Free Web NovelChapter 215: Chapter 208: Mutant
A low, guttural roar, wet with the sound of saliva, echoed from the shadows in front of Ian.
Immediately after, a twisted figure crawled out from behind an archway.
The thing... was barely recognizable as humanoid. Its skin was a sickly gray-green, covered in festering pustules and overgrown tumors.
Its limbs were twisted at bizarre angles, its fingers long and slender, capped with sharp, jet-black nails.
It had no nose on its face, and its mouth was a gash that split to its ears, revealing rows of jagged, sharp teeth.
Within its eye sockets, only two balls of smoldering, ghastly green fire remained.
It crouched on the ground, on all fours like a beast, letting out a strange "HURK HURK" from its throat.
Its ghastly green eyes were locked onto Ian, filled with greed and savagery.
A Mutant.
According to the fragments of Li Xing’s memory, these monsters were the nightmares of this world, and the most direct source of his fear.
Creatures twisted and corrupted by the Abyss, devoid of reason, possessing only the instinct for Devouring and destruction.
One, two, three... a total of four of them crawled out from the shadows, fanning out as they slowly closed in on Ian.
They emanated a thick, putrid stench and chaotic Energy fluctuations.
’Roughly equivalent to... the peak of the Nayuan Stage? Or just stepping into the Awakening Tier?’
Ian couldn’t quite gauge the power levels of this world yet, but he could feel the danger.
In his current, heavily injured body, at the Awakening Middle Tier Realm of 63%...
...with one useless arm... a head-on clash would be suicide.
’Run?’
He glanced behind him. Deeper ruins, thicker darkness. Who knew what was lurking inside.
’Can’t run. I’m not fast enough anyway.’
’Then... the only option is to kill them.’
Ian’s gaze turned cold.
His right hand slowly reached for his waist, where a sword hung.
The Sword Scabbard was made of ordinary leather, already badly worn.
SHING.
With a soft sound, the sword was drawn half an inch from its sheath.
It was an ordinary Iron Sword, its blade marred with numerous small nicks and caked with dark red, dried blood.
Ian gripped the hilt, a cold sensation spreading from his palm.
He took a deep breath, enduring the searing pain throughout his body as he fully drew the sword and held it horizontally before him.
The sword was heavy. In his current state of Weakness, even swinging it with one hand was a struggle.
But he had no other choice.
"Come on," he said in a low voice.
It was hard to tell if he was speaking to the four Mutants, or to himself.
The first Mutant could no longer hold back and let out a sharp screech.
Its four limbs kicked off the ground, and it pounced like a rabid hound, bringing with it a foul, bloody wind!
It was incredibly fast, leaving an afterimage in his line of sight.
The ghastly green pupils rapidly magnified before Ian’s eyes, its putrid breath nearly spraying his face.
’Now!’
Ian’s right foot took a half step back, his body turning slightly. He didn’t block it head-on, but rather guided it.
[Star Step]! The Beginner Level 41% Rune Combat Technique activated.
His feet traced a barely perceptible arc on the gravelly ground, and his body slid past the pouncing Mutant by a hair’s breadth.
At the same time, using the momentum from his body’s rotation, he swung his Iron Sword in an upward, diagonal slash.
The target was the Mutant’s exposed neck.
SCHLICK!
The blade cut into flesh. The sensation was first resistant, then it suddenly slid through!
Foul-smelling, blackish blood splattered out, drenching Ian’s face.
The Mutant’s forward momentum didn’t stop; it stumbled a few more steps before collapsing with a crash.
Its neck was nearly severed. The ghastly green eyes flickered a few times, then went out.
A fatal blow.
But Ian was not faring well either.
Forcibly exerting himself had aggravated his internal injuries. A sweet taste filled his throat, and he nearly coughed up a mouthful of blood.
The pain in his left shoulder was so intense his vision went black, and the hand holding the sword was trembling.
[Basic Swordsmanship Skill Level +0.2%]
[Star Step Skill Level +0.1%]
The panel notifications flashed by.
Before he could even catch his breath, the other three Mutants pounced simultaneously.
One from the front, and two flanking him from the left and right.
They sealed off all his escape routes.
