Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 107 - 29 The Secret at the End of the Rift_2

Seeing the Earth Walker’s reaction, Pannis displayed a sudden mocking smile and shouted, "Ready!" His sword abruptly rose. The Earth Walker, in the midst of its movement, found Pannis’s distant sword strike perplexing. The beast’s instincts blared a warning deep within its heart. Following its instincts, the magical beast bizarrely changed direction mid-sprint, only to witness an icy ring explode on its previous inevitable path. Before it could sigh in relief, it found a sword waiting in its new direction, its chilling tip thrusting at its eye.

In that moment between life and death, the Earth Walker utilized its sturdy Gold Rank physique to forcibly shift direction again, twisting its body to adjust its path, allowing the one-handed sword to hit only its back while it began to break free in another direction.

"You’re finished." Pannis muttered calmly to himself, his sword gently resting on the Earth Walker’s back.

Yes, it merely rested gently on the Earth Walker’s back, neither piercing nor slashing, but simply making a slight contact. However, the Earth Walker felt it completely differently. After changing direction, it leapt off the rocky wall and suddenly felt its body inexplicably light, its mass than fiercely regained weight in an instant. These two conflicting states wouldn’t affect the Earth Walker on the ground, but in mid-air between rock faces, it could not complete its intended movement. Subject to gravity, it drew a parabolic path and fell to the ground.

Suspended in mid-air with nowhere to leverage, the Earth Walker could only twist its body, barely changing its posture, positioning its belly downward as it fell. As for its falling speed, it had no control, subject to the laws of gravity, "slowly" falling at a speed much slower than its sprinting speed.

The rift’s height was not high, and it took the Earth Walker less than two seconds to fall. However, Lina, who was fully prepared all this while, wouldn’t waste the opportunity created by Pannis.

"Holy Word Technique, Divine Bind." As the incantation sounded on cue, a circular light prison entrapped the Earth Walker’s body. The power representing the deity firmly controlled the magical beast, leaving it completely unable to budge. Conventionally, in a Gold Rank versus Gold Rank fight, Divine Bind might hold the opponent for two seconds or even less, or be completely ineffective if the opponent had Aggression. Against a magical beast without Aggression, the control time could generally reach a full five seconds.

"Quick, I’m casting magic, you go!" Lina initiated the incantation with her left hand held in the symbolic shape, remaining stationary.

"Thought of your last words?" Pannis landed almost simultaneously with the Earth Walker, just in front of the magical beast. He spoke without hesitation, driving his one-handed sword into the Earth Walker’s eye, penetrating deep within. He twisted the hilt, stirring the beast’s brain underneath the eye and undeniably took its life: "Um, seems like you had no chance to think."

"Phew." Lina pulled out a Mana Recovery Potion and chugged it down. Unladylike, she sat on the ground, looking at the corpse of the Earth Walker, "This magical beast is undoubtedly the most resentful fighter of the year. It barely used its weapons before it died. Haha."

Pannis crouched down and confirmed the Earth Walker’s death before heading towards its tail. Using his sword, he lifted the scorpion-like tail to examine it: "Definitely a scorpion’s tail, similar to a scorpion-tailed lion’s. It’s an attribute that should not appear on an Earth Walker."

"Let’s not worry about that now." Lina stood up, kicked the body, "Let’s move on, I want to get out quickly. Staying here for too long, I’m starting to feel oppressed."

"Okay, we’re leaving right away." Pannis studied the corpse under his feet, "Including the three bodies from yesterday, the skins of these four Earth Walkers can make two very decent pieces of leather armor. The one you have should be replaced, so you can rotate between the two."

"Okay, I’ll change into one. What about the other one? Won’t you wear it?" Lina asked.

"I prefer cloth." Pannis shook his head, dusting off his hands, "Alright, let’s go. We can figure out how to carry the bodies later. Not much time left."

The pair passed through the only remaining rift, walked for a bit and smelt a strong smell of fresh blood. Lina grimaced, "Seems our guess was right, the Ryan couple seemed to have..."

Just around another bend, they saw a chaotic pile of broken stones forming a nest. Dark brown-colored blood congealed on the ground, and two human skeletons were scattered amongst the coagulated blood, with a few strands of muscle still clinging to the bones. Scraps of sackcloth were strewn around the skeletons; some even had tufts of hair on them. Among the scrap, there were several small trinkets - a wooden pipe, a poor-quality silver necklace, a wooden comb, a crushed pendant, two keys – the only belongings left by the two deceased.

Lina furrowed her brow. Years of adventuring had hardened her to the grisly remains of violent deaths. As Lina crouched near the bones, she used her gloved hand to sift through the fragments, closely examining the items left by the corpses.

"There’s nothing to identify them. From the bones, they were a man and a woman, but we can’t confirm that they were the Ryans. But these few things can be shown to the village head. Maybe he can figure something out." Lina used a small bag to carefully collect each leftover item from the corpses.

"Uhm, I hate to disturb you, but you might want to come over here." Pannis’s voice echoed from around another corner.

"What is it?" Lina walked over curiously, turning the corner and involuntarily drawing a sharp breath, "What...is this place?"

Before them stood a silver metallic wall, its ends embedded in the rock, with no end in sight. In the middle of the wall was a recessed space that resembled a door. However, a few centimeters into the recess, a similarly silvery metallic wall sealed the door. The only peculiar feature was a slit running through the entire middle of the wall that sealed the door.