Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

Chapter 402: Desperate Measures

Spacewind soared through the tunnels. His hand shot out, shaped as a claw, and directly tore apart Uruselam’s space restraints. Space shattered around him, moving him miles ahead. The wind carried him through the crack like a second teleportation.

In this line-up, he was confident he was the fastest, so he would eventually close in. But would he make it in time?

Damn it all! he cried in his mind. How did this happen? I only stepped away for a few seconds!

It didn’t take a genius to realize this wasn’t a coincidence. Uruselam must have come up with the method to solve the cube and waited for Spacewind to step away. That was the only scenario that made sense.

A monk has an advantage when it comes to the Life Dao! Spacewind thought, gritting his teeth. I should have fought him to the death. If he escapes, I get nothing!

Thinking to that point, he accelerated further, pushing his speed to the very limit. Space shattered again behind him, and the sonic booms pushed against him, shooting him forward.

Miles of tunnels disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Finally, a white-browed monk entered Spacewind’s perception range. His white robes fluttered with no semblance of grace, and he was running as quickly as he could, but there was no way he could match Spacewind.

“Break!” Spacewind shouted, slashing out with his sword. Space itself formed a blade that shot forward.

Uruselam slammed his palm into the floor. A pale white wall rose behind him, sealing off the entire tunnel. Runes swam on its surface, and faint hymns resounded through the air. Behind his new wall, Uruselam resumed running.

But how could such a hasty defense stand up to Spacewind? Space itself smashed into the wall, shaking it from end to end, and the wind forcefully tore it apart. At this critical juncture, Spacewind hadn’t hesitated to invest some of his world essence in the attack. That was the essence of his inner world—it could enhance his power, but every B-Grade cultivator only had a finite amount of world essence, and it was very difficult to restore. If Spacewind failed here, he would have suffered a heavy loss.

“Stop right there!” he yelled, shooting through the tunnels. Uruselam could not escape this strike. He turned and smashed a palm into Spacewind’s slash, enduring the heavy injury to use the momentum and shoot himself deeper into the tunnels.

Spacewind roared as he followed. Far behind them, the other B-Grades were covering ground as quickly as they could, each faction guarding against the other.

They had expected a bloodbath when they entered this realm. Now, it seemed that moment was not too far away.

***

Uruselam had approached a teleporter. Only a few more miles were left to go. However, escaping Spacewind was no longer possible.

Wind rose to block the monk’s path. Space turned into saws, grinding into Uruselam’s body and trying to tear him to pieces. Under this pressure that could instantly eradicate a mountain ridge, the monk shouted out loud. “Diamond Body!”

A brilliant white glow appeared. As the saws of space ground against him, he barely resisted them. “Palm of Immortality!” Uruselam shouted again. His white brows were fluttering wildly, as were his robes, and he no longer resembled a serene monk but a crazed martial artist. He smashed a palm into space, shattering the saws. The energy of this palm carried on, striking the incoming space slash and causing both attacks to disintegrate.

“You cannot escape!” Spacewind roared out, flying at Uruselam like a shooting star.

“Genesis!” Uruselam madly shouted.

Two extreme forces collided. The tunnel washed away, the tempered stone barely withstanding the impact. Space crumbled for miles around them. Gravity lost its grip, and the flow of time turned chaotic. The two B-Grades clashed a dozen times in a thousandth of an instant.

“Let’s split it, Spacewind!” Uruselam shouted mid-battle, realizing he could no longer escape. “If we fight here, we will both die!”

“You despicable little monk, as if I would believe you!” Spacewind roared back. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!”

“What? I never fooled you!”

“Do you think I am an idiot? You had the solution and waited for me to step away so you could take the treasure for yourself! We had a deal!”

The two were still fighting, but they were speaking with telepathy. This entire conversation happened near-instantly.

“I did not solve the cube!” Uruselam cried out. “I don’t know who did it!”

“As if I’d—”

“It is the truth!” Uruselam cried out, striking out with a strong palm that sent them both flying backward. He was not an idiot. Now that he was no longer running for his life, he was beginning to realize that this was suspicious. Of everyone present, he had the highest attainments in the Dao of Life, and he wasn’t even halfway to the solution. There shouldn’t be anybody capable of solving it!

Moreover, the cube was solved right as Spacewind had walked away. That was no coincidence. Whoever did this had planned everything out. Perhaps even this entire chase was part of their plan.

And, as Uruselam’s mind traveled in that direction, he suddenly realized that whoever solved one cube could probably solve the others as well. They wanted all the other treasures for themselves. That was the reason.

Uruselam felt sick. “We have been tricked, Spacewind!” he roared. “I did not solve the cube, I swear on the Immortals!”

His voice reverberated across the walls. Spacewind narrowed his eyes, not attacking for a second. If Uruselam made such a heavy vow, he was probably telling the truth. In that case…

If Uruselam could think all those things, so could Spacewind. His eyes widened. “We’ve been tricked!” he shouted out loud. “Who? Who was it!?”

“We must run back!” Uruselam added. There were no eternal enemies, only eternal benefits. These two people who had been killing each other just a moment ago were now allied.

