Chapter 79: Thunderous Explosion
They were perhaps fifty yards away when the forest exploded.
The area shook with a shockwave and wind that far surpassed anything before. Reinhard felt himself lifted slightly off the ground by the force, his boots losing contact with the earth.
Then massive light erupted far behind them, a column of brilliance that shot straight up through the forest and vaporized the leaves instantly. The light was impossible to look at directly, searing afterimages into retinas even through closed eyelids.
Reinhard, Marie, and Joseph all turned instinctively, unable to resist witnessing what was happening.
A dome of blue, golden, brown, and green energy exploded outward from the light source. The dome expanded with terrifying speed, consuming forest in its path. Where the energies met, space itself seemed to crack as actual fissures appeared around, showing glimpses of something beyond that Reinhard’s mind refused to fully process. For a moment, he saw golden clouds and streams of light, but then it quickly closed up.
The dome’s expansion slowed as it grew larger, but it was still approaching them with a terrifying force.
Then the shockwave hit.
A wall of wind and pressure swept across the forest like a terrifying storm. Trees that had stood for centuries were ripped from the ground, roots being ripped from the ground as an earth-shattering sound rang out.
Smaller vegetation was ripped into pieces before being pulled by the shockwave.
Phantasm Beasts were caught mid-flight. Reinhard saw a Bone Wyvern trying to escape through the sky. But it got caught by the shockwave and was blown towards the ground as its bone armor cracked audibly even over the roar.
Tonothus tumbled through the air like leaves, their massive bulk meaningless against the wind.
Bumbodusks shrieked as they were lifted, their bodies spinning end over end.
The wind reached them.
Reinhard felt his feet leave the ground once more, but the sensation felt wrong. He was not jumping, not falling, but being lifted by force so overwhelming that resistance was meaningless. He felt his world tilt crazily as he tumbled forward through the air before his hand shot out. Reinhard caught Marie’s wrist when she was close, while Marie quickly grabbed Joseph’s arm simultaneously. They were a chain of three bodies being hurled through the forest by a wind that felt solid.
Drasil Step.
Time slowed down for Reinhard, and as he looked around, the chaos looked amazing in the slow time. He could see individual leaves suspended in the air, and they were rotating extremely slowly.
He could track the trajectory of a Tonothus tumbling past them, its mouth frozen open mid-screech. Then he saw the fear in Marie’s eyes, making him frown as his mind began racing and processing their situation.
They needed solid ground before they were blown completely out of control or smashed into obstacles they couldn’t avoid. His eyes scanned the frozen chaos around them before they lit up as he saw platforms of roots that had been torn from the earth, now suspended in the shockwave.
Trees that had been uprooted but hadn’t yet fallen, with massive branches broken free from tree trunks, and tumbling extremely slowly through the crystallized time.
Reinhard pulled on Marie and Joseph’s arms before shifting their trajectory. His body twisted in the slow-motion environment, legs coming around to position himself for landing. He aimed for a massive branch that was rotating through the air at an angle that would bring its surface within reach.
Just as time returned to normal.
They slammed onto the branch with terrible force. Reinhard’s knees bent to absorb the impact, his free hand grabbing bark while Marie landed beside him, her own grip finding holds instinctively. Joseph came down last, his larger mass making the branch dip and sway alarmingly.
"We need to help each other run on the branches, roots, and trees!" Reinhard shouted over the continuing roar of the wind.
Marie and Joseph’s eyes widened with understanding. They grasped what he meant immediately, making Reinhard smile as he wanted them to use debris as platforms to rush through the chaos until they reached ground stable enough to provide real safety.
Both of them nodded.
Reinhard rushed out first, his legs driving him off the branch toward a massive root that tumbled past within range. He landed before immediately pushing off again toward a tree trunk that was falling in slow rotation. Each landing required split-second timing, each launch demanded his mind to quickly think and act.
Joseph was following behind before he grabbed Reinhard’s extended hand mid-flight once, using the connection to redirect his momentum toward a platform Reinhard had already identified.
Marie easily leapt off the roots before running on the tree trunks and pushing off. Her terrifying strength, which she got from her Beast Spirit, made it easier to make adjustments mid-air that the others couldn’t match. She leapt over obstacles, flipped to change orientation, and landed on surfaces barely large enough to accommodate one foot before launching again.
Longinus materialized in her grip, the crimson-gold spear extending to catch a passing root. She used it like a pole vault, swinging her body around and releasing at the apex to gain additional distance.
When a massive branch came tumbling down at them from the side.
Joseph summoned Arondight, the grey lance appearing just in time for him to brace it against the branch’s surface. The impact drove him sideways, but he used the momentum, pushing off in a new direction that brought him alongside Marie.
Reinhard saw a gap, a space where no platforms existed within jumping distance. His mind calculated trajectories in the fraction of a second available. Zenuken appeared in his hands, and he hurled it forward. The blade was embedded in a tumbling root, and Reinhard landed on the blade before using it as a platform to push himself across the gap before dismissing and resummoning the weapon.
They moved as a team through the chaos.
When one found a good path, the others followed. When someone’s trajectory fell short, another extended a hand or weapon to bridge the gap. They launched off tree trunks that spun through the air, landed on roots, and leapt over debris dangerous to touch.
The wind continued its assault, striking them with gusts that threatened to tear them from whatever platform they’d found. Reinhard felt his clothes whipping against his body, felt the sting of small debris striking exposed skin.
Reinhard eyes widened as he saw a Cheronos sweep past him, its body limp. Reinhard pushed off its corpse mid-flight and used it as an unexpected platform. The body spun away from the impact, disappearing into the chaos behind them.
Below, the ground was visible in brief glimpses. It displayed cracked earth, uprooted vegetation, and massive fissures from the force of the explosion. Reinhard was tempted, but he knew better, they had to stay in the air until they found a section where the wind’s fury had diminished enough to make landing survivable.
Marie pointed ahead, her arm extending toward a section where the debris field seemed less dense. "There!"
Reinhard saw an area where the wind was noticeably weaker, where the ground looked relatively intact. It was perhaps thirty yards ahead, but might as well have been miles, given the obstacles between.
"Together!" Joseph shouted.
They coordinated their jumps, all three launching from different platforms but aiming for the same general trajectory. Reinhard landed on a massive root, immediately grabbing Marie’s hand as she came down beside him. Joseph arrived on a branch parallel to them, extending Arondight to bridge the gap.
They launched as one, their combined momentum carrying them toward the weakened wind zone. Reinhard felt the change as they crossed the threshold, the wind’s pressure dropping dramatically and the chaos diminishing to manageable levels.
The ground rushed up to meet them.
All three hurled themselves forward, tucking and rolling to dissipate impact. Reinhard hit earth that felt solid, his body rolling across grass and dirt before he came to rest on his back.
Marie stopped nearby, sprawled on her side, but already pushing herself up with a huge smile splitting her face despite the circumstances.
Joseph rolled to a halt further away, but Reinhard could see him moving and chuckling. They were panting, muscles burning from the exertion, but they escaped the chaos behind.
Reinhard pushed himself up on his elbows, looking back at the chaos they’d escaped. Tonothus bodies were falling from the sky now, their massive forms crashing into the earth or impaling themselves on roots that rose from the ground like spears.
The Phantasm Beasts were helpless, dead before they landed or killed by a shockwave.
But before the trio could sigh in relief, another terrifying wind swept out from the same area.