A cold breeze brushed against Oliver’s face as he made his way to the edge of the city. The clear skies were being covered in clusters of dark clouds. Along with it, he could see distant flashes of light.
’It may rain today.’
The thundercloud was moving towards the direction of the gate.
’Did the mana wave trigger a weather phenonon?’ Oliver asked himself.
There were incidents when the abrupt rush of mana changed the weather. But for that, the gate has to be a high-ranked one, possibly a B rank or greater.
"Bzz."
Suddenly, the wireless earpiece secured tightly to his left ear buzzed. Finally, it connected to the Hero Union Radio.
"Hello, everyone. We’re live with a special broadcast following the gate incident. Our aim here is to provide you with helpful information and support during this ti."
The voice of a young woman spoke clearly in Oliver’s ears. Without wasting any ti, she began to speak about everything happening near the gate.
Soon, Oliver heard her ntioning that the first mana beast to appear through the gate was a Black Rat Snake, an F-rank creature known to inhabit forests and wetlands of second earth.
Imdiately, Oliver sighed in relief.
"Great! It’s not a gate to the otherworlds or one to the demon-controlled worlds."
He was relieved to hear the information.
His body swung faster over the city with excitent.
’Maybe our actions forced the demons to rush, creating a defective gate.’ Oliver noted in his mind.
The mont Oliver knew the demons were planning to open a gate with the void stones, he chased after them with Achara. Hence, demons must have rushed to infuse the void stones with mana. In the end, they must have failed to provide the mana needed to open an otherworldly gate or destroyed the void stone in a panic, creating a gate to Second Earth.
Either way, it was good news for Oliver.
Suddenly, the lady who was speaking went silent for a couple of seconds. Oliver heard her gasp audibly.
Then she continued to speak, albeit with a solemn tone.
"The gate rank was provided to just now." She paused.
Although Oliver could only hear her words, he could feel the tension.
"The rank of the gate is A ."
Her words felt heavy at the second.
"We expect at least one A-rank creature to co out of the gate. But... there could be more than one."
Oliver, who heard it, accepted it quickly.
A was not really a rank. The gate rank was A. The plus after it stands for there being more than one A-rank creature present in it.
"A ranks are troubleso foes," Oliver muttered.
A rank creature, didn’t matter if it was a monster, a mana beast, or a specter, was stronger than A rank human. In a frontal confrontation, it was a difficult foe to defeat. Only an S-ranker could quickly defeat them.
Luckily, this was Dragon City, with a permanent gate housing S-rank guilds and multiple S-rankers. Overall, it was not that serious of a situation if everyone worked together.
Everyone working together was the key point, though.
When their own interests matter, different people respond differently. So, would they work together?
It was the key question Oliver had in his mind.
He had seen how people fought internally for pesky reasons such as the right to explore gates and gather resources without considering the human cost attached to it. It happened more often than he expected. It was also one of the reasons why he lost his trust in humanity.
After all, he knew what would happen to the world if humanity were left on its own, in the coming decade or two.
*Pfuuu*
Oliver breathed out as he swung his arm to launch blood tentacles to latch onto a nearby building.
A short while later, he concluded.
In the end, it didn’t matter to Oliver what others thought or did. He never expected help at all. He was the kind that ended the fight he started, all alone if he must.
Even if the entire world ran away from this fight, Oliver would fight until the end, making sure all his enemies were buried six feet under. He would protect what is dear to him at all costs.
It didn’t matter to him what role he had to play or what mask he had to wear. To achieve his goal, he will beco what he must. Be it a villain or a hero.
While Oliver was thinking, the lady on the radio continued to speak:
"...The number of the rat snakes had reached a staggering hundred thousand. They are moving through the sewer tunnels as we speak...Two chs from the military are being deployed...The gate is surrounded by Heroes, Army, and Hunters."
The lady continued to speak without stopping. Her clear yet short description of the situation helped Oliver build a ntal image of the situation.
