Chapter 42: Torrent city [13]

Following the loud explosion, Alvin's survival instinct practically screamed at him to make a run for it. From the way the ceiling shook violently, it was quite more than obvious that the place was about to come down completely.

'i have to get out of here.' Alvin thought as he turned and attempted to run away. The sudden explosion had disrupted both him and Larks' balance, creating a very brief and short pause in the battle. It was a crucial opportunity for the Alvin who wished to make his escape, an opportunity which he could not afford to waste.

Switching off his aura, he stretched out his arms towards Lark's chest and began chanting a spell. In response to his indiscernible mutterings, ice Mana began to congregate around his palms. Lark, who had by now lost most of his sanity could not even recall the spell which Alvin was trying to cast and just charged head first and straight at the gathering of mana like some sort of crazed beast. But then....

"Blizzard bomb." Alvin said before jumping a few inches off the ground, and just like before, a powerful explosion of ice Mana occured. And although it was a much weaker version of the original, as Alvin had nerfed it in order to save Mana, it was still enough to send both men flying in the opposite directions.

*Boom*

As the light generated by the burst of power dimmed, two individuals separated by a distance of about ten meters could be seen in the tunnel that was already collapsing. One of the two individuals–men, to be more precise, had fallen to the ground and was currently dragging himself up. While the second man still stood tall, the explosion of power seemingly had no visible effect on him.

Lark had survived the explosion without retaining so much as a single scratch on his bulky muscles, but the same could not be said about Alvin. He had purposely jumped before casting the spell so as to ensure that the powerful wave generated would send him flying, in an irrationally desperate but successful attempt to create distance between himself and his hunter.

One glance at Lark's eyes were enough to tell the tale of the madness which had nigh completely taken over him as he started rushing forward with the second stage of fusion magic still fully active. But by then, Alvin had already managed to drag himself up to a standing posture.

Lark closed the distance between the two in mere seconds before using his rapier to stab at Alvin's shoulders, piercing into it and drawing a considerable amount of blood from it.

*Stab*

"Aaagh." The sharp pain that shot up from Alvin's shoulder region assaulted him as his chant had been interrupted and Lark had already covered the distance which Alvin had fought hard to create, but it was not over yet. 

Fighting through the pain, Alvin kept on talking in low tones as Lark reveled in his crazed ecstacy, until he finally completed the chant and said; "Dread ice forest." 

Heeding his command, ice Mana moved and soon after, dozens of long pikes made entirely of ice shot up from the ground and impaled some of Lark's non vital areas— as he still had assimilation active—while also forcing him to instinctively retreat backwards. Lest he face the brutish wrath of the non sentient ice skewers.

The spell had created a large and dense congregation of long and spiky pikes which could tear the human flesh upon even the slightest contact. It had dealt a significant amount of damage to Lark's nigh impregnable skin while also recovering the lost distance between the two.

Truly, it was a spell worthy of it's disposition as an esteemed higher grade fifth tier spell.

Alvin panted heavily as he looked at his handiwork. The spell would be a tricky one to get past, even for Lark, as not only did it boast an inumerable number of deadly ice spikes, but it also covered a diameter of at least fifteen meters!

Alvin had every right to rejoice. Although he knew that Lark would most definitely break through the spell like the mad brute that he was, it would at least buy him enough time to cast his next spell. But it was at that moment, that Alvin suddenly felt a sharp pain flare up from his chest region.

"Urgh." Alvin moaned in pain as he instinctually held his aching chest. 

'che....mana deprivation.' Alvin thought as he bit his lower lip in an emotion that could only be described as frustration.

[Mana deprivation]. A condition which occured when an individual–a mage to be exact, expended their mana reserves beyond a certain level which was just above completely emptying it. It placed a very painful strain on one's core which could lead to an even worse ailment if left unchecked.

Placing too much strain on the Mana core could cause it to crack in what was commonly known by the practicioners of magic as [Core fracture]. A core fracture was basically an unnatural opening in one's Mana core which allowed the person's Mana to leak out. Albeit a slow process, the continuous and unhindered leakage of the mana that constituted the human life force would eventually lead to their death, unless of course they somehow manage to repair it.

But such was a feat which could only be achieved by a high end Elixer.

A slight fear griped Alvin's heart at the warning as well as an immense frustration. The pain meant he was approaching the state of Mana deprivation. But he immediately suppressed it as he began to hear the sound of shattering ice.

*Boom!*

*Crash!*

'sh*t, already.' Alvin thought as he immediately began to cast his next spell. It was a third tier spell, so he essentially did not need a chant.

"Frost road."

Immediately afterwards, a wave of ice Mana froze the ground beneath him. Transforming it into a path created solely of cold, slippery frost.

