Chapter 31 – Pugilism? (4)

Chapter 31 – Pugilism? (4)

Just like when he’d first arrived, Rowan stood at the opening of one of the many caves that looked into the broodmother’s chamber.

But this time, he was far closer to the water. So close that it was torturous that he couldn’t quite reach it. The waterfall was just over a dozen yards from him, and its source wasn’t far above him, either.

He wanted nothing more than to just reach out and take a long, long drink. But, reluctantly, he turned away.

His mana was mostly regenerated, still missing a bit because of the experimentation with condensing the energy he’d done earlier.

He already had dozens of ideas on how he could get to the water with his mana, his favorites being making a bowl of mana to harvest the water and actually flying with it.

But he knew they wouldn’t work. Rowan thought floating a bowl over to the waterfall was actually a good idea, but he just couldn’t do it yet. He’d never thought much about the range of his [Mana Manipulation], since it rarely affected him.

He was able to use the skill in about a ten-foot bubble all around him, and when he needed to fire projectiles past that range, he just gave them enough momentum to keep moving after they left his field.

But he couldn’t do that if he made a mana pot. After all, he wanted to get it back to him, and the waterfall was far out of his range. He’d even considered doing something with his chains, but nothing he thought of would work.

As he continued walking away from the waterfall, he moved to his second idea: flying. If he could form a platform or platforms of mana beneath him, Rowan thought he might be able to keep himself airborne and even move around.

But it only took a moment of thought to realize he was nowhere close to that yet. He could barely move around two small constructs at the same time, let alone bear all of his weight and move him around.

Still, even if flying wasn’t an option, he thought that he could use the pot if he was just able to find an open tunnel that was just a bit closer to the waterfall.

Shaking his head, Rowan refocused. If he couldn’t get water from there, he would just get it from the System. He was only three kills away from completing his quest, after all.

So, with his mana mostly full, he was more than ready to hunt some more bloodspawn.

Rowan continued through the tunnels, the prospect of his next set of rations putting a slight pep in his step. It would even be nice to get more food; he didn’t eat large amounts at once, but a little bit here and there added up, and his bag was more than half empty.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait long to find an opponent. Or, actually, three of them. Two hounds and a single normal-sized humanoid. It was perfect.

Except that the humanoid bloodspawn was different from the rest he’d faced. Rather than just fungi-infested flesh, the creature’s body was covered in bone plating, seemingly growing straight out of it.

The armor wasn’t everywhere, but there was enough of it that it would be hard to land meaningful blows, especially since most of it was growing in vital areas. Even its face was lightly armored, though the beast’s throat was still exposed.

Focusing, he brought up descriptions for the three bloodspawn.

[Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 3]

[Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 3]

[Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 10]

It was level 10. Even higher than the brutish bloodspawn that had caused his broken arm.

He’d killed a regular level 8 bloodspawn with relative ease, but had almost died and still had a fractured arm from fighting one of the brutes who was just one level higher.

Levels were good as a rough estimation of something’s strength, but he couldn’t rely on them. After all, he’d been killing enemies above his level for a while now.

Hopefully, though, the beast before him wouldn’t be even stronger than its level suggested. If it was, he didn’t know what he would do.

He was watching them from around a corner, and they still hadn’t noticed him, so he began to prepare. He formed a blade of mana but kept it floating alongside him, using his one good hand to hold his mace; it was the most effective against the hounds, and he wanted to get them out of the way before he engaged with the armored humanoid.

Around him, half a dozen darts of energy formed, ready to be shot forward at a moment’s notice.

Rowan still wasn’t great at controlling so many constructs at once, even when they were so small and what he had to do was so simple. He would probably have to temporarily sever his connection to his mana blade to fully control the darts, but he could always regain control of it afterwards.

As his chains came to life, wrapping around his fist and legs, Rowan prepared one last thing. He wasn’t sure how effective it would be, but he took a moment to compress some more mana within his pathways, ready to be used at a moment’s notice.

Then, with nothing else left to do, he set down his food bag and attacked.

As he’d planned, Rowan dropped his control over the larger mana blade to focus on manipulating the darts.

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The miniature projectiles shot forward, all aimed at the two hounds.

He wished he could’ve done some damage to the humanoid with his initial barrage, but his aim wasn’t good enough to ensure the darts would get past its armor, and he did’t want the projectiles to go to waste.

The needles of mana pierced into the doglike bloodspawn, piercing their flesh with impunity. But it didn’t kill them.

As the trio was still reeling from the sudden strike, Rowan arrived. Instantly, he drove his fist into the humanoid’s chest, the mace in his hand only adding more weight behind the blow.

As his chain-wrapped fist hit the creature’s armored torso, he felt the steel links digging into his hand before the strike sent the creature flying back. It was terribly painful, but he couldn’t let it affect him. Not now.

With the armored beast temporarily out of the picture, he focused his full efforts on killing the two level 3 enemies.

Before he could go on the offensive, though, one of them leaped at him. But its leg, already pierced by several darts of mana, failed it. The jump went off course, allowing Rowan to easily sidestep.

And as the beast flew past him, he thrust his fist out, once more using his mace to add more force to his blow. There was a sickening crack as something inside the hound shattered. Then, it was blasted into the stone wall of the cave.