Liam was angry with the athlete, who had introduced himself as Kian Meran because he didn't pay enough attention to the surroundings while fighting someone.
He knew that the students were new to the sudden changes in the world that was now ruled by the strong, a place where the weak would be devoured the moment they showed a sign of weakness, but that didn't mean Liam couldn't get angry at them for acting like braindead idiots.
His longswords had broken, his arms were swollen and felt as if his muscles were replaced with blocks of cold, hard iron and he could barely refill bits of his drained stamina and Arcane Power by paying half of the 5 Arcanium he had obtained for killing the Elite Ratatuo.
The only weapons he was left with were his hands and the battle-axe, which was not enough to fight dozens of huge rats at the same time, not if he wanted to avoid sustaining more injuries.
'I should avoid those Elite Ratatuo for the time being.'
Liam understood his condition and situation pretty well. His stats didn't even allow him to exhibit enough strength to neatly pierce the neck of the Elite Ratatuo, not even after the steel longswords had been enhanced with Arcane Power.
Steel weapons were nothing special. The steel was made out of ordinary iron that didn't even possess proper Arcane Power conductivity. That was also one of the reasons why the blade chipped when Liam forcefully inserted Arcane Power inside them to enhance their sharpness.
For a while, he reconsidered buying a new weapon with the small fortune of Arcanium he had amassed fighting the rats but Liam decided against it when he realized that a good weapon would bring him no benefits if his stats and movements were restricted due to his weak body.
The only advantage he possessed was that his Arcane Power was very potent and that he possessed more Arcane Power than ordinary humans. He was half devil and his father's son, after all!
This could be exploited as long as his remaining stats would increase only a little.
While Liam was deep in thought, screams of terror reached his ears.
"Helpp!!!"
"Noooo!!! I don't want to die!!!"
"I am too young to die!!!"
He regained his senses and turned around, just to see the miserable condition and non-existent formation of students, all of whom were scattered through the schoolyard.
'Why do I feel like a Nanny?' Liam couldn't help but think of himself as a warden while watching the kindergarten plays that were unveiled in front of him. Shaking his head, he started to act again.
However, this time, he didn't even think of overdoing it. His body was screaming at him, demanding him to rest and let everyone die but his efforts would be in vain if he gave up now. Liam didn't want his effort to be wasted, so he chose to ignore his exhaustion and cut through the necks of the ordinary huge rats with the razor-sharp battle axe.
It didn't require much force to kill them but Liam did only the bare minimum to help the students around him while slowly gathering them.
"Rex, gather all students and show me the way to the gym," Liam ordered before his gaze flicked to Kian who had turned quiet after being scolded by Liam, "And you…rush over to the gym and take a look inside. Come back afterward and report to me, no matter what others may tell you to do!"
Liam gave Kian a pointed look before he sighed inwardly as he saw the fear in the athlete's eyes.
"Use your Soultrait if necessary. You should be faster while sprinting at your full speed. If you encounter some monsters you can enter the school building and outwit the monsters. You should know this place better than some monsters that follow their instincts, don't you think so?" He encouraged Kian who nodded his head before he disappeared by turning into a flash that headed north.
'Agility at D-rank in addition to a Soultrait that increases agility passively and actively…I can make use of that…'
Liam kept staring at the retreating figure of the young athlete for a few seconds before his attention switched over to Rex. Rex was also one of the few humans who could be made use of properly, and then there was a young female student who fought fiercely with the steel spear.
Her combat technique was on a completely different level than the other students, let alone the teacher who failed miserably in his job.
Liam didn't really feel like playing the Nanny anymore but he knew that it was necessary, whether it was for his mission or to make sure that he would survive and be able to hunt efficiently as well.
Completing the customized mission shouldn't be a problem as long as the few useful humans were nourished and had a little fighting spirit. There were a handful of those useful humans, which gave Liam a little hope for their survival.
The number of rats that attacked their group after they had huddled together decreased drastically, but there were now rats emerging out of every nook and cranny. There was probably not a single place that was devoid of a rat as the ugly beasts kept infiltrating the school, much like the steady downpour.
By now, the screams of terror had been swallowed, which was a bad sign. The screams had distracted many rats that were now searching for new targets and Liam in addition to the deadweight around him could be considered a delicious, tender snack.
"The gym is not far away… as long as we hurry we–..." Rex said just to shut his mouth when he saw a group of tens of huge rats forming in front of them. The rats were in their way and they had to make a detour or barge through them to reach the gym.
At this moment, Kian returned, waving his arms with a bright smile on his face. He gave them a thumbs up from over a hundred-meter distance, which could only be seen by Liam as the heavy rain restricted the view of many.
"Looks like we have to charge through. The gym seems to be safe, considering that your friend, the clown, is attracting so much attention on the other side of this small group of rats," Liam informed the others who exchanged nervous looks.
Everyone was exhausted by now, some even mentally unstable and unable to come up with a rational thought in their mind.
However, Liam ignored this as he charged forward, ignoring the mounting exhaustion that threatened to take him down faster than the rats could.
He could rest when he was dead!
**
If you want to support me use your golden tickets and powerstones.
You can also visit my pa treon: Pa treon.com/HideousGrain
More character images and nice chats about the HideVerse:
https://discord.gg/EdsDgFVWwZ
Link also in my description.
Do you like it? Leave a review and add it to the library!
