Chapter 58: Cut and Chase
As soon as Eli reached the other side, the Moons came crashing in — dozens of them wearing human masks to conceal their demonic nature.
"Over there! Catch them!"
Half the Moons fanned toward Juli and the pinned Saurian, while the other half pointed at Eli and broke into a run across the floor toward him.
They did not care if the beast plowed them into the ground or clawed them to pieces, so long as they caught both of them. It was this crazed mindset that made the Moons so irritably ever-lasting.
Juli still had the Saurian’s attention, but she must have decided it was time for a tag team. Her sword slipped free of its claws and swept upward, just enough to cut its flesh and send it into a frenzy.
She ran from the Saurian as it chased her to the end of time. Like a mouse in a cat-and-mouse game, she led the predator straight to the other mice — the Moons.
"Oh shit! Watch out!"
Meanwhile, some had broken through to the other side, and Eli faced them, sweat beading on his forehead. He had intended to escape through the corridor on his left, but he didn’t want to without Juli.
The Moons’ recklessness might work to their advantage if Juli could carefully steer the Saurian toward these bastards.
For now, he had to focus. He had killed them before, and with ease as well. This time was no different, even if there were three of them standing on his way.
But Eli wasn’t dumb. He knew fighting three head-on simultaneously was a death sentence, so he ran.
"Stop, you heretic!"
’Who are they calling heretic!?’
Eli broke into a sprint along the wall, putting distance between himself and the three closing on him. He could only buy time until he could find an opening, or long enough for Juli to reach these three.
He pushed his pace, and his legs caught a gear he had hidden.
[Rapid Step]
—Boom!
Eli felt like a bullet train whenever he did that. The gap behind him stretched from three arms away to six in two breaths.
"She’s fast! Cut her off!"
One of the three peeled away from the chase and ran diagonally toward the left corridor, trying to seal off her path.
"Shit," Eli cursed under his breath. They had clocked his target on the first glance.
He shifted his direction.
Instead of going for the corridor, he cut a wider arc back toward the center of the room, drawing all three after him in a tighter formation.
This move was risky, and immediately it earned him a shout from Juli.
"Elise, what the FUCK are you doing!?"
"Setting the scene!"
If Juli was bringing the Saurian, he needed the Moons grouped, not scattered.
Just then, more Moons poured through the corridor where they had come from.
’How the fuck are there so many!?’
Eli had already counted four new ones in the doorway, and then they spawned in more and more, with more shapes behind them.
Three of those broke off the new wave and angled across the floor to cut him off from the front while the three behind him were inching closer.
’Damn it!’
He had no clean line left.
The first Moon at the front swung a short blade at his head as he passed. Eli ducked under it without breaking stride, brought his own sword up, and opened a gash across the man’s thigh on the follow-through. The Moon buckled and touched ground.
The second was a step behind the first and reached him before he could fully reset.
Eli raised his blade in time to parry, but his angle was off. The Moon’s knife glanced off his guard and slipped through, and a zapping pain shot just above his hip.
He gasped and kept running.
Blood began to soak through his shirt at once. It wasn’t deep enough to make him falter, but he felt it tug with every step, as if it were about to burst.
"FUCK!"
Behind him, the floor shook again.
Eli glanced at the bodies that had been gnawed at by the Saurian. The lifeless bodies of those leech bastards fueled him.
"Elise! Down the middle! Now!" Juli screamed, her voice cut through the room with her raspy breath.
Eli cut into the center of the room at full speed, charging straight at three more Moons eager to greet him with their swords.
One of the Moons swung, forcing Eli to twist away from the strike. He dropped his blade low and slashed across the man’s belly.
At this point, every dodge and strike was pure intuition. There wasn’t any deeper meaning behind it. It was just survival.
The Moon doubled over without a sound.
The second came in with a hook from the right. Eli barely got his sword up, but he still managed to meet the man’s blade.
But this bastard pulled a trick.
The Moon used its free hand and came in behind the blade with a thin curved knife, opening a line along the outside of Eli’s forearm before he could pull back.
He pushed the Moon off and met the third one, who tried for his legs. Eli planted his foot and kicked off straight at the Moon, and it did not see him coming.
He brought his pommel down hard on the back of its neck as he stumbled past. The Moon went down on its face and stayed down.
Suddenly, his [Maid’s Intuition] flared from behind. He hurriedly stepped aside, just in time to see a blade pierce the air where his chest had been.
He instantly took off before registering that near-death experience.
"Hah. Hah."
Eli was exhausted. His sword arm was leaking blood everywhere.
Yet the Moons kept pouring out of that corridor like it was some kind of spawner. Four men were already charging straight at him.
"Juli!" Eli shouted weakly. "How many more do you have!?"
"Four behind me! The beast’s slowing! Almost there!"
"Hurry!"
The first of the new four reached him just as he finished the word. Eli sidestepped, dodging the blade, and slashed up across the man’s collarbone, but the second Moon came in close behind him and punched at Eli’s ribs.
"Ack!"
He doubled forward, and that was when a notification popped up.
[END 26 → 27]
’Finally! A natural stat increase!’
It was just one point, and it didn’t change his body much. But Eli was so desperate that the placebo effect kicked in, giving him the strength to crush these Moons.
The third one swung at his head.
Eli ducked on instinct and took the blunt of the hilt across his temple. Warm blood sheeted down the side of his face, and the world seemed to tilt.
Still, sheer momentum and adrenaline kept him on his feet, and he ran like a starved beast.
Behind him, the Saurian roared, its many new cuts no longer regenerating.
"Elise, your BLOOD!"
Juli shouldn’t have taken a look. Her mission was to bring both the Saurian and the Moons down, not worrying about him.
Another wave came through the doorway. Eli wasn’t surprised anymore.
Two Moons broke off to intercept him. Eli aimed between them and used his [Rapid Step] instead of going around. But his stamina had long since depleted, and he took a slash across the back of his left shoulder.
The cut on his shoulder pulled deep. He felt his shirt go wet down to his elbow within seconds.
His vision had already started to blur at the corner.
He forced his vision to clear and saw, dead ahead, the point where everything would meet: him, the cluster of Moons he had drawn in, and the Saurian Juli was steering.
’Yes!’
In just three seconds, the Saurian came in behind him with all its weight and slammed into the cluster of Moons.
The room shook under its sheer power.
He pushed off the floor and got himself clear before the dust settled.
"Good lord!"
When he turned, the Saurian was already pinned beneath Juli’s blade.
She had stayed with it through the impact. Her sword was locked into the seam above its shoulder — the same wound she had carved open earlier.
The acid sizzled harmlessly against her golden blade, and the Saurian thrashed beneath her.
Her golden aura, which had been thinning through most of the fight, snapped back to full brightness. The room flooded with light, white-gold and pure, as the Moons screamed in pain under the starlight.
Then, the light concentrated and surged into the Saurian.
It traveled down the blade and into the wound, lighting the beast up from the inside.
Each rune turned white, trying to push dark mana against the starlight, but to no avail. The runes lost.
They cracked along the spine one after another with a dry pop-pop-pop.
The Saurian opened its jaws to scream, but no sound came out.
Juli pulled her sword free. Purple blood ran down the blade, and when enshrined in gold, it looked like royalty.
The body did not move again.
