Chapter 24 | Where?

Theo landed with a thump. Right next to him landed Nicole, in her hand a small wand pointed downward. As she was about to land, she released a gust of hot air and softened her landing. Still having a hard time standing, she stumbled forward and had to hold onto Theo to stabilize herself.

Then they dashed forward, as much as Nicole could follow along, unfortunately. The group of five hundred quickly separated into a loose gradient of people, the fastest ones further up ahead.

Theo and his slow friends were about two-fifths into the loose line of people running for their lives.

Spearheading the dash were Satou and The Lieutenant. There wasn’t a single person who could take that place instead of them. Only when they combined their forces could this mad dash succeed.

And succeed it did. At least somewhat. The disoriented wall of centipedes, now further away from the wall, was hard to get through. Normally, only the ones with some sort of mobility skill would have been able to get past by jumping across. But pedestrians like Theo, Nicole, or Long Tian would be left fending for themselves.

Not with the two, however. Satou crossed his daggers in front of his chest, while The Lieutenant lifted his longsword over his head. Their auras flared in a magnificent brilliance, mixing together into a light purple. The centipedes’ eyes darted around before settling on them.

Then the two unleashed their attacks.

A wall of destructive aura lurched forward and slammed against the couple of centipedes that were blocking their way. It ripped through their carapaces, obliterated their flesh, and then hurled away the remains.

The much-needed path forward was opened. It wouldn’t last long, but it was there nonetheless.

Now, all that Theo had to do was to get through.

Seeing that Nicole was starting to run out of breath, Theo grabbed her by the arm.

“Hey! What the hell- stop!” she objected. But Theo didn’t listen. He picked her up forcefully and threw her over his shoulder. Fortunately, the woman was quite lightweight. With his enhanced endurance, he could carry her without getting hurt or slowing down too much.

For a while, at least.

With more centipedes dashing in to block the open pathway, Theo and his friends barely managed to squeeze through. Just like that, at least two hundred people had been surrounded once again. Theo could hear sickening crunches and screams of agony behind the centipedes’ skitters.

With a gulp, Theo kept his steps quick. He didn’t have the luxury of conserving energy now. While some of the centipedes were busy with the carnage inside the wall they had woven of their own bodies, some chased after the main group.

Fortunately, they managed to enter the forest before anyone else was lost. The trees were a huge hurdle for the giant centipedes, and it would help the slowest keep distance.

Feeling that he was starting to tire out, Theo placed Nicole down. He helped her find her footing before letting go.

Then they ran. Long Tian and he had to keep switching Tanaka between them, Theo occasionally picking up Nicole to let her rest. Every now and then, a centipede would pull close. Theo would have to spend an arcane net to slow it down.

Thus continued their run for kilometers. It was only after the first twenty kilometers that the first casualty happened. A centipede managed to wiggle its body through the trees and slam square against an unprepared adventurer. The man was immediately thrown tens of meters forward, crashing against several other adventurers and causing them to fall down.

Even Theo himself was about to be hit, but he had managed to dodge with his superior senses in time.

Once he turned his head to look, Theo noted the fallen adventurers being run over, their bodies littered with holes by the centipede’s sharp legs. None of them was going to survive that.

Feeling dizzy at the sight, Theo once again turned forward and picked up Nicole. With each person that died, the higher the chance that he would be the next one got.

And while that was the case for the back of the line, the front wasn’t doing that well either. They had already come across a couple of stray centipedes blocking their way, only managing to get through with the combined strikes of several Green-level adventurers, Captains, Satou, and The Lieutenant.

It wasn’t enough for them to just kill the centipede; slowing down meant death, after all. So they could only utilize deadly, overwhelming strikes.

He placed Nicole down once again and slightly fanned away from the line. He gained sight of the frontline, wanting to check the situation.

And once he did, his eyes widened. A centipede dug out of the ground, to the left of The Lieutenant. It jumped with an unbelievable agility, dashing straight for the man’s throat. Although Theo couldn’t quite catch the rest, he could see one thing.

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The Lieutenant’s head barreled through the sky, a terrifying determination on his face, his mouth moving to try and utter some words.

The man didn’t go down without a fight, however. His headless body twitched. Jets of blood sprayed from his exposed neck. His traces released a swath of crazed aura through his sword. He stabbed his sword into the centipede and blew its upper body into smithereens before stumbling forward and crashing onto the ground.

And that was what caused things to devolve right into chaos. The first to react was Satou. Seeing that his fellow high-ranker was downed, he flickered and disappeared with a solemn frown.

Seeing that the spearhead was gone, people followed along. They dispersed, the group of two hundred separating into many smaller ones.

Theo felt a slight shift in the air next to him as Satou reappeared once again. A couple of steps ahead of them was the group of adventurers. As people quickly disappeared between the woods, only this small group of seven remained, heading directly for the exit. Shortly after, their running speed reached an equilibrium. They had now formed a wall of flesh, running forward at the same speed.

He looked to his left first, Satou running with an ashen expression. Theo couldn’t tell if it was because he had overexerted his aura or because he had just seen a man get beheaded right next to him before his headless body performed one last heroic action.

He shook his head to push away the memory, as it made him feel sick to his stomach. He couldn’t lie. When he had found himself inside that darkness, before transmigrating, he had been filled with excitement.

He would get some broken abilities, beat up some bad guys, and take down the demon king.

To this day, some part of him yearned for that. He wanted things to become simple somehow. To be provided all the ease a main character needed. After all, he was the Supreme Main Character, wasn’t he?

The one protagonist to rule over the others.

Then what was this?

Living the life of a homeless person, constantly in danger, sleeping on the floor night after night, his muscles aching from constant strain. In fact, if not for Satou, he would have been long dead by now. Wasn’t he better suited to be a main character than Theo himself?

He shook his head. It wasn’t the time to think about all that.

I should pick up Nicole again. She should be getting ti-