Uruselam reached into his space ring and retrieved the magic bean, then directly broke it in two and tossed one half to Uruselam. Only like this could the two trust each other.

“Someone must have seen those lines before and tried to trick us, but we are still the strongest people present,” Uruselam spoke quickly. “We must run back. We can catch them in the act!”

“Whoever is missing is the traitor,” Spacewind growled, his dark hair floating wildly. He knew that the rest of the B-Grades were following them—they had almost caught up by now. His aura swept out, covering them all, and then his brows rose. “Everyone is here,” he said. “Then who—”

He froze. The answer came to him. “The C-Grades!”

“After them!” Uruselam roared, mad with fury. Getting tricked by a fellow B-Grade would be unfortunate, but it was something he could stomach. If he was tricked by a mere C-Grade, this would be the greatest embarrassment of his life.

The two of them shot out. Telepathic messages rang out, and all other B-Grades were instantly in the know. All nine of them rushed back at their highest speed, but two people were fastest: Spacewind and Uruselam.

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And, of the two, Spacewind was even faster! Hatred burned in his heart. Of the three C-Grades left behind, the monkey could be ignored. Then, if Min Ling was the one to trick them all, he could just barely accept it.

But, if it was Jack Rust…

His eyes were shimmering. The wind around him howled, chipping away at the enhanced walls. Space shrunk below his feet and the tunnels zoomed past.

Jack Rust had already made advances on the woman Spacewind desired. He had challenged him to his face. If he now managed to trick them all and escape with the treasures under everyone’s nose, Spacewind would never be able to live with this insult. He had to catch them.

More world essence seeped out of his body. It was a heavy price, but he had no time to care for such things. He accelerated further, turning into a dark star that charged far ahead of the other B-Grades. At this moment, Spacewind was using every single technique he knew to go even faster.

No matter what, he had to make it in time!

***

Jack grabbed the wooden key and stashed it into his space ring, instantly shooting out. Min Ling was close behind him, carrying Brock under her arm—she was the fastest and strongest present, so her speed while carrying Brock was similar to Jack’s.

“Faster, faster!” Jack shouted. “We must make it!”

They shot through the open double doors, burning through the medicine garden like twin comets.

“We’re almost there!” Min Ling cried out.

“Too late!” Brock shouted, snapping his eyes open. He had been scouting ahead all this time, watching for sings of the approaching B-Grades. “They’re coming.”

Jack and Min Ling skidded to an instant halt. They looked at each other with horror. The B-Grades were coming…

“Damn it!” Min Ling said. “We should have more time! How did they figure it out so quickly? Did Uruselam escape?”

If only they had a few more seconds, they could have escaped. However, the reason didn’t matter, only the consequences.

It was too late to feign ignorance. The cubes were all solved. The treasures were in their grasp. If they kept running, the B-Grades would easily catch up and capture them, and then who knows how they’d get revenge.

This had all been a calculated risk…but, sometimes, calculated risks didn’t work out.

“What do we do now?” Min Ling asked.

“We can surrender,” Jack replied. “Maybe then they’ll—”

“JACK RUST!” A voice echoed from the tunnels, riding the wind even faster than the B-Grades themselves. “I WILL TEAR YOU TO FUCKING PIECES!”

They glanced at each other. “Well, there goes my surrender,” Jack said. “There is only one path we can take…but it is the most dangerous one. Brock and I must go. Will you follow us?”

Min Ling didn’t consider it at all. Her beautiful eyes met Jack’s and she said, “Spacewind will not let me off either. If I’m going to lose everything, I might as well risk it. Let’s go.”

The path they were referring to was the hole at the far end of the cube cavern. It exuded such a potent aura and such powerful gravity that nobody had dared enter it yet—any experienced dungeon delver saw it as almost certain death. Even if Jack felt something faintly resonating with the Life Drop from its depths, it remained extremely dangerous. Even he wouldn’t willingly enter.

Yet, what choice did he have?

Their conversation had been made telepathically and lasted a single instant. They were still skidding to a stop. As one, they pushed against the ground and flew backward. The medicine garden around them, ruined by Spacewind’s previous attacks, warned of their future should they be caught.

Two lines shot through the cavern, one red and one purple. A golden trail was left behind them both—that was Brock, who was currently setting up barriers to slow down Spacewind.

Right as they set foot between the huge double doors that separated the two caverns, a dark light shot out of the tunnels. It was a man clad in black with wildly floating hair. His gaze was furious—and, as it set on them, it promised nothing but a violent death.

“STOP!” he roared, charging at full speed.

“No, you stop!” Brock shouted back. They weren’t idiots; they kept running.

Their distance from the hole was only a fraction of what Spacewind had to cover to catch them. However, he was far faster. They couldn’t even compare to a normal low B-Grade in speed, let alone him.

“Go!” Jack shouted. He overdrew his powers, stomping on the ground while releasing miniature Meteor Punches from his feet. His shoes had disintegrated, letting his bare feet crash against the stone, and the entire cavern reverberated from the impacts. Beside him, Min Ling changed her aura into cyan, that of lightning.

