Chapter 17: 017

The downpour rapidly came to a stop as the Blue Ruguths had all gathered around Henry. Though the rain had ceased, lightning was still roaring in the skies and the clouds were still grey. Perhaps it was the calm before the real storm, Henry wondered.

Henry veered his attention back to the Ruguths. He drew in a deep breath and roared with his full might at the Blue Ruguths. It seemed to make them quiver but only for a bit. They shook themselves out of the grasp of Henry’s intimidation and continued in their cautious approach. They weren’t looking at Henry like he was just some weak prey. There seemed to be a degree of acknowledgement from the Ruguths of Henry’s abilities and prowess. Their steps were taken with great care and their gazes spelt their heavy vigilance. They were crouching low as they approached him, ready to spring at him or away from him at any given moment.

Henry was surrounded on all sides. Unless he could fly, there was nowhere he could run. But he never intended to run in the first place. It didn’t feel like he needed to. He huffed out a small puff of fire and a few of the Ruguths jumped. They were afraid of him despite their numbers, Henry felt reassured. Moreover, he heard a sizzle when he let out that small puff of flame. To test a theory in his mind, he unleashed a continuous stream of fire at the wet patch of grass in front of him. The small patch of grass caught fire after a while even though it was drenched just a few seconds ago. Henry flashed the Ruguths a grin. Henry unleashed his fire breath again and spun around, drawing a ring of fire. But before he could complete the circle, the Ruguths sprang at him. The Ruguths’ scales prevented the flames from latching on to them but they were still scalded. They withstood the pain and jumped over the flames. Henry easily killed one with a punch that ruptured its whole face. He killed another one by stabbing it in the throat with his claws. There was one that crept up from behind but its head was snapped with a smack from Henry’s tail. Henry was surprised at how frail the Ruguths were but he soon found out why. He threw an aura blade at a Ruguth charging at him but the aura blade merely pushed it back instead of cutting through it. They weren’t just resistant to fire, they were resistant to magic in general.

Well, that’s just dandy.

If this was just the surface of the monsters’ potential, he shuddered to think of what awaited him as he trod deeper. The tentacle monster in the lake was already a foe he could not win against no matter the odds. This quest would not end well. He suspected he might meet his end before he even came close to the quest’s end.

Despite the Ruguth’s high magic resistance, they still couldn’t go unscathed when touched by Henry’s fire. His blazing roar could still serve as an excellent means of offence even if its effectiveness was drastically reduced by the circumstances. A Ruguth managed to catch Henry’s left hind limb with its jaws. He flung that Ruguth away with just a kick. Another one bit his right forelimb and he hammer-fisted its head with so much force that its eyes popped out of its sockets. He refrained from throwing up and continued with his counter-assault. He was faring well initially but he soon realised the Ruguths were only probing the extent of his ability. As the fight went on, more and more Ruguths attacked him at once. It came to a point where the Ruguths were restraining his limbs by using their weight while the others clawed and bit at him. Though they couldn’t draw a single drop of blood, it didn’t mean their bites and scratches didn’t hurt. 

Henry successfully struggled his left forelimb free and sent an aura blade into the ground, causing an explosion that sent the clouds of dust into the air, not before he shut his eyes. The dust got into the unsuspecting Ruguths’ eyes, allowing Henry to retaliate when their hold on him loosened from temporary affliction. He grabbed the ones on his back and threw them onto the ground before stomping their heads flat. He breathed fire directly at the ones close to them. Though they couldn’t burn, they eventually succumbed to the heat and shuffled off their mortal coils.

And then, the unexpected happened. A Ruguth rammed into him while Henry was spewing flames. He ended up closing his mouth inadvertently and sent all the flames back down his throat. Terror struck his nerves as he feared for the worse. He felt the heat of his own flames in his belly. The heat spread fast. In just seconds, he felt like he was downed with a high fever, or maybe even worse. His limbs went limp and his body felt like it weighed a tonne. The Ruguths saw his state and all of them rushed at him without any restraint. They knew this was their chance, now or never. Henry threw a punch but it only made a Ruguth flinch a little. 

God damn it… This is worse than choking on your own bile!

The Ruguths were relentless. They did not stop to even catch their breaths in their assault. They didn’t care if they trampled over their own. They bit and scratched despite the damage it was doing to their teeth and claws. Blood was dripping all over Henry but none of it was his. The Ruguths were mindless in their assault as if they weren’t bothered by the pain and the eventual death that awaited them. Henry was greatly weakened but he wasn’t helpless. His claws and fangs were still sharp. He didn’t need to slash or bite hard. He was gentle in his movements and the sharpness did the rest. He didn’t manage to kill any Ruguths but a lot were greatly wounded.

