Chapter 534

Ajax P.O.V. Why did he take so long to chase me? Why didn’t I think about it before? All of the guards with me are probably dead and it woul

Ajax P.O.V.

Why did he take so long to chase me? Why didn’t I think about it before? All of the guards with me are probably dead and it wouldn’t have taken him more than a few seconds to kill all of them. Most of them had kids. What did they do wrong? How do they deserve this? And for what? The calm that comes over me lets me know I gained another Skill, but I don’t have the time to check it now.

 Whatever this poison is, it's something bad, I could probably heal it if I pumped it full of Life and Light Mana but that would leave me defenseless, the best I can do now is stop it from spreading past my shoulder.

As much as I want to run back towards the city, at full sprint I’d probably be back in ten minutes, that’s exactly the way they are blocking, I’d have to go through their mage as well. My best chance is to head for the dungeon and dive in, they won’t be able to chase me there. But that would be a long run, just over an hour at full sprint but they won’t let me just run. Still I have to try.

It’s a good thing the blow to his jaw landed solidly enough that it shook his brain, he’s having trouble with keeping his balance so he can’t chase me as well. Unfortunately that’s not a problem with the stronger one of the two.

“What are the two of you doing?” The first assassin snarls as he closes the distance, I can sense the mage also starting to chase after me but their Mana control is much worse, at least my attack did some damage there. “You should have killed him when he went for her.” 

I can’t help but question why he’s giving away information like this. Is he so sure I’ll die that revealing this isn’t an issue, or maybe he’s trying to make me let my guard down against a potential fourth assassin. I can’t focus on that, I barely catch a glimpse of the throwing knife thrown towards me when a plan springs to mind. 

“Watch it, he hass [Telekinessiss].” I can see the eyes of the assassin widen in shock at hearing that but I can’t take advantage of the opening, I need to defend.

I stop reinforcing my wounded shoulder with [Mana Siphon] and instead focus a good chunk of metal mana into the pauldon. The moment the knife hits I feel fire explode behind my eyeballs as my flesh tears off, and with it most of the poison. Healing that shoulder back up now should be a lot easier. 

Unfortunately the loss in speed from taking the hit is enough for the assassin to catch back up. “Slippery little worm aren’t you.” He chuckles grimly as I barely block the poisoned knife, this however leaves me open to his follow up kick. He’s too fast and too strong for me to dodge, best I can do is twist so that most of the momentum is used to send me away from them and in the direction I want.

I can feel my hip crack as the kick lands but I can tell from the way his smile turns into a scowl that he didn’t mean for it to land in that way as I get thrown away from his partner. I can feel two trees break as I smash through them, with no Mana infused in them and trunks only about as thick as my waist. They aren’t sturdy enough to do more than slow me down.

I need to get out of the trees and onto the open road. I can feel the Plant Mana spell their mage cast to use the trees against me, they might not be sturdy on their own but the spells would infuse them enough to get me killed.

“Sstay sstil.” The snake beastkin hisses as he  closes in as well. It’s odd, I can barely see the man’s outline from his [Camouflage] Skill, I track him more based on the sound of his footsteps and the rustling of the branches in his way. 

I have no choice, I use up another large chunk of Mana to unleash a strong blast of air between us to blast me backwards and them away. Another four hundred Mana gone and I can feel my Mana channels burn at the strain. 

Worse yet their mage somehow reacted in time, clearly Wind was a bad choice as while they didn’t manage to stop the boost it gave me the other two assassins appear to have only felt a gentle breeze.

I need something to slow them down so I can get some distance but I don’t have [Telekinesis] anymore, maybe using [Empowering Restriction] was a mistake. No, there is something that would work. Gravity would actually work a lot better at slowing them down. But can I get it to work, I haven’t managed before.

I don’t have much of a choice left as I have to slow down to dodge the three wind blades that cut through the trees right in front of me. It isn’t much but it means the two beastkin have almost caught back up to me again. 

I only put two hundred Mana into the spell, even that is fully supplied by my Stamina. As the spell hits all three of us buckle, our weight more than tripling, but I was ready for it. My knees bend the joints protesting the weight but holding where the two of them trip. 

This is my chance, I turn my back to them and run with all I have. My trick worked and now is time to put some distance between us. I can’t seem to get my breath under control. The blood loss is making it harder and harder for me to get oxygen to my muscles but I push on while also directing some Life Mana to my spleen to help make up for some of the blood I lost.

I’m almost out of the trees when the first assassin catches back up to me. He’s faster than me but I can see the snake beastkin is barely able to keep pace with me when I am pushing myself as fast as I can. 

I have a much easier time defending against the knife this time, unfortunately I don’t need his evil grin to tell me he’s doing it intentionally. It’s only so easy for me to defend myself because the way he is attacking is done specifically to slow me down letting the other two catch up.

As soon as the snake beastkin closes back in I use Gravity Mana for a second time. I know they’ll be ready for it so I try my best to time it for the moment they both take their steps. This time however I don’t increase our weight but reduce it. 

The small step I take launches me three feet off the ground but both of them have shot up into the branches. My chance to try and create distance once more. Unfortunately I barely make it two steps before I hear a tree truck shatter. The snake beastkin had a Skill to reinforce the tree trunk he launched himself towards me like a bullet. The force was so great that the trunk shattered where his reinforcement ended.

My only saving grace was that his Skill seemed to be Mana based, giving my [Sense Mana] a way to lock on to him enough that I could bring my shield out of my spacial ring in time to defend myself. 

That slows us down enough that the other assassin has already caught back up. I silently curse myself as we break away from the tree line and I once again try to catch them off guard with Gravity Mana for a third time but they are both ready for it.

The lack of trees makes it easier for me to pick up speed while running away keeping their mage focused on chasing me rather than supportive spells but it also lets the two physical fighters attack me from both the left and the right. 

That’s when I feel a fourth presence. This one moving much faster than any of them and coming right from behind me. I try to turn to catch a glimpse but that only exposes my right side. My rips explode in pain as I feel the poisoned knife stab into them. I can barely keep my eyes open as I see the snake beastkin closing in for the finishing blow.

We’re all shocked to see the beastkin’s head fly off his shoulders. A large halberd moving in an arc as a powerful kick forces the first assassin to remove his knife from between my ribs to defend himself.

“Rex.” I can barely mumble the champion’s name as he puts himself between me and the assassin. More than that I can also feel Aranor’s Mana gathering as he is about to engage the mage. 

I close my eyes. As much as I want to watch my surroundings I don’t have that luxury, already the poison is spreading throughout my whole body from the stab to ribs. I know I’m safe now that two champions are here to help me so I instead use [Meditation] to help increase my focus as I put everything I have into Life and Light Mana to help heal the much larger dose of poison working its way through my body.