Chapter 200

The underground canyon was easy terrain to travel through. It was mostly flat with lots of bare rock to sprint across and very few areas that were clogged up with vegetation like you might find in a jungle.

The issue for Tom and his companions was simple.

They needed to go fast and couldn’t afford a wrong turn because as forgiving as the area seemed it was still the underground. Benign paths would lead into dead ends. Positions originally shaped to support ambush predators and while those beasts had probably fled, making the paths non-dangerous, the threat was in how they would force them to backtrack. A delay that was potentially a death sentence in the circumstances they found themselves in.

They had to stay ahead of the decay antelopes.

Tom, with his extra attributes and Jingyi because of his supporting skills, focused on guiding them along the right paths.

He was running just ahead of the others and saw a split ahead. He went right, turning down a narrow path that wound between dead monster bodies and the broken pieces of what had once been giant fungus. Three steps and he stopped, skidding to a halt. The path kept going down before ending with a massive boulder blocking the way.

“Back,” he yelled furiously, directing the main group onto the secondary turn and then he sprinted to overtake them so he could assess future splits in the same manner. With the restrictions of staying close to Harry, he could only explore a few steps down the side paths, but that second of extra warning saved time.

“Fate.” Michael ordered with gasped breaths. “Support the vision.”

Tom didn’t hesitate. They had been using excess fate for days to smooth this integration, so despite how balanced on the edge of disaster this sprint felt, they would probably emerge undamaged but Michael was right. What they were trying was audacious, and anything they could do to help it along was important. Tom formed the image in his head. The two packs clashing and them surviving on the edges. Two-thirds of his fate burst out of him, and then he focused on the physical process of running hard. The less they left to chance, the better and getting as far away from the antelopes maximised their chances of engineering the clash of monster packs they needed to survive.

They were travelling down a slight slope. Ahead at the bottom, the surface colour changed to have a slight orange sheen. Tom sprinted ahead to test it before the others. He landed on a section with a slight orange tinge, not quite sure what to expect but ready for anything. It was like landing on a banana peel. “Slippery,” Tom warned them before he paused until the labouring Clare and Thor were on either side of him and then continued forward in lockstep with the two of them.

The larger man put his foot down wrong and instead of finding a firm purchase like he was expecting, Thor’s foot slipped.

“Ahh.”

Tom got an arm under Thor’s shoulders as the man flailed for balance. His Earth Manipulation flared to give his own feet extra purchase despite the slimy orange substance. The limited amount of surface dust and grit leapt to his command. It linked together and then reached out to hook his shoe, and it was like he was on solid ground once more.

Thor’s weight almost jerked him off balance anyway, but his enhanced strength was enough. They stumbled but did not fall, and Tom was able to support Thor as he scrambled up a slight incline and out of the slimy section. There were a couple more slips but with Tom’s firm grip around his waist Thor got out without losing momentum.

“A hunting party has our scent.” Jingyi reported flatly. “Eight of them.”

“Can we outrun them?” Michael gasped.

“Not a chance. We’ll fight on top of the next hill.”

Tom looked up at the spot that Jingyi was referring to. It was over a hundred metres away. “Will we make it?”

“Run,” Jingyi answered grimly.

Everyone else put their heads down and sprinted. He did not have to focus as much as the others, as he was matching their pace going at only about two-thirds speed, and he quietly drifted to the back of the group while monitoring Harry as he did so.

Ten metres… that was how far he could afford to be separated from him.

Tom glanced up at the roof of the canyon and the distinct coloured light he knew marked where the scientist had his watch post. They were probably out of sight of him already, but Tom wouldn’t bet his life savings on that. They could still see that aqua crystal, but the limited angles of the cave’s view probably meant they were already out of the scientist’s line of sight. But… If he could avoid being dropped from the rituals protection, he would.

They reached the base of the hill and started running upward and this time when he glanced back the small pack of antelopes chasing them were visible. They appeared to be deceptively weak. There were no demonic features; flames sprouting from the ears, or bright glowing eyes, or long claws that could shred someone.