As Henry fought desperately for his survival, the pain and fever heightened to the point that he was losing control of his limbs. They were turning numb. Left with no other options, Henry spewed a firebolt at point-blank. The explosion scattered him and the Ruguths. Blood of Henry’s own was finally spilt. He wasn’t unhurt by his impetuous action. He was thrown and sprawled on the ground by the explosion. He knew he had at least suffered some internal injuries enough to make him spill blood. However, he did kill a lot of the Ruguths with just that one firebolt since they were all gathered on him.

Now that the Ruguths were distanced from him, he began unleashing a volley of firebolts at the Ruguths. The reason he hadn’t been using firebolts was due to the skill’s extremely destructive nature. He just wanted to kill his foes, not the floras along with them. The firebolts were prone to garner collateral and he was not exempted. But now, he had no choice. The Ruguths were overwhelming him and sooner or later, one of them would surely make a scratch. Through that single scratch, a lot of terrible things could be done to him, or at least that was how he would go about attacking a monster with tough defence. Of course, he would just aim at the insides of their mouths if their exterior was tough and the Ruguths were incapable of grasping such simple logic.

The explosion had raised a bunch of dust clouds, obscuring the surroundings. Henry wasn’t uneasy. His sight wasn’t his only means of perception. Besides, he could still see the Ruguths’ silhouette behind the smoke. The Ruguths didn’t seem like they would be retreating even after suffering such a devastating loss. The limbs and body parts of their fallen kin were strewn about the battlefield but the living Ruguths spared not a glance at their dead. Though they didn’t look sorrowful, there was fury in their eyes. They weren’t the type to mourn. They were the type to get straight to revenge. 

Henry gathered his breaths, preparing for another volley of firebolts. However, his gathered breaths were forcefully expelled when a Ruguth erupted from the soil behind him. Henry spun around and saw a Ruguth with brown spots among its blue scales. It didn’t burrow into the soil like a worm. Instead, it was submerging in the soil like it was merely a deep body of water to it. It was literally swimming in the soil.

A Variant with a frightful magic ability. This just keeps getting better.

Henry saw the Ruguth coming and he had plenty of time for a response but due to his weakened state, that brief amount of time was too short for him. The Ruguth landed on top of Henry and used its weight to weigh him down. If he was at his peak of function, a simple wiggle of his body would shake the Ruguth off but he could barely move his limbs right now. The other Ruguths, drawn in by the Variant Ruguth’s call, rushed at Henry through the smoke.

Henry could catch his breath with the Ruguth on top of him. It seemed to have figured out the trick to keeping Henry from unleashing his fire breaths. It was keeping a sharp gaze on Henry’s mouth. Whenever he tried to open his mouth, it would force it shut. Meanwhile, Henry’s fever was only getting worse. The heat became so unbearable that he was starting to drift between sleep and wake. The Ruguths made it through the smoke and rammed into him without a care for their own well-being. He heard bones cracking but it wasn’t his bones. The Ruguths gnawed at him restlessly. Henry could only let them do what they wanted to his body as his fever slowly devoured his body. He couldn’t even keep his eyes open due to the intense heat brimming from within his body. He wanted to cry out his agony but the Variant Ruguth wouldn’t let him open his mouth. He gritted his teeth and groaned with his lips closed.

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Smoke began rising from his whole body. He knew it then, he was undergoing a change. The inadvertent backlash caused by the Ruguth had triggered an untimely evolution. Some of the Ruguths recoiled away from him after they felt the unusual rising temperature of his body. Even the Variant leapt off of him and backed away tens of metres. A crack resounded from within his body. It was his bones this time but not a sound he should be worried about. A grin formed on his face. He welcomed the change.

The lightning roared again as if to congratulate Henry’s transformation.

Henry was thrilled. Though the timing wasn’t ideal, she didn’t think the timing was completely terrible. An evolution was just what she needed to gain an edge over the food chain of this swamp. It couldn’t have come at a better time but before he could settle down and let the transformation take place, he would need to clear the area first. He stood up straight on his limbs. The numbness had taken over his body. If there was still pain coursing through his body, he wouldn’t know. He roared from the depth of his diaphragm. The air rippled. The Ruguths shuddered except for the Variant. It hardened its expression and snarled back.

Henry returned that gesture with a blazing roar. The Ruguths scattered and began circling him like before but Henry made the first move in this game of chess. He rushed directly at the Variant before he could be surrounded. He hacked down the Ruguths that stood in his way. The Variant shrieked in surprise and phased into the soil like it was submerging into water. Henry unleashed a firebolt right at the spot the Variant dove into. The explosion threw the Variant out of the soil. It howled as it was freefalling through the air. The Ruguths immediately charged towards Henry, blocking his way to the Variant.

