"Gomon! No!" Aidan rushed towards the burly man and blasted a hole in his back.
The man fell as Aidan ran towards Gomon. He surged his fate energy into Gomon's shoulder. [Internal Healing]!.
"You'll be fine. My skill will heal you in no time."
Gomon gritted his teeth. "I believe you, Aidan. Patch me up."
The energy trembled and shook with a certain rhythm. Then the wound healed at an alarming rate, regenerating flesh and skin on the shoulder. In no time, the wound on the shoulder closed itself, but there was no arm.
My ability. It couldn't regrow limbs!
Aidan released his hands. How could this be? What would become of the man without his hand? Such a kind good man lost his arm. His future. Here in this damn of a place.
"Aidan?" Gomon said, his lips trembled, eyes full of hope Aidan wished he was a god so he could grant it to him. Alas, he was no god. "Say something, Aidan."
"Gomon. Your left arm." Aidan took a deep breath.
Gomon widened his eyes. He turned to the left to see where his arm once was. Nothing. Aidan had nothing to say. He didn't need to, for as tiny as the man was, his will was stronger than anyone else.
"Haha." Gomon closed his eyes as tears flowed. He then opened them and looked at him. "Don't worry about me. This world has many mysteries that not even gods knew all of its secrets. I'm sure someday I'll find something that can grow my arm."
Aidan nodded and helped the man to stand. "Well, said. For now, you have done well. Go to the back with Sofiel. I'll take care of the rest."
"Us too."
Aidan turned. Kalukaga and Siraye approached them.
Siraye frowned and turned her gaze to the side. "Sorry. We are too late."
"No need," Gomon laughed. "Why are you guys here? What about the other side?"
"We have secured the tunnel and the cave," Siraye said, "We're not the only children of fate that had been caught."
So we got reinforcement! That was a good thing. At least the burden they had to take would be much less and he didn't need to leave the rest of the hunters to die here. But something was weird, a child of fate could not use their power with the runes engraved on their arm. Did they have something that could ignore its effect?
"Since the other side is safe. Then we should clean up the dirt in here."
Kalukaga brandished his hamaxe. "Kill."
Siraye loaded her crossbow with the purple quartz. "I cannot control my energy. But this fate crystal should be enough."
"I have no worries if that is the case." He turned to Gomon. "I'll make sure to chop their arms before killing them."
Gomon laughed. "Are you hitting on me? I'm not a naive young girl. So you'll have to try harder to get my heart."
Aidan smiled. This guy. He was stronger than I thought.
Raising his fist, he glared at the incoming enemies. "Attack!"
Aidan, Kalukaga, and Siraye leaped toward the tribesmen. Flying above the hunter as they held the formation with their spears and sticks.
When the three of them landed at the front line, the hunters cheered like they already won the battle.
"The three children of fate are here! Those madmen can forget about living from today!
Damn, right they can! After one of them took Gomon's arm, there was no way Aidan would let any of them live to tell the tale.
Aidan charged forward, Kalukaga and Sirayed beside him. He surged his fate energy to his whole body, increasing his speed, power, and reaction. Like a killing machine, he chopped off their arms with [Energy Claw] before he blasted their heads.
Kalukaga spun like a blender, cutting anyone near him like fruits.
Dashing forward, Siraye nimbly stepped on the enemies' heads, cracking their skulls as she fired her crossbow that froze dozens of men.
The hunters ran and barreled towards the enemies. Men screamed in pain within the tunnel. There was no clash of steel against steel for no armor covered their skin. Roaring at each other, both forces thrust their spear, sword, bones, and even sticks toward anyone they could see.
Aidan, Siraye, and Kalukaga killed tens of men at the front. Raising morale and vigors among the hunters. And When Aidan cut off the head of the last cultist, resounding cheers of victory reverberated through the tunnel.
Your ability [Hard Muscle] has leveled up
Lv.2 -> Lv.3
Your ability [Perfect Uppercut] has leveled up
Lv.1 -> Lv.2
Your ability [Blinding Jab] has leveled up
Lv.1 -> Lv.2
Your ability [Energy Claw] has leveled up
Lv.1 -> Lv.2
Your ability [Internal Healing has leveled up
Lv.1 -> Lv.2
You have leveled up.
Lv.3 -> Lv.4
Energy +10
Intelligence +1, Endurance +1
You have gained 10 stat points
You have leveled up.
Lv.4 -> Lv.5
Energy +10
Intelligence +1, Endurance +1
You have gained 10 stat points
"We won! We won! Now we can go to the next cave and get the hell out of this place!"
Hussav used his spear as a cane to help him walk. Blood flowed all over him. "Shout and roar for your victory men! But remain vigilance because ahead of is still a long way to go."
Taking a deep breath, he puffed his chest and stood straight. "I don't want to ruin your celebration. Even so, I need to tell you to line up and get in formation!"
The hunters shut their mouths and lined up.
No one retorted. Their movements were quick and precise. Only with years of training could a group of men achieve such coordination. They called themself hunters, but Aidan knew they were much more than that. No mistake—they must be soldiers.
