Chapter 26: Miscalculation

Chapter 26: Miscalculation

“Hmm?” Gabrias frowned and lifted his hand to grab the cloaked figure’s attention.

“What is it?”

“He... He stopped. No, wait... He is running back to the town.”The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñòv€l-B1n.

“Are you certain? No, that isn’t unusual. He is probably trying to hide in town. There is no way he can tell how we are tracking him. He likely judged that being in the wilderness would be to his disadvantage. It doesn’t matter. He can’t run away forever anyway.”

Gabrias, however, didn’t quite agree with that assessment. There was something unusual about that child. He could tell those weren’t the movements of someone running back just to hide in the town. But he kept that to himself. If the child was insane or suicidal, that only worked better for them.

***

Neave ran back at full speed towards the town. But eventually, he slowed down a bit. There was no rush. He had something he wanted to do first. He bent down to the grass and started grazing. He ate the grass straight from the ground like a farm animal. If his life force reached the maximum his body could handle, it slowly dissipated until it returned to the usual amounts.

Key word: slowly.

He could maintain a surplus for a while if he controlled the life force. Neave would need as much life force as he could get with what he was attempting to do now. There was also the bonus of having a surplus of calories in his body. He never knew. Small advantages added up.

He wasn’t sure how well he would do against this group. Compared to the time he fought Kaphor, he was a little stronger but also missing an arm. He was tempted to quickly pick one of the spirit powers from the ring and try to finish a spirit trial, but that would be a rash decision. He didn’t want to compromise with too many spirit powers.

He didn’t want to compromise with any of his spirit powers. And the monster cores he had access to were frighteningly underwhelming. Even though he would have a massive advantage in spirit trials, he was still only a foundation realm cultivator. Given that he couldn’t rely on spirit powers while inside a spirit trial, he would eventually still reach a limit on how difficult a spirit trial he could handle. So, for now, he settled for extra life force and energy.

Neave got off the ground. He stretched and flexed his muscles. He took off the cloak and put it in the dimension ring. It would only slow him down. All he wore now was a plain white linen shirt and sturdy wool pants. His left sleeve hung empty to his side as he gave a few practice swings to the greatsword.

Good.

It was time to begin.

Neave sprinted towards the town wall and used a movement technique to make it to the other side. He took a look around and found none of the people hunting him. His spirit senses were overloaded by the scores of people walking through the main streets. But he didn’t have to find his targets. They just had to find him.

He jumped out into the main street and yelled.

“Hey, fuckers! It’s me! Are you looking for me? Well, I am right here! Come on out! No need to be scared!”

Suddenly, from the shadows behind Neave, a figure appeared. A cultivator wielding an ominous dagger in one hand, still partially wrapped in shadow. Neave couldn’t tell whether it was a man or a woman as their thick white cloak and mask hid all their features.

Neave was caught off guard, as he hadn’t sensed the cultivator before they appeared, so he wasn’t prepared to respond appropriately. He threw out a quick true strike to parry the blow, but the backlash made his wrists bend from the stress.

He quickly regained his footing and used a movement technique to get behind the shadowy figure's back. An arrow flew from one of the rooftops, whistling as a small whirlwind of air spun around it, and it grazed Neave’s left side of the body. Neave stepped back as the shadowy figure before him was about to attack him again and used some of his life force to stop the bleeding.

The people around them screamed for the guards and ran for their lives. The guards arrived soon after but immediately joined the civilians.

Best to avoid getting involved in stuff like that.

One of the cultivators, a person Neave had injured back in the mansion, appeared from behind one of the buildings and ran at Neave. Three more people wearing the same outfit emerged from the small alleys and ran toward him.

Neave heard another arrow flying toward him, and he dodged, simultaneously appearing behind the shadowy figure's back. He wanted to use the most decisive attack, but the shadowy figure was already turning around as they had immediately spotted him. Neave clicked his tongue and resorted to another quick true strike. It left a shallow cut on the cultivator's back.

Yet another person appeared, jumping from a building next to Neave, wielding a longsword. They swung the long sword at Neave, but Neave dodged out of the way. The strike missed and shattered the stone paving of the road.

One of the figures ran towards Neave and threw out a punch. Neave used a true strike to parry it. The punch held such tremendous force behind it that the shockwave it sent out collapsed the wall next to them. Neave suffered a severe backlash from parrying the strike and attempted to create some distance.

One of the cultivators that had appeared previously instantly sped up. They moved so fast towards Neave that he couldn’t respond to their attacks on time. He took a punch to the chest, the stomach, and a hard kick to his leg. He twisted in the air to minimize the damage from the punches, but the kick broke Neave’s femur and flung him away toward the middle of the road.

Neave bit the hilt of his sword to keep it in place as he manually adjusted the bone in his leg with his arm. Then he used life force to reseal the bone back together. He plopped to the ground rather disgracefully and hurried to get up. The fast cultivator ran out of steam, and Neave prepared to capitalize on the moment of weakness but had to dodge another insanely fast arrow that once again grazed the side of his torso.

At this very moment, the cultivator with the insanely powerful punch landed one of those punches on Neave's side. He felt his entire body contort as he went flying away. Rather than hit a wall or land on the ground, the shadowy figure from before appeared in his path and stabbed him with the dagger.

Neave fell to the ground, barely conscious, as he felt his life draining from his body.

YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND! THIS IS THE GIMMICK OF THE EIGHTH WAVE! YOU ONLY GET ONE ATTEMPT!

He couldn’t let himself die here.

“We have immobilized him, but I believe he had suffered too much damage to survive much longer. We will restrain him and administer first aid.”

The shadowy figure addressed someone. The rest hurried toward them.

So they want to restrain me?

“You... You damned!” The shadowy figure snapped and ran at Neave, but Neave used a true strike to decapitate them.

“Shit! Those fucking morons!” The individual orchestrating the fight was seriously panicking now.

They have lost far too many of their group to this child. They weren’t expecting to lose any forces at all! Now there were only three of them left! They had to salvage this situation somehow. Their only saving grace was that this child seemed to be worth the effort they’d invested in capturing him. What kind of insane secret did that book hold?

As he thought this, one of the last three remaining fighters panicked. Their hands glowed.

“No, don’t you fucking dare! We need that child alive!”

“Stay the hell away from me!” The cultivator yelled as bright fire gathered and concentrated in their hands.

Neave merely stood and grinned. As the cultivator prepared to throw the spirit power at Neave, Neave slowly swung his sword downwards. The blast flew at Neave, and the true strike that met it looked like it cut the entire explosion in two. Neave couldn’t entirely avoid the blow, and neither could the person he had injured back at the mansion.

The fire seared Neave’s skin. His ears and eyes were burned. He stood, alive, but just barely. He couldn’t see, and he couldn’t hear.

He sensed the waning qi from the figure lying beside Neave’s feet. He walked over to them. Neave bent over and bit their neck, sucking the blood out. As his body filled with life force, he grew back his skin, fixed his ears, and recovered his eyes. He had to stop since he felt if he absorbed any more of anything, he would be doing more damage than he would be fixing.

“M–Monster... You’re a damn monster!” The explosive power wielder prepared to use another blast, but Neave was in front of them in seconds.

And soon after, their head lay on the ground. The last person hesitated. It was the one that could crystalize their body. Neave stared at them.

They turned around to run. Every hair on their body stood as they felt the pressure of Neave’s strike behind them. Immediately, they crystallized their entire body. Neave's strike landed, but the impact was absorbed, and Neave’s sword snapped in two.

“That was close...” It was a man’s voice.

Neave walked in front of him.

“Old man, that is quite the spirit power you have. I can not imagine you could be using it without any consequences.”

The man winced at Neave’s words but stayed silent.

“Well, I don't care anyway.” Neave took a stance.

He moved slowly, but how he pulled his fist back felt like it was pulling mountains out of the earth. His foot landed on the ground with a resonant thud. Immediately, all the dust and debris were blown away. The man was panicking, contemplating his options, but he couldn’t move.

Once he crystallized a part of his body, it took a while before he could undo it.

And that while increased a lot for crystalizing the whole body.

Neave’s fist moved ponderously through the air as golden runes shone all around them, brighter than the sun. He loaded his spirit with life force in advance, preparing for the severe impact that was about to come. His fist made contact with the man’s body.

The impact shattered the nearby stone, and the shockwave spread hairline cracks through the entire road. The man’s body was blown away into hundreds of bits, which returned to ordinary flesh, blood, and gore raining all over the street.

Neave coughed out blood. He could barely keep himself awake.

He felt like something was wrong with him. His entire body was sluggish, and his spirit felt heavy. The life force flowed through his body like molasses, where it usually flowed like water. He had to move. So he took a few steps, one by one. He sped up as he got used to the weird feeling.

Neave disappeared between the buildings.

“Gabrias! We have to go!”

Garbias stood frozen, the terrifying brutality he had witnessed seared into his eyes.

“No... I mean, I can’t. I am only on the bronze path and do not have any movement techniques or mobility spirit powers! I can't just jump off the wall!”

The man was about to object but clicked his tongue instead and jumped off the wall. Try as he may, he couldn’t find Neave anywhere without Gabrias' help.

Soon enough, Gabrias sensed Neave again appearing on the other side of the town wall.

Gabrias stared into the distance.

The sight of the bloody, tattered child filled him with dread.

It was like watching an ember drop into dry grass.

That boy, no... That monster, free in the wilderness...

...Would burn everything to the ground.