Supreme Magus novel Chapter 3596

Chapter 3596 Last Resort (Part 1)

"This is it." Nalrond pointed at the massive flow of world energy that everyone could feel on their skin like steam coming from a boiling pot.

"For a geyser it's a geyser." Lith looked around with the Eyes after filtering out the world energy. "But there's nothing here but a flatland. I was expecting a cave in a hill, a tunnel in the ground, something."

"Yeah, right." Nalrond snorted. "Great idea, if you want everyone to notice a perfect place to hide and fight with wild animals and other runaways for your privacy. Remember that Rezars can swim through the earth. We don't need open passages. Wait here."

He turned into his Agni form and dived into the soil, which rippled upon contact with his body like the surface of a lake. In a second, Nalrond was gone, and no trace of his passage was left.

Lith and Solus followed his movements with the Eyes of Menadion and followed him to a deep cave the size of a three-room apartment. It was big enough for six Rezars to rest comfortably and over fifteen to be packed as sardines but safe.

"Guys, I need your help." Nalrond's voice came out of Lith's and Protector's communication amulet. "Someone was definitely here and had to leave in a hurry."

He opened a Warp Steps from inside the underground cave, allowing his friends direct access without the need to carry them one by one through hundreds of meters of solid ground and rock with his bloodline ability.

The moment the dimensional passage opened, the late summer breeze freshened the cave while the stale air wafted out, carrying a familiar tang.

"The place smells like blood." Lith's nose as a Tiamat wasn't as sensitive as Protector's, but it was leagues above that of a normal human. "From what I can tell you, Salman was already wounded when he reached this place."

"Not exactly." Ryman shapeshifted into a humanoid Skoll as he sniffed the air. "Judging by the intensity of Salman's body odor, he lived here for at least four days. Recently he got hurt somehow and left in a rush. Look."

Protector pointed at the source of the smell of blood. A left handprint followed by a trailing smudge on the south wall wall, and a small dried-up pool, barely three centimeters (1,2") across.

The former stood like a black blot on the brown stone while the latter painted the soil a shade deeper than the rest of the cave.

"His right arm was wounded." Ryman described the scene as his predator instinct depicted it to him. "He went back here while pressing his left hand to compress the wound as it healed. Then he picked up whatever was on the ground and left.

"Probably with a Warp Steps. My guess is that someone found him and forced him to run away."

"That's what I feared." Nalrond went slightly pale. "The good news is that if most Awakened are still searching for Salmar around Gabash, it means that whoever is after him kept the discovery a secret.

"The bad news is that we have no way to know how long ago the ambush took place."

"Or if whoever was after Salmar took a sample of his blood to track him." Friya said. "If we got followed, the same might have happened to him. A Rezar is a huge prize, and we know the Awakened came prepared for the hunt."

"Good point." The Agni gritted his teeth at the idea of his clansman already captured or desperately running for his life. "Lith, Solus, can you use the Eyes to track Salman?"