(TPOR) Chapter 107: What Happened If There Were Still Monsters? (Patreon)

Zed stared down at his new notification, his vision tinted in a haze of red.

· You have defeated [Woven viper (Beta, category 3)].

· You have gained +41 [Exp].

· Exp to category 3: 3340/3400.

He was so close. The end of this battle would bring him to category three the moment he used [Conqueror’s touch].

Zed paled as blood splattered across his already blood stained face.

“Don’t look so gloom,” Chris said, cleaning the face of a dead monster from her club. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

They were technically done with the fighting and Abed was single handedly mopping up what was left of the remaining monsters. By Zed’s count there about ten of them left, perhaps four of them in Beta rank. It left him and Chris standing with nothing to do while Ash checked on Shanine.

As much as he wanted to dive back in and get those last few points of Exp required to evolve to category three, he feared for how much blood mana he had already absorbed.

Skill: [Bloodwrath (Mana, blood, passive)].

· [Blood mana] required to activation: 1111/1200.

He stared at the number through a red haze with no idea how to make his slowly dwindling hold on his sanity stop dwindling. He could scarcely think. Even now, he wanted nothing more than to rush into the foray of monsters Abed was dealing with and sink into the sweet silent bliss of frenzy, which was strange considering the only time he’d been under anything related to the skill he couldn’t remember how it felt or what happened.

His mind went to a memory of a wolf with a ripped jaw and he paled further. If he had done that at category one he could only imagine what he would do at category two, especially with more than eight points already added to all his aptitudes.

He’d felt it in the fight, killing category three monsters with the same gusto he’d spared for category twos once upon a time.

Eight points was definitely not a joke. But he had greater worries as he battled with his mind and fought his instinct for violence.

“How is she?” Chris asked and Zed turned to find Ash approaching them.

Ash spared Zed a worried glance and said, “The better question is how is he? He looks like he just watched someone puke in his food.”

Chris made a dismissive gesture. “He’ll be fine. I just accidentally got some blood on his face, that’s all.”

“Red’s pale because you accidentally got blood on his face that already has blood on it?” Ash asked flatly.

“Yes.”

“The same person you call Bloodbath is pale because of a little blood? You remember why you call him bloodbath, right?”

“When you put it that way,” Chris said, uncertain, “maybe something is wrong.” She turned to Zed and tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey, Bloodbath. How you doing over there?”

Zed gave her no response, twitching from the impact of her touch.

This is bad, he thought, as he felt his body shiver. This is really bad.

He had to get out of here. But go where? Wandering off into the forest just because he didn’t want the skill to activate where Chris and Ash was made as much sense to him as walking into oncoming traffic simply because he didn’t want to play a game with his friend where they had to pick between two cups where one was poisoned.

Out there in the woods who knew what he’d run into. He could find monsters and kill them but what happened once the skill deactivated. What happened if there were still monsters?

The answer was simple. He’d die.

But here he had a fighting chance. If he didn’t absorb another drop of blood mana, he’d be fine. And even if by some chance he did, Chris was a Rukh mage and so was Abed. He could hope on them to stop him, and Ash’s presence of mind to prevent them from killing him.

He looked at Chris and thought of the glares Abed had been giving him since he woke up.

I’m beginning to think I have better odds of waking up alive out there than with these guys. Maybe I should just try my luck out there.

A hand landed on Zed’s shoulder and he paused.

“Where are you going?” Ash asked.

“To take a leak?” he tried sheepishly.

“You’re a mage, Red. You don’t take a leak.”

“I might’ve started.”

“Maybe,” Chris said. “But I don’t see you taking a leak beside Abed and a bunch of monsters.”

Zed paused. He turned his head in the direction he’d been going and realized he’d actually been heading towards Abed as the mage fought off two final monsters in his battered armor of earth, his once large size dwindling down to almost normal height.

“Yea,” he said, rubbing a hand down his face in a failed attempt to clear his haze. “Can’t pee beside the grumpy guy.”

Chris and Ash shared a look and Chris reached for Zed.

“Are you sure you’re al—”

Zed flinched away from her touch. His senses tightened and his hand twitched in a slightly withheld activation of a rune.

Chris frowned. “I know I said some hurtful words to you but don’t let your anger make you think you can take me, Bloodbath. I’m not nice enough to go easy on you.”

I’d like to see you go easy on me when your jaws fixed on the wrong way, Zed snarled.

His mind took the insult as an affront to him. The girl thought she was strong, powerful, beyond his defiance. The Berserker had met a lot like her, those too enamored with their strengths and their victories; those who felt they had enough power to bend the world. Most of them had realized just how wrong they were, and he’d been the one to bring the realization to them.

Something twitched inside him and his head turned. He watched Abed with suspicion as the man’s now damaged sword took a monster’s arm, cutting it at the elbow. His battered armor took another blow and he slapped his assailant aside with enough force to shatter its jaw. He was completely occupied, yet Zed’s senses continued to warn him.

Did he just look at me? He wondered, disliking the feeling he was getting.

The blood mana in Zed’s system was too much now. It was getting to him, making him paranoid. Zed didn’t like it. He didn’t like it at all. His finger still twitched with a barely activated force rune and he continued to hold himself back, not because he didn’t want to harm Chris. No. Chris was begging for it. He held it back because he feared the blood splatter on his face had enough blood mana to push him over the edge. If he activated a rune, he would have to draw on mana and the mana in his core was not the only one he would draw on.

He turned to watch Abed again and the man was gone. In his place the last monster fell, headless.

That bastard! Zed’s mind flared.

Abed appeared in front of him a moment after, his cracked sword swinging. Zed’s muscles squeezed, tightened into tautness like a drawn rope. His hands shot out in front of him one to save himself and the other to birth a shield of force.

His rune casting was fast but not fast enough.

Abed’s sword cut through his barely completed rune and smashed into his open palms. The broken blade, blunt from overuse, slammed into his palm and his hands closed around it, caught it.

Then Abed completed the swing and Zed blasted away and into the thorny bramble of the hedge behind them.

Zed laid where he’d been thrown, dazed. His arms were a shattered mess by his side and his bloody haze waned as darkness clawed at its edges.