*BANG*
With a swinging kick, Victor sent a huge number of the spiders back. Even though the attack wasn't crushingly powerful, it was still strong enough to kill the spiders with one single hit. Their bodies were fragile so the strong wind was able to knock them away.
However, what they didn't have for defense, they compensated for with their huge numbers. Slowly but surely, Victor was losing room, and consequentially losing the ability to push them back further. Some spiders were even able to reach his feet, only for Victor to stomp them quickly. The sound of his feet crushing their bodies as blue blood exploded everywhere echoed in the small room.
'Disgusting…' Clenching his teeth, Victor tried to ignore the wet feeling in his feet and focused on his surroundings. At this point, the boy had reached the end of his wits. His core was at a critical level and he only had one or two kicks left before he fell exhausted.
Naturally, he didn't want to use the last few embers of energy he had in such a reckless way and then find himself unable to move at all. But, at the same time, he was a few seconds away from being overwhelmed by these spiders.
'Think, Victor, think. What should I do?' He looked around him quickly, searching for anything he could do.
*CRACK*
At that moment, Victor's eyes fell on the left wall of the room. In the time he was fighting, the cracks that appeared on it had already spread like wildfire all across the wall, interconnecting in many locations.
The wood was already bending to an unnatural degree under the crushing pressure of the water. Seeing that, Victor had an epiphany.
'Could that work? Ugh, I have no time to think. That's my only choice.' He shook his head and tried to find a path to execute his plan. That was when he realized the second problem.
'The spiders are in the way.' Looking down, the entire floor was filled with nasty insects, closing the path to the left wall. Unless Victor moved through them, he had no chance of reaching it. However, the risk of getting caught by these spiders was huge.
If these things were indeed responsible for killing every single human on the ship, then Victor didn't intend to let them touch him. Cursing his bad luck, he tried to wreck his brain for a solution. His eyes moved like a flash, analyzing every single thing in the room and trying to find a small string that can lead him to the way out of this problem.
At that moment, Victor noticed a small detail that he had been ignoring this whole time. A detail that he could've only noticed now that he was looking behind him. This entire time, Nameless had been silent and motionless. Yet, for some reason, the spiders weren't approaching her at all.
The ones that got close to her, they oddly stopped before quickly stepping back. It was as if they were afraid of Nameless, or to be more precise, wary of her. 'Huh? What is happening?' His eyes quickly shifted to the girl and he quickly realized what was happening.
Nameless' eyes were shining faintly with a red light. The same light that she used on him and paralyzed him for a few moments. It took him a split second to link things together.
'Her eyes are pushing them back!' He mused. 'That makes sense. She seems to have the ability to inflict fear on anything that stares at them.'
Victor had experienced these eyes first hand so it all felt very logical. Without wasting a single moment, Victor turned to Nameless.
"Hey, you! Do you want me to free you?" He asked as he stomped some spiders that got way too close to him. At this point, the boy only had one meter of space all around him. At most, he had 30 seconds before the spiders finally caught up to him.
Nameless stared at Victor before she squinted her eyes.
"I will get you out of here, and in return, use that power of yours to push them away." He said with a cold expression.
"... My power is already running out. I have a few seconds at most before I collapse. This won't change anyt-" Nameless tried to speak only to get cut off by Victor.
"A few seconds is more than enough! Help me out!" He replied. All he needed was a little space and things should work out.
The girl hesitated for a moment before she finally nodded her head. "I don't know what you're going to do, but sure. You have a deal." She said.
Immediately, Victor turned around and rushed to the cage. On the way, he stomped multiple spiders that tried to grab his leg. Reaching it, he analyzed the small silver door, searching for the lock.
It didn't take him long to find the keyhole. But, the problem was very apparent.
'I don't have the goddamn key.' Wrecking his brain for any ideas, he went with the first idea he can think of. 'Would that even work? Ugh, screw it, let's use whatever I have.'
From all the tools at his disposal, Victor only had one thing… The Ripple Runic Technique. He didn't know if that would really do anything, but he had no other choice but to try. Putting his hand against the lock, he channeled the small amount of energy he had left before he muttered the runes.
*BANG*
A ripple spread from his hand into the lock, shaking it violently. Since the ripple didn't have any physical form, it was able to go straight into the interior of the lock, messing all its components. However, when he tried to pull the door, it didn't budge.
"Oh come on." He muttered as he looked over his shoulders. The spiders were a few inches away and getting closer.
So, the boy quickly tried again. Using a small yet precise amount of energy, he sent a ripple through the lock. He could hear the rattling of the lock but he didn't know what was happening inside of it. The second attempt didn't work either.
Meanwhile, Nameless was watching curiously. She didn't seem that bothered at all on the surface. But, deep down, she knew they didn't have time. Sooner or later, these spiders are going to reach them and she had nothing to do about it.
'I wonder what it would feel like to die by these spiders? I bet it won't be pleasant. Getting eaten slowly, inch by inch… Or perhaps even worse if they did 'that'.'
Meanwhile, Victor was too bothered with the lock to notice the weird thoughts running through Nameless' head. Sweat piled on his face even in the cold weather. The exhaustion was catching up to him and affecting his ability to focus. His head hurt like hell and his body was refusing to move properly. But, he ignored all of that discomfort and put his hand against the lock.
'You have to work. There is no other choice.' He thought to himself as he clenched his teeth and used the last ember of energy he had in his body. He knew that this was a huge risk, but since he committed to this plan, he could not back down now.
Putting his entire focus into his hand, he muttered the third move's rune. His eyes flashed with a mysterious glint at that moment as a ripple errupted from his hand, rattling the already fragile lock. A split second passed quickly before Victor finally heard the sound he had been waiting for.
*CLICK*
By some luck, the lock clicked open as the gate parted open. Even though Victor felt a rush of excitement seeing that, he quickly calmed down and pushed it open as fast as he could.
"Quick!" He yelled for Nameless who already stood up.
"This is going to hurt…" The girl muttered and she closed her eyes for a moment as she seemed to use her energy. Then, when she opened them again, the light in them suddenly exploded in a violent way.
Victor felt a chill run down his spine as he fell to the floor from exhaustion. His eyes wandered to the spiders and in a surprising sight, all of them had stopped moving completely. Even their disgusting sounds died down, as if they had died.
However, Victor could still see their shiny eyes in the darkness, as vivid as ever. The sight was impressive as much as it was dreadful.
"Hurry… I can't… Hold it…" Not even a second passed before Nameless started shaking visibly as if she was struggling to handle something. Her beautiful red eyes started suddenly tearing up. But, instead of tears, blood trickled down her cheeks.
Victor frowned before he quickly stood up, ignoring his exhaustion and moved toward the wall. Since the spiders weren't moving, nothing attacked him even as he stepped on them ruthlessly. In a moment, he found himself in front of the wall as he turned to look at Nameless. His eyes were a mix of coldness and wariness.
The girl moved her eyes slowly and stared back at him.
"Hold your breath. We're going for a swim."
Then, without wasting a moment, Victor punched the wall. Even without using much strength, the wood cracked and burst open. Huge loads of seawater invaded the room quickly as Victor and Nameless' bodies were swept away like ragdolls.
One moment Victor was seeing, and the next, everything had completely collapsed.
A//N: If you liked the chapter, support the book on your way!