Post-Apocalyptic Dispatch Society

Chapter 89 Endless Crisis (Part 1)

"Kya!" Xuna screamed in fright upon feeling a sense of weightlessness before turning around to see that she had fallen on the ground, one covered by soft grass. She quickly got up in a hurry, staring at the trunk of a tree before her, muttering in confusion, "What…is this place?"

She stepped forth for a moment, slipping all of a sudden when what seemed to be a strand of grass flashed past the position where her head had been, coincidentally missing her.

Alarmed, Xuna brought out her grappling hook, using the rope to create a shield while brining out her gun using the other hand, aiming at the entity behind her to spray a volley of bullets.

Only then did she notice that the entity resembled a grasshopper, a three-metre-tall grasshopper with thin blades for hands, possessing three pairs even. Its entire body seemed fragile at first glance, entirely made of grass.

But upon seeing the shallow wounds her bullets made, Xuna was shocked, spraying the bullets all across its body to see that despite the injuries, it was alright.

She hurriedly switched her gun to a canon form, unleashing a canon ball that exploded upon contact, splattering the grasshopper's body. Only then did it stop being a threat.

"Eww…gross!" Xuna stared at the grasshopper's limbs that continued to twitch as if each part was alive. Moreover, they began to slither towards each other in an effort to combine into one once again. Of course, Xuna didn't have the intention, obliterating them completely until the bits couldn't move anymore.

But despite that, she still noticed some wriggling bits, akin to worms that continued to move, 'It seems fire is the only option. But I can't use fire.'

Xuna then switched to the petrify gun, intending to use it from now on, which worked best against such creatures with endless vitality.

"Besides, where the heck am I now?" She wondered, looking around, startled to see that in the place of the sky was…ground?

There was a forest in the sky just like the one she was in now. Using her rocket, she took off to the skies, gaining some altitude to see that this was an…enclosed world.

The world was spherical, with an environment created in the inner surface of a sphere. Based on an approximate, she judged that the sphere world had a radius of three kilometres, which was pretty massive.

'Is this what that monster had been creating?' She wondered, thinking back to the changes in the creature's luck at the last moment. She had been on the island until then and before she realised, she was here.

There was no sunlight in this world, making it pretty dark. There seemed to be bioluminescent plants littering the place as it was their light that faintly illuminated the area.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of light, Xuna failed to locate the others. After all, it was brighter the closer to the ground and even at a heigh of ten metres from the ground, it was too dark to make out anything concrete.

There was a faint light emitted by everything around her, including the grass, causing her to be alarmed upon noticing a grasshopper standing right beside her, having crept up to her at some point in time.

Coincidentally though, she noticed it before it could go in for the kill. Xuna willed as her rope coiled to create a shield before her, tanking the slashes from the grasshopper when her petrifying beam slammed into it, rapidly turning it into a sculpture.

It barely took two seconds before the grasshopper had entirely turned into a statue. "Good, it seems to be more effective than my gun."

Unfortunately for her, Xuna had spoken out too fast as suddenly, dozens of leaves flew her way, sharp like blades. Her rope expanded in response, tanking the leaves that dug half into the rope before losing all momentum.

Though, this also meant that they were dangerous enough to pierce through her rope shield half way, causing her to expend more Nacre in repairs.

Kieee! Kieee! Kieee!

Shuttling sounds resounded from the branches as Xuna looked around in a hurry, hearing the clattering voices from all directions. And before she knew it, leaves slammed into her from all directions, coincidentally impacting her rope shield.

Xuna made a cocoon around her with the rope, expending the grappling hook in the direction of the sound as it stabbed into a creature before dragging it towards her.

"What the…a leaf monkey?" She was surprised once again, as the monkey seemed to be made entirely out of leaves. And it was these leaves that were being shot like bladed bullets at her.

Thankfully, once the grappling hook pierced through the monkey's head, it stopped moving. At least, it was easier to deal with than the grasshoppers.

But, things had no intentions to calm down as Xuna noticed a couple more grasshoppers coming her way. Moreover, the clattering sounds of the leaf monkeys continued to echo around the place.

"Wait, what happened here?" She was alarmed all of a sudden, staring at the place where the two grasshopper statues ought to have existed. But there were no signs of them anymore, startling her.

Moreover, even the faint traces of her footprints on the ground seemed to have been erased, making the place as pristine as originally possible.

Xuna was alone, unable to find any traces of others. She tried to sense the luck values of Yihan, ending up only seeing a massive sphere of luck covering everything, making the luck of anything else that might have been there.

Due to that, she couldn't track her companions.

'I'll get there soon. Just wait for me.' Thinking as such, Xuna began to run through the place, intending to find any traces of the others when suddenly, her breathing seemed to have slowed down as for a moment, her Coincidental Luck was shaved a tenth, causing her legs to slip and collapse to the side.

Her eyes widened in shock as Xuna noticed something akin to a tree trunk shoot out of the ground, its top like a bladed disc that opened and closed like a camera shutter. Had she not slipped, her leg would have been caught within the tree trunk and severed instantly.

Boom!

Xuna blasted a cannonball at the tiny tree trunk in reflex, shattering it apart to notice the twitching body of a rat beneath. Growing on its back was this tree trunk, one that seemed capable of turning hard and soft when needed.

The rat twitched, hurt horribly. And just like with the grass hopper and the leaf monkey, this rat too seemed to be made out of plant life. It resembled a tree trunk in appearance, like a wooden sculpture that had come to life.

It spanned a length of forty centimetres, a size too big for a rat, giving her the creepies. The trunk on its back was akin to a duct, allowing for the rat to strike from underground and sever the legs of any creatures roaming above ground.

To conserver her Nacre, Xuna switched to the assault rifle form, killing the rat as she remained in the place, frowning upon seeing the rat's body break down into pure energy and retreat into the ground. Following that, the soil gradually shifted, covering up all traces of its existence.

Fear!

Goosebumps appeared on her skin as Xuna felt like she was within the stomach of a prehistoric beast that was intending to devour her full. If not for her Nacre Generation Nails still supplying her with a steady stream of Nacre, Xuna would have lost all hope.

At least with this, she could brute force her way through.

She stared at an approaching grasshopper, petrifying it as she observed, shocked to see the statue dissolve into pure energy after a couple minutes had passed, seeping into the ground to vanish.

If only the grasshopper's body did this, she wouldn't have been as alarmed. But even her petrifying power was dismantled into its purest energy form and assimilated into the ground.

This meant that over time, even she might be assimilated into the region.

Xuna stared up, observing the bioluminescent layer of forest acting as the sky, "Either there's a way out here or I'll have to bore through the ground."

But before she did that, she had to find her comrades. Xuna coiled the rope around her body, fully covering her to act as an armour. Following that, she held her petrifying gun in the other hand, rushing through the forest while observing the changes to her luck values.

Boom!

She retracted her leg in reflex, watching a trunk pop out in an instant, missing her leg. She aimed the petrifying beam at it, turning the tiny trunk into a sculpture before moving on, failing to hear any sound other than those of the leaf monkeys.

"Yihan! Tuglai! Hukla!" She shouted their names, changing her petrify gun into the assault form every time there were no opponents near her. Following that, she simply blasted the bullets into a tree, intending for the sound to echo around and alert her companions.

That seemed to be the sole option to find them quickly, as even though this mysterious world was dangerous, it wasn't that big. Unfortunately for her, someone did notice the sounds she made, but it wasn't her ally.

"What the…why is it you?" Xuna stared at the figure of Kekua Fornol in surprise.

"Ahh…shit!" Saying so, Kekua Fornol turned around and began to run away.