B2 Chapter 279: Freedom, Finale

Kaius gasped, trunks blurring as he raced through the forest, every heavy step kicking up a torrent of dirt as the ground gave way beneath his strength.

They’d broken free of the encirclement, but even after putting a league between them and their prison, they still had beasts hot in pursuit. They just wouldn’t give up, worked into some unnatural furor by something unknown.

It rankled, and worried him.

“Come on!” Kenva screamed from ahead, vines exploding from her legs as she launched off from a branch high in the trees above, only to unfurl once more—questing for the next branch.

Kaius grunted and kept running, feeling the comforting weight of his blade as sweat soaked his back.

Behind them he heard the distinct crack of one of Ianmus’s spells burning the air, followed by a whining yelp, and the sound of a body tumbling in the dirt. A second later, the mage burst past him as he sprinted forwards—glowing white trailing behind him.

His latest skill, Starlit Alacrity—one that had proven immediately useful in their escape, for all that he struggled to turn while using it.

“Kaius, behind!” Ianmus cried.

Kaius turned, blade sweeping up into a high-guard as soon as the words left his friend’s lips. A beast flew through the air, wide maw open to reveal finger length fangs. Shaggy, with limbs down to its knees, it looked like a hideous combination of an ape and a bear.

Pulling on the mana in his soul, he cut—Mystic’s Rend coating his blade’s edge with a wire of screaming arcane.

The creature swung its clawed hand, each digit burning with an unnatural glow.

Blood sprayed as he split its skull, his skill detonating a second later and eviscerating the contents within.

**Ding! level 81 Tunnian Ambulator – Stonebreaker slain – Experience Gained! Reduced Experience for slaying a foe of Insignificant Strength!**

It’s claws still kissed his throat, crunching through layers of scaled metal to rake through his flesh. He grunted, ignoring the white heat of his wound as more blood poured to soak his chest.

More creatures converged on his position, smelling weakness—too many to fight head on, especially when every minute was another that a stray creature on the far edges of the horde would stumble into him.

Even if they had escaped from the meat of the army of monsters, there were still stragglers that moved to the south-west.

None of them had made the trek without injuries. Kenva, her chest soaked in blood from a near brush with death. A maddened horse covered in stone scales had burst out of the trees and kicked her in the chest before he could put it down with one of his precious casts of Hateful Nail.

Ianmus too, his robes were ragged and bloody below the knee from where a pack of cats had mauled his legs.

Even with their strength, their simple capability, a dozen unlucky blows had compounded—slowly but surely draining them of their stock of potions. It was an alarming prospect, one that promised a death by attrition if they couldn’t find a way to lose their pursuers.

It would have been manageable, if there was anything approaching an end in sight. There wasn’t; the beasts just came in what seemed to be an endless tide.

Whatever controlled the horde had clearly no compunctions about forcing their minions to pursue until they collapsed with exhaustion.

Thankfully, they had one respite. By some arcane reasoning which he couldn’t decipher, most of the beasts that were following them had remained in pursuit from their initial escape from the compound.

Of the beasts they had met in their flight through the forest, most only made a few tentative attempts on their life before they were seemingly compelled to continue on their migration to the south-west.

It was a meagre relief. Enough of the creatures focused on them with a dogged vengeance that they had picked up quite the motley retinue in pursuit.

“We can’t keep going like this!” his brother called, summoning fangs of jade as he crushed the neck of a ram that made the mistake of charging at him. Flinging the carcass to the side, Porkchop charged on, using his bulk to crash directly through the undergrowth. “There’s no end to them!”

“We don’t exactly have a fucking choice, do we?” Kaius replied, his frustration getting the better of him when he slapped a rabbit out of the air with his blade—ending its mindless assault. He raced forwards without breaking step.

How did this even happen? What madness had taken over this forest? It made no sense. A mystery that wormed its way into his mind, overshadowing even his worries of the suspicious flight of the compound’s leaders — or the risk of future pursuit from more powerful classers.

Originally, he’d thought they might have run afoul of some scheme of a third tier, but with how far reaching this problem seemed to be, it seemed impossible. No story or fable he’d ever heard had prescribed even those lofty figures with such powers. Hells, even the numbers that had assaulted the compound directly would have stretched his powers of belief.

No, it had to be something greater, something more vicious and dangerous than the might of a single man—even one of such power.

But what? The only thing he knew of that could compel such an ironclad obedience in these creatures were the Skills of beast masters. And yet…even a full contingent of beastmasters in the third tier would struggle to affect so many, and that was a proposition so ridiculous he refused to believe it. For one, beastmasters were not so common, nor were third tiers. For two, why the fuck would they be doing this in the bloody Frontier of all places?

Kaius couldn’t figure it out. He doubted he ever would, let alone when he had to focus so much on surviving. For now they just needed to keep running, and pray to the gods that they’d find some way out of this shit.

They were running too low on resources—even with the selection of potions he’d managed to find, and he had none of the time and focus he would need to locate more in the ring he had on his finger.

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As soon as they were out, they’d be slowly whittled down—their resources worn away at until they succumbed one by one. Only his brother had any decent chance of escape, with his natural resilience and obscenely high resources. Fucking greater beasts and their doubled resources—utterly unfair.

“Kenva, any sign of one yet?!” he yelled up to the canopy above.

With an ocular skill even more powerful than his, capable of seeing through all sorts of obstacles, she had the best chance of spotting the one thing that would get them out of their situation—especially with her mana-sight being even more sensitive than his own, and a vantage point from up high.

“Still looking!” she called back, leaping to another branch when a beast started to clamber up the trunk of the tree she was already on.

Kaius grunted in forced acceptance.

A bush rustled ahead of him—right next to Ianmus. He lurched forwards, kicking off the ground as he cleaved towards the coming foe. A spider lept free, meeting his blade in a shower of ichor.

**Ding! level 67 Deathfang Spider – Toxic Fang slain – Experience Gained! Reduced Experience for slaying a foe of Insignificant Strength!**

Flicking the muck from his blade, he kept moving. He’d hoped that they’d find an entrance to the Depths soon. It hadn’t taken them long to realise that a delve was the only real way they were going to escape their current predicament. They didn’t have the numbers to stand and fight, and there was no way that they had the Resources to run all the way to Deadacre—let alone what fate they might bring to any travellers they ran into even if they could.

Gods, he wished that he’d had the sense to pick a spell for Drakthar that was built for dealing with swarms of weaker foes. As much as he loved Stormlash and Hateful Nail, they were best suited to individual enemies of great strength, not a horde of weaker creatures that would drown him in their spilled blood.

The nature of his class already limited him in extended ongoing engagements where he couldn’t rest—he would gladly admit that not taking the opportunity to shore that up had been a mistake.

“I see one!” Kenva suddenly screamed, her voice rising high in excitement.

As the words sunk in, Kaius nearly stumbled as the heavy weight that was lifted from his shoulders. The insidious drowning reach of futility retreated, his pace quickening with renewed vigour.

“Oh, by the light of the spire, thank the gods.” Ianmus panted.