Chapter 71 - Test (2/2)

Most were just drinking from the lava stream or barking and running around. Attack one of the ones that were running around would just provoke a large group to attack him and that was a very unproductive idea. There weren't many places to hide either. Only a few rocks and the like.

As he moved closer to the top of the volcano, he got inflicted with fire damage and forced out of stealth. He was immediately noticed by a group of the larians and had to run to the shore again. This time the larians retreated as soon as he walked into the water.

Unable to walk in stealth towards the volcano top, he dejectedly decided to check the area along the shore in hopes for another group of pups. The spirit told that these were breeding grounds for the larians. So, there are bound to be other pups. Larian pups unlike a.d.u.l.ts are easier to kill.

After about 30 minutes of walking he finally managed to spot another batch of pups. They were huddled around a small pool of lava which was being filled up by a couple of lava streams from the volcano. It was a good feeding point for the pups.

Though he found an occasional isolate a.d.u.l.t larian during this time, most of them, he couldn't kill because a group of other larians were immediately alerted and he had to run away from them. He only managed to kill a couple of a.d.u.l.ts in this time as they were close to the shoreline and he threw them into the water after cheap shot before continued attacking for a kill.

This group of pups were much larger in number than the first group he met, but he only problem was that there were also a few a.d.u.l.t larians nearby. Close to 500 pups were being monitored by 40 a.d.u.l.ts. It was like a larian nursery.

”At least, these are near the shore than the other groups,” thought Shadow as he went towards them in stealth. He made his way behind an a.d.u.l.t larian close the centre of the group and used cheap shot. He wanted to aggro as many as possible and lead them back to the shore.

He quickly lifted one of the pups and threw it towards the water. It was always easier to throw and kill pups as they were smaller, and they couldn't escape from the water unlike the a.d.u.l.ts who could move up to a 2 feet depth. Even if they didn't fall on the water, these pups got easily injured due to fall damage.

As he began to throw pups, the others including the remaining immediately noticed but he didn't care. There were too many monsters. Even though the pups couldn't cause much damage without the flamethrower attack. So, he also released his shadow clone so that it could provide him with a back to back view.

A couple of a.d.u.l.ts started to use their attacks. But Shadow threw the pups in the direction of the a.d.u.l.ts to escape these attacks. The pups blocked the line of fire of the a.d.u.l.ts and it also hurt the pups.

In this way even when the a.d.u.l.t larians attacked him, he could easily escape while also harming the pups. His main intention was to harm a few pups and gain a few kills, but he also wanted to test if harming them would cause the larians to follow him deep enough into the water at the shore to kill them like he did before. He had little time left and was desperate to get as many kills as possible.

The clone only lasted for 20 seconds and once he appeared, he had the aggro of almost all larians in the group. Even the ones which failed to see him at first got interested on hearing the howls and yelps of the larian pups. With all of the larian having his attention, he started making his way towards the shore.

The pups were no issue and as long as he could throw a pup to divert the a.d.u.l.t's attacks while injuring them. Though a bit of fire damage spilt over and cause a bit of HP loss, it wasn't too large. The shore was about a distance of 100 metres from him and he could easily manage to cover that distance with his clone supporting him.

He had his clone also tank a few attacks. In the worst case, he also had a few health potions which he could use.

In spite of Shadow having a decent plan of action to get a large number of kills, it didn't happen completely as expected. The larians managed to surround him completely with a few seconds. If not for the pups that were also beside him, he would have fallen into deep trouble.

Though he was prepared enough, the clone was killed within 10 seconds by the larians. It only had half the attributes of the original and didn't have much health either. So, it was kind of expected.

Luckily, in this time he had already gotten quite close to the shore. Once, the clone died, Shadow caught a pair of pups by their necks and instead of throwing or hitting other larians to cause injuries, he began to hold them up as shield against the fire attacks of the larians as he went into the water.

As he reached the water, he had no use of the pups and threw them into the surrounding water. His conjecture about luring the a.d.u.l.t larian into the water by harming the pups also proved to be right. They began to attack like before spouting fire at him, but this time they were fewer than 50 a.d.u.l.t larians.

This made the task easier than the previous time. He had 10 min left and he best get to the pups which were easier and faster to kill. Moreover, only a few entered the water to attack him which numbered a little over 10. The pups and the other larians also came nearer to the shore barking and howling at Shadow but maintained a safe distance from the water.

He used all his 6 throwing knives on after other immediately to stop a cl.u.s.ter of larians placed together and jumped amidst them. He made quick attacks to the already brittle larians to kill them and continued towards the pups again.

This caused the few more larians to leave the pups and attack him. He again lured them to the water and made quick work of them. This continued for about 3 times leaving only 4 a.d.u.l.t larians left in the group. With this small amount, he didn't even care to attack them and directly made his way to the pups.

He resumed his attack on the pups and began to make quick work of them. With him running amidst the pups the attacks of the a.d.u.l.ts were also in vain. Within 5 minutes, he managed to get a total kill count of 400.

By this time, reinforcements also arrived from the volcano in the form of additional larians. It was similar to the first time larians came down from the volcano. They numbered around 200 hundred and followed him into the water.

Another skirmish continued which allowed him to get more kill as the larians were hurting themselves in the water. He was also getting low on the potions he had left. He had only 2 more health potions left.

Luckily the one hour which the spirit specified came to an end while these new group of larians were still attacking. As the spirit came from the water, it whipped a tentacle which stretched along the shore smack all the larians in the water. The single hit from the Barbotul pulverized them into sand.

”Ah! 432 kills. Not bad for a human. I would have been satisfied with 200 kills If it it were a sea race, I could have understood using water to kill them. But you managed to understand their weakness to lure them into the water,” said Barbotul.

The spirit waved his hands as a circle appeared beneath his feet again. The light that flowed from the circle as it wr.a.p.ed around Shadow again transporting him out of the island.