Capítulo 69: Do it Again
The wall of ice that separated Klein Arvent from the rest of the beasts started melting.
However, instead of dozens of beasts greeting him, only their mangled flesh and body remained.
A soldier suddenly emerged from behind a bloody carcass and greeted Klein, "Sir! The special Remoran unit is almost here."
"Why, can't we finish this on our own?" Klein Arvent answered and walked casually. As he moved forward, he saw his men dispatch several beasts, their dead bodies kept piling one on top of the other. It was a huge massacre.
"We can, sir! They just wanted to offer their support," the soldier replied.
"Alright then. Just make sure to kill as much as you can," Klein Arvent ordered. This could be the huge military merit that would help him become a General. Naturally, he didn't want the Special Remoran unit to get a large share out of it.
The soldier saluted then left.
Klein just sat on the dead body of the grizzly bear and was about to take a rest when he suddenly heard a set of rapid footsteps heading straight towards him. He saw the man he just dismissed come back in a hurry. "What are you doing? I told you to go!"
"Sir, another beast horde is coming our way!" the soldier yelled as he ran towards the Brigadier.
"Another horde?! That can't be possible. Why are there too many?" Klein Arvent replied.
The soldier stopped in front of Klein. "Sir! And it looks like it's much bigger than the previous two!"
The scene was a complete replay of what had happened earlier.
"The Special Remoran unit… how big did they say the first wave was?" Klein asked curiously.
"About 500, sir!"
"And the next one?"
"Uhh," the soldier rapidly skimmed over his notes, "Six-hundred! A hundred more than the first."
"And the incoming one?"
"About 700 or 800, sir! It's quite a lot. But don't worry. All of these are just rough estimations!"
"It doesn't matter whether they are estimations or not! One could see if the next is bigger than the other!" Klein Arvent yelled, making the soldier shrink away.
"Hurry and make preparations, we can't brute force our way out of this situation. Tell the defense team to set up the formation. Make it so that the beasts couldn't directly charge. Also, widen the scope of our control so they can't circle their way around and head straight towards the city."
"Yes, Sir!" the soldier, once again, ran and left.
Klein Arvent's eyebrows furrowed. People say once is a chance, twice is a coincidence, while the third is a pattern.
If Klein Arvent was facing another human army, he would've thought that the latter was wearing them out using numbers.
But the enemies were beasts.
It made absolutely no sense.
The only form of camaraderie that magical beasts displayed is their unified attacks against human territories. Since way back, beasts would only set aside their differences when facing their natural enemy, the humans. But after that, they would immediately resume hunting each other down.
Klein Arvent couldn't ever associate them with tactics and strategy.
Wearing us down? Pweh. It's just a coincidence.
He reassured himself multiple times, but something just kept nagging at the back of his head that said otherwise.
….
"Dig faster!" Jacob said as he repeatedly stabbed a metallic stick on the huge rock that covered the entrance of the gate. Despite his handicap, he was moving quite fast and made a lot of progress.
On the other hand…
"I'm already…doing…my best!" Professor Hugh said in between huge breaths. He looked completely exhausted.
Jacob gritted his teeth. "At this rate, we will really die here."
Hearing this, the professor's eyes widened. He moved a lot faster, but after a few moments, he started slowing down again. He used too much energy.
Seeing this, Jacob stopped. He leaned on the rocks and slid towards the ground.
If they weren't mages, there would have been absolutely no way for them to escape from the cave. They don't even have the materials to dig through the large rocks. If they weren't strong enough to make do with the metallic sticks, they wouldn't be able to dig at all.
Suddenly, the ground that had been quite peaceful for a while now started shaking again.
Rumble!
Again, debris started falling from the ceiling of the cave. Even the rocks they were leaning on started shifting. The two were scared out of their wits and moved away from the entrance. Any more shaking might cause the cave to collapse entirely.
Fortunately, after a few moments, the shaking stopped.
Jacob hurriedly rushed to check on their progress. He was already panicking, afraid that the little hole they dug might have been covered up again. The moment he saw it, he immediately kicked hard on the wall. "Fuck!"
