The Path of Ruin

Chapter 83: Hunting the Humans

Kael used his ability as fast as he could.

If he could disrupt the vision of everyone around him, even if only for a few seconds, it would be enough for them to escape.

But... the moment he used his ability, his eon collided with someone else's eon, and because he was trying to reach too many people at once, his eon was quite thin and weak. So it just dissipated like that.

"I know what your ability is, don't even try."

He gritted his teeth at the words spoken by the old man at the front, glancing at Matthew out of the corner of his eye.

Even though they didn't speak... there was what could only be described as perfect communication between them.

And it was Kael who initiated it.

What are we going to do?

I don't know.

You should know!

Hah? It's you who should know! You're smarter than me!

Let's run, then!

Run where you idiot?! We're surrounded!

I told you!

But then... Matthew paused for a moment.

And then the old man, arms folded across his chest, spoke once more.

"Kill them, we'll continue with the nobles."

Matthew turned to Kael, narrowing his eyes.

And Kael... understood right then that he was going to do something, nodding his head in approval of whatever he was going to do.

"Be careful, then..."

After saying these words quickly... Matthew closed his eyes and just stood there.

Swords, spears, axes approaching him from all sides... he just stood there as if accepting his death.

'Damn it, I shouldn't have trusted this id-'

But Kael's thoughts were interrupted by the next moment.

He and Matthew were in a circle... when suddenly a dark blue field appeared around them.

Then... in an instant, dozens of flying shields surrounded them, repelling any weapons that came at them, and not only weapons, but the men!

'Ah, this...'

Kael couldn't help his eyes widening at what he felt as he looked at the shields.

These... were not shields created by Matthew's follower ability. He could understand from the eon they possessed.

'This... is his blessing!'

He had never thought about what Matthew's blessing was until now.

If he had known it was so... useful, he wouldn't have bothered in the first place!

But then he found Matthew's hand on his shoulder and saw that his expression was quite serious.

"Start running, the shields won't stay up long."

Kael nodded quickly. And the next moment... they burst through a gap Matthew created between the shields and dived into the trees.

It didn't take them long to realize that they weren't going to be so successful in running, though, as a voice came from behind them.

"They've gone into the trees, get them!"

The two clicked their tongues at the same time.

"You could have told me earlier what your blessing was."

Matthew didn't answer, just sighed with a blank expression. Continue your journey at M V L

"The shields can only stay up for three seconds at most, and they all consume a lot of eon. They're a bit more powerful than my swords because they're separate from my Path, but I can't use them much, and once I've created them I can't move them much, they're just momentary."

It was totally... a blessing on instant defense, then.

"But forget my blessing, what are we going to do? They'll come after us and we had to leave the nobles with them."

Kael thought deeply for a while. Then he turned to Matthew with a serious expression.

"Those swords you can create... how far can you control them?"

Matthew's answer was quick.

"About seven meters."

"And how far away from you can they maintain their existence?"

"Twice as far."

"That's more than enough."

Kael smiled, squinting slightly as a silvery glint appeared in his eyes.

"We're going to... hunt them."

He wasn't so sure about Matthew, that was why he had asked the questions.

But himself...?

The ones who should be afraid were the ones who were after them.

After all, the forest was... his territory.

*******

Following Kael and Matthew, fifteen people entered the forest.

And... four of them were Bearers.

Hunting these brats was going to be a piece of cake for them!

Of course, they were not going to be complacent just because their opponents were young and inexperienced. They were going to stand together as the experienced ones and not let the forest be used to their disadvantage!

But then...

"Agh!"

Suddenly, they heard one of their number groaning momentarily.

The fourteen turned at the same time to their friend from whom the sound had come.

And... they saw a blue sword piercing their friend's chest and stabbing his body into the ground.

They could not see where the sword came from!

"Watch out, they are hiding!"

They all turned in the direction of the sword. After all, it had to be thrown from somewhere... the person hiding had to be where it was thrown from!

"AAGH!"

But then the person in the middle of them suddenly appeared with a sword on his back and plunged into a tree in front of their eyes.

