Rebirth: The Shadow Of Greed

... 'Roar!' A loud roar resounded in the caverns beneath them. Z immediately ran to the edge of the cliff to take a look at what's happening.

A huge worm-like beast emerged from the ground biting a beast drinking water from the pool as it dragged it into its hole. The beasts ran away in a fervour as they wanted to avoid being the worm's next meal. Unfortunately, every time the worm emerged, it had taken a prey before vanishing again. After the 3rd beast, the worm finally stopped as it went silent again with no signs of movement from the ground.

"Odrunn, have you recovered?" Z asked turning to look at Odrunn who was still sprawled out on the floor.

"Yeah boss, almost there."

Odrunn replied.

Z nodded as he explained the situation.

"We'll move over to the cliff on the right, as for now, the most dangerous beast here is the worm we saw just now. I'm guessing its strength can contend with Warship levels, so we might have to be careful.

Soli, are you able to create an elevated bridge in front of us as we walk? That way the tremors won't trigger the worm beast."

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"What do you mean you lost all traces of them?"

8 spoke through the modified commswatch.

"The birds I've been using can't seem to find anything, either they're hiding amongst trees or they've entered a sheltered area, you have no choice but to search on foot."

12 replied, while resting on a branch of a tree leaning his back on the trunk.

The veins on 8's neck was fully visible as he started to shout.

"Can't you use some land animals to help me search? Why don't you come down here and help me out?

"I only can control beasts that are within my line of sight, not to mention I can't control Warship level beasts that well as of yet. If I go down and we get attacked by a Warship level beasts do I just keel over and die? Because I sure as hell know you won't help me."

12 replied calmly, chewing a piece of branch he found.

"That's why I hate the weak"

8 said as he hung up the commswatch and continued searching the basins below.

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Back in the caverns, Z, Odrunn and Soli were running on the ice bridge as they gradually made their way to the cliff edge, glowing grass moved as the wind from their running blew past them. The glowing grass that filled the cavern floor was plentiful and they would occasionally see a beast grazing on the grass.

"We'll make a detour around the beasts, we don't know if they're aggressive or not, even if they're just herbivores."

Soli said as she made her ice bridge twist and turn around the beasts.

Finally, they reached the cliff. For obvious reasons, Soli couldn't use her ice bridge to scale the cliff so all they could do is climb on their own. With Soli giving them some foot holds for Odrunn once in awhile.

After struggling for a bit, they had finally reached the top of the cliff, on top of it lay a cave.

"I'm exhausted!"

Odrunn said as he lay on the floor again.

"It's just a short climb! How could you be exhausted so quickly?"

Soli asked as she looked over at Odrunn lying on the floor.

"Soli, pass me the light orb. I'll go look in the cave to see if it's safe."

Z said as he ventured into the cave behind them.

Soli looked at Odrunn and started to speak.

"Odrunn, I don't really want to scold you, but you really have to get in shape. In this critical situations you can't expect us to save you everytime."

Odrunn looked down onto the ground as his lips pursed up.

"I know... I don't want to be a burden too, I'm trying my best to keep up... I'm just not very athletic!"

Soli gently put her arm on Odrunn's shoulder as she comforted him.

"Having good genetics is one thing, but can you really say that you've put in your hundred percent effort during training all the time?"

"Guys, I have some good news and some bad news."

Z said as he slowly backed out of the cave.

"The cave is big enough for us to stay in and it seems there was someone who had stayed in there previously. But at the same time, there's a tank level bear beast occupying the cave. As of now, it seems its in hibernation mode. I suggest we go kill it before it wakes up."

Z signalled Odrunn to come forward with him while Soli followed behind. Z tossed the dagger towards Odrunn and signalled for him to kill the bear.

Odrunn's hand held onto the dagger as it started to tremble. He saw the bear lying down on its stomach and aimed the dagger above its neck. In a swift motion he swung the dagger down, but his foot slipped on the mossy ground as the dagger plunged straight into the bear's shoulder.

'Roar!' The bear woke up in a fit of rage with the dagger still stuck on its shoulder.

"shit shit shit shit shit! Boss! I missed!"

Odrunn shouted as he started to run towards Z's direction. Z watched as the bear lumbered behind Odrunn as Odrunn ran straight into him.

Immediately Z took a step forward using his shield artefact to block the attack. The bear swiped as it crashed its paw into the shield. Knocking Z backwards into the ground.

The bear swung it's arm back once again preparing for another swipe. As the bear swung down onto the fallen Z, a huge body ran across standing with his back facing the bear taking a swipe across his back.

"Odrunn! You should have let him hit me! I still have a shield."

Z shouted as Odrunn fell to the ground.

"Boss, I'm okay, I'm just sleepy. Let me go to sleep." Odrunn said before shutting his eyes.