CHAPTER 63 - Powerless
All the corpses of the recently killed villagers start shaking as the biggest wave of mana I have ever seen is infused into them. Reanimating the bodies back to life once more, yet controlled by a different will.
The owners of the bodies are no more, the only thing keeping their flesh and bones standing now is the mana of whoever is pouring all this mana on them.
The bodies act as vessels as their new owner takes control of them, just like puppets sew to a string. I try looking for the unknown threat with my scans, but the owner of the mana is either too far away from me, or is far superior to me in controlling mana. Knowing just how much of it he or she probably has in comparison to me, it probably is the latter.
The dead, affected by the “spell” or order that the guy injected through its mana seems to be clear, as they all start rushing at me the moment they rise on its feet, but this time around though, I can already tell that it won’t be as easy as before.
Dozens of the dead surround me, waiting. They stand still a couple of meters away from me, showing no intentions of taking the first move, so I prepare, creating a recreation of a big maul with my qi, choosing to deal with them the same way I did with the skeletons, using blunt attacks.
Once my weapon comes into existence, all their flesh starts to melt. Their flesh, muscle and everything but bones dissolve, scurrying down their bodies, getting rid of anything that resembles their appearance in life and making the survivor’s stomach churn in disgust.
Their melted remains however, do not reach the ground. Before they even get close to falling on the floor, all of the now skeletons absorb the sticky mix inside their bones, soon after showing mutations, probably having used the substance as sustain for their transformation.
The first one of the mutated skeletons comes at me, displaying higher strength and agility than normal, yet it only amounts to that. I smash it onto the ground, and soon after the next one too.
They all come at me one after the other in quick succession and as fast as they come they get squashed, leaving only a pile of bones on the ground.
Finishing the last one of the rushing enemies, I look up, sensing a new approaching enemy. Another of the skeletons is diving at me from the sky at high speed. With wings of bone jutting out from its sides, it is somehow capable of flying even though it clearly violates the law of physics I am used to.
I duck it's dive, staying close enough to go for a quick counterattack once it crashes on the ground with the idea to pin it to the ground or directly one-shot him with my maul that now shines with a brighter,yellowish light from all the qi I am currently boosting it with.
*rumble*
My plans get foiled when a thick spiky bone comes rushing at me from below the spot I am currently staying on. I jump just in time to avoid getting skewered, and soon after, I use another one of my constructs made of qi, shaping it as a platform.
I use it as a foothold to push myself out of the way of a second bone spear that’s coming at me and reposition at the same time, aiming to get my foot off the ground again.
I land a few meters away from where I was standing at the start of the fight. One quick sweep of the battlefield gives me everything I need to know.
Three, three are the monsters that I have yet to face. Those three are the skeletons that stayed behind the first wave of undead, using the time their companions bought them to get stronger and evolve further.
The first one is the only aerial foe to take into account, while the second one is a bulky pile of bones. The first one focuses on attacks of speed while the second is built like a tank, with their humerus being as thick as a big tree branch. It has yet to make a move, but soon enough I will witness just how much of that mass is for show, but it definitely means business.
The third one is the one with the less weird appearance out of the three of them. With a similar build of that of its past owner, it’s the one with the capability to grow and extend its bones, allowing it to throw them at me from a distance or strike me with lengthy spikes, ones being made of the extensions of its own body.
I look behind me, only to see the last survivors now scared witless while one of them already lays dead, with one of the bone spikes thrown at me passing through its chest.
With one of the survivors from the last massacre already dead, I put my all into taking out these guys the fastest I can.
‘Maybe I can save some of them if I kill them fast enough.’
With that in mind, I focus on my current problem, the chonky, armored guy running at me.
The big guy shows low iq as it only rushes at me with no other intention whatsoever, so I just avoid to the right. Designating the one with the ability to elongate bones at the deadlier of the bunch, I get smashing, jumping around in its direction, baiting one of his attacks, hoping that I will have a few seconds of reprieve after its attacks.
