B2 Chapter 277: Flight, Finale

Kaius saw the exact moment his least favourite jailor realised that his men weren’t doing shit to slow him down.

The foppish bastard cursed, his breastplate clanking as a beast clawed him while he was distracted. Dispatching the cat-like thing with a quick stab, he yelled something to his hunter companion that was lost in the general clamour of the battle.

He’d already analysed them, and knew just what he would have to deal with. Level two-thirty-four and two-twenty-three; it’d be a tough fight, but just the kind of thing he hungered for to solidify the sparking realisation he had building in his chest.

The pair set off—abandoning their battalion to hold the gate alone.

As soon as they moved, out of the corner of his eye Kaius saw Kenva snap off a shot. Silks swished as the leader of the compound flickered to the side in a burst of speed. His ally’s attack did little to slow them. The pair’s pace was unhalting—they wove through their men and spun around rabid creatures as they raced straight for them.

Grunting, Kaius assessed their speed as he flicked his eyes to the stairs. They were close—only fourty long-strides at most. Unfortunately, he knew there was little chance they would make it before they were intercepted.

“Big guys incoming; I’ll hold them off if you can keep us moving.” he said through his bond, readying his blade.

“Got it.” Porkchop said, claws swiping out to disembowel a guard who got too close—they went down screaming, entrails tripping one of their companions.

They died seconds later.

The second tiers grew close; enough that he could finally target them with his spells. He knew, deep in his soul, that this would be the deciding moment of their escape. The confrontation that would mean freedom, or a slow death.

Mana billowed from him in a torrent, a glowing storm surrounding his hand as two branching snakes of burning white light erupted free to crackle and scream. Joined by a shower of energetic orange motes, they streamed through the air at the speed of thought.

Even though the pair must have been briefed on his ability to cast without channelling, they were still caught off guard by the sudden bolts of lighting he had summoned with his Stormlash.

Chains of scorching electricity and bone-cracking reverberations bound the two second tiers, pained screams erupting from their throats as they were scorched from within. Both of them were too strong and durable by half to be lethally wounded by a single spell, but Kaius could see the blackening on their armour, and the way that blood seeped from their nostrils.

Additional arcs branched out, filaments touching those who found themselves too close to the epicentre of his attack. Beast and man alike seized, shuddering violently before they collapsed stone cold.

Weak and fragile compared to his main targets, they didn’t survive.

**Ding! level 69 Frontier Monitor – Leafscaled Defender slain – Experience Gained! Reduced Experience for slaying a foe of Insignificant Strength!**

…

**Ding! level 82 Human – Bloodspiller slain – Experience Gained! Reduced Experience for slaying a foe of Insignificant Strength!**

“Bring them to me,” Kaius called in his brother’s mind, tracking his team’s movements out of the corner of his eyes.

Kenva fired arrow after arrow into the roiling mass of beasts and guards, forcing them to take cover from her shots—and stopping them from interfering with his duel. Ianmus moved like clockwork, seemingly tracking half a dozen things at once as solar mana coalesced around Kaius once more—his Sundrenched Strength refreshed. Light lances snapped out immediately after, slaying the weaker members of the battle with precision beams that punched clean through skulls.

“Gladly,” Porkchop replied to his request.

Shoving back a particularly enraged deer, his brother punched the earth, and summoned a shardwall. It ripped upwards behind the second tiers, racing back towards Porkchop to shove them into Kaius’s waiting arms.

Still half stunned from his spell, they stumbled forwards.

He leapt to engage. One arm snapped up, a Hateful Nail flying towards the compound leader with such force that it cracked like a bullwhip.

The hunter by his side blurred—dual swords flashing in a shining arc as Kaius’s shard was sent spinning to the side in a shower of sparks. It erupted into a mired tangle of steel, nearly knocking a nearby guard off their feet when it slammed into their breastplate.

Kaius felt the yearning for violence grow within him, his bones aching for the heavy impact of steel on steel as the pillar in his soul started to croon.

Corporus was at the precipice of ignition. All he needed was a little bit more—a little more speed, a little more strength, a little more precision. Control, it was almost right. But not quite, there was something missing. Something fundamental about how he walked his path that existed beyond a simple master of the self.

He would find it soon—a hated foe and his lackey, second tiers no less, would be the perfect whetstone for his growth.

That resonance—that need to grow and change and adapt, he could feel it percolating in his marrow. Boiling in his blood. It was something core to him—core to not just his skills and kit, but his very being. Static things died, and he intended to reach the pinnacle.

“Keep the others safe. They’re mine.” He said, charging forwards with a scream on his lips.

