Epoch of Twilight

When Luo Yuan clicked on the panel, there was a mild tremble in the giant lizard’s body. Its eyes were sparkling, and the wounds on its body were instantly healed. Its scales were shiny, and even its body size had transformed slightly.

That did not last too long. Within 10 seconds, the transformation had ended. It seemed to feel the transformation, as it shook its body and stood up. The fear in its eyes dissipated, overwhelmed by excitement and joy.

Luo Yuan kept looking at the attribution panel.The giant lizard’s current attribution was:

“Fighting beast: Forest lizard”

“Level: Dark Blue”

“Attributes: -”

“Power: 20”

“Agility: 16”

“Physique: 18”

“Intelligence: 4”

“Perception: 5”

“Will: 12”

“Experience: 1620/9600”

“Skills: Biting: 3; Tearing: 12; Striking: 8; Tail strike: 2; Survival skill: 18; Observation: 5; Breathing: 7”

“Natural ability: Sense of danger, fire breathing”

“Status: Healthy”

“Loyalty: 80 (Risk of betrayal if value is less than 50; full value 100)”

“Unassigned attribute points: 0”

“Unallocated technique: 5”

Luo Yuan was relieved, as its Loyalty did not drop too much. It was 87 initially. Such loyalty was considered high when most of the time it was only hovering above 70. With its current condition after going through so much, from experiencing weakness to being healed, it seemed like the effect of the anesthesia was almost wearing off.

The other skills had also improved during that period of time, where each of them had gained two to three points, especially for biting. As long as there was an increase in their attributes, the remaining five skills did not matter as much.

The Strength of the giant lizard was now terrifying. Although it was still at a dark blue level, its attributes were comparable to those of the light green ones. Diving into details, Lao Huang who passed away was in a normal unit, while the giant lizard was in an elite unit, and is now considered to be in a hero unit. It could now take on an ordinary light green level one-on-one in a battle.

Luo Yuan hopped onto the giant lizard, and looked up to the sky before he left. The sky was filled with an unusual phenomenon, with the lightning and aurora coming together, painting a clear picture of the apocalypse. There was a pungent ozone smell in the air, and what dumbfounded them even more was a typhoon about ten kilometers in radius whirling through the sky. Numerous flashes of lightning were surrounding the typhoon, as it started to spread rapidly.

He had never experienced anything as terrifying as this. What was happening was more petrifying than all the lightnings he had seen in his life, combined. The horrific scene gave him cold feet and hands, and his head was buzzing. The giant lizard ran faster and faster aimlessly; its gigantic body kept crashing into trees and shrubs. Luo Yuan who was sitting on its back could feel its body trembling. Fortunately, Luo Yuan was guiding its way and comforting it from time to time, or else it would have lost its way.

With the lightning striking into the forest, fires broke out and smoke was billowing everywhere. The unsettling storm had made all the branches stack up into a hyper-dense forest. Fire was inevitable before the apocalypse, and once it started burning, many mountains would be burnt to ashes if it was not extinguished immediately.

Fortunately, the forest fire didn’t seem so serious. The burning only lasted for a little while before it disappeared, and the smoke was cleared soon after.

In the apocalypse, not only animals go through evolution, but plants do as well. Facing a life-threatening fire like this, the plants had their own defense mechanism. Although they could not move, their response when put under stress was quick. When Luo Yuan passed by a plant which was struck by lightning, he noticed that it was releasing a milky-white substance to protect itself. Within a short period of time, the fire was put out and was prevented from spreading.

Along the way, Luo Yuan was afraid that he would get struck by lightning, but fortunately, he was safe. It took him approximately 10 minutes to arrive the cave. Luo Yuan hopped off the giant lizard and started running. He stopped, turned around to look at the giant lizard. He was worried that it would go crazy again out of fear.

What he did not expect was when the giant lizard was scratching the ground, its claws which were as thick as a giant excavator dug out soil weighing several tonnes. In a blink of eye, it had dug a deep hole. It did not stop the giant lizard from digging even more. Five minutes later, the hole turned into a ten meter deep pit.

