Chương 43: People? (1)

(1) (1) Rowan immediately began to run toward the sounds of battle. It was coming from the same place that all of the bloodspawn had come from. As he neared it, he slowed down and poked his head out to look down the tunnel. To his surprise, there were no more hunting parties that he could see. Not having to worry about that, he ran down the tunnel, following the screeches of bloodspawn and the screams of humans.

Soon, they came into his view, and Rowan knew why there'd been no more hunting parties coming down the cave.

Just like him, they had all gone back towards the sound of fighting. As he ran, Rowan formed a dagger of mana and placed it in his left hand. He would've liked to dual-wield, but his right arm wasn't quite ready for that yet. At the same time, he infused mana into his chains, wrapping them around him. He'd considered making some of the tiny needles he often used as an opener in fights against the bloodspawn, but he didn't want to risk hurting the humans in the battle.

But he could barely even see the humans; the sheer numbers of the bloodspawn blocked them out. But after a few moments, the mass of beasts shifted, allowing him to better see what was happening. There was a group of people in the middle of the horde, probably about five of them. They were fighting valiantly, but were obviously on the losing side of the exchange. Slightly slowing down his advance, Rowan thought up a plan. It was simple, but hopefully, it would be effective.

He would attack from behind, killing as many of the bloodspawn as he possibly could. Then, he would try to get the attention of the creatures and draw them away from the party. After that, he would either lose the beasts following him or, if he thought the group of humans would be able to hold out long enough, he would kill them all. But that didn't address what would happen if the bloodspawn were just too powerful or numerous for him to take on. So he asked himself a question: What if he couldn't win the fight?

But he already knew the answer. If he couldn't win, he would try to just save as many human lives as possible. But if he couldn't do that, he would flee. He had no debt to these people, and given what little experience he had with other people in Apocalypse Difficulty, there was a fair chance they weren't the best people. If he did save them and they turned out to be serial killers or something else like that, though… well, he would figure it out as he went. He took a breath and accelerated once more.

As he charged, Rowan began to prepare his opening attack. His chains extended and began to ball up at the end, forming something resembling a flail. Then, he attacked. The chains swung forward, aided by his [Chain Manipulation]. It struck the skull of a bloodspawn, and with barely any resistance, it kept going.

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 5] The flail crashed through the back ranks of the bloodspawn, hitting half a dozen of the beasts but only managing to kill one more by smashing it against the cave wall. [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 6] Immediately, the horde knew something was amiss, with several of them turning to face him. But none of them were fast enough to react. After all, Rowan was already upon them. Mana blade in hand, he tore through them, striking down one after another.

But there were too many of them to go for killing blows every time. In the end, he ended up just trying to incapacitate them or kick them away. He didn't hesitate to finish them off when an opportunity showed itself, though. [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 5] [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 4] Soon, he'd carved a path through the bloodspawn, revealing the people whom he'd come to save. There were six of them, three men, two women, and a… little girl?. He cursed.

Why was a kid in the middle of the battle? This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. They fought desperately against the encroaching beasts, doing everything they could to fend them off. A few of them glanced at him in confusion, but they were dragged back into the fight before they could so much as react. Concentrating on the mana within him, Rowan released several bursts of concentrated mana at the beasts around him.

They were blasted away, crashing into their brethren as they went. With the area around him cleared, he focused on the steel links that surrounded him. All of the chains wrapped around his body extended, whipping around wildly. But there wasn't much power behind the strikes; Rowan wasn't trying to kill them. No, now he was just trying to get their attention. For a few seconds, he continued extending his chains.

With their newfound reach, they were able to strike far more enemies, and as he continued battering them, more and more turned towards him, trying to eliminate the source of the steel links battering them. He spent a while longer trying to gather their attention, but it seemed he'd already gotten as many of them as he could. Then, he began to retreat, walking backwards while continuing his relentless barrage on the horde around him.

It was rapidly draining his mana, but he wouldn't need to keep it up for long—just until he was far enough away from the party he was trying to save that he was confident the bloodspawn wouldn't turn back and try to go after them. Although Rowan had mostly cleared the path behind him, a few beasts got in the way of his retreat, trying to stop him. They were quickly dispatched by just a few stabs of a mana blade. He continued moving back, bringing more than two-thirds of the horde with him.

Walking had been fine while most of his pursuers were still confused and unsure of whom to target. But now that they were solely focused on him, Rowan was forced to turn around and run. His body still protested, but he couldn't bring himself to care too much. It hurt a bit, sure, but it wouldn't really slow down his healing or do any serious damage. After almost thirty seconds of fleeing, he turned down a tunnel and retracted all but one of his chains.

Without his mind occupied controlling the lengths of steel, Rowan fully concentrated on using his mana. Immediately, several orbs of blue energy formed before him, each of them counting down the time until they would violently burst. Keeping an eye on the grenades, he summoned a second mana dagger and a dozen tiny darts. They floated before him, ready to be fired at a moment's notice. He continued retreating, and a few seconds later, the nearly two dozen bloodspawn chasing after him began pouring into the tunnel.

By now, the unstable mana orbs were almost ready to explode, but he took control over them, feeding them just enough energy to prevent them from deteriorating any further. Once about half of the horde was through the entrance to the cave, Rowan fired the darts. They pierced into the ranks of the bloodspawn, but to his surprise, none died. It didn't matter much, though. The tiny projectiles slowed down and injured most of the beasts at the front and, in turn, slowed down those behind them as well.

With a thought, he took the one chain he hadn't retracted and balled up the end, creating the now familiar flail. It would be somewhat difficult to use, since the tunnel he was in was relatively small, but he just shortened it slightly. It would also weaken the strength behind his blow, but the flail wasn't going to be the main damage dealer. Not this time. With a smile, Rowan launched his mana grenades forward, no longer holding them in stasis.

They dropped into the middle of his pursuers, the energy holding them together decaying quickly. For a few seconds, nothing happened as Rowan waited, anticipating all the kills he was going to get from this. Then, all hell broke loose. A deafening bang rang out as mana exploded from an orb, cracking bones and sending bloodspawn flying into the cave walls. [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 4] [Level 10 → Level 11] [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 5] But he wasn't done.

Rowan had purposefully left a second-long gap between each explosion by simply freezing some of the orbs earlier than others. A moment later, the next grenade burst, sowing even more chaos in the still reeling ranks of the bloodspawn. [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 3] [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 4] [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 4] And then, just after that, the final one exploded.

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 4] [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 3] [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 6] Rowan let out a little laugh. He just couldn't help himself. The orbs had performed… far beyond his expectations. But with so many bloodspawn packed together, he thought he should've expected something like this. He took a second to observe the damage he'd done and prepare himself for what came next. Then, before the beasts could regroup, he attacked once more.

A ball of chains crashed into the bloodspawn, smashing the already injured creatures to a pulp. At the same time, a dagger of glowing blue energy darted around, stabbing into any bloodspawn who were too injured to fight back or let their guard down. [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 6] [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 7] [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 6] Rowan looked at the higher levels of the enemies he'd killed, curious.

But it didn't take much thinking to puzzle out why their levels were higher. The explosions had mostly killed the weaker beasts, leaving the more powerful creatures alive but injured. With most of his enemies already down, Rowan moved in. It was time to finish them off and get back to the party he'd been trying to save.