The Slayer Ascension: Cursed and Blessed.-Chapter 50: From One Nightmare To Another

Chapter 52

Blaze nodded at Gazel’s words.

Gazel did not hold back anymore.

He punched forward with everything he had. The fist collided with a towering tree, and right before Blaze’s eyes, the trunk crumpled inward. It bent, warped, then snapped backward before crashing to the ground with a deafening boom.

Blaze blinked, stunned.

At first, he had suspected it, but it still made no sense. How could someone who had not even become a Shural yet possess such strength. It was absurd.

Perhaps it was the white haired azura.

An azura that could boost raw power to such a level had to be terrifying.

He did not dwell on it. Blaze turned back to his own task and continued burning his side of the forest.

Fire erupted. Trees burned. Explosions echoed. Then came even larger booms as Gazel smashed through trunks without holding anything back.

If they were going to get out of here, then destroying the entire forest was their only bet.

Gazel was not reckless. He would never have joined Blaze in this madness if he had not noticed something earlier.

Back when Blaze was still brutally burning down trees, Gazel, with his heightened senses, caught it.

A change.

It was faint. Almost unnoticeable. But the air grew heavier. Stiffer. The sky itself seemed to split for a brief moment before stitching itself back together.

That single moment was enough.

It meant Blaze’s plan might actually work.

So they kept going.

The attacks continued. Fire and force tearing through the forest. Yet apart from those small changes in the surroundings, nothing truly changed. Nothing obvious.

The sky would part occasionally. Sometimes violently. Other times so slowly it was nearly invisible. But no matter how it split, it always closed again. The forest around them, which felt like it was on the verge of breaking, would return to normal as if nothing had happened.

Hope began to fade.

Blaze felt his body overheating. His azura was reaching its limit. Without a Radiance Core to act as a conduit, his body could only endure so much.

He was burning up.

Soon, he would not even be able to lift his hand. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Before that happened, they had to escape.

At the very peak of his endurance, Blaze gathered every remaining shred of fire energy into his hand and hurled it forward. The blast tore through multiple trees in a single line, reducing them to ruin.

Then the heat won.

Blaze collapsed, hitting the ground with a dull thud. His body burned fiercely as he shut his eyes, forcing himself to recover.

That left only Gazel.

Gazel continued attacking, fists slamming into trees again and again. For a moment, he was tempted to transform into his demon form.

But it was too risky.

He did not fully control it yet. And the bloodlust that came with that form was overwhelming. He might not be able to stop himself.

He might kill Blaze.

So Gazel abandoned the thought and focused on one thing.

Destroying the forest.

The bangs and crashes did not stop.

Trees tumbled. Trunks split. One after another, they fell as the destruction continued. Wood cracked. The ground shook.

Then the last tree collapsed.

Gazel dropped to his knees, chest rising and falling like he had just run a marathon. The truth was simple. He had spent far more energy than he usually used.

Drowsiness crept in.

His body tilted forward.

Just before his head hit the ground, the terrain shifted.

Instead of leaves, his face pressed into something soft and loose.

Sand.

Gazel frowned in his sleep, muttering under his breath.

"Hot..."

-------

Several hours later, his eyes finally opened.

What greeted him was not the forest.

It was a wasteland.

No, a desert.

Endless dunes stretched out as far as his eyes could see. Miles upon miles of nothing but sand and heat. Gazel froze.

From a forest to a desert.

This made no sense.

Heat crawled over his body like a living thing. He tried to stand, but weakness slammed into him, forcing a groan from his throat. The heat only made it worse.

He sat back down and tried to circulate his dark essence, hoping to suppress the exhaustion. But it was useless. He could only manipulate it properly in his demonic form, and he was not in that state now.

After a while, he gave up.

"Damn it," he muttered. "Where is this place."

Then his eyes widened.

Wait.

Where is that fool.

Gazel scanned the horizon for the red haired idiot.

As if to prove he was not a complete bastard, Blaze appeared in the distance. His steps were steady, but his face was heavy with exhaustion and frustration as he approached.

Before Gazel could ask anything, Blaze sighed deeply.

"I think we’re going to die in this place."

Gazel almost choked on the words he was about to say.

Where did that never give up spirit go.

As if hearing his thoughts, Blaze sighed again and sat down beside him. Then he explained.

He had been walking through the desert for two days.

Two days.

That meant Gazel had been unconscious for over forty eight hours. The energy he spent ripping trees apart had been enough to knock him out completely.

After everything they endured, they had simply traded one nightmare for another.

Blaze had run. He had sprinted using his azura. As far as he could tell, there was no end to the desert. No matter how far he went, the horizon never changed.

The situation was bad.

Really bad.

"Take this."

Blaze handed him a clean bottle of water.

Gazel took it and drank like a starving wolf. In less than a minute, the bottle was empty. It eased his thirst, but not nearly enough.

He raised his hand calmly.

"What about food," he asked, keeping his expression neutral. "Give me some."

Blaze stared at the hand for a long moment, then shook his head.

"Sorry. I don’t have any food."

"Are you sure," Gazel said, giving him a sideways glance.

Blaze looked away. From his expression alone, it was obvious he was lying.

"I told you I don’t have an..."

His words died in his mouth.

Gazel suddenly clutched his stomach, his face twisting in pain as hunger crashed down on him.

To be continued.