My Abyss Survival Diary

Chapter 69 Fire Spreads Across the Plains

For them, the eve of the decisive battle was destined to be a sleepless night.

Flannery and Klein sat facing each other around the campfire, with a tattered cloth spread between them, on which lay several disassembled gun parts.

Klein's modified pistol, with its magazine, barrel, recoil spring, firing pin, and more than a dozen other parts, was neatly arranged.

There was also a pile of parts in front of Flani. She sat cross-legged, her grayish-blue hair gleaming dimly in the firelight, her sleeves still rolled up high, revealing her fair arms.

"Are you done yet?" Flannery asked.

Klein glanced at the carefully arranged parts in front of him, then at the messy pile of iron blocks in front of Flannery, and a confident smile unconsciously appeared on his lips.

Frani ignored him and simply announced softly, "Begin!"

Klein's fingers landed on the magazine. His right hand was still wrapped in bandages, but his movements were still quick. The magazine slid into the grip, the barrel clicked into the slide, the recoil spring aligned with the hole, and the firing pin was pushed in.

The parts were assembled and integrated under his hands, gradually transforming into a complete pistol...

"alright."

Frani had already held the pistol steadily in her hand, muzzle upwards, index finger on the outside of the trigger guard.

She tilted her head to look at him, a slight smile playing on her lips.

"You lost again!"

Klein looked down at the half-finished product in his hand, then at the nail gun in Flannery's hand, which was already assembled and even had its stock locked, his face full of disbelief.

"How did you get here so fast?"

Frani put the nail gun on the ground, put her hands on her knees, and swayed back and forth: "I learned to assemble nail guns before I could even walk when I was a child."

"You were already assembling guns as a kid?" Klein was even more skeptical of life.

Simon sat on the other side of the fire, a harpoon across his knees.

He didn't participate in their competition; his eyes were fixed on the fire, the flames dancing in his pupils. His expression was calm, but his fingers tapped the fork repeatedly, clearly indicating some anxiety.

Professor Loris leaned against a large tree not far away, his eyes closed, fast asleep and snoring loudly.

There was a new smell in the air, dry, pungent, like wood burning in a furnace.

Simon looked up to the east and saw flames leaping out from the gaps in the tree canopy.

Orange light danced in the distance, burning a large hole through the fog. The wind blew from that direction, carrying scorching heat and the smell of burning.

From south to north, along the edge of the great cavity, it's like a red-hot knife slowly cutting through the first layer of skin and flesh.

Brienne's head swayed in the birdcage, her eyes opened, and she stared at the burning red sky, the firelight reflected in her pupils.

"They wouldn't have done this before. The Empire needs criminals to collect the flesh of their sins as evidence, they need samples, so they won't destroy the forest. Fungal carpet is the best filter, and fungal corpses are the best specimen collectors. If they burn the forest, they won't be able to obtain samples for a long time. The Empire has really gone all out."

The flames leaped across the sky, rising higher and brighter.

"But things are different now," Simon said. "That piece of meat is worth more than the entire sample from the first layer. They're trying to cut off our escape route and force us out of the forest."

Simon stood up and looked at the burning forest. The fire was spreading, and the wind was blowing in their direction. In a few hours, the camp would be engulfed by the fire.

"If all the trees around the Great Hollow are burned down, we will have no cover by noon tomorrow," he said to the crowd. "When the hot air balloon lands, the Empire will be able to see it from several kilometers away."

Klein holstered his gun and asked, "What are you going to do?"

Simon picked up his backpack from the ground, slung it over his shoulder, and gripped the harpoon tightly in his hand.

"I'm going to check the fire. You all stay here and don't move. Pack your things and be ready to leave at any time."

Frani jumped up from the ground: "I'll go with you."

"We don't need so many people in the fire," Simon said calmly, looking at her. "You stay here, Klein, and keep an eye on them."

Klein nodded, and Flannery didn't argue anymore.

Simon pulled a burning branch from the campfire, held it up in front of him as a torch, and walked into the fog.

The fire was closer than he had expected, and the wind was stronger than he had anticipated.

He walked east for less than fifteen minutes, and the smell of smoke in the air was already so thick it was choking. Every breath he took felt like swallowing a mouthful of hot, red-hot sand.

The heat rushed in from the front, evaporating the moisture from the fungal carpet into a white mist, mixed with black smoke, swirling between the tree trunks. The leaves on the canopy began to curl, their edges turning yellow and scorched. The crackling sounds of burning plants echoed incessantly, and the soil beneath our feet trembled slightly. This was not an illusion; the fungal carpet beneath the first layer of soil was shaking, sensing danger.

The fire line was 500 meters ahead. Simon couldn't see the height of the flames, but he could see the orange-red curtain stretching from the ground to the treetops, turning the entire sky red.

He prepared to continue. Just then, the bushes on his right suddenly burst open, and a ball of fire shot out from within. It was a fungal corpse, its entire body ablaze, its skin cracked open to reveal dark red muscle and grayish-white bone beneath.

It didn't pounce on Simon, but staggered past him, a fungal corpse without fear or pain, driven by instinct to escape the sea of ​​fire.

Simon didn't let it pass. He turned the harpoon head and aimed at the back of its neck. At a distance of less than five meters, the steel crossbow bolt shot out from the slot and accurately pierced the gap between the cervical vertebrae and the skull.

The fungal corpse's body suddenly stiffened, lunged forward, and crashed to the ground, sending sparks flying.

The flames burned even brighter on its body, and flesh peeled away from its skeleton, revealing its grayish-white spine and ribs.

Simon walked over, his boots landing on its still-burning back, and bent down to pull out a steel crossbow bolt.

Brienne remained silent in the birdcage, her eyes fixed on the fire, her pupils reflecting the surging orange-red.

Simon walked past the still-burning corpse and continued onward.

Flames licked at the tree trunk in front of him, burning the entire tree in half. The trunk collapsed with a crash, lying across the road and sending sparks flying.

The flames swept past him to his left, less than twenty meters away.

Simon remained calm, only slowing his pace to wait for the heatwave to pass.

The heatwave carried the smells of burnt fur and grease. Those living creatures, fungal carcasses, prey, and perhaps even humans who couldn't escape in time were all burned to ashes in the flames.

Amidst the blazing firelight, Simon sighed deeply, a look of frustration on his face. The crackling of the flames masked the sound of someone's footsteps, preventing Simon from noticing his approach immediately.

The moment has finally arrived...

"How did you find me?" he asked, looking ahead.

The metal fist shattered the tree trunk covered in flames, its towering figure appearing incredibly imposing under the firelight.

Steam billowed from the ventilation holes of the prosthetic limb, and the man in front of him assumed a fighting stance, his eyes gleaming with a light more intense than flames.

"You can't escape, Simon. Even with a thousand paths, you can't avoid meeting me!"