Timeless Hunter: Blood Of Old-Chapter 57: Giant Tree

The curse was really persistent, it took almost 20 minutes to get rid of it from only one wound, he still had the other two to deal with.

Fortunately bolster covers a wide range so even though it couldn’t remove the curse until he places the blade directly on the wound, it still weakened it.

In less than 12 minutes he was able to fully removed the curse and the throbbing pain in his body disappeared.

During this time, Oriana and the echo had been handling things and he wasn’t disturbed by the undead.

He stood up and saw the zombie ape running towards them from the distance but it was still a bit too far away.

After he brought it down with his exploding arrows the echo was able to open quite a distance between them.

It would take the giant zombie some time to reach them. Akaris canceled bolster as seeing how it was effecting Oriana.

When it disappeared she took a deep breath and her shoulders relaxed them her bone whips lashed out much faster than before.

Unlike the tentacles of his echo which can only attack in a 270° range, her bone whips can cover every angle.

Being able to stretch for 20 metres, none of the undead were able to get close, unfortunately she had to cancel it.

Her mana pool couldn’t sustain prolonged use of that beast soul, even the tiger beast soul can last much longer.

The two of them fought their way through the endless army of undead but during that entire time he had been keeping watch in two directions.

One, the zombie ape and the other was where the undead tiger was fighting the turtle.

That battle was still going on but they were attacking each other less and less which was surprising.

Undead normally attack in a frenzy and have no concept of fear, seeing the tiger hesitating was confusing.

The zombie ape in the meantime had almost caught up but he was ready, 30 minutes had long passed.

He stood forward and raised light bringer above his head, the zombie ape roared and raised it four arms.

It looked like it recognised this move and it was ready, it grabbed a bunche of undead skeletons and threw them.

Boom, the sound barrier broke and the skeletons flew like cannons. Akaris did not dodge or did anything to block.

Oriana stood In front of him and swung her bone whips around knocking down the flying bone pieces.

Those that got through were knocked away by her giant sword and some by her bone armour but none reached Akaris.

With a loud roar he swung down his blade and the zombie ape placed its arms In front of it to block.

Unfortunately for it, that was a trick and Akaris had not used light blade, by the time it realised it had been tricked it was already too late.

Akaris swung his claymore horizontally and the blade light flew out, it reached the zombie ape in a split second and cut into its neck.

A thin line appeared on the zombie ape’s neck then the thin line combusted into flames and spread to its face.

This managed to slow down the zombie ape for some time, Akaris sighed and kicked a skeleton that had just jumped at him.

" Is it me or did that ape act strangely?" He asked after noticing the peculiarity in its actions.

A zombie making the effort to block an attack was strange, being able to recognise an attack was even stranger.

He shook his head, there was no point thinking out it. He stood at the middle of the echo.

The echo would take care of the front freeing some of its tentacles, Oriana would deal with the back and he will take the middle

This formation allowed them to deal with the large numbers more effectively and since he was more than five metres away from Oriana, he ouod safely use mana wave.

Time passed and the zombie ape seemed to have been lost behind, perhaps burning its head managed to take it down.

The remaining undead were not very strong, they were just too numerous and Oriana only relying on a broad sword found it hard to cope.

But he had the admit, her resilience was incredible, even without using her mana she managed to last for so long.

After some time they drew closer to the massive tree, the area around the tree was devoid of any life or undead.

They had no time to mind that because they heard a loud roar coming from the distance and Akaris shivered.

He felt himself being watched and his instincts screamed that he was in danger, Oriana seemed to have experienced the same thing.

They looked in the same direction and saw the massive tiger looking at them with green flames in its eyes.

Akaris urged the echo to run faster, the number of undead were thinning out allowing the echo to sprint.

They drew closer to the tree and he was finally able to make it out, the tree was truly massive.

Its trunk was nearly 30 metres in diameter and it was over a hundred metres tall but what surprised him were its leafs

It had heart shaped leafs that were pale yellow in colour as if the tree was withering, the bark and branches were dark grey.

The echo ran even faster towards the tree with the undead swarming them from all sides.

Tree was sitting on an elevated platform nearly 200 metres above ground, it had grown on a cliff.

It’s thick roots wrapped around the cliff like giant serpents, when they reached within five hundred metres of the tree the undead cleared.

They heard the roar of the tiger behind them and all of the undead stopped moving and went no further.

This surprised both of them but they had no time to contemplate it, they ran closer to the tree.

From the distance, red light rolled out covering the land like a blanket and they both knew what followed this light.

The echo ran on top of the roots heading for the peak of the hill, but they were slowed down since the roots were slippery.

A red slippery red substance covered some parts of the roots making them hard to climb.

But they climbed with all their might with only a single thought in mind. ’ We’ll be safe there, the tree is safe and the tree will protect us.

Climbing was easier said than done though, the red tree sap was too slippery, almost like oil.

Akaris commanded the echo, it grabbed the both of them with its tentacles and threw them up.

They sailed through the air and hit the trunk of the tree then fell down, they landed just in time for the blood sea to arrive.

He didn’t even have time to call back his echo before it was hit by the giant waves, its body broke down.

He felt it return to his soul to heal. He took a deep breath and felt himself falling asleep, he was too exhausted.

Oriana was in the same boat but her body was stronger than his and she could still hold on for a bit longer.

" Rest, I’ll keep watch." He nodded gratefully at her then closed his eyes and fell asleep, in his dreams he saw her.

He and Oriana when they were still younger and free, they used to be very close back then, inseparable even.

Others used to call them husband and wife, his parents...’ Wait, parents?’ Akaris woke up right then.

His body was covered in sweat and his breath was heavy, Oriana was standing over him looking worried.

" What’s wrong?" She asked in a gentle tone which was strange, this she bear was never the gentle type.

There should’ve been a swear in her question, that was how Oriana was but right now she was giving him the sweetest smile ever, it was strange.

He looked at her choosing to forget about how weird she was acting. " I..I can’t remember how parents looked, I can’t remember their voices or anything about them."

" Akaris, We’re orphans, We’ve never met our parents." Oriana answered in a worried voice.

" Are you sure you’re okay, were you having a bad dream? You’re acting very strange."

Akaris grew even more confused, he was certain he had met his parents when he was young.

They disappeared at some point but he had met them, he was sure of that and Oriana had met then too.

He shook his head, Akaris couldn’t shake the bad feeling in his heart, something told him something was very wrong here.

Oriana stood up and went to make him some food, she came back with a place of fruits and a tray of meat.

Akaris was starving, he snatched the food and started eating, it was delicious, more than anything he had ever eaten.

If it was up to him he would eat this forever.

’ Wait.’

( Indomitable Will has reached level 7)

’ Shit.’