Chapter 42: Turbulence

’Geruh!’

Every time his left arm moved, it felt like nails were being hammered into his bones. The nasty sting from the blood was the cherry on top of his excruciating affair.

But now wasn’t the time to let pain dictate what he could or couldn’t do.

Pulling his left arm in as tightly as he could, hooking it beneath her leather chestplate, he made sure Dita wouldn’t slip away as he thrust his right hand above the churning blood.

’Not this again!’

Blindly, he began swinging his hand around. Just when he thought all hope was lost, he brushed against something hard.

He didn’t know what he grabbed, but whatever it was, he wouldn’t dare let go.

Carefully pulling himself towards it, trying not to capsize it if it really was the makeshift raft, he eventually managed to drag his head above the surface.

"Ack!"

Coughing violently, he tried to blink the blood out of his eyes.

’Yes!’

The hapless boy seemed to have cashed in on what little luck he had once again.

Dita soon surfaced next to him, grasping one of the bones in the pile and allowing Peace to let his left arm slacken.

Spitting blood out of her mouth, she shouted:

"Curse that bastard!"

Peace, completely done with swimming in blood, worked himself around to the sturdiest part he could find and began hauling himself up.

As a counterweight, Dita shimmied around the raft until she was directly across from him, then began hoisting herself up alongside him.

After an arduous effort, Peace managed to throw himself chest-first onto the pile.

But...

Getting on the bone pile was only one issue.

And it wasn’t even remotely comparable to the other one...

Running along the riverbank at breakneck speed, its eyes locked firmly onto Dita, was the Skeletal Stalker.

Peace pushed himself around to face the Stalker, watching as its arm began to draw back mid-stride, its form resembling that of an Olympic javelinist, the aura of pure dread surrounding it practically palpable.

’Shit!’

Peace shoved his shaking right hand into the bony mass and began pushing.

"Stand! We need to stand!"

Having dragged herself onto her knees, Dita shouted:

"No, dumbass!"

’Ah—’

Peace immediately understood why as the bones shifted under his weight, nearly causing him to slip into the river.

Steadying himself, Peace shouted:

"Then what do we do?!"

’What can we do?!’

They couldn’t let a spear hit the raft... or them. Nor could they stand up to direct it away.

Dita straightened her back and tilted her head up, as if sticking out her neck and inviting the Stalker to give it a shot.

’That’s her solution?!’

Sadly, there didn’t seem to be any other practical options...

The next problem was the speed of the throw.

They’d have to react within half a second, maybe less. Too early or too late equaled game over. No ifs, ands, or buts.

Copying Dita, Peace knelt and tilted his head up while using his backpack for balance...

Intently, he watched and waited...

Not that he had to wait long.

Sliding to a stop, its bony arm snapped forward in an eggshell-white blur.

’Fuck!’

Closing his eyes, Peace threw his head down.

In the fraction of a second that followed, his hair whipped wildly, and his eardrums felt as though they’d ruptured from the shockwave.

However, judging by the fact he’d processed anything at all...

’I’m... alive?’

Blinking his eyes open, clutching the bones as the raft got tossed around, Peace raised his head and swiveled it around, only to find Dita nowhere in sight.

His heart sank for a moment, but he quickly spotted her hand breaking through the blood, clutching the side of the bone raft as she pulled herself up, haggard and exhausted.

Looking back towards where the Stalker had been, Peace couldn’t help but quiver when he found it absent.

A moment later...

Something surfaced in the blood, then disappeared before emerging again a little closer.

Like a hippo, the Skeletal Stalker was bounding off the floor of the river, its head and eyes poking slightly out of the water before sinking back under.

’Why is it so fast?!’

’Tier 9 my ass!’

Sure, it was the top of Tier 9, one of four Tier 9 S-class monsters...

’But, still?! What’s with this power scaling!’

The Skeletal Stalker felt nowhere near this strong and indomitable in the game! It seemed undoubtedly stronger than the Onno and Vanadar he’d witnessed during his monster stint!

Peace, frantically trying to overcome the aura of dread that had him nearly convulsing in fear, dug into his sack and yanked out the Bone Sword.

"It’s coming!"

After coughing up a mouthful of nasty blood that wasn’t her own, Dita’s head turned sharply towards where Peace had been looking.

Like an orca jumping to capsize an ice floe, the Skeletal Stalker leapt out of the water.

Horrified, Peace watched it rise directly above his head, blotting out the red sky above as it reached towards him with its bony hand.

’So fast!’

Peace tried to pull his head back, but the outcome felt predetermined: the Stalker would have his neck.

Suddenly, a blinding white streak slammed into its chest, knocking it back into the bloody river.

At the same time, the bone raft rattled, threatening to splinter.

Peace looked to Dita, who huffed with one hand extended toward the empty air where the Stalker had been — glowing white.

’A Resonance...?!’

If memory served him right, that Resonance was from the Wisp of the Tier-8 D-Class Venti...

’A Wisp that gives the Archer Class...’

Why the hell was she wielding a mace?!

Maybe it wasn’t her only or first Resonance... ’but still!’

Peace would only have the liberty to earn an answer if he survived.

What mattered was that the Resonance’s knockback had worked, buying them some distance. Unfortunately, it had a cooldown — one the Skeletal Stalker clearly didn’t care to wait for, as it had already resumed its hippo-like bounding chase.

’And it’s got the spear again!’