Chapter 57 - Prinoras (1)

"And... done." Zok sighed heavily, "Something to protect my body and feet. Perfect!"

Zok had all the right to be happy with his efforts. It was the first time he was doing something like that, but it was more than enough for him to sustain in the harsh cold weather. He quickly wore the boots and the robe. Zok could feel the warmth of his body returning to him as soon as he wrapped the clothes around his body.

"Let's put these to test then." Zok grabbed his spear and rushed outside.

Feeling warm wasn't good enough. He had to ensure that the robe or the boots didn't affect his agility in any way. He threw some attacks in the air in order to get used to the weight of additional clothes on his body. He could still feel the cold but it was tolerable and didn't affect his stats like before. The clothes he made were useful!

After sparring with air for a solid five minutes, he finally realised he was good to go. But something else started to bother him. It had been more than an hour since Zus went hunting when he had said he would be back within 30 minutes.

Zok thought maybe he got lost, but that wasn't possible. Zus had been stuck here for well over a decade. It was impossible for someone like him to not be able to retrace his path back. Which could only mean one thing. He was in trouble.

"Should I go and look for him?" Zok thought to himself, "The knowledge Zus has is precious. I can't let him get hurt or I might get stuck here forever with no clue where to look for the boss."

He whistled and Cero came charging out of the cave, like a Tulak in heat. This time Zok was thanking himself that he brought Cero with him and not Kaira, as Cero's sense of smell would help him locate Zus quicker and Zok could save him if it wasn't already too late to do so.

'Let's go Cero!'

The beast snorted loudly and began charging in the direction in which Zus had disappeared onto.

"I hope I'm not too late... damn it. I shouldn't have left him alone. If Zus dies... I will never forgive myself for not killing him first. Damn it! I need that knowledge!"

***

"Just my rotten luck..." Zus spat out a mouthful of blood, "Just when I thought I will finally be able to get out of this godforsaken place, I ran into these bastards!"

His situation was not looking good at all. His weapon, the wooden club, had been snapped in half like a twig by the pack of humanoid creatures surrounding him. Each of the creatures was twice as big as Zus was and were covered in bluish-white fur from the head to the toe.

Just one of them was enough to make Zus run for his life. But now, even that wasn't possible because he was standing in the middle of four of such creatures. Everything was fine while he was hunting, however, as soon as he was done doing that these Prinoras appeared out of nowhere.

Zus had been dodging these Prinoras ever since he stepped foot in the cold lands. As they were on the top of the food chain there, as far as Zus had been able to know about the cold lands. That was probably the reason they were so obsessed with killing him because they saw him as a threat to their hierarchy.

Either it was that, or they wanted to taste something new. Whatever the reason was, it wasn't looking good for him. He was injured, pretty bad. One of his arms was completely thrashed and his body was drenched in his own blood.

He could almost see the Prinoras smiling at him. After all, all four of them were aberrated beasts, there was no escape for him anymore. After years of running away from them, they finally managed to outsmart him and how he was about to become their food.

"Come on you bastards, I'll at least take one of you down with me!!!" Zus roared in rage and leapt towards the one Prinora who was in front of him, but as he did, a spear whizzed past his head and right through the creature's head.

With just a glance, Zus recognised the spear... it belonged to Zok! The next moment, what he was thinking was confirmed, when Cero charged into one of the Prinoras, plunging his several horns through the gigantic creature's body.

Two Prinoras were rendered useless and incapable of fighting in a matter of seconds. It almost felt impossible to happen, but it did and it was all real. Zus wasn't dreaming at all.

"You look terrible, even worse than I probably did when you rescued me.." Zok's cheery voice echoed in Zus' ears as he walked up to the edge of the small cliff Cero had just jumped off of, "So why don't you stay back a bit and let me do the hunting for you."