Chapter 279 276: Oliver's difficulties!
'Now it's time to find him!' Val thought.
With a sense of urgency, Val channeled his soul energy into the black ring adorning his middle finger. Almost instantly, a holographic screen materialized before him. On it, a white dot moved in a frenetic pattern, distancing itself further from a stationary red dot with each passing second.
His eyebrow raised.
Oliver was clearly being pursued. The assailants could either be Clea, along with the mercenaries she'd recruited for the assassination, or they could be devils. As it was already night on this side of the dimension, it made sense to think that devils could be hunting Oliver.
The exact details didn't matter at this moment.
After all, no matter who they were, it didn't change the fact that Oliver was in imminent danger.
'I have to get to him before them,' Val thought.
All he knew was that Oliver was not only vulnerable and alone but also in grave danger. And he needed to act swiftly if he wanted to save his life!
Val's agility surged to a remarkable 120 points as he activated his Blood Rush skill.
Now as he moved through the forest, his movements were so rapid that they generated gusts of wind, powerful enough to rustle and flutter the leaves on trees, and he was moving so fast that in a mere heartbeat, he covered hundreds of meters, his speed so unparalleled that it would be indistinguishable from teleportation to a casual observer.
The creatures of the forest, from the smallest critter to the mightiest beast, could only catch fleeting glimpses of his form.
To them, he resembled an apparition, a ghostly presence that vanished from their sight as quickly as it appeared.
Before they could even process what they'd seen, he'd already reemerged hundreds of meters away.
Whoosh!
He quickly hurtled through the forest, drawing ever closer to Oliver with the velocity of a comet slicing through the vast expanse of the night sky.
****
About half an hour ago.
A young man, with a slim yet muscular frame and a sword strapped to his side, sat inside a cave, his right leg crossed over his left one and his back resting against the wall.
He was comfortably seated next to a fire, one that he had painstakingly built using the wood he'd gathered from the forest before nightfall.
The light of the fire inside the cave illuminated his youthful face, revealing him to be none other than Oliver.
Strikingly absent from its usual place around his neck was his amulet, which now dangled prominently at the entrance of the cave.
The forest of the lesser dimension becomes an execution ground at night for beasts and humans alike.
Wandering it at this time of the day all alone was too risky, especially for Oliver, who was only a low-level wizard and couldn't deal with powerful devils.
He could only spend the night in the cave under the protection of the amulet his godfather had given him.n/)o).v)/e--l)/b(-I-.n
The pitter-patter of the rain could be heard. Outside the cave, the temperature grew colder. The coldness, however, couldn't enter the cave as if kept outside by a mysterious force.
Oliver started to relax upon hearing the sound of rain. Whenever it rained, he would oddly feel comforted. His mother had never sung a lullaby to him, but he liked to believe the sky did in the form of rain.
He pushed his knees closer to himself, finding himself to be quite lucky as the second night he spent in the lesser dimension was quite beautiful and peaceful.
Swoosh!
He seemed to have jinxed himself as the tranquil atmosphere was shattered when, suddenly, five brilliant rays of light streaked down from the sky. With the speed and precision of arrows, they aimed directly for the cave's entrance. However, just as they were about to breach the entrance, they met an unseen resistance. The amulet's latent power rose to challenge these intruders, deflecting them effortlessly and forcing them to touch down outside the cave!
The commotion wasn't loud, but how could it escape the senses of a sensory-type wizard?
Oliver noticed it.
He redirected his gaze from the warm, wood-fueled fire and peered outside.
To his astonishment, standing just beyond the cave's entrance were five off figures. Odd because each was enveloped in a mysterious glow, which acted as a veil, making their true appearances elusive to Oliver's prying eyes.
Immediately, from his chest pocket, Oliver retrieved a peculiar, intricately designed figurine. he clutched it in his palm, allowing its mysterious energy to meld with his own senses. Taking a deep breath, he directed his attention once more towards the figures lurking outside. As if the figurine had granted him a heightened perception, he could suddenly pierce through the dazzling aura that previously obscured the beings, unveiling their true appearances to his discerning eyes.
Their faces resembled that of donkeys, but their faces were distorted in an unsettling manner, and they had horns jutting out from their heads. Their bodies were packed with muscles and cloaked in a layer of coarse, unkempt brown fur, and they stood upright on two sturdy kangaroo-like legs.
Each being had sturdy hands with a unique three-fingered structure. In these hands, they tightly gripped bone staves that bore an ominous skull at the top.
Despite everything wrong about them, Oliver felt the most unnerved by their eyes, which were intense, penetrating, full of evil desires, and focused solely on him.
The menacing gaze of the devilish creatures sent a shiver down Oliver's spine, momentarily unsettling him.
Yet, almost as quickly as the fear had gripped him, he found reassurance in the memory of having strategically placed the cherished amulet at the cave's entrance. Its mystical essence radiated outward, forming a robust shield that these creatures couldn't penetrate.
The recent memory of a similar situation played vividly in his mind. Just the previous night, devils, with their sinister intentions, had trailed him.
In that harrowing chase, he'd shown foresight, seeking refuge within the safety of a cave and hanging the amulet at its entrance. And just like now, he had relied on the amulet's unmatched protective power to defend against the devils whom he couldn't deal with with his own powers.
That impenetrable barrier that the amulet had projected around the cave had effectively nullified every attempt made by his adversaries to enter the cave and harm him.
With that experience fresh in his memory, Oliver felt a renewed surge of confidence.
He believed that, once more, the amulet's protective barrier would guard him against any harm these creatures might intend.