Chapter 60: Found
Of course, Mitch wouldn’t just stand still and watch Madeline die. He jumped into action the moment he saw Madeline fall for the feint.
But as he got closer, he notices that something was off; the bandit leader wasn’t looking at Madeline. He pretended to, but he wasn’t. Instead, his attention was on his surroundings.
The leader had acted strange the entire fight, his eyes constantly flickering back and forth between Mitch, his subordinates, and the tribespeople. He paid minimal attention to Madeline, which resulted in him being wounded a few times.
Mitch raised his awareness and reached towards the spear, trying to grab it from the bandit.
As if waiting for that exact moment, Madeline’s opponent switched targets from her to Mitch. The spear shot towards Mitch’s throat, intending to kill him in one strike.
It would have ended real poorly had Mitch not expected it. He used his stubbed hand to redirect the strike and then kicked the man in the side.
Even with his Infused-level shell, he couldn’t completely stop the thrust. Blood dripped from his forearm, but it was nothing he couldn’t tolerate.
On the other hand, bandit leader wasn’t lucky enough to get away with just a little scratch.
His entire waist looked to have been run over by a truck, and he was vomiting blood with every breath.
Mitch turned to Madeline, who had just fallen to the ground, still shocked from almost dying.
"Do you see, child? This is why I want you to learn how to fight. If this is what someone much weaker than you can do, then what would happen if they were actually stronger?"
She snapped out of her stupor and lowered her head. Mitch could imagine the immense disappointment she was feeling with herself, but he did nothing to comfort her.
This was something she needed to process by herself.
"Go ahead with the villagers. I will deal with the aftermath," he said in a soft tone.
With her nose still pointed downward, Madeline nodded and returned to the villagers, getting welcomed by Komutan embracing her.
Everyone turned around and continued their migration.
When they were out of viewing distance, Katherine finally spoke up.
"Are you going to try converting them into your followers?" The bandits’ behavior sickened her, but she could accept it if Mitch wanted to keep them alive for Mynt.
He didn’t answer her. Instead, he pulled out his swords from his belt and beheaded the already dying leader.
His underlings were appalled and tried running away, certain that Mitch would do the same to them. They were not wrong, as Mitch stomped the ground and gave chase.
He quickly caught up to them and ended their lives. He would never spare the lives of scum.
Their behavior indicated a familiarity with how to execute such a robbery. Committing those atrocities in his name was only worse than doing them at all.
With that, the tale of the bandit group ended.
Not even turning around to look at their corpses a second time, Mitch sprinted and rejoined with the tribe.
However, he found them in an unfavorable predicament; Isaac had collapsed on the ground.
He had taken quite the beating in the battle and was now bleeding heavily. It would appear that the wounds, combined with exhaustion and disease, had resulted him getting a high fever.
Mitch might have been able to help him if given enough time, but he couldn’t afford for the villagers to settle down here. His plans required them to stay in one spot for a long time.
Preferably, it would be in a place with easy access to fruits and berries. Therefore, they needed to keep walking.
The only options now were to either care for Isaac and hope he would survive the rest of the way.
Or to abandon him.
’Is there really no other alternative?’ Mitch wouldn’t throw all his plans away for one person. He liked Isaac, but him dying wouldn’t derail anything.
"What will happen if you start his mutation right now?" He was stunned silent.
In any other situation he would refuse to even entertain that idea. The risks associated with disruptions during the mutating were unknown.
But with Isaac probably dying either way, it would at least serve as experimental data. In a best case scenario, he would be fully restored.
He gritted his teeth and walked forward, placing his hand on Isaac’s body and choosing to induce the transformation.
His cracked exoskeleton bloated into a balloon, similar to when Madeline started her mutation. The difference, however, was that his egg still retained the cracked pattern.
Lightly touching it, Mitch sensed how fragile it was. Dropping it just once would be enough to smash the egg to pieces.
As he was the cause of all of this, Mitch felt a responsibility to see it to the end.
He picked up the egg and gently held it in his arms. "Let us move now. We have a lot to do."
Like that, the migration continued as it had been, the only exception being that Mitch now taught Madeline and the kids how to fight.
The polarity in their reactions made Mitch chuckle; the kids were ecstatic to have him teach them, while Madeline kept grumbling for an entire day about not wanting to learn.
Nevertheless, she attended every session.
The days passed, and the tribe walked many kilometers. The chief consulted Mitch several times about their position being good for a settlement, but Mitch refused.
Not to mention there being barely any vegetation, he still had not found any trails of elephants.
It took so long to find a good place to build their village that some women even got pregnant.
To Mitch’s surprise, Legios had quite quick gestation periods.
He realized two things from their pregnancies. First, legios are mammals. Second, the quick gestation period is made up for with humongous appetites.
Even with his mutation that expended more energy, he only needed a third of a zebra to become full. Meanwhile, he saw pregnant women eat entire zebras alone.
Just as their pregnancy was becoming so bad that they couldn’t keep up with the rest of the group, Mitch finally found and killed a herd of elephants.
