Capítulo 68: Hunters of Madness
FWOOSH
A shadow lit by the moonlight gracefully soared through the air as a fierce vortex of wind followed it.
It landed on a ledge on a humongous wall and let out a sigh.
He yawned as the irresistible dizziness that plagued his mind for the last few minutes got stronger and stronger.
His body waived as his eyes inevitably closed and he fell down with his head upside down.
If he hit the ground then a sore neck would be the absolute minimum and a broken neck would be expected.
A voice whispered to him. 'You should just sleep. It's all over now. That… thing you have created won't allow you any harm.
But keep an eye open though. I suspect he might do something soon.'
Right before the moment of impact, Aster's eyes snapped open.
His back arched back and his legs were pushed forward, doing a 180-degree turn.
CRACK
The bones beneath his cracked under the force of the fall.
That or it was his knees that cracked.
'My damn knees.' Aster groaned inwardly.
'I barely made it in time. What was that sleepiness anyway? Was it a poison? A venom perhaps? Did I get bitten by one of those spiders?'
Aster got out of his squatting position and stretched his legs which produced a number of cracks.
'Damn, it's almost as if I spent a week sleeping. Why is my body so stiff?'
'This reminds me of the time when I was in the hospital. It is similar to that. My muscles feel like stones.'
Aster had learned how to combat stiff muscles though. He channeled his aura throughout his body spread it to his every cell and performed some stretches here and there.
'Wew, that was refreshing. I feel much better now.' He thought as he cracked his back for the 8th time.
'What was that voice saying though? Something that I have created?'
He looked at his chest, where he had seen the transparent sphere that embodied the system.
He said to it. 'By any chance, do you have a twin?'
No reply came.
'Still unresponsive as always huh? Well sleep well and recover I guess.'
The image of the dead strings in the transparent sphere part resurfaced in his mind.
Aster's body shuddered.
'Is it like a cancer but for the system? It certainly looked dead like a cancer cell. And the sheer number of them too.
Anyway, you do your thing and I will focus on our survival. Deal?
…
You don't have to answer.'
Aster touched the wall and felt its texture.
It was cold and rough, the perfect representation of how this place feels.
Aster focused on [Magic aura sense] to the maximum and observed the wall for any weak spot he could exploit.
He could not afford to leave a single spot unchecked as it might very well be the spot he had been looking for.
He scanned 1km up, sideways, and below and couldn't find such spots. Contrary to the rocky wall, the barrier felt warm and smooth without any blemishes.
Just to make sure, Aster created a wind drill and drilled through the wall, creating a tunnel in the process.
In order to minimize the chance of it collapsing on top of him, he had taken some safety precautions by using bones to create a rib.
Just like how modern-day tunnels have steel ribs to support tunnels, he used bones to do it.
He lit up a small fireball to act as a light source. His vision was good, better than most but pitch darkness is still darkness.
[[Parallel Thought] has been activated]
[The number of existing branches: 3]
'I will just create another 2 mind branches, one to keep constructing the support rib and the other the manipulate the fireball so that it always follows me.'
With that plan, he continued to go deeper and deeper into the wall of the volcano.
Not so far away, a few shadows could be seen together.
The darkness of the night hid their appearances but certain features of them could be seen.
Their antlers, long snouts, ghoul-like long and thin limbs, hunched back, and their monstrous height of 3 meters gave it away.
They roamed around burnt corpses of small swarm scavenger goblins and inspected them very carefully.
One of them picked up the scent of something on one of the severely mutilated corpses and tilted its head toward the source of the scent.
Then, without any delay, it started to gallop towards it with extreme speed.
The others followed suit after catching the scent too.
Their movement was silent and deadly. Countless bones cracked when they were stepped on but they did not produce any sound.
The pack galloped over to the crater where Aster had set up his trap. All of them gathered around the pole which had Aster's blood stained on it.
The smell of blood fueled their hunger and with renewed ferocity, they continued their chase.
With each passing second, their appearance slightly changed.
Their antlers grew bigger and gained sharp spikes, their claws grew sharper and they got much faster as they detected prey nearby.
A poisonous shadow tarantula fell from the sky. Its angle of descent would happen to intercept one of the hunters in their chase.
SQUISH
It did not stop and it rammed straight into the spider, turning it into a meat paste.
It didn't even lose a single bit of momentum. On the contrary, the smell of blood further empowered it. It didn't just buff a single one either, it made the entire pack faster.
The bloodlust hung in the air.
Aster detected something was wrong as he was examining the barrier.
As expected, the barrier didn't allow him to leave. He was planning to try and attack it when he felt heavy bloodlust at the entrance of the tunnel.
He turned around instantly and prepared a shit ton of fireballs despite being deep underground.
'I will use negative fireballs if I have to. Damn it. It hurts when I use it too.'
His heart raced and his senses were dialed to 11, even higher than normal.
His finger twitched and it shocked the hell out of him.
'Why am I being this paranoid? Is this a skill?'
Aster had no time to ponder over his hyper-sensitive behavior as his vision blurred.
THUMP
THUMP
'Something is coming.'
THUMP
THUMP
In front of Aster, a monstrous creature stood.
His blurry eyesight and the raw, pure darkness shrouding the body of the monster made it impossible for him to identify everything about the intruder but he got the important details right.
Two jointed legs like that of a werewolf's, big antlers that seemed like knives assembled together, long arms, sharp claws, and a lanky towering figure.
Despite being exposed to the light of fire, the shadow on it never disappeared.
It took one step forward and the sound emanating from its step was muffled but heard clearly.
THUMP
One more step and its foggy red eyes became visible. Eyes that were filled with unending bloodlust. Eyes that whisper vile and unnatural curses, the type that chips away at one's sanity.
'Is that a…?'
It got on all fours as its ravenous gaze pierced Aster's self-esteem.
Aster recognized the creature. At least he thought he knew. He had seen art of it back on Earth after all.
'Is that a wendigo!?'
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
Billurigan
Billurigan The special number is tomorrow. Anyway, add this novel to your library.
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