A Dual Crest Summoner In Infinite Summoning World

Auren was falling down with a speed that would make a paste of him if he hit anything solid. Horses and teenagers were falling all around him, screaming at the top of their lungs. Auren activated his Unbroken Wind and turned around—taking in all the rapidly passing blurs of information. Falling was inevitable.

But he had to aim for the deepest part of the river. Auren gripped his sword tighter, using a Chi technique to swing it with utmost power—the force sent him away from the side of the valley filled with rocks. He was in the center now. Still, it was not enough—Auren kept looking down and up as long as his Unbroken Wind lasted to avoid crashing into another kid or horse.

Auren saw the son of the Baron-Lord and also the young siblings belonging to House Breagor. Maybe it was his eyes playing tricks on him, but Auren could swear there were ethereal purple, pink, and blue threads coming out of their bodies, trying to slow down their fall. The color shimmered in the sunlight like a rainbow.

At last, the effects of his mind technique ended and his small frame slammed into the water with a force that was enough to knock him out. At this point, he had become somewhat of a master at being hit by things face-first. Dying once did not make the achievement any less.

Auren felt the water, then the cold, and the weird mossy algae smell before his eyes could open up. He was in the river, but in the shallow part. Someone was pulling him out, holding him by his armor. Auren tried to force his eyes to open, but the water was irritating his eyelids. To him, he forced himself to open them the very next second, but when his eyes regained focus, he was already out of the water. His armor was taken off. He was in his dark particle suit with barely any other clothes on. The skin-tight suit had prevented his body from feeling the chilling cold of the river water.

Auren turned around on the dirt ground, coughing up all the water he knew he had swallowed. His ears were still ringing, but he could hear the chattering of a few voices around him. It was the siblings—not just them, he could see Petricia in the distance, lying unconscious as a few boys were trying to wake her up or were simply coughing up water while they themselves were trying to stand up.

Auren wiped his mouth and forced himself to stand up. His armor was slightly dented and his sword was missing. There were places on his body Auren could feel like they'd been hit by a solid roundhouse kick.

"Are you alright? Did you receive any injuries?" Auren heard a feminine voice ask him from the side.

It was the little girl—Althea Breagor. She was also soaked in water, but there were not many visible injuries on her or her brother, who was standing in the shallow water trying to locate others who had fallen with them. Compared to others, the two were relatively fine. Guess his hallucinations were not the work of his brain.

What was that? Some unique Chi technique?

But Chi was never tangible enough for people to see it with the naked eye. Besides, no black crest summoners could expel the Chi out of one's body like that. That was something else entirely.

Auren ignored that for now and looked high up the valley side. The topside was eerily silent.

How far had the flow of the river sent them? Did others even survive not one but two giant Basilisks with weird power to immobilize people? Was Hanzo even alive anymore?

What face would he show Kenzo and his mother if that were to be true?

That was the most common feature associated with a Basilisk—how could he not remember that simple fantasy creature fact? He should assume all the fantasy creature information he had learned through the modern medium to be true till proven otherwise.

"I am fine," Auren replied.

"Then help us save others.." the little girl ordered and walked beside her brother.

Auren was not that fine. Still, he washed his face and all the dirt. His black suit was still dripping water. Auren found some of his clothes and armor, washed them, and put them on a tree to let them dry under the sun.

Still, no one else had shown in the river—or on the top of the valley. Auren couldn't even see the top clearly; even if there was a man, he wouldn't be able to make out the shape. It looked different from where they were attacked. The hole from where the Basilisk had come out was not there at all—neither were any other such tunnels. Only a little was in his field of view though.

"How far are we from the place?" Auren asked, coming near the siblings.

Petricia and others had also woken up, coughing water or collecting their things while trying to get a fire started to dry up faster. In total, there were eight of them. It included Petricia, the Breagor siblings, the brat of the Baron-Lord, and others.

"I.. we don't know. We saved others immediately when we woke up from the fall. We must have come quite far in the flow," the boy said after exchanging looks with his sister.

"What the hell happened? Why didn't my horse run when I pulled the reins?" one of the older Breagor boys asked with quite a bit of frustration in his tone.

"The Basilisk did something.." another Baron's son answered. "It froze everything."

"Are others alive? Why is there no one calling our names?" one of the Cornvell boys countered.

"Because we are too far from them.." someone replied.

"We need to get back right now!" someone suggested.

"We can't.." Petricia said, pointing upriver.

Auren followed her hand and saw the waterfall in the distance upriver.

The hell.. Were the siblings saying the truth? They too had lost consciousness despite using whatever weird power that rainbow thing was..?

"We have to find another way back.." Althea said.

"Where even are we?" someone asked.

Everyone started looking all around them, but obviously, that gave no hints of their location at all. By the position of the sun in the early afternoon sky, if Auren had to guess, the north had to be the direction of Stormlands—so their village should be in the south. Their village was quite small though, and the forest continued till other villages.

But that would all come later—first, they had to find a way to climb up this valley somehow. Or find a way around it—which would be an even bigger journey than going straight into the forest from their village to find the Basilisk. It would take days to find a way back.

Instead of finding a way back, a much better option would be to head towards Stormlands. That only stretched for 70 kilometers from the village of Rootfast. They had already crossed over 35 to 40-something. Only 30 more and they would find at least some village.

"The north is that way—Stormlands will be easier to find than a way back up the valley.." Auren spoke up. "We already traveled over 35 kilometers. 30 more and we will find any village of Stormlands. Finding a way up the valley is like finding a needle in a haystack. Not to mention the Basilisk—which we can't face at all."

No one replied. Auren looked back from the sky and northern forest direction—just to find all teenagers present glaring at him as if he had said something very taboo.

"Are you insane?" one of the boys asked. "Or did you hit your head a bit too hard?"

"Why would we go to another region?" the son of the Baron-Lord said, crossing his arms while boring holes in Auren's skull with his red eyes.

"Because we can't go back. What is it? Are you all stupid? Can't you understand common sense?" Auren argued back.

"Stormlands is quite far from here. Finding our parents is a better option," Petricia revealed her judgment.

"Yeah, Dante's son or not—the boy is too arrogant for his own good. We should ignore him," one of the Cornvell sons said.

"Let's make some ladder or something to go up the river.. Only one of us has to reach up and then lower a rope so others can easily climb up," another genius boy suggested.

Auren wanted to ask who the hell had time to make a ladder—or the rope for that matter—before they all starved themselves here surrounded by dangerous animals. But it was better not said. This lot was the dumbest group he could have ever found to get lost in the forest with. His village kids had better sense than to waste time like that.

Auren did not voice his thoughts though and simply walked near his drying clothes and pieces of armor. The looks other kids were giving to his strange spandex-like suit were not good at all—if he remained a night with them, he would most likely find a knife on his throat with stupid brats asking for his thick clothes that would give them warmth in the night.