Aidan tapped Hussav on the shoulder and surged fate energy into his body. The large gash on his shoulders closed itself, stopping the blood flow.
"Sorry, but my ability can't clean blood stains yet."
The soldiers laughed. That was not even a joke, and they laughed anyway. Guess they were in a very good mood.
Aidan smiled. He was also in a good mood. The battle helped him level up twice and a lot of his skills had been upgraded. With this, he had become stronger. But he still felt unsatisfied, how many monsters and cultists had he fought yet he only reached level 5. This was weird. In novels, someone with a system would soar in power within a day, in contrast, Aidan's improvement was slow.
"Mine can," Sofiel said. She swung her finger and a bunch of small tornadoes swept towards the soldier, pulling in the dirt and stain on their bodies. The tornadoes turned black and red, but they kept spinning around until everyone was clean.
She smiled and gave Aidan a thumbs up.
"With that ability, I wouldn't need to take a bath," Aidan said, walking towards the edge of the abyss. Kalukaga and Siraye followed from behind.
"No that won't do. My tornadoes cannot pull all the germs on your body. If I learn some water techniques, I could probably do it."
Aidan laughed. "I was joking. Now, who wants to get a lift to the other side?"
Kalukaga approached him. "Me help."
"Sure, help me throw some people."
That was when Aidan and Kalukaga grabbed a man each and flung them away one by one. These thin men barely weight sixty kilograms and Aidan threw them like a sack of rice. In fact, a sack of rice felt much heavier than them. That might be because he was much stronger now, so he couldn't make an accurate comparison.
"And that was the last one," Aidan said, turning towards his friends. "Kalukaga and Siraye could cross the abyss on their own. So that leaves the two of you. Who would like to go first?"
"Well, you said I'm going to be the last man you throw so do her first," Gomon said.
"Alright." Aidan grabbed her hand
"Wait let me prepar- Ahh!"
Gomon looked at him. "You need to know how to be gentle to women."
Aidan shrugged. "Are you ready?"
"You should have asked her that too."
"I'll take that as a yes."
Aidan grabbed the man like he was a doll and threw him.
"Ahh!" he made an arc above the abyss and landed on the ground face first. He rubbed his face and patted off the dust. "At least it's better than the first time."
Aidan, Kalukaga, and Siraye leaped across and landed gracefully. Aidan in particular was nervous that he couldn't make the jump. He was prepared to kick the wall and use that momentum to return in case he failed. Thankfully, his jump was a success.
"So where are our new friends?" Aidan asked, walking through the tunnel with everyone else.
"They might have got out of this place," Siraye said. "they have twenty children of fate and thousands of escapees. I told them they can go first because I saw you in trouble."
"Twenty children of fate. that isn't a small number is it?" Aidan asked
"Of course, not," Gomon replied. "Every child of fate was chosen by the eye of fate itself. And the chance of being chosen was more than one in ten million."
"One in ten million? Are you sure you're not exaggerating?"
"You can ask Kalukaga. Ask him how many children of fate did he see on his travel."
Aidan looked at the hairy man. "Well?"
"One."
Aidan was speechless. Ten years of travel and he only met with one child of fate! Were they really that rare? In Bleassephere University, children of fate were like stars in the night sky. Uncountable.
"So we really are rare like what father told me," Sofiel said, walking beside Gomon.
Aidan followed the hunters turning to the left. "What about you, Sofiel. How many children of fate have you seen?"
She shook her head. "You guys are my first contact with the children of fate. I lived in a small village with a small population so that might be the reason."
"What about big cities? They must have accounted for each citizen with the power to control fate energy, right?" Aidan asked.
"Big cities do tend to have more. But they mostly stay at home," Gomon said.
"With all this power. Why stay at home?"
"To research their specialty of course. The world is peaceful and nobody needs to fight anymore. Even mercenaries only hunt beasts. In fact, fighting isn't our number one priority. Research and improving the current technique and technology is at the top of our list."
"What kind of research?"
"Well, forge smithing, golems, manufactured consciousness, genetics, techniques, power armor, and many more. By the way, the farune is master in the field of genetics."
"Farune? Oh, I think Maninsov mentioned that before. He said that they can pick fruits on tall trees, right? Are they similar to a monkey or something?"
Gomon burst into laughter. "Siraye. Aidan just called your entire race similar to a monkey. Can you believe that?"
"What?" This elf-looking girl is a farune? Long ears, blond hair. She was definitely an elf. Was that how they call them here?
"Don't talk about my race!" Siraye said.
"Why?" Gomon said. "Anyway, farunes have wings on their back to soar to the sky and pick up fruits. Unfortunately, they don't have tails." Gomon laughed
Aidan scratched his cheek. "Sorry. I didn't mean to insult the farunes. But I don't see your wings, though. Ah, your genetics must have been altered so now you can make your wings appear and disappear at will, right?"
Siraye stopped on her track.
"What's wrong?" Aidan asked.
She glared at him and kicked him in the face.