There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 184

Chapter 184: Chapter 178. A Weak Man

"Alone?!" Zein raised his brow, looking around once more.

It seemed that this area was an entrance leading to the boss’s area, which was probably situated behind the wall on the far side of the cave, across from the small underground pool not far from their camp. When he strained his senses, he could hear the sound of battle in the distance.

But fighting it without a healer or a supporter?

"Yeah, he’s kind of...furious, hahaha--you understand, right?" Han Shin grimaced, and Zein could easily guess what made Bassena react like that; because it was Zein that got attacked.

"Mm..."

"So he’s venting right now, and it’s always best for us to not get in his way when he goes berserk like that--oh, that’s done, take it off the fire now," Han Shin explained while offering the crackers to the guide.

Zein stared at the gooey, slightly charred substance that Shin took off from the skewer. His mind was rather blank until the healer put that sweet sandwich in his hand. "Try it, have some sugar."

The guide didn’t budge, which reminded Shin of that time when Bassena was disappearing for hours in the Deathzone, trapped inside an isolation domain made by the Specter. It baffled him that Zein looked more worried about Bassena facing the dungeon boss alone than he worried about himself who just got attacked by the spirit crystal.

He wondered why these two hadn’t ’officially’ dating when they clearly fell for each other this much. No--he wondered why Zein gatekeeping himself, or his feeling, like this.

Did it have something to do with why the man attacked himself?

--the possessed person will attack the one they disliked most

The realization that Zein hated himself the most and probably...probably had been contemplating doing the same thing he did while being possessed before this was more shocking than the fact that the dungeon considered the guide as the biggest threat. It was devastating, thinking that his friend had been in such a bad space of mind without him knowing...without him being able to do anything.

Han Shin wanted to sigh, but he held back and swallowed it to not make Zein suspicious. Bassena had told them not to utter a single word about what transpired during the spirit attack.

Especially, not to Zein.

"Gus, Zhan, and Abe are there too, in case something happened, so you don’t have to worry," Han Shin said with a cheerful, relaxed tone to lighten the mood, moving the hand holding the marshmallow-cracker-sandwich into the guide’s mouth.

"No tanks?" Zein asked instead of eating.

"No, they’re guarding us in case there’s an ambush from the leftover minion, patroling," again, Shin pushed the marshmallow further. "It’s nice when it’s still warm and melting."

After the incessant pushing, Zein finally bit into the food and for a while, basking on the sweet taste he had been holding back lately. Han Shin continued to offer him food, and they ended up grilling some provisions along with Nadine and Carra, who came to join them for some snacks, and eventually, Kei and the others joined for a small barbeque party.

Zein’s complexion gradually looked better as he stock up on energy, but his eyes still darted toward the path leading to the boss’s area from time to time. At some point, he decided to get back to the tent so he didn’t have to keep his eyes plastered in one direction incessantly.

But not long after he sat down in the tent to have a moment of reflection, the cave shook slightly, with a thunderous sound reverberating through the dirt wall. Some stalactites even fell down to the water and the ground.

When Zein opened the tent’s flap to check on the situation, he saw the espers were back. The one who walked in the front was the spearman, Zhan, bringing a sealed tube with him.

"The core?"

"Here," Zhan handed the tube to Kei. To destroy the dungeon, they should destroy the core. But once the core was destroyed, there was only a small window of time before the dungeon--or the bridge between worlds--collapsed. So they usually brought the core back and destroyed it right at the entrance.

"Let’s go loot the boss and get out. I’m sick of this monotone dirt color already," Gus said, pointing back into the path they just came from. "Naoya is waiting there."

And like that, both espers went back to the boss’s area along with the surveyor and the porters. But Bassena, who came with them earlier, was ignoring everything and just walked straight to the tent. Or rather, he walked straight to Zein.

It was clear that the esper was tense. His eyes were hard and heavy and his shoulder was stiff. It was a normal thing to happen after a dungeon raid, when espers were still run by adrenaline and leftover resentment from a hefty battle.

The proof was all over his dragon-skin coat, which was splattered in a coat of green blood. He shed the ultra-rare expensive coat haphazardly on his way, letting it fall to the ground catching dirt and whatnot.

Staring at the hard amber eyes filled with anguish, Zein almost froze in place, before he shook his head slightly and opened his mouth. "Hey--"

He swallowed back whatever it was he wanted to say when Bassena embraced him, tightly, so hard it shoved him back into the tent, along with the esper himself. He staggered back from the surprise and the weight and found himself falling to the bed, with Bassena still clutching him tightly.

Blinking at the ceiling, he felt the body heat from the esper transferring to him, as they ended up half laying on the bed. Zein shifted his head, but could only see the platinum strands sprawled across his chest. Remembering the esper’s expression earlier made his heart clench and his gut churned suddenly. "Bas--"

"Uh-huh," the esper curled his eyes and leaned into the stroking hand. "So I can get special guiding from you."