Chapter 77 Caged

The strange cry in the distance made Kairos unsettled, almost making him mess up swinging the glaive to hold off the monsters around him.

Though, as unsettled as he was, it was nothing compared to the presence his mother gave off, or even that strange monster with six eyes.

Nonetheless, it was still something to be concerned about, especially when there were so many monsters already. Honestly, Kairos thought that this could've just been an opportunity to get many free points. He hypothesized that the monsters preferred to come out at night, and was even planning to take advantage of this fact on other days.

However, it probably should've been a given that with so many monsters, a stronger one would lurk among them.

It wasn't immediately apparent as this monster didn't seem to be much larger compared to the other ones. As such, they only knew the general direction.

Nonetheless, Chase was already having extreme difficulty in dealing with the monsters next to him. Not only was he wounded badly, but he was even carrying Ling on his back.

He began panting heavily while one hand was still on his stomach. Some mana coalesced around his bow, but it quickly dispersed afterwards.

He had no mana left.

Chase frowned as he sidestepped a monster's claw.

"Could you help me out?"

Kairos clicked his tongue.

"Alright, alright."

After slashing the monster in front of him, he gathered mana for a pulse spell. His free hand shot out behind him, going underneath Chase's arm.

An ear-piercing bang rang out.

[Killed Creature - 0.1 points awarded] x 15

The monsters were blown away, blasted into pieces by his pulse spell. Chase let out a soft sigh.

"Thanks."

The strange cry from earlier resounded once more, but this time it sounded more aggressive. It seemed attracted by the pulse spell.

A faint glimmer appeared in the sky, quickly followed by several more. Or at least, that was what Kairos saw at first. After taking another closer glance, he could see that they were actually pitch black spikes.

They emanated at a spot roughly fifty or so meters away, growing erratically. The spikes were almost like the branches of a tree, growing out before changing directions randomly and splitting off at random sections.

Kairos clicked his tongue.

"Could you hurry up, Tori?"

"I'm trying my best here!"

Tori landed down on the ground next to them. She immediately noticed how badly Chase was hurt and ran over to pick him up. Yet, when she tried to pull him up, Tori couldn't help but cry out in pain.

Her wrists were too badly damaged from her reckless swinging earlier.

She shot a glance towards Ling, who was on Chase's back.

"I can't carry you both, get off!"

Chase frowned, and forcefully pushed the hands holding onto him, making Ling fall to the ground.

"Take the kid first!"

Tori flinched. She looked towards the kid, who only had minor wounds on him, then at Chase who seemed to be at his dying breath.

Then without saying another word, Tori picked Chase up by the shoulders, flying into the sky.

Chase seemed against it, saying something, but his voice was caught by the wind.

Kairos let out a relieved sigh and continued to cut through the monsters around him, gaining a decent amount of points. As for Ling, he took the glaive off of his back, holding it in the proper position along with the right footwork.

It was clearly something he had practiced quite a bit.

Unfortunately, while he was proficient in using the glaive, the only thing he could do was tremble while the monsters continued to close in. Kairos noticed this, and if he was willing to get hurt a little, he was fairly certain he would be able to protect the boy.

However, he did not even try.

A monster lunged toward Ling, about to bite down on him. Kairos fully expected to see him die. Yet, that did not happen.

Ling suddenly snapped out of it at the last moment, swinging the glaive in a smooth curve, beheading the monster in front of him. Warm blood splashed onto his face, and he seemed to be in slight shock that he had actually done that, but did not have the time to do so considering that many more monsters were approaching him.

Despite the situation looking unfavorable, Ling was able to bring himself to swing the glaive and kill the monsters around him. His strikes were neither fast, nor strong. However, he truly did have an extremely refined technique that let him get past these barriers to kill the monsters anyway.

Kairos raised an eyebrow while watching this. He supposed that he had underestimated Ling, but still didn't care too much for him. Not even Nicole needed so much encouragement to start attacking, thus in his eyes, Ling would have many problems in the future.

Tori did not delay in coming back down to fly another one of them back up.

Though it put a relatively heavy burden on his mind, Kairos was still maintaining his extended future vision, letting him see two seconds ahead. And that was when he saw Tori get skewered by the strange black branches from earlier.

It seemed that she hadn't seen the faint glimmer that they gave up.

Kairos immediately called out.

"Stay back!"

Tori did as told, suddenly stopping her descent.

"But why?"

Kairos clicked his tongue.

"There are some strange black spikes in the air, you will get caught by them if you come closer!"

Tori furrowed her brows, but let out a gasp soon after.

"I see them! They... are moving around really fast though. I should be able to dodge them."

Kairos frowned.

"Are you sure?"

Tori shrugged her shoulders.

"If I don't, then who's gonna save you?"

Kairos could not argue with that point, but other problems soon found him. With a clear bang, one of those black branch-like things slammed into the ground, cracking the pavement.

