Chương 48: Chapter 42

"Where?" Björn slowed, his head flicking left and right with a crazed look on his face. Hakon took note of the eagerness in his friend's voice but pointed in the right direction anyway and said, "A monster herd is grazing in a small clearing over there. I haven't been able to inspect them yet, but the monsters shouldn't be too dangerous." Björn looked genuinely sad at the last part. Still, he rushed through the thicket, ignoring the plant life around him, and arrived at the clearing shortly after.

And once he saw the bloody antlers, his lips curled upward, and he burst forth. The others followed behind with swift strides, stepping into the clearing. Monster heads shot upright, their eyes were crimson orbs filled with carnage and bloodlust. The shrubs further into the clearing rustled, and it was only when several heads emerged from behind the trees and bushes in the back that Hakon realized two things. First, he hadn't counted this many monsters before.

There had to be more than 50 monsters in the herd rather than the 20 to 30 he'd expected. That was bad–a mistake that could cost lives if not taken care of quickly enough. Second, [Inspect] triggered, providing him with information that only worsened the first problem. [Terror Deer – Low/Medium Threat] [Terror Deer – Low/Medium Threat] … [Terror Deer – Medium Threat] Terror Deer. Hakon was sure he'd read that name before, but it didn't ring– Oh, right.

Fragments of the scroll he read not too long ago resurfaced in his mind, reminding him that Terror Deer were omnivores, highly territorial, and that their herds had, more than once, killed overly confident Barbarians. They claimed strength in numbers, which was all too obvious to Hakon at this moment. His lips parted instinctively for a quick warning, only to snap shut when Björn crushed into the masses of Terror Deer near him. Björn accelerated right before he crashed into the first target.

His hair shimmered, a tell-tale sign of [Crushing Advance], with which he stunned the first Terror Deer momentarily. However, that moment didn't last long enough because the Terror Deer's head swept to the side, blocking the Blessed Warrior's war-axe with its antlers. But blocking Björn's strike with its antlers wasn't enough. Björn let out a guttural roar, pulled the axe jammed in the deer's antlers to the side with raw physical strength, and lodged the axe resting in his other hand in the Terror Deer's neck.

The monster stood no chance. Blood spurted through the air like a sacred offering to the Ancestors, yet the Terror Deer did not bleat out in pain or fear. Its crimson orbs locked on to Björn as the lifelight buried deep within faded. In the same instant, its kin attacked, heads lowered to impale him. But before they could rip the Barbarian apart, Astrid emerged beside the monsters targeting Björn, her blades flashing dangerously.

Hakon turned away from his friends, his attention shifting to the only problem in their group–Eren. Björn and Astrid would be fine. Sure, Björn was likely to end up gutted by the Terror Deer, but his Blessing of the Bear made him tougher than most. Tougher than the Lightcaller, for sure. Eren was more cautious than Björn had been, yet his excitement urged him to charge ahead as well. The tip of his blade released a glistening light, dazzling the Terror Deer around him.

They let out shrill, painful noises, which Eren used to land a nasty blow on his target. But as badly as the Terror Deer bled, it wasn't dead yet. It was angry, and so were its kin. Are you trying to get yourself killed? Hakon cursed in his heart, kicking the ground to propel forward. While the Terror Deer were only Low to Medium Threats to Hakon, he didn't doubt that [Inspect] would consider them as Medium Threats for Björn and High Threats for Eren.

Fighting one, let alone a group of them, was already a challenge for a Barbarian who hadn't even reached the 1st Ascension yet. Still, as long as he didn't have to fight a Colossal Terror alone, Hakon was sure Eren would be fine. The Ancestors would surely reward him generously for seeing him fight above his weight class. But that did not mean Hakon had to push Eren to an early death. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

More Terror Deer headed toward the Lightcaller, so he made a move. Hakon retrieved a bone dagger and hurled it toward the injured Terror Deer. The throw was nowhere near perfect, resulting in a plethora of complaints from Enhanced Comprehension, which only made him angrier than he already was for messing this up, but the bone dagger hit the target anyway. It just didn't inflict as much damage as Hakon had been hoping for. Nonetheless, distracted and injured, the Terror Deer struggled to keep up with Eren.

That left him with a group of six Terror Deer to deal with. Wasting no time, he exerted full control of [Weapon Mastery], adjusting his stance as he came to a sudden stop before the target and cleaved down with Crusher's flat side. The Terror Deer closest to him pressed its hooves deep into the ground and lowered its head. Having seen how easily the deer antlers deflected Björn's blow, Hakon was not about to fall victim to the same trick.

