Chef in the Apocalypse

Baran continued to search within the forest, a frown deeply set into his brows.

"What the hell kind of illusion formation is this?" he muttered, staring at the compass in front of his face.

He felt as if he had been walking in circles for the past 30 minutes. As if to confirm his suspicions, he once again went past a tree which he had marked earlier.

Despite his status as a formation master on his home planet of Tartarus, a place known for its formations mastery, he could not find the core easily. It was almost as if he was missing a crucial piece of information.

While formations were standardized to some degree, there were exceptions.

Generally, formations could be categorized into 9 tiers, labeled 1 through 9 for convenience.

Baran was a tier 5 formations master, which meant he could create and destroy formations of the 5th tier with relative ease. The fact that he could not break this formation already meant that it exceeded his current level.

However, this did not mean that he was not capable of breaking through formations above his level. With enough time and diligence, he was confident that he would be able to at least escape its confines, if not break it.

He stopped in place and began to think deeply. It was clear that he was not going to break the formation with his current process, therefore he needed to employ some other methods.

Baran retrieved a spear from his inventory, his expression firm. He began to circulate his Qi, causing the dirt below his feet to be kicked up into the air, creating dust clouds in the surroundings.

Tightly gripping the spear, he pointed it towards the ground before lifting it in the air and driving it down with great force.

Instead of piercing the ground like what would usually happen, the tip of the spear produced sparks. A loud ringing sound echoed out, like the sound of metal striking each other.

Baran felt the spear quiver, sending vibrations up his arm, yet his face remained calm. It seemed as if he had expected this kind of reaction.

A ripple flowed out from where the point of the spear had hit, traveling outwards as if a stone had dropped in a stagnant pool of water. Baran stood still for a few moments, as if waiting for something.

After around 20 seconds, the ripple returned to his position, coming from the east. The next one came from the north not long after.

He continued to wait, yet even after 2 minutes nothing had changed.

This time Baran’s face turned twisted into a deep frown, he was clearly not happy with something.

"F*ck! Why is this place so damn big?"

He had used the spear attack to try and gauge how large the illusion formation was. By sending out ripples, he would be able to locate the boundaries of the formation which would help him get his bearings.

The fact that he did not receive a response from the western and southern boundaries meant that the formation was much larger than he had first anticipated. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

To make matters worse, he had passed the same point at least 3 times during his earlier travels. This meant that not only was the illusion formation large, it also meant that it was quite a high tier.

The fact that it could mess with his sense of direction so much, even though he was a 5th level formation master, meant that his chances of getting lucky and escaping were at an all time low.

Baran let out a sigh, trying to get rid of the frustration that was threatening to overcome him. While he was stuck in here, the enemy was likely recovering from his wounds, or possibly even taking out their army which was fighting below.

He suddenly felt a shiver run through his body, causing him to quickly jump to attention.

"What is this fluctuation?" He murmured, feeling a strong energy outside of the formation.

Yet in the next moment he suddenly relaxed, a big smile appearing on his face. Judging by the time that had elapsed, everything suddenly made sense.

"Looks like I don’t need to worry about our army. Garu should be able to handle everything." Baran said aloud, his tense body relaxing slightly.

He had overlooked the battlefield when he first arrived, finding no one but Jayce at the Core Formation realm. This meant that Garu would have no problems controlling the outcome of today’s invasion.

"Hehe, the Earth will soon be destroyed and we will receive our payment." He said giddily, rubbing his hands together.

While Baran was rejoicing, Jayce had finally recovered enough to divert his attention. Due to the restrictions of the Formation Disk, he was forced to remain within the illusion formation while it was active.

Yet since he held the disk, he was able to operate the formation with relative ease. He had practiced this beforehand, so Jayce was rather confident that he could deal with Baran inside as long as he was careful.

He could currently see Baran rubbing his hands together with a dark smile upon his face. Jayce frowned, he wasn’t sure why, but it could never be a good thing to see ones enemy making such an expression.

However, seeing that there had been no damage to the formation and that he was still trapped, Jayce let out a sigh of relief. He had been worried that Baran would be able to break through the illusion and return to the outside world.

If such a thing were to happen, he was sure that the army below would be wiped out instantly. After all, there was no one who could compete against a Core Formation cultivator but himself.

Before he had reached this realm, he thought that it may be possible for a few strong Foundation Establishment realm cultivators to at least hold a Core Formation realm cultivator back.

Yet now that he had reached this realm, he knew better.

Even if all of his Generals were to come at him all at once, he was confident in being able to take them all on without too much effort. Perhaps the only ones that would be annoying would be Heath and Colin who had practiced the Divine Body Arts.

Just as he had those thoughts, he suddenly felt a fluctuation in the outside world, causing his expression to fall.

"Core formation cultivator..."

Instantly he thought the worst. There was no way that any human could have reached the Core Formation realm yet, let alone during an all out battle.

It had taken Jayce over 3 days of closed-door cultivation to make the leap from Foundation Establishment into the Core Formation realm.

"There’s no way one of them had a breakthrough mid-battle right?" he muttered to himself.

If this was not the case, then it would be an enemy.

"Shit! I can’t afford to wait around here. Hopefully they can hold on..."

Anxiety riddled Jayce’s body as his mind thought of all the scenarios that could be happening on the ground outside the formation. He hoped and prayed that they would be able to last long enough for him to finish Baran off.

With that, he turned his full attention to the disk within his hands. If he wanted to defeat Baran he would have to give everything, he couldn’t afford to be distracted with anything else.

Upon the formation disk he could see where Baran was. It looked like he had stopped moving, possibly realizing that he was walking around in circles.

With a thought, Jayce appeared close to the position. As long as he had possession of the formation disk he would be able to appear anywhere within the illusion with just a thought. He planned to use it to his advantage.

His gaze fell upon Baran who had his eyes closed and was sitting upon the ground, seemingly in meditation. Now would be the perfect time to strike, as long as he could contain his presence and catch him off guard.

Without uttering a word, Jayce retrieved his purple sword from his spatial ring and gripped the hilt tightly in one hand, his face turning serious.

Jayce rose his arm into the air and began his slash downwards, despite being over 100 meters away from the seated Baran.

Just as the sword reached the top of his head, he willed his position to change, instantly appearing behind Baran mid-slash.

The slash was silent, with seemingly no power besides physical strength behind it. This allowed it to go unnoticed until the very last moment.

As the sword was about to meet the top of Baran’s head, he reflexively moved his body to the left, avoiding the direct blow. Whether it was pure luck or instinct, Jayce did not know.

Instead of landing on the top of Baran’s head, it hit the tip of his shoulder.

BOOM!

The sound of an explosion rang out as flesh and blood sprayed in all directions.