There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 518 - 511. Pursuit

Chapter 518: Chapter 511. Pursuit

"My apologies, Sir Vaski," the senior reporter hurriedly apologized, followed by some of the other reporters. "They misspoke. Please forgive them as they are still young--"

"Young?" Bassena scoffed, although he did step back to let the reporters breathe. "They are older than half the people here."

The senior reporter pressed his lips and bowed while apologizing once again. Thankfully, someone came to divert Bassena’s attention from them.

"Bas, do you need me?" Ron tilted his body slightly to observe the poor reporters eclipsed by the Saint-class.

"Yeah," Bassena turned around, but the reporters were yet brave enough to let out a breath of relief. "Please escort them back to the Borderland. I’m sorry for doing this when you’re just here, but--"

"It’s fine, I understand," Ron glanced at the two trembling reporters who were in the direct line of Bassena’s ire earlier. "You want me to tell the Captain too, right?"

"Yeah, I’m not sure if..." Bassena glanced in the direction of the desert. "Just keep on standby for now, and only come if we burn the black sheet."

"Got it. Say hello to Zein for me, yeah?"

Bassena patted the scout’s upper arm before vanishing in a wisp of darkness. Ron turned toward the reporter then, who could finally breathe easier. They looked at Ron, whose dry smile was enough to make him look like an angel in their eyes, despite his even drier words.

"I’ll give you five minutes to pack your belongings, and we’ll go even if I have to drag your tied-up body, understood?"

* * *

"Fuck--are we really just returning like this? What about all that money we paid them?" San grumbled as they watched the main base getting further and further away; a sentiment that was shared among some other reporters.

"They said they’ll refund us," Leah warned her partner, for a millionth time, to shut up.

Of course, she was also disappointed that they had to return early before they could do more coverage. But there was always a time and place for everything, and she could see how much tension there was in the seemingly safe main base. People, however, were prone to be unreasonable at any time.

"It’s not about the money," another reporter clicked their tongue. "It’s about what we’ve been promised!"

"Unexpected thing happens all the time, you should know that!" another, more reasonable one argued.

"But can’t we just stay in the main base? Isn’t it supposed to be safe? We should be able to at least record the aftermath and do some intervie--"

"Then stay," a nonchalant voice came from the front, which made the reporters froze. "We’ll stop the car and you can jump off, go wherever you like."

For a moment earlier, they forgot there were espers there--the defender and the Borderland’s scout tasked to escort them out. They saw the scout’s cold eyes in the rearview mirror and gulped.

"I only read the contract briefly, but I remember a clause saying we are not to be held accountable for any irresponsible act or disregard for safety protocol," the defender who was driving the Humvee they were in added with a cheerful voice that sounded more eerie than uplifting.

The senior reporter let out a tired sigh and looked at the other reporters. "How about it? I myself still want to live so I can write the articles," he said calmly with a subtle smile but stern eyes. "You should be able to make something with what we got already anyway, and we’ll still get our money back. So what are you complaining about right now?"

Leah, who had been holding back before, finally let her voice out. "Please have more self-awareness--we are in a dangerous place. People like us staying there means they’ll have to think about our safety, when they are already busy thinking about surviving on their own. This is not like the outside, okay?"

The protesting reporters pressed their lips; not everyone agreed, but they didn’t have the leeway to argue anymore with two 4-star espers at the front ready to drop them anytime, so they just kept their begrudging to themselves.

"But...Sir? Can you at least tell us what kind of creatures attacking them now?" the senior reporter asked. It was one thing to be cautious and self-aware, but gathering information was still his job.

Thankfully, the esper seemed to be willing to share at least that information. "Hmm...how should I explain it to you?" the scout tapped on his arm in contemplation. "You know there’s a hierarchy among beasts in the dungeon, right?"

"You mean...things like minions, commander, general--like that?"

"Mm, like that," the scout nodded, snapping his fingers. "Just think of the Deathzone as one enormous dungeon. Those commanders in the regular dungeon? Yeah, those are just minions here. Let’s say Specters are the generals, so--"

Leah gasped. "You mean the one attacking is the boss?"

