Chapter 17: Chapter 16: A Very Tough Foe

Al… You dummy! I couldn't help but think about him all day. He left yesterday and only for me to find out through a letter. A letter! B-but the contents were so sweet, ehehehe~ah… I guess I will forgive him for now~. Anyways, watching the moon like this… I wonder if he is doing the same. Maybe he thinks of me as I about him? Ahg!~ I can’t stop thinking about him! Rolling and burying my face in the pillow, I keep thinking I want to see him! We’ve only been apart for two days, and I miss him so much already! Agh!~

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That night, Alum stared out the window and watched the corpses as the moonlight shone through. Clenching his fists and calming down, he looked at the people around the room. The girl and boy were holding onto his coat tightly. They were terrified and knew what their fate was had Alum not appeared. He patted their heads and told them, “it’s okay.” He looked at the others in the room, and they looked at him with empty and lifeless eyes. They’ve given up. He really doesn’t know what to say to them. All he can do is watch and heal them back into shape. He cleansed them and had them put on clothes. 

There were some dead, and all the ones alive were traumatized. They regained their senses after Alum had healed and cleansed them. Still, the psychological trauma won’t be cured anytime soon or ever. They were even scared to look or listen, so he had to change back to his clothes. Although they knew he had saved them, it was still hard. After a while, they moved to another room. Staying there for longer will only remind them of the tragedy. 

Suddenly a spear infused with lightning was flying Alum's way, he could easily dodge it, but there were people behind him. He summoned Depth Cutter to deflect the spear's trajectory since he had an awful feeling about it. And rightfully so, while deflecting it, it was so heavy it felt like he was breaking a bone. And the wall beside them was destroyed. “Tsk, you’re the pest? These useless subordinates doing nothing, I suppose,” The man said while scornfully looking at Alum. 

“Seems like you’ve rescued the stupid couple's toys. Well, I assumed they are dead now anyways. To that, I thank you, I have absolutely no idea how they were given a higher position than me.” Listening to him’s rant was none of Alum’s interest as they needed to flee as soon as possible. They were surrounded by cultists. This time, they looked more capable than the last bunch he had dealt with. He had no choice. 

He created a giant water ball that covered the survivors and threw them out through the big hole in the wall. The man just watched Alum’s action in amusement. When Alum sees they’ve made it, he throws down Depth Cutter and activates the barrier spell stored in the Magi-core. The blond man with full body armor looked at him, impressed that Alum was willing to still protect them. “Playing hero, are we?” He asked with scorn in his voice. “Pardon me. My name is Ulos Arkej,” introducing himself, he asked for Alum's name, but Alum was quiet. “Tsk, always like this, don’t blame me if you die nameless!” 

Ulos had ordered all cultists to attack Alum. as they rushed at him, Alum strengthened himself with magic. Ulos thought it would be easy since Alum had thrown the shortsword that managed to deflect his attack. But that wasn’t the case. Alum had surrounded himself with blades of ice. They levitated and moved as he wished, blocking magic and attacks from the cultists. When they broke, another would replace them. “Tsk, what are you useless bunch doing!” Ulos yelled at them. 

Attack after attack, however agile as Alum may seem, they had landed multiple strikes on him, dulling his movements. (Crap, I need to finish this…) Alum thought while being chased. Drop Bullet is too weak since they already have their defenses up, making it hard to finish them off with one shot. His only option was these ice blades; these cultists were way better than the ones he had previously fought. He doesn’t have much mana left and is starting to feel exhausted. 

As Alum was being chased, he hit a dead end. Guards were in front of him, had their weapons ready, and pointed them at him. (I’m screwed, aren’t I?) Alum thought, but that did not seem to be the case. Looking closer, their eyes were normal as they shouted and ran toward him. Attacking the cultists behind him. One of them came forward to Alum, thanked Alum, and began to join in the subjugation of cultists. Alum was surprised, and he then saw Jan. 

“Everything alright?” Jan asked with a concerned look. Alum shook his head; he told Jan that while he was being chased, some of them stayed behind, trying to break the barrier Alum set up for the survivors. Alum had a gut feeling that Ulos figured it wasn’t a divine blade and was trying to get to it. But the barrier isn’t weak, as Akun had put half his mana into the blade before entering the village. 

Running back with Jan, he saw Ulos and other cultists trying to break the barrier. And the survivors inside curled up, looking terrified. “I’ll take the weaker ones,” Jan told Alum. Jan’s eyes glow red, and his fangs stick out as his ears twitch. In a blink of an eye, Jan had put a knife through a cultist's neck. They all turned their attention to Jan trying to counterattack, but it was useless as Alum had staggered their joints with [Drop Bullet]. Even if it couldn’t pass their protective barrier, the impact had enough force to stun them for a little while. Although Alum doesn’t have much mana left, using spells efficiently has been his focus since he began practicing magic. 

