Chương 25: The Sound of Water (3)

Rowan moved forward, one shuffling step at a time. In one hand, he gripped a blade of glowing blue energy. But the other arm was limp, the bones shattered. Next to him floated his second mana construct, drifting forward. And so, he and the bloodspawn limped toward each other, both bleeding and maimed. As they grew near, Rowan raised his arm and spoke.

"Bind." His chains sprang to life once more, empowered by all but the last of his mana. After all, what point was there in conserving it anymore? He could very well be dead in a few moments. As the chains shot forward, steel links sliding towards the beast, so did the blade of mana floating alongside him. It flew towards the creature's neck, searching to enlarge the wound already there, and the beast raised its arm to block. But Rowan twisted the projectile's trajectory, curving it over the bloodspawn's arm.

It stabbed deep into the creature's flesh, drawing an agonized screech. [Mana Manipulation lvl 11 → Mana Manipulation lvl 12] Then, his chains reached it, snaking around its body. They wrapped around its already existing wounds, grinding against them. And as the brute screamed ever louder, the chains squeezed, pushing into the bloodspawn's exposed flesh. But not all of the chains focused on inflicting pain. Some of them made their way to its hammer arm, winding around it and binding it to the beast's body.

[Bind lvl 8 → Bind lvl 9] So consumed by its own suffering, the creature almost didn't notice him. Almost. A moment before he thrust another blade of mana into the beast's legs, it tried to stop him. But it was too late. He thrust his blade deep into the humanoid's knee before stepping away. With its hammer arm bound, it was forced to use its normal arm, which he easily dodged. What ensued was an ugly, instinctual battle between a crippled Rowan and a bound and bleeding beast.

They struck at each other again and again, neither managing to do any meaningful damage with their sloppy blows. But slowly, Rowan was whittling the creature down. Until, finally, it fell to one knee. It tried to stand once more, but he was already upon it. Rowan infused what faint traces of mana he had left into the blade in his hand, elongating it a few inches. Then, he thrust it upwards, into the beast's neck, and then into its head.

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 9] And, as his enemy fell to the ground, Rowan smiled. He wouldn't die so easily. Not when there was still the slightest chance that Coco was still out there. — Rowan wandered through the winding tunnels, still following the sound of rushing water. But he was tired. His stats made it so he didn't have to sleep quite as often, but he couldn't remain awake forever. And he hadn't slept since he'd entered the bloodspawn's territory.

He didn't know how long it'd been since he'd fought the massive bloodspawn, but most of his minor scratches and bruises were healed. What wasn't healed, however, was his left arm, still dangling limply at his side. It was frustrating that he'd taken injuries during the fight, but it wasn't like he could have just stayed back and bombarded it from afar; he just didn't have enough mana for that. Especially in their final engagement, he'd barely had enough to finish the beast off.

If he'd stayed back, it would've taken too long, and he wouldn't have been able to put enough mana into his chains or constructs to keep them active. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. After taking a few more steps, he couldn't take it anymore. Lying down on a small patch of stone that was thankfully devoid of the bloody fungi, he took a small sip of water and closed his eyes. — Some time later, he woke with a yawn.

Slowly, he pushed himself to his feet. Surprisingly, no bloodspawn had stumbled upon him. After taking a moment to get his bearings, Rowan took inventory. He had his mace—which he'd grabbed after the fight with the brutish beast—and his bag of food. It was still mostly full, but since he'd forgotten to take it off for the fight, quite a few of the fruits within had been squished. Then, he turned his attention to the most important thing of all: his water. He only had half a waterskin left.

He was rationing it as well as he could, but even the occasional sip would add up. And slowly, the precious liquid was depleting. Rowan took a moment to check his quest, hoping that he would be close to completing it, but he was only at 12/30. 18 more to go. He would have to go find more bloodspawn. So, with a sigh, he set out. His mana had replenished significantly during however long he'd spent sleeping, enough that he was comfortable practicing his control of multiple mana constructs at a time.

He did his best not to get frustrated as he walked, but as the two blades disobeyed their commands time and time again, he felt it building within him. So he made them do something much simpler. One blade merely floated in the air while the other rocked gently back and forth. It was easy, at least compared to before, but Rowan wasn't satisfied. How could he be? What point was there in having two constructs if you could only move one of them at a time?

He could already make them both do the same thing, so he moved on to that. Once both blades were just shifting forward and back together, he began to change it, if only slightly. All he did was slightly change the angle of one of them, but it made it infinitely harder. Still, he pressed on, and once he was somewhat comfortable with the new angle, he changed it again. Over and over, he did this, until he was fine with almost any angle.

But there was one thing about what he'd been doing: the blades had still been moving perfectly in sync. That wouldn't do. So he changed the timing slightly, having them still moving the same distance back and forth, but their timing being slightly off. Then, he changed their speed. As his control grew greater, he sped up or slowed them down even more, widening the gap between their speeds. Slowly, he grew better and better at maintaining it, straining his mind to go further. Until, finally, he decided to try it.

He changed the distances and trajectories of both blades. And he failed miserably. Well, maybe not miserably. Rowan managed to hold it for a few seconds before his control broke. But still, after all that buildup, he'd thought he would do better. Still it wasn't bad. After all, he'd gotten a little reward from it. [Mana Manipulation lvl 12 → Mana Manipulation lvl 13] He wanted to practice more, but his mind was depleted. And ahead, he was beginning to hear the noise of bloodspawn.

The sounds were different from what he usually heard, constant screeches rather than only the occasional cry or sound of claws scratching on stone. As he moved towards them, he realized something. It might not have been as hard to control both constructs at once if he hadn't been walking the entire time. It wasn't that hard to use [Mana Manipulation] to move them alongside him, but it did take a bit of his concentration.

He thought he could've gone further if he'd stayed still and diverted every bit of his focus to it. Still, he supposed it was for the best, because he doubted he would have many fights where he could remain entirely immobile, at least for now. So, readying his mana—which was slightly depleted from the practicing—he advanced. But before he engaged, he released his control over one of the two blades floating alongside him, letting it fall to the floor and dissipate.

Then, he poked his head around a corner, watching for the bloodspawn he was hearing. He found himself facing a lone bloodpawn, screeching wildly as it found itself trapped by a vine strangler. Rowan had never really thought about it, but he'd assumed that, since both species lived in the same area of the caves and had 'fungal' in their name, they would coexist. It seemed he was wrong.

[Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 5] [Fungal Vine Strangler - Level 6] For a split second, he considered letting the two creatures fight it out and then jumping in and killing the winner, but he immediately discarded the idea. If he let that happen, he would only get some credit for defeating one enemy, and he needed those rations. He moved forward, mace in hand, but stopped at the last moment as he heard scuffling in the distance. As it grew louder, it became accompanied by howls.

But these didn't sound like the normal cries of the bloodspawn; they were more… animal. And as the noises grew nearer, Rowan's attention was drawn away from the fight before him and towards the end of the tunnel. Because, appearing in his vision, were the hound-like bloodspawn. Lots of them. A small smile broke onto his face as he watched them coming. He needed more enemies to fight, and here they were. It was perfect. If he survived the upcoming fight, that was.