Chapter 50 – Broodmother (3)

Chapter 50 – Broodmother (3)

Rowan cursed, staring up at the descending beast. With no time to dodge, he brought all of his chains up above him, holding them with [Chain Manipulation] in the hope that they would manage to stop the massive hound.

But, in the short moment he had before the three-headed beast struck the chains, Rowan had an idea.

So he waited, his chains still extended before him. Then, once the beast’s claws were just inches from his makeshift barrier, he released a huge blast of compressed mana from his chest, nearly all he had, sending it crashing into the chains above him.

They blasted outward, crashing into the beast and sending it flying away from him. But Rowan didn’t get away unscathed, either.

The recoil from the sheer amount of mana he’d just released forced him down into the ground with such force that he felt himself bounce back up into the air. At the same time, something in his ribs cracked under the pressure.

Grimacing against the pain, he pulled himself to his feet.

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 8]

Rowan froze. Had it been that easy? He hadn’t even done a proper attack.

The creature couldn’t have been that weak, could it?

Glancing over to where he’d sent the beast flying, he let out a breath and realized what had happened. At the beginning of the battle, he’d sent the armored bloodspawn guarding the broodmother flying, incapacitating it.

He hadn’t been sure if it would be able to rejoin the battle at some point, but now, it seemed, he would never know.

Because when he’d sent it flying away from him, the cerberus-like bloodpawn had landed directly on top of the armored humanoid, its claws digging into and finishing off the creature.

Then he realized he’d seen the beast before, way back when he first saw the massive chamber he was now battling in. So he looked more closely at it, bringing up its level.

[Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 13]

It had gained three levels since he’d last seen it, which made it significantly more dangerous, but Rowan still thought he could win.

Getting a kill notification for the bloodspawn did raise a few questions about how much progress towards the next level he would actually make, since the three-headed hound had been the one to do the killing, but he could theorize later.

For now, he was going to take advantage of the time it would take for the beast to get back to him.

As he rushed back towards the broodmother, preparing to do what he’d been planning since the moment the battle started, he thought. What even was the bloodspawn? It didn’t look like any of the other creatures that he’d seen.

Thinking back, Rowan remembered seeing it sitting by the broodmother the very first time he’d seen the massive blob of flesh. But he’d only seen one. Was it some kind of special breed? Or perhaps a particularly powerful hound that had somehow evolved or mutated on its own.

He shook his head, refocusing. The three-headed hound was charging at him with surprising speed, and, risking a glance behind him, he saw that a brute had managed to disengage from the battle with the ants, turning and running toward him.

[Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 11]

Rowan would’ve liked to have a bit more time to shoot more mana darts into the broodmother before having to enact his plans, but he would have to settle for what he had. First, though, there was something else he’d been planning.

While one of his daggers was still sawing at the bases of the tentacles, one of them had been carving small but deep holes into the huge creature’s flesh. There were half a dozen of them, all on one side of the broodmother’s body.

Charging forward, Rowan outpaced the tentacles, channeling mana through his body.

For the first time in the fight, he used the more stable condensed energy, draining a significant amount of his stores to summon six orbs of it.

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Then, once he was close enough, he inserted them into the holes his dagger had created.

With that done, he waited until he’d leaped back to safety. With more bloodspawn coming to protect his target, it was time to go all out.

With a smile, he took control of the tiny mana projectiles lodged in the massive beast’s bulbous body.

Then, pushing his [Mana Manipulation] to its limit, he twisted.

The darts moved in a spiral, ripping through the creature’s flesh. Its body may have been the size of a small home, but with enough darts, they were bound to hit something vital eventually.

The broodmother had no mouth to release its screams of pain, but as the tiny blades of mana