Chapter 21: Forward!
With Momo strapping behind his back, Kim has no other choice but to run. Even with 20% of his power left, he still would be able to strike down the chasing undead army of monsters. However, having to protect Momo at the same time forced him to retreat.
It has been several weeks, and Kim clearly showed signs of exhaustion. Of course, even with 20% mana, he could last for almost half of a year without rest. That if he only employs 20% of his mana once in a while. Right now, he constantly utilizing 80% of his mana to carefully protecting Momo without harming her a single bit while at the same time he had to run away while observing and analysing the whole situation. Worst, he already exhausted a lot of mana when fighting the monsters from before.
His mind and body are continuously managing overloaded stress with a few moments of rest. He felt like sprinting in a full marathon, carrying a mountain behind his back while solving a calculus problem with only his mind, every single day!
Ordinary people would think of dying. Their mind and body would literally explode from overstress. If it's not because of his iron-hearted will, Kim would give up and fight the undead monsters until death. And, if he survived this, his body would be tempered splendidly. His control of mana will be meticulous!
Good thing as he fled more, the path gets narrower as more and more sights of trees, mountains and river appear, which enable him to hide for a moment. But only for a moment! After a while, he could feel an eye watching him, and a few moments later a group of undead monsters would appear. No matter, how many time he hides, the undead monsters would find him time to time again. As if, they have intelligence behind them which could pinpoint his location anywhere he went.
As time pass by, the voice told him that a monster is spreading its mana sense to detect Kim's movement. Thus, Kim suppressed his mana more and sometimes randomly leave traces of his mana to give confusion. And it works. A few seconds become a few minutes and a few minutes become a few hours. Which is exactly three hours! It's not much, but it's better than nothing.
If only he could run away, that would be perfect, but the number of the undead are astonishing. Some could move really fast, and they are even winged-beast monsters. Although not as fierce as a wyvern, it still a threat to him at the current situation. It seems that the number of monsters is almost endless. If it just that, he thought that maybe he could just fight them bits by bits, but when he tried to kill one of them, moments later it came back to life. Kim let out a bitter laugh with a frown on his face.
"Is this Karma? Did all of these monsters come to haunt me after mercilessly slaughtered by me? These monsters... are just sore losers then" He inwardly laugh but still frowned. He still couldn't think of any way to survive this except for Momo to wake up.
"Momo, is this retribution? It's been a few weeks now. When will you wake up?"
Carrying Momo on his back like this actually make him feel nostalgic. He reminded the day where he first found Momo. She was brimming with deathly aura with a sliver of life burning inside. She could die at any moment. Back then, he didn't know what to do. But after seeing a living human after all hope is lost, he unhesitantly picked Momo up and embraced her and directed his mana to Momo to heal her. He then carried her around on his back waiting for her to wake up, protecting her from monsters.
Now it's the same situation as before except that... although weak, she is full of life and Kim can feel it. If she's not giving up living nor will he.
"I won't let anyone touch you!"
Before the three-hour mark is reached, Kim will leave his trace in his current position which a huge tree inside a forest and send some of his mana to other various places as well. Then he would continue to run away. But this time, before he could move, suddenly an ambush! Three demonic apes rushing towards Kim.
One has a severed arm which it carries with another hand to use it as a weapon. Another has half of its flesh torn apart revealing its inside and decaying skeleton. The last one has a huge hole in its stomach in which a kid could pass through. Although in a precarious condition, they still emit a shockingly powerful aura which could destroy a boulder with one fist.
Kim didn't have time to react except for reflectively focusing his mana for defence. His muscle bulging making he looked slightly bigger than before. First stroke his head, which was pummeled by the severe arm, causing blood to ooze from his eyes, mouth and nose. The second stroke he gritted his teeth and managed to block with his arm and broke part of the ape's skeleton. His arm was injured in the process. The last one sends a palm strike straight to his abdomen, causing him to cough a mouthful of blood. But Kim stayed on the ground by pure strength. Although it would injure him more by the palm strike, he couldn't let himself the power from the strike spreading which could endanger Momo. Instead, he absorbed every bit of impacts with his body flesh.
Kim gritted his teeth and stomp on the branches where they stand causing the branch to break in half and the apes to fall. Then blood drips from the corner of his mouth as he emitted his mana pressure which bore down on the apes to make them fall ten times faster. When they fall a small crater formed under the each of the apes. Kim then waved his hand with a slight gesture which covered the apes in an earth coffin. The coffins then drag them into the earth, sealing them from moving.
The seal is not eternity, but at least it would give a slight time for Kim to take a breather.
Kim didn't waste his time spreading his traces all over and started to run away again in pursuit. This time, a bad suspicious feeling dwells in his heart. He thought to himself
'The undead monsters are reading my mind? No... something is manipulating them. It must be intelligent'
"Hey"
"Call me Mas-"
"I thought monsters don't have intelligent and only relies on instinct?"