Instead, they looked exactly like normal earth animals even down to the brown and white fawn colourings.

Yet Tom didn’t doubt their deadliness for a moment. He remembered the description that Everlyn had shared. These monsters were decay antelopes, and she had worried about his ability to fight them, which was warning enough to take them seriously.

His team reached the top of the hill just as the enemy were at the bottom. Jingyi had judged the relative speeds accurately.

They were closer now, and they still looked ordinary but Tom wouldn’t get sucked into a false sense of security by that.

The tutorial taught many lessons and cute being equated to being weak was not one of them.

He positioned himself ten metres in front of the rest of the group and wondered how this fight would play out. Would they morph into walking horrors or would they keep their innocent shape and have the fight become one of unseen magical energies.

Tom tensed.

The way all eight of the monsters focused their eyes on him confirmed their status.

Monsters, not animals. Those eyes were hungry.

He stood stoically his hands gripping the spear shaft as they gracefully jumped toward him. With their prey visible, they started to leap higher, moving with extraordinary grace. There was a juvenile giant fungus in the way. It was about Tom’s height. An antelope sprang over it and cleared the top by over a metre with a leap that must have reached three metres at its apex. Antelopes on earth could carry out some majestic jumps, but that casual leap was far higher than an earth-based variety could manage.

Tom tore his eyes away from watching the spectacle and mentally rehearsed the coming skirmish. He would need to enrage them to ensure they focused on him and when dodging only do so up hill. Harry was the closest person behind him but he still needed to stay within that ten metres of him. If he rolled downhill, he would probably take himself out of the ritual’s range.

The first antelope charged him. Tucking its head in and trying to barge into him.

He stepped back and to the side easily avoiding the telegraphed attack. He was expecting something to happen, for it to change direction mid leap or for physics to breakdown as some charging skill activated to allow it to follow him, but neither thing occurred. It continued on a Newtonian physics course.

Surprise did not slow Tom, and his spear was already spinning to intercept it. The tip struck hard into its belly and then skidded over the fur completely failing to find purchase. Tom categorised the latest development. The fur was armoured.

Then the others seven were around him with the new monsters choosing to try to kick him instead of the bizarre charge of the first.

Lightning Enrage exploded out of Tom’s body. A deluge of sparks spitting out in all directions. He saw them dig into exposed noses eyes and wriggle their way inside the creatures through those weak areas. The sparks that hit the fur were deflected.

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Internally, Tom cursed when he observed that behaviour. They were almost certainly invulnerable to lightning. There would be no using Spark to paralyse them long enough to kill them while they were prone on the ground.

Black dodge was not activating fully and Tom found it easy enough to sway to the side to avoid the kicks the antelopes aimed at him.

They weren’t even trying to bite. There was no morphing of their body to reveal hidden claws, just dainty legs lashing out with what he knew would probably be devastating force if he let one hit him.

Then he felt it.

An unavoidable magical assault striking him from all sides as he effortlessly evaded the physical attacks.

His skin started to burn as the antelopes’ aura assaulted him.

Then the tickling all over gave way to a full out assault.

Tom gasped.

It was like someone had poured boiling water all over him. Even the skin under his tier three pants felt like it was on fire.

Touch Heal activated and ten mana vanished instantly.

Alarm bells went off in Tom for the first time since the wasps had been stinging him to death. He didn’t have the abilities to fight this and if it was going to take ten mana a second to fight… Tom did the calculations.

He did not have long. Because of Harry’s ritual, his soul bound mana crystal only had a fifty mana reserve in it. His mana had refreshed during their run, but he had already spent nearly half of it on the fight alone. Seventy-five mana on Lightning Enrage then ten for healing and he would need that or perhaps even more every second going forward.

His magic reserves were a problem.

What should he do? The antelopes were jumping around him, trying to kick him, and Tom found it easy enough to dodge between them. Time abruptly slowed dramatically, and Tom figured he was about to get kicked from behind.

