NOVEL NEXT Chapter 184: Squirming
Lukas covered his nose with his hand and looked ahead.
He saw that not too far away, some of the plants were flattened.
A sign that someone had passed through.
He walked ahead on alert towards the area.
There was nothing unusual that happened.
Beads of sweat rolled down from his forehead.
He wiped the sweat and looked up at the sun shining through the thick canopy.
It was not so much from the heat of the sun but the stuffy air and humidity of it all.
Lukas continued on his way, and he saw a ravine right ahead.
And at the edge of the ravine, he saw a few trails.
It looked like something was dragged down the ravine.
Lukas came up to the edge of the ravine slowly, ready to go into his Ether Realm at any moment.
Fortunately, nothing happened as he peered over the edge of the ravine.
The ravine ran deep and wide.
He could see that it was at least fifteen feet deep and stretched at least a mile wide.
The sun couldn't reach the bottom of the ravine, and it was dark underneath.
Plop.
Lukas leaped into the ravine and landed on the moist and slippery ground.
He took out his flashlight from his Darkmatter Vault Armor and clipped it to a strap on his shoulder.
Bugs and insects appeared in his vision the moment he turned on the flashlight and shined it onto the wall of the ravine.
They scurried away from the light immediately.
Lukas then shined the flashlight onto the ground and saw the trails that were on the edge of the ravine continued at the bottom of it.
He followed the trails and walked towards a part of the ravine that looked like a dead end from afar.
As he got closer, he realized that it wasn't a dead end.
It was a cave leading deep down inside the ravine wall.
Lukas spoke into his earbuds and briefed the others on where he was.
"I'm at the bottom of a ravine. The trails left behind led to a cave under the ravine. I'll be going in to check if it was Terry and his teammates."
"Be careful." Riley replied.
Riley and Kevin's team were now together at the same location.
They had decided that it was too dangerous to be apart.
After Lukas reported on his location, they started moving towards the ravine.
...
Lukas then stepped into the dark cave.
Inside the cave, all he could hear was the sound of running water in the distance.
He followed the trails slowly for around fifty feet before the trails disappeared.
There was an ascent in front of him.
Whatever it was that made the trail, they were most likely carried over to the top of the ascent.
Lukas leaped and got to the top of the ascent.
And when he looked down from where he was, he was shocked.
There were a dozen men and women, carrying Terry and his teammates, who were all unconscious, towards a platform made of rock.
These men and women walked in a clumsy way as their limbs were all of different lengths.
They must have been like the stitched-up man he had encountered earlier, he thought.
But why were they putting Terry and his teammates onto the rock platform.
Lukas scanned the surroundings and memorized the terrain.
He continued to observe what these men and women would do next.
They knelt and waited beside the rock platform. As if they were waiting for someone.
The sound of the underground running water echoed in the cave.
Time passed and Lukas focused on what was happening at the rock platform.
Finally, a few pieces of rocks fell onto the rock platform from above.
Lukas quickly looked up and saw a huge white-colored worm slowly descending from the ceiling.
As it got closer to one of Terry's teammates, Mena, it opened its mouth.
Strands of very fine lines that looked like string, lowered down from its mouth.
Lukas knew he had to act fast.
He entered his Ether Realm and ran towards the rock platform.
When he got near enough, he appeared and pulled Mena out of the way.
His appearance caught the huge white worm by surprise.
Whoosh.
The fine lines from the huge white worm's mouth moved and came at Lukas.
Some of the fine lines came across the surface of the rock platform and they sliced through the rock platform with a clean cut.
Before the fine lines could touch Lukas, he entered his Ether Realm again with Mena.
The next moment, both disappeared from the sight of the huge white worm and the stitched-up men and women.
Lukas brought Mena back up to the top of the ascent.
He placed him onto the ground, and he leaped down to where the rock platform was again.
The huge white worm squirmed around and the men and women got to work.
They tried to look for Lukas in the surroundings.
Thud.
When Lukas appeared again, he kicked one of the stitched-up men.
His kick plunged through the body of the stitched-up man and broke him into two halves.
Other stitched-up men and women came at Lukas from the sides.
But unfortunately for them, he was ready.
Ice pillars rose from the ground.
The ice pillars brought with them subzero temperature and the stitched-up men and women coming at Lukas were frozen in an instant when they came into contact with the ice pillars.
Whoosh.
Lukas saw strands of fine string coming at him from above and he quickly got into his Ether Realm again.
The strands of fine string missed, but they went on and sliced through the ice pillars and some of the stitched-up men and women.
The ice pillars were shredded into pieces together with the stitched-up men and women.
Meanwhile, Lukas had come to the rock platform, appeared and held onto Carlo and Damien.
The next moment, he disappeared into his Ether Realm with them.
The huge white worm squirmed again in anger, and this time it used its strands of fine string to slice all the stitched-up men and women apart.
After that, it dropped onto the ground, causing the cave to tremble.