Chapter 43 FORTY-THREE

Chapter 43: Chapter FORTY-THREE

"ATTENTION, ALL CIVILIAN!!! A RIFT HAS BEEN DETECTED! PLEASE EVACUATE THE NEARBY STREETS AND BUILDINGS, AND STAY AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE!"

The streets are chaotic. Cars swivel to the curb, pedestrians scream as they run in the opposite direction. Though frightened, they’re still smart enough to know where to run and how to hide away.

Amidst the chaos, screams and panic stricken crowd, a small number of people walk towards the phenomenon happening ahead.

Long black coats, winter scarfs around their neck– the lower half of their faces are covered.

The rift has chosen a really nice place to make its entry– an intersection. The wide street is big enough for it to expand.

The perfect normal air suddenly has a crack in it. Small at first, then it slowly expanded, like a crack in a mirror. The rift is beginning to open up

"This doesn’t feel right..." One of the Sentinel murmurs.

"I know." Xin Linhua frowns "But we can only wait for it to open up and venture inside."

"Wait no further." Gao Shi steps up "It’s here."

A black vortex suddenly forms in front of them. A dark, endless abyss of nothing. Swirling non-stop, just looking at it is enough to make one’s skin crawl.

"Back up is almost here." Hirano checks his ra?ar "We can go in. They’ll handle the ones that escape."

"Alright." Xin Linhua exhales "Let’s go in."

Xin Linhua takes a step forward, but a hand holds him in place. He turns to the man beside him.

"Yaras?? What’s wrong?"

"It’s not a D-Rank rift."

His words catch their attention. They all turn to the black abyss, brows furrowed.

"What is it?"

"It’s a C-Rank rift."

The crew goes quiet. Even Gao Shi stays rooted in one spot.

They’re C-Ranks, rifts like this are their specialty. They deal with them all the time. But that was before.

Before, they just had to slaughter the monsters that escaped, drive the other back into the rift and watch it close. Now? Now they have to venture inside!

"C-Rank or not, we’re here now." Rong Yufei’s determined voice breaks the silence "We have eight strong sentinels, a triple S and a guide who’s equivalent to our rank. If we turn back now, I’m not taking responsibility for the civilian casualties."

Xin Linhua is stumped. For one moment, he wants to ask if the young lady had hit her head on the Central Stadium’s wall this morning.

"I’m afraid she’s right." He massages his temple "We’re already, might as well make do with it. Back up is here already, and thankfully, they sent C-Ranks. We’ll just have to work faster and clear it before anything bad happens."

"You have a unique way of giving speeches." Gao Shi laughs "I like it."

"No one asked." Xin Linhua brushes him off "Yaras?, let’s go."

Rong Yizhan nods once. With Hirano on his left and Rong Yizhan on his right, they venture into the rift.

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Xin Linhua’s body passes through the dark mist, his feet land on air. His body falls.

"What the fuck!!!" His scream echoes through the rift.

"Xin Linhua." Rong Yizhan’s silhouette follows after.

Turns out, a D-Rank rift is totally different from a C-Rank. D-Ranks have caves, forests, jungles, hell, even a whole city once. But this? He steps right off a cliff the moment he walks in

Not just him– they all do. They all walk into the rift at the same time, they all plunge down at the same time, they all yell at the same time.

"Rong Yufei!" Hirano suddenly yelled mid-air "Stone platform! Carve it out of the mountain! Hurry!"

Rong Yufei’s mind spins fast. She finally seems to remember that she’s a Geomancer, a being who can control almost anything solid, especially earth.

"Got it!"

Her eyes dart to the first mountain she sees. Despite being suspended in mid air and falling from a thousand feet– maybe more, she’s still able to control her body and ability.

__Crack!!!

A series of motion and loud noises reverberates through the air. The only two Geomancers on the team have cracked a way out by carving up stone platforms from a mountain.

"Good! Get the pyromancers first!"

The two land on the platforms, moving to catch Gao Shi and another Sentinel. Then they go after the Aeromancers and the Hydromancers.

All this while, they seem to have forgotten about two people– Rong Yizhan and Xin Linhua!

Xin Linhua watches as the two Geomancers in the newly formed, but perfectly distorted team move in flawless sync to save their terrified-out-of-their-minds teammates.

If anything, he’s glad they chose to rescue them first. After all, he can still think of a way to break his fall if they don’t get to him in time. He’s stronger than that.

Back on earth, he jumps out of airplanes almost every time, but he had a parachute during those times. Then again, there was a time when a parachute failed and he broke four ribs and fractured an arm–

"Xin Linhua."

A body blocks his view, breaking his reverie and dragging him back to reality. He looks up, hair whipping across his face to find Rong Yizhan grabbing his hand and pulling him towards an...embrace?

"Yaras?...?" His eyes are blank.

"Hold still."

Xin Linhua’s body gets pulled into an embrace. He goes still. His mind goes blank and his body stiffens.

Despite how cold Rong Yizhan sounds, his embrace burns hot. One hand is at the back of Xin Linhua’s head and the other around his shoulders.

"Yaras?..." His voice cracks "What are you doing?"

"Breaking your fall."

"...What?"

Before Xin Linhua can question him any further, they crash. Hard. Like, crash on the freaking rocky ground and leave a huge hole as evidence.

"Xin Linhua!" Rong Yufei yells.

"Damn, my ears are ringing." Hirano glares "Don’t yell so hard."

"How can you be so calm?" Rong Yufei turns to him.

"Little Princess, at least check if they’re dead before you start planning speeches for a funeral." Hirano clicks his tongue.

The team turns to the crater at his words. The dust slowly settles.