Chapter 66: Attack!
The spike arrow screamed through the chamber. It cut through the hot air like a flash of black lightning, fast enough to leave a rippling black hue in its wake.
For one glorious moment, Rohan could feel the true power behind that strike. It was by far the most powerful attack he’d delivered so far in his time as an Awakened.
His own Horned Rabbit Spear couldn’t quite compare with the speed and energy behind such a shot — this was why archers were considered some of the most dangerous foes to face off against in the lower ranks of Awakened.
However, like a predator that had sensed danger, Liam moved.
Not too much, just an instinctive shift of a dangerous man sensing death near his skin. Perhaps he had heard the faint ripping and tearing the arrow made as it tore through the air.
Or perhaps he really did just have a sixth sense.
But as a result of his reaction, the shot missed its mark.
Instead, the spiked arrow slammed straight through his right arm below the shoulder.
"GRAAHH!!"
The resulting sound was brutal. A wet, cracking punch.
Liam’s body snapped sideways with the force of it, the black-grey arrowhead punching clean through his flesh and muscle before bursting out the other side in a spray of blood.
His arm jerked violently backward, momentarily useless, and the bag in that hand slipped from his grasp and hit the floor.
For a split second, the chamber froze. Rohan’s breath caught in his throat.
’Shit!’
He reacted quickly, immediately unsummoning the bow and opting for his most trusted spear. He shifted over to Elane’s side with complete urgency, hacking at the tough vines while Liam was distracted, setting her free.
"Take this back!"
With no time to lose, he unbound the Elite Spike Beast bow and threw it back to Elane, not even staying to watch as her expression shifted from confusion to shock, then from shock to amazement as she realised what Rohan had done.
Their situation was just that urgent.
"Stop dawdling and follow my lead! We don’t have much time before he regains his bearings!"
Rohan shouted back at Elane. Her shock caused a slight delay in her reaction, which she thankfully rectified. In moments like this, there was no room for emotions to get in the way.
Any questions she had for Rohan could wait until after this dreaded situation with Liam and the Spike Beast gate was resolved.
By the time she caught the bow properly in both hands, Liam had already torn his gaze away from the spike-arrow punching through his arm and looked back at them.
What stared at them now was no longer the amusement he’d been showing the whole time. It was pure, unadulterated hatred — full of killing intent.
Blood ran down his ruined right arm in thick streams, pattering onto the glowing floor beneath him, yet the pain only seemed to sharpen him rather than weaken him.
His face had twisted into something ugly and hard, every scrap of that false calm stripped away to reveal the vicious thing that had always been lurking underneath.
"You should have stayed helpless; I planned to make your death painless!"
Neither Rohan nor Elane retorted back to Liam.
Rohan lowered his centre of gravity and angled his spear forward while his Firestone Skin spread all over his body in jagged ash-grey layers that made him look more beast than man.
Beside him, Elane slid into position, one foot back, the newly returned bow raised and already tensed with a spike arrow.
"Hit him hard. Don’t let him recover!"
Rohan could already hear the rush of hundreds of Spike Beasts rushing through the tunnels in an effort to reach the centre. The sudden attack clearly woke Liam up to the danger he faced.
Despite travelling with the duo for two days, he never expected such power to be contained within them.
’Dammit! I underestimated them!’
Then Liam moved first.
His wounded arm hung limp and mangled, but his left hand snapped out with frightening speed. The floor near Rohan split open with a sharp, grinding crack, and thick stone-covered vines erupted from it, twisting upward like serpents waking from hibernation.
"Move!" Rohan barked.
He threw himself sideways.
Liam had already made the mistake of showing his abilities early; Rohan wasn’t going to let him catch them off guard twice.
Elane reacted just the same, rolling the opposite way just as the vines lashed through the space they occupied.
The things were thicker than before, clearly changed into a form more suited for attacking and killing rather than restraining. Liam once again showcased just how terrifying of a foe he was to face.
’He’s angry, good!’
Rohan’s eyes narrowed. Angry people slipped up and made mistakes easier. Especially batshit crazy people like Liam.
Liam whipped his hand again, and the vines surged for them in a tangle of snapping loops; some even acted as whips, causing sonic booms and crackles as they shattered the air every time they missed their mark.
Rohan stabbed forward with his spear, carving vine after vine apart into sprays of rocky fragments, but with one removed, two more replaced it.
’Damn, at this rate he’ll drain our stamina before we can even get close to him!’
Clearly something needed to change.
And right on cue, Elane’s first shot screamed past his shoulder. Even in her hands, the evolved Spike Beast Bow packed a harder punch than Rohan could with his spear.
The conjured arrow hit Liam dead in the chest—
And slowed down tremendously as a transparent wall of force flared to life around him. The arrow, no longer holding the momentum it previously carried, was slowed down to speeds that it previously reached as a Normal tier weapon.
Liam was still sent flying backwards from the resulting blow, but his chest armour provided enough protection to stop the arrow before it reached his heart.
’He has another Genetic Armament! A barrier type!’
Rohan’s face changed. How many Genetic Armaments did that make now? Three? Just how many did this guy have? They were all Elite too, even this new barrier he’d just revealed.
There was no way it could have slowed an arrow fired from an Elite tier bow so much if it wasn’t.
"You really thought one cheap shot would be enough?"
Liam stood back up on his feet, looking triumphant.
He was acting much more cautious than before, blood faintly trickling out from his chest.