The Earth Online

71 Run, Thaleos, Run

Thaleos watched in horror as the floating blue figure slowly detached herself from the wall. The wisps inside the cave were zooming around the vicinity in excitement.

They were excited that their mother woke up again, and the beast tamer guessed that it’d been years since the blue-skinned wisp was conscious.

The bearded man knew that his beasts couldn’t take on this mid-tier to the high-level creature. Even his wyvern wisp wasn’t as strong as the wisp's mother, so just like any insane person, Thaleos just decided to run away from the scene quickly.

Luckily, the ethereal creature was still waking up from her sleep as Thaleos was able to slip past her quickly. The wisps tried to follow him, but he brought out his wyvern wisp to help him escape through the mouth of the cave.

Thaleos wasn’t entirely sure if the creatures could follow him outside of the cave, but he still risked it, knowing that fighting in an open space is a better alternative than an enclosed area.

As soon as he got out of the cave, he didn’t even stop and just continued flying out. He turned his head back once to check and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the wisps just kept bumping on the invisible door of the cave.

After flying a couple of miles away, he ordered his wyvern wisp to stop gradually, and so it did. Although he flew in haste, he made sure that he was still flying in the right direction. He now found himself in the clearing near the vortex and looked around to see if his teammates were there.

When he didn’t see anyone, the bearded man took his wyvern beast and flew up the sky to check their locations. He felt himself smirking a bit as he spotted Haya practicing his long-range skills. It seems like the lake's environment was bringing him out of his comfort zone as he fought with a couple of sirens.

Upon seeing that the berserker was handling the fight quite well, Thaleos turned his head to the left and saw Kedrick fighting with some shadow wolves. Although he could see the man was struggling, especially considering that his forte is healing, he was still quick to think on his feet and used a mixed melee and long-range attacks strategy.

Finally, the beast tamer looked straight-forward and spotted Ygritte fighting with some mid-tier Cornish fairies in a forest on top of the hill. The druid seemed to be practicing her connection with nature as she quickly controlled the faeries and ordered them to fight with the fire ants heading their way.

Flying down near the vortex, Thaleos was proud to see how far their team has come. From barely knowing what the f**k was happening, they were now fairing well in the second world and constantly going against the odds.

He knew how fragile things were and how easy they could lose their life in the game, but he wanted to make sure that they at least put up a fight to humble down those gods. He clenched his jaw at the thought of those selfish game makers, but he just sighed and shook his head.

After a couple of minutes of just waiting by the staircase of the vortex, his teammates, one-by-one, suddenly appeared. Although most of them looked incredibly tired, Thaleos could still see the look of satisfaction on their faces.

“How goes it, Beast Tamer?” Kedrick asked with a smug grin as he wiped off the sweat from his face. Thaleos just chuckled and responded, “Almost died, but hey, isn’t that the new normal, now?”

The umber man chuckled along with him as he hid his ax and drank from his water bottle. Haya and Ygritte laughed along with them and explained in full detail how their training session went while climbing up the stairs back to the vortex.

“Dude, I swear, it feels refreshing just going wild, you know? I mean, still being strategic but going wild in a sense that I could freely think up of my own strategy.” Haya explained before jumping through the vortex.

Upon arriving on the other side, the beast tamer thought really hard about what the berserker said, and he realized that he was taking monopoly of strategy-making. He understood that, in the beginning, he had a bit of knowledge about the game more than they do, but now, they were all basically on the same level.

He realized that the others are as capable of making up plans, even better ones than his. While going outside of the gym, Thaleos thought that maybe this is the messiah complex that most people feel.

This was unhealthy on both ends. He was brought out of his reverie as he heard Ygritte snapping her fingers in front of him as she had this worried look on her face.

“Thaleos, are you okay?” The druid asked while looking at the dazed-looking beast tamer. When the bearded man nodded his head as a confirmation of his sober state, Ygritte understood that the man was probably trapped in his thoughts again.

She hid a small smile as they spotted Reiko, and everyone did their usual exchange of pleasantries. Since they were all tired from the two fights, they considered going back to the Melam Military Base.

“Yeah, I mean, going in there three or four times is a good idea. But maybe we should make it a short-term goal instead. I think that we’re still adjusting to fighting alone, and God knows, I’m hella tired.” Haya started while starting the jeep and clutching onto the steering wheel.

Everyone placed their weapons at the back of the jeep and quickly settled inside the pitch-black vehicle. Kedrick, Ygritte, and Thaleos all nodded their heads in desperate agreement as Haya spotted one or two of his teammate’s sleepy looks.

“Absolutely. I reckon that after a week or so, we’d be able to adjust perfectly and enter the second alien world multiple times easily.” The beast tamer responded as he spotted Kedrick and Ygritte sleeping deeply.

Admittedly, even he was feeling exhausted from the fighting. “You think going back and forth the vortex affects our stamina and health?” Thaleos asked in a curious tone while slowly stroking his beard.

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I mean, considering that we’ve fought through colonies of ants and other mid-tier beasts, the fatigue we’re feeling right now isn’t normal.” The tan man paused for a bit to turn left and then continued,

“I feel like going in and out of the vortex and being exposed to the abnormal levels of mana and miasma might be affecting our stamina and health.” He explained in length as he was doing his best to maneuver through the pitch-black trail to the military base.

“Feels like it to. I feel like my body’s been beaten black and blue, you know?” Haya agreed as he turned off the engine and woke up the other two members who were sleeping.

“Time to get up, guys. If you want to sleep, your beds are definitely the better option.” As soon as the druid and priest heard the word ‘bed,’ they immediately got up and zoomed straight through the military base’s door.

The berserker and beast tamer just shook their heads in laughter and followed suit. Everyone quickly munched on some sandwiches and went to sleep.

In the dead of night, Thaleos woke up due to how eerily silent the whole base was. Noise in the dark was dangerous, but the silence was even more dangerous. The beast tamer found it weird that there weren’t even the crickets or chickens' regular sounds.

The beast tamer stood up from his bed and quietly twisted the doorknob—doing his best to avoid causing any noise. He looked around the hallway to check if there was anything there; when he saw that the coast was clear, he crouched down and headed towards the end of the hallway.

Aside from being incredibly quiet, the beast tamer also noticed that it was pitch-black dark. His only source of light was the moon, so he soundlessly waded through the areas where the light was able to touch.

Not noticing it earlier, Thaleos became incredibly cautious when he spotted a crouching figure at the end of the hallway. The man looked to be disturbed as he was swaying back and forth while scratching his head.

As the beast tamer was a couple of steps away, he didn’t know why, but he felt a bit weirded out by how familiar the figure looks. The hair color, type of clothing, and body were incredibly distinguishable.

He didn’t know why, but he slowly clutched the disturbed man’s shoulder, and when the man looked up, Thaleos froze on the spot, and his eyes widened in shock.

Right before his eyes was himself, looking up at him with purely red eyes and unrecognizable killing intent from his aura.

The beast tamer stumbled a bit and fell to his side at the shock of seeing himself. The other Thaleos stood up and slowly reached out to him.