Chapter 26 – The Sound of Water (4)

Chapter 26 – The Sound of Water (4)

As the doglike creatures drew closer and closer to the battling vine strangler and bloodspawn, Rowan still didn’t move in. Instead, he began creating mana constructs.

Rather than making the six-inch-long blades he normally used, he formed much smaller ones.

Each of them was at most an inch long, almost like a needle. And he made six of them.

It was surprisingly easy to do so, especially when he would normally struggle with creating just two constructs, but it made sense; they were small enough that they didn’t take much concentration to form, and it also seemed like either their small size or amount of mana was enough to make them much easier to control than their larger counterparts.

He still had no shot at truly controlling all of them, at least not with his current level of mastery, but they were simple enough that he could do basic things with them, such as shooting all of them forward at once.

And so, he waited. The bloodspawn were much closer now, and he could actually make out some details.

Just like most of their kind, they were small, the largest barely reaching above his knees. But there were seven of them, and he couldn’t help but feel a tingle of fear as he watched their vicious charge.

Soon, they arrived.

Immediately, the snarling beasts leaped upon the strangler’s vines, tearing into them. They weren’t nearly tall or strong enough to reach or jump up to the vine strangler’s mouth, but they could still damage the parts of its body that were hanging down.

With the help of its smaller brethren, the humanoid bloodspawn began to free itself from the vines that bound it. The tide of the battle was turning. Then, Rowan jumped in.

Six darts of mana shot forward, piercing into the ranks of the beasts. They plunged deep into their flesh, but the projectiles simply didn’t do enough damage.

He had already made more, though.

Another volley, this time of only five needles shot forward. Instead of being spread out like the precious wave, they were all concentrated in a much smaller area. And they worked wonderfully, spearing into a jumping bloodspawn.

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 3]

Then, Rowan moved in. He still had some mana, but he wanted to save that in case he needed to use his chains.

So he launched and cut off mana to the larger construct he’d had floating alongside him for a while. It buried itself in the chest of the humanoid beast, but it wasn’t enough to kill it.

With his good arm, he wielded his mace. It wasn’t too effective a weapon against the larger bloodspawn, since they were annoyingly durable, but it was perfect against smaller, less durable opponents.

Despite the barrage of mana projectiles, the creatures were still distracted by the vine strangler. Taking as much advantage of it as he could, Rowan swept into them, tearing through the small bloodspawn.

With every swing, he strung another of the beasts, and the damage was adding up quickly. It wasn’t long before one of them fell before his assault.

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 3]

But it was too good to last. One after another, the creatures turned their attention from the plant creature to him. With a curse, Rowan slammed his mace down on a charging bloodspawn’s head.

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 2]

He hadn’t really thought out what was going to happen once he engaged with the beasts that far outnumbered him, but now that he was doing it, things were getting difficult.

Thankfully, all of his enemies were already injured, whether that be from his initial barrage of projectiles or rampage with his mace.

With them all slowed, Rowan was actually faster than most of the creatures, allowing him to stay afloat under the pressure of so many enemies.

And even though he was whittling down their numbers, even managing to take down the humanoid beast—which was, admittedly, already heavily injured by the vine strangler—he was still on the back foot.

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[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 5]

[Level 7 → Level 8]

Strength surged through him as his stats grew, and he swept his mace forward with renewed vigor, driving his opponents back.

After that, the tide turned. Rowan ended the four remaining houndish beasts, one after another.

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 2]

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 4]

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 3]