Liam didn't waste any time as he rushed down the muddy slope of the valley. He intended to slide down the cliff on a Shedim corpse but there were too many uprooted trees, bushes, and other obstacles in his way.
The highest incline of the slope was the most annoying to run down but Liam made it work. It took him only four minutes to rush down the slope, leaving him with six minutes to find a bunch of humans.
Fortunately, that was rather easy because the scared humans of Haltan were screaming their lungs out. Their terrified screams filled the surrounding and were hard to miss. The screams drowned the sounds made by the storm and they gave Liam a rough guide to find his targets.
'Got it!' He shouted in his mind while switching his direction immediately. He reached out to the small opening at the side of the large backpack and removed one steel spear before he closed the backpack once again.
Liam surveyed his surroundings and scowled. The forest around him suddenly seemed to have come alive as the branches reached out to the ground like fingers and the leaves rustled loudly as if they were trying to communicate with the storm and the wet soil.
Mud and large puddles of water turned it into a slippery terrain. Each step sent splashes of water into the air, slowing down Liam who was slowly losing his patience with the environment around him.
'I swear…if these greedy bastards won't give me any Arcanium in exchange for the weapons, I will tear them apart the moment this mission is over!' Liam swore to himself after he nearly tripped over a root that had been hidden under a thin layer of mud.
He was not sure how long the heavy rain would continue but the rewards of the customized mission were pretty big, indicating that it wouldn't be easy to protect a hundred Natives until the storm would disperse.
Rushing through the muddy forest as fast as he could, Liam discovered many things. There were not as many monsters in his immediate surroundings as he would have expected and the few monsters he saw were not bothered by him. Like him, they too were heading in the same direction he rushed to right now.
A few more minutes passed before Liam reached a plateau where only a bunch of large trees were located. A manmade trail of cobblestones connected the large trees that were located just behind a large construction that looked like a big container, a cuboid made out of bricks with countless glass windows.
However, neither the trees, the cobbled trail, nor the building attracted Liam's attention. The bunch of humans were shivering in fright, and their uniforms that were drenched in water were what pulled his attention over to them. The humans were scared shitless which was not that hard to see.
'Students? A school or academy? There must be hundreds of them…jackpot!!' Liam thought the moment he saw the young humans that were likely between 14-18 years old. All of them were wearing a similar uniform, and only the middle-aged man who stood in front of them was wearing something different.
The middle-aged man was also trembling but he stood in front of his students nonetheless.
If Liam didn't know the true nature of humans, he might have actually believed that the scholarly middle-aged man was willing to sacrifice his life to protect his students.
Fortunately, he was not that foolish!
He looked to the left of the students and Liam could finally see why everyone was so scared.
Rats the size of large dogs were clawing and chewing the steel fence that had been erected around the school's premises to prevent wild animals from accidentally entering the schoolyard.
Until now that had been enough to restrict animals but with the appearance of actual monsters, ordinary steel fences would not fare for long.
[The customized Mission『Protect the Natives』has been activated. Good Luck!]
'I don't need lu…no, scratch that. Give me as much luck as possible!' Liam shouted in his mind when he finally reached the cobbled trail. Moving around was much easier without all the mud holding him back.
That way, he could run toward the group of humans while taking a proper look at the situation ahead.
'Ordinary Huge Rats, Blazing Tooth Rats…Elite Ratatuo…well that's still fine, somehow!' Liam ended up thinking. He had expected to find worse beasts to fight considering that his rewards were pretty nice.
The only issue he detected was the number of opponents he would have to face. There were thousands of rats and it was quite obvious that he couldn't deal with them all by himself.
'Good thing that I brought these with me!' He told himself while tightly grasping the steel spear in his hand.
Liam spun the spear in his right hand while rushing over the cobbled trail.
The class of 30ish students and their teacher were paralyzed due to their fear and stood frozen in place. They had no idea what to do and where to go.
Almost all rats were trying to find their way inside the school after following the sounds of terror and desperation to nibble at their prey. However, there were still a few dog-sized rats that sensed the class who had gone out for their environmental studies of the valley's forest…
Who would have thought that their practical class would end up like this?
A handful of huge rats were slowly inching closer to the humans, finding their way through the mud. Their teeth clattered viciously as they approached the paralyzed students and the teacher whose legs were still quivering in fear.
Nobody was able to move and the heavy downpour prevented anyone from noticing that a few students had just wetted themselves.
The rats squeaked loudly which made a few of the already frightened students to pass out as fear overcame them.
Their death was certain. At least that was what most of them believed right now. There was no way to escape the attack of thousands of dog-sized rats even if only a few were actually attacking their group right now.
They couldn't use their bare hands to tear apart the rats because they didn't possess superhuman strength!
As for weapons, they couldn't even dream about getting their hands on some weapons. Their school certainly did not have an armory.
And, it was not as if weapons would magically appear in front of them just because they wanted to!
"Catch that!" A calm voice reverberated through the surrounding, reaching the wildly twitching ears of the students as a gray glint shot through the air.
A moment later, a loud squeal overflowing with pain reached everyone's ear.
The sheep-sized rat, the biggest out of the batch of all rats who had chosen to attack them, had been impaled.
The tip of a steel spear was stuck deep in its brain, killing the fearsome rat in an instant.
…
Or maybe…just maybe, weapons would rain down in front of them?...