Soon, two sharp bones break through the soil, aiming for my heart in an X shape, leaving no room for dodging.
I harden one of my feet as much as I can, coating it with an abundance of qi as I crush both spears and propel into the air again, taking my aerial foe by surprise and grabbing it by its collarbone.
My grasp on its neck is stronger than ever before, and buffing my strength with qi, I use the winged foe as a projectile that I throw at the target on the ground, hitting it on the chest and sending a cloud of dust into the air. The sound from the collision reverberates for a second before I crash on top of the impact area, using my mace to finish the work.
I expel the qi from the inner part of the maul, leaving it hollow inside. I reinforce the remaining design as I fill up the interior with mana, yet I am not planning on causing an explosion this time.
I fill it just about 50% before stopping. The mana sits at the hollow part of the end of my weapon before I push it back to the handle with my will as I prepare for a swing, pushing the maul behind my head, ready to perform a wide downward arc with it.
I use both my will and a wave of qi to push the mana to the other end of the weapon, pushing it so fast that the leftover kinetic energy is no joke. Backing the actual attack, the kinetic energy boosts my swing of the maul, turning it into something akin to a pile bunker seen in novels and movies.
My attack crashes with me into the ground, square in the chest of the winged foe that is tangled with the other skeleton, leaving only the armored one out of the range of the attack.
The impact carries enough energy to shatter both of them, leaving only scraps of what a few seconds ago were two imposing foes. The remaining energy goes into the dirt and stone below, creating a web of cracks a few centimeters deep.
The last of the skeletons is unfaced by the death of its two partners as it rushes once more, clearly aiming to slam me, yet now that it is the only remaining enemy, is nothing more than a nuisance.
To take care of it, I simply use my actual weapon, smashing the monster's skeletal frame again and again. My hits carry enough strength to shatter rocks like butter, yet the armored monsters resists for a while my attacks with its thick plates of bones.
Everything has its limits though, with each hit I take out small chunks of its armor, leaving it more and more vulnerable with each strike.
I keep going at it again and again till it crumbles in a pile of bones, no more mana holding it together.
Finally getting some respite, I calmly sit on top of a chunk from a nearby rock, focusing on regenerating my qi for the moment.
I scan the area every few seconds, searching for any remains of the attack,or a hint that will point me to the attacker. However, there is nothing to follow, no thread to pull at all and chase the instigator, but a bigger rumbling begins the second I finish my search.
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‘You must be kidding, again?’
*rumble* *rumble*
Looking toward the ever diminishing group of survivors, I shake my head.
‘There is no salvation for no more, if I lose focus I will surely die this time round.’
And so I stand up to fight once more, just in time to see every single of the dead corpses, recent and old melt into that sticky substance from before, but this time around not even leaving a single bone behind.
The liquid from all the fallen enemies converged on the ground, dripping on the cracks in between the rocks from my previous meteoric fall from the sky, filling up the empty cracks all over the battlefield.
It drained all as deep as it could, pushed my gravity before there was no more place to scurry to, settling down inside the small trenches.
A long silence ensued again, yet I was ready, I knew it wouldn’t end that easily.
Sure enough, the liquid starts bubbling soon after, fumes rising from it as it rises, shaping by itself.
From the scarred ground, a titanic bone frame starts to form, building itself at a speed visible to the naked eye and giving me some insight on what to expect.
‘That thing won’t fall that easy, first things first.’
“Run! Get out of here right now and don’t look back.”
I would prefer not to kill anyone with strays, yet in a matter of life and death, I only care about my own survival, nothing else.
The humongous creature continues to rise in height at an alarming pace, soon towering over the smallest buildings.
‘I could escape, forget about everything that happened here and start anew with the next village, yet something inside tells me I might just be able to take it on, so I end up choosing to stay and fight.
I won’t be able to choose which battles to fight most of the time, and with this one, I really feel like I got a chance to surpass myself.
