Chapter 652 - Last Minutes

As soon as Emery's right foot stepped out of the portal, he was immediately greeted by sight of hundreds of goblins and orcs turning their heads in his direction. It didn't even take a second  for the horde to start swarming over him with bloodthirsty intent that was very palpable.

The elite orcs and trolls might still be far from reaching Emery at the moment, but the same couldn't be said to the pack of wyverns in the air. They had proceeded to follow the aggression led by the orcs and were currently plunging toward him at breakneck speed. 

Savagery was evident in their crazed eyes as their bodies continued to descend. Their sharp claws had opened wide, ready to tear Emery's body into shreds.

There were three minutes remaining, but Emery only had a small amount of spirit energy in his body. Moreover, the difficult situation he was currently in clearly did not allow him to rest and recover his condition.

However, what concerned him the most was not those things. It was the heavily wounded Chumo.

The Asian Prince was struggling to open his already closed eyes. He subconsciously gritted his teeth due to the excruciating pain wreaking havoc in his body. Looking at the serious look on his friend's face, he whispered what he wanted to say. "Emery.. Just.. leave me…" 

Emery was silent when he heard that. A second later, he shook his head gently.

While it was true that he might be able to last three minutes under the flood of monsters by himself and that it would certainly not be easy if Chumo was still on his shoulder, Emery would rather not pass the level at all than to leave his last remaining friend to the monster's jaws.

Looking at the monster hordes that were quickly approaching, Emery decided to use the last bit of his spirit energy to cast [Granite Wall]. A wall quickly emerged from the ground and surrounded the two people as he grabbed Chumo off his shoulder and put the latter down.

Chumo's reaction to this was unexpected, to say the least.

"What?!! ..I don't expect you are really going to leave me here!!" cried the Asian Prince pitifully as if Emery's action quickly brought his energy back. "Emery, I have misjudged you!"

Emery couldn't hold himself from rolling his eyes at his friend's exaggerated reaction. 

Unfortunately, he was mistaken as Emery didn't plan to give up just yet.

He proceeded to use his last resort, a card of his that had no need of spirit force.

[Fey Transformation]

[Second Stage]

Emery induced the power of the bloodline dwelling within his being. His appearance rapidly changed under its strong influence, transforming him into an embodiment of savage beast. 

His body grew and became four times its initial size, silver furs began to surface on his skin, while his nails and teeth turned into sharp claws and fangs. After the transformation was completed, he released a loud, ear-deafening howl.

HOOOOWWWWWLLLLLLLL!!!

[Battle power increased 30 points]

[Battle power increased 10 points]

[Battle power 180]

The howl he unleashed shook the cover the two currently in, manifesting cracks all over its surface. Thanks to that, the goblins and orcs didn't have to do much to break the wall down. However, they quickly stopped in their tracks when they saw the figure in front of them.

Emery's current appearance looked extremely menacing. As a matter of fact, he seemed so dangerous that the orcs were hesitating whether to continue their attack or not. 

It was not just the hordes, actually, the Asian young man who was currently sitting on the ground was also as terrified as soon as he saw Emery changes to this from

"NOoo..! No! Man.. You should have just let me die back there!!" 

Colors drained from Chumo's face as he imagined how his friend would go on a rampage and he would die under his hands. He threw himself to the ground, the expression on his face clearly showing resignation to his destiny.

However, to his surprise, the uncontrollable monster that couldn't differentiate between ally and enemy he imagined never appeared. 

Emery only stood there and fixed his gaze on the sea of creatures before him. Even though he lost his ability to speak, he still maintained his clear consciousness. This was only possible thanks to the necklace he received, the [Beast Pendant].

Emery grabbed his terrified Asian friend with his furry hand and placed him on his back, carrying him like a sack of potatoes.

"...What the? Emery..?" said Chumo in a doubtful voice. A moment later, he finally connected the dots when he saw Emery didn't do anything to him. "Ohh! You can control your ability!!"

The revelation brought an untold amount of excitement to the usually calm youth.

"Hell yeah!! Go wolf- I mean, Emery!! Kill them all!!" Chumo said while laughing energetically.

HOWWLLL!

Losing his ability to utter words, Emery responded with a similarly energetic howl as he glared at the horde with his glistening eyes.

