Chapter 51 – Broodmother (4)

Chapter 51 – Broodmother (4)

Rowan took a second’s rest before preparing for his final charge against the broodmother.

It had already realized that he posed a great danger to it, as, in the corner of his eye, he could see bloodspawn breaking away from the moshpit that was the battle every time they could.

At most, he had thirty seconds before the first of them was upon him, and that was only because the vast majority of the creatures were already injured in one way or another.

Looking at the massive blob of flesh before him, he analyzed the damage. Seven of its over two dozen tentacles were severed, but that wasn’t what drew his attention.

No, he stared at the gaping hole in its side, left by the explosives he’d planted in it. It was nearly ten feet deep, reaching halfway to the center of the beast.

As he did all this, Rowan continued controlling the mana darts inside of it, ripping through the creature’s insides.

He’d already destroyed a few things that felt like organs, but now, he’d found something else. Directly in the center of the broodmother was something similar to the organs he’d already destroyed, except that it was much, much harder.

No matter how much force he put behind his darts, they couldn’t pierce it.

He kept pushing, but as the seconds ticked by with no progress, he had to do something different, and he was running out of time.

He glanced back at the bloodpawn converging on him before calling one of his daggers back to his hand.

Then, he charged.

As he moved, he did two things.

First, he sent four orbs of semi-stable mana flying towards the bloodspawn who were breaking off from the engagement with the ants, draining most of his remaining compressed mana.

Next, he began to channel more mana into the blade in his hand, extending it as far as he could. He’d done this before, changing the size of his daggers slightly to fit his needs, but it was nothing compared to what he was doing now.

He always made daggers or small darts because they were simple, but now, he wanted something more. Rowan poured everything he had into the blade, draining his mana pool until there was barely anything left. He even brought the other mana dagger and merged its mana into the weapon he was forming.

It extended, becoming a sword, then a spear, then a lance. Soon, Rowan found himself with a ten-foot-long mana construct, and unable to hold it with a single hand, he tried to use his injured right arm as well.

He couldn’t properly grasp it, though, so he wrapped a tiny bit of chain around the lance’s handle, pushing his two skills to their limits.

[Mana Manipulation lvl 19 → Mana Manipulation lvl 20]

[Chain Manipulation lvl 12 → Chain Manipulation lvl 13]

He would’ve used more chain to make it easier, but he simply didn’t have enough mana for it. Anything he had left was going into reinforcing the chains binding the two bloodspawn that had come to protect their leader.

Rowan clenched his jaw as he drove his lance into the broodmother’s soft body. His needles of mana were all pressed against the core of the beast, so he simply aimed at where they were.

He continued charging even as the blade of mana slid deep into the creature.

But as he grew closer and closer to the broodmother’s bleeding flesh, his lance still hadn’t struck the core.

Gritting his teeth, he kept moving forward, desperately hoping that the weapon would strike.

But he knew it was hopeless. The lance was just barely long enough to reach the massive blob’s center. So, closing his eyes, he ran straight into its flesh, doing his best to ignore the terrible feeling of his body pressing up against the creature’s bloodied body.

Even pressed against it, he continued forcing himself forward, squishing into the broodmother’s body. Then, when he could no longer go any further forward, his lance still hadn’t struck whatever the hard thing buried deep within its flesh was.

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But Rowan didn’t give up just yet.

All throughout the charge, his arm and chains had been pulled back, pressed against his body to minimize the difficulty of holding the massive mana weapon.

Putting everything he had behind the blow, he extended his arms, pushing them into the hole in the broodmother’s flesh right behind the lance. His mana and chain manipulation further boosted the strike’s speed, tearing through the broodmother’s flesh.

He felt it strike whatever the hard thing within the broodmother was. Then, the mana construct pierced through, stabbing into whatever it was that resided in the very center of the beast.

Stumbling back, Rowan took deep, gasping breaths, trying to calm himself down. But then he realized something: there had been no notification.

Had his gamble failed? He’d been banking on the fact that the core was something vital to the creature, but what if it hadn’t been?

He cursed, turning back towards the broodmother, only to find it spasming wildly.

A mere second later, its convulsions stopped, and Rowan breathed out a sigh of relief.