Chapter 26: Chapter 26: Cletus Part – 4

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Luckily, my hand was on guard near my neck, my index finger wrapped around it. I shot a Mana Dart aimed at the skull that was pressing against the back of my head. A risky shot that made me temporarily deaf in my right ear, but it was successful. One pair of hands let go of me.

Was the weakness of the skeletons their heads? It wouldn’t make sense since the one that held my legs didn’t have one. I guess it doesn’t matter as long as I take apart their body.

The door to the outhouse opened, and Panaw brisk walked away, as his ankles were still shackled. His arms free, he flailed them around. I didn’t know what the movement did, so I prepared to defend against another attack.

To free myself, I had to shoot the wrists of the skeleton below the ground. There was movement again, the dirt shifted and popped out another skeleton. I blew its head off before it could even raise the lower half of its body.

Panaw turned around the corner of the cabin. Perhaps he was trying to get to an area with more people to alert; the main road near the lake. His face looked different when he turned to check how far I was. He was crying and had snot coming out of his nose. The side effect of his powers.

I could’ve reached him faster if not for all of the things he sent after me. From skeletons without heads to rotting zombies, he summoned everything he could around the area. There were some faces among them that I recognized. The cabin was apparently used more as a place to bury my father’s enemies than used as a cabin.

“Give up now! Surrender yourself and maybe I won’t have to kill you!” I yelled at him.

He screamed back in reply. But I couldn’t understand it. The emotions and memories of the ones he was summoning probably overwhelmed him.

Panaw turned again, now going back to the outhouse. Seems like he lost this game because of himself. He probably broke his own mind summoning nearly twenty minions all at once.

 

I killed the last thing he summoned, it was one of the guards. It wore the entire armor and helmet set which made it a bit harder to kill than the others. Meanwhile, Panaw tripped on one of the corpses and twisted his ankle. He cried there on the ground while I stood over him.

“I guess I don’t have to kill you, you incapacitated yourself,” I told him.

“Woof,” he cried in reply.

A skeleton dog pounced on me, bringing me to the ground. I had brought my arm up in time as it tried to bite my neck. Its teeth dug into my arm then it shook its head side to side, tearing it up. As it did that, I panicked and started beating its head with my left fist. Of course, it didn’t have any effect, the damn dog wouldn’t let go. Skeletons must’ve been numb to pain.

Panaw had shattered his ankle during his fall. He laid there, crying and squirming, while the Bonedog tried to yank my arm away.

Its rotten teeth dug into my flesh and shredded it some more. I screamed in pain and thrashed around. When the Bonedog let go of my arm to bite a different part of my body, I immediately cast a Dash. The direction didn’t matter, I needed to get away from under the dog.

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I shot myself back to the picnic table that I flipped earlier. The impact was strong enough to flip it back to the other side, correcting its position. Standing on top of the table, I tried to raise my right arm to try and shoot a Mana Dart. I couldn't move it anymore.

The dog was back on all fours again after being toppled by the Dash. I looked at it carefully, realizing that it was my grandfather's old dog. The same one that greeted me and stayed by my side during my first two years in this world. The sight of me was probably what sent Panaw to break his mind, overwhelmed by the feelings the dead felt attacking their own family.

It hissed and growled at me even though it was only made of bones. Panaw hid behind it, still crying. The dog stood in front of him, protecting him from a potential Mana Dart. He didn’t seem to have any more corpses or skeletons to summon anymore now. So if the dog moved away from him he’d get shot, but it would also have the opening to kill me. I didn’t have enough mana left after putting the other ones down, and the same goes for him.

My only option was to kill him, he forced me into this situation. This wouldn’t be happening if he had complied with my orders and instructions. What had gone through his head to think about running away when I was the one who got him out of the dungeons in the first place? He should’ve complied, teach me the undead arts, and walk out as a free man. All he had to do was stay in a noble’s cabin!

The only answer that came to my mind was greed. He got a taste of freedom and wanted more. It wasn’t anyone’s fault but his. Just like any other criminal. Killing him now was a service to the world.

I spent the last bit of mana I had on my left index finger, even the mana reserved for my Dashes. The Dog shifted and made sure that it blocked Panaw from whatever I shot at him.

Sense was starting to come back to Panaw, I could see it in his eyes. He knew what was about to come and raised both of his pudgy arms up in reflex.

The pressure hurt and burned the tip of my finger, I usually shot with my right. A loud popping noise echoed through the air when I released the spell, it must have been audible to the houses by the lake. But I didn’t care anymore.

The small ball of blue mana penetrated through the Bonedog. After that, it had enough power to go through Panaw’s hands and his skull. It exited through the back of his head and dug into the dirt a few inches before it stopped.

I collapsed on the table and cried. Everything had gone to shit. All of the trouble I had been through, for what was not even the first step in my plans. The godlike being had given me a power I couldn’t even understand. Plans never work out the way you planned them.

Reaching into my pocket, I brought out the silky smooth garment. Its owner, the reason why I had gone through all of this bullshit, the reason why I was bleeding out on top of a picnic table.

Or was it all three of them to blame? Dumog, Jacked, and Nox. Were they all the source of my grief? No, I don’t know who to blame anymore. Maybe I should just bleed out and die.

 

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