Chapter 31

The dry soil underneath my feet crunched and tore as I flung myself with full speed at Harten, the huge Tavungor.

Judging from the wide-opened eyes underneath his drooping eyebrows, he hadn’t expected that. Of course, if you were outnumbered, outgeared and outleveled, going after the biggest, toughest opponent didn’t seem to be a winning proposition. True – if I planned to actually take him on in a straight-up battle.

Say what you will about the huge, ape-like man. He had experience. Not only was the widening of his eyes the only sign of surprise. Straight away, his posture adjusted, as he stood on his hind legs, rising and rising into the air. At three meters of height, with long, heavy arms spread wide, he was ready for me. Now, I could see that his chest and legs also glinted bronze, adorned with heavy armor of some sort. Walking into that monstrous embrace would definitely lead to broken ribs and an early death.

I noped out. A few meters before Harten, I juked left and then sprinted right, as fast as I could. He roared in surprise, front limbs shooting out to catch me. Too late. He turned to lumber after me, but I was already past.

An arrow nearly nicked my leg, but I saw it coming in low and vaulted over the arrow, rather than slow down.

My actual target was ready for me.

Lassem, the lowest-levelled of the bunch, stood in a low position, bident ready, left hand light on the shaft. He shuffled around, feet moving in a way that showed that he was practiced in swift repositioning. The two-pronged spear flicked out at my midriff, more an attempt to distract than cause real damage, judging from the lack of real force behind the attack.

Unfortunately for Lassem, that was the exactly wrong move.

With a grunt of exertion, I activated two talents simultaneously. Deflect engaged, even as I, shield tilted to the side, took his attack and pushed it away. The look in his eyes as his bident was jerked sideways, tossing him to the ground, was hilarious. He cried out in equal parts pain and shock as my Wave of Reflection responded a split-second later, tearing through his midriff.

Then, I leapt back and readied myself for the real attack. Defense. Whatever.

She didn’t disappoint. In the seconds since I’d flung her kin on his ass, the archer had been repositioning herself to get a clear shot on me. An arrow tore through the air with a crackling sound, straight at me.

If I hadn’t expected it, the shot would’ve torn straight through my throat. But it was the exact point of me getting into close range. Seeing the enemy get himself bogged down in close combat and rewarding him with an arrow to the face? It was the only logical approach for her.

She looked fast and agile, even more so than her kin. However, she was less than fifteen meters away from me. Easily within range of my Wave of Reflection.

The arrow struck the top of my battered shield dead on. My punitive wave of dark energy struck her in the face a second later.

Then I nearly died.

It wasn’t the arrow itself. It did penetrate my shield and got itself well and truly stuck, further ruining the already questionable structural integrity of my shield. Yet, the momentum and damage from the missile itself were negligible.

However, the moment it struck my shield, an overwhelming avalanche of energy tore through me. It rattled my bones, made my teeth taste like metal and locked up every muscle in my body.

I couldn’t tell if I screamed. I could only tell that I smelled my flesh sizzling. Then, I felt another sharp pain, and I was falling.

The spear-wielder saved my life – by stabbing me. That realization didn’t arrive until way afterward. Right this moment, I could only sense my leg giving away under me and my shield flinging me back, even as a shadow fell over me.

I dropped to the ground, rolled frantically twice, and then forced myself back up, ignoring the insidious shooting pain in the leg and in my shield arm.

My mind felt sluggish. Apparently, Harten hadn’t missed me entirely, but since I’d already been dropping to the ground, I had avoided taking the brunt of the blow. Something in my shield arm felt wrong, and my shield was falling apart. But my arm worked. That was what counted.

“Kissal! You killed Kissal, you son of a whore!” Lassem screamed. He was still kneeling, spear outstretched from where he’d stabbed me. All pain forgotten, he leapt back to his feet and charged at me.

His loss of control was my salvation.

Harten, with his massive body, was already running at me, but clumsily had to hit the brakes and pound one massive front limb onto the ground in order to stop himself and avoid knocking the sprinting Lassem over.

Meanwhile, I flung myself back, my left leg barely working as I tried to avoid the flurry of blows coming at me from the completely berserk Adrastian. I sucked in my gut and turned, allowing one prong of the bident to scrape across my stomach instead of impaling my liver. The next strike struck the thick of my right triceps. Two additional blows went completely wide.

Finally, my swordbreaker managed to catch the next attack, and I frantically flung my hurt arm out and to the right. Even with my injured arm, my improved Deflect kicked in, and Lassem flew off his feet again, arms flapping everywhere as he pirouetted twice in the air.

I took one glance at the massive Harten, who’d regained his balance, and was now back up to lumbering after me. Then I ran. Secure in the knowledge that my life depended on it, I sprinted alongside the cliff’s edge, hoping that I wouldn’t stumble and fall, with my mind stuck inside my notifications.

I tripped over a fist-sized rock on the ground, stumbling toward the edge. I caught myself with a graceless windmilling of arms. Then I finally located what I needed.

Perforated muscle (medium)

Your leg muscles have suffered medium damage and will require a period of rest to recover. Exacerbating the damage can cause this debuff to worsen.

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– 7 to Agility

47 hours, 59 minutes remaining

Cure debuff? Y/N?

Yes! I slammed that mental button granted to me by the new rare version of Self-Heal as fast as I could, feeling an ice-cold surge rush through my leg and then… nothing. Blessed nothing. My shoulder still hurt like hell, my left arm was injured, and there were other debuffs waiting there – but I could run without issues.