After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World

Chapter 2116: Battle at the Cliff

Garan had no choice but to maintain an ice shield around them as they moved, sending spikes outward here and there, but the monsters were almost level 20 and there were many of them, so Garan was pushed on the defensive.

Althea was too, she was trying to use her vibration ability on the granite, but it was very difficult, though it wasn’t that surprising.

The land was very dense and her ’sight’ was limited to a few meters now compared to if she was just scanning a normal land. In those cases, her words would be like a blessing.

There was also the occasional avian. This one they had to kill as soon as possible, lest it attracted more of its kind, consuming another lot of their strength.

There was also a vague unease that they were being watched. At their level, intuition—no matter how minor—was something they always had to take seriously.

The visible end of the rope was not the actual end. Rather, it led to a large ledge area, and then it disappeared, seemingly into the rock face.

Althea used her earth skills. As time went on, her [Earth Vibration] skill had increased its scope in granite, little by little. Though the difference wasn’t much from how it was at first, he could still see several meters from where she stood.

There was a pocket behind the rocks—a hidden room. Althea said this to her husband, who then summoned an earth spike in an attempt to pry the rock off.

It was a bit careless, but monsters—and an unknown threat—were approaching them, so they had to hurry with this lead.

There were probably dozens within a few hundred meters of them, and the only reason they hadn’t gone to them yet was because of the wind, carrying their scent all over the place and thus delaying their approach.

However, just as Garan put force against the rock, something seemed to have activated.

Ringringring!

"A magic tool!" Althea gasped, realizing she had missed something.

It was too late to do anything about it, because something like a bell rang like an alarm, and it was followed by a lot of roars.

And these roars were getting louder by the second.

The monsters were approaching them!

It seemed like they had inexplicably activated a magic tool that attracted monsters instead.

The two had no choice but to focus on defending themselves. Garan wanted to clear the way enough for Althea to figure out the mechanisms, but unfortunately, too many monsters were approaching them at the same time, all with terrain advantage.

The two of them were limited to the ledge, but the monsters could crawl at the near-vertical surface with ease. Whenever the two of them took down a monster, another might appear at their blind spot, forcing them to either use too much mana to defend themselves, or sacrifice equipment durability.

The two of them had also been battling for a while, so they were already tired as well.

BANG!

SLAM!

Garan iced the area around them, making the surface slippery. Though it didn’t stop all of them—especially the avians and the lizards with suctions—it certainly caused many to fall down.

It took them an hour and most of their remaining mana to finally end the current mob. Unfortunately, it was still not over.

Just before the two of them could take a breather—

CAWWWWW!!

A massive avian appeared. It was akin to a deformed eagle with its beak divided into several parts, like a morbid man-eating flower.

And its size indicated that it was at least a level 35 monster.

And it directly swooped in and grabbed Althea, immediately shooting up before either of them could react!

"Husband!!"

Garan had actually already summoned his element to throw an attack by instinct. However, it not only managed to avoid it, but there was a gust of wind that weakened the attack.

He was unable to throw another as the bird shot up, way beyond his reach. Even Garan couldn’t throw an ice pick this far. Garan didn’t think anymore and followed after it.

But how far could he really go?

Unknowingly, Garan entered the berserk stage. Each area he passed through became a small ice age, killing dozens of monsters instantly. There was a high cost for such an outburst, but Garan never minded it.

Massive ice spikes seemed to grow along the mountain face, and Garan jumped over them—each one at least ten meters apart—with ease.

The bird, seeming to sense his approach, suddenly flew away from the mountain, but further upwards, forcing Garan to jump off the tall mountain.

He did not hesitate at all, not thinking whether his body could actually handle such a fall. Fortunately, a large slide-like structure appeared to soften his fall, all while also pushing him forward.

Still, the gap between them only widened.

And when Garan was already far away from the mountain, the bird suddenly flew back—and it flew even higher.

At a certain height and speed, Althea couldn’t think of others anymore. The pressure and whiplash were immense. Had she not reached level 20, she might’ve fallen unconscious long ago.

