Chapter 43 – People? (1)

Chapter 43 – People? (1)

Rowan immediately began to run toward the sounds of battle. It was coming from the same place that all of the bloodspawn had come from.

As he neared it, he slowed down and poked his head out to look down the tunnel. To his surprise, there were no more hunting parties that he could see.

Not having to worry about that, he ran down the tunnel, following the screeches of bloodspawn and the screams of humans.

Soon, they came into his view, and Rowan knew why there’d been no more hunting parties coming down the cave. Just like him, they had all gone back towards the sound of fighting.

As he ran, Rowan formed a dagger of mana and placed it in his left hand. He would’ve liked to dual-wield, but his right arm wasn’t quite ready for that yet. At the same time, he infused mana into his chains, wrapping them around him.

He’d considered making some of the tiny needles he often used as an opener in fights against the bloodspawn, but he didn’t want to risk hurting the humans in the battle.

But he could barely even see the humans; the sheer numbers of the bloodspawn blocked them out. But after a few moments, the mass of beasts shifted, allowing him to better see what was happening.

There was a group of people in the middle of the horde, probably about five of them. They were fighting valiantly, but were obviously on the losing side of the exchange.

Slightly slowing down his advance, Rowan thought up a plan. It was simple, but hopefully, it would be effective.

He would attack from behind, killing as many of the bloodspawn as he possibly could. Then, he would try to get the attention of the creatures and draw them away from the party.

After that, he would either lose the beasts following him or, if he thought the group of humans would be able to hold out long enough, he would kill them all.

But that didn’t address what would happen if the bloodspawn were just too powerful or numerous for him to take on. So he asked himself a question: What if he couldn’t win the fight?

But he already knew the answer. If he couldn’t win, he would try to just save as many human lives as possible. But if he couldn’t do that, he would flee.

He had no debt to these people, and given what little experience he had with other people in Apocalypse Difficulty, there was a fair chance they weren’t the best people.

If he did save them and they turned out to be serial killers or something else like that, though…well, he would figure it out as he went. He took a breath and accelerated once more.

As he charged, Rowan began to prepare his opening attack. His chains extended and began to ball up at the end, forming something resembling a flail. Then, he attacked.

The chains swung forward, aided by his [Chain Manipulation]. It struck the skull of a bloodspawn, and with barely any resistance, it kept going.

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 5]

The flail crashed through the back ranks of the bloodspawn, hitting half a dozen of the beasts but only managing to kill one more by smashing it against the cave wall.

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 6]

Immediately, the horde knew something was amiss, with several of them turning to face him. But none of them were fast enough to react. After all, Rowan was already upon them.

Mana blade in hand, he tore through them, striking down one after another. But there were too many of them to go for killing blows every time.

In the end, he ended up just trying to incapacitate them or kick them away. He didn’t hesitate to finish them off when an opportunity showed itself, though.

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 5]

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 4]

Soon, he’d carved a path through the bloodspawn, revealing the people whom he’d come to save. There were six of them, three men, two women, and a…little girl?.

He cursed. Why was a kid in the middle of the battle?

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They fought desperately against the encroaching beasts, doing everything they could to fend them off. A few of them glanced at him in confusion, but they were dragged back into the fight before they could so much as react.

Concentrating on the mana within him, Rowan released several bursts of concentrated mana at the beasts around him.

They were blasted away, crashing into their brethren as they went. With the area around him cleared, he focused on the steel links that surrounded him.

All of the chains wrapped around his body extended, whipping around wildly. But there wasn’t much power behind the strikes; Rowan wasn’t trying to kill them. No, now he was just trying to get their attention.

For a few seconds, he continued extending his chains. With their newfound reach, they were able to strike far more enemies, and as he continued battering them, more and more turned towards him, trying to eliminate the source of the steel links battering them.

He spent a while longer trying to gather their attention, but it seemed he’d already gotten as many of them as he could.

Then, he began to retreat, walking backwards while continuing his relentless barrage on the horde around him.

It was rapidly draining his mana, but he wouldn’t need to keep it up for long—just until he was far enough away from the party he was trying to save that he was confident the bloodspawn wouldn’t turn back and try to go after them.