Spearbound Ch. 70

“This is not what I imagined,” Kade mumbled to himself, leaning on his [Soulrend] to stop his knees from buckling.

There wasn’t a scratch on him, but that didn’t mean the hours of slaughter he inflicted on the monster legion hadn’t affected him. If exhaustion were a person, it would be Kade.

He had felt this before, but never to a point where even breathing was laborious. However, he had expected this with how much he pushed himself.

It wasn’t like he had a choice with how excited the defenders got after seeing him enter the fray. The used the legion’s focus on him to stray from the line of control and cause havoc deep within the legion.

If Kade didn’t overextend himself to kill as many monsters as he could, he suspected that Chicago’s defenders would leave him none with their all-out slaughter.

“Get over here!” A woman screamed, followed by a goblin’s pained roar before it succumbed to its injuries. “Oh, Mr. Beckett! Excuse me, I didn’t mean to intrude.”

Kade waved her off and watched her gleefully throw herself at a fleeing goblin. She hadn’t been intruding on anything.

Most of the monsters Kade had killed weren’t goblins. His mostly useless title, [Goblin Slayer], made goblins the hardest to kill since they did everything possible to run away from him.

That didn’t matter when Kade first entered the fray, but now that most of the remaining monsters were goblins, it was a pain in the ass to kill large swaths of them at once, since they fled at the mere suspicion of his presence.

Kade was an island of calm in the middle of monsters fleeing from manic defenders turned attackers, looking to take their lives.

There was no point in running after a few monsters, since the small number wasn’t worth the effort.

Kade pulled up the rankings on the interface to check his progress.

North American Rankings:

1. Anita Shah (Archivist) – 377,840 points  (+27,912)

2. Kade Beckett (Arcane Lancer) – 257,823 points (+225,786)

3. Eliza Brooks (Mage) – 134,527 points (+82,698) 

…

…

He sighed as he dismissed the interface. He had closed the gap between him and Anita, but overtaking her on the leaderboard was a pipedream.

The city’s combatants rampaged through the legion, reducing the millions of monsters sieging Chicago to well below half a million; within a few hours, they would eliminate the remaining monsters to something negligible.

Finn: Should I direct everyone to withdraw?

Kade tilted his head, ignoring a large group of people cutting down monsters with great efficiency several hundred feet before him.

“Why would you do that?”

Finn: It’ll be difficult to catch up to Anita Shah otherwise. I assumed that was your goal, since you’ve been rapidly rising in ranks without stopping.

Kade suddenly felt a closeness to Finn that didn’t exist before. The man truly understood the effort he had put into catching up with that monstrous woman.

Finn’s suggestion tempted him, but it wouldn’t lead to anything good. Not only would he have to drag his tired body around to kill scattered monsters, it wasn’t like Anita would stop her own rampage in order to let him catch up.

Kade even suspected the reason Anita’s lower point increase during the time he had a massive jump was because of a similar monster scarcity he now faced.

“I appreciate you thinking of me, but it won’t be necessary. I’m satisfied with the second spot,” Kade lied easily. He wished get could be number one, but thinking of the greater good for the people of Chicago ruined it for him. “It looks like everything’s under control here. I’ll go back to the outskirts and escort the people I saved.”

Finn: I can send people for you, Mr. Beckett. It’ll take too much time to escort people from that far.

“Die! Die! Die!” a man screeched in the distance as he chased after a poor goblin with a glinting knife.

Kade turned away, pretending like he had seen nothing. It must be to release tension. Nothing else, certainly not psychotic tendencies coming out.

“Is there a reason for me to stay behind?” Kade asked.

Finn: Matt is planning a grand celebration for our victory. Your attendance would be welcome.

“I’ll stop by if I get back in time,” Kade said, rejecting Finn with no consideration.

He had no desire to be around other people in a tight space. After abusing his [MP] for hours, the last thing he wanted to do was to be forced to use [Suppression] just so he wouldn’t be like a monster in their midst.

If he disregarded the effects of his presence, he would be guilty of ruining the party.

Kade stored his [Soulrend] when he recovered enough stamina to remain upright and ambled out of the battlefield. It might look like he had absolute confidence in his strength as he leisurely navigated through the surrounding clashes, but that was a side effect of wanting to preserve his stamina for the journey ahead.

He left the dwindling monster legion behind and made his way back to Hellion and the group of survivors.

***

It took Kade over three hours to reach the survivor group, but that was due to him pacing himself. He had completely recovered his stamina, though he still felt a phantom exhaustion at the thought of having to use [MP].

Kade slowed into a walk as he stepped onto the spontaneously created waiting grounds and froze. There were more people here than he expected.

“You’re back!” Danny smiled brightly as he rushed to Kade, showing considerable balance despite being recently arm-less. “Are we going to the city now?”

Kade nodded as he stared at Hellion, snoozing while perched on a burnt tree. He noted plenty of cauterized wounds in the sizeable crowd. His companion had been hard at work while he was gone.

“Um, you never told me your name.”

Kade looked away from the nervous crowd of survivors to see Danny staring at him with hope. He wasn’t sure why. “It’s Kade. Why are there more people here than when I left?”

Danny fidgeted. “We searched for anyone we could rescue… was that a bad thing?”

He was a little surprised he missed so many people in the range he covered, but it wasn’t inconceivable since he had to rush back to Chicago.

“No, I was just curious,” Kade reassured him. “Get everyone ready to leave. It’s important order’s maintained.”

Danny returned to the crowd and spoke to others that looked to hold some authority. Kade found it interesting that Danny could direct them.

He idly wondered why Danny could take the lead, despite his young age. It clearly hadn’t been the case until he had rescued everyone here, but that only meant it was a catalyst that changed Danny from being content as a follower to forcing himself to be a leader.

Kade ignored the hopeful looks shot his way and walked up to the tree Hellion had commandeered. He almost didn’t want to disturb the little bird with how cute he looked while asleep, the feathers on his chest rising softly with every breath.

It almost made Kade forget why he named the bird Hellion. To be fair, Hellion had behaved well recently, and Kade could reliably count on him when it mattered.

That still didn’t change that Hellion was a rebellious, angry little thing in his natural state.

“Mr. Kade, we’re ready!” Danny popped up beside him.

Kade blinked in surprise and turned to see nearly ten thousand people looking his way, all prepared to leave at a moment’s notice. That included hundreds of one-legged people, each supported by others.

“… This won’t work.”

Danny looked puzzled. “Mr. Kade?”

“Gather everyone with a missing limb… make that anyone with a missing body part. That needs to be fixed.”

Danny perked up and rushed back to the crowd.

Kade wasn’t doing this just to be kind, though that was a part of the reason.

He was working under the assumption that most of the ones that lost a limb were also the strongest, or the most courageous, since they put themselves in harm’s way. Just like Danny.

Some suffered injury simply because of their weakness, but those were the minority.

Kade hoped to find more Dannys in the group of wounded survivors. He imagined those held down outside a safe zone, lacking security and guidance, would flourish once in Chicago.

He acknowledged the thankful gazes of the slowly gathering group of limbless survivors at the forefront of the crowd with a slight nod. He looked away and jumped lightly, reaching the top of the tree and plucked Hellion from his perch.

The resounding, offended squawk in Kade’s ear, though expected, still deafened him for a moment. He tapped lightly Hellion’s head with a finger to discipline him.

“I’m taking everyone back to the city. Did you want me to leave you here by yourself?”

Hellion puffed up and started bobbing his head in excitement. Kade narrowed his eyes.

“That wasn’t an offer.” He ignored Hellion’s protests as he led the survivors out of the waiting grounds.