Spearbound Ch. 53

You have destroyed 285 Karnathis (Arcana Level 39)!

Elbow Smash (Level 6)—>Elbow Smash (Level 10)

Kade wasn’t surprised that the weak karnathis he killed hadn’t given him a level up. He still took satisfaction that [Elbow Smash] was at level ten. He had to choose his ability, but first, he had something more important to do.

“There are around three hundred karnathis heading your way. They should all be level thirty-nine,” Kade said, sending a message to Eliza. The reply was nearly instant.

Eliza: Understood

He continued sprinting to the destroyed city as he returned to ability options.

Your skill [Elbow Smash] has reached Level 10! You have unlocked an ability. You have 3 options to choose from.

Titan’s Elbow (2 MP):

The force of the strike momentarily doubles upon impact.

This is basically [Armor Break], but using my elbow instead.

Arcane Shock (1-11 MP):

Releasing a burst of mana on impact, the elbow strike causes a brief paralysis. The target can be no more than 10 [Arcane Levels] higher than you. The [MP] cost will vary depending on the target’s [Arcane Level].

Kade’s eyes widened, knowing that this option was what he would likely pick.

Rebound Strike (Passive):

Chain Elbow Smash into a spear thrust at increased speed.

He thought that [Rebound Strike] was interesting mainly for the passive cost, but he couldn’t afford to choose it even if he wanted to. What he needed now was a trump card, not a steady addition to his ability arsenal.

Kade made his choice.

You now have the ability [Arcane Shock].

He hadn’t finished with the interface. There were unspent points that needed to be used before he threw himself into battle.

Stats:

Constitution: 46

Endurance: 35.5

Strength: 50.5 + (5)

Dexterity: 165 (+1000%)

Speed: 275 (+1000%)

Wisdom: 17

Free Points: 5

Kade’s only goal was to put himself in a more helpful position in the upcoming fight. That was the reason he did something as awkward as only swinging his elbows around to get himself another ability.

That was the same reasoning he used to remove Dexterity and Speed from contention. The area effect had already boosted them to high heavens. And adding his unused points to Endurance, Strength, or Constitution would give him minimal benefits.

His Class was [Arcane Lancer], and it was time to work towards making his Wisdom attribute worthy of it.

Free Points: 5—>0

Wisdom: 17—>22

MP: 24/34—>34/44

Kade dismissed the interface, satisfied that he could be freer when he used his abilities. It wouldn’t let him spam his abilities with no care, but he would like to be in that position in the future.

He had been distributing his points with a goal to make his physical attributes fairly level, but that would change from now on. It looked like he would use the hocus pocus nonsense anyway, even though he had purposely avoided choosing [Mage] as his Class.

Kade reached the destroyed city several minutes later, which was more than enough to restore his [MP] back to capacity. He kept his distance and requested another snapshot from Hellion.

The pillar abandoned. No karnathis in sight. He could be seen at the edge of the snapshot.

Kade frowned as he looked around in confusion. He could see the pillar from here and while it looked similar to the once in the desert, at least before it was destroyed, he felt there was something missing.

Even if he was mistaken, that still didn’t explain why there was nobody guarding it. He doubted they had conveniently left in the several minutes it took him to reach the city.

Kade kept his guard up and tried to ask Hellion where the karnathis had gone, but that was less than helpful. All he received was intense confusion through the bond.

I’m confused too, buddy.

He was two hundred percent sure that this was a trap, but he might have no choice but to walk into it. Still, it didn’t mean he had to be reckless.

“What’s the situation on your end?” Kade said quietly, intending to wait patiently for a reply from Eliza. He was confident she could take care of herself, but he wanted to make sure the two karnathis he was worried about didn’t decide to reinforce the depleted army.

He worried when there was no reply even after five minutes, nearly concluding that they had been fooled into splitting up. He was about to return to the desert when Hellion surprisingly pushed a snapshot through the bond without a prompt.

Two karnathi leading a large group of their brethren out of the tunnel near the mountains. No mages to be seen. They were heading to the pillar, unaware of being watched.

He had been mistaken. It wasn’t a trap, after all. They had been busy bringing reinforcements.

Kade forced himself to stay put. “Eliza, reply with a word, any word, if you’re not in danger. I’m going to return if you don’t.”

The world might have gone to hell, but that didn’t mean he would become a devil and leave his partner to die when he might be able to prevent it. He couldn’t save everyone, and he had no intention of trying, but he would do something that he considered was basic decency.

Eliza: Word.

Kade’s lips twitched. “Nice to see you can still joke around. If you deal with your side without issue, head to the city to back me up. I might need it.”

Eliza: Understood. I’m not sure about soon, but I’ll let you know when these poor things stop throwing their lives away.

Eliza’s return to normal comforted him, despite his eye roll. With her safety basically guaranteed, he formed a loose strategy.

Using Hellion as a distraction was too dangerous, assuming the two leading karnathis were as strong as he assumed, and he couldn’t throw his [Soulrend] since it was likely to be destroyed, so he needed to use guerilla tactics.

Kade knew he needed to target one of the two leading karnathi and pick them off to level the current disparity between them. He only had to wait for the pillar to distract them before attacking.

He asked for a snapshot, and Hellion obliged.

Two karnathi standing behind a kneeling group facing the pillar.

Kade made his move. This was exactly what he was waiting for to create the perfect ambush.

He spared nothing in order to give himself the highest possibility of success.

Kade activated [Ethereal Glide] right from the start to prevent his footsteps from giving him away. It only lasted for two seconds, but that didn’t matter since he reactivated [Ethereal Glide] to keep his ambush silent.

That was long enough to reach the pillar without being detected.

Kade faltered when he appeared before an unexpected, bloody scene. Of the group of karnathis he had seen in the snapshot, only the two leaders were alive.

The rest had their necks sliced open and their blood splattered on the pillar. It didn’t escape him that the dead karnathis all had solemn expressions as if they went into this knowing it would be their end.

They were willing sacrifices.

He forcefully shoved his shock away and rushed to the closest of the two karnathi that were spreading the splattered blood on the pillar purposefully. [Ethereal Glide]’s duration was ending, but he was already in position.

Kade jumped and descended on the karnathi with his elbow leading the way. He could feel it was much stronger than him, but he gambled on the level difference and used [Arcane Shock].

His eyes lit up in glee when his mana pulsed and entered the karnathi, rendering it immobile.

Kade immediately pulled back and thrust his [Soulrend] directly into the back of the karnathi’s head and tried to use [Armor Break]. The ability didn’t activate, which let him know the karnathi’s [Arcana Level] was over five above his own.

Still, the thrust, targeted at a weak point, caused massive damage.

Kade’s [Soulrend] pierced into the karnathi’s head, but it wasn’t enough to kill it. He ignored the furious roar of the other karnathi and quickly pulled back the [Soulrend] and drove the tip right back into the newly created open wound.

He grinned when the second thrust pierced the karnathi’s head all the way through before quickly retreating in time to avoid the hammer strike that ended up slamming onto the ground, creating an instant crater that blew him back.

Kade’s eyes were still on the karnathi he ambushed and only looked away when it turned into white powder, confirming his kill. He turned his attention onto the lone karnathi and sucked in a sharp breath.

It was summoning something, given the arm reaching out of the ground, and it was sacrificing its right arm to do so.

He did not know why the karnathis suddenly became sacrifice happy, but he didn’t like it. It made him clueless about what was to come.

Kade saw how the ground around the one-armed karnathi boiled as if it was liquid and made his next move the safest option: run as far as he could and recover his [MP] before coming up with a new plan.