He pushed mana through his entire body, empowering his [Circulation], and poured a gargantuan amount of mana into Crusher in an instant, using [Mana Infusion]. It felt like a waste to use so much mana to defeat a single Low/Medium threat, but this was not the time to play around. Crusher descended and impacted with full force. The antlers resisted at first. They tried to absorb Crusher's full force, and they would probably have succeeded if the antlers had been shaped like a shield.

Spreading out like roots with pointed ends was useful to impale foes, and they may help block regular attacks, but blunt force was not the same–especially not when exerted through a mana-enhanced weapon. The antlers caved in. They cracked and shattered, barely slowing Crusher as it hit the Terror Deer's skull, cracking it open. [Combat Awareness] flared up before he could verify his target's death. A pair of Terror Deer charged his way, their heads lowered.

Letting go of Crusher, he felt light enough to shove mana into his legs to leap to the side. [Evasion] guided his stance and movement as he avoided getting impaled, and he followed that up by rolling over the ground, leaping to his feet a moment later. His hands shot toward his handaxes, but before he attacked the monsters passing by him, Hakon used [Bash] to block yet another Terror Deer from attacking Eren. He rammed into the monster, axes flashing in his hands the moment before they dug into skin and flesh.

Hakon relied on [Mana Manipulation] to maintain full control of the mana coating the weapons' edges, detonating them only once they were deep enough to trigger [Bleeding]. While [River of Blood] was not a Skill he could acquire, the days and nights he'd spent training and experimenting bore fruit. [Bleeding] was one of them. Another result was [Pack Coordination].

"Focus on your target," Hakon snapped at Eren, glancing sideways.

"Trust me." [Pack Coordination] was no ordinary Skill. It didn't consume any mana, and it didn't look like the Skill did anything else either. Hakon didn't sense much of a difference when the Ancestors first rewarded him with [Pack Coordination]. Despite that, training with others had become easier ever since he acquired the Skill, and it was especially useful when he gave out orders or when they did group sparring sessions. And now it helped snap Eren back into focus.

The Lightcaller snapped back to attention, a burst of light coalescing before his target's eyes. It exploded in a wave of heat and brilliant light, giving Eren the opportunity to hack the deer apart. In the meantime, Hakon danced around them to reach another Terror Deer trying to take a bite out of Eren. The Lightcaller and the foe were in the way, so he did the only thing he could think of other than throwing an axe. He unleashed [Intimidation].

While it didn't stop the Terror Deer, it slowed the monster enough for him to reach it with a sprint and jam one handaxe into its antlers. Doing so intentionally turned out oddly difficult, but it worked. Relying on [Two Weapon Fighting] and [Weapon Mastery], Hakon copied Björn's tactic. He pulled the deer's head to the side and let the razor-sharp blade in his other hand do the rest. A few Scriptures popped up, but he'd learned to ignore them. It was just that this time around, something different happened.

Ambient mana poured into him without warning. His heartbeat accelerated, and Hakon's head snapped toward the most recent Scripture. [Experience threshold met. Level Up!]"That was about damn time," he grunted, a savage smile spreading across his face. The other Scriptures faded once more as Hakon turned back to combat. [Mana Sense] informed him that he wasn't the only one absorbing a gargantuan amount of mana. Eren must have earned himself a Level as well.

It was not nearly as much as Hakon absorbed, but considering their Level difference, it had to be more than enough to fill Eren's mana mass. Checking the surroundings, it didn't look like the Lightcaller was going to have any problems dealing with another Terror Deer. That being said, there were three of them nearby. Hakon didn't think twice as he threw his handaxes. With [Circulation] fully empowered, he still had more than enough excess mana to infuse the axes, which he did.

He only infused as much mana as the axes could handle for a short period before throwing them. Both struck true, lodging in the Terror Deer's chests, deep enough to conceal the blades. Hakon appeared beside one of them, hand pressed against its skull, and unleashed [Discharge] with the remainder of the mana pumping through his pathways. Meanwhile, the other one stumbled toward him. Grabbing the monster to keep it rooted, he kicked the back of the handaxe, ramming it even deeper into the deer's chest.

Then he shoved the antler aside as the monster's lifelight began to fade. Hakon reached for its neck. His eyes widened when it snapped like a twig. That worked? He'd hoped for it to work but to actually see how far he made it even though he only had a power of the Mind was exhilarating. That said, Hakon pushed toward the next prey.