Chapter 10 - The Valley of the Shadow of Death (1/2)

For the first time in my life, I truly feel powerless.

It had been many hours since the start of the battle between Will and the horde of guardians.

This horde was much smaller in number than the previous one. There were only ten thousand at most in this one, whereas the previous horde had hundreds of thousands, if not more.

Unfortunately, it seems the difficulty was inversely proportional to the size. This small horde was far more difficult than the previous one. Not just because these wolves were stronger, but more importantly, because they were far more intelligent.

When they attacked, they did so with order and near perfect teamwork. Unlike their predecessors, these enemies knew how to use their numbers, and their abilities well.

They always attacked in groups of threes. One would attack with a barrage of wind blades; each one compact, powerful and well placed, then another guardian would attack from the opposite side with its claws. The third guardian would crouch carefully on the side, waiting for a mistake from Will, so it can attack.

The barrage of wind blades would be met by a large wall of compressed water, made by Will. He had finally taken advantage of his Water Meister class. Due to his increased level, he could more finely control the water at a molecular level, even doing something as incredible as increasing the surface tension of the water, to help it withstand the barrage of wind blades.

Even if the wind blades got through the surface, they would have to travel through many meters of compressed water to get to Will. This was also not ordinary water, it was water reinforced by Will's yuan, this made it far more dense and resilient, not to mention that the currents inside the wall were very chaotic, to further dissipate any wind blades.

Although Will could compress the water, he still couldn't manipulate its state or rather he hadn't had the time to see whether or not he could.

At first, due to his bloodlust, Will didn't have a hard time dealing with these wolves; he managed to kill a few hundred. The wind blades had little effect on his bloodlust, and the other two wolves would be suppressed by the aura from the bloodlust, making them easy kills.

After some time the fatigue from using bloodlust started to show itself. It used up far more yuan than Will could create or gain from killing the guardians. Will could no longer maintain it for long periods of time, so he decided to use it in short bursts. This plan was good at first, but it also had its drawbacks.

Will didn't truly understand what bloodlust was, he only had a basic understanding of what it could do. This lack of knowledge is what led him to another crisis.

Every time bloodlust is activated, it does some damage to Wills body. The yuan Will uses up from using bloodlust isn't from activation, but rather to reduce the damage caused by the activation of bloodlust. Will didn't really know what bloodlust is powered by, but he started realizing that his body was far too weak to handle it.

It was like a car fitted with a jet engine. Will's intuition told him that his body was far too weak to use and control this ability. In the end, after knowing all of this, he still had no choice but to use it.

After the first few hundred kills Will had to start economizing his use of bloodlust on his body. The guardians sensed this, and in turn, increased the intensity of their attacks. Will was only able to survive this, due to the fact that he had leveled up from his previous kills.

Although Will couldn't tell his level, he was now able to resist the aura that these beasts gave off. He knew that he was nearing level 20. His mind only had 16 parts so he definitely had not reached level 20.

Without his bloodlust, Will could still kill the wolves, but it required much more time and effort on his part. Thanks to his previous hundreds of kills which had increased his level, and his improved footwork and technique, he was able to fight on. In fact, fighting more intelligent foes under such dire circumstances improved his technique even more.

Another reason why Will was able to survive this long was another miraculous ability he had gained from his encounter with Modus' killing intent. This was radiant energy. Like bloodlust, Will didn't know what this was, but he had a rough understanding of what it could do. It could heal him slowly and increase his life force.

Whenever bloodlust was off, radiant energy would be working none stop within Will's body. Unlike bloodlust, radiant energy didn't use up any yuan. Instead, it used up a lot of mental energy. Will had to use thirteen parts of his mind to get it around his body and heal him. Radiant energy required very careful and minute control, to bring it out and manipulate.

It's like a massive steam engine inside an old train, one that needs lots of hands feeding coal constantly throughout the journey to keep the train moving. The hands are the mind parts, and the coal is the mental energy used up.

If he could, Will would definitely use more parts, but unfortunately, he needed the other three. One part was used to maintain and manipulate the wall of water, one other part was used to battle and respond to attacks from nearby guardians, whilst the remaining one was keeping track of the others in case they try something else.

As a result, after many hours of fighting, Will was mentally and physically drained. All paths to escape were blocked, so he could not run. Not to mention he knew he could not outrun the guardians in the first place. Although he could keep up with their attack speed, their movement speed was far above his at the moment.

The result was Will Chamberlain, for the first time in his life, was truly fighting with his life of the line.

His heart was beating so hard it felt like it was about to burst out of his chest, his limbs felt as heavy as lead. His eyes were losing focus, and his mind was getting weary. All he wanted to do was just lay down there and sleep.

'I can't keep this up for much longer.'

Will himself knew that he was approaching his limits fast. He realized that his previous arrogant actions had brought disaster upon him. Although he didn't look like he had a chance to survive, Will still had not given up.

This was no longer that naïve teenage boy; this was a warrior who had taken the lives of many beasts. The aura of blood and death was saturated deep in his bones, all the way down to his marrow. So long as he had an ounce of energy in his body, he would not give up!

'My future wife is waiting for me!'

Will was even having lustful thoughts about Adelda during such a serious situation; he was truly unique in this aspect.

At some point in time, Will started entering a trance-like state. His mind was partially conscious. It was now pulling out one hundred percent of the boy's full potential. The two guardians nearest to Will saw the empty look in his eyes; they had assumed that it was a lack of concentration, so they both attacked with the intent to kill.

The third guardian stopped its barrage and followed the lead of its companions. Using its innate control over wind, it jumped up, reaching above the wall of water protecting Will from it.

It started gathering wind energy for its strongest wind blade, in an attempt to finish off this battle whilst its opponent was still off guard.