Chapter 26: Run

Jun recognized the warning signs in Yinling's eyes. The familiar prelude to her anger was unmistakable.

"Yinling, listen..."

His voice trailed off. He struggled to find the right words.

Her fists clenched, whiter by the second.

"How about we sit down and talk this out? Were civilized people, right?"

Yinling's eyes flashed dangerously.

"Jun, I swear, if you don't—"

Her threat was cut short. A deafening explosion shattered the night.

BOOM

The sky was momentarily brighter than day, an apocalyptic canvas lit by the explosion's fiery wrath. Trees were torn from their roots, catapulted skyward as if gravity had reversed its pull.

Covering his ears, a lone ringing sound was left over from the soundwave rushing past him leaving a trail of agonizing pain in his eardrums. 

"Fuck!"

Jun yelled in pain trying his best to keep it together. He knew he needed to act fast to get away from here otherwise whatever caused the explosion- scratch that, just the explosions alone would cut his journey short.

Without a glance at the impending torment, he turned around.

"Yinling!" 

His shout was urgent, his world silent around him. Fueled by a sudden rush of adrenaline and his instinct to survive. He tapped into his fire attribute as best as he could in his right leg. The blazing power surged through him, a strange but exhilarating force.

Yinling was already moving. Her actions were decisive, a clear signal to follow. They moved pushed out at a blinding speed, distorting the air around them.

As they raced through the forest, the world around them became a blur. The air itself seemed to warp around them, the sound barrier breaking under the force of their escape.

The rain of earth and debris continued to come nearer, each impact echoing the explosion's ferocity. Jun's mind was focused, every sense heightened as he navigated through the chaos. The priority was clear: make sure they both make it through this alive.

There were no warnings to foretell such an event but such thoughts were not needed now. He had never seen an atomic bomb explosion up close in his previous life but he was certain that whatever caused that sound could dwarf even the strongest atomic bombs on earth.

Rushing faster and faster already exceeding the speed of sound 5 times, he looked up and noticed they had gotten out of the range of falling debris. They had been flying, pushing themselves beyond their limit and more for minutes.

Slowing down a bit, his energy reserves had been drained by half, leaving him shocked at just how much energy he used even with his high energy control.

"Yinling"

Jun turned to his left to see her panting, her hands leaning on her knees in exhaustion. 

"She must have used almost all of her energy just to keep up" Jun thought.

Coming closer, he saw her face devoid of blood leaving her with a white complexion from exhaustion. Just the sound alone must have scared the living daylights out of her, heck, it scared him as well.

"Stay here, I'm going up to see if it's over"

Seeing her not respond, he guessed her hearing was blown too. Tapping her shoulder, he motioned up with his hands communicating that he alone would go up.

"Be... be careful Jun" Yinling managed to say, catching her breath.

Jun, unable to hear her, read her lips. He slowly floated upward, cautiously scanning his surroundings. Breaking above the treeline, he was met with an unforgettable sight.

The sky, once a tranquil serene scene now a blazing inferno, debris still visibly falling but out of their range. A giant mushroom cloud, bigger than even the tallest mountains in his previous world loomed on the horizon, dominating the night sky.

Such a sight should have grabbed his full attention, but in between the cracks of clouds and debris, he saw something strange.

"What is that?" Jun whispered slowly to himself, gazing at the sky.

Turning his eyes to the sky, a blue-like haze of what could only be described as energy was expanding in the sky above from the explosion. He almost would have missed it if there weren't so much dust and clouds.

While observing this ominous blue haze, he could vaguely hear his hearing slowly return, the sound of debris hitting the earth kept ringing in his ears.

Just about to go back down, he saw this blue-like haze, dozens of miles above the clouds slowly coming to a halt. Such a sight should have brought relief to him, but on the contrary, when he saw it, he felt the strongest feeling of dread wash over him.

"Oh, this is not good..."

Rushing down past the tree line, he quickly made his way to Yinling landing beside her.

"Yinling! We need to go now!"

"Wha-"

Without letting her finish, he grabbed her by the waist and flew with all his might smashing into tree branches in the process.

"Ju- Jun what the hell is happening!"

Yinling's voice was lost to him. The sinking feeling in his gut told him they were racing against something catastrophic.

As his energy dwindled, Jun's mind, amplified by his epiphany phase, worked furiously. He needed a faster way to fly. He quickly started seeing flaws in his method when flying utilizing it more efficiently but it wasn't enough.

Glancing upwards, he could see this blue energy slowly start to move backward which only served to increase that deep sinking feeling within his gut. 

Focusing all his thinking power, he knew he needed to invent a faster mode of flying. Thinking of the previous move they used when escaping that young master, he previously infused his fire attribute into the souls of his feet and pushed out giving them a short burst of intense speed.

The disadvantage of using that now was it consumed too much energy. When previously using it, they had their reserve of energy full and didn't go beyond their limit, only staying within it, utilizing it efficiently which made it possible for them to use it for hours in intervals of 1 minute.

Thinking of using this concept, he tried infusing his fire attribute into the energy being outputted to keep them afloat but quickly pulled back.

"That was close..."

He felt his energy slowly come out of his control when flying which would have made them crash onto the ground.

Glancing up again, the blue energy started to recede even faster than before making even his steady mind start to lose its cool.

"Dammit! Focus Jun."

He remembered another attribute, one that had often been his silent savior in life-or-death situations.

"Light"