Chapter 308: Chapter 308. A race against time 1
Propelled and wrapped in vines Kailen shot upwards.
The night became clearer as he approached the surface of the pit.
The sound of weapons clanging, affinities tearing through the air reverberated in the environs.
Opponents bellowed in rage, cursed at one another, and screamed.
Flesh met flesh.
Weapons met weapons.
Blood fell, heads rolled.
The atmosphere itself seemed to coil in fear at the sheer display of carnage.
Having made it to the surface, Kailen chugged a universe energy recovery elixir, before several of his vines whizzed through the air, meeting a fireball hurled towards him mid-air.
He turned, gaze locked on a dwarf blazing in flames.
In the span of a moment, Kailen’s hands moved with swift speed. Several rune alphabets were conjured into a meaningful cascade of rank 0 illusion runes.
The runes shone with ominous dark light, rippling with universe energy, rushing quickly towards the forehead of the dwarf opponent.
After that, the fellow seemed to have been rendered delirious as he found himself in some sort of illusion.
"You little sickly pile of dirt! I’m claiming the bounty on your head!"
The dwarf bellowed, striking his weapon here and there, with flames being launched randomly from him towards different directions.
He added in his deranged state, "That squad leader wants us to find you for her and claim the credit for herself. I’m not stupid. The bounty is all mine!"
It was obvious in whatever illusion he was, he had succeeded in defeating Kailen, already fantasizing about the fact that he was taking Kailen to the commander to claim the bounty on Kailen’s head.
Also, Kailen knew that the squad leader the fellow mentioned was obviously the tall dwarf he had encountered at the teleportation gate in the outer city.
This guy in one way or the other was part of her squad and had found his way here.
Anyway, he couldn’t let the bastard keep mentioning the bounty or else it would draw unnecessary attention from several dwarves engaged in their own battles towards him, which would in turn lessen his chances of survival.
Quickly, he took advantage of the split moment where the opponent was in the illusion to attack.
Several of his vines, with sharp edges, shot towards the fellow in his deranged state, aimed at his head.
The vines took advantage of the ear canal, eyes, and nose of the dwarf, piercing through them and carving their way through his head.
Color and life drained from his eyes before he could even realize that he had been caught in some sort of illusion.
The fellow fell to the ground after his head blew apart, as the flames blazing around his figure dwindled down and disappeared.
Kailen watched with a calm expression as he downed another bottle of universe energy recovery elixir.
"Thankfully this probably has a purity level of at least 85 percent. Else, it would have been slow to restore my universe energy. Let’s try and hide. Only attack when discovered and attacked by an enemy. That way I’d have a better chance of survival. Also, I can use the chance hiding to restore my spiritual power," Kailen mused to himself.
His gaze darted around.
Spotting a couple of dead bodies, he thanked his stars, then lay amongst them, after covering himself with blood, playing dead.
’Kill them bastards! The reinforcements will be coming today. They came two months ago, so they will be coming today.’
"Yeah! We just have to persist for a while. This time the reinforcements will be enough to carry most of the survivors alive in the city out of the city."
Several bellows of soldiers rung out in the environs.
"It seems the reinforcements came but because I was down there I missed my chance and I’ve been down there for two months?" Kailen mused to himself as he played dead on the ground, alert for any unforeseen attacks that would be directed his way.
He sighed. "But the reinforcements are coming today right? Hopefully I can leave this city before the Dwarves set it on fire, right?"
Kailen kept playing dead for several hours.
Fortunately for him no one noticed he was alive.
However, he felt like something was wrong.
Things never went this smooth.
Was this the calm before the storm?
A sense of dread started filling him all of a sudden.
"The reinforcements are here!"
Someone shouted, excited. Kailen looked into the skies where several spaceships hovered.
Out of it flew several machinery lifeforms.
They descended on the battlefield and assisted the city residents to fight against the dwarves.
Some used gravity, others used thunder affinities, some used sound affinities amongst others.
In a few moments, the dwarf enemies in the vicinity were taken care of.
The people heaved sighs of relief, even thanking the reinforcements.
The reinforcements started grouping them into numbers to assist them into the spaceships to take them out of the city.
However, Kailen kept feeling the sense of dread encumber him further.
He couldn’t help but feel extreme dread fill him up.
Then it hit him.
"There is no way these dwarves don’t have a countermeasure against these reinforcements. Were they waiting for an extremely large number of reinforcements to arrive so that they act? If the reinforcements coming are enough to get almost every survivor out of the city, then it means the reinforcements will be on a large scale.
Wait... do the dwarves intend to set a trap for the large-scale reinforcements and blow up the city alongside them?"
He had to trust his instincts. Compared to others who did not know that the city was gonna be blown up, Kailen saw things from a different perspective.
"Oh no. I need to get out of here now!"
Kailen crawled out from the dead bodies.
He stood up. His gaze locked on one of the spaceships, then darted towards the machinery lifeforms politely grouping the citizens into pairs before they all flew into the spaceships.
From the way things were going, the city would be blown up before these fellows finished grouping them into groups.
He made his decision. He couldn’t wait for that. Even if he told them that the dwarves were gonna blow up the city, they would not believe him.
He had to steal a spaceship now. If the machinery lifeforms caught him in the act, he would be doomed—branded an infiltrator, and executed on the spot . Still, the alternative was certain death under soot and flame, so he tightened his resolve: he would steal a ship quietly, cleverly, and fast, taking every risk-calculated step he could muster. This was a race against time.
Author’s note :Even if you never comment, if you’re reading this, thank you. You keep me going.
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