How To Survive A Calamity-Chapter 165: Dragon Slaying [1]

"Huh? What's all this?"

I stumbled to me feet and looked past the swath of dust that was scattered all over.

"Cough! Where are we?" I heard Deandra's raspy voice from behind me.

"I'm not sure."

A few minutes ago, Deandra and i had been anxiously rushing through the halls of the Labyrinth because of me. I felt the pressure of the sudden quest linger uneasily over my head, so i was kind of edge.

But even after all that was said, the initial problem still remained.

Just how was i supposed to find Alexander in the damned god forsaken place.

I knew running around aimlessly would solve nothing, but i really didn't have a better choice.

Ah... well in any case we were running through the halls when it suddenly shook greatly like an earthquake was happening.

And then, the ground actually tore open underneath us.

Everything shattered below our feet and crumbled, dragging us down along with it all of a sudden.

It all happened so quickly and out of nowhere.

One minute we had been fruitlessly through the archaic passageway of Dark Castle, and the next thing, we were free falling with a rain of boulders against our heads.

It was a pretty nasty fall, too.

'Well we survived it...'

And, somehow, that's how we ended up... here.

'Where is here though?' having this natural thought, i sought to look around.

There were massive piles of rocks and boulders, even broken and shattered pieces of columns, scattered all over the place. They stood tall, erect, and imposingly like monoliths

The entire place was in shambles, and no semblance of order could be found.

'Hmm?'

There were even traces of what resembled a battle.

Just where was this?

"Just... How far did we fall?" Deandra muttered from behind, overlooking the vast expanse filled with nothing but boulders and rocks as fas as the eyes could see.

Next to her, Don's unconscious figure was laying against the surface.

I glanced at him briefly, and my eyes twitched with annoyance.

Don, that bastard, had actually still managed to stay asleep even after everything that happened since before!

"I don't know but..." I muttered and shifted on my feet.

It was the moment i did that, i realised something.

The surface i stood on...

It just moved didn't it?

As soon as i had that thought, the ground suddenly surged and my instincts were immediately put on alert as Danger Sense was suddenly activated.

The hairs at the back of my neck stood on end

"Move!"

I leaned backwards and leaped towards Deandra abd Don, trying to get them out of the way, when the ground suddenly surged unnaturally beneath us, and rose.

As a result we were thrown off to the side and barely made it in time to avoid whatever it was that was happening.

Well, i would soon be finding out anyway.

"What the?" The moment i raised my head and looked back at where we were less than a second ago, a massive, familiar, monstrosity caught my sight and made my eyes widened incomparably.

"No..."

I had to curse my luck; i hated it...so much.

"Victor! Quickly, over here, you guys!"

While i was cursing at the unfairness of my luck, i heard an unexpected voice suddenly call out to me from behind and turned.

'What...'

There was an unfamiliar boy with blonde hair and narrow yellow eyes gesturing at Deandra and i from behind a falling debri. The strange boy —who i assumed was also a Cadet, judging from his uniform, albeit torn and tattered— was partially hiding behind a boulder with an urgent and grim expression.

And then behind him, a different head casually poked out and gazed at us dryly.

'Huh? Ceres?!'

-Boom!

"Shit! Uh, Class rep, move. Now!"

The longer i wasted in place, the more the massive Creature of the Sand Worm behind us stirred awake.

I quickly turned to Deandra and urged the red haired as she nodded back at me in a tacit understanding.

The Sand Worm hasn't noticed us yet...i silently thought, and this time, i held on to Don's unconscious body as Deandra abd I sprinted as fast as we could towards where Ceres and the unfamiliar boy was.

I was confused...i had questions — lots of them at this moment — but it was clear i had to survive first.

'Danger Sense isn't reacting to them, either.'

Of course, even in such a tight and pensive case, the unexpected appearance of two cadets, including Ceres herself, could as well be some kind of trap.

Or perhaps, maybe they were also having their minds and emotions under control like Don had been before and the others...

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But somehow, that felt unlikely this time around.

At least they weren't lunging at us with bloodlust and murderous intent glowing in their eyes. Although the sight of Ceres made me instinctually shiver for some reason.

"Ah, Miss. Deandra, it's a pleasure to see you like this—"

"What's going on?" Deandra immediately snapped before the blonde boy could continue.

His smile strained a little and he glanced between the two of us strangely — Deandra and i.

At the same time, i glanced suspiciously back at him?

Actually, now that i think about it—

"How do you know my name?"