The titan made out of bones already has a waist, and soon enough, the upper body will be done too. I only have a few minutes before its body finishes up forming, so I start thinking of ways to take it down.
By the time its creation is done, I start testing my theories.
Starting by the simplest of the strategies, I go for strong swings of my maul on its weak points. I don't use the same pile bunker tactic as before, knowing full damn well that I will run out of fuel a lot earlier than the guy, so I just use simple, strong swings boosted by qi.
The hits don’t even move the big guy, only slightly pushing back the targeted limbs. Seeing my inability to take down the thing with that method, I change my assault of blunt strikes into a slashing one.
I disrupt the construct that keeps the shape of the maze and shape it again, this time going for a thin, sharp and long blade similar to a scimitar. I focus a big chunk of my remaining qi into the length of the blade, thinking that if I use a concentrated attack with all my might, and using the curved angle of the weapon, I might just be able to pierce its thick bones.
Going for the kill, I target its neck, it is one of the easiest spots to slash through due to it being thinner than a lot more of the “may be deadly” spots.
I condense the weapon’s blade as much as I can, ending up with a thinner blade of an even more prominent yellow hue.
I slash with it, slashing with the blade at its neck with a speed that the giant is unable to anticipate, leaving it wide open for my attack to crash on the bull’s eye.
*clang*
The clashing of both materials ring in my ears as a huge shockwave curses through my body, knocking me back and sending me flying against a tree on the perimeter of the village.
‘Again a failure, not even a scratch’ I watch as the titan sweeps the village with its head, trying to find me, as if I were but a small fly that had been swatted away in annoyance, and that irks me to no end.
It is not even able to register my attacks with its poor speed, yet I am unable to damage it. It makes me feel powerless, a type of feeling that I really dislike.
Soon, it finds my crashing spot, and it starts its march to stomp on me with its characteristic slow speed as if mocking me.
‘You damn prick, I’ll show you what I am made of.’
Calming myself, I try to decipher how to solve the current stand still, starting with the basics. I can’t kill the enemy in front of me, but it can’t hit me either as long as I don’t get distracted.
I could try to find its “master”, who would be whoever is sending the mana that the thing is feeding upon to move. However, with how much mana it's been used already, that guy is either running from here with its mana reserves exhausted or just watching the fight unfold from a safe place.
I bet it’s the second, so going by that, and by the fact that the moving mountain of bones is probably its only way to keep track of me, I plan to defeat it and escape fast enough so that anything that’s summoned further will not be able to catch up with me.
It’s a far stretch, yet the only thing that I can think of as of now, but I still need a way to defeat the gargantuan monster that I am currently facing, so I start thinking outside the box.
‘Let’s see, this place is not Earth, so I shouldn't be using the same logic from Earth as it doesn't necessarily have to apply here.’
‘In front of me stands a moving pile of bones the size of a building, and that's not the usual sight on Earth, but it may not be the one from here too, let’s just stick to what I do know.’
Pressing for answers, I think at a high pace. Rushing through an ample variety of ideas, and its possible implications, and finally taking notice of something.
‘The only explanation and thing that is allowing that monster to exist is its mana infused bones or something else related to bones in this planet. I don’t know a single thing about bones, so my little knowledge about mana will have to do.’
The monster was fed a HUGE amount of mana the moment it was created, yet I fail to see any connection to its “master”. It could be that I am way too inexperienced in the subject at hand, yet I am inclined to think that the culprit is not feeding the giant with more manna, so if I manage to get rid of the mana it has accumulated, it should crumble on its own.
I get rid of annoying thoughts or anything that may distract me as I try to perform the wider mana scan I have ever done.
I first use a lot of qi to accumulate enough manna around me, and then I send it flying all around the place, propagating all around the monster and seeping inside its bones, or at least that was the plan.
Its bones are shielded from external influence as it seems and my mana is unable to seep in through its pores, so I switch to qi, looking for a different outcome. I get rid of the manna and let it slip out of my control in the air.
