Chương 24: The Sound of Water (2)

As Rowan realized that the seals might not have only been holding back power, but also the entity within the chains, he made a vow: He would never, ever break one of the seals unless he had no other choice. Not unless he was going to die anyway. But unless it came to that, he simply couldn't make himself do it. His experience with the presence had shaken him to the core, and in the briefest flash it had been awake, it had felt as if whatever was in those chains could've extinguished his life with a mere thought.

Or, Rowan thought, he might try to do so when he was much, much stronger. Strong enough that he thought he could stand against whatever was inside his chains. But when that time would come, he didn't know. Readying himself, Rowan took a swig of water and set out; he'd wasted enough time already. It was time to kill some more bloodspawn. — An hour later, he paused, hearing bloodspawn nearby. As he prepared, Rowan remembered something: he hadn't used his free point yet.

Taking a moment, he brought up his status screen. Name: Rowan Crowe Race: Human Class: Chained Lord (Inheritance) Level: 7 Stats: Strength: 13 Dexterity: 9 Toughness: 18 Vitality: 14 Mana: 12 Free Points: 1 Active Skills(2/10): Bind lvl 8 Mana Manipulation lvl 11 Passive Skills(0/10): Quests: Defeat the Guardian of the Forest or Defeat the Leviathan (Layer Quest) Defeat 30 Enemies Reach Level 20 System Credits: 110 He read over his stats, nodding to himself. But he didn't invest his free point. Not yet.

Rowan was torn between mana and dexterity. On one hand, he'd been running out of mana a lot recently, and he needed more of it. On the other, dexterity was by far his lowest stat, and if he needed to flee from any of the fungal bloodspawn—especially the doglike ones, who were terrifyingly fast, even at lower levels—he wasn't sure if he could outrun them. A long moment of contemplation later, Rowan's mana reached 13, and he closed his status screen.

Above him, he could still hear the faintest sounds of running water, as he'd refused to leave the tunnel that seemed to run directly beneath an underground river. Thus far, he hadn't found any way to the actual watersource short of blasting his way through the stone ceiling, but, hopefully, the day would be soon. With everything else done, he summoned a six-inch-long blade of mana and moved towards the sound of the bloodspawn. And a moment later, he rounded a corner, and there, before him, was a lone bloodpawn.

But it was different. Taller and broader, nearly twice the size of the ordinary humanoids. And, unlike most other bloodpawn he'd seen, it had no claws. Instead, it had a swollen, bulbous ball of fungi and flesh at the end of one arm. [Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 9] Rowan contemplated retreating and searching for more familiar prey, but before he could, the brutish creature noticed him. The bloodspawn let out a booming, deep roar. Then, it charged. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road.

Report any occurrences elsewhere. Rowan poured mana into his chains while simultaneously launching his floating blade forward. It shot through the air and struck the charging beast straight on, burying into its chest. But the bloodspawn barely reacted, only letting out another roar before continuing its charge. He cursed, stumbling back and sending his chains forward. The mana-infused links snaked around the beast, trying to hold it still.

But it was to no avail; the bloodpsawn's momentum made it impossible to stop. So he redirected his chains, commanding them to wrap around the creature's legs, trying to make it fall. And fall it did. The brute crashed to the ground just meters away from him. Before it could recover, his chains began wrapping around it, binding its limbs to its body.

He tried to manipulate the blade of mana already lodged within its chest, but it was trapped beneath the monster's mass, and without momentum behind the construct, his [Mana Manipulation] simply wasn't powerful enough to do any meaningful damage to it. And so, Rowan stopped trying to control it, instead focusing on creating a new blade. As he did so, he moved in, landing several strikes with his mace while it was still bound.

But he also knew it wouldn't stay like this for long; it was bound to break free eventually, especially since it not only seemed to focus on strength but was also the second-highest-levelled enemy Rowan had ever seen, behind only the ironclad ant and tied with the lesser chimera. Already, the chains were beginning to fracture, cracks popping into existence upon the links. A few moments later, the chains were even more damaged, and they were bound to fail soon. So he backed off, getting out of the beast's range.

But his new mana construct was complete, the blade launching forward as Rowan backed off. The construct rose up and then shot back down, straight into the massive bloodspawn's neck. It pierced deep, drawing a spurt of blood. But before he could do any more damage, the chains binding the creature shattered, and it let out a roar, leaping back to its feet. Using [Mana Manipulation], he pulled the blade back to his hand from the beast's neck, ripping the wound wider.

Even as a constant stream of red ran from the bloodspawn's neck, it didn't seem to care. The two faced each other, Rowan armed with a mace and blade of mana, and the beast wielding the fleshy ball that was its hand as a mace. Then, they charged. The fungal bloodspawn swept its arm forward, the bulbous lump of flesh moving deceptively quickly. Rowan dove forward, barely avoiding the strike as he landed on the floor. But he was back on his feet before the creature could take advantage of the situation.

Darting forward, he skittered around the beast's legs, plunging his dagger of mana into its leg. He got in a few more stabs and an entirely ineffective strike from the mace before the brutish humanoid swung its hammer-like arm once more, forcing him back.

Realizing the mace wouldn't be effective, especially against such a large opponent, he threw it to the side and continued retreating from the bloodspawn while forming a second mana dagger—he might not be able to control them both with [Mana Manipulation], but just stabbing with them really didn't require much mental input. The creature was slower than before, courtesy of its bleeding neck and legs. But it kept moving, lumbering after him.

As Rowan continued backing away and forming the mana construct, he realized something. The fungal bloodspawn before him would be terrifyingly effective against the ants; with such a powerful, if slow, attack, it could crush the insects and their armor with ease. And most of the ants weren't exactly fast, so they would be hard-pressed to dodge the towering beast's strikes. He could just imagine the creature tearing through the ants' ranks. He smiled a bit as he finished forming his second weapon of mana.

It was too bad he'd never see it happen. He was going to have to kill the bloodspawn, after all. He danced around the bloodspawn, stabbing into it over and over, worsening its bleeding each time. And as the beast began to slow even more, Rowan leaped up, using his high stats to jump all the way up to the creature's eye level.

Then, he thrust a glowing blue blade forward, piercing deep into one of the brute's many mouths As the bloodspawn let out a cry of pain, he kicked it in the face, pushing away from the creature. But as he launched away, the beast used its normal arm for the first time in the entire fight. And it was far, far faster than its bulbous hammer arm. The humanoid's hand shot forward, gripping what remained of Rowan's tattered pants. The creature pulled and slammed him down onto the stone floor.

Landing with a thump, he cursed and scrambled to his feet, trying to get out of the bloodspawn's range, but he just wasn't fast enough. The brute swept its bulbous hand outward in a wide, arcing blow. Unable to escape, Rowan just gritted his teeth and raised his left arm in a futile attempt to block the strike. The ball of flesh struck his arm head-on, and an audible crack rang out as his bones shattered. Then, he was launched backwards, flying dozens of feet down the tunnel.

He crashed into the stone ground and slid another few meters before finally coming to a stop. He tried to get up, but cried out as his entire body was wracked with pain. In the distance, he could see the bloodspawn slowly advancing, leaving a trail of blood behind it. He tried again, only to collapse to the stone floor. The pain was too— no. It wasn't too much. He couldn't give up so easily. It was just a few broken bones. He searched, desperate, looking for anything to cling to, to anchor himself. And he found it.

If Coco was still out there, he couldn't die without getting to see her again. He would find her. If he had to go, he would go after he'd scoured the entire damn world for her. Not like this. Not before he'd even started trying. Then, he stood.