The Messenger of Death

-Zzzzz!!

Lightning started to gather on Xander's hands.

Xander brought his palms together and the sparking sound ceased to exist. He brought his palms apart and a second later they started to glow.

He proceeded to push his hands forward and circularly moved them, forming a pink circle in the air.

The pink circle made of lightning hovered in the air as Xander was waiting for the berserkers to come closer. He knew that the berserker that had arrived before the rest, planned to use its reinforcement as shields but what it didn't know was that Xander's attack was an area of effect kind of attack.

The berserker made sure to remain at the end of its reinforcement. This made Xander smile at it as it didn't know what he had in store for all of them.

-Whoosh!

Xander charges at the horde of berserkers that were approaching him, he and his pink circle that was made of lightning flashed and appeared just a few yards away from the berserkers. He suddenly pushed his palms forward and shot the pink circle at them.

-Zzzz!!

The pink circle expanded while it was traveling towards the berserkers.

-Boom!!!

It exploded immediately it came in contact with the berserkers in the front, and just like the first AOE attack Xander used in the cave, the same thing happened here only that the commotion was bigger and a lot more lethal.

Streaks of lightning flew out like claws, hitting everything in their way.

Those that tried to avoid it still got electrocuted either by the random streaks that were flying everywhere or those that were beside them and had contact with each other whilst they were being electrocuted.

All the berserkers got electrocuted within a minute, including the one that had been planning to use its companions as shields. They dropped to the floor like flies with their bodies convulsing uncontrollably.

-Huff, huff.

Xander breathed heavily, trying to catch his breath. He put 50% of his energy into this attack. He observed every berserker from where he stood.

They weren't dead but they couldn't move either, and those that tried to move all returned to their spasm sessions. The berserker at the end of the reinforcements tried to move and a streak of electricity came out of nowhere and put it back into a state of convulsion.

['That was very satisfying.'] Alex stated.

"System, the holographic direction to the energy you found earlier would be appreciated now please."

*Preparing the shortest route to the destination from the user's current position. Please wait for a moment.

-Ping!!

*The route is ready.

The way to the place that the system had found the energy wave from, was highlighted by a virtual holographic arrow.

"Onwards."

-Whoosh!!!

Xander quickly followed the system's directions. He looked down in his mask and saw how far the place was from where he was.

*Distance covered: 0.95km/13km.

['Can't you increase your speed?'] Alex who was already impatient and eager, urged Xander.

['If I go any faster, then I would be draining the strength I have left, quickly. We don't know what the place we are heading to have in store for us. For all we know there might be more berserkers there.']

['Fine, keep going at this pace. We should be there in like 9 minutes.'] Alex concurred.

['Let's just hope we find something useful because those berserkers looked pretty pissed at us before we left. Especially that one that had been calling us a pest.'] Al pointed out.

…

With the system's guidance, Xander had been dashing through the misty forest.

*Distance covered: 11.7km/13km.

The virtual holographic arrow that Xander had been following suddenly turned and pointed into the ground.

"Huh?"

"Ahh!"

Just as sudden as the change in the virtual arrow, Xander also started to fall. The scenery of the place he was changed from a forest to a rocky cliff.

-clang!!!

After falling for a few feet, Xander brought out one of his twin twilight swords. He stabs it into the side of the rocky cliff, and the sword entered without much resistance or friction.

-Grrr!!

With the sword as his breaks, he still fell for a few feet before he came to a stop. His hand holding onto his sword like it was his lifeline and his body dangling.

['F*cking hell, I felt like my heart was going jump out of my body.'] Al quivered.

['That wasn't trilling.'] Lex sniffled.

['How did that happen? Was that an illusion again, is the gas mask off?'] Alex wondered.

"System, is the gas mask deactivated?"

*No, would the user like to deactivate the gas mask?

"No, leave it on."

*Affirmative.

"System, show me a replay of the last 2 minutes."

*Please wait a moment… replaying a video of the last 2 minutes from the moment the user gave the command.

Xander watched himself running through the forest and a minute into the replay, the nature of his environment had changed from trees to huge pillars of stones. He kept on running till he reached the end of a cliff and fell off it.

"Pause the video."

['Why didn't I notice the change?'] Xander pondered.

['My question is why there is a dessert under this cliff? Is that also an illusion?'] Alex pointed out.

['From a forest to a cliff then a dessert. That doesn't make sense. This forest has a thing for illusions, I just hope that Camron doesn't get caught up in one.'] He sounded concerned for his friend.

['Xander, switch the outlook on the mask from natural to on-screen live video. Our eyes could be deceived but the camera can't be deceived. It only records what it can see.'] Lex suggested.

"System, switch the outlook to live video."

*Switching outlook.

For a second the only thing that Xander could see was the darkness.

*outlook switched.

Xander looked below him and it wasn't a dessert that was in his sight anymore. It was a forest of stones, huge and tall pillars of oblique shapes – some with sharp tips and some blunt.

['If we had dropped down thinking that it was an actual dessert, we would have died by the blunt or the sharp.'] Al's voice trembled.

Xander swallowed the saliva in his mouth. "Yeah, that's one way to put it."

"System, the virtual holographic GPS please."

-Ping!!

The virtual holographic arrow appeared, and it was still pointing downwards. This time it was bent a bit, indicating that there was an entrance of sort somewhere at the foot of the cliff.

"System, Zoom in."

-Vvmm!

The system zoomed in.

"There's a cave down there. Should we continue?"

['Yeah, we already made it this far.'] Lex mentioned.

['No, I don't want to die a virgin.'] Al objected.

['There might be something down there that can help make me get stronger. I don't want to resort to using energy crystals to cultivate. We are not normal or average, neither will our process of getting stronger be average. What's an adventure without the gaze of death lingering on you? We should keep on going'] Alex declared.

"I also agree with that." Xander said with a trilled smile on his face."

['No, no. why did I have to be an alter to this suicidal virgin.'] Al started to cry.

"Suicidal indeed." Xander chuckled and drag the sword out of the side of the cliff. He started to drop once again.

-Grrr!

After every 13 feet, he stabs his sword into the side of the cliff.

['How are we going to go back up?'] Al questioned.

"With my full speed it shouldn't be that hard to run vertically on the wall, and if I can't there's always the old-school rock climbing."

['I give up. Do what you want, my opinions are never respected.'] He stopped talking.

"Good."

…

It took Xander 8 minutes to reach the foot of the cliff.

"The berserkers should be getting up by now." He looked at the virtual time interface in his mask. 21 minutes had gone by. "If the rest isn't up yet, that stubborn one would be up for sure."

['Do you think it will come after us?'] Lex inquired.

['Probably, it looked very pissed at us.'] Al answered.

"If it does come after us, then this adventure will only get a lot more dangerous."

['Very dangerous. I'm very sure that it doesn't mind falling and getting killed by either the blunt or sharp tips of the rocky forest.'] Alex mentioned.

Xander looked into the dark cave that looked like it was wide enough for 3 people to enter walking side-by-side.

"Lights please, system."

-Click

The once dark cave that he couldn't see into became clearer to him. The virtual holographic arrow was pointing forward.

"Here goes nothing. To adventure." Xander gave a toast and took the first step that brought him into the cave.

************

Back in the forest…

The berserkers started to get up one by one.

-Bllee!!!

The berserker that Xander had called stubborn, cried out in rage. It got up and stared at the direction that Xander had taken.

Bllee!!!

It screamed again and charged out.

But not in the direction of Xander, it chose to continue chasing after Camron and the rest. Every berserker that got up did the same and pursued after Camron and the rest.