"What's the matter?" Professor Hugh asked, his voice full of worry. He can't have Jacob go on an unreasonable rampage. The latter was obviously stronger than him without magic.
"We're back to square one," Jacob said in lament.
"Oh," the professor replied. He sounded more relieved than being worried.
Instead of resting, Jacob resumed digging again. But this time, instead of using the metallic stick, he used his fists. It didn't even look like he was digging anymore. It semed more like he was venting all his anger into the wall.
He kept on punching and punching with all of his strength. His knuckle started bleeding, but he paid no attention to it. His strikes were so strong that the rocks just above his head started to shift ever so slightly.
His crazed punches, although it looked completely like nothing in front of the huge rock, actually made some progress. However, if he continued, he might break his hand in the process, making him unable to help with the digging anymore.
Professor Hugh noticed this problem and immediately went to stop him. "Oi oi oi, I can't have myself stuck with a cripple. Get yourself toge—"
Jacob struggled from the professor's grasp and kept punching. "Shut the fuck up! If not for you, I wouldn't be in this situation! If I were stuck in a cave with the other Serans, we would've gotten out already. Fuck you and your lunacy!"
He started panting from the sudden exertion. After that, he realized that he had only worsen the situation as he started to have difficulty breathing. The dusty atmosphere and the complete lack of oxygen had slowly started to take a toll on him.
Little did he know, the professor wasn't looking at him anymore, much less pay attention to his rants. "Hey. Do you see that?"
Hearing the professor's tone filled with meaning, Jacob slowly stopped. He looked at the professor and noticed him staring at a spot above his head. Curiosity took over him and he also looked up.
However, after he looked over, he saw nothing. He thought that the professor tricked. He gritted his teeth as he clenched his fist tighter.
"You idiot! Punch the wall and you'll see!" Professor Hugh yelled.
Jacob was confused, but he did as he was told. He punched on the wall, but this time, it wasn't as strong as earlier. He also felt the burning pain on his knuckles, making him hiss.
Professor Hugh saw this and pushed him away. "You incompetent shit! Let me!"
With all the strength the professor could muster, he punched on the spot painted by Jacob's blood while Jacob observed.
The moment the professor's fist connected with the rock, a sliver of light momentarily peeked through the rocks.
Jacob immediately brightened up. There's hope!
He looked at the professor who was currently nursing his throbbing fist. "Do it again."
"A-Are you nuts?! That was really painful!" Professor Hugh replied with an insulting tone.
Jacob brandished the metallic stick he was holding onto. "I said…do it again."
The professor felt his body shiver as he saw the bloodlust in Jacob's eyes. He subconsciously walked in front of the huge rock again and prepared himself for some pain. His hands trembled as he realized he was being looked down on.
Just you wait.
Once again, the professor mustered all his strength to punch. He breathed in deeply and swung his fist.
Bang!
Whoosh! Ding!
A split second after the small opening revealed itself, Jacob accurately stabbed the metallic stick, preventing it from closing.
Right after, he moved back deeper inside the cave, careful about not falling into the huge hole.
He took out some more metallic sticks, previously used as research tools, scattered all over the place.
One by one, he stabbed them into the opening, making it slightly bigger. After he couldn't stuff in a stick anymore, he started pulling them downward in an attempt to push the rock that covered it upward.
Just behind that particular rock was already the open area of the mountain. If he could just dislocate it from what it was currently being latched on, he could immediately tear open a head-sized hole.
Professor Hugh saw what Jacob was trying to do and immediately came to assist. He struck the rock above the tiny hole multiple times in order to push it outward even though his hands were already extremely numb.
Thankfully, their joint effort started pushing the rock.
Slowly, but steadily it moved outward.
Just when they thought that their efforts were futile, the rock finally gave up.
With a muffled thud, it parted from the other rocks.
As it fell, bright light shone into the cave, along with fresh air.
They were finally able to open up a hole.
….
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