With a thought, he teleported to the left, and he guessed he had got it right because nothing hit him and time reverted to its normal speed.

More mana was drained from Touch Heal, and he turned it off. If his reserves were that tight, he couldn’t afford blind healing. Everything needed to be directed, going forward to guarantee efficiency.

As for the fight, that had to be finished, fast.

An antelope was positioned perfectly in front of him. He knew it was the free fate from his dodge skill giving him a chance to counterattack, and he thrust hard while he reinforced his spear with Power Strike. It was a one fifth strength enhanced blow, but he needed it to be successful because with his mana issues Power Strike had to be his finisher because he didn’t want to have to resort to Throw Rock.

Blood spurted from the gash he left on the monster’s shoulder. Not a moral strike, but it would slow it.

He retreated back a further five metres. The rest of the party was matching his movements, presumably to stay out of range of the antelope’s aura. They all looked fine, apart from Harry whose face was contorted in pain. That meant the antelopes’ aura was attacking him. Tom could therefore conclude that the aura had an effective reach of at least ten metres, but one that faded to zero at fifteen.

Tom was not sure how the information would help them, but at least he knew it now.

One of the antelopes next to him landed on an Earth spike. Keikain must have put a lot of power into it as it went straight through the armoured fur. A second and third had gone down with arrows through their necks and another one had nasty lacerations covering its side, courtesy of Toni’s air blades. Her power sufficed to wound it through the fur, but was not powerful enough to kill them quickly.

He threw himself to the ground as three antelopes leapt through the space he had been occupying. As they flew overhead, he saw the opportunity and stabbed up, empowering a half strength Power Strike.

The tip punched through the monster, and he embedded the spear a full foot into the creature. Then Tom winced as the weight of it almost wrestled the shaft from his fingers, but with a desperate twist he kept hold and extracted the weapon.

Time was slowing dramatically, and he teleported once more to avoid the hooves of the antelope that tried to stamp on him.

He involuntarily vomited, and he could taste the bile in his mouth.

He could no longer feel his skin and his insides were cramping.

Michael and Clare were both casting healing magic on him, but it hardly seemed to even slow the crippling weakness that was spreading from his skin inwards.

Keeping mana was one thing. Survival was more important and that meant he needed to finish this. He had to move quickly.

Throw Rock

The stone he had manifested from his storage slammed into the skull of an antelope about to land. It had no chance to evade it and the entire skull crumpled. Tom kept moving and as he spun he channelled the small amount of Power Strike he had left to thrust his spear through the eye of the last antelope standing.

He tried to smile, but his face didn’t respond. The spear had penetrated to the brain. A clean kill. They were all dead.

Now they needed to keep running.

Tom turned the way they had been going. It was difficult to see, as his eyes weren’t processing the light correctly.

He took a step. The leg wasn’t listening. The world rock and the ground were suddenly flying at him.

His head slammed against the dirt. He was dry retching, with nothing coming out, and he wanted to curl over into a ball and disappear, but his stomach muscles were not responding. Strange energy filled him and something was not right. He gasped for solutions. Vomit laced saliva dribbled out of his mouth.

It felt like the magic within him was eating him alive, even his brain…

Wait…

He had magic…

The thought went through him with a jolt.

He had healing magic… what was he thinking.

Tom immediately initiated Healing Tranquillity.

Time slowed as the ability gave him clarity of thought. Clinically, he fell back onto routine to carry him and assessed the internal damage.

It was bad.

There was no simple way to explain what his senses were telling him. Large chunks of his muscles had been reduced to mush. His skin was no longer a single whole that provided a barrier against everything. There were sores all over it that in some places went all the way down to the bone. It was kind of like how he would imagine catastrophic radiation exposure would look like. In a non-magic world, he was dead, but in a non-magic world he guessed this wouldn’t have occurred.

Even his brain…

Tom made a decision and directed what little of his healing he had available to protect his brain. It healed the damage and pushed back the rampaging energy, and Tom’s thoughts cleared.

