Spearbound Ch. 39

The warning growls were like a siren’s call to Kade. He wondered when they would finally realize that before realizing it was impossible.

They never learned, since I left none of them alive.

Three karnathis were waiting for him. Kade didn’t want to make them wait any longer.

His walk turned into a run, and the karnathi reacted by roaring at him while flexing their overly muscled bodies.

That was fine. Kade sensed that each one of these would give him a decent fight that could last a minute at minimum, and with the three combined, he didn’t doubt that it would be a tough one as long as he didn’t use his [Abilities].

He didn’t plan on using them. He wanted to train his [Skills] and get them to a higher level.

Kade was no more than ten feet away from the karnathis, ready to leap towards them to start the battle, when something inconceivable happened.

The roars of three karnathis quickly changed in pitch before they lost all aggression and looked terrified. With zero hesitation, they turned tail and fled as fast as they could.

The drastic change in attitude shocked Kade so much that he froze, even though he could have caught up with them since karnathis weren’t known for speed. At least, in his experience.

The one thing he noticed about these humanoids was that they were aggressive, combative, and eager to fight. Three traits that were all related. It showed how highly he thought of them.

They were almost perfect opponents for Kade, which is why he was so happy to find that they were worthy of a fight.

What the hell!?

Kade turned to see if there was anything behind him that scared them off, but the only living being there was the chick. It was flapping its wings angrily as it glared at the retreating karnathis.

He scratched his chin, confused as he had to accept the karnathis weren’t a monolith. Just like humans, there must be those who act far beyond the usual expectations.

Kade motioned for the chick to get closer before he approached the two statues and stood between them.

He didn’t expect them to react to him, but he was still disappointed when his expectations were confirmed.

Both were occupied. The urge to wait for the ones inside to exit was strong, but he had to remind himself that he no longer had unlimited time.

It wasn’t as if Kade had unlimited time before, but speaking to Eliza put that at the forefront of his mind. He had promised to meet her soon, and he did not know how much time would pass as he waited here.

The chick slid to a stop beside him, pulling him out of his thoughts, and started shrieking at the rapidly disappearing karnathis.

Kade stared at it with a raised eyebrow, making the chick straightened under the attention and widened its molten gold eyes.

It looked as if it was waiting for him to praise it.

“You need to calm down, baby chick.” Kade tilted his head. “And you need a name. What are you? Boy or a girl?”

The chick squawked in reply. It wasn’t constructive.

“… Right, lucky for you, I have a perfect name that could match whatever you might be. Hellion.” Kade pointed at the chick. “That’s you. Understand?”

It felt strange to sense its approval of the name. He knew it came from the bond, but it was still so new that any external emotions still registered as alien to him.

Kade glanced at the statues for the last time before sighing. “Well, looks like we’re not going to have any fun, Hellion.”

The chick gave him a commiserating chirp as it followed him deeper into the hallway.

***

The hallway was narrowing, returning to the narrow tunnel he had experienced at the start. The purple miasma had reappeared on the ceiling, the veins disappearing several minutes ago.

Kade had hoped that more statues would appear before the end, but that wasn’t the case. It was an uneventful speed walk that lasted several hours. Even Hellion stopped the squawking and scurried along behind him quietly.

He pulled up the distance to Eliza.

Eliza Brooks is 29 miles away.

It had gotten significantly shorter compared to when he checked just a few minutes ago.

“Eliza, how long has it been since I last contacted you?”

Hellion chirped curiously behind him.

“It’s not for you. Speaking of which, try not to act as crazy when you meet Eliza.” Kade looked behind him to see Hellion as clueless as ever when he gave complex verbal commands. It was more of a visual learner.

He frowned when Eliza didn’t reply. Several minutes later, he saw the exit.

Kade stepped out and shaded his eyes from the sunlight blasting down. The exit didn’t lead to a well like the entrance. It brought him to the base of a small hill.

He ignored Hellion’s excited squawks and studied his surroundings. It immediately seemed unnatural, reminding him of the forest he traveled through in the first Rift Zone.

It was dead.

The trees and other flora were perfectly fine, but there were no telltale signs of everything else a forest should have—the rustling leaves, the sound of small creatures, even that earthy scent. When he first entered this Rift Zone, those signs of life were abundant.

Hellion tried to rush to a nearby tree, probably excited to see something new, but he quickly scooped it up and pinched its beak, preventing it from making a sound.

“Shut it,” Kade said calmly as he rechecked Eliza’s location, slowly coming to understand the cause of this quiet.

The arrow showing the direction he needed to travel had changed. It now pointed behind him.

Eliza Brooks is 1 mile away.

Kade had to climb the hill, which he made quick work of. Less than a minute later, he stood at the peak, looking down at the destroyed settlement below.

“Fucking incredible,” Kade breathed out as he stared at the devastation. But he had only taken a brief glance at that. The battle on the settlement’s far side claimed nearly all of his attention.

It was hundreds of karnathis versus a lone figure on the other end.

A fault separated the two sides, preventing the army from physically reaching the lone figure without breaking from the pack. Some tried, but the ground quickly killed them by opening up and burying them alive as soon as they separated.

Kade wondered what stopped the lone figure from doing the same to the closely packed together army.

He saw a faint arrow launched high in the air before it multiplied into hundreds at its peak before it fell towards the karnathi army.

Kade immediately knew who the lone figure was.

He heard the roar of desperation as the karnathis tried to survive when the arrows bombarded them. Given that they only had the blunt club as a weapon, there was no defense for what they faced.

Only a few remained, having survived by using the bodies of their fallen brethren as shields against the arrows.

Eliza stayed behind the fault to keep her distance and used unknown magic to create sudden depressions underneath most of the karnathis that were alive. The ground quickly closed up as soon as a karnathis fell in, ending their life before they reacted.

There were still some left, but Eliza had collapsed. She must have run out of energy to finish the job.

Kade jumped into action. He sped down the hill and quickly closed the distance between him and the remaining karnathis.

They saw the opportunity to finish Eliza after she collapsed. If they hadn’t wasted time roaring out their anger at the devastation she caused, the karnathis might have even had the opportunity to succeed.

Instead, their actions allowed Kade to reach them before they could even cross the fault line.

It choked, wet gasp escaped a karnathi’s lips when his [Soulrend] burst the woods back and exited its chest. Kade didn’t slow down. He yanked his [Soulrend] out before it could turn into white powder and proceeded to the next target.

Those who survived would not be a challenge to him.

Kade’s world blurred for several seconds, his [Soulrend] plunging through heads, hearts, and necks as he made quick work of all the surviving karnathis. There were only fifteen, and one stab with the [Soulrend] at a critical spot was enough to finish the job.

The interface didn’t think it was worth showing him the levels of the karnathis he had just eliminated. They truly were cannon fodder.

He whipped his [Soulrend] to the side to get the purple blood off the blade before grinning at Eliza. “You’re welcome.”