Everyone watched Liam as he rushed past them. The rats hesitated for a moment because they could instinctively tell that the apex predator who killed dozens of them within minutes wouldn't flee just like that.
Their instincts restricted them, and they gave the humans the opportunity to stare at his retreating figure for a while before they followed him subconsciously.
The humans didn't even know that their legs carried them toward Liam, the mysterious masked man who had come to their rescue.
Everyone's movements were much less tense than before and the fear that had enveloped them for the last few minutes was dispersed. It was just a momentary state in which their mind grew blank but that was enough to make them rush behind Liam who had entered the schoolyard by now.
He stopped and looked behind as if he was waiting for the last students to reach him.
'The Gate cannot be closed anymore…obviously,' Liam thought contrary to the students' expectations that they were safe inside and it was just a moment later that he rushed back.
The last student was just about to enter the schoolyard through the open Gate when Liam pierced out with the longsword.
A shriek escaped the young female student who had bite marks all over her leg as the longsword's blade whizzed past her head. The blade missed her ear by a hair's breadth. She nearly fainted due to shock as a squeal of pain rang through her ears from behind.
[+0.5 Arcanium]
Liam pierced the heart of the Blazing Tooth Rat that had pounced at the student with the intention to tear her apart.
Afterward, he halted in his tracks while taking a deep breath.
The right side of the metal fence was still holding itself strongly. As for the left side, Liam's earlier spear had missed its target and instead had broken the lock which was also why the Gate was wide open.
'If the Gate doesn't hold the rats back, I might as well create a wall of corpses!' Liam told himself while taking a deep breath.
The remains of Arcane Power that surged through his body were churning wildly and Liam was ready to use it all in the following fight.
Most Ordinary Huge Rats tried to avoid him the moment they recognized the opponent they were about to face but Liam didn't give them the opportunity to slow down, let alone to evade his attack.
Even if the rats wanted to evade his attacks, they had nowhere to run or hide from him either way. Their brethren were to their left and right, and they were being pushed forward without mercy from behind as well.
Their numerical advantage which was their biggest strength quickly turned into their biggest disadvantage as they were all packed in a small space, rendering them unable to fight properly and defend themselves.
The rats' stats were useless if they couldn't make use of them!
Liam killed close to a dozen rats in a rampage of precisely aimed slashes and thrusts and everyone in the schoolyard couldn't help but stare at the reliable broad back of the young man who fought behind the Gate to stall the rats for a few more seconds.
Liam's back was packed with tightly coiled muscles that were clearly visible through the white shirt in which he had been thrown onto Haltan.
It looked almost as if Liam's body was carved by a master sculptor, creating a living statue of marble infused with the experience of a War God.
Some students were influenced by Liam's words and actions. They rushed toward Liam and started to help him by piercing through the flesh of the huge rats that would have escaped Liam inevitably.
Five students ended up lining up next to Liam, fighting with all their might, using the steel spears their savior brought to them.
'Better than nothing, I guess,' Liam thought when he noted the support he was given by the young humans who had never killed in their life.
It infused him with renewed vigor and caused Liam to move faster, smoother, and detect the trajectory of every single monster in his sight.
The efficiency with which he killed the rats accelerated tremendously, while the eyes trained on him widened in shock.
Liam's demeanor had changed as the adaption process with his weakened body increased drastically. He fought valiantly despite the imminent threat of death looming over him, and the scythe of the Grim Reaper tightly pressed against his neck was more than enough to force him to adapt to his body's condition and overcome the issue.
Thus, a sudden change in his presence could be witnessed by everyone.
His black devil mask felt like a shadow cast in the shape of a face. It loomed in the darkness and only surfaced to cause destruction and chaos. The mask was inky black in color as if it had absorbed even the last speck of light that touched it and its eyes were hollow sockets that unveiled the liveliness of the galaxies that seemed to be sealed in the eyes of their mysterious savior.
None of them had ever seen eyes like that of their savior. They were alive and drew everyone's attention onto them as if they had bewitched all the living beings that dared to look at them.
However, Liam's eyes were not the only parts of his body that set him apart. There was a jagged horn that rose up from the left side of his forehead. It was a symbol of power and terror, a testament to the otherworldly nature of the mask, yet, nobody could even remotely imagine that the horn was actually part of their mysterious savior, not a decorative piece of the mask.
If they knew about his origin, the students might act differently and that was not something he needed right now.
The fight at the Gate of the schoolyard continued for another minute in which Liam witnessed how the human students finally began to start using their Soultraits as well.
It was obvious that the students' stats were higher than his own even if he was much stronger than before. However, their movements were still sluggish and they couldn't kill mercilessly, let alone efficiently.
More students came to their classmates' aid but most of them ended up vomiting on the ground and trembling uncontrollably after they realized that they had just killed other living beings.
Others were crying bitterly, snot running down their noses as they pierced the spears into the violently writhing masses of the rats.
'They started to spread out? The fence is not enough… we need to move to a different place…'