"Is everyone alright?" Liam asked in a voice that was loud enough for everyone around him to hear after he ended the life of the last ordinary huge rat.
He turned around and saw the pale faces of the dead-tired students before he turned back without bothering about their exhaustion.
"Buy an Energizer if you guys cannot move. I will leave you guys behind if you won't keep up!"
Liam knew that a bunch of students was struggling to cope with the reality and that they would collapse the moment they stopped. Threatening to leave them behind was his means to force them to go ahead. It was cruel but so was life.
Without his threats, they might actually give up on themselves and hope that someone else would rescue them. That hope was crushed by Liam's words which made them access the Arcane Shop instinctively and quickly buy one or two Energizers.
They downed the bitter liquid and followed behind Liam while trying to ignore the bloody wounds all over their body.
Only a few students hadn't sustained any injuries yet, including Rex, Kian, and the female student who was good at wielding the spear. Her name was Olivia Jellin according to Rex's intel and she was the heir of some wealthy businessman.
Liam didn't really care about the latter information. He was more intrigued about her Soultrait because it seemed to allow her to comprehend the intent of weapons much faster than anyone else.
But instead of bothering her, Liam chose to ignore Olivia. It would be a hassle to turn someone like a prestigious heir of a wealthy family into one of his pawns, even if it would only be temporarily.
She would help him solve the mission even if he were to ignore her. Olivia had to fight for her survival, after all!
Kian joined their group after the fight was over and they kept advancing to the humongous gymnasium for the next ten minutes. Their group was forced to fight two more groups of rats but they didn't pose much of a problem since everyone was getting more accustomed to killing.
The fighting pattern of the rats was imprinted in Liam's mind and he could easily kill the ordinary huge rats as long as there weren't too many charging at him at the same time.
He was bone-tired and his entire upper body ached but that was something he learned to ignore.
"That is the gymnasium? Pretty big, that's for sure," Liam mumbled mostly to himself when they arrived at the open plaza in front of the gymnasium that looked more like a modern Colosseum than anything else.
Liam had not paid visits to a lot of Colosseums before but the huge wall erected around the main entrance made him feel like they were about to enter a Colosseum. It was a weird assessment but didn't seem to be wrong.
The large arch of the main entrance spanned close to a dozen meters while the width of the gymnasium was several hundred meters. It was just as long and over 50 meters in height.
Calling it huge was a gross understatement.
"It's the biggest in the country and used by most Universities within Starim…but shouldn't you know that if…wait, you are not from here, are you?" Rex explained the same fact Kian had wanted to say earlier, just to hit the bullseye with his realization.
Liam's expression didn't change in the slightest at Rex's question when Kian decided to jump in their conversation.
"We are quite lucky that you were in the forest. Are you a biology major, or do you like the nature of the Jula Valley? The weather forecast said that it would be sunny today, so many people were probably out wandering through the forest when shit happened…these poor people…I pray for their survival!" Kian said with a sad expression on his face. His entire body was currently drenched in water and he was shivering a bit.
However, they were lucky to have Liam by their side. Their mysterious savior might be a little bit of an oddball, and he was very harsh, but it was quite obvious that he meant well when ordering them around. If not for him, they would have turned into the rats' lunch long ago.
"I am not sure if my answer will satisfy you but I watched the Jula Valley from the cliff south from here. But don't you think it is more important to slaughter a few more rats to help those people over there?" Liam asked, pointing toward the main entrance of the gym where close to a hundred rats, including more than a dozen Blazing Tooth Rats were fighting against a large group of desperate humans who were wielding all kinds of objects as a replacement for weapons.
He didn't even think of lying because he knew from experience that big lies would inevitably end up creating more problems than leaving out the most important parts of the truth.
Speaking the truth but leaving out some information made things much easier, especially at this very moment. It was easy to remember than keeping a track of lies as well.
Rex and the others couldn't clearly see through the heavy rain but they heard the screams and battle noises coming from the main entrance of the gym.
It caused their body to tense up once again moments after they had calmed a little at the sight of the towering gym. They were not yet in safe grounds, which the teacher and the students realized once again.
Nobody asked Liam where exactly he came from again as he took a deep breath. His left hand turned into a claw while his right hand tightly grasped the battle axe.
[1x『Arcane Energizer(F+ Rank)』+ 1x 『Painkiller(F- Rank)』have been purchased. 3 Arcanium have been deducted!]
He swallowed the pill that materialized in his hand immediately and downed the Arcane Energizer as well.
A moment later, he dashed toward the main entrance hall of the gymnasium to join the humans in their battle against the rats. His focus was on the dozen Blazing Tooth Rats. The students blindly followed him without actually realizing what they were doing. Only when it was already too late did they understand that they had to fight an even bigger group of rats now that they were so close to their goal.
They were afraid but still fought with all their might, showing only little hesitation as they thrust the steel spear toward their opponents.
Meanwhile, Liam turned into a slaughterer as his claw pierced through the fur and flesh of their opponents.
His identity might be exposed now that he had changed the shape of his hand but he could just say that it was his Soultrait, in the worst case.
As long as he said his eyes, the black horn and the ability to change the shape of his hands were his Soultrait, nobody would doubt his origin or question his identity.
However, even if the others wouldn't believe him, it was not as if he had to bother about that.
As long as his mission was a great success, everything was fine!
Paragraph comment
Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.
Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.
GOT IT