Hoping onto the frictionless floor of ice, Alvin immediately began gliding forward with a speed that could never be achieved by merely walking or even running. In an inhumanly seamless combination of movements, Alvin glided effortlessly across the smooth ice road with what could only be termed as practiced ease.

After about twenty seconds since Alvin had switched from running to gliding, Lark finally broke through the dense forest of ice only to witness a road of ice that stretched onward and was constantly being created the farther Alvin went.

Looking at the way by which Alvin moved on the path of ice while fluidly manuvering the rocks, metals and debris which rained from the ceiling, he was tempted to believe that it was actually an easy feat.

Discarding his rapier, he jumped onto the trail of ice which Alvin left in his wake. In doing this, Lark finally realized his horrible error in judgement as he fell to the ground due to his failure to maintain a proper balance on the very very slippery surface.

"Urgh." Lark moaned as he continuously fell to the ground each time he attempted to move, forcing us to witness the pathetic sight of an overly large man falling to the ground time after time in the most embarrassing way possible.

The pitiful episode continued on for some time more until finally, Lark became fed up. He had just fallen face first into the cold and smooth floor with his gluteus Maximus facing upwards in a supremely comedic and embarrassing display..

His face turned beet red as he slowly and steadily stood himself up. Trying his utmost best to not fall again as he activated aura.

*Hiss*

A hissing noise soon rang out as Lark's hot aura melted the ice beneath him, allowing his feet to make contact with the ground below. Pumping more Mana into his fusion magic spell, he made his aura immensely hot, to the extent that it could now melt the considerably thick floor of ice completely upon contact.

A crazily toothy smile formed on his face at his break through and he proceeded to charge straight at Alvin who had by now created a gap of over a hundred meters! By all means, the latter should be able to rest easy as the there was no way for Lark to catch up. Right?

Wake up to reality.

This was a magical world where Mana, which humans could use to do all sorts of things, existed. It was a world in which the possibilities were endless or in other words, nothing was completely impossible. If so, then what was a mere hundred meters plus gap to a near mindless and bloodlusted beast? What would it take for a crazed freak of nature to cover such a wide gap?

The answer, a mere sprint..

*Fwoosh*

Lark dashed forward with speeds that far surpassed that of sound. Such that he was directly behind Alvin after less than an entire minute of running.

'what?' Alvin thought as the corner of his eyes caught sight of Lark's figure right behind him.

The latter was rushing forward with the crazed smile still plastered on his face as the steam generated from the melting ice temporarily wrapped around his body and evaporated, before being replaced by another set of pure white steam.

The entire occurrence made him resemble a human steam engine, but much more evil as his blood red eyes radiated a tremendous madness.

In a hastily made plan to stop or at least, slow down Lark's momentum, Alvin conjured small pikes on the frictionless floor in order to hinder Lark's advance. But he watched on in horror as Lark practically curb stomped the pitiful attempt by merely increasing his output.

"Aargh." Alvin moaned as he could not suppress the pain that came with expending even more of his already depleted Mana. He was nearing his limit as his core figuratively flashed him the red light signal.

Looking ahead, he could also discern that he was approaching he end of the tunnel which would connect him to yet another path if he turned right. The junction was not too far off, only a few hundred meters away. If he continued at his current speed, he would definitely reach it in about ten seconds.

It would have been much less, but unfortunately, Alvin was not like Lark and he could not kuatbulldoze forward due to the rain of rocks and debris.

He would have rejoiced at the fact. After all, it was the intial purpose of his running away, but then thoughts of the harrowing situation he would end up in after this began to plague his mind. Even if he did make it to the other tunnel, by then he would have run out of Mana completely and been reduced to a state where a single slap from Lark would send him to the other side. He was truly in dire straits.

"Che..." Alvin clicked his tongue as his brain worked overtime in order to come up with a plan. Slowing down his speed to give himself enough time to think was not an option with the monster with a human appearance that was chasing right after him.

He was on edge as panic, fear and pain assaulted his mind all at once, disrupting his entire thought processes.

'f*ck!' Alvin screamed inwardly as he found himself less than ten meters away from the junction. His Mana reserves we're nearing rock bottom, but his tail was steadily covering the distance.

But then...

*Drip*

A single drop of water fell from a leaking pipe that was behind a small opening in the nearly bare ceiling and dropped on Alvin's nose. The happening drew Alvin's attention towards the ceiling. At that moment, a metaphorical light bulb appeared over Alvin's head and an idea formed in his mind.

'ha! Why did I not think of that earlier?!' Alvin asked himself a rhetorical question as a smile tugged his lips.

Suddenly, he stopped running, or in this case gliding. Then turned to face the mad creature that was chasing after him while beaming his characteristic crazy smile.