Both were spending their energy as quickly as possible to achieve the highest maximum speed. The hole was only half a mile ahead of them. They had to reach it, or they would die.

That distance was nothing to them, but it was even less to Spacewind. The gap was evaporating. He roared, flying so quickly that his body narrowed and elongated. He was like an arrow flying behind them—impossible to outrun.

“Damn it!” Jack roared. He turned, shouted, and smashed out a punch into the void.

Light disappeared. So did sound, space, and even time. The entire world was sucked into his fist, forming the beginnings of a singularity, then exploded with enough force to illuminate the entire cavern.

“SUPERNOVA!”

Supersonic flames shot out in every direction. Part of the impact rushed at Spacewind, but he passed right through it. An attack of this level couldn’t touch him.

But that wasn’t Jack’s goal to begin with. The explosion struck him hard, sending him flying forward at a speed vastly eclipsing his previous one. Min Ling and Brock were caught in the shockwave as well, following him as he headed directly for the hole. They were almost there.

But Spacewind was approaching. At their current speed, they would barely have time to enter the hole before he caught up—but he didn’t need to reach them to attack.

“If you won’t stop, then die!” he roared. His sword slashed out. His body decelerated, but all that momentum was absorbed by his sword slash, which flew forward at speeds Spacewind himself could never achieve. It reached them almost instantly. There was no way they could enter the hole in time. The attack would strike them.

An ugly smile adorned Spacewind’s lips. He desired Min Ling…but, if she was going to choose another man, she might as well die. He could find more women.

A terribly black sword slash fell on the three of them. Space constricted, limiting their movement. They could not teleport away, nor could they dodge. They had to face the attack head-on.

This was a strike made by an exceptional early B-Grade, someone at the top of that realm. The aura it carried was striking. Before it, they were small—insufficient.

In that critical moment, all three of them realized they had to block or die. They shouted out at the same time. All sorts of energies gathered around them, galvanized by their Daos.

Min Ling’s spear was covered in lightningfire, a shower of red sparks so massive that it doubled her spear’s length. She directly flung it out, aimed at the incoming sword slash.

Brock raised the Bro Code, which shone golden. He tore off a page. Instantly, his face paled and blood trickled out of all his orifices, but he decisively crumpled up the page and burned it. Golden flames enveloped the space around them, forming into a massive golden brorilla that extended a palm to block the slash.

Jack punched out. Though one of his arms had already disintegrated from the last supernova, he still had another three. This attack wasn’t something he could control. Only the Life Drop’s regenerative properties made it possible. Thankfully, as long as it was just his arms disintegrating, he could heal it without the turtle’s active assistance.

The world was sucked inside his punch, then violently exploded.

All three of them used their all-out attacks, aiming them at the sword slash.

“Judgment of the Fire God!”

“Big Bro Aegis!”

“Supernova!”

The world exploded. Spacetime shattered. Even the enhanced walls cracked, chips of stone flying everywhere.

Spacewind’s slash was too overbearing. It met the tip of Min Ling’s spear, pausing for only a second before shattering her strike and flinging the spear away. It then cut into the golden brorilla’s palm, slicing right through it, his arm, and his body. The golden brorilla was cleaved in two, but the slash wasn’t unharmed. It was flickering, a good part of its energy spent.

Finally, a supernova erupted on the slash point. It shook. The flames and shockwaves ground away at it, imbued with the Dao of the Fist which refused to yield.

As the slash broke through, it had been weakened to only a fraction of its original strength. Jack stepped forth to take it. It cut right into his chest, but his enhanced body wasn’t easy to penetrate. The slash carried on until it struck his ribcage, where it finally dissipated, leaving him with nothing but medium injuries.

Spacewind was askance. The other B-Grades, who had just entered the medicine garden, widened their eyes like saucers.

They blocked it!?

Three C-Grades blocking one of Spacewind’s attacks… Even if it was not made at full strength, and even if he spent part of his power to lock the space around them, it remained something they shouldn’t be able to match.

Min Ling’s attack in particular had approached the standard of a weak B-Grade.

Just what was going on!?

But there was no time to think. As the slash dissipated against Jack’s chest, it shot him backward with incredible momentum, sweeping Min Ling and Brock alongside him. The three flew into the hole like missiles. Min Ling’s spear, which she’d shot out before, was also pulled into the hole by the strong gravity.

“No!” Spacewind roared, arriving at its lip just a moment later. He slashed out again, but the aura rising from the hole weakened his strike so much that it dissipated by itself just a few hundred feet away. It never reached them.

Jack, Brock, and Min Ling disappeared inside the hole. As for Spacewind, he was left right above, steaming in frustration but not daring to enter himself. Jack Rust had tricked him, taken the treasures and woman that belonged to him, and then even blocked his strike. At this moment, Spacewind was so filled with hatred and unwillingness that he thought his heart would blow up. He’d even spent some of his world essence to catch up, harming his own cultivation!

He had never felt so useless.

“FUCK!” he shouted with all the power in his lungs.