World's Last Hope-Chapter 107: The Cost of Courage

Eric, Olivia, and the others Masters were running towards where Aria and Varek were supposed to be located.

"What is the chance that the colossal spiders have gone all towards them?" the pink-haired girl asked between ragged breaths.

Eric shifted his gaze as he observed their surroundings. Everywhere in sight were cocoons, and yet not a single spider to be seen.

Considering that they were at the heart of the spider’s nest and there were no monsters in sight, it was pretty clear that something was wrong.

"High," he responded, increasing his speed even more, praying that Aria was fine.

Due to the mist, it was hard to see the surroundings, and yet Eric was pretty sure they had already passed a few thousand cocoons. They would have destroyed them if they had the time, but sadly, they didn’t.

They would have to return here after everything was done to get rid of the cocoons. Who knew how many would hatch by then? Would it be dozens, hundreds, or all of them? One thing was for certain, the more time they wasted, the worse things were bound to get.

’Faster!’ he silently cursed himself as he pushed his body to the limit.

Not a lot of time passed in eerie silence, until the silence was interrupted by an ear-piercing roar in the distance.

Eric squinted his eyes, focusing forward.

Among the mist ahead, there appeared to be a light that shined through it.

It was Aria, and it was clear that she was fighting.

Without saying a word, Olivia dug her feet into the ground and dashed forward with all the speed she could muster. A second later, she disappeared from view.

Eric gritted his teeth in frustration. If he were stronger, something like this wouldn’t have happened!

"Are we sure that we should continue forward?" Eric heard a voice of a terrified Master behind him.

"What are you trying to say?" Eric spat, irritated.

"I mean that this is beyond our sphere of expertise! Think about it! We are Masters, and yet we are going forward against a Grade-5 monsters?! Not to mention that the mist around us is making it harder to see anything!"

It was clear that the man was scared. Eric, being the leader, should be the one to find some way to comfort the man. But at the moment, he was too worried for Aria to act rationally.

"Are you telling me you are scared? Well, tough luck for you, me and all of us are Masters. We don’t have a choice but to fight, whether we like it or not! If we don’t, who is going to fight in our place? The Awakened? Can you imagine putting them against such terrifying beings? Or what about the civilians? They would be torn to shreds before they even had time to realize what they were facing!"

"Even so! We are just Masters. Dying here would not do anything, not to mention, what can we even do? We are almost powerless against the colossal spiders!"

"No, you are wrong. There is something that we can do!" Eric shouted, between the ragged breaths he was taking. It wasn’t enough that he was giving it his all to run forward, but he had to also motivate the people behind him.

"We have two Grandmasters with us, at least we should support them! Even if we die, if they manage to live, they will be able to bring real change! If you ever feel like quitting, repeat this in your head."

The man behind Eric smirked, "So what? Are you telling us that if we die now, at least it wouldn’t have been for nothing?"

Eric was silent for a few minutes until he responded, "If you die fighting against the corruption, then your life had meaning, no matter if you think that you didn’t bring real change—you did."

After he said those words, silence fell before them. The only thing that was able to be heard were their loud footsteps and their panting, trying to breathe in enough air.

Once the scene was revealed behind the mist, Eric gritted his teeth in frustration. It was much worse than he originally thought.

Aria was currently fighting against three colossal spiders at the same time.

Olivia had managed to join from the side and had taken the attention of two other colossal spiders.

Did this mean that up until now, Aria had been fighting five Grade-5 monsters solo? She, being a Grandmaster, should be able to handle one at most two monsters of that grade alone, but she had been fighting against five? It was a miracle she was alive.

’Where is her squad?’ was the next thought that came to Eric’s mind as he ran. He moved his eyes, trying to find any of the Masters that were with Aria, but he didn’t see Varek, nor anybody else. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Hoping that they were alive and just somehow out of his sight, he summoned his sword and began to approach one of the three colossal spiders Aria was fighting.

He honestly shouldn’t have had any business fighting against such strong creatures, but just the thought of Aria being in danger angered him immensely. That, coupled with the fact that his sword amplified his desire—which clearly was to help Aria at all costs—made him forget reason.

At least some of his traits began to shine. He was in the presence of multiple monsters stronger than himself, and as such, he gained a significant boost in his strength and speed.

He managed to reach one of the giant legs of the creature and used his sword to pierce its white skin.

The colossal spider screeched, most likely feeling its soul being destroyed by Eric’s ’Soul Flame,’ and shifted its attention to Eric, suddenly forgetting about Aria.

Not wasting a second, Eric began to climb the creature as fast as possible. It was like scaling a massive wall, but using his sword as leverage, by piercing the skin of the monster as he climbed, he was able to scale it.

Raising one of its legs, getting ready to brush Eric to the side, the monster’s crimson eyes shined.

But a moment later, the creature took a step back as it took a massive ranged ice attack from one of the Masters behind Eric.

He smiled a bit, it seemed that he wasn’t fighting the creature alone, at least.

"Let’s see how fast I can climb you!" Eric shouted, scaling the monster faster and faster.

Meanwhile, Aria managed to catch her breath. Up until now, she had been forced to fight five Grade-5 monsters at the same time. She was close to dying, up until Olivia showed herself and managed to lessen her load by distracting two of the five creatures.

Then, one more shifted its attention away. She couldn’t be sure why, as the mist was too thick to see anything, but she had a feeling that it was Eric who was responsible for that.

Her lips curved into a smile. Now she was facing just two Grade-5 monsters, which, while being a grand challenge for any normal Grandmaster, didn’t mean that it would be a problem for her, as she wasn’t a normal Grandmaster.

She dashed forward with dazzling speed.

Slicing with her sword, she created numerous light arcs that traveled forward and inflicted numerous wounds on the left colossal monster.

The spider reeled as it took a step back, but unlike last time, there weren’t others to help it. As such, Aria managed to reach the creature’s head and kill it by piercing its brain.

Her eyes shined as she shifted her gaze to the one left spider.

She wasn’t going to have a problem with it.

*****

"I did it." Eric muttered in disbelief as he smiled.

He had managed to reach the spider’s head and pierced its brain, killing it on the spot.

Of course, he hadn’t done it alone. The other Masters had distracted the monster long enough to allow Eric to climb it.

He observed the scene before him.

Aria and Olivia had managed to defeat their share of enemies. It was hard to see them in the thick mist, but they were standing tall, taking ragged breaths—exhausted, but alive.

Confirming that the area was safe and that they had indeed managed to win the fight, Eric turned around with a smile on his face.

"Look at that! We won, didn’t we?! Do you see now that there wasn’t anything to worry about?"

But he was met with only silence.

The Masters were all laying on the ground. One had been crushed like a tomato by a spider’s leg. Another had been crushed by the debris the monster’s leg created every time it moved. The pink-haired girl was laying on the ground, cut in two at the waist, and the last one was missing his head.

Eric took a shallow breath, trying to comprehend what he was seeing.

"Guys?" he asked in disbelief.

But no answer came.