It then laid into the pit, gathered the soil around it and swept them into the pit with its tail. It buried itself in the pit, he stayed there without moving a muscle.

........................

There was not much light in the cave. Although there was lightning outside, none of the light penetrated through the cave. Everyone was relieved when they saw him walking into the cave.

“What is happening outside?” asked Commander Xia, in his husky voice.

“The thunderstorm was getting intense but thankfully, no fire had broken out in the forest yet,” Luo Yuan paused and said calmly. Huang Jiahui sat by his side.

Everyone kept quiet, there was fear permeating the atmosphere.

Huang Jiahui held Luo Yuan tightly while slightly shivering; Luo Yuan patted her hands in consolation. Wang Shishi too sat by his side, held his the other arm tightly and asked,” Brother Luo, will we die?”

“Are you afraid of death?” Luo Yuan asked. Wang Shishi shook her head hard, and looked at Luo Yuan passionately. All her worries had gone away. “Sometimes I am afraid, and sometimes I’m not... but I don’t feel afraid whenever I’m with you,” she said.

Huang Jiahui would be jealous if she heard that in the past, but at that very moment of life and death, all she did was to heave a sigh. Luo Yuan forced a smile and said, “Don’t worry, things are not as bad as it seems... it will soon be over. You need to know that the earth rotates every day, and as long as we get through the day, the storm of the universe would disappear from our part of the world.”

Of course, those words were only to comfort Wang Shishi. Anyone with an inkling of astronomical knowledge would know that no matter where one was in the world, should the storm of the universe destroy the atmospheric layer, the high energy laser would scorch the earth. No living thing can even escape that.

As time passed, the thunderstorm outside did not seem to stop, but was getting more and more intense! The lightning would occasionally strike near the cave, causing them to feel the quake. There were even gravel falling from time to time. Everyone was terrified and prayed for safety, in their hearts.

“Does anyone want a cigarette?” Commander Xia asked, with a slight shiver. He did not look so good, and it seemed like he was trying to suppress something. Some of the guys accepted the offer but Luo Yuan rejected. Commander Xia crumpled the empty cigarette box, and lighted up his cigarette with a lighter, still trembling. He took a deep puff and asked in his husky voice, “Brother Luo was asking if we were afraid of death, am I correct? Do you what the conditions were like during our first mission? We didn’t fight for decades, nor did we have an idea of how cruel a war could be. No matter how good the training was, we were still newbies in this. I still remember our first mission – it was open burning. It was only the beginning of the apocalypse, and the entire crew was on the move. We took a ride on the truck through the hills, with the sole mission of burning the entire mountain. We were there as mobs, while I was still a deputy commander.”

“Once the hill was on fire, countless mutated beasts fled all at once... I still have vivid memories of that scene. Do you know how many of us died? Almost half of the team did, and most of them were shot by military judges. I did not open fire at all. I was just lying on the trenches, shaking. I was afraid, my body was weak and I couldn’t stand up to escape. It was a near-death experience.”

“I was in shock; I turned in my retirement report once I got back. The commander at that time tore my report and warned me that it should be the last time I attempted that, or else I would be treated as a fugitive who deserts his people. The punishment for deserters was a bullet in the head. He did not lie. Not long after, there was a bunch of people who were given the death sentence, followed by a major purge.”

“It was the first time, but there will be second and third time... The commander perished, and so did the deputy commander. Soon, it was my turn to take their place as commander. Almost every month, we had a large number of recruits joining, some of them couldn’t even hold the rifle properly at their first battlefield. A few months later, there were not many veterans left.”

“I was lucky that I survived. In my team, the members younger than 50 could live longer than I do. Technically, a veteran like me should not fear anything anymore, because it was considered a blessing that I’m still alive today. But still, I am still afraid whenever I enter a mission, as my wife and daughter are waiting for me. I’m worried that I will never see them again...” as Commander Xia went on, his voice choked up. He took a deep breath and looked towards to the sky without uttering a single word.

Some of the soldiers’ eyes were wet, and they started sobbing quietly.

Luo Yuan heaved a long sigh.