Spearbound Ch. 52

Kade’s fingers tapped the shaft of his [Soulrend] as he looked off into the distance.

“Hellion only left a few minutes ago. He wouldn’t even be halfway to that city yet,” Eliza commented from beside him.

Kade hummed in agreement, but still didn’t look away. Nearly all of his focus on the bond, and at the surprising change it now had. The act of transferring his [MP] through it must have strengthened it.

Instead of only sensing Hellion’s emotions, he could get snapshots of what the bird was seeing. However, he had no intention of overusing this ability.

While Kade required Hellion’s permission to get the snapshot, he knew the bird would let him do as he wished. That sounded great until he factored in the [MP] cost on Hellion to get the snapshot. While it was on the lower end in cost, it would be detrimental if Hellion was in a dangerous situation.

Hellion’s exact [MP Recovery] was unknown, but it was faster than his own, so Kade resolved to only use the snapshot feature when he sensed the bird was calm to avoid asking for a snapshot in the middle of a fight or escape attempt.

“I still can’t believe that nothing has happened today. Do you really think that it’ll pass without something attacking us?” Eliza asked.

Kade glanced at her, recognizing her heightened nervousness. “I hope not. You know what that would mean.”

“That we’re fucked? Yes, I got that.”

Kade let out a surprised laughed, breaking the tense atmosphere for a moment. “We’ll know what will probably happen in a few minutes.”

Eliza gave him an unsure smile.

Several minutes later, Kade felt Hellion’s excitement jump to another level and immediately asked for a snapshot.

A city in rubbles. Lines of karnathis with enormous carved stones on their backs. Two karnathis giving the rest orders on a site where a new pillar was taking shape.

Kade took in a sharp breath, but still had the mind to order Hellion to stay out of sight and retreat if spotted. “I was right. They’re rebuilding the pillar and it’s almost done.”

Eliza closed her eyes before opening them with new determination. “Then let’s show them it’s not as easy as they think.”

He grabbed her arm to keep her in place. “We’ll do no such thing. Going there is a sure death.”

“No, doing nothing is a sure death! Did you forget that failing our objectives means the end for us?”

Kade had never seen Eliza so flustered before. It completely obliterated her carefree demeanor she usually possessed, and it worked to her benefit.

He always looked at her like a strange alien, with her odd fashion sense and laissez-faire attitude about everything, but now she was more human.

“Failing does mean death,” Kade nodded, “but that doesn’t mean we should commit suicide earlier on something hopeless. You made all these traps for a reason, so let’s use it to our advantage. We can only survive by dividing and killing, and right now, the close grouping of the karnathis puts us at a disadvantage.”

Eliza stared. “You want to split up?”

“Maybe, but not immediately.” The pact to stick together didn’t last long, but the circumstances demanded it. “It might be necessary to keep the karnathis focused on both pillars instead of just one. We’ll see how it works out.”

Eliza sighed, but said nothing to contradict him. “A lot would depend on how the area effect changes, but the traps I set will hopefully tip the scales in my favor if we need to separate.”

As they feared, they spent the rest of the day preparing for something that would never come. Eliza especially felt disappointed. She had turned a ridiculously massive area surrounding the destroyed pillar into a death zone.

In her words, “That disgusting mole we struggled to kill is basically roadkill in my trap zone.”

Kade did little other than monitor the karnathis’ progress on rebuilding the pillar in the city. He saw the pillar grow tens of feet taller with each snapshot. As he expected with the rapid progress, it didn’t take long for him to get the snapshot where it was almost done.

“Eliza—” Kade was cut off with the interface making an appearance.

Survive for 7 days (2/7)

Area Effect removed.

Eliza gasped and immediately stopped her work, returning to Kade’s side. “What does Hellion see right now?”

He requested another snapshot.

The pillar was complete. Two karnathis directing mages to target the pillar. An army of karnathis growing at the city’s edge.

Another alert hit them just as Kade was about to reply.

Area Effect: +1000% Dexterity | +1000% Speed

“Well, fuck.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself, Eliza,” Kade said, pulling another snapshot from Hellion.

