Liam had used bits of his Arcane power to shroud the tip of the steel spear with it.
By doing this, he reinforced the steel of the spear blade, which was why the spear didn't even sustain a scratch when it lodged itself deep into the sheep-sized rat's body.
The rat's long and dangerously gleaming red-colored teeth were exposed as it let out a last, high-pitched squeal before it slumped down on the ground not even five meters in front of the petrified students and the teacher.
[Blazing Tooth Rat has been slayed]
[+0.5 Arcanium]
'Stingy bastard!' Liam cursed in his mind as he closed in to the humans whom he had encountered. They were all cowering in fear and stood huddled in front of the large iron gate that was also the only way inside the school.
The keys to the lock could be seen lying on the ground behind the fence, beyond his reach. Liam was not sure how they landed there but he couldn't waste time wondering about it for the time being.
His task was to protect the students and the locked gate was in his way, preventing him from doing exactly that.
He retrieved a second spear from the large backpack, shrouded the tip in a minuscule amount of Arcane Power, and threw it at the gate's lock which burst open in an instant.
Liam ignored the gazes he drew onto himself as he removed the entire backpack from his shoulders before he hurled it toward the teacher.
"Take the weapons and start fighting!" He shouted, still ignoring the gazes that loomed on him. Liam was still a few meters away from the group of students but some of the Rats were closing in on them.
However, instead of finding a way to lead the group of humans into safety, he unsheathed one longsword and the battle axe that was secured to his belt thanks to the latch he had used to fasten it.
Running around with the battle axe had been a little bit of a nuisance but Liam was quite thankful that he could make use of it almost immediately.
Looking at the seemingly ordinary steel battle axe with its short wooden handle, he couldn't help but smile. There was no design on the wooden handle and the same could be said about the blade. However, the most important thing to notice about the battle axe was that the blade was wide and curved with a fearsome edge that could cut through everything.
It was dark in color and well-tempered, but none of that was important to Liam as long as it did its job well.
He rushed closer to the muddy soil through which the rats could progress only slowly before he began hacking and sawing through the rats, one after another with the longsword.
Liam allowed a handful of rats to approach them, just to end their miserable life by beheading them or cutting their brain with a powerful cleave of the battle axe. It was more of a cleaver, either way!
[Ordinary Huge Rat has been slayed]
[+0.1 Arcanium]
[+0.1 Arcanium]
[+0.1 Arcanium]
After a few ordinary huge rats had been killed, Liam was forced to evade the attack of a Blazing Tooth Rat. The sheep-sized rat was trying to overwhelm him with its stats that were higher than his own, which resulted in Liam getting pushed back…or so it seemed.
Liam blocked the Blazing Tooth Rat's attack with the battle axe while thrusting the longsword deep into the monster's abdomen.
He twisted the sword blade mercilessly and dragged it down through the rat's abdomen before he pulled it out.
Just a moment later, a familiar notification appeared in front of him.
[Blazing Tooth Rat has been slayed]
[+0.5 Arcanium]
Liam didn't receive many Arcanium for each kill but that was not important right now, either way. He was at an advantage and could kill dozens, if not hundreds of Ordinary Huge Rats under the current circumstances.
His opponents were slowed down in the mud, he had vast combat experience on all kinds of battlefields and he was armored with two decent weapons that could be used to slaughter and protect.
After Liam finished the second Blazing Tooth Rat, he took a moment to catch his breath.
He stepped back and glanced toward the group of students and the teacher who had yet to move. They looked at Liam as if he was a mythical creature from a fairytale, a fae that had magically come to their rescue!
'Should I just leave them behind?' Liam thought for a moment before he grit his teeth in anger and frustration.
"If you guys don't want to die, at least don't stand in my way…" He swore under his breath before muttering loudly, "Take the steel spears and use your Soultraits to fight, you brainless idiots!"
It was quite obvious that the sudden change in Haltan was too much to accept for most humans who had lived a peaceful life far from war but things had changed now.
To those who had never even killed a living being, it might be hard to accept the new truth and life that had been forced onto them, however, Liam was not someone who would bother about that.
He had been abandoned by everyone, banished from everywhere, and forced to kill to survive from a young age. His mother and siblings had always played around with him, or so they labeled it whenever they treated him like a piece of trash. They tortured him, and gave him seemingly impossible missions one after another, just to brief him about the situation on Haltan as his first opportunity to gain freedom.
It was the first time in his life that nobody could control him in any way, and Liam wouldn't allow anyone to take it away from him!
On Haltan, he had free reign and he wanted to make use of the environmental advantage that allowed him to move much faster than the rats. This advantage was only temporary because the corpses of the rats were slowly stacking up in the mud, paving a way for other rats to him and the students as the commotion would attract more of them.
However, the students were still not moving, which forced Liam to go out of his way and activate his Soultrait.
The number of rats rushing at them increased drastically over time, and that was mostly the humans' fault. The rats may not be able to smell and see much in the heavy rain but they could clearly sense the fear of the students and the teacher.
Liam got to understand that the plan he had worked out in his mind was not going as smoothly as expected.
Thus, he changed his way to approach the situation.
"I will abandon you guys if you don't move in the next ten seconds!"