Ian’s pupils constricted. They were too fast. He couldn’t dodge!
He gritted his teeth, his right hand swinging the Iron Sword in a half-circle to parry the one lunging from the front.
CLANG!
The crisp sound of metal striking metal rang out. The sword vibrated violently, splitting the webbing between his thumb and forefinger. A trickle of fresh blood flowed down the blade.
The front Mutant’s claws were deflected, but the attacks from the left and right had already arrived.
From the left, jet-black nails clawed at his ribs.
From the right, a twisted mouth lunged for his neck.
The stench of death instantly enveloped him.
Ian’s mind went ice-cold.
’How can I die here?!’
At the same time, an extremely intense obsession surfaced within him.
’I’ve only just arrived. The contract hasn’t been fulfilled, I still haven’t found my brother, and my family’s revenge is still unpaid...’
’How can I die in a place like this?!’
"Get lost!"
A low roar escaped his throat, but it wasn’t Li Xing’s voice.
It belonged to Ian Marcus, a savage cry from the depths of a Level One Wizard’s Soul!
Almost instinctively, he madly poured the exceedingly thin, pale-gold Spiritual Power from his Sea of Spirit into the Iron Sword in his hand!
He didn’t know how this world’s "Starlight" or "Elemental Energy" worked.
But he knew how to use Spiritual Power to strengthen a weapon—this was basic knowledge for a Wizard.
VMMMM!
A very faint, almost invisible silver shimmer suddenly lit up on the blade of the ordinary Iron Sword!
Though faint, it carried an indescribable sharpness and weight!
[Starlight Perception] automatically activated. The shimmer once again resonated with the Starfall Core in his chest.
A weak Gravity Field spread out from the center of the sword!
The two flanking Mutants suddenly froze.
It was as if they had suddenly been plunged into an invisible swamp, their pouncing speed slowing by half a beat.
’This is my chance!’
Ian threw himself backward, practically sliding across the ground.
The claws on his left scraped past his collar, tearing a gash in his clothes.
The snapping mouth on his right was less than three inches from his throat.
He had dodged, but the crisis wasn’t over.
The Mutant he had parried from the front was already lunging again, and the other two had recovered from their brief stupor, turning to pounce once more!
Ian rolled once on the ground and pushed himself into a half-kneel, panting heavily, his face as pale as paper.
That burst of Spiritual Power had almost completely drained the small amount of Power he had just recovered.
The wound on his chest split open again, blood gushing out.
The three Mutants closed in again, their ghastly green eyes filled with rage and bloodlust.
Watching the Mutants slowly approach, Ian tasted bitterness in his mouth.
’This is it...’
He tightened his grip on the hilt, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.
’Am I really going to fall here?’
’No.’
His gaze sharpened as he looked at the pendant on his chest.
There, the Starfall Core rested against his skin, radiating a gentle warmth.
In Li Xing’s memories, this was a family heirloom, containing pure Star Energy.
It was also one of the reasons he and his brother had been forced to wander and live in hardship.
’Screw it... I’ll give it a try!’
Ian gritted his teeth. The last wisp of pale-gold mist in his Sea of Spirit was no longer funneled into his sword, but surged entirely toward the Starfall Core on his chest.
’Communicate! Resonate! Guide...’
’Come... out!’
VMMMM!!!
The Starfall Core pulsed violently.
A torrent of silver Energy, far purer and more powerful than before, surged into Ian’s body like a bursting dam!
Wherever it passed, searing pain was instantly replaced by a cool sensation. His dried-up meridians were forcibly expanded, and his severely injured internal organs were rapidly repaired by this gentle yet immense Energy.
[Status: Heavily Injured → Moderately Injured (Repairing)]
[Realm: Awakening Middle Stage (63%) → Awakening Late Stage (67%)]
The panel’s data flickered rapidly.
At the same time, Ian felt his "Perception" change.
It wasn’t a visual change, but a more profound ability to "see" the faint, flowing silver specks of light in the space around him.
He could even faintly sense a slow, grand "pulse" beating deep within the Earth beneath his feet.
’This is... a Star Vein?’
In his current state, the movements of the three approaching Mutants seemed to slow by half a beat.
