AN: Hi, your lazy author present you chapter 31 :D. Enjoy!!

PR by Zenla, the royal proofreader

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The monster had quickly closed the distane. It had lunged at me, its scythes aiming for my forehead. Even though it attacked while I was talking to the girls, my senses were still focused on them. I felt him coming, leaned to my right to dodge its strike and counterattacked with the hatchet in my right hand, a diagonal upward slash aimed at its neck and destined to send it towards the one on the left who had started to advance as well, and preparing to rotate my body to deal with the one coming to the right.

But it didn't completly go as planned. Yes, I struck it in the neck, yes it flew and collided with the other one, however the wound was shallow. Tough, their skin was extremely tough, almost as tough as rock, which shouldn't have surprised me considering their living place and the amount of earth mana in them. And even with strenght enhanement, I still felt how heavy its body was. Our weapons weren't good enough to inflict significants damage to them, and Kerrina's next words made my mood fall further.

Kerrina «I can't cut their eyes!» she said with surprise and disbelief in her voice «They are really hard!»

Muriem «Huuu... I can barely cut their skin as well, and they are fast!»

They were tough and fast bastards. It would take a lot of time and efforts to deal critical wounds, and if I didn't update the enhancements in time we wouldn't survive the combination of their speed and weight (AN: Speeeeeeeeeeed and WEIGHT!!! Very Happy , I couldn't help but being reminded of that while I was writing). I tried to reduce the pressure of their attacks using their elements, hoping they didn't have too much control over it: I made 2 earth pillar in front of me and 2 more between the girls and their opponents.

I was trying to force them to come 1 by 1 but it didn't work. The ones at the front lines released a small screech and I felt mana gathering in their scythes to form a spell. They struck the pillars and they slowly fell appart into small pebbles. And while that happened, 1 of them moved on the walls on each side and attacked me simultaneously. I deflected the strikes on the left and the right with my khukuri and my hatchet and twisted my body to avoid the one coming from the front. My mana sense and the surprised gasps of the girls behind me told me that the same thing was happening with them.

I released a strong wind blast on them, but they instantly planted their claws in the ground. They sank in easily and I noticed a small surge of mana in them. They were stopped by the wind attack but didn't lose their balance and were not knocked back. Since their skin and even their eyes were tough I doubted fire magic would be effective. While we were exchanging blows, they received less wounds and started to block my attacks more often.

They sometimes attacked with as much as 4 guys simultaneously, 1 on the ground, 2 on the walls and 1 on the ceiling. And neither me nor the girls went unscatched when they did that. We were lucky they didn't seem to be able to stay on the ceiling for long. I attacked or countered with the hatchet, I defended with the khukuri, I had to twist and spin my body at times. Their scythes were sharp enough to tear steel. Mine and Muriem's brigandines were in bad condition.

The defensive battle lasted for a few minutes, then they stopped their attacks. I used the small respite to heal our wounds and cast the enhancing spells once again. Our armors were in tatters, and we had been weakened by the small but continuous bleedings. We didn't kill a single one of them, our weapons are inadequates and the spells I know have little to no effects on them. I didn't try the confusion spell yet because it was a low level one that required direct contact, hence dangerous to use in that situation.

Aenthar «Listen girls, I guess it's time to use my escape products.»

Muriem «You mean, the weird things you were working on in uncle's workplace?»

Aenthar «Yep, and there are 3 of them. It will stink, it will be loud, and it will be blinding. Don't worry, the blinding one will be used last, and we will have our back to it. Kerrina, take this.»

Kerrina «What's in there?»

Aenthar «The stinky surprise. Throw it front of the guys on your side when they resume their attacks. Then the 2 of you back away toward me.»

The monsters screeched at each others, and they attacked again. Kerrina did as I instructed and threw the vial containing the smelly mixture in front of them. On my side I had prepared 2 spells, earth walls and confusion. When they attacked, 2 slanted earth walls appeared from the ground near the walls of the tunnel, tilting 5 of them to the sides and blocking them against the tunnel's walls.

Aenthar «Follow me!!»

