Chapter 128: Employment (Part Two)

Watching the blood-red, eye-searing flames surge toward him like a tidal wave, Garret showed not the slightest intention of retreating or dodging. Instead, he took a step forward. A bestial, roaring howl erupted from his mangled, gruesome face, and a ring of pitch-black mist rapidly spread across his body. It converged with lightning speed onto the five black fangs protruding from his back, manifesting into tangible, solidified energy. This transformation caused the five fangs to expand several times over in an instant. Nearly three meters long, the massive fangs churned behind him like giant petals, shielding him within.

At that very moment, Peipero’s fiery onslaught struck. From a distance, the raging inferno rose up like a gargantuan wave, seemingly intent on consuming everything in its path, instantly engulfing Garret completely.

"Boom!"

The cascading waves of fire crashed down like a tide, striking the ground with a heavy, dull thud. The blaze emitted unbearable, rolling heat, devouring everything in the vicinity and turning the surrounding area into a sea of fire in the blink of an eye. The scorching temperature even caused the air to shimmer and distort. Within this sea of flames, everything was instantly devoured and reduced to ash.

"How is it!?"

Loding shouted from the side. Although Peipero’s attack had landed squarely on Garret, he did not lower his guard. The intense heat singed his hair, and his skin turned red and stung under the sweltering waves of heat, but he paid no heed. He kept his eyes locked on the sea of fire, refusing to look away for even a second.

On the other side, Peipero was equally tense, watching the churning flames. Before Garret had been consumed by her fire, she had felt there was something strange about those ghastly fangs. The black light emanating from them had made her feel deeply uneasy, and she sensed a faint, lingering aura of danger.

*No, that bastard must be up to something!*

Peipero’s heart tightened. Just as she intended to retract her flames, the ground beneath them shuddered violently, and in an instant, the entire earth began to quake as if gripped by a massive earthquake.

"Crack!"

The ground began to splinter. Eerie fissures spider-webbed across the earth, trees collapsed with thunderous crashes, and debris flew wildly. Within moments, the land began to cave in, revealing gaping, bottomless chasms that threatened to swallow anyone who made a careless step.

Garret had vanished completely. Facing this situation, Peipero bit her lip hard. With a wave of her arm, the spreading flames reacted, rapidly gathering toward her. The fire was scorching, yet the moment Peipero touched it, the flames instantly disintegrated into tiny, glowing red embers that drifted in the air like fireflies.

Using a dense cloud of floating sparks to sense danger from all directions and prevent ambushes was a trick that had never failed Peipero. Yet today, no matter how she scanned the area, she could not find a trace of Garret.

"How is this possible? There's no way that guy could have gotten far!"

Peipero frowned slightly and expanded her field of sparks, but the result remained the same. A sense of indescribable crisis rose in her heart. At that very moment, the ground beneath her feet jolted, and two pitch-black fangs erupted from the earth!

"Damn it! He was hiding underground!"

Peipero screamed, her body instinctively leaping backward. But to her dismay, Garret had gone to such lengths to hide underground for this exact moment; how could he let her escape so easily? With a muffled "thud," two more fangs burst from the soil, cutting off her retreat. The four giant fangs, each over three meters long, were not only razor-sharp but covered in disgusting, coarse hair and slick with a toxic, saliva-like substance. A mere scratch would be fatal.

Peipero was still airborne, with no surface to push off from to dodge. By all accounts, she should have been caught by the four massive fangs. Yet, in that split second, she folded her body, drawing her knees tight against her abdomen. Taking a deep breath, she performed a contortion so unnatural that perhaps only her uniquely supple body could achieve it. This inconceivable movement shifted her trajectory just enough to graze past the sharp fangs, narrowly avoiding Garret’s sudden, vicious strike.

Spinning, landing, turning—Peipero moved with desperate haste to shake off the subterranean threat. She grit her teeth against the sharp pain of her previous wounds tearing open, channeling the last of her soul power into her legs. She crouched, ready to bolt from the zone where Garret could strike at will, but at that moment, the final fang burst from the earth. Garret’s mangled, hideous face appeared, and he let out a frantic roar. The pitch-black fang transformed into a beam of dark light in mid-air, hurtling directly toward her.

Seeing the beam of light rushing toward her, she had no time to dodge, nor even to mount a basic defense. The black fang was already upon her. For the first time in her life, Peipero felt the proximity of death.

"It's too late!"

No matter how fierce she appeared on the outside, she was still just a young girl at heart. In that final moment of near-despair, her mind went blank, and she instinctively squeezed her eyes shut.

One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.

It felt like a long time had passed, yet Peipero felt none of the pain she had anticipated. Every sound around her seemed to have ceased. A flicker of confusion stirred in her heart; her long eyelashes trembled, and she cautiously opened one eye, only to see a young man with long, water-blue hair standing directly before her.