The chaotic, foul Energy fluctuations on their bodies seemed exceptionally glaring and... fragile against the backdrop of the pure, silver Starlight.
A stroke of inspiration hit Ian.
Instead of trying to slash with his sword, he let the extremely faint silver halo in his hand spread down the blade.
Not a full-force strike, but merely... a pull, a disturbance.
The tip of his sword traced an extremely subtle, rhythmic arc.
The faint silver specks of light in the surrounding space seemed to be drawn in, flowing gently along the trajectory of the sword’s tip.
The three Mutants, just as they were about to pounce, simultaneously staggered.
The force of their own pounce created a dissonance with the slightly disturbed "Force Field" in the environment, causing them to lose their balance.
Although the imbalance was slight, only causing them to stumble for a moment.
But for Ian, it was enough!
His body shot forward like a loosed bowstring, darting through the opening created by the three off-balance Mutants!
The gleam of his sword was like a viper striking, precisely piercing the back of the first off-balance Mutant’s neck.
That was the point where its Energy fluctuations were most chaotic, and its defenses were weakest!
SCHLICK!
The tip of the sword sank in without resistance, and then twisted!
The ghastly green light went out.
Without pausing, he used his forward momentum to swing the Iron Sword horizontally, slicing through the exposed ribs of the second Mutant.
Flesh tore and black blood splattered.
The second one fell with a wretched scream.
The third finally regained its footing and turned to pounce in a rage, its claws whipping through the fetid air toward Ian’s face.
Ian didn’t dodge or evade. A sharp glint flashed in his eyes as he swung the Iron Sword in his right hand in an upward, reverse slash!
CLANG!
Sword met claw.
This time, Ian was not knocked back.
The Energy from the Starfall Core was still surging through his body, giving him the temporary Power to overcome his injuries.
He let out a low roar and put all his strength behind the blow.
"Break... for me!"
CRACK!
The sickening sound of bone shattering.
The Mutant’s claws were brutally knocked aside, and the sword’s momentum carried it onward, slashing across its chest and opening a wound so deep the bone was visible.
Black blood sprayed out.
The Mutant staggered back, and for the first time, something akin to "fear" appeared in its ghastly green eyes.
Ian stepped forward, the tip of his sword fast as a shooting star, and plunged it into the Mutant’s eye socket.
SQUELCH.
The last bit of ghastly green light was extinguished.
Three twisted corpses lay in the ruins, pools of black blood spreading across the ground and emitting a nauseating stench.
Leaning on his sword, Ian dropped to one knee, gasping for breath.
His chest heaved violently, and every breath carried the taste of blood.
’Hah... Finally made it through the hardest part.’
Ian knelt in the ruins, leaning on his sword, and panted for a full two minutes.
The smell of blood, the stench of decay, and the rusty, sweet tang of blood in his own throat all mixed together, rushing to his head.
His vision swam with black spots, and a ringing filled his ears, as if someone were hammering his skull.
But he couldn’t collapse yet.
’Are there any other Mutants nearby? Did the commotion from the fight attract more of them?’
Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to stand.
His left shoulder hurt so much he could barely lift it, and a searing pain burned in his ribs—they had probably fractured again from the forced exertion.
But at least the internal bleeding had mostly stopped, washed over by the cool Energy from the Starfall Core.
’First... find a place...’
Ian dragged his Iron Sword, shuffling step by step deeper into the observatory ruins.
The four Mutants had crawled out from behind the archway, so that area should be relatively hidden.
He made his way around several fallen stone pillars, stepped over a pile of rubble and broken tiles, and finally found a corner behind a half-collapsed wall that could just barely hide him.
Piled in the corner were some rotten wooden boxes and Stone Slabs, all overgrown with black vines.
Ian used his Sword Scabbard to brush the vines aside. The moment the vines touched the scabbard, they recoiled.
They seemed to fear the Starlight Energy, revealing a small space behind them, just big enough to crouch in.
He bent down and squeezed inside, leaning against the cold, damp stone wall, and finally let out a sigh of relief.
Safe... for now.
He closed his eyes, and his consciousness sank into his Sea of Spirit.
