80: Chapter 80 Deadly Run

Richard watched everything unfolding before him, feeling a wave of immense terror rising from the depths of his heart.

He let out a low roar from his throat: "Run! Run to the beach! Get on the ship immediately!!!"

Everyone made the same decision at the exact same moment: flee, and flee as far as they could.

Selina yanked up Jinbao, who was still crouching on the ground covering his ears, and tucked the Gnome under her arm, her leather boots creating a series of rapid, crisp sounds against the broken stone slabs.

The black cat stood back up, its hand crossbow still held steadily in front of it as it ran, constantly scanning for potential obstacles and shortcuts ahead.

Cecilia retracted her shield and kept pace beside Richard; the Vampire's speed bonus made her almost weightless as she sprinted.

Morpheus pulled a scroll from the inside of his robe while running.

The edges of the scroll were sealed with silver foil, and the rod was made of polished yew wood.

This was one of the life-saving trump cards he had spent a large sum of money to acquire through internal channels at a certain magic tower: a precious [Mass Haste] scroll.

He had originally intended to save it for a last resort, but now was a life-or-death moment!

He bit open the wax seal with his teeth and snapped the scroll open above his head; the runes on the parchment exploded into a soft, pale blue halo in the air.

The halo expanded rapidly from the center of the scroll, precisely enveloping Richard, Cecilia, the others, and himself as they ran.

A pale blue ring of light lit up beneath everyone's feet, and their running speed instantly nearly doubled.

However, the range of the halo was limited, just enough to cover the six of them; the Silver Leaf Sentinels and the members of Gray's team were not within range.

"My scroll has a limited range! Don't spread out!"

Morpheus shouted while running, his voice torn apart and intermittent in the rushing wind, the hem of his robe flapping loudly behind him.

He glanced back, his purple pupils contracting sharply.

The crack in the direction of the pyramid had expanded to a terrifying width, almost like a great rift valley.

Emerging from the crack was not just that massive hand that blotted out the sky, but also endless demonic creatures crawling out from the darkness at the edge of the rift.

Their bodies were covered in metallic shells, the surfaces of which were engraved with the same abyssal runes as the giant hand, emitting a dark red magical glow.

And those metals were not merely armor; twisted flesh had grown out of the shells.

Clumps of dark red flesh tissue squeezed out from the metal seams, constantly squirming, their surfaces covered in densely packed, blinking eyes and jagged fangs.

Some demons did not have palms at the ends of their arms, but rather entire sheets of metal blades, which also bore dripping tumors and constantly rotating eyeballs.

Their movements as they crawled out from the pyramid's rift were like a pack of mad dogs finally breaking free from their chains.

There was no formation, no coordination, just an instinctive, frenzied sprint toward all living things, craving slaughter and blood.

Their movement speed was unnaturally fast, with six or eight legs kicking alternately on the gravel ground, the sound of their metal shells colliding with the stone slabs as dense as thunder and lightning.

"Run... run!" Jinbao repeated this word under Selina's arm in a voice that was almost a scream.

His goggles had slid askew onto the bridge of his nose from the jolting of the run, and the world before him was a blur.

But he clutched the side pocket of his tool bag tightly, terrified that his gains from the Black Tower would fall out.

Richard glanced at the direction where the sea dog was anchored while running.

On the sea, the mast of the sea dog still stood in the relatively calm deep water outside the reef zone, and the sails had not yet been raised.

He reached for his waist and pulled the signal smoke bomb he had brought from the ship out of his dimensional bag.

The smoke bomb had a copper casing and a pull-ring fuse; the captain had shoved it into his hand when they disembarked.

He bit off the pull-ring with his teeth and threw the smoke bomb vigorously into the air above his head.

A column of orange-red smoke erupted from the bomb, quickly stretching into a straight pillar of smoke in the sea breeze, visible from several nautical miles away.

On the sea, a series of flashing lantern signals immediately lit up on the deck of the sea dog.

This was the captain replying, indicating he had received the signal.

Several screams came from behind.

One of the Adventurers hired as guards for Gray's temporary team, who was running a few steps slower, was caught up by an eight-legged metal demon charging at the front.

The demon's forelimbs were a single massive curved blade, and on the back of the blade grew two rows of constantly rotating scarlet eyes, each one trembling frantically, as if enjoying the excitement brought by the slaughter.

The blade stabbed into the Adventurer's back and pierced out through his chest, lifting him into mid-air before slamming him violently onto the ground, breaking his body in two.

Blood and visceral fragments splattered onto the stone slabs, instantly trampled into mud by the more demons surging up from behind.

The other guards of the temporary team were torn into pieces by different demons at almost the same moment.

The Halfling scholar screamed and ran forward desperately, and the dwarf Durin slammed over from the side.

He swung his Warhammer in a wide arc, smashing it into the leg of a pouncing demon, warping one of the demon's metal legs.

The demon stumbled, but did not stop attacking.

Even though this dwarf's strength was astonishing, he couldn't withstand the sheer number of demons and soon met his demise.

Gray, the scholar who had been chatting happily with Richard earlier, also died miserably under the claws and fangs of the demons, his ancient books and notebooks from his backpack falling all over the ground, stained red with blood.

The half-elf Selan and Vera provided rear guard, with five Archers retreating in a fan formation behind them, firing as they went.

Arrows precisely pinned into the gaps of flesh on the demons not covered by metal; every hit caused the demons to let out angry roars, but it was not enough to stop them.

Evelyn's Treant blocked the rear of the Silver Leaf Sentinels, using its thick, branch-like arms to hold off the two demons charging at the front.

The Treant's branches were repeatedly hacked by the demons' metal blades, green bodily fluids gushing from the wounds, but it did not retreat a single step.

It let out a low roar, wrapping its branches around the demons' bodies, using all its might to delay the demons' advance.

The sea dog had already raised its main sail.

The captain had sailed the ship to the edge of the deep water closest to the beach; any further in would mean reefs and shallows, and if the sailing ship ran aground, everyone would die.

Several small boats were lowered from the ship's side, and the sailors rowed desperately, rushing toward the beach.

The bottoms of the small boats scraped against the gravel of the shallows, making a harsh screeching sound, and the sailor at the front stood at the bow, waving frantically at the people on the shore.

"Come quickly! Don't dawdle!" a sailor shouted anxiously.

When Richard rushed to the edge of the beach, the small boat was still a few meters away from the shore.

He stepped into the waist-deep seawater, grabbed the gunwale of the small boat with all his might, then hoisted Selina and Jinbao—who was tucked under her arm—up together and threw them directly into the boat.

The black cat did a side flip and jumped onto the small boat from three steps away from the beach.

Richard turned around, axe in hand, facing the demons charging toward him.