I gather some qi inside of me, ready to blast it around the big guy and try to get a reaction, yet once I do it the result is the same. It all gets rejected, as if a mucus or protective layer made of mana was preventing it from messing with the insides of the monster.
‘If that’s how it is, let's try another thing.’
I call back my qi before it dissipates and I force the surrounding mana under my will again while I cursed under my breath at just how wasteful this method is, rescanning the whole body of the thing again with a new wave of mana.
Knowing that the invisible layer of mana will prevent any intervention, I force my mana into seeping inside again all around its body. From top to bottom, from head to toes, I forcefully try to get the manna to pass through the barrier.
Not even one bit of my mana is able to enter a single bone. All along its body, the repulsive layer fights back against my manna, keeping it outside, yet there is one bone, where it plainly slides off.
On the center of the waist, where there should have been any bone, a small piece of one floats along with the whole body, tracking after every move it makes.
The bone is tiny, nearly non-existent, yet my mana somehow made it possible for me to find it. The small bone holds an unbelievable amount of mana from what I can see, seeing that all my mana wash around its surface, not even moving it an inch or disturbing it.
It only confirms my suspicion that whoever it is the one behind all this is just playing with me, so I put on a show, as if I was dodging, looking for a chance to retaliate just as I was doing before.
While I try to take down the thing with qi infused attacks to throw the guy off tracks, I take some time to secretly create an explosive orb with qi and manna.
Careful to not get discovered or explode, I start sweating bullets by the sheer exhaustion of doing it all at the same time. My qi is running too low for comfort, and while the abundance of mana on the air is useful for every other spell in this world, with my current task it's only a nuisance, messing with the thin stability between the qi barrier and the mana inside of it.
After a few of the longest minutes of my life, I finally succeeded in creating a stable orb, ready to launch at a moment's notice, so I prepare.
Starting with a feint, I lunge at the monster yet again, infusing a bit of qi to make it seem real. The monster reaches with it’s right hand to grab at me white it uses the other one to do a follow up punch.
The huge size of the incoming hand is scary, but keeping calm, I dissipate the qi of my attack at the last moment, reusing it for a thin barrier in the air that I use to propel myself out of the way in the direction of its waist.
The follow up punch totally misses as I descend at high speed on top of one of its lower vertebrae, using it as a stepping stone to jump further down, not forgetting to leave behind a small present slowly falling to its designated target.
The mana inside the orb I leave behind moves with strength, trashing inside the qi barrier as it crumbles in on itself, detonating a chain of explosions on top of the tiny bone that holds the hole spell that keeps the whole skeleton “alive”.
It’s sad that I need to resort to the same old trick in the book every time I need to blow up something, but if it works, it works.
The explosion isn’t even that big, but big enough that any amount of mana being contained on that small bone shouldn’t be able to resist, and sure enough, after the explosion ensues I can see cracks on the small bone.
I am surprised by the durability of the thing, yet the thing is already sentenced to death, I can feel its mana running wild inside of it, trying to not leave the circuit that ist skeleton forms, yet it’s all useless.
The monster uses its remaining mana to try and not fall as I run away. I grab the child from the survivors group while fleeing, he is the lone survivor from my fight with the behemoth, so I run away with him on my back, not looking back, doing my best not to trip with my last bits of energy. My body barely holding up, screaming in pain from the stress.
‘Hope, I won’t see the culprit of this shitshow ever again.’ I think, knowing that massacring random villages may be his or her hobby.
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???
‘Interesting.’ The shadows swirl as the entity thought to itself.
‘To be able to wield his own life force in the same way as monsters…’
The entity was searching for a way out of its current situation for decades, stuck in a loop with no way up.
‘This human is intriguing, and he might hold the key that I need.’
‘Yessss, it’s been decided. I will follow him and make sure he doesn’t die before he reaches that point.’ As it finished talking to itself, the bundle of shadows dissipated and chased after Leo, ready to protect it so much needed hope.