Thud. Thud. Thud.
Heavy footsteps that made no attempt to hide their presence echoed in the darkness. Ikaris, struggling to catch his breath, craned his neck like an antelope sniffing a lion's scent when the wind shifts.
'He's coming.' The boy shivered with fear, but he did not run away this time. As long as that thing is there to lead those Crawlers I have no chance to escape. I'm almost out of strength, might as well fight.'
[Stamina: 3/17.9 points]
[Stealth lvl2: 1.00. Passive Effect: Presence can be consciously increased or decreased to a certain extent.]
This was the result of the night's exertion and where he got his backbone from. His Stamina had dropped so low despite his Perfect Digestion and high Vitality. It spoke volumes about what he had endured to survive this far.
His Stealth Spell had risen to level 2 a few minutes earlier when he had used the spell once more to escape yet another encirclement.
Since then, Ikaris could vaguely sense how his presence manifested itself through his body temperature, his heart rate, his breath, the noise of his footsteps, the light reflecting off his skin, and his smell. It was as if he had gained the experience of an expert ninja or assassin in the business for many years, but at the same time it was quite shallow.
From using the Stealth Spell, his brain, muscles, and cells had been subtly altered while memorizing the process. Through concentration, he could now regulate his heart rate, the way light reflected off his skin, and muffle the noise he made to some extent.
This bordered on magic and science, and the boy was not clearly able to explain how he accomplished these feats. What mattered, however, was that he now had a new string to his bow.
Thud. Thud.
The enemy he feared hacked at the brambles blocking his path with a thick claymore and stopped in front of Ikaris, who had gotten back into fighting stance.
"Good job for making me chase you all night. It's been a while since I've had this much exercise." The Glenring growled in a throaty voice as it rested its blade on its shoulder.
Glenrings were very different from Crawlings. One moved on all fours and had limited intelligence. The other had a humanoid form and was able to speak and ignore its instincts to a certain degree.
What was very clear was that they looked alike. There was undoubtedly a connection between the two races.
The Glenring was to the Crawling what the human was to the chimpanzee. They had a lot in common but at the same time they were very distinct from each other. Nevertheless, it was true that a Glenring vaguely resembled a Crawling that would have stood up on its two hind legs.
The only difference was that their proportions were more humanoid and harmonious like those of humans.
In the dark, this Glenring could be mistaken for a very tall man. Over two meters high. With Ikaris' night vision, however, its monster nature became crystal clear even to the most visually impaired.
Its face was vaguely reminiscent of a lion's, its short, shiny coat varying between shades of night-blue and black. Its prominent lower fangs protruded from its lower lip like those of an Orc. Its long black hair was braided and adorned with decorative trinkets such as teeth, dried ears and baby skulls.
The humanoid creature was as shredded as the Crawlings, but its musculature looked all the more explosive and toned. The cartilage plates protecting its back and tail were still present and now rigid as bone, but the horns and spikes had mostly disappeared. Instead, a puny, straight, black, spiral horn of barely an inch or two protruded from its forehead.
From these changes alone, the Glenring appeared to be less dangerous than its Crawling version, but that was without mentioning its tail. The once long tail, half scorpion, half rattlesnake, was now 1.5 times longer than the creature and ended in a large club with a long black curved stinger. Judging by the smoothness of its wiggles, the monster could control it with precision like a third arm.
Finally, the Glenring also retained the cosmetic details of the Crawlings such as its black claws, and its golden eyes glowing in the night.
"Have you lost your tongue? Don't tell me you're scared?" The monster snarled as it eerily strode towards the teenager. "What a good Thrall, haha. Don't worry, I won't leave a crumb of your corpse.'
Ikaris ignored the creature's taunts and focused on his enemy. After a second of squinting, his expression changed.
'Appraisal doesn't work.'
This was the trick he had devised to determine if his spells had any chance of working on the opponent. If the passive effect of his Appraisal Spell didn't allow him to gauge the level of his enemy, then he could conclude that the latter possessed an Anti-Magic Spark or something like that.
Or maybe the Glenrings had an innate Magic Resistance that allowed them to resist enemy spells. Ikaris was tempted to use the real Appraisal Spell by tapping into his Divine Spark, but he feared he would faint if the spell failed.
'Never mind. If I have no choice, I'll do whatever it takes. But to increase my odds, I need to recover as much as possible.'
A resolute expression settled on the boy's face and he asked with a falsely panicked countenance, trying to buy time,
"Why do you want to kill me? What are you doing here? We didn't do anything to you."
The Glenring stopped closing in and burst out laughing.
"Ah, is that it? So you have a tongue, hehe. I don't want to kill you, I HAVE to kill you. You understand I have an army of toddlers to feed..."
The creature cackled contemptuously and at that moment hundreds of Crawlings burst out of the bushes, forming a dense and impassable circle around them. If Ikaris wanted to escape, he would have to go through this tide of monsters. Even the trees he used to climb to escape the Crawlers were crowded with these creatures.
Once the boy was fully surrounded, the Glenring said sarcastically,
"Your acting is not bad, but I can hear your heart beating at a steady pace. Even though you are a traitor, you are still one of us. You may be scared, but you're dying to slaughter and devour me, just like I'm dying to make you my snack. So stop blabbering and fight. I have eight more villages to conquer tonight to fill my quota. I'm just a scout paving the way for the vanguard arrival."
"Eight villages? Just a scout?" Ikaris' heart skipped a beat.
If Karragin was on this monster's list then all the more reason to fight.
It wasn't out of charity or a sense of sacrifice, but because it was the only place he was familiar with. If all the villages of the Barren Bush were set on fire he wouldn't even know where to move next.
If this Glenring and the millions of Crawlings were just scouts, not even the vanguard, then that was terrifying. He didn't even dare to imagine what a real army looked like.
Seeing the boy's genuine amazement and despair, the Glenring finally broke into a satisfied smile. And when it was satisfied... the killing could begin.
SWISH!
The heavy claymore split the air with one blow and sliced the tree Ikaris was leaning against in half. The boy dove forward with another bloody gash on his right shoulder. He rolled to his feet, then lunged forward and stabbed the enemy in the chest with his two proboscis, one in each hand.
The Glenring stopped being arrogant and demonstrated its experience. Without hesitation, it let go of its weapon and brutally grabbed the teenager's wrists and squeezed hard. Ikaris heard his wrists crack and he stifled a grunt of pain. In retaliation, he retaliated with a headbutt, but because of his short stature his forehead only hit the creature's sternum.
The monster lurched backwards, insisting on keeping a firm grip on the boy's arms, and the boy leapt into the air to plant his two clawed feet in its stomach. The Glenring refused to let go of his arms, so Ikaris continued to kick it with his feet until he heard the air whistle over him.
Slowly looking up, he saw that the monster's tail had discreetly circled around to plant its sting in the middle of his back. A cold shiver ran down his spine and an overwhelming fury, a burning urge to kill born of his sense of injustice, helplessness and his Crawling-Thrall nature overtook him.
Forgetting his fears, his mind went into survival mode and he launched all the offensive spells in his arsenal in succession.
"Black Veil! See-Through Vision! Heart Puncturing! Stealth!"
Something snapped in his mind and a flood of magic unlike anything he had experienced before burst forth from his Divine Spark. He briefly felt as if the enemy's resistance sapped what little strength he had left, and then the spells hit their target.
The Glenring suddenly went blind, a wrenching pain radiated from his chest, and then the presence of his prey disappeared. He couldn't even feel Ikaris' arms, which he had been holding tightly before. A few seconds later, the total blackness that replaced his vision became eternal and his consciousness faded away forever.