"We must not stray away from each other or we will get lost. The fire is our only way to the nest!" Talon said as he looked over his shoulder.
"Yes, I'm right behind you!"
'That rat is quite fast goddamit, even with my speed, it's still keeping up somehow.' Clenching his teeth, Talon stared at the ever-so-distant ember of blue fire that he was following left and right.
Even though they were quite weak, they had extremely high speed instead which made them quite the hard targets to hit. But, for Talon, they were as easy as any other target he needed to kill.
The burning rat continued its escape as the fire ate its tail and moved toward its body. The slow process of the fire burning its body made it run even faster as adrenaline filled its body.
In a few seconds, they were already in a completely different area of the sewer system. They ran left and right and in circles till they completely lost their sense of direction. However, Talon knew that Sophie still had that string attached to her so he didn't have to worry about them getting lost.
"Where is it even going? We've been running for 10 minutes now." Sophie asked as she barely dodged a dirty puddle of water as she leaped in the air and landed next to Talon.
"It seems like it knows where it's going. Come on, I can feel something in the distance."
As the rat took the last turn, the fire finally caught up to its body and it lost all strength to move. When it fell to the ground, the azure flames finally burnt it completely, not even leaving any ashes behind.
The duo halted their run as they started approaching the spot where it died slowly.
"It died. Hmm, but are we even close to the spot?" Sophie asked as she turned around.
But, Talon didn't respond as he closed his eyes for a second. His brain cleared up as he focused on the area surrounding him. All of his Aetheris channeled into his Enhanced Focus skill to expand it as far as it could go.
After continuously growing stronger and leveling up, Enhanced Focus had already expanded quite far. Talon could easily sense things in a hundred-meter radius around him. It wasn't that far compared to someone like Acrypha but he was proud of how good it was for his level.
'I can sense a lot of things around here. But, no actual monster presence. Well, this was expected. We're probably still a little bit far from the nest. That doesn't mean I can't find it myself now.' He thought to himself.
What Talon was looking for wasn't the rats, but the things they leave behind, like their waste, food, and any other thing. If they were truly close to the nest, finding such things should be easy.
It didn't take long for that suspicion to be confirmed. Talon's sense picked up on something in the far distance that was awfully similar to the rat waste they found a while ago.
Then, he opened his eyes as he signaled for Sophie to get ready. The latter nodded her head as she followed after him.
"We're awfully close to the nest. It should definitely be somewhere around here." Talon explained. "If we happen across the nest. We need to kill all the rats before they spread or escape."
"Leave that to me, I know how to do it," Sophie replied.
As the two finally took their turn, they found themselves in a random tunnel. But, this tunnel had one different detail.
'The smell... Ugh...' Frowning slightly, Talon closed his nose. 'It's filled with feces... So much...'
However, this scene, as disgusting as it was, did make Talon feel delighted. If there was that much waste then that meant that they were close to their destination.
"I'm going to try and locate the nest." He said.
"Ok, I will keep my guard."
"Sophie, are you ok?" Looking behind worriedly, he noticed that Sophie was quickly getting overwhelmed by the rats. Some of them were even able to reach her as they opened their wide mouths.
"No!" His eyes turned extremely sharp as he vanished from his spot and appeared in front of Sophie. Then, he kicked the rats away with his leg before he swung his spear powerfully.
"Hah!!"
*BANG*
The monsters were launched in the air like ragdolls before they fell in the heart of the chaos.
"Are you ok?!" Looking behind him, Talon quickly lifted Sophie up.
"I'm fine. Hah..." She replied.
"Good, we need to leave this place right now. This was a fucking trap, those rats knew that we were coming for them." Looking around him, Talon noticed how meticulous the trap was.
The fact that they came from all the tunnels wasn't a coincidence, they were deliberately trying to overwhelm them with sheer numbers while the two struggled to find a way out.
'I can't use any overly destructive skill or the entire tunnel will collapse on our heads. Can I burn them to death? No, that won't work either, we will also get burned. If I'm gonna use azure flames, we have to be out of this place first. Dammit, my power is too restricted here! Should I just kill them using the spear alone?
Their numbers are still increasing... 'What should I do? Think. Think!'
"Let me help..." At that moment, Sophie touched his shoulder. "I'm here for you, always. Can you hold them on for a second?"
Staring into her eyes, all Talon could see was confidence. It didn't seem like she was terrified of this situation.
That shockingly made him feel all of his worries wash away as he nodded his head. "I can hold them on for as long as you need..."
Then, Talon focused on his spear as he quickly activated Spearmanship. What occurred after that was nothing short of a massacre.
With each swing of Talon's spear, dead corpses fell to the ground. He sliced left and right, trying to keep all the rats away. However, since they were coming from every single place, it was almost impossible to keep up with them. Still, Talon used all of his strength to do it.
'Faster, I need to be faster!' Clenching his teeth, Talon dashed around. The rate of his killing soared to the heavens. Every fiber of his was focused on massacring as many rodents as possible.
[Ding!]
[Spearmanship has leveled up.]
[Ding!]
[Spearmanship is ready to evolve!]
A notification appeared in Talon's vision that he didn't expect at all.
Meanwhile, Sophie quickly channeled her Aetheris before she created a giant net of strings. Then, with a swift and elegant move, the net was spread in the air vertically before it arched around them in the form of a barrier.
Then, with a simple hand gesture, the barrier expanded forward.
A//N: Don't forget to support the book if you enjoyed reading ??