Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent! - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Aftermath
When Alex opened his eyes again, the sky was blue and clear. Warm sunlight shone on his face, making his eyes narrow slightly in discomfort.

A light breeze brushed past his face, bringing with it the aroma of a stench of rotting corpses mixed with that of the grass and dirt.

Alex suddenly bolted up from his position when the stench reached his nose, his face clenched as he groaned and tried to groggily remember the events of the night prior.

Soon, his memories started to become less and less blurry as the events from the previous night slowly unfolded in his mind. And when it all became clear to him…

He fell to his knees, short of breath. His whole body was aching with pain that he could only describe as an 11/10 on the scale, but he completely ignored that as he felt his stomach retching in even more pain after emptying its contents all over the ground.

Somehow, he miraculously survived the attack of that behemoth-like creature, only recalling the events up until he was thrown away by the last attack it launched.

A few moments later, he forced himself to come back to his senses and looked around, trying to make light of his situation.

‘Man this place really did take a beating.’ Alex thought.

Every other living person around him was dead. However he was only affected by the gruesome scene before him physically. Mentally he felt detached from the death and horror as he had seen many of his former friends and co-workers die in the mines, fully expecting himself to join them if not for the Primordial Expanse pulling him in to its realm.

Just when he was about to breathe a sigh of relief though, his face froze at the familiar sight before him.

[You have survived the attack of a Higher Lifeform, Galephant.]

Alex was exhilarated. The satisfaction and relief of surviving the attack of such a high level creature was so overwhelming that he forgot to read even further into the message.

But he didn’t let the joy of surviving consume him for too long as he realised that he could still be attacked again at any time.

He looked around with vigilance, double checking the area for any sign of life other than himself, only having his sight and hearing to rely on which wasn’t very reliable.

Since he only had such a limited area of coverage, he managed to stay fully focused as he proceeded to make his way out of the forest where he landed and back into the clearing.

However, when he arrived the first thing he saw was a huge rabbit peacefully gnawing on the corpse of the head soldier.

At this moment, the 1 metre tall rabbit seemed to have noticed something. Its long ears shot up in vigilance as it suddenly looked straight at Alex.

It had fiery red eyes with blood dripping down its mouth as it continued to chew through the leg of the soldier captain.

When he finally saw the rabbit’s mouth open for the first time, revealing the rows of razor sharp teeth, sweat started pouring down Alex’s forehead.

‘I should’ve run away the moment I noticed the rabbit…’

Alas, he didn’t get what he wished for.

At this moment, the huge rabbit’s powerful hind legs slammed against the ground, making an audible thud that Alex could hear clearly. Mixtures of grass, dirt and blood were kicked up in the air as the white furry rabbit rapidly neared Alex.

The gap between them from over a hundred metres to ten in just a few seconds. The rabbit pounced up in front of Alex, it’s fluffy paws hiding sinister and sharp claws that it used to slice at his neck with lethal precision.

Alex’s fight or flight kicked in as he forced himself to dodge the imminent attack. He subconsciously leaned backwards, dodging the attack on his neck but falling down on his back as a consequence.

Kreee! Screech!

The rabbit showed some verbal annoyance at missing its prey.

Before Alex could even recover, the rabbit landed, twisting it’s claws and swiped at his leg.

There was a slight groan and the razor sharp claws sliced through Alex’s shin like butter. Blood seeped out from the wound and dyed the rest of his legs red.

“Fuck! Shit!”

Panic and realisation dawned upon Alex it occurred to him that he might not survive this time.

He only had one option left at this point.

Attack!

Alex was no fighting prodigy but he did have a well developed body, forged by his many years in the mines. He grabbed the nearest object he could find, a shard of wood from one of the destroyed carriages.

When the rabbit came charging at him again, his eyes went cold as he performed the only swinging motion he was experienced with.

He swung the decent sized piece of wood over his shoulder, much like swinging a pickaxe.

Still laying on his back, he could only rely on the power delivered through this one attack before the full force of the rabbit came crashing on top of him.

Luckily, the huge rabbit was struck by his attack, offsetting it’s landing enough to be clear of his body.

But that wasn’t enough to take it out, in fact he only left a shallow wound on the rabbit’s chest, spewing a pitiful amount of blood compared to the injury it left him with.

Thus, Alex put aside any pain he was feeling and sprung back up to his feet, pointing the sharpest side of wood at the rabbit as he took the initiative this time.

“I’m gonna rip your stupid rabbit skull to shreds! Do you hear me, you little shit?!”

He clenched the wood tightly and twisted his waist to add even more power, this time he struck the back of the rabbit’s neck with as much strength as his body could muster up.

Almost immediately, the effect of this attack was much more obvious than his previous one as the huge rabbit began to wobble slightly.

‘It’s defence is several times weaker than its offence!’