The voice feels a bit annoyed and hesitated to answer. But seeing that his precious apprentice is in a dire situation he had to answer. If there's a possibility for Kim to survive, he would leave him alone to train himself. But now, the voice himself couldn't predict what would happen. But he still restrained himself from telling everything. If the worst comes to worst, then he could use whatever bits left from him to save Kim. If Kim dies from all of this, then it means that Kim is not strong enough to survive. He knows too well how cruel the universe is. Especially for someone as bright as Kim.
"As to how human get stronger, monsters do as well. When they absorbed enough they would evolve and climb up into another rank. We call them high-rank monsters. Afterwards, they will be superior monsters. Then they evolved into either three, which are the peak. Mythical monsters, Legendary monsters, and lastly Heavenly monsters with Mythical monsters as the weakest and Heavenly monsters as the strongest. And even within this rank, the power between each monster is different."
Hearing this the first time, Kim felt his mind trembles. It's definitely information that needs time for him to digest.
"Then how about Cerberus and Hydra?"
"They are both Mythical monsters. But the one you fought are superior Mythical monsters, stronger than any ordinary Cerberus and Hydra"
Kim continued to listen to the voice while jumping around from another tree to another. This would be the most advantageous position as most monsters are on the ground and winged beast monsters can't get a clear view of him.
"Then by which rank they will gain intelligence?"
"Usually, when they reach high-rank they will have bits of intelligence. Enable the monster to form a small group as their leader. When they reach Superior, they have their own territory consists of monsters from the same group."
"Then how about the 3 peaks?"
"These 3 are different. They are too powerful. Just by being alone most monsters would just bow down with no resistance. They are the ruler, and they created law! Some of them can even speak with another being."
"Then how about you?"
The voice remained in silent with no reply. Instead, he gave out a different answer to Kim
"That one monster who is controlling all these undead is probably within mythical rank. Which is one you could handle. But this power of controlling dead monsters, make it as strong as a Legendary monster. There could only be one kind of monster who is able to do this..."
Kim wanted to hear what the voice going to say next but suddenly several winged beasts dived into the forest for a kamikaze. Destroying itself in the process as if the monsters have gone crazy. Kim had to stop in his track to avoid getting hit. Random attacks are not something he could calculate.
Most of the suicidal monsters eventually fall to the ground as they dove in with no hesitation. This shook Kim a lot as he could not expect the sudden turn of event. Afterwards, more and more monsters come raining into the forest as if there were an invincible force pulling them to the ground. Without any time to react one monster finally landed on top of Kim which he managed to block with a roundhouse kick. The kick sent the monster flying hundreds metre away. Before Kim balanced himself, another monster dove in making him fall to the ground.
Kim clicked his tongue. While falling, he gathered his mana and punched towards the ground creating an earth-shattering shockwave that blast away nearby monsters. By the time he landed on the ground, he blasted the monsters with explosive flames an created an earth barrier several kilometres wide. He imbued the wall with flames and create a flaming wall!
Kim didn't waste a single breath to run forward and sealed the rest of the scattered monsters into the ground. The flaming wall was impactful to hold the pursuing monsters, but those are undead who are chasing Kim. The undead doesn't care less of their life or even care any injuries because they are mindless monsters controlled by other. As some undead monsters burn to ashes, those who survived become walking-red flaming corpses. Eventually more and more monsters rushing into the wall causing it to shatter to pieces.
If Kim was in his 100% then the wall be strong enough to hold raging superior monsters. If there were only thousands of them then Kim can even take a short nap! But the numbers are more than that. It is equal to hundreds of thousands!
Jaw fell, eyes bulging, Kim let out a curse word. 'Unbelievable!' He thought to himself. He let out a cold chuckled seeing how the situation becoming worst for him.
"What kind of undead are those?!"
To make it worst, the forest is slowly diminishing making him exposed to the winged-beast monsters. Kim is just now a running prey in open ground, with hundreds of thousands of undead monsters chasing him alone.
The voice let out a sigh thinking that he needed to intervene. But then he recognized the empty wasteland where Kim is running.
"This is, Samarahan. And he is... heading toward the forest near his village?"
The voice then saw Kim smiling, making him feel suspicious.
"What are you thinking?"
Kim didn't hear anything as he focused on his plan while uttering the same words
"Almost there... almost there... almost there..."
The voice stayed silent and continued to observe until the point Kim reached a place with luscious green forest standing as tall as one can see.
"Whew! I thought I burnt half of this place down. Mana is incredible!"
Without hesitation, he concentrated all 20% of his mana to produce a single fireball, and throw it not toward the undead monsters, but toward the forest!
The voice was shocked but he knew how calculative Kim is and decided to just watch the whole event.
"Hellfire explode!"
The forest burnt down again, although not as much as before but it was still astonishing enough to form a sea of flames. As the forest burnt down to ashes, a cave suddenly appeared.
"If I can go back, then the only way to go is to push myself forward!
Kim rushed forward and entered the cave.