Chapter 99: A Brush With Death

Hubris didn't waste any time, he dove after him. He doved right into the unknown just to make sure his Lord didn't die alone or he could cushion his fall and it'd be him that was doomed. Either way, he was fine with it.

As he entered the crack, he looked back to see the beetle queen close its eyes with finality, as bad as the situation they were in was, he found the time to sneer. It had disrespected his Lord one too many times. He was a hound with honour, but he wouldn't have minded desecrating its body.

After his momentarily internal victory lap, he concentrated on the problem at hand. The chasm was quite big, so much that it didn't take a second before Hubris was devoured by it, not even his tail was visible.

The inside of it was pitch black, but it was not darkness Hubris couldn't tackle. His eyes saw right through everything. Only thing he couldn't see was whether they'll land on a good terrain or not.

The air inside was noxious, if it hadn't been for his perfect senses, he would've suffocated for sure. Which made him frantic about how his master was doing. It looked like they were entering an atmosphere of a very familiar world.

For some reason, the pressure wasn't burning or freezing them, Hubris was concerned nonetheless. He swum through the impossible winds, he wanted to get faster, he could see that Kiro was unconscious.

He was heavier than Kiro, so he was dropping in faster, he eventually got under his lord and gently scooped him up, he laid comfortably on his back and so continued their unprecedented descent.

The air up there was so thick, Hubris could see it. He reckoned if he had time at all, he would be able to touch it as well.

He could see the bad wound, the hole that decorated Kiro's abdomen. As intelligent as Hubris was, he was scared, he was panicking. To make matters worse, he didn't have any restorative potions on him.

He couldn't make calls either, he couldn't even reach to his master's magical storage space as he wasn't a player.

Hiro was far, far away from them. More than they thought. The descent was uncomfortable for Hubris, he didn't like not being in control of whether his legs are grounded. As for Kiro, he was too unconscious to care or offer an opinion.

Though his avatar was definitely dying unless something happened to save him from it, he would die from the wound the beetle queen gave him as a parting gift.

Hubris finally sensed that they were about to touch down. He was glad for this as while he could see, he couldn't see the bottom, so the descent haf-blinded him.

He fastened and coddled Kiro, holding him like he was a baby. He didn't want to put him on his back, incase they had an unpleasant landing. At first he couldn't see anything but a big body of water.

But he couldn't very well force it because it may backfire and kill him right there and then. So he was more patient than he ever was, he laid there and meditated instead. Though no energy gathered to him, he did it anyway.

He had nothing to do, he was half dead, this was his only chance to save himself if he wasn't already a lost cause. He didn't really want to lose his progress, it wasn't easy levelling up when your level was as high as his.

While he was meditating, he used mental images to generate fights. Especially against the beetle he had just fought, it was the toughest opponent he'd ever fought. It was even tougher in his mental space.

He must've fought it 20 times, but he died in all those times. It was pitiful. Every time he died, his wound would be like it was fresh again, and he'd scream internally which would come out as nothing but a groan on the outside. Kiro realised that, without Hubris, he would've been dead 20 times over.

'Log out.' He thought and nothing happened. He was still in that light deprived space.

Though he became more and more aware of his surroundings. At times, he could hear Hubris walking around. He tried activating vibrations but couldn't. He gave up after some time, and focused on getting stronger fighting the figments of his imagination, also trying to harness the chaotic energy.

Neither of these went that well for him. He never gave up though. Because giving up meant death, and death was the last thing he wanted. If he could get stronger here with this energy, that'd play a big role with his in-game power.

Hubris on the outside was panicking, it had been a whole week and his master hadn't woken up. He just occasionally groaned, which was a good thing, pain meant he was still alive.

Despite the fact that the nights were chilly wherever they were, Kiro would sweat profusely sometimes, so Hubris had turned into his very own personal nurse.

On the first night, the tides almost reached them, so he had to move the shelter further away from the dangers of the mountainous waves. They still could hear the waves, but fortunately they weren't reached by them.

Hubris went out to hunt sometimes, but there were no animals to be seen, neither were there fruit on the trees. The island was dead, but it felt alive all the same.

What was even more mysterious for Hubris was the fact that he could sense the same energy his home was made out of. He didn't get the chance to learn to harness it, since he was banished, so he couldn't be sure. To make matters worse, he lived here 200 or so years ago.

But the energy in the atmosphere of this world felt very familiar to him however long it was.

Hubris cleaned Kiro's wound every single day. After a week of doing that, he finally saw improvement, albeit small. The nerves on the wound were attempting to reattach themselves. It was an amazing feat, considering no magic could be felt in this world.