Chapter 337

When Arran Sensed the large cavern ahead, he came to an immediate halt .

While the creatures in the cavern were diggers, many were far larger than any of the ones he had encountered so far .

Within the mines, even the largest diggers were no more than eight feet from head to tail . But in the cavern, some of the creatures he Sensed were easily five times that size, if not larger .

Arran did not need to guess why he’d seen none of the larger creatures within the mines . There was no way they’d possibly fit through the narrow tunnel that connected the cavern to the mines .

And it was equally easy to see why, centuries earlier, the Darian soldiers had struggled to find the source of their problem . Dark and filled with cracks and crevices as the mines were, Body Refiners without Arran’s Sense would have taken the tunnel for a dark corner even if they’d walked right past it .

Yet while they fought and killed the diggers, more would enter the mines through the tunnel . And against those endless numbers, soldiers would not stand a chance .

That only left the question of what had happened to the Knight . But here, too, Arran thought he knew the answer .

Within the large cavern that lay a quarter mile ahead of him, he could Sense several pieces of starmetal, shaped like weapons and armor . If these had belonged to the Knight, as he expected, it meant his predecessor had fallen within the cavern .

That the creatures had the strength to defeat a Knight did not surprise him .

While he could not imagine even the larger diggers to be a threat individually, the sound of battle would immediately attract every single one of the creatures the cavern held .

Though the Knight had doubtless been powerful, that was a fight no ordinary fighter could have won . Each wound the Knight sustained would have slowed and weakened him, and with thousands of opponents, it would only have been a matter of time before he was overwhelmed .

Yet the thought of this did not deter Arran from continuing onward .

While he was unsure whether he could match a Knight in pure strength or skill, he had an advantage that gave him far greater chances — one that the dead Knight had lacked .

Arran’s blood held the blood-imbued Dragon’s Ruin . And while large numbers of weak enemies might be a threat to warriors far stronger than Arran, they posed no threat whatsoever to him . Rather, their deaths would fuel his strength and heal his wounds, and the more there were, the stronger the effect would be .

And with thousands of diggers in the cavern, there would be no lack of fuel for Arran’s fury .

The only way his advantage could have been greater was if the diggers relied on sight rather than sound . Had that been the case, his Shadowcloak would have stopped them from even knowing what was killing them .

But the Dragon’s Ruin alone was enough for Arran to be confident in his chances . Even if the larger creatures were stronger than he expected, killing the smaller ones would provide him with the strength to slay the others .

He briefly considered how he would approach the cavern — whether he would attempt to sneak in silently and remain hidden for as long as he could, or whether he would charge in with his sword drawn, unleashing a massacre from the moment he stepped inside .

The decision was a quick one . In the battle ahead, chaos and bloodshed would only help him . And besides — he’d spent far too long without being able to use all his power .

As Arran advanced through the final part of the tunnel, he could feel his sword’s desire for battle .

Whether this was because it longed for bloodshed or because it could feel Arran’s own eagerness, he did not know, nor did it matter — whatever the case, both the sword and its owner approached the cavern with an almost fiendish desire for battle .

Arran emerged from the tunnel without stealth or subterfuge, and almost immediately, his approach drew the attention of a dozen nearby diggers .

The first of these died in an instant, Arran’s blade cleaving through its skull before it even had a chance to attack . And while the others had a moment before Arran fell upon them, it did not matter in the slightest .

Neither the creatures’ steel-like skin nor the pale flesh beneath it so much as slowed his blade as he cut them down, for once using all the strength his body held .

A dozen diggers died in as many seconds, and as the life fled their writhing bodies, Arran could feel a trickle of strength entering him .

There was no time for him to savor the feeling, however, as the racket had drawn the attention of other nearby groups of diggers . And already, hundreds more were scrambling toward him, the muffled sound of their movement echoing through the cavern .

Arran met the creatures with a wicked smile and an eager blade . Too much time had passed since he’d last used his full strength . Now that he had the chance, he would not hold back in the slightest .

The creatures attacked him with a vicious hunger, their sharp jaws snapping at him as they tried to devour him . Yet instead of the prey they hoped for, they found only death, Arran’s blade tearing through their bodies with a viciousness they could not hope to match .

The trickle of strength Arran had felt earlier soon swelled to a stream, and then a river . And as his strength grew, so did his joyous fury .

Wherever he went, he left only death in his wake . And if he’d been powerful even when he stepped into the cavern, now, he controlled an irresistible might, the power at his command far beyond anything he normally possessed .

It wasn’t long before the larger monsters began to attack him, but they, too, had no chance of withstanding his power . While they might match Rangers in single battle, Arran’s power had grown far beyond that level . And with each enemy he slew, his strength grew further .

The feeling was not unlike what he’d experienced years earlier, when uncontrolled Blood magic had coursed through his veins .

Yet now, even while his body was trembling with power, his mind did not falter . However much strength the blood-infused Dragon’s Ruin gave him, it remained his to control .

Still, even without Blood magic clouding his mind, the feeling of power filled him with excitement . It was enough power to give him the confidence to face even dragons, and against the diggers, it felt as if he was a god facing mortals .

Arran did not know how long the battle continued, nor did he care . He felt no weariness or pain as he fought the monsters . Any wounds he received healed in moments, and as the hours passed, the creatures’ deaths filled him with strength and energy .

Had there been enough enemies, he had no doubt he’d eventually have reached the strength to face even gods .

But although the creatures were many, their numbers weren’t endless . And eventually, after hours and hours of battle, the creatures’ numbers were beginning to grow thinner .

The cavern’s floor had long filled with corpses, and the sounds of slaughter had drawn diggers from even the furthest corners of the cave . Now, all that remained were a few hundred of the creatures, and many of those were focused on devouring their companions’ dead bodies instead of fighting Arran .

But suddenly, a thunderous sound came from the far end of the cavern, and Arran was briefly stunned when he realized part of the cavern’s wall had collapsed .

Yet before he had a chance to even worry about the entire cavern collapsing, similar sounds came from two more places .

It took only a moment before Arran realized what had happened . It wasn’t that the cavern was collapsing . Rather, three giant diggers had broken through the walls of the cavern, and all three of the creatures were now moving toward him .

In an instant, Arran knew that these creatures were nothing like the diggers he’d faced so far . Rather than being dozens of feet tall, these were hundreds of feet tall — the size of small dragons .

But that wasn’t all . He realized at once that they were more intelligent than the ones that now lay dead on the cavern’s rock floor . Rather than being distracted by the other creatures’ corpses, they moved straight toward Arran, intent clear in their movements .

Under any other circumstance, Arran would have fled at once . These creatures were far beyond anything he could normally defeat .

Yet as the creatures advanced toward him, his body was still filled with the strength of the thousands of lives he’d taken . And now, it seemed, he’d finally found worthy opponents for that strength .

A small smile crossed Arran’s lips as he looked at the towering beasts before him . And then, sword in hand, he rushed toward them .