*Thuck*
His body fell onto the roof of a nearby building. The blood tentacles he released were like a spring, cushioning his fall and imdiately propelling him towards the next.
He was moving fast. But it ca at the price of losing hundreds of liters of blood.
Oliver was unable to retrieve all the blood perfectly because of his fast movent. He was leaving a thin patch of blood anyti he touched a floor, wall, or fence on the building as he made his way to the gate.
For Oliver, who spent a considerable amount in the battle just a few minutes ago, the loss of blood was not thrilling.
Still, he used much more than necessary, knowing that the battle that was about to ensue would fill him up soon, maybe even help him grow stronger.
Currently, the blood sac limit is about 10,000 liters. About 7000 liters was the amount he had before the battle with the Demon Monkey, the Poison Baboon. He expended over 4000 liters in that short fight to gain any advantage he could, finally dragging the monkey to the whirlpool of sewer water to suffocate and kill it. So, he was left with about 3000 liters.
A considerably lower number since his max was 10,000 liters.
Fortunately, he was prepared to revive, spending days filling up the freezer in Grizzly’s bar.
If not, it would have caused him to spend all the blood left in his blood sac to revive as quickly as he did.
For once, his anxiety and paranoia helped him. Being prepared for all the situations was exhausting, but it proved to be the right choice.
Now, Oliver was using the three thousand liters of blood left in his blood sac to accelerate his body through the sky, jumping, swinging, and hopping across the building.
Oliver closed on the location quickly. With each passing second, he saw a thick crowd of people moving away from the inner city, abandoning their cars because of the traffic jams.
So of the people were loudly yelling and screaming as the news of the gate break spread to them.
So of them quickly found their way out of the crowds, moving to safety faster than everyone.
Most of the people in the crowd were working n and won in their early twenties or thirties.
Still, he could see so elderly people and children in the crowd.
However, the people that caught Oliver’s eyes the quickest were the superhumans, leaping over the cars and onto the road, jumping across the patches of people nearby.
They were moving in the sa direction as Oliver, towards the gate.
Oliver was always amused seeing this.
’Maybe there is hope.’ He thought silently.
As he reached close to the gate, Oliver saw the superhumans helping the people nearby evacuate and maintain order.
Oliver nodded.
’There are people left with so humanity in them. It’s not a lost cause.’
Oliver gazed up at the sky and thought.
Below the dark sky, he saw a gentle giant floating. The familiar mighty airship, the Behemoth, was floating at a distance he could see.
Although thunder and lightning flickered across the clouds above, it ignored the sky and stared down at the ground.
’That’s where the gate is.’
The mont that thought crossed his mind, the earpiece he was wearing hissed. Then, the lady on the radio began to speak again.
This ti, she was vividly describing the situation of the gate.
Sothing else, sothing totally different from the rat snake, was coming out of the gate.
"...Dark blue scales. Giant beady eyes. Narrow oval head that was slightly flattened at the front. And an especially noticeable cerulean gem embedded right on top of the head..."
It was a mana beast that humanity had never seen before. Flaps of skin on either side of the head opened up like a cobra, revealing dark markings under it.
The beast was huge, more than ten ters wide, with its hood open. It was girthy and heavy.
Most importantly, it was opening its mouth and scooping up the rat snakes to eat, totally ignoring the chs and people around.
In a single gulp, it ate hundreds of snakes without batting an eyelid.
The mont Oliver heard about it on the radio, his eyes widened.
He had heard of sothing like that in the past.
The Cerulean Cobra.
An S-ranked mana beast that wrecked a city in the past.
’...But that was way larger. Almost big enough to be called a distant cousin of the Mountain King.’
’Is it the babies of the Cerulean Cobra?’
Oliver couldn’t co to a conclusion without seeing it personally.
’Ah, crap! This is about to get really difficult.’
Unlike the rest, Oliver knew the abilities of the Cerulean Cobra. So, he could predict the problems it was about to create.
’The chs are going to be useless.’
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