That fight must have lasted ten seconds, and it had been against only eight of them…. And this was the result.

They were massively out classed. Tom could remember what he had seen of the main herd. There had been hundreds of them, and potentially over a thousand.

If eight could do this…

There were shouts, and the others were gathered around him.

“We need the credits. Process them quickly while we get Tom on his feet.” Jingyi ordered.

Tom attempted to move, to stand to demonstrate that he was not dependent on them but nothing happened. He could feel his mental facilities degrading again, so he focused internally on resisting the spreading damage.

“I’ve put it all on a snap auction.” Harry reported.

“Best we could do.” Jingyi said.

“I’m going to need longer to stabilise him.” Michael reported.

“No time. We’ll carry him,” Jingyi ordered.

Tom felt himself being lifted up. He still focused on healing and could feel both Clare and Michael’s magic hitting him. Michael was directly burning away the decay energy with Clare, using her magic to patch his physical body. Their magic was coming in spurts and starts, which told him that they too had exhausted their mana.

There was a jolt, and Tom vomited as his digestive systems briefly worked. He used his mana crystal to speed up the healing in his skull, which once more returned the clarity of thought. Tom knew if they were carrying him they would be slowed. None of them had high enough attributes to take a heavy load and not slow down.

Compared to the antelopes they were probably already moving too slow. He had to do something to change the situation if collectively they were going to survive. Tom internally abandoned his defensive healing and focus on what mattered.

He didn’t need any specific part of him to be fixed, he just had to stop being a burden. He had to patch himself up well enough to run.

Once more Healing Tranquillity kicked in and Tom while his brain was fully intact concentrated on what was needed. One of his achilleas tendon had been worn through and he fused the two ends together. It was not back to pristine condition, but it would be sufficient to let him at least jog. His nerve network was broken in multiple spots and he fixed up the ones that linked his muscles together. Then his mind swept through the key muscle groups and he patched them from non-functional to good enough.

Theoretically, he could run, but human balance needed more than that. His ears popped as he rebuilt an ear-drum to give him back this equilibrium.

Then his eyes.

He had to see where he was going. The healing flowed into the eyes first. It allowed him to crack his eyelids open, then some regrowth of the optical receptors. They registered light, and he kept going till he could see vague shapes.

It was enough.

“Let me down,” he whispered.

Surprisingly, they listened, or perhaps they too had realised that carrying him under the circumstances was not a valid option. He stumbled forward. His muscles worked as he had hoped.

Simple thoughts, he told himself.

One leg in front of the other… then repeat.

Every step hurt and he felt hands guiding him.

He pushed and tried to accelerate. He wasn’t sure whether he was moving faster than them or holding them back. He slipped and fell and a few seconds later someone helped him up. He kept running.

A hand guided him to the side.

He tumbled and rolled down a hill.

That was fast and, when he assessed himself, damaging. With his hands, he forced the two bits of bones in his leg together and fused them with his mana. He was going to need hours to get back to peak physical fitness, but before that… survival.

He stumbled to his feet once more. He ran straight into someone who picked him up and pointed him in a new direction. He tried to say thanks, but the decay energy was still in him and his vocal cords weren’t working. But that didn’t matter. He sprinted forward.

Healing Tranquillity was in continuous use, patching each bit of him that failed. He knew how damaged he truly was. He almost certainly looked like a dead zombie stumbling along. The decay energy causing his flesh to slough off him at times.

Tom didn’t care. Michael was continually healing him and removing the energy. He was getting better and by running himself the group could move faster.

Every step was a struggle, but his mind was clear and he went through the brief battle with the advanced pack by remembering every single action he had taken.

Tom had done everything right and been overwhelmed by the end, despite everything he had done. There was no doubt if they were going to fight these things again something would have to change and he suspected he knew what that was.

Before exploring the idea, he needed to get his speed back. Tom returned his focus to improving his muscles.