Chapter 23- Bloodborn (Part 3)
In a split second, Victor smashed into the ground violently. He felt his entire head shake from the sheer impact of the hit. But, he didn't waste time as he quickly spun around and grabbed his head. The pain was strong, but he ignored it as he looked up.
'What the hell was that?' His eyes turned colder as he stared at the ceiling above him. The impact had come from outside, not that far away from where they were. He didn't know what hit the ship, but he was certain that it wasn't something small at all.
"Did we smash into something?" He muttered. But, before he could even think, something even worse happened.
*CRACK*
Another horrible sound caught his attention and his eyes instantly shifted to the side. All he could see across the wall were small cracks that appeared after the huge impact. Those cracks were slowly starting to spread across the entire wall. Water was already starting to leak through them, dripping on the ground.
Seeing that, Victor frowned. 'Great, it's going to collapse now.'
The boy knew that he had no time to waste so he quickly rushed toward the stairs. However, Victor had no clue what was happening. Hell, he had no idea if the ship was already being flooded with water yet, or not.
So, when he caught another weird noise, he had to halt. Not that far away, barely outside, he heard small tapping sounds on the wood. The sounds were light at first but quickly grew in volume, and in intensity. The sound was eerily similar to many small things crawling on the ground at the same time.
'Similar…? That's exactly what it sounds like.' The boy's heart dropped as he looked up. For some reason, even when he didn't see anything yet, he felt a primal fear well up inside him. All his senses went off in his head, telling him that something very dangerous was close by.
'What the hell is happening?'
The situation had suddenly shifted again in a split second, taking him by surprise.
"It's here… Again…"
At that moment, Victor heard Nameless mutter some quiet words. Her expression was a mix of fear and dread that he hadn't seen on her this entire time.
"What's here? What do you mean?" He asked as he looked up at the door. Nothing had appeared there yet, but the crawling sounds had already taken over his ears, not leaving room for the loud storm and the crashing waves.
"You cannot run away anymore… They're here for us." She replied coldly.
"Again, who are they? What are you talking about?"
Without realizing it, Victor had backed into the room again, erasing the idea of going up the stairs. He didn't know what was approaching him, but he knew taking those stairs now would be a huge mistake.
"The things that plagued this ship… And turned it into a desolate place." She replied. "They sensed our presence."
Looking straight into the girl's eyes, his expression grew darker. 'Dammit, I should've left earlier. I got too curious about this place and this girl and forgot about the situation for a moment.'
Usually, Victor wouldn't make such a mistake. But, in a sense, he couldn't really blame himself for taking an interest in this ship as a whole. The mystery surrounding it was simply too enticing for him. Now, however, he had to deal with the consequences of his curiosity.
'What should I do? Think.' A bead of sweat rolled down the boy's forehead as the tension grew. He hated that he was cornered in this room, with an unknown enemy slowly closing up on him. He didn't know what to do.
Seconds passed awfully quickly as the crawling sounds finally reached their peak and finally, Victor saw a glimpse of them. In a split moment, the door was flooded by blue-colored creatures, tens or even hundreds of them.
Their speed was moderate, they closed and moved in the union, merging together in a twistedly homogenous mix. Victor's eyes widened as he looked at them.
'Spiders?'
It didn't take him a split second to recognize all these things and all he could describe them as were spider creatures. Their long legs, disgusting shape, and several emotionless eyes were distinct features of the spiders he knew of. However, these spiders were rather small in size and had weird black lines running across their small bodies and legs.
In a few moments, the entire stairs were flooded with spiders as they went down, slowly approaching Victor and Nameless.
"Why the hell are their spiders in the sea?" He asked as he looked at Nameless coldly. "Where did they come from?"
"... Does that really matter now? You should think about surviving now. I don't think you have a high chance."
Hearing the apathetic tone Nameless spoke with, he could only click his tongue as he took a fighting stance. 'I don't know what I can do, but I have no other choice but to fight.'
The crawling sounds reached a crescendo the moment the swarm of spiders invaded the room. Their small beady eyes illuminated the dark place with a cursed light. They filled the room with their clicking sounds as they finally noticed Victor.
'This is disgusting.' His eyes flashed with a cold glint as he got ready for the fight. He had never fought this many spiders before in his life before.
'I did fight a swarm of bullet ants, didn't I? Wait, I forgot that was a horrible experience. Perfect.'
As his mind was rushing through the options, the spiders had finally started moving toward him. Due to the small size of the room, Victor wasn't surrounded, for better or worse. But, he was still cornered which was a horrible position.
"Don't get too close." He muttered as he channeled some of his Runic energy to his legs. 'Let's try the fifth move.'
Remembering what the fifth part of the Ripple Runic Technique was, he quickly snapped into motion quickly. Stepping forward, Victor lifted his leg up a little as he sent a flying kick forward. His body moved swiftly and efficiently as his leg slashed through the air. Then, out of nowhere, a strong ripple erupted at the end of his foot.
The ripple spread through the air quickly and for a moment, nothing happened. However, that didn't last long.
*BOOOM*
The after-effect of the attack followed through a little later as a strong gush of wind flew forward like a flash. All the spiders at the front were launched back with ease. A considerably big empty space was created in the heart of the swarm that trailed all the way back to the door.
But, as quickly as it was created, the hole was filled with even more spiders as they closed the distance on Victor even more.
'That's it?' The boy frowned. 'I barely killed any.'
Deep down, he had expected to see more spiders falling dead as he had put a lot of Runic Energy into that kick. Yet, he had slightly underestimated how many there were.
But, before the thought could even settle in his head, Victor had already channeled his energy again and attacked the spiders with another kick, sending even more of them flying back.
'I will have to keep kicking them back and make use of the narrow walls.' He mused.
Since he didn't have to worry about the spiders coming from other directions, he put his entire focus into pushing them back as far as he could. In a matter of one minute, he used a huge chunk of energy as he rained down on the spiders with kicks.
However, slowly but surely, Victor was getting overwhelmed. The number of spiders wasn't decreasing at all. In fact, as he fought more of them, even more, were swarming the room as if there was some kind of spawn that spat them out endlessly.
With each passing second, Victor felt his core running out of energy and yet he was finding no way out of this disaster. He could not stop to rest for a moment, nor even think for that matter. He was engaged in a battle with things that didn't harm him yet, but ironically, Victor didn't want them anywhere near him.
"How many more can you fight?" At that moment, he heard Nameless speak. The girl had been watching the boy's battle with a stoic look on her face. She understood everything happening, and consequentially, she knew Victor had no chance of killing all these spiders before they reached him.
The boy looked over his shoulder for a split second before he sent another ripple kick forward.
"Enough to leave this hellhole."
A//N: If you liked the chapter, support the book on your way!