The girls were quick to react. I used confusion on the closest one and he stopped moving, and smashed the last one away with my hatchet. There was now a narrow escape route for us. The ones behind us were stunned, but the ones blocked by my walls had already cast the counter-spell and the walls were crumbling, freeing them. Now there were 2 of them blocking the path, and the rest were behind.

«SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!»

The loud screeching were made by the ones who received the stink decoy. I lookded back, and saw them trembling, the mana inside them became more active, and the others monsters were starting to react the same way. I had a bad feeling about it.

Aenthar «RUN GIRLS, HURRY!!!»

We forced our way through the last 2 blocking our path, Kerrina leading with a piece of malchyte for light. They were distracted so it was easy. As soon as we passed them I felt an oppressing feeling on my back, I looked over and couldn't help but shudder. Through the little light available, I could see he monsters were massively drolling, the atmosphere around them was completly different from the calm, emotionless one from before. Their skin had now orange pulsating paterns on them. They charged at us without any sign of order. It felt like they were in a berserker state.

Was it because of the stinky surprise? Most likely, since the change started with the first victims, and as the smell reached the others, they reacted as well. But in their new state they were faster than before. While the girls ran ahead I was the rear guard, trying to slow them down with magic, but with little effects. Their bodies were surrounded by a layer of mana that made my earth walls crumble on touch, and they just blasted through them.

Wind blast barely slowed them down, and when they got close they didn't just use their scythes, but tried to bit me as well. I got a bit of their spit on my arm and it burned a lot, I really didn't want to get bitten. They were running both on the grounds and the walls, it was a scary sight. I had to recast our enhancement a few times. I still had 2 escape devices, and I would use them near the entrance cave so we could have the time to climb up and leave the underground.

Little by little, I increased the distance between me and the girls in my efforts to slow the berserker monsters down, but it was taking a toll on my mana pool. Once we got near, I first used the pseudo flash grenade on a curve so the girls wouldn't be blinded, but it didn't have any effect on them. I had almost depleted my mana so I used the rest to enhance us one last time. I could only rely on redirecting their attacks and trying to make them collide against each other. I screamed to the girls ahead.

Aenthar «Girls, I'm out of mana! Once we reach the first cave do not waste any time climbing up!»

Muriem «What about you?»

Aenthar «You quickly get your sexy asses out of here so you can pull me up.»

Soon we reached the place. I could see the girls climbing up as fast as they could the 20 or so meters that separated them from the outside. Then I used the pseudo sound grenade while seathing my hatchet and khukuri. The deafening sound made the monsters stagger and trip on themselves, but since we were still in the tunnel, it also made me lose my balance. But it gave the girls the time to reach the top of the cave. I quickly got up while wobbling, and made one last mad dash at the rope.

But one of the bastards was as fast as me to recover, and when I jumped for the rope, he stabbed me with one of its scythes in the back and bit a big chunk of meat from my left leg while falling back down. It was the pain of the wounds that made me hold onto the rope tighter. While holding the rope in my right hand, I cut it right below the part I was holding with my khukuri. I didn't want the monsters to somehow hang on it and make it to tear from overweight.

Aenthar «GHUAAAAAAAAAH! YOU MOTHER FUCKING BASTARD!!»

Muriem «AENTHAR!!!»

Aenthar «PULL!!» I screamed while seathing the khukuri and avoiding the other 2 monsters that tried to strike me in the air.

I climbed higher on the rope using only my arms, while being pulled by Kerrina and Muriem. The monsters were now trying to climb the walls to reach the opening on the ceiling, but they couldn't hold onto it for long and fell one after the others. It was a 15 meters fall for them, but it didn't even break their bones, though it did give them internal injuries judging by how weakened they looked as they were trying to climb again.

Once outside, I was once again reminded of the state I was in as severe pain coursed through my back when I lied down. The bastard stabbed me right next to my spine and bit me below the calf of my left leg. The burning sensation of the monster's spit was even more intense and it seemed to spread through my leg.

We were outside, but we were far from the village, and I was heavily injured and possibly poisoned...

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AN: At first, I wanted the mc to be wounded in the ass so it would be a kind of funny memory later for them, but I didn't want the actual situation to be funny.