Infinite Classes in the Apocalypse

Chapter 105: End of an A-Rank Rift

The monster bridged the distance faster than possible before Damon even had a chance to step into the shadows. The monster’s tentacle arm crashed against his sword, which he raised at the last moment.

The impact sent him hurtling through the air.

Damon’s world turned dark for a moment as he crashed into a nearby boulder. He left the broken rock without wasting a second to see Nyla’s hammer already mid-swing, but before it could reach the monster, its left arm rose and shot a current of water out of thin air, sending Nyla and her hammer hurtling through the air.

Before she could even finish her fall, the Black Knight appeared from the monster’s side, its longsword crashing against its scaled skin with a deafening sound.

’It’s tough,’ Damon noted as he was already mid-sprint, circling around the creature that turned toward his summon.

He sent a couple of ice shards, more to distract the creature than to deal real damage, before he reached it with the blade of his weapon.

CLANG!

The sword crashed strongly against the monster’s side with a deafening impact.

A few of its scales shattered, but the blade only felt a small wound before the creature’s arm shot up.

The tentacles came in fast, not as a single mass but as individual lines splitting apart mid-air and reaching from three different angles simultaneously.

Damon dropped low under the first, let the second graze his shoulder, and drove his sword upward into the gap the shattered scales had left.

The blade found its flesh this time; its resistance was almost as tough as the scales themselves, and before he could try and push through its thick muscle fibres, the third tentacle wrapped around his arm and wrenched him to the side.

Damon managed to keep the grip on his weapon, but the opening was lost

The creature pulled with impossible strength, and for a split moment, Damon was simply airborne, before twisting and landing in the shallow water.

He was back on his feet before the water even settled.

The Black Knight was already pressing the creature from the opposite side, longsword hammering the same damaged section of scales with relentless mechanical efficiency.

The creature couldn’t fully commit to either target, every time it turned toward Damon, it exposed its flank to his summon, and every time it turned toward the Black Knight, Damon was already circling.

And in between those exchanges was Nyla.

Her hammer came crashing countless times, hitting the creature’s lower back, side and even the head with terrifying blows.

Most of its scales were shattered by now, leaving large gaps in its defences and exposing its dark blue flesh.

Damon moved between the creature’s shadow with each strike, attacking from every direction quickly, beginning to overwhelm the monster with his strikes.

Dark, foul blood poured freely from its flesh, but despite its countless wounds, the monster didn’t slow down, going at full speed until Damon found an opening impossible to ignore.

His blade struck true, plunging deep into the dark blue flesh. His black ice activated the moment he met its flesh, shards of piercing ice blossoming across his sword and tearing its insides from within.

At the same time, Nyla lunged into the air and, with all the strength she had, swung her hammer down, hitting the monster dead in the centre of its head.

Its two legs dug into the muddy earth upon impact, its tentacle arm twitched, ready to try and fight back, but the Black Knight was already upon it.

Thud!

The three tentacles fell to the earth with a wet thud, still moving despite being completely severed by the long sword.

By the time Damon activated the second wave of black ice upon his blade, the monster went still.

System Notification rang in his head before the lifeless corpse of the creature they just killed could even hit the ground.

[You have slain a Level 76 Warden of the Abyss]

[New Monster Index bonus: +10 Dexterity, +16 Strength, +14 Vitality, +10 Mana]

[You have reached Level 64. You have received 1 Stat Point.]

[You have reached Level 65. You have received 1 Stat Point.]

[You have reached Level 66. You have received 1 Stat Point.]

They lingered for only a moment, catching their breath.

With the creature dead, Damon quickly dismissed his summon before turning to Nyla, who was already looking at him.

A quiet understanding passed between them.

There was no point wasting any more time here. They quickly began crossing the distance of only a few meters standing between them and the rift core.

Their footsteps turned more muffled with each step, turning completely silent as the darkness of the broken reality before them devoured the sound completely.

Damon and Nyla glanced at each other when they reached the threshold, then, with the next step forward, the core shattered and their surroundings changed.

The rot, damp air of the sea floor vanished, replaced by a gentle breeze of fresh air, unmistakably from Earth.

The blue sky hung above them as they stood on cracked asphalt, the silence broken only by the distant sound of wind moving through the broken buildings.

They were back.

Nyla let out a soft exhale while Damon looked around, his mind still in survival mode and looking for any nearby threats.

"It’s over..." she murmured before taking a quick step toward him and pulling him for a tight, genuine hug.

"Yeah..." he finally replied.

For a moment, neither of them moved. They allowed the weight of everything they had been through to settle down before they pulled back.

"Let’s find somewhere to clean up," Nyla said, already turning toward a nearby apartment building.

Moments later, they were already inside a well-kept apartment, which, compared to the two other buildings they had checked earlier that were in complete ruin, was a big step up.

"You go ahead first," Nyla said as they lingered in the corridor in front of the bathroom door.

Damon nodded before entering the bathroom and turning the shower on.

The water was surprisingly hot.

’Apartment’s generator probably hasn’t run out yet.’

Then, just as he stepped into the shower, he heard the door behind him swing open, and the sounds of muffled footsteps approached him.