“Don’t lose yourself.” Porkchop warned with a growl, before he annihilated a leaping double jointed spider-like beast with a heavy blow to its back. Hooking his claws into its prone body, he sent its carcass flying to bowl over a group of guards that were beginning to close in on Ianmus and Kenva.

“I won’t,” he replied.

Kaius had no intention of stopping to fight the second tiers, nor leaving his team to their fate—freedom was paramount, even if it delayed his ignition, so he needed to keep a fighting retreat. At the same time, he knew there was very little chance that the two elites of the compound had any intention of letting them escape without a confrontation.

Closing the last few steps, Kaius forced the silk dressed leader to halt his charge with a well timed Nail—forcing the silk-drenched bastard to parry.

A wolf lunged, sensing the second tier was distracted. The hunter beside them flashed in, one sword contemptuously flicking out to decapitate the beast who dared to intrude on their duel.

“You should have just stayed in your cell.” their eyes roved over his armour, narrowing at the sight of his gear.

“You have no chance of winning this, and your end will be slow and painful when Old Yon learns that you destroyed his vault.” the foppish bastard spat, jabbing at him with a quick thrust. His ally followed close on his heels, moving to pincer Kaius.

“Fuck off, prick—I’ve been looking forward to this.” he replied with a glowering smile, smashing the thrust to the side, before he forced their hunter back with a sudden riposte.

“How’d you do it, anyway? Those cells were impenetrable, let alone that vault.” the fop replied, blurring into a conjoined flurry with their ally that forced Kaius back step by step.

“What? You want me to kiss and tell? At least have the decency of telling me your names first.” he mocked.

“Oh my, I suppose I have been rather rude. I am Cronte, and this,” he gestured to the hunter behind him. “Is Old Yon’s tracker, Torin.”

Kaius looked sharply at the hunter. “It was you, wasn’t it? With that team.”

Torin gave him a hateful grin. “So you were awake—shoulda taken Polix up on his offer.”

Kaius grunted, restraining himself from grinding his teeth. He filed the name away, another for his list.

Two bastards that he wanted to kill, standing right in front of him. He hated men like them. Those that brought shame to the god of delvers, Kaand, by their reliance on parasitic growth.

He locked his eyes on Cronte. “I made a promise to myself, in that room, that I would see you dead. I intend to keep it.”

Tapping into a wound packet of mana, Kaius cast Expedient Shunt. Force exploded behind him, arcane weavings directing all force into accelerating him directly towards the prison’s leader.

Pulling on his wells of power, he infused his blade with Initiate’s Glyphic Bladerite, layering the fire of his runes with the glowing wire of his Mystic’s Rend. The combination empowered each part, his blade howling as he cut in a heavy downward stroke.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Cronte flinched, shocked at his sudden movement. Still, even with the initiative against him, the leader of the compound was fast—his gleaming rapier swished up, deflecting Kaius’s longsword in a rising parry, before he disengaged their bind and lunged into a riposte.

Twirling his wrists, Kaius leaned on the final remnants of his explosive advance to smash the thrust up and to the side, spinning with the motion to put his hip into a slashing cut at the hunter, Torin — the man already racing forwards with his twin blades glowing with malevolent force.

The hunter pivoted, both blades rising to meet his own as they began to glow with the force of a Skill.

Leveraging the full weight of his strength, Kaius pushed against their bind—before suddenly raising his shoulder to take a thrust from Cronte on his pauldron.

Enhanced by his skills, his armour held—deflecting the rapier upwards as it scored a line in the metal.

Knowing he had to move fast, he slipped his off hand from his sword’s grip, firing a Hateful Nail at the hunter’s knee. Twisted metal blurred through the air, punching through the armor to tear through flesh.

Torin grunted, falling back as he gripped the explosion of gore.

Kaius clucked his tongue at the lack of damage as the hunter kicked off with his good leg—creating distance to wait in the safety of a squad of defenders.

A knave he might have been, but the man was durable. Still, the blow had all but crippled him—even with the persistence of the second tier, he would be out of the direct melee — and out of Kaius’s reach.

Switching to his other target, Kaius stunned Cronte with another Stormlash, searing their flesh before Kaius could land a thrust through his neck.

Capitalising on the distraction, the hunter grabbed a knife from his waist, infusing the weapon with a Skill. He hurled the blade.

It shattered a moment later, razor sharp shrapnel punching clean through Kaius’s armour to shred his flesh.

Ignoring the weeping heat that soared into his gambeson, Kaius fired a continuous barrage of four of his precious Nails at the blurring form of Cronte.