Though it seemed quite strange, because it was over three meters away from Kairos and Ling. Not to mention, it did not even hit a monster.

However, as though to answer the confusion, several more of these black branches rapidly slammed into the ground, all three meters away from Kairos. In just a second or so, a circle of black branches had surrounded them.

Though it was made to be like a cage, all of the black branches were spaced out to be about half a meter away from each other. Even someone with particularly wide shoulders wouldn't find it too difficult to squeeze past them.

Kairos had seen this happen in his future vision, but gave up on escaping it because there were simply too many monsters in the way.

The monsters outside of the cage seemed to want to approach Kairos, but were also too scared to enter it. As for the ones already in the cage, their movements became a little sluggish, but were otherwise unaffected.

Kairos wasn't exactly sure what had changed, but made swift work of the monsters around him. Ling did the same and was panting heavily by the end.

They had finally gotten time for a breather.

The roars of monsters were coming from all around them, yet none of them decided to take a step into the cage that had formed. Though it was technically not the worst situation in the world, Kairos felt it would still be better to break out.

In his future vision, he channeled his pulse spell.

However, he quickly found an extremely strong rebound force, causing his arm to explode into a mass of blood and flesh.

Kairos immediately stopped himself from channeling the mana as he tried to shake off the prickly sensation of pain that continued to reverberate in his arm. With the feeling of needles piercing his skin, he quickly turned to Tori and called out.

"Don't come!"

Tori had taken a long route around to avoid the black branches in the air. She intended to slip past the entrance of the cage to pick them up, but stopped in the air.

"What? Why?"

Kairos frowned deeply.

"There is something wrong with the mana in here, if you come in, you will be hurt very badly."

Tori blinked a few times in surprise.

"Then what do we do about you and Ling?"

Kairos clicked his tongue.

"I'll just have to figure something out! You go back for now and conserve your mana. There's no point in more of us getting trapped here."

Tori hesitated for a second, but ended up flying back up anyways. Kairos imagined she would get an earful from Chase who suddenly took a liking to some random kid, but did not bother himself with it right now.

After all, his situation was worse.

Several of the monsters in one direction suddenly stiffened up awkwardly. Their limbs bent at strange angles, clearly not in the way that the body was supposed to be.

Suddenly, their skin distorted. Then, numerous black spikes burst out from all of their bodies, causing blood to spew out. The monsters split up into tiny pieces and fell onto the ground, leaving a black spike structure behind that looked awfully close to a tree. The other monsters all coordinated in taking a step back, despite being such a large horde.

The black spikes slowly sunk into the ground, and then revealed the thing responsible.

It was very noticeable compared to the rest of the monsters. That was because this one was not red, but mostly black, with a few thin white veins visible. The face of the creature was a pale white, while a casual smile rested on its face. As for its eyes, they were bright green, seemingly glowing in the night. It also had short green hair that matched with its eyes.

As for the body, the proportions made it seem as though it was tall, with lanky limbs. However, it was actually quite short relative to other monsters, not even reaching two meters in height.

For a second Kairos thought that it might've been a human. However, the countless black appendages extending out from its body made him think differently. It was far more creepy looking than any tarantula could be.

This strange creature was roughly ten or so meters away, and was slowly walking towards them.

Ling couldn't help but tremble like a sheep.

As for Kairos, countless things flashed through his mind. He was quite confident in his strength, even if it was far from the peak. However, that was with the consideration that he could cast spells.

Without that, he wasn't so sure anymore.

Unfortunately, that was the situation he found himself in.

After gritting his teeth painfully, he decisively opened up his status panel.

[Status]

[ID: 345315364923]

[Rank: 72/1500 Evolution Energy - 500 required for Rankup]

[Objective: Gain 428 Evolution Energy]

[Proof Of Perfection Points: 17.3]

[Stats -

Strength - 4.9

Endurance - 5.5

Agility - 4.9

Willpower - 4.9

Mana Capacity - 9.0

Magic Affinity - 7.2]

[Special Abilities: Fire Spell (F), Pulse Spell (F)]

[Inborn Abilities: Shattered Truth (F)]

[Hide]

He had garnered quite a few points from killing the monsters earlier. It had been a while since he had so many.

And then, Kairos added all of his points into physical stats while the creature was still slowly walking forth.

[Strength: 4.9 -> 11.0 | Points: 17.3 -> 11.2]

[Endurance: 5.5 -> 10.0 | Points: 11.2 -> 6.7]

[Agility: 4.9 -> 11.6 | Points: 6.7-> 0]

Despite his rushed actions, the creature did not seem all that concerned, still approaching at the same pace. On the other hand, Kairos' body reddened significantly, to the point that he matched the same hue as the monsters.

Sweat poured down his face messily, while his skin wrapped around his muscles tightly. Nearly all of the fat of his body disappeared, which almost made him look like a model of a human with their muscles exposed.

However, Kairos could not sense all of this.

Rather, the only thing he could, was an unbearable hunger.