Chapter 1686: A Feral Savior (3)
Althea was confused.
If the Immortal Slugs were focusing on those who were strong, aiming to take them out first before they could escape, the marquesses or even the empress should be the ones aimed at the most. But instead, Rex was the one soaking up all the attention.
A mere Master Immortal Spirit was deemed more dangerous than the strong nobles.
Something like that should be laughably impossible, but it happened right before her very eyes.
Clearly, the Immortal Slugs sensed something from Rex that nobody could sense.
Danger.
Althea watched closely as Rex clashed against the Immortal Slugs.
His life energy was suppressed, and there’s no way of using his Soul Artifacts, but his combat prowess alone was more than enough to match—the Immortal Slugs. Rex was incredibly athletic—every part of his body is a weapon, and his movement was feral, making it hard to predict his flow.
But the most glaring trait that made this possible was his inexhaustible stamina.
Rex had been fighting the Immortal Spirits within the Desolate Zone for more than two minutes, and yet, there was no sign of exhaustion. His movements and speed are still as ferocious and fast as when he first entered.
It was incredible.
Despite how reluctant Althea was to admit it, she couldn’t deny that Rex was incredible.
Among the entire empire, there’s probably no one who could match him in terms of physicality alone.
And at this moment, she could only throw her pride away.
"Rex!" She screamed. "Save me first!"
"I hope you die, bitch!" Rex suddenly snapped at Althea, his eyes turning molten gold. "Save yourself!"
"What...? How could you say that, asshole!" She screamed again, this time harder.
Rex shook his head and held his forehead, frowning inwardly.
His eyes returned to their normal colors.
Fuck... Is it because the test is nearing? The Invincible Apparition is stronger than normal.
Rex clicked his tongue in displeasure—as he hadn’t expected the Invincible Apparition to come out like that when he didn’t want to let it out. But then again, he recalled Kei Xun telling him to let the Invincible Apparition out to distract it during the test.
Naturally, he was debating whether to let the Invincible Apparition out or not.
But he opted to save that for later.
I need to do this myself to avoid other variables. I need to save the nobles.
Looking to the side, Rex stared at the timer above Althea’s head.
<4:41>
Four minutes is still a lot. Her timer isn’t the lowest, so I can leave her be for now.
"Rex! You asshole! Come and save me right now! I helped you earlier!"
Althea’s voice still thundered within the dome, calling to Rex angrily even though he was obviously ignoring her. It was surprising to find her cursing like that, especially to Marquess Darius, who couldn’t believe his daughter was cursing Princess Davina’s fiancé.
Though Rex didn’t seem to mind, it was still impolite and not womanly.
Swish!
Rex’s ears perked when he heard a tear in the air.
It came from the serpent and the White Mask.
Roar!!
Both unleashed a thunderous roar as their voidal energy surged like a tidal wave, fighting back the absolute suppression from the Immortal Slugs. And as expected, the suppression grew stronger and slammed the voidal energy back into the two voidal monsters.
At the same time, a violent shockwave blasted like a blooming flower.
It spreads everywhere, but fortunately, the ones who were near enough to get hit were only the empress.
And she could easily protect herself from the impact.
However, a stray strand of energy lashed out randomly—and it headed straight to Althea.
Clang!
Althea yelped as the barrier that protected her from the black pillars’ grasp shattered and hurled her a few feet to the side. She rolled across the ground before coming to a halt. Though the hit didn’t seem to hurt her much, without the barrier, her timer drastically dropped.
So much so that she barely has a minute left.
<1:02>
"Althea!!" Marquess Darius shouted in horror as he tried moving to help his daughter.
But the grip kept him in place relentlessly.
And Rex saw blood trickling down the corner of his mouth, which was odd to see.
Was he also the one who created that barrier protecting Althea? It must be.
Althea’s rank is not that much higher than Rex’s.
She was within the late-stage of the Eternal Spirit rank, and she didn’t seem to have Law power.
Naturally, the barrier must belong to Marquess Darius.
And since the barrier of Law power was shattered forcefully, the backlash struck Marquess Darius hard.
Boom!
Just as Rex intended to save Althea, bringing her out of the Desolate Zone, a booming crash thundered from the fissure. He looked up and paled as an even thicker pillar the size of a building stabbed skyward with unrelenting speed and power.
Once it reached the top of the dome, its tip splashed into multiple black branches.
But this time, the branches didn’t lash down to attack. Instead, they spread across the dome’s ceiling, unfurling like a vast canopy—an ominous black umbrella that drowned everything in darkness. Every fiber of Rex’s being screamed danger.
And finally, danger descended.
"Rex! Forget about the others and save her!" Marquess Darius roared. "I’ll help them sustain this!"
Upon hearing this, Rex nodded, and his vision tunneled.
ROAR!!
Rex immediately unleashed a powerful roar as he sprinted on all four, heading straight to Althea.
Others could wait—she was the one in the gravest danger.
Above, hundreds of black pillars descended like a meteor shower—each one sizzling with the unknown energy that has the property to drain them to skin and bones. As soon as Rex roared, this meteor shower made an abrupt turn.
Most headed straight to Rex without mercy.
"That’s it!" Rex laughed—eyes wide-open and maniacal. "If you want to kill these people, you’ll have to go through me!!"
