NOVEL NEXT Chapter 182: More Upgrade
"Lukas!"
Riley, Rex, Emma, Harianto, and Margaret shouted when they saw the monkey-like creatures lunging at Lukas all at once.
They did what they could with their abilities.
Wham!
Riley unleashed his lightning strike at one of the monkey-like creatures.
The monkey-like creature, which was in blue-colored fur, turned into a pool of water and splashed onto the ground, dodging his lightning strike.
Wielding his spiky rock whip, Rex tried to stop the monkey-like creatures.
But his spiky rock whip was stopped by one of them which had brown-colored fur. Sand and rocks rose from the ground and enveloped his spiky rock whip, trapping it within.
Emma hurled out two poison nets, but they were met with vines that grew from the ground.
The vines stopped the poison nets by forming a wall.
Seeing how all their attempts failed, Harianto prepared to get Lukas out of danger.
He watched intently, ready to get into action at any moment.
But it wasn't required.
When the hands of the monkey-like creatures got near Lukas, trying to slice him into pieces with their sharp nails, everyone gasped.
Lukas activated his Ether Realm ability next, before they could even touch him.
And right in front of the monkey-like creatures' eyes, Lukas disappeared.
They got agitated with what had happened.
The monkey-like creatures glanced around but couldn't see any sign of Lukas.
"Gee! Gee!" They shouted in anger, and their low, guttural shouts echoed through the forest.
Other demonic beasts then responded with their roars in the other parts of the forest.
With the anger inside them and Lukas disappearing, the monkey-like creatures turned their attention back to the others.
But before they could do so, they felt their fur covering their body stand up.
Flickers of bright lightning appeared above them.
They looked up and saw pillars of lightning that had formed in the air.
It was then their turn to hurl whatever they had at the pillars of lightning.
Water spouts shot at the lightning, with the monkey-like creature desperately trying to slice up the pillars of lightning.
But the water spout reacted with the pillars of lightning and made it more volatile instead.
Other monkey-like creatures hurled boulders and spears made of soil at the pillars of lightning.
The boulders cracked into pieces, and the soil was turned into molten glass immediately when they came into contact with the pillars of lightning.
It was worse for the vines trying to reach up into the air; the vines were burnt the moment they came close to the pillars of lightning.
"Gee! Gee!"
The monkey-like creatures began to panic and tried to scatter away from where they were.
It was, however, too late for them.
Lukas, who had emerged out from his Ether Realm some distance away, waved his hands down.
The pillars of lightning descended down upon the monkey-like creatures.
The monkey-like creatures tried with all their might to leap away but couldn't.
Their last glimmer of hope was gone when the pillars of lightning surrounded them and formed into a cage.
It got worse when the lightning cage slowly reduced its size.
Sizzle.
The lightning cage burnt and electrocuted those monkey-like creatures when they came into contact with the lightning cage.
The monkey-like creatures were already back-to-back a few moments later.
But it was not over, as the lightning cage was still closing in.
Finally, all that you could hear were the cries of the monkey-like creatures.
Smoke and the smell of charred flesh from the monkey-like creatures filled the air.
When it was all over, Lukas stood and glanced over at the others.
He felt relief when he saw everyone was all right, except for some minor injuries. Nothing that Margaret couldn't fix.
A familiar sound then erupted in his mind.
[Ding!]
[Slaughter Points +8400]
[Current Slaughter Points: 16900/80000]
[Host Level: 8]
[Current Abilities: 8]
He saw that he had enough to upgrade one of his abilities to Expert Level of Mastery.
Lukas pondered for a moment, and he thought about upgrading the Ether Realm or Crimson Pact ability.
These two abilities had proved their worth, being more than useful so far, and he would like to see how much more powerful they would get when upgraded.
More information about these two abilities appeared in his mind.
[Improvements in Expert Level of Mastery – SSS Level Ether Realm.]
[Host would be able to bring those who he was holding onto when he enters the Ether Realm.]
[Ether Realm at Expert Level of Mastery allows for Host to stay within for 3 minutes.]
[Improvements in Expert Level of Mastery – SSS Level Crimson Pact Ability]
[Allows host to have two abilities at the same time through the blood of other awakened.]
[The usage of the ability through the crimson pact would last for ten minutes.]
Lukas thought about it and decided to go for the upgrade of the Ether Realm.
He himself already had many abilities as it is.
The upgrade of the Crimson Pact didn't seem as attractive as the Ether Realm.
He thought about upgrading the Ether Realm ability and said yes silently.
A familiar sound erupted in his mind again.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations on upgrading SSS Level Ether Realm to Expert Level of Mastery]
A gust of energy came into his body with the knowledge on how to use the new ability for Ether Realm.
"Damn these pesky demonic beasts! Can't they give us a break!" Rex shouted and kicked at the pile of ashes of the dead monkey-like creatures.
Riley and the others nodded.
The heat and humidity of the forest was already bad, and coupled with the attacks from weird and horrific demonic beasts, made it much worse.
It was taking a toll on them mentally.
Margaret went on to heal the wounds on Rex and Emma.
Lukas took out energy bars and passed them to the others.
They took a bite while Lukas checked on the others.
"Kevin, everything all right over there?" Lukas spoke into his earbuds.
"Fine so far over here. What's the situation over there? Heard some commotion and got worried," Kevin asked.
"Encountered some demonic beasts, but it's all under control now."
Lukas then tried to contact Terry's team.
"Terry, everything all right over there?"
Silence.
There was no reply.
He quickly tried again.
It was the same. Dead silence.
Lukas frowned and glanced in the direction of where Terry's team was.