"This isn't the time for this."

The one who coldly inserted was Ceres.

She stood tall over us who were lowered to the ground.

All five of us took temporary shelter behind the shadow of a massive piece of rock that served as a kind of wall.

Beyond the piece of boulder, we could hear the loud sounds of crashes ad the massive monstrosity beyond stirred, affirming Ceres' words just now.

—This really isn't the time for this.

"Xavier, we need you two to explain the situation us." Deandra's voice layered cooly as she said this, shifting her cold red eyes towards the blonde boy called Xavier.

The tone she used as she referred to him...

It seemed like they knew each other?

But what was up with this slight tension i was feeling bouncing between them? There was a layered edge to her voice when she spoke to him, and Deandra's bearing towards the stalwart Ceres seemed...odd.

Who even was Xavier anyway?

'Am i imaging things?'

Perhaps the whole situation was just getting to me...

— Regardless, i shrugged the thought out of my mind and listened closely to what Xavier was about to say.

He held on to his shoulder that seemed injured and tried to force a leisure smile that came out awfully and sinisterly with his narrow eyes.

"Haha. Well, there's not much to say, fortunately or unfortunately, as you can see. This is exactly the situation we happen to find ourselves in, and now we're trying to survive." Xavier shrugged.

I regarded Xavier's words, feeling more than just slightly uncomfortable as i peeked a glance beyond the boulder we hid behind.

"You're saying, we just so happened to end up running into the most notorious creature in the desert — which was also transported here — wherever here is...?"

I nodded sarcastically.

"That makes total sense."

Then shooting Xavier and Ceres one more look, i had one more question—

"So why aren't we trying to run yet?"

That was the Sand Dragon, the king of the Desert, i still didn't think we could win against that monster yet.

Plus, i don't think this is the right time for this.

There was already so much to do than go against an ancient monster that was part descent of a dragon.

We still had to first of all survive and get out of Dark Castle, or at least discover just were exactly this is. There's also the strange influence of the cadets loosing their mimds... And finally —

I still had that urgent quest to attend to.

Fitting in one more item to my list of things to do — fighting and winning against an ancient monster — would make my schedule explode.

"We can't afford to run. We have to ensure we kill the Sand Dragon here and now." Ceres, gripping her sword, responded resolutely. Completely going against my private reasoning in the process.

Her words made absolutely no sense to me, and her glowing red eyes were like a crimson lake.

"What...?" I blinked.

Why...?

Why couldn't we just run?

Why not?

As if my obvious expression seemed to reflect my inner thoughts Xavier added with a dreary sigh at that point. His narrow eyes widened only slightly, giving sight to his pale yellow pupils underneath his eyelids.

"We have to take down the Sand Dragon here and now, if we don't then there's a possibility it could be summoned again. Or even go after Alexander and the others, if we run."

Xavier's words sparked something inside of me all of a sudden.

"Wait, what did you just say?" I jerked my head towards him.

Xavier met my gaze and sighed again.

"I haven't been completely honest, since we're running on little time, but there's actually a lot to say."

As Xavier took in a breath to continue after a short pause, i quickly reached out to his good shoulder and pulled him in instantly.

"No, not that!"

"Wh-what..?"

Xavier seemed deeply flustered by mu sudden actions and stuttered before my face.

I really couldn't care less about how comfortable he felt, though, and continued.

"The other thing you just said. You said Alex, right?"

"Huh?"

"Alexander Crossfield, right? Answer me!"

Xavier blinked, growing more restless in my grip and his brows furrowed.

Then he nodded slowly.

"Yes..."

This is—

At the same time—

===

•[Quest Alert!]

•[Type:- Survival]

»Name: Classless Messiah

»Description: Prevent Alexander Crossfield from dying.

»Duration: ...

•Reward:

»Location of a fragment of the God-Slaying Spear, Goliath.

»+1 Instant Rank-up (Mortal Rank --> Eta Rank)

»???

•Penalty:

»Death, ???

....

————End of Quest————

===

The quest screen flashed before my eyes as if on cue.

I glanced at the transluscent holographic platform only i could see and refocused my gaze back on Xavier, deeply.

My breath hitched and my voice deepened as i could almost hear my heart beat heavily inside my head.

"Tell me where he is."

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[A/N]: Sorry for the lack of updates more recently, I'm having exams for the rest of this month amd so I've been stuck spending all nighters in school. But we'll be getting back on track soon, so I hope you manage this one little chapter.