With his newfound 180 battle power, no troll nor ogres could stop Emery as he charged forward and crashed into the horde. The figure of the silver fur wolf flickered across the sea of monsters, making a scene of destruction in its wake.

Many corpses began to be seen lying on the ground. Weak goblins died with wounds that looked like footprints, while Orcs could be seen flying in all directions as they were kicked around like one would to trash. Emery decimated these creatures like slaying rats.

A wyvern tried to attack from behind, taking advantage of the fact that he was busy killing. Unfortunately for it, Emery was more than ready to welcome it.

The wyvern extended its sharp talons that could easily tear flesh as it swooped down, but Emery dodged the attack without looking back. He then turned around and grabbed the wyvern's leg, causing it to flap its wings frantically.

Unfortunately, it was too late to try to escape. Emery tightened his grip and slammed the wyvern onto the ground before proceeding to tear its wings off and smash its head into an unrecognizable mush.

It was a killing spree. A gruesome massacre.

Emery continued killing and killing the creatures in front of him until he discovered that he had become numb to it. Eventually, the notification the duo had been waiting for came, stopping the former from its spree.

[Congratulation on clearing level five]

[You are awarded 100.000 contribution points]

[Total number of acolytes: 19/692]

"Yeahhhh!!! Emery!!" shouted Chumo excitedly, his body was still on the wolf's back. The two of them watched as the tens of thousands of creatures around them began to disappear into specks of light. The scene was memorable, to say the least.

"We did it, Emery!" Chumo said while patting his back passionately. "We did it!!"

Emery's appearance had begun to return to his human form, but the Asian Prince seemed to refuse to get off his back. 

"Hahaha, I am sorry," said Chumo. "You know, piggyback is really a thing to my people."

Emery decided to sensibly ignore such a remark and instead said, "Is this over?"

He wondered if they had reached the end already, as he honestly could not imagine having another level with their current condition. However, right as he finished speaking those words, his eyes caught something. In the far corner of his eyes, he saw a door had appeared and was slowly opening.

[Proceed to the door in 5 minutes]

Chumo seemed to also notice the door's existence as his expression turned serious. The two best friends looked at each other, unsure whether they should be thrilled or not. Even so, they did not immediately reject the challenge.

However, that also did not mean that they would enter right away. Instead, the two took their time to catch their breath back as they made their way toward the now fully open door.

When they passed through it, Emery could see that they were now in a huge, cave-like chamber. 

Chumo, who had become talkative now that there were only two of them, started saying jinx-like things like the place looked like a dragon's cave.

Upon hearing that, Emery gave his best to suppress the urge to smack this friend of his in the head. There was no way they could win against a dragon, not with just the two of them.

Then suddenly, Emery noticed a figure approaching their location. He immediately took out his tier 4 sword, his body was tense as it was now ready to move whenever needed. However, he was taken aback when he heard his name being called.

"Emery!! Is that you?! You have made it too!"

The figure got closer, allowing the two to get a closer look. In addition to his extremely familiar and friendly voice, Emery finally put his sword aside because he knew who it was.

"Gerri!!"

"Just the two of you?! Where is your beautiful girlfriend?" asked Gerri

From the reaction, Gerri quickly understand that the other doesn't make it

"Yeah… my girls also didnt make it… well at least I still have this one big buddy of mine with me"

Emery realize that Igor the half-blood was there behind him, but this time Ivar was not. It seems Aiko the jade flash and Okoye also didnt make it past level 5.

He then quickly used his [Spirit Reading] and what he sensed surprised him for a moment. There were a total of nineteen people in this dark cave!

At the same time, he could feel something gathering in the middle of the cave.

When a person or a creature died in this virtual arena, they would turn into motes of light and disappear. However, what Emery was perceiving right now was the other way around.

A cloud of specks of light swirled in the center of the cave before spreading everywhere, allowing Emery to see the seventeen other people scattered throughout the room.

Most were familiar faces; the privileged acolytes and a few of the elites he recognized.

All of them, however, focused their attention on the gathering of light specks that gradually coalesce and form into a huge figure. At first, its rough build, then scales began to appear, followed by claws and bones.

Finally, a notification came to Emery's mind.

[Bonus level]

[Bone Dragon - Mythical Beast - level 50]

[Battle power - undefined]