The small group of six crept through the tall grass, and Alex could see his breath as the sun began to rise.
The encampment was less than 100 meters away, and he could feel his heart beginning to quicken once again. It had been odd for him, to notice that his body would begin to ramp itself up at different stages of their preparation. His heart rate had increased at several points where his mind and the anticipation of battle seemed to rule his body, more than him being worked up from any actual strenuous exercise.
From this distance, Alex could see that the Shadow Serpent Sect had taken the time to create small wooden walls in a line that blocked most of their line of sight to either side for twenty meters. In the middle was a small opening meant to act as a funnel. Their plan was to attack at that point to draw out the enemies into their retreat.
Several of the men on the team gripped their weapons and looked toward Alex. As their small team leader, it was his decision when to attack.
Kind of funny because there’s nothing that will actually decide when we should attack.
The generalized time to start the attack was “first light.” But the sun was already coming over the top of the trees on the light side of the Rift.
He watched the small, makeshift battlements in hopes of spotting some sort of movement. There was none.
With no reason to delay any longer, Alex signaled with his hand, and the men began to advance. Sam stayed several meters behind the group, doing his best not to attract any attention.
As they came within 15 meters, all five of them began to jog in a low crouch and picked up speed as they stood and began to run. Their increasing momentum carried them toward the walls. As they had planned, none of them used any Qi techniques or skills to avoid alerting any sentries. They closed on the wall within a few seconds and began their assault.
Within several feet of the wall, they were met with cries of alarm, and the clang of metal could be heard as the first blades crossed.
Alex traded several blows with a man at the choke point, doing his best to see beyond the small walls. He was startled to see that the camp was much larger than they expected it to be. Enough tents had been erected for at least 40 people.
Shit, was the scouting report wrong? Why are there so many of them here?
One of the celestial sect guards took a cut to his thigh and another to his bicep. Through his mana vision, Alex could see Sam’s healing effect begin to work on them.
Okay, now they’ve made us bleed. It’s time to sell the feint and then retreat.
“Come on, men! Each of you is worth at least five Shadow Sect scum!” Alex called, doing his best to sound like a pompous Elder Brother but knew that he didn’t have the same tone or the words to achieve the effect fully.
There was no response to his rallying cry as the fighting continued. He could only hear the grunting of the men and the ringing of steel which was contrasted by the occasional shout and flash of a Qi technique.
Twice Alex was fooled by the use of an illusion and quick strike combo, causing him to bleed before his wound was healed. Several other guards took deep cuts, and Sam’s healing was beginning to lag behind the myriad of wounds they were receiving.
We need to begin the fallback now, but it can’t seem coordinated.
“Don’t give up! We will fight to the final breath if needed!” Alex yelled the last sentence, making sure to loudly call the key phrase they had set ahead of time. Two of his team fell back, one even tripping as he did so and called out in panic. This left the best three fighters remaining and doing their best to move from the choke point.
Alex could hear a few men from behind the wall cheering and laughing as they saw the attack group begin to break. Now that they believed the retreat was real, he needed to get out as well.
Not needing to fake the tension and stress all that much, Alex called out to his men over the fighting, “There are too many of them! Retreat! Retreat!” He made sure to project his voice enough that it would carry to those around them.
Yep, the voice crack was totally for the acting.
The group began their retreat, and Alex could see small wounds and scratches closing on his team as they moved away from the wooden palisade. He made sure to call out several more times and allowed his natural mana to leak from his skin. Blue motes of light streamed toward Alex, and he instantly dismissed the two kill notifications that popped up in his vision.
We’ve got to get them to follow us, especially the Firstborn.
Alex heard shouting behind him as they ran along the hill, heading west toward the ravine. He risked a glance over his shoulder and his eyes widened at the sheer number of people pouring from behind the miniature wooden walls. All of them were fully dressed and armed.
Just as he was about to turn back to running, he saw a large black form move out from behind the wall. As if pulled from his recent nightmares, he saw the tall, green grass begin to sway and part as the serpent rapidly approached the retreating group.
Fuck. Why is she so fast?
“Fuck!” Valtherion yelled, sending feelings of excitement.
Alex just groaned and turned back to focus on his footing. As they got closer to the deep split in the world, the ground became more uneven and filled with rocks while the tall stalks of grass began to thin. When they were within twenty meters of the ambush point, Alex could see the space clearly.
He cursed to himself as he noticed that the area was slightly different than the map showed. Worse yet, with how many people were chasing them, if they set up the ambush on that small ledge, there would be no place for the ambushers to ascend the cliff and strike out.
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“Follow me!” Alex yelled.
He pumped his legs faster and glanced back, both to check on the pursuers and to see Sam trailing behind. The teen was panting, and Alex could tell his endurance was flagging.
“Shit. Sam, watch out!”
In what felt like slow motion, Alex watched the grass part just behind Sam and a large, red-eyed serpent rose up behind him. Sam looked up to Alex, hearing him call out, but he didn’t register the words fast enough. Alex set his destination point and used [Feather Step] while pushing off with all of the power his stats could provide him. He blurred backward past the other sect members who’d been following close behind him.
Alex flew through the air, light as a feather, but he knew that he wouldn’t make it in time. The snake struck faster than Alex’s enhanced mind speed could keep up with. One moment, it was pulling back slowly; the next, Sam was screaming in agony, and the Firstborn sunk its fangs deep into Sam’s back.
As he landed next to Sam, Alex could see the black serpent begin to raise its tail for a strike as if to finish Sam off. Alex fully released his [Feather Step] before bracing his feet and drawing his jian again to block the tail strike. From the corner of his eye, Alex could see the two fangs pull down Sam’s back, turning the two puncture wounds into long, rending tears of flesh.
