Chapter 40 – From Within the Chains (3)

Chapter 40 – From Within the Chains (3)

Rowan stared in confusion at where the orb of mana had exploded, taking a solid chunk of the wall with it. Then, slowly, his expression of confusion morphed into a smile. Whatever this was, it was amazing! It was like a grenade!

Thinking back, he recalled what he’d seen just before the construct had exploded. His new method of compressing the energy made it far more stable once he released it.

But it wasn’t perfect; it was just a collection of concepts he’d taken from the presence’s technique.

And while it was mostly stable, something in the way he condensed it was missing, allowing part of what was supposed to hold it all together to slowly deteriorate. And once it was gone, everything else followed after.

But Rowan wasn’t sure if he even wanted to try to fix it. The instability that came with an incomplete technique like his could make an amazing weapon. Especially if he could trigger the explosion at will…

He would’ve liked to continue to fantasize about all the different ways he could use the mana, but he was drawn out of his stupor by the screeching of bloodspawn in the distance.

Cursing to himself, Rowan began to condense more mana within himself; his body was in no condition to move, much less fight, so his mana and chains were the only things available to him.

As he continued compressing his mana, an idea came to him.

Immediately, two orbs of energy appeared before him. But Rowan didn’t try to stop them from deteriorating. Instead, he simply continued his preparations.

And once the two constructs were just seconds from a devastating explosion, he took control of them, stopping the process. Then, he continued his preparations.

About a minute later, the bloodspawn arrived, drawn by the sound of the explosion. Rowan knew that using more of the mana grenades came with the risk of drawing more enemies, but despite the strength of the constructs, they weren’t that loud.

And with the stone tunnels as insulation, anything that heard them would have to be relatively close. That meant that the bloodspawn coming after him were probably the only ones in the area, so he wouldn’t have to wait

Rowan watched as the bloodspawn approached. There were five of them, three humanoids and two hounds.

None of them were particularly powerful, with the strongest being level 7. Still, their numbers were dangerous, especially while he was incapacitated.

Behind the two mana grenades, he formed half a dozen tiny darts. Then, he formed a dozen more; his control had come a long way, and even with him now controlling seventeen constructs, he could do it.

It was still impossible to do any complex maneuvers with so many at once, but he didn’t need to. Once he had a clear path to the group of bloodspawn, Rowan launched the projectiles.

The creatures tried to react, but they were too slow.

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 3]

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 6]

With just the first volley, Rowan had killed two of them, a humanoid and a hound. The rest paused for a moment before charging once more. But they only made it a few steps before the two mana grenades exploded, blasting brilliant blue energy in every direction.

When he’d first launched them, the orbs had simply bounced off of the bloodspawn, doing little damage. But they’d bounced back towards him, away from his targets. Still, in the few seconds before they were to explode, the bloodspawn had charged. And now, they were directly above the explosives.

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 6]

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 2]

Rowan let out a little laugh. Just like that, only one beast remained. And it was already weakened from the attacks it’d endured. It let out a roar and charged, ignoring its wounds. But he was ready.

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With a thought, he sent his chains after the creature. It was strange, since he usually used his arms to do so, but his arms were in no condition to move. And, in the end, it really wasn’t necessary, anyway.

It was just like how he used to say ‘Bind’ each time he activated the skill. It’d helped him better use and visualize it, but it also had the obvious weakness of signaling the skill activation to his opponents—not that it had mattered against the ant.