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Chapter 166 - Venting (Thank you for your support, ReShaddoll!)
🕑 Added 2024-11-11 08:52:36 +0000 UTCWhen I finally reached the first section of the labyrinth, the water was half a meter away from the ceiling. I couldn’t even remain seated on the boat anymore.
While the monsters could no longer attack me, the current slowed me down enough to think that I was a goner… I had over forty kilometers to cross and no less than half an hour.
At this point in time, I had lost the notion of how much time had passed since I began my escape… I couldn’t think of anything anymore. There was only this annoying feeling in my gut and on the back of my head.
The current wasn’t as violent as before, probably because the other sections were almost completely flooded, so I truly didn’t have much time left. I could use my magic bags to drain some of the water around, but that would only buy me a few seconds.
I thought for a moment that I should have made some magic implement to let me breathe underwater… not exactly breathe, but get air from somewhere else. If there was a flask that could make water endlessly, then I probably could make a tank that makes air endlessly. The Aquarians are after me as well, so I needed that in case I had to fight underwater.
When I was forced to lay down on the boat, I decided to turn upside down to save some air on it, but then it slowed down thanks to the friction against the ceiling.
I managed to reach the eighth floor before all the air in the boat had been used by me, but then I was forced to store it and then swim underwater. At this point in time, I didn’t even consider that it was impossible for me to cross over twenty miles underwater without air to breathe, but I didn’t have any other option.
I used the Shadow Step amulet to cross the next three floors in five minutes, but then it broke. I was almost there, but I already could sense my lungs burning. I could see the bodies of some scorpions floating around… it looked like I would join them soon.
Amidst my agony while I was swimming, I decided to increase my stamina regeneration in order to see if I could buy even a few more seconds. I felt that it worked, but soon the agony in my chest began to get more powerful… I reached the fourth floor. Only six miles left and then I would be free… I would find myself surrounded by enemies, but I would be free from the agony of drowning.
My vision began to get blurry, and the agony began to make me reach my limit… still, in the enemy, I forced myself to stay awake by stabbing my hand with an arrow, enchanted with the shock effect. That didn’t make things easier for me… the agony only got worse, but I kept moving. Using that trick made me reach the third floor. After coming this far, I wouldn’t accept dying like this.
After this point, I was already done for, so I didn’t hesitate in using Berserk and Adrenaline Surge to burn my stamina even faster, but at least I felt my blood pumping faster and the adrenaline made me forget the agony. Somehow, despite the odds, I reached the exit.
I stumbled through the final corridor, my heart slowly pounding in my chest as the power of the environment of the labyrinth finally ended. The exit was ahead, and with a final desperate push, I emerged into open air. I gasped as if I had been suffocating for hours, my lungs burning with the sudden influx of fresh oxygen.
Then, without warning, a flood of water surged from my mouth as I doubled over, coughing violently. Each spasm wracked my body, forcing the liquid out in choking bursts. The sensation left me dizzy, the world spinning as my knees buckled. I collapsed onto the ground, every part in my body screaming for rest.
The cool earth beneath me was the only comfort as I lay there, completely drained. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, I allowed myself to simply exist, without the need to swim or fight. Just the rhythmic pounding of my heart and the sharp relief of survival.
I stayed like that for a while until I realized that the enemies should be around. Still, the place was empty, but the smell of blood and death was strong in the air.
I got up without thinking clearly… It was my chance to escape or head to the next labyrinth and leave those guys killing each other, but I couldn’t leave like that. Those guys had to pay for trying to kill me like this… still, who should die?
It was better not to do that, I would be just declaring myself the enemy of the empire even more than I already was, but I didn’t care. I at least had to take down the guy who had planned to kill me like that.
I looked around and then I saw that they truly had connected the nearby river to the labyrinth. So much water wasted just to kill me… in any case, no one was around and they had moved their camp too.
All of a sudden, I noticed shouts and the sound of metal colliding in the distance, so I looked for the highest hill in the area. Even before climbing it, I was able to see the red mist…
It was like a hellish painting. Seeing people fighting each other to death while surrounded by damaged bodies beyond recognition. A sea of blood around made the whole place look dangerously red…
This was a true battlefield. I could understand now how someone could start wars after seeing this once. They were simply sick… a normal person wouldn’t start a war knowing that this could happen. Only those who thought very little of people’s lives would make this happen without a second thought.
Naturally, defending their own country was one thing… I could understand the reason for the orcs, goblins and ogres fighting, but they weren’t totally in the right since they started the previous war. They all seemed angry… as if they couldn’t accept a war starting in their land. Even though they were fine fighting somewhere else. In that sense, they were a little better than the empire since they attacked ports and towns, but they didn’t involve civilians.
Regardless, none of that was my problem. I was just here to relieve my anger at almost drowning in the labyrinth. I was too pissed to think clearly, and I couldn’t leave the area without making my point abundantly clear.
I looked around the battlefield and then I saw the camps on both sides. The defending side had tents all over the place and a few of the defenders were there taking a break. Considering how the battlefield looked, it seemed that this battle had been going for a while and they didn’t take many breaks.
On the attacking side, things looked more orderly. The tents and the soldiers were carefully managed and put at a certain distance away from each other as they rested. I could see the Aquarians doing more support jobs with their magic more than anything else. It looked like they could use healing magic… they were touching the backs of some knights for a while and making them get up, even though their armor was red with blood.
I didn’t care about that, though. I just looked on that side for a bit longer and then looked for my target. Finding that guy was easy… he was in front of the largest tent on the attacking side. He also had a full plate of golden and silver armor… he was studying the battlefield with his arms crossed from his vantage point. Still, his vantage point also had been his downfall.
I changed the enchantments of my gear to all the strength types. Even the ones on my bow. It was a waste since I was going to change them back to normal and I didn’t know if I would be able to make the other ones return with their previous rank, but I wasn’t thinking clearly. I just wanted to kill that guy and nothing else. There was a chance that he wasn’t the one who almost killed me, but I didn’t care. Sometimes, people pay for the crimes of their underlings.
The target was a mile away from me, but I could see him in the distance thanks to my Dexterity and I was able to see him clearly thanks to Hawk’s Vision. I took my final decay arrow and then enchanted it with wind enchantments and also used the shock effect of Arcane Arrow before aiming at the target. When my aim was steady enough, I used Power Shot, Shadow Mark, and Precision Mark before unleashing the arrow.
The target and the surrounding knights never noticed the attack coming. They only heard the sound of the impact… When they realized what was going on, the commander coughed some blood and then looked at his chest. His armor and torso had a hole in it as big as a cannonball.
You received 35.555 experience points.
Considering the sound of the impact, it was quite impressive that the commander wasn’t blown away completely… The arrow even landed on the ground and created a crater of five meters in radius.
Confusion and chaos soon began to spread on the defending side… they never expected that their target would use bows and arrows, after all. Soon enough, they began to look for the attacker and soon the first few of them found me. Both sides looked equally confused since the smart thing would be to leave instead of staying there and waiting to be found like a moron. However, I wanted to let the empire know who did that because they would also know why I did that.
Only after the whole battlefield had their eyes on me, I turned around and then left. I needed to sleep… using Hawk’s Vision only made my eyes feel even worse than before. It felt like they would bleed at any moment, and that wasn’t a good feeling.