"No, Miss--isn’t there only one boss in the dungeon?" the scout shook his head. "The ones attacking right now? Let’s just say they are the mini-bosses."

"Oh..."

Ron glanced at them through the mirror, wondering if these people hadn’t had enough reality checks yet after spending two days in the Deathzone. Was it perhaps a sign that they had made the region under them so ’safe’ that these people didn’t think it was scary enough?

And then he cursed, thinking that he might have the same jinx as Zhan. He stood in his seat and stared toward the northside--where the mountain was. His sudden move alerted the other, including the driver/defender. "Floor it," Ron said. "Go to the nearest outpost."

"Haa...shit--" Helios turned the wheel swiftly without questioning anything. It was a rule in the Deathzone to never doubt a scout, so if Ron said to floor it, then he’d floor it, increasing the speed of the Humvee without caring that the passengers were screaming in the back.

"You’ll have to put a barrier later," Ron said while taking out his daggers.

"What happe--"

A loud hissing sound cut the reporter’s question. Hot win flew in their direction, and rustling sounds filled the stiffening silence. Ron put on a mask and Helios activated the roof of the car, covering the previously opened carriage.

"Get down and whatever happens, shut your mouth," Ron warned them once before disappearing.

The reporters were flabbergasted, but Leah turned the camera in her partner’s hand toward the back, where the hot wind came from earlier. It was rather blurry now because they had to look through the window, but the night vision camera still managed to capture it; a dark, hooded figure slithering toward them at high speed.

"...fuck--" the previously noisy partner cursed in a low voice.

As if feeling excited about finding them, the creature shrieked loudly. It was a sound that was unlike anything they ever heard before, not even in their worst nightmare. A bone-chilling, blood-curdling vibration that shook their soul and froze their being.

With a trembling hand, the camera stared at the glowing, sinister eyes, and the burst of dark purple fume toward them. Once again, the car shook as Helios turned the steering wheel toward the river. But the reporters couldn’t even scream in the middle of their fright, paralyzed by a new-found terror.

The dark fume grazed the car, but not enough to damage it. The creature hissed in annoyance and turned to swipe its long tail toward the humvee--only to be met by a searing sensation of a long cut on the side of its tail.

It screamed and turned to find a human with its blood dripping along his daggers.

"Tsk--can’t cut it off completely, I see..." the human muttered and it swung its claws toward him, only for said claws to hit its injured tail instead.

The human had disappeared as if sucked by the darkness. The fragment howled in anger and pain, swinging its claws all over in madness. It gave time for the humvee to move further away, toward the blinking beacon and purification device across the river.

Forgetting its initial target, the fragment kept looking around for the human who injured it earlier, only for the human to appear above its head and stab the daggers into its eyes.

It was at this moment that the reporters finally woke up from their paralyzed state, as the pained howl of the creature blasted against the car.

"Fuck--" Helios cursed as his barrier partially shattered, and immediately renewed it even as he concentrated on driving the humvee across the bridge without plunging them into the river.

"Wh--wha...what is t-that?" San stuttered. Miraculously, he still managed to keep his camera upright to take the image behind them.

The image of a figure hooded in a dark purple fume with a glistening tail and claws, and their escorting scout fighting it. Ron was utilizing all of his senses to avoid getting sprayed by the fume or being struck by the tail, using the shadow all around to hide and travel all over the place, appearing in a perfect spot to strike and disappearing before the fragment could land a hit.

But it was easier said than done. If he lost the timing even for a split second, the claws and tail would graze him before he could hide in the shadow. The more he attacked, the more the fragment understood his pattern. Sometimes, it would let him attack so he could hit him in turn. In the split second when he was stationary while stabbing, the tail managed to strike him and throw him toward the humvee.

His body flew toward the running car, but he managed to slip into the bridge’s shadow before crashing. No time to rest, however, since now the fragment could sense the humvee again.

Once more, the dark fume was bursting toward the moving vehicle, along with a set of sharp claws.

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