CANYON RUSH

“You too choose regeneration,” Theo said casually as a green wristband materialized for him. His arms were still tied behind his back, but that didn’t stop the item from finding its way.

“Hey, Theo, shouldn’t we have formed some group?” Hamon said as he took his eyes off the pamphlet and completed his choice. A green wristband appeared, attaching to his arms.

“Didn’t you find us some group when you were wandering around the village?” Theo made a shocked face. “What have you been doing all this time?”

Hamon looked baffled, searching for what to say, but the woman from the Lion Clan who was speaking approached them. “You two are Theo and Hamon?” Theo nodded. “Good, we were asked to help you get to town safely.” She extended her hand. “Welcome to my group.”

It took a while for her to notice the problem with Theo’s arms, but she easily shook it off as Theo smiled. It seems Suri has been much busier than I expected. He didn’t know if she would actually be able to make his life easier with the information he gave her. The original plan was going by himself with Hamon, but things would become much easier now with the leader of this escort group backing him up.

They entered the canyon in a group of ten, the woman from the Lion Clan in the front. “My name is Clara. I know I haven’t been in the village long and just met you, but I would appreciate it if you follow my orders without much hassle.” She looked towards the canyon. “Trust me when I say I’m your best hope.”

They had been running through winding passages in the canyon rock wall. Most groups would take different routes. Theo noticed their group was oddly pending most to stamina.

As they got out of the passage, a huge canyon stretched out. Clara touched and investigated some sticky substance that was coming out of the walls. “Run! Let’s go, quick.”

The group started running through the canyon as Hamon looked back. Larvae were coming out from the walls, which were full of small holes. Popping sounds came from their back as the larvae started exploding. Sickly green monsters came out of them, with skeletal frames and pointy stingers on their mouths. Some had wings and started flying, others dug into the ground, but most just crawled on their four legs trying to reach their prey.

“Damn it!” Clara looked back. “We have to fall back and clear this wave.” She stopped running. “Worst possible starting place,” she grumbled as she materialized a huge translucent blue hammer and started smashing the monsters.

Others joined in on her, one member being particularly useful in dismembering the monsters with his transformation blessing. The werewolf he turned into had hard enough skin to shrug off the stingers’ perforation. The three people with long-ranged blessings were ordered to explode the larvae before they could hatch.

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Theo and Hamon could only help a little from the sidelines. They didn’t have any attacks that could wipe out an area. Aside from that, Theo was in no rush to overwork himself. Even though the monsters were weak, their sheer number compensated.

The injuries started appearing on the team as they fought tooth and nail. Corpses started covering the whole ground in front of them. The experience they gained from a single creature was pitiful. However, with time, it started amounting to something relevant.

There was no one completely useless in the group. Everyone who managed to reach the canyon could pull their own weight.

Clara eyed the state of the canyon wall, the fight was dragged way too long for her taste. “That’s enough, everyone, prepare to run!” She disengaged from the creatures around her, swinging her hammer while retreating to the backline. The long-ranged attackers were having a particularly hard time against the underground creatures who were increasing in numbers. Nothing lethal, since no one was truly a glass cannon in their group, those usually died early.

As the group picked up speed, the monsters were left far behind. Their stamina and speed boosts guaranteed their pace. They kept running until they crossed paths with a group of bodies. Clara started cursing her bad luck as she kept glancing around. There were no monster corpses, and all bodies were stripped of their wristbands.

Theo inspected the surroundings, using his earring to inspect the surroundings. There were signs of lots of monsters underground, attracted by the corpses. However, most worrying was the mana density in the area. No one in the village’s area should have such concentrated mana. What’s someone like that doing here? People in the kingdom's depth had no qualms about the mana trail they left behind, and it showed here wide and clear.

He didn’t have much time to ponder as more and more critters started digging their way out of the ground. Those ones had carapaces and scorpion-like stingers. It ended up being a much easier opponent for them since they came in lower numbers.

Theo was elsewhere during the fight. There was clearly a much dangerous enemy in the canyon with unknown motivations.

Their stamina wristband proved their worth as the battle turned into one of attrition. Clara, however, began to worry. “We fight while moving.” She smashed another two critters with her hammer. “We can’t stall much more, or a big wave will get to us.”

Fighting in movement proved much more difficult than expected. Hamon had no experience with that and kept lagging behind. Theo had to constantly fall back and untangle him from the surrounding monsters. His lack of arms definitely wasn’t helping in that regard because he had to choose between kicking the monsters or running. To solve this problem, he started trampling on the monsters to gain footing to move forward. The others finally started looking at him in a new light, who, even without arms, seemed to be without any injury up until this point.

The monsters following their group kept increasing as time passed. From the path they were taking, Theo could clearly see they weren’t going straight for the exit. Clara was still aiming for the artifact, even if the situation was dire. Theo deduced she didn’t know the reason for the previous group massacre yet, and he wasn’t in a hurry to tell her because it would only make his plan harder.