The Gamer's POV-Chapter 244: Heralds of Madness [4]

By now, the Herald had no face, leaving only a skeletal head riddled with holes. The decay had already spread through its entire torso, yet it still clung to the spire with a grim, mindless persistence. It seemed to groan while shaking its head agonizingly until finally, it succumbed to the rot. Its grip failed, and it let go of the spire, crashing to the ground far below with a loud, heavy thud.

Meanwhile, the barrage of projectiles had finally stopped. Cedric had reappeared with his sword drawn, running several meters behind the second Herald. The creature had halted its pursuit after Cedric vanished from the top of the spire and was now frantically searching for him. It eventually turned, only to see a crescent of black flames erupting from the slash Cedric had just unleashed.

With a desperate, unnatural speed, the creature contorted its body and leapt aside, narrowly avoiding the slash. However, that was just a distraction to stop it from seeing the large magic circle that Cedric had conjured in the air. The moment the Herald landed, a heavy pillar of black fire descended from the runic circle, catching the monster before it could even realize it had been baited.

Within the unrelenting descending pillar of fire, the creature seemed to be shrieking in pain. It eventually staggered out, but unlike the first one, this one did not give chase. It simply stood there, grabbing at parts of its body as they turned to green dust as a result of the decay.

Not long after, Cedric received a notification, followed by another a few seconds later.

[EXP: +260]

[EXP: +260]

He stared at the screen with a blank expression. He would have probably gotten more experience from those kills, but since he was so close to the next Grade, the amount of EXP he received wasn’t mind-boggling as it would have been if he had killed these creatures while at a lower level.

’I just need to kill... um... six more... I think?’ he thought as he quickly reached into himself, trying to feel his mana core. Then he frowned when he realized that he had used more than half of his mana.

As someone who had only spent less than seven months cultivating his mana core, it wasn’t a surprise that his core was smaller than those who had been doing so right from the age of twelve. Plus, these flames really, really drained his mana at an alarming rate.

’Aissh! I need to come up with a better strategy.’

Of course, he had a small essence core he could use when he ran out of mana. But then, he figured that getting needlessly extravagant because of that was not ideal.

He let out a quiet sigh, and quickly turned to the others.

***

Meanwhile...

Barely a few seconds after Cedric had engaged with the Heralds, the others too had joined the fray.

One scurried toward Aurora, who was the nearest, positioned some meters behind Cedric to the right.

Seeing the creature approaching, she raised her right foot, then slammed it down firmly on the stone. From the point of impact, ice began to spread on the ground like a wide path toward the lunging monster.

The creature didn’t slow, but instead leapt to a nearby spire to bypass the frozen ground. Now close to Aurora, it launched itself with all its arms extended. Aurora quickly leapt back, narrowly avoiding the creature as it slammed into the ground right where she had been standing.

Without losing a beat, Aurora rolled, stood, and began running backward into the air. Ice bloomed beneath her feet, forming steps as she ascended. At the same time, she extended two fingers like a gun toward the creature, which had already recovered and resumed its chase.

When she did that, the swords of ice hanging in the air began to launch themselves at the Herald in rapid succession.

The Herald was fast and so, it kept leaping from the ground to the nearby spires to avoid the blades. They slammed into the ground, one after the other as they missed their mark. Then, to Aurora’s surprise, the creature, which was now grabbing onto a spire, leapt down in a blur. It grabbed the last blade that had embedded itself in the stone, then it threw it back at her with lethal force.

Her eyes widened and she almost cursed out audibly. However, before the blade could even reach her, it shattered into hundreds of tiny crystalline fragments that drifted harmlessly past her figure like glittering dust.

The creature didn’t waste a moment and leapt into the air in an attempt to reach her.

Aurora gritted her teeth, and... seeing that the creature was almost upon her, she twisted her middle finger over her index finger to form a complex seal while quickly calling out mentally.

’Absolute Zero!’

Suddenly, the creature, still in the air with all its arms extended, froze mid-air. It remained suspended as if time itself had stopped.

Quickly, Aurora raised her hand high. Almost immediately, a spear began to take form in the air directly above the frozen creature. The weapon was massive, engraved with glowing runes, and tipped with a blade so large it looked capable of splitting the creature in two.

As the spear manifested, Aurora could feel her heart already beginning to freeze, and a cold mist escaped her lips with every breath.

The moment the spear fully formed, she wasted no time releasing her bonded ability. And just as time resumed for the unaware creature, the massive, beautiful spear of ice plummeted upon the Herald. It pinned the Herald into the ground and split it in two, sending a spray of blood and ice shards flying into the air.

***

At the same time, another Herald was running several meters behind Aurora, desperately trying to outmaneuver ten of Celeste’s chains that kept chasing it with relentless precision.

It leapt to avoid one, and the chain slammed into the stone with a heavy crack. The creature twisted its body in mid-air as another whipped past its shoulder, only for a third to graze its side before it could fully recover its balance.

The Herald scrambled behind a spire for cover, but like live snakes, the chains simply curved around the obstacle to follow its scent. Then, the secondary head on the back of the creature let out a piercing shriek as four more chains descended from above.

It quickly turned to run, only for a chain to pierce into its chest from the front. Ignoring the burning sensation, the creature picked up its pace, but another chain slammed into its neck from the side. By the time it staggered from the blow, the chains trailing behind it slammed into its head in unison, crushing the life out of it instantly.