On the other hand, Zarkhan has returned to flying after having regenerated for a while. Just as Azzim is ready for his final attack, Zarkhan is also ready to leash all the heat out of his stomach.

Zarkhan raises his head for a moment. He then takes it towards Azzim with his mouth wide open. A dazzling hot light comes out of the bottom of his mouth cavity.

Another burst of Corrosive Breath, much more corrosive, much hotter, with far more concentrated venomous gasses than before, blows out of his mouth. It seems that Zarkhan's instinct has also been realizing it too, that he should no longer underestimate that one warrior he is currently facing.

Azzim runs toward that attack with his dear life on the line, intending to block the monster's corrosive breath. Just before his body is hit by the monster's torrent, he depletes it with his sword away.

His Magical Short Sword, which has been strengthened by the dense dark red plasma Azzim drew out, is able to disperse the deadly Corrosive Breath of The Great Zarkhan. But Azzim hasn't stopped his run. He is far from finished yet.

Once he reaches close enough to the monster’s chest, he launches a powerful thrusting attack. A shock wave that is engulfed by such dense plasma hits the throbbing part of Zarkhan’s chest. The wave of the attack keeps piercing into the monster’s heart.

“Damn, you brat!”

Azzim is startled to hear the monster speak in human language. In the nearly 10 years he has been trapped in “Alorexa”, this is the first time he meets such a huge monster talking to him.

“Fuck! How could a wimpy kid like you...” Zarkhan grumbles while covering the hole in his chest with his both wings.

“Azzim, get out of there!” Leia shouts.

Shortly after, Azzim sees something starting to glow behind the thick membranes of Zarkhan’s wings. A massive heat energy makes Zarkhan explode from within.

Azzim closes his face with his short sword by instinct, yet he is blown so hard by the shock of the explosion. His body is slammed against the cave wall and falls to the ground. Meanwhile, Leia collapsed after desperately holding on to her position.

As soon as Azzim tries to lift his head, he sees pieces of flesh from Zarkhan's body scattered all over the place. While its body fluids are still releasing toxic and corrosive gasses.

In the end, he managed to kill Gatekeeper for the Sixth Trial. The portal gate’s color is also turning into blue, indicating it has been activated after the death of The Great Zarkhan. But the problem is, they are all in a critical state.

Zul and Gaston, as well as Leia, lay on the ground unconscious. While Azzim himself is still lying down, seeming to find it so difficult to get back up.

Even though the portal gate has been activated, everything would be in vain if they don’t leave the cavern immediately. Because the poisonous and corrosive gasses released by Zarkhan earlier still filled all over the cavern area.

********************

[Alert!]

[Your HP has reached 10% and keeps decreasing]

[Your Vitality has reached 50% and continues to decline]

********************

Azzim continues walking in a limp towards his friends who are all unconscious. He keeps on muttering, as if grumbling to tell the alert system to shut up.

But the notification continues to appear in the corner of his view, in small size, with a sound that is also getting quieter.

********************

[Alert!]

[Your HP has reached 5 % and it keeps decreasing]

[Your Vitality has reached 25 % and continues to decline]

********************

This is the problem being inflicted by poison damage over time. It’s not just decreasing their HP, but also lowering their Vitality level.

In fact, the level of Vitality status influences the internal healing process within the body itself. It also affects the effectiveness of HP regeneration. The lower the level of vitality, the less effective the healing process being done by the body.

But Azzim knows, as long as they manage to get to the portal gate, they will survive for sure.

When he gets near Leia, he seems to change his mind. He realizes that Leia's Vitality Aura is still active. It turns out to still help him and the others to negate the effects of the Nethertoxin and all the poisonous gasses that inflict poison damage over time to their bodies.

He realizes that he could only help one person at a time. So he chooses to leave Leia there so that her Vitality Aura can still help him and the other to withstand the poison. With a body so weak, Azzim drags Gaston and Zul one by one towards the portal gate.

After delivering them to the Seventh Trial Realm through the portal, he comes over to Leia. But as soon as he arrives, he falls down to the ground right beside Leia, inside the tiny circle of The Banner Of The Senopati Bayantika.

He pats Leia's cheek, trying to wake her up.

“Leia, wake up! The portal has been activated. We can advance to the Seventh Trial Realm now. I can't take you to that portal by myself. Please, wake up!” Azzim wakes Leia with a low voice, continuing to pat Leia on the cheek.

Leia opens her eyes. But she looks so weak. She glances around and finds the pieces of Zarkhan's body scattered around her.

“So, you managed to kill that monster, huh?” mutters Leia with a slight smile.

 “I have sent Zul and Gaston to the next realm. We can't stay here. That monster's Nethertoxin is still filling this place with its poisonous gasses,” explains Azzim.

Leia tries his best to get up with the help of Azzim. Before leaving, she notices that there is something odd about her HP regeneration rate. She realizes that The Banner of Senopati Bayantika is still stuck in the ground.

“Azzim, please take out the banner. Or else, it keeps draining my mana away,” says Leia.

As soon as Azzim pulls out the banner, the four colors of different aura that is filling the cave shrinks to its original point, only affecting the small radius around Leia. Three of the auras disappear, only leaving one green aura that surrounds Leia and Azzim.

 It is Leia's level 1 Vitality Aura which still has passive effect even without her activating it. It’s just that it has a lower effect than an active Level 1 Vitality Aura. As long as she has mana to consume, the aura will continue to help restore her and all of her allies’ HP, and also share a certain percentage of her HP regeneration to others.

But unfortunately, before they manage to take more steps toward the portal gate, Leia faints again and the Vitality Aura disappears as soon as her mana runs empty.