Boom!
Rex picked up his pace as he dodged the black pillars dropping straight at him from above.
He didn’t need to look—his senses caught them all, and his instincts did the rest.
But even so, the sheer number was overwhelming.
At first, the strikes crashed down once with each step, allowing him to dodge one as he approached the damsel with a big mouth in distress. But soon it became two, then three. No matter how sharp his senses or flawless his instincts were, there were limits to how fast his body could move to evade.
Boom!
Rex gritted his teeth as a strike slammed into his back.
His hardened skin and dense muscle kept it from piercing through, but it still carved a deep wound.
Pushed by the momentum, he was forced to roll forward.
As he came to a halt, six black pillars were already right above him—ready to drill holes into him.
Crash!
"Sir Rex!" Marquess Darius exclaimed in horror.
Nobody could’ve dodged that many black pillars when they were already a few inches away.
On top of that, more black pillars slammed into where Rex was without mercy, aiming to make sure that he died. Each slam made the ground quake from the force it carried. And each slam made the chance of Rex coming out of that alive lower and lower.
But as the dust cleared, Marquess Darius was stunned to find Rex’s eyes still glowing.
He was still full of life.
Not a single black pillar managed to touch him—each one missed by a hair’s breadth.
The Law of Misdirection.
’I don’t know what kind of monster Duke Lorcan accepted to marry his daughter—but am I imagining things?’ Marquess Darius swallowed, looking at Rex as if he were an anomaly. ’He can cut through the main body of the Immortal Slugs—that were draining us with the power of Law, and now, he suddenly can make all six of those things miss him? Does he have multiple Laws in him?’
Crash!
Rex forcefully broke free, slicing the black pillars with his claws, and continued towards Althea.
"Hmm?!"
He looked down at the ground as he sprinted, noticing a few cracks appearing before him.
Knowing exactly what was coming, Rex leaped in time.
More black pillars burst from the ground with brutal force, adding new angles of attack to an already— overwhelming barrage. Now, Rex was forced to guard against strikes from both sky and earth. It was a calculated attempt by the Immortal Slugs to drown his senses with danger.
But even so, the combination of the Law of Inevitability that allowed him to cut through the black pillars more easily, and also the Law of Misdirection that helped him mitigate direct attacks, was strong enough to handle the situation.
Rex was akin to a durable eel, hard to hit, and also extremely hard to hurt.
And in the next second, his eyes caught the main body of the Immortal Slugs that latched onto Althea.
Gritting his teeth, he leaned back and twisted his body to dodge an attack before dashing straight at it.
Charging the Law of Inevitability to his claws, he cuts the main body with one clean swing.
"ALTHEA! RUN OUT!"
Upon the initial hold from the Desolate Zone, the nobles were bound by the main body of the Immortal Slugs—restraints far tougher to sever and draining their energy faster—than the black pillars. Now that Althea was free of it, she could finally escape the zone and reach safety.
And since the Immortal Slugs were occupied with attacking Rex, the road to escape was completely free.
It was her golden chance to escape.
Being drained by the Immortal Slugs left her exhausted and weak, but she still forced herself to stand.
Around her, the other nobles were struggling against the barrage despite the help from Marquess Darius and the other Marquess. So, despite her current condition, she knew that she was lucky to be helped this much to escape.
"HEY!" Rex roared amidst the battle, glaring at the nearby soldiers. "STAY AWAY FROM HER!"
Althea was free, but the soldiers were still under attack.
Some managed to get too close to Althea, and that would place her in danger.
Rex couldn’t allow that.
Realizing that they were swept near Althea, the soldiers, all bloodied and bruised, moved away.
Just then, Rex looked down in horror when he felt something wrapped around his ankle.
He looked down and saw one of the black pillars had managed to catch him—it slipped past his defenses in the instant his focus was stolen momentarily by Althea. And a heartbeat later, Rex could feel and see the world lurch into a blur.
Excitedly, the black pillar dragged him across the sky and slammed him hard into the ground.
BOOM!
Cracks spread upon impact as blood forced out of Rex’s mouth.
Every part of his body screamed in pain.
It felt like his insides were being scrambled forcefully.
Rex blinked and saw some black pillars heading straight at the limping Althea.
He wanted to stand up again, but the Immortal Slugs gave him no chance.
Once again, he was pulled by his ankle, hurled skyward like a rag doll, and slammed back down hard.
BOOM!
On this second slam, his mind buzzed out of reality for a good moment.
Upon returning back, he heard a voice.
’Is this it...?’
Rex looked ahead and saw his mother standing a few paces away, looking at him with pity and sadness.
But what was stark in her eyes was disappointment.
’Are you going to fail again?’
"M-Mom..."
’Are you going to let them die like you did to me?’
Deg!
Rex’s heart pounded inside.
His lips moved to answer, but no voice came out.
But inside his mind, he answered the question firmly.
Nothing is going to stop him from protecting the others. Nothing.
"Heukh...?" Althea’s breath was caught when she saw the black pillars were a few meters away from her the moment she glanced over her shoulder.
She closed her eyes in fear, expecting to be impaled.
However, the pain never came—and she could feel a presence before her.
Slowly, she opened her eyes and sucked in a cold breath to see Rex’s broad back right before her.
"You... Why are you going this far?"