"Form a circle!"

They quickly put their backs on each other.

So what if their first thought was wrong...?

There were still thirteen of them and in this position, they could dodge any attack!

The next second, a total of two swords appeared, hurtling toward them!

Both of them came from different locations, both of them were really fast!

But because of the stance they took, they quickly dodged these two swords. Then the Bearers, two by two, rushed to where the swords had come from.

And just as they were about to enter the bushes, they all turned around.

They saw someone covered in a silvery glow, approaching their nine friends, back-to-back in the center...

He was so... fast that they could only make out his figure.

But there was no way nine people, not even a Bearer, could see a Follower like Kael. Especially when he was using his ability even if slightly.

With that, Kael passed like lightning through the back-to-back nine and disappeared back into the trees.

And as he passed... he made sure to slit the necks of two of them.

Those of the Bearers who were close to the direction Kael had gone quickly headed in that direction. Once they had seen him, if they were fast enough, they could figure out exactly where he had gone!

But then, the seven of them heard voices coming from the direction of their remaining friends.

"Ugh!"

"A- AAAAGGH! MY LEG... MY LEG!"

The fallen swords they had just parried... suddenly started to move on their own, catching the circle of people off guard and slicing off their feet!

"COME OUT, YOU FUCKING PESTS!"

One of the Bearers lifted his foot up and struck the ground as hard as he could.

The ground shook as if an earthquake had struck. Everyone else who felt the tremor, except their allies, was disoriented, unable to think straight.

It must have caught those two brats off guard!

"It's a pity my feet didn't touch the ground, though..."

But then, he heard the voice whispering quickly in his ear and his eyes widened to their fullest.

He saw feet wrapped around his waist, then the cold metal of a dagger approaching his throat before his eyes.

And then... his throat was cut, his head severed from his body in a single blow.

'That leaves three bearers... and that old man.'

It was... Kael!

He was moving so fast while misleading everyone with his ability that no one could track him!

They could probably take down the three Bearers at this point. They must have been on edge after what had happened to their friends, unable to think straight for fear of death.

But that old man...

'He was a Follower at worst...'

The only problem was, he never showed up! He hadn't entered the forest with the team he had sent after giving the orders...

Or he had entered and was waiting for the right moment.

Either way, he was a threat because Kael and Matthew didn't want to let the nobles be sold. It would be far better if they completed their mission by rescuing them.

And with that thought, Kael turned to face the three remaining Bearers.

And at that moment... he found a pair of black eyes staring back at him.

His eyes widened in an instant.

Because these two eyes... were not the ones that were familiar to him.

They did not belong to Hakon.

They were the eyes of the old man he had been thinking about just a few seconds ago!

He quickly planted his feet on the back of the Bearer he had just killed and pushed himself with all his might.

As he was thrown backwards, the sharp edge of a huge axe came down just before his eyes.

It landed on the ground where he had just been, splitting the headless Bearer's body in two.

It was so fast and powerful... it even sent a shockwave, albeit a small one.

'Holy, it was so close!'

But this was not the time to relax yet.

Because the old man's dark eyes were on him again... and were slowly turning an orangish color.

Kael analyzed the man's eon extremely quickly.

And the man's eon was... hot. Kael felt like he was right under the sun in the middle of summer, in a cloudless sky. If he stayed any longer without doing anything, he would even sweat.

'Hot...!'

The moment he caught the clue, he picked the nearest tree and jumped behind it.

Immediately afterwards... he felt a tremendously hot gust of wind blowing on him.

Fortunately, he was behind a tree, so the heat did not damage his clothes or himself...

But the temperature of the air passing around him was sweltering enough to make him sweat quite quickly!

'His follower ability allows him to send out a wave of very hot air...'

He was sure to be a bit... challenging!

But there was one thing that Kael forgot...

"Gotcha!"

And it was that his enemy was not only this old man.

After all, there were still three Bearers in the field they hadn't killed yet!

So, he saw the tip of the spear approaching him overhead.

In just half a second, it would pierce through his skull and into the tree behind him!