Henry mowed the Ruguths down and ploughed his way through mercilessly. His body was now searing hot. A light scratch from his claws would bestow the Ruguths an excruciating amount of pain. It was hot enough to melt their skin and flesh but not quite hot enough to cauterise. The battlefield was filled with howls of agony and throes of the dying as Henry worked his way through the Ruguths. His steps were leaving behind scorched prints on the grass. His breaths were quickening. Sparks of flames flew whenever he exhaled.

Enough time was bought for the Variant. It recovered from its fall but not from its terror of Henry’s relentless assault. Perhaps finally acknowledging Henry was not an opponent it could win, it turned tail and fled the battlefield. The remaining Ruguths were covering the Variant’s escape. They were hellbent on inhibiting Henry’s pursuit but Henry himself wasn’t too bothered. The Variant wasn’t his target in the first place. He just wanted to get rid of the biggest factor in the equation. Since it had left the field voluntarily, Henry steered his focus to the remaining Ruguths. He could see the fear in their eyes but not a single one showed any signs of retreat. They were truly good soldiers. They were willing to die for reasons unknown to Henry but it mattered none to him. 

A Ruguth snuck up on him and tried stopping his fire breath but Henry caught that sneaky Ruguth and charred it into cinders with a point-blank fire breath. He grabbed the roasted carcass of the Ruguth and tossed it at the other Ruguths. The carcass crumbled and the ashes wafted into the Ruguths’ eyes. A firebolt came out of nowhere to these blinded Ruguths. The explosion sent some of their kin flying off to somewhere. When they recovered their sights, Henry was in front of them. Their world turned upside down and they saw their own headless bodies before everything went black.

The thunder descended with a great bellow and lit up the dark sky. Henry felt the urge to roar with the thunder’s brazen descent. The Ruguths were shaking in their limbs but they pressed on with their assault. The rain began pouring again. Henry clicked his tongue. The rain brought more detriment to his scouting and sensory abilities than his offensive abilities. His offensive ability meant nothing if he couldn’t figure out where his foe lurked until it was too late.

A Ruguth dropped down from the tree but his current body temperature made the Ruguth immediately its decision. It fell off of Henry crying and he ended the creature’s suffering with a stomp on its head. As he took a step forward, the Ruguths took a step back in unison. Their fears were starting to overwhelm their sense of duty. They weren’t unfeeling after all. They just had something they feared more than Henry but that feeling was overturned. Their bodies turned stiff but they still showed no sign of attempting to flee. Even though they were too afraid to fight, they refused to run or perhaps they couldn’t. It was quite possible that they could be physically controlled by a leader of the nest. If that was the case, it sort of worked in Henry’s favour. The more he killed now, the less he would need to deal with in the future.

The battle-turned-massacre slowly came to an end as the rain increased its intensity. By the time the Ruguths in the area were all culled, the rain had turned into a heavy downpour. The visibility of his surroundings dropped significantly. With the winds picking up and blowing hard against nearly every direction erratically, his other senses’ effectiveness was also reduced. The rain was beating hard against every surface, impeding his hearing. The winds and rain were constantly erasing the scent of his surroundings. He could barely make out ten metres in front of him. He couldn’t even feel the shift in the wind which had helped him tremendously in detecting his enemies.

 He quickly looked around for anything he could hide in or under. With how limited his field of vision was, the search took quite a while and he stumbled upon many other monsters who were doing the same. Some avoided him when their paths crossed while some attacked him after a moment of surprise. The rain was just as disconcerting to Henry as it was to the monsters. He encountered another group of Ruguths in his search but these ones ran the moment they saw him. Henry was naturally curious about their sharp change of behaviour but answers were nowhere to be found.

Eventually, Henry stumbled upon a large log with a hollow interior but not quite so. It was already occupied by other monsters. Specifically, three seemingly smaller versions of the Bristly Serpents. In addition to being small, they weren’t as bristly as the ones he encountered. The serpents lunged without any hesitation the moment Henry peeked into the log. Henry returned their immediate response in kind and tore them into pieces with his claws. The three serpents all had a Mana Heart inside them but it was as small as Henry’s thumb. He wouldn’t have known or found them if he hadn’t torn them into pieces they way he did. He tossed the three Mana Heart into his mouth. The three crystal clumps instantly melted in his mouth. After some time passed, Henry felt no change in his strength. 

Maybe it’s because the quality is too inferior.

He satisfied himself with that reasoning and a shrug. He tossed the carcasses out of the log and squirmed his way into the log. There was still some space left after he settled in the log but the space was enough to fit another one of him. It couldn’t even fit another Ruguth.

Now that he was hidden from the rain, he realised how much steam he was exuding due to the rain splashing on his body. Even now, the water was still evaporating from him in puffs of steam. Once he relaxed his body, the paralytic numbness returned to him. He collapsed on the spot as his world spun and whirled. He felt his bones creaking and moving by themselves. He wanted to scream but this time, it was his lack of vigour that silenced him. Soon enough, his consciousness left him and his body began its evolution.

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