Ulos turning his attention to Alum, rushed at him with the divine spear. Trying to stab Alum. His attacks were fast and fierce, but Alum managed to dodge them with precision or deflect the arrowhead a little with an ice blade. “Annoying little bastard!” Ulos yelled as he got closer. As he got closer and closer, slashing and stabbing with his spear. He got close enough and gave Alum a powerful kick to the side, breaking through his mana armor and sending Aum straight into a tree. 

Alum was struck by such intense pain, gasped, and caught up blood. He could barely feel his hands anymore as his vision got blurry. Ulos watched as Alum struggled to keep himself together and shifted his focus on Jan. “I’ll come for you, don’t worry.” Turning his back to Alum for a brief moment, he felt a burst of mana from behind him. Flying toward him was a ray of electricity that he managed to dodge. Still, the heat from the beam had penetrated his mana armor and melted the shoulder plate. Leading him to scream in pain as his right shoulder was being burnt from the melting armor. Ulos was furious and looked at the youth whose eyes were glowing. “Tsk, what an annoying skill you possess,” he groaned with a scornful look.

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Meanwhile, Jan was in his transformative mode, cutting, slashing, and stabbing the cultists to pieces. He needed to finish this fast before he ran out of time and collapsed from exhaustion. As he was thinking, he saw Alum flying straight into a tree. Injured and coughing blood. Jan almost panicked and wanted to rush to his side to take him and run away. But he knew Alum would resist his attempt. Then came the village guards, who seemed to have finished the cultists over on their end. Assisting him in battle. Jan could now retreat and take time to catch his breath as he felt his muscles sore and weak, reaching his limit. Looking at Alum in such a state, Jan mustard all his powers from within and rushed to his side. 

Jan closed the gap between him and Ulos. As he tries to stab Ulos in the neck, He gets caught and is thrown to the ground. Ulos followed the attack with a stab with his spear, but Jan managed to roll to the side, avoiding the lethal attack. “Tsk, stupid beastkin, have you awoken or something?” Ulos scoffed at Jan, but he didn’t reply to such a snarky comment and resumed his assault. Jan further increased his speed and infused his attacks with the bit of mana he had.  This, of course, wasn’t something that would take Ulos down, as he blocked each and every attack, kicking Jan away. 

Ulos had created some distance, infused his divine spear with lightning magic, and went on the offense. This time Jan was the one of defense, dodging the attack one after the other. He couldn’t afford to block or deflect the attacks as his divine dagger would break. Ulos stomped the ground bending the earth to his will and hitting Jan with a stone pillar. Jan, who got struck by immense pain, fell unconscious. And as Ulos was about to finish him off, he felt mana surge from behind him. “Tsk, you never stay down, do you!” He shouted at the youth behind him. 

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While Jan and Ulos were fighting, Alum recovered some of his mana and healed his fatal wounds. He was able to stand again. He was panting heavily as he got up. His vision was too blurry to see anything, but that was fine. He activated [Static Field], which allowed him to sense his surrounding. He was still figuring out how to properly use this as the sensation felt weird, and the spell was incomplete. He had been developing this to react to things that couldn’t be seen, such as Ame’s sword strikes which were too fast for him to see. The voltage was so low that no one would know he had an active spell unless they had a keen sense of mana.

With his vision blurry and hearing disarrayed, he launched another [Plasma Ray] toward Ulos, this time melting his arm away. Ulos screamed in agony as he threw his spear toward Alum. Alum manages to dodge the incoming spear by a small margin. But what came next was a spear made from the earth and managed to scratch his cheek. Many more followed as Alum avoided them. “Stop moving around, you little scoundrel!” Ulos yelled as he chanted magic. Ulos resummoned his spear and threw it again, this time infused with a more intense black lightning. 

Alum was busy avoiding all the spears and noticed he would be done if he got hit by that lightning spear. He sacrificed one of his legs, stabbed by a spear, to avoid the lethal projectile heading his way. He fell to the ground as he now had enough mana to freeze it so there would be no more spears surprising him. Ulos clicked his tongue again. His spears couldn't penetrate the ice layer from the ground, and he was too injured to properly engage in close combat. His men were losing the battle to the guards as the beastkin had assassinated the mages controlling them. It was either dying to kill this scoundrel or flee and return stronger. And, of course, he did the logical thing. Ulos ran as Alum was losing consciousness. 

 

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An:

Thank you for reading!

I would be really happy if you could vote in the poll~. As the promise from chapter 3, I’m now expanding on the world and its magic. Skills, ah, I didn’t forget about those, okay? Sooner or later, I will reveal Alum’s stats but not yet. 

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