Pillar glowing slightly. Army of karnathis rushing towards the desert.

“An army is coming.” Kade looked into the distance. “With the area effect, it’ll only take a few minutes. Get used to your new speed before that.”

“You’re leaving?” Eliza asked, strangely calm for being left alone with an army approaching. She apparently didn’t need long to regain her usual demeanor.

“Not yet. I want to surprise them and take down as many as I can to lessen your load. After that, it’ll be up to fate.”

“Well, then. I’ll see you after we take down all the ugly bastards,” Eliza said with false confidence.

“See you then,” Kade smirked before disappearing.

The speed he now possessed was unreal, and much more apparent compared to extreme strength. He was moving faster than the speed of sound, and while this was only because of the area effect, it still mean this was entirely achievable naturally in the distant future.

He moved to a spot that the karnathis wouldn’t travel before changing direction to collide directly with the army. He had no hopes of eliminating the entire army like the last attempt, but he was confident that his speed was greater than any karnathi in the army.

He would ambush them once before moving onto the destroyed city. Multiple ambushes were unlikely, but if that was an option, he would be a fool to not take it. However, his true test would be with the two karnathis in the city.

Kade shivered in excitement at the thought. Whatever benefits those two might have found the in the chambers, he was eager to test them.

He saw the karnathi army at the edge of his vision, rushing towards Eliza’s spot. He chased after them at full speed, closing the gap rapidly.

One good thing about closing in from behind meant that the karnathi army did not know they were about to be attacked. The increased speed might have given everything in the rift zone a boost, but it did nothing to fix hearing at those speeds.

The only thing that could be heard was the wind.

Kade threw his [Soulrend] with precision, skewering three karnathis and killing them instantly. The reduced hearing helped him here too, with only the karnathis closeted to the ones killed realizing there was an ambush.

He ignored the karnathis swiveling around and roaring at him to scan the army. He wanted to make sure there were no mages that could make Eliza’s job difficult.

Luckily, it looked like there were no mages to be found. The pillar in the city must be keeping them all busy.

Kade finally put his full attention on the karnathis that were about to meet him on a head-on collision.

He buried his elbow into the chest of the karnathi that was unlucky enough to meet him first, killing it instantly and turning it into white powder. He had already moved on and bulldozed through the crowd of karnathi.

They were fast, but not fast enough to keep up with Kade. If more of the army had joined in the attack, he would be in trouble, but that was the reason he took a detour and didn’t meet the army head-on.

Kade avoided using his [Soulrend] in order to level up his physical skills. Getting his skills to level ten gave him a new ability, and compared to his spear skills, it was much easier to upgrade his physical skills.

He avoided using anything but his elbows to destroy the karnathis, wanting to channel all the experience into [Elbow Smash].

The area effect allowed him to finish the fight in less than a minute, leaving him with piles of white powder surrounding him. He summoned his [Soulrend] out from the ground and chased after the karnathi army again.

Kade had plans to repeat his ambush of the rear as many times as the army’s ignorance allowed, but he was quickly dissuaded on that plan.

He saw the entire karnathi army come to a stop before turning to face him. It looked like the news of several of their members disappearing had spread.

Kade thought it was a shame that he wouldn’t be able to pick off more of them to boost [Elbow Smash], but he didn’t care too much. He had already concluded that Eliza could survive this without too much harm.

He waved at the furious karnathis with a mocking smile before heaving his [Soulrend] right at their center. He didn’t expect to make contact, and he didn’t, but he was shocked when the army didn’t get away from his [Soulrend] at all costs.

Kade took their gift and activated [Inferno Burst].

The fiery explosion’s beauty almost moved him to tears, the many karnathis trapped inside only adding to its charm. He ignored the furious, pained roars as he summoned his [Soulrend] back to him and sprinted away, leaving the remaining damaged karnathi army in his dust.

Eliza could definitely take care of the rest with ease. He could now fully focus on the challenge waiting for him in the city.