typical cultivator's divine sense was only a meter in radius. It increased by a meter for every increase in Stage. As for the Mortal Rejection Realm, none possessed divine sense since, in the God Realm, it was a realm for newborns and children.
Krune was an exception since he wasn't born in the God Realm. Though, if he had been born in the God Realm, he too wouldn't have been any different. It was because of the laws. After all, it might take even more than ten thousand years, depending on one's talent, to progress a stage through the Mortal Rejection Realm in the Godly Path Realm.
But in the God Realm, even a fetus was at this level and progressed through those stages while in the uterus. It wasn't even fair when comparing the Realms, but everything worked in a relative perspective.
In the Godly Path Realm, being in the Mortal Rejection Realm was a symbol of power. But in the God Realm, any random baby probably surpassed that.
In the Godly Foundation Realm, the divine sense increased by 10 meters or so every Stage. In short, an average cultivator at Krune's cultivation base could sense 19 meters around them in radius. As for Krune, it was slightly higher, at 20 meters. He didn't know the exact reason, but he attributed it to his Balance Laws.
The length Krune had to defend was ten times the range of his Divine Sense. It was truly a difficult feat. With that, he had to shuttle a lot between them. As his running speed was clearly insufficient, he had to rely on the repulsion brought about by his Balance Laws, or to be more exact, the Gravity Sub-Law part of his laws.
This way, he placed a greater burden on his body. Time passed in such a manner as Krune was getting more and more exhausted. He turned around to see that the other mercenaries were more or less the same as him. Only three individuals were completely alright. The first two were part of the Mercenary Team, Ink Sword. They were both at the God Core Realm and had plenty of strength to spare.
The last one was the tall woman, the leader of the Mercenary Team, Plotted Heels. But, none had any attention to spare for the others, desperately defending their allotted carriages.
The caravan members defending each carriage had long become exhausted and dropped like flies. Thankfully, they were saved by the next group that came to replace them. Thanks to this, they could hold on without giving in.
"We're about to enter more dangerous territory! Just a little bit longer!" Trivar shouted, transmitting his voice to every member.
Krune felt a faint fluctuation in the air after hearing that. It seemed to be Godly Energy but was inherently different from everything he had sensed to date. In response to the fluctuation, all the Zenith Pluggers snorted as they bellowed, stomping the ground with all their strength.
Their stomp caused the path to crack and collapse. It seemed as if their caravan was planning to commit suicide as Krune was ready to use his shields and escape. Surprisingly, the caravan didn't fall. Instead, it maintained the same height as before.
The ends of each carriage were also strapped to the Zenith Plugger trailing behind. So, when they took off to the air, the carriages didn't tilt downward and were maintained at the same level without any violent jerks.
The caravan then moved through the air.
Krune noticed the path traverse through the right and make a massive semi-circular loop before returning to their straight path 20 kilometers away. So, instead of making the long unnecessary run through the risks, they preferred to fly straight and land on the other side.
It was a wise decision, to be honest. If it were Krune manning the caravan, he too would have done the same. But there was one thing he was unsure about. It was suspicious for the Zenith Pluggers to act the way they did. They destroyed the path while taking off.
Thanks to the power behind their stomp, a large section of the path had caved in while an even larger portion had become brittle thanks to their previous run. So, at the very moment a mid-sized boulder crashed into the path, it caved in.
Krune wasn't able to see it clearly before since he wasn't at the end of the caravan. Nevertheless, he still noticed the oddity. Now that the caravan took off to the air, he clearly saw their actions. It seemed as if they didn't wish to leave their path of traversal undamaged.
"Damn it," Krune cursed, disliking his train of thought as he defended against the falling boulders. It was relatively easier now that they were in the air. Both sides were now open to push the boulders over, so Krune was able to defend with half as much effort as before.
The entire caravan spanned a length of approximately five kilometers. It was a lot of space to be suspicious over. So, even if he had his doubts, he couldn't do anything for the time being. He had to wait until it was all over.
Even if he had only joined the mission to train himself, it didn't mean he would do his tasks half-heartedly when it mattered. Moreover, if he didn't complete his end of the deal, his Mercenary token would be revoked. Plus, he would be blacklisted on all the Mercenary Guilds. That wasn't something Krune wished to see.
The Zamuria Continent alone was massive, but that didn't mean he could underestimate their information network. They couldn't have established any semblance of order if it wasn't for that.
'I have a bad feeling.' Krune frowned as he thought to himself, noticing the size of the boulders had increased steadily until the house-sized boulders from before became the norm. He didn't have enough Godly Energy to sustain for long and immediately substituted it with his Mental Energy.
He took out ten Rank Two God Stones and piled them up in his pocket, activating his Mind Splitting Technique as he began to absorb the Godly Energy in them. This way, he wouldn't dry up and become helpless. After all, it hadn't even been half a day since they had entered the Falling Boulders Precipice.
At the entrance of the Falling Boulders Precipice was a group of demon beasts in human form. One of them crouched until his face touched the ground, extending his tongue as he licked the soil, muttering with his voice that sounded like a cacophony of beast roars, "I can sense her presence here."
"Good." Another voice that seemed like a mixture of every human and demon beast resounded, "With her, we shall surpass our racial limitations."
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Author's note: Leave your opinion about this new writing style. Is it good? Is it bad? What do you think compared to the previous one?