"Phoo" Blowing outward to disperse the pressure, Alvin drew upon ALL his remaining Mana and will power for this one last hurrah.

If he succeeded in this, then he might not have a reason to use Mana anymore. Thereby giving him ample

  time for his Mana core to naturally replenish.

His mouth moved as he began chanting a spell, then he conjured exactly thirteen ice spears before sending them in groups of five towards Lark who had by now completely lost it and was moving purely on instinct.

Lark's smile did the impossible and widened further before he activated the second stage of fusion magic; assimilation. 

Tendrils of lava appeared out of thin air and wrapped around Lark's hand, it was good to note that he no longer needed chants to cast his spells as he now no different from a wild beast. The lava formed a blackish red gauntlet around Lark's arms, and he used them to completely decimate the five incoming ice spears.

*Boom*

*Crash!*

*Crash!*

Sending another set of five towards the humanoid beast, Alvin grabbed another two and left the last one to float beside him before rushing forward at Lark. The latter saw another set of ice spears hurling towards him and just did what he did best–smash.

*Crash*

He swiped and attacked so much that he completely failed to notice the suspicious movements of the destroyed frost shards as they congregated away from his sight– at his blind spot. A mistake he would come to regret.

Using the destroyed ice shards as a cover, Alvin did what most would consider an act of pure madness and lunged forward at the unsuspecting Lark.

"Raagh!" 

Throwing both his arms forward, he made full use of the two ice spears which he held to attack Lark's most apparent weak spot.

The eyes.

*Stab*

A burst of crimson red blood spewed from the impaled spot as Lark had completely lost his vision. Though blocking Lark's sight was not even his main objective.

Jumping backwards to create some distance, Alvin thought, 'weaker spots take more time to heal.'

The first important thing he had learnt about Lark's abilities.

Then he stretched out his arms before clenching it, a gesture which served as a command for the ice shards which had been unnaturally floating around Lark's blind spots.

The ice shards heeded their master's commands and gathered around Lark's skin before directly clinging to it, obstructing his bodily movements!

Making use of what was left of his Mana reserves, Alvin strengthened the thin layer of ice which aggressively clung towards Lark's skin.

'regeneration makes use of Mana, and currently, most of that is being used to heal the injury done to his eyes. This is my chance, it is time to end this!' Alvin shouted inwardly before grabbing the previously floating ice spear and started gliding backwards–towards the junction.

Positioning his arm, he aimed directly for the leaking spot of the exposed pipeline, then throwing his arms forward, he let go of the ice spear and allowed the spear to fly straight into his intended point.

*Fwoosh*

Soaring through the air at speeds that showcased Alvin's unwavering determination to end the long fight, the ice spear cleanly flew into the small crevice in the collapsing ceiling and pierced through the pipe.

'yes.' Alvin inwardly rejoiced as the spear hit his intended location.

Larger amounts of water seeped from the pierced points and pressured the tunnel's ceiling underneath, causing it to tremble even more violently as it was about to collapse. It still needed one more nudge in the right direction.

'curse those adventurers and their meticulousness.' Alvin cussed at the sturdy structure of the ceiling. This was followed by the crashing sound of breaking ice as Lark had just rid himself of his bindings.

"ROOOAR!!" Lark roared out in unbridled rage as he did not seem to like the feeling of being bound a single bit. His eyes had been healed and he had cast an assimilation spell.

'cr*p.' Alvin cussed some more, but then....

*Boom!*

Yet another explosion resounded, causing the tunnel to shake uncontrollably. 

The gods seemed to be on Alvin's side today asthst one last push he so desired had come right on time. No doubt, this was as far as it went. 

A smile formed on his face as he reaffirmed his balance, which had been disrupted by the rumbling earth, before gliding out of the collapsing tunnel.

  Lark tried to follow behind the ice mage, but he had completely forgotten about the slippery floors as he once again fell to the ground.

He switched to aura while trying to pull himself up, but by then it was too late.

*Splash*

*Boom*

The pressure from the water and the explosion was far too much to bear, and so the tunnel came down. Burying all who were unfortunate to still be beneath it.

Luckily for Alvin, he had been long gone by then.

A/N:

Alright, so this arc will soon come to an end as we will soon return to our original scene with the mc and other shit. 

Also, I am deeply sorry about the late chapter. Bow this may sound as me making excuses,but I am still going to say it anyways. The file I originally typed for the chapter somehow got lost even though I saved it, I tried everything possible to retrieve it but to no avail. It got me freaking frustrated as I had to type the chap again. And I am also a student so there is sch and the tests that are coming up next week!

Again, I am sorry. Please don't stop reading this novel of mine.

Special thanks to halis_eren_balaban for his continued support.