Before his mind could pick up on any more of the horrific details, the large tail connected and sent Alex tumbling. He heard feet pounding past him and the roar of the Celestial Sect warriors as they engaged the Firstborn. Alex pushed himself up and scrambled over to Sam, a few meters away.
Sheathing his sword, Alex slid next to Sam and was relieved to see the teen had already cast [Rejuvenation] on himself, though he still writhed in pain and grunted through tensed muscles. While the wounds were sealing themselves as Alex watched, his back was already covered in blood, and his robes were torn in the back.
“Sam, you’re alright. I’m here, come on. We’re almost there.”
He slid his arm under Sam’s and pulled the teen to his feet. Alex forced himself to focus as he used [Mana Thread] to set up a ritual circle a few feet away opting for the one that he knew didn’t require any materials to use. Once the weaker version of a binding ritual was set, he called out to the sect guards who were holding back the Firstborn. As one, they turned and used movement abilities to create space.
The massive snake used its own skill, which seemed to make it have zero resistance as it slid across the ground at an unnatural speed, Alex activated the ritual circle.
Trusting in his own work to let the ritual slow the monster’s speed, Alex turned his back to the snake and began to lead the way for his team to a position along the ravine just north of their original ambush point.
The new position was on a small lip, raised above the medium-sized platform about twenty meters north of the original location. They had gone far enough west, just to reach the crevasse, that they were off to the side of the original wooden palisade. It broke Alex’s heart to be able to see the Rift exit again, yet to have the last 100 meters feel so far away.
Alex had thought that making it to the ambush point would be the hardest part of the mission. From here, they should be able to stall for a few minutes until the ambush party came out of their hiding place within the ravine to attack their flank. Now, with how outnumbered they are, the fight would be anything but simple.
He held out hope for the superior training and coordination that the Celestial Lotus Sect warriors had. Once the ambush party attacked, they would release a flare to signal Eura that he could release the bindings. Alex hoped that with their returned strength, they would rally and be able to withstand the difference in numbers.
The following battle was tough and filled with tension and wounds. The five sect warriors, including Alex, fought against the eight-to-one odds. There were only two reasons that they could last as long as they did. The most obvious was that the terrain forced the attackers to stagger their approach. The other key factor was that Sam continued to throw heals on each of the party members as they got hit and to Alex’s Heavenly Eye, it looked like leaves were falling around them all like rain in a storm.
At one point in the fight, Sam bent over and threw up. It took Alex a moment to figure out why, but he realized that he must be extremely low on mana. From personal experience, Alex knew that if he kept spending his natural mana reserves, he would get too low and pass out.
Val, go help Sam! Give him your mana.
“Friend can have mana.” The feeling of determination and seriousness coming from the small mana wyrm made Alex smile for a brief moment.
In the next moment, he was back to his desperate defense alongside the sect warriors. In his vision, he’d occasionally catch motes of blue collide with his chest signifying that he’d aided in the kill notification that followed. He even saw the golden lights that signified a level up and needed to ensure that the notifications didn’t distract him.
While fighting, he set up a ritual under the fighters' central body. He pushed forward a few steps and tossed the metal ball along the ground.
Shit, how do I make the feather move over there.
“Hua, can you keep them busy for a second?”
The man to his right, a senior sect member, nodded with grim determination. He had blood covering his brow from a now-healed cut.
Alex took a single step back and knelt on the ground. He reached into the spatial pouch at his belt and removed a Mana Stone. He set it on the ground and drew the dagger from the sheath in his boot. He used the pommel to smash the Mana Stone. Using [Mana Thread] he ran the line through the Mana Stone dust and watched it manifest as he fed it even more mana than normal.
Holding out his hand, Alex focused on his mana control as the mana thread snaked up from the pile of dust on the ground and wrapped several times around the base of the feather. Within moments, it was traveling among the grass and under the attacker’s feet. When it was in position, he activated the ritual through the thread and watched as nearly twenty enemy warriors were temporarily forced to their knees under the increased gravity.
Several dead Shadow Sect members littered the ground in front of his four companions who faced south, stalling for the eventual ambush. Sam lay on the ground, still wincing in pain, with Valtherion wrapped around his shoulder and upper arm. Alex looked at Sam.
Where the hell are they?
He scanned the back lines of the fighters and could see the Firstborn raise its head, tongue flicking. Alex’s mind went back to his flight through the dark side of the Rift and how the shadow serpents seemed to be able to sense his leaking mana. Fearing that could happen again, he quickly restricted his leaking mana, hoping to throw off the Firstborn’s ability to sense where he was within the melee.
Alex knew he was probably clear where he was, since there was only a small group of defenders, but any confusion he could cause for the giant serpent, the better.
For the first time, Alex activated his Heavenly Eye and analyzed the Firstborn.
Naraka - Level 58
Primary Stat: Agility
Fuck me.
I need to figure out how to get Sam and me out of here. This isn’t our fight and as soon as the ambushers get here, we need to make a break for it.
He looked at the open cross of land between their position and the Rift exit. While it was a relatively straight shot to the exit, it was a long distance to run while supporting the now exhausted and injured Sam.
She’ll definitely see us breaking away from the group. I’m sure she’d catch us before we get there.
Through his left eye, Alex saw a bright ball of golden yellow mana fly into the air. As his eyes traced it through the morning light, he realized what it was. A heartbeat later, he heard a war cry as several warriors in white and yellow robes attacked the enemy’s flank.
Only a few moments passed before a huge pulse and surge of mana exploded out from the direction of Tianluo.
Eura has released Rakshasi. We need to get out of here. Now.