Right now, she felt so dizzy that it felt like her precious brain had moved. However, she couldn’t be careless and attack recklessly. Otherwise she’d just fall down to her death.

However, she realized that the monster was actually going higher and nearer the damned mountain.

One had to remember that this was a tall mountain. The winds...were unpredictable, and that was an understatement.

At the cliff face where the winds come from, wind was forced upward. Wind would accelerate as it climbed the cliff, creating strong gusts of wind. Finally, the cliff edge—the rim—was the windiest place.

There were sudden gusts and swirling eddies here. The wind direction changed often, and each gust was strong enough to blow someone off balance.

On the lee side, it was even wilder and could even be more dangerous. The rotating air, intense downdrafts, wind shears, rotor clouds, and sudden violent gusts could easily kill.

She could see that most avian monsters couldn’t actually climb beyond half the mountain because of this.

Except for the one who got her.

CAWWWWW!!

She flinched, feeling more anxious than before. She had thought the avian monster would just take her elsewhere, or maybe to the forest area. At least by then, she’d just have to find her way back to the mountain. There’s nothing a good aether letter wouldn’t do to help her reunite with her husband.

But that would be different once it went on the other side. Granted, it was the goal in the first place, but she wouldn’t want to do it alone. First of all, she just didn’t want to be separated from her husband. The days when he went on missions were already hard enough, but she was with him this time.

Another was that it was an unknown place, and her level certainly wasn’t very high in the eyes of the big world!

Regardless, she knew she couldn’t delay escape anymore. She looked around as she was shaken. They had reached the mountains, and the flight had become more turbulent. Thankfully, she didn’t eat too much earlier that day, or she’d have puked all over.

While thinking of how to loosen the claws around her body, she also wondered where it would take her.

Such rabid monsters do not procreate, so this wasn’t the case of a mother bird bringing food for her young.

A few seconds later, a strong gust of wind passed from somewhere, causing the monster to falter a little in its height. Althea saw this chance, but with the volatility of the winds, she couldn’t hesitate for a second.

Grasping the wind direction, she threw some of her earth into the space upwards, the wind loosening it and making it hit the monster’s face.

CAWWWW!

It flinched and jerked its head, briefly freezing mid-flight, causing the violent winds to push it back and down. The imbalance lasted for a good two seconds, and then it recovered, going up even faster than before as if to retaliate.

She was tempted to throw a bomb, but the chances of it missing were too high now, and she couldn’t waste anything. Instead, she took out her water—the acidic mix—and splattered it into the claws that held her.

Using her superior water control, she made sure nothing leaked out. Each waterball surrounded the claws that held her, slowly irritating its hard skin.

CAWWWW!

The claw indeed loosened up, and she found herself falling. Without further ado, she released a vine towards the mountainside, and it slid down along with her as it tried to look for things to grip.

It managed to grab a protruding rock and, with the other end wrapped around her waist, she stopped her fall. The force of her weight and the excess wind was painful, but it was better than being held up with an unknown destination.

CAWWWW!

Her heart stopped, and she looked around, grabbing another ledge to stabilize herself, the vines helping her stay flush against the mountain.

The surface of the granite mountain appeared to be relatively flat, but it was only until one got closer. There were plenty of unevenness and bumps, and Althea—hundreds of meters above ground—had to ’crawl’ along the mountain face to find a good hiding spot.

She activated all her stealth skills, hoping they would work against a monster much stronger than she was.

In theory, it should, since she had managed to hide from humans and orcs around level 30 with it, even if it was just for a little while. But she still couldn’t put down her guard.

CAWWWW

She heard the massive wings flapping and getting closer. It was only when it went past her from above that she felt a little better. She still didn’t dare to breathe.

Unexpectedly, it returned, circling around the area, and the next thing she knew, it was hovering ahead, staring straight at her!!

Althea’s emerald pupils contracted in shock. All this made her realize something: She was against an intelligent monster!!