Chapter 83: Handsome for Only Three Seconds

What is that??

Yuxing nearly jumped up at the words. He scanned his surroundings again with even greater care, and finally, in a shadowy corner, noticed something he had mistaken for a rock gently rising and falling.

It seemed to be breathing.

It was, unmistakably, a Red King. The creature faced the stone wall with its back to the crowd, curled up as if—like the travelers groaning on the ground—it too was suffering from the abrupt change in environment...

Wait a minute, that massive beast definitely hadn’t been in the ship’s cabin earlier! Where on earth had it come from?

Yuxing felt a cold shiver run down his spine. He scooped up Senior Ayu and hurried in the opposite direction, determined to stay as far from the Red King as possible.

That was a giant beast over ten meters tall! Even if, by the numbers, it wasn’t as huge as the fifty-meter Red Kings that had appeared on Earth, and could be considered a mere “little brother” by comparison, ten meters was still the height of a six-story building! That was a giant by any measure!

Such a size was a tremendous advantage. Added to that, the Red King was notoriously witless, simple-minded, impulsive, and violent—one little provocation and it would likely fly into a rampage!

He took back his earlier thought: this cavern was anything but spacious. There was hardly enough room for a beast of that size to run wild!

Yuxing settled Senior Ayu in a corner and then turned a wary eye toward the center of the cave. Perhaps because of the dim lighting, he had at first only noticed a portion of the unfortunate passengers, but now he realized that he, Senior Ayu, and the others had not “disappeared”; rather, they had been “transported.”

Transported to a place much like a cave.

But soon, Yuxing discovered that aside from the Red King—clearly not from the ship—there were other beings present. Some were aliens, some small monsters; none as large as the Red King, but all varying in size, and most importantly, none were familiar faces from the ship.

Where had they all come from?

Could this “teleportation” have randomly scooped up creatures within a certain range—be they aliens or monsters?

Evidently, Yuxing was not the only one who had heard that synthesized electronic voice; others had as well. They too spotted the Red King huddling in self-isolation by the wall and, just like Yuxing, made the same cautious decision: to keep their distance from the giant beast. They all moved quietly, careful not to make a sound for fear of disturbing it.

But just as the crowd was recovering from the shock of their abrupt change in environment and retreating to a safer distance, the Red King began to come to its senses. It slowly rose from the ground in confusion, and as it tried to straighten up—there was a thunderous crash, followed by a rain of debris from above. The people below scrambled for cover, while the Red King reeled, not expecting the ceiling to be so low. Its head slammed straight into the cave roof, and it saw stars.

ROAR—!!

The not-so-bright Red King instinctively felt it was under attack. It howled in pain, turning its massive body in search of the reckless fool who had struck its head.

The crowd: It wasn’t us, really, don’t blame us!

To the Red King, all the tiny figures scurrying about below could be suspects. Its limited brainpower made it impossible to identify the attacker—who, in truth, didn’t exist. It let out another furious roar, hunched its body, and charged toward the retreating crowd!

The crowd: !!

Suddenly, a dust-colored figure broke away from the fleeing masses and dashed straight toward the Red King, leaping high into the air!

A gray cloak fluttered behind him, then was tossed aside by its owner, revealing full armor and a helmet—the unmistakable guise of a warrior. The warrior’s right arm began to elongate and transform, soon becoming a blade as long as the man himself.

“Berserker Stance!”

With a thunderous shout, his body was suddenly wreathed in orange-red flames, his frame swelling, muscles bulging so much that his armor seemed ready to burst.

“Power Saber!”

With a second furious cry, the flame-clad warrior drove his blade into the right side of the Red King’s thick neck as he descended.

The attack was visibly effective. The Red King bellowed in agony, and in its pain, its sluggish mind forgot how low the ceiling was. It jerked its head backward, only to smash the back of its skull into the cave roof once more.

The ceiling groaned and cracked, followed by another cascade of falling stones. The crowd scattered in panic.

This time, the impact was far greater than before. The Red King’s eyes rolled white as it collapsed forward, its massive body crashing to the ground with a resounding boom.

The warrior landed lightly atop the unconscious giant, glanced down at the beast beneath his feet, then at its bare, unadorned shoulders, and let out a barely audible sigh.

In his own world, Red Kings in that spot were always crowned with plasma souls.

Everyone had witnessed the warrior’s prowess and, for a moment, were too stunned to react. Yuxing recognized the figure and couldn’t help but admire him. Truly, an expert in battling monsters of such size, skilled in combat, well-versed in the monsters’ weaknesses, and adept at using the terrain.

At that moment, Senior Ayu murmured in awe, then muttered in confusion, “...But why shout out the names of his special moves?”

Yuxing: “...”

Well, after all, hot-blooded idiots often come with a dash of adolescent flair. It’s understandable.

The warrior jumped down from the Red King, bent to pick up his dust-gray cloak from the ground, donned it once more, and headed straight toward Yuxing and his group.

“Hey, we meet again, Yuxing!”

A huge grin spread across Maguna’s face beneath his hood. He had returned to his original form, standing just over two meters tall, with a mane of fiery red hair tumbling down like living flames. The upper half of his face was hidden behind a mask, but even with only the lower half visible, his confident, radiant smile was plain to see.

He appeared to stand casually, but his posture was that of a seasoned warrior—always ready for battle, reliable at a glance.

Yuxing quietly shifted back half a meter, counting silently in his mind.

Three, two, one.

Bang—

“Ow—!”

With a muffled cry, Maguna let out a pained howl as he was knocked to the ground by a heavy blow.

It turned out that the Red King’s collapse had made the already cracked “ceiling” even more unstable; a chunk of rock chose that moment to break free and land squarely on Maguna’s head.

One moment, the mighty Master Magma was striking a heroic pose; the next, he was flat on the ground.

Yuxing clicked his tongue in sympathy, watching the dazed figure sprawled out like a pancake.

That “can’t stay cool for more than three seconds” passive skill of yours is clearly still working...