The Hungry Ghoul (3)

Wrik rushed in haste to the red dot on the map. Anton and Evan were faster than him, were already ahead. While Davin was a few distances away from him. And the last was Tanya. He didn't know when she would be able to catch up with them.

They were already late by a couple of events. He hoped they would get there before the occurrence of something brutal.

After covering about a mile of distance, he heard screeches echoing throughout the maze. Even the awful stench got into his head. This was a good sign, this meant that they will approach there soon.

The disgusting reeks raised to another level as Wrik saw the figure of Anton and Evan ahead standing. Anton was aiming his bow forward. Wrik raised his gaze a bit forwards to notice the horrendous thing—Anton was aiming at.

Then he noticed why Anton was not shooting the arrow—a figure was grappling the three-metre tall thing wildly; another small figure laying on the ground close by, trying her best to roll. He rushed again, not disclosing his eyes off the scene. He saw the monster slammed the man against the sidewall with an awful strength.

"Ton," Wrik yelled.

Anton didn't wait for him to yell, shoot the arrow immediately when the monster kicked. The shadow element infused black arrow pierced directly at the chest of the huge infector, as Anton said. "Apologies for being late."

Anton didn't just leave the thing with only one arrow, he shot again as Wrik and Evan rushed to the rescue.

With an exchange of glances, Wrik gestured Evan to take care of Kevin—the broad man—unconscious at the side. While he rushed at the girl laid on the floor close to the three metres tall monster. The thing didn't rest its growl as Anton kept on assaulting it with arrows.

Wrik rushed as fast as could and stood in front of the laid figure. The Sword was already in his arms while his eyes glowed out in the silvery glitter before forming a silver ring around his pupil. His vision cleared as the darkness in the dungeon lessened abruptly.

He looked at the monstrous thing in front with the [Eye of Insights]. He tried his inspection ability on it to gauge its capabilities. And soon he learned that measuring this thing was out of his league. Though he got some useful information that might come in handy in the tussle.

[ Target: Semi Ghoul (Corruption of Gluttony)

Species: Infector (In the process of advancing into Ghoul)

Height: 313cm

Mass: 380+ kgs.

Private Attributes :

Strength: 32~35

Agility: 25~30

Constitution: 40~49

Vitality: 59.

Perception: 24.

Intelligence: 3~8

Magic Power: 18

Description: The target Infector failed in the way of advancing to Ghoul. And turned into something even more ominous—a mindless beast, corrupted by its own hunger. Even though it's not a true Ghoul, it has some qualities of it. It had the tyrannical healing of a Ghoul. Be careful of its claw and mucus—it is poisonous and has a short-term paralyzing effect. Advising the user to run away as soon as possible. Other information is not available.]

The Semi-Ghoul didn't let him finish reading the window in front of him and rushed straight at him with a hammering claw.

Wrik blocked the hammer of an arm with the sword at his middle right guard. He could feel every bit of how monstrous 30+ points in strength was. He dodged instantly sideways before even the thing could hammer another arm. Wrik swung his sword at the back of its thighs before backing way.

It was a shallow cut. Then another Shadow infused arrow pierced it