Chapter 115 115: Escape

Cole avoided attacking any if the darklings as he made his way towards the exit. It was on the other end of the cavern and he was. Hoping he would be able to make it there before the duration for [Spectral Rover] ran out. But things never go the way they plan. But in he was lucky enough to get out of the encirclement before the skill ran it course.

He slid on the ground as a bolt of energy flew over his head. He leapt over and overturned rock as he turned around and in the same motion slashed down with [Black Cut] bifurcating a darkling that had gotten a little bit too close to him. He landed hard 9n the ground, rolled and lobbed a [Chaos Blast] right behind him as he pumped his legs faster, focusing all of his energy into running away from the Darklings close behind.

"Get him! Get him! Greet! Hiiimmmm!" the female darkling screeched out loudly, her voice resounding across the entire cavern and giving Cole what was most definitely a terrible headache. There was a splash from the lake on his right as a massive eel darkling surged out of it's depths, it's feelers sizzling as surged towards Cole who just stretched out his hands and caught the creature out of the air.

[Sin Eater]

The skill rapidly shriveled and turned the darkling to dust as Cole used what was left of it to top off on his energy levels. He held his sword out in his right hand and it's scabbard on the left as he encircled the lake, but the closer he got to the exit he realized that most of the darklings had gone in the opposite direction in an attempt to intercept him before he could try to escape.

He turned around and noticed that he had given the chasing Darklings aa extremely massive berth. He could not help but smile at that, it seems he has gotten a little faster. He raised his head and noticed that there was a lumberjack Ursaling heading for him, this one was a lot different from the others as it had spikes growing out of it's bone armored back, and there were wavy blue black energy tentacles sticking out of it's body.

The Ursaling slashed at Cole who promptly ducked under it, his body skidding across the floor and chaffing his exposed back as he flung an arm out and used [Vertigo] the Ursaling tipped to the side as Cole intercepted his slide by stabbing his sword into the ground, digging furrows into it before quickly coming up to the back of the Ursaling and stabbing down with his blade using [Assassinate] to end things once and for all.

The Ursaling let out a keening wale before it turned to dust too. Cole did not even stay long enough for that as he had already turned around and was running. He feet are up the distance rapidly until he made it close enough to the exit to see that it was packed to the brim with darklings, but these were not the particularly heavy hitters.

The chitterlings were small but deceptively fast, they had gotten there before the others. But unfortunately for them they were also the weakest out of all the Darklings that he had faced so far, so getting through them was not as much of a problem as he would have expected.

[Chaos Blast]

The ball of chaotic energy flew ahead of Cole as he willed the sword in his hand to shift it's form into that of a massive cudgel…. Well not a cudgel exactly but a staff. One that was as black as night with depictions of howling monsters and demons. He used [Shadow Dance] to appeared above the crowd of darklings just as the [Chaos Blast] exploded. Then he landed hard in their middle, his staff smashing down as he utilize gravity, wrapping it around the staff and letting it explode outwards the moment the staff hit the ground.

*Boom!*

The [Chaos Blast] explosion and Cole's extravagant used of a staff and gravity and a while lot of his current energy pool, specifically half of it, had created a three meter deep and five meter wide in circumference crater, and it was absolutely filled with dust of slain darklings, even as what was left of it floated into the air.

[Vertigo] was activated as he surged for the exit, noticing that it was a ramp that led upwards. The darklings that tried to grab a hold of him all seemed to be loosing their sense of balance as they all began to tip and fall over, as they did so Cole blasted last them, leaving them behind as he made his way upwards, trying his absolute hardest to make sure he did not lose the advantage that he had just gained.

"Get him! Bring me back my food! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fucckkk!"

Yeah there was no way in hell Cole was going to get himself captured, if not for the torture but fir the sheer fact that the butch behind him was absolutely bonkers. He made a silent promise to come back and stick her with Black Malakai's pointy end. She's been acting like she needed something stuck in her and most definitely not in a good way.

The incline to daylight and freedom was almost too sheer for Cole to go up on, but Raens were demons that were pretty much 0art elves, as evidenced by the tipped ears that Cole had. Balance was not a problem and his mastery over gravity was put to the test as he rushed outwards. It was only ten seconds in that he realized that it wasn't that the incline was too sheer to the point it was looking as if he was going up a wall, rather the earth itself or perhaps it was a ramp and he never realized was moving up, and the entrance that he could see no more than fifteen meters away was rapidly becoming a smaller stream of light.

"Fuck!"

These things really wanted to keep him here at all costs and Cole was not in the mood for that. He used [Shadow Dance] three times to get as close as possible to the entrance then he used [Spectral Rover] slowing down time and using his increase speed to course what ever was left of the distance and dive out into the waiting arms of the forest as he is fed hard amongst the damp earth covers with dead leaves and tiny branches.

But he did not land alone as an Ursaling no different from the last one he had just faced jumped out with him and landed on his back before snapping it's massive jaws around the back of his neck. Cole screamed out in pain, a scream that was so loud and powerful that it seemed to echo across the entire forest.

Cole felt the Ursaling clench it's jaws tighter, and while that female darkling had said that the should be brought back alive he didn't think this Ursaling had any intention of doing so. But ultimately it was still in physical contact with him, and whether or not it would admit it, the Ursaling had made a very big mistake.

Bright red blood flower down from his neck, drenching his back and spilling onto the floor in rivulets as Cole chuckled on his own blood. [Sin Eater] was activated in the very next second as the Ursaling let out a wild screech as it's body shuddered as Cole drew in every last vestige of energy in it's body, turning it to dust in just under five seconds, a lot faster than before.

He got back up to his feet, his body swaying in the wind as he struggled to keep his feet under him. He ended up leaning across a tree, taking slow, steady and painful breaths as the wounds on his neck began to slowly heal. It was agony though and he was finding it extremely hard to breathe, but never the less he walked forwards, stumbling a bit due to the loss of blood. But never the less his energy was running on over time in order to replace that which he had lost.

But he scarcely taken 5 steps when he heard a rumbled behind him. He turned to see that there was a massive boulder with seams in it's middle. The seams were slowly sliding down, the entrance of the nest reopening once again in order to send out more darklings after Cole. He shook his head as he began to move a little bit faster.

With each step he took, he moved tater and faster until eventually he began to hear yips and yowls and eerie screeches behind him. There was no established path in the forest, but Cole could recognize that the trees were even spaced and seemed to have been built in a ring.

The compass that led them to resources was pulled out by Divyat as a big bright green direction pointed northwest, taking him right back to the Glade. He owed the compass and began to move, running as fast as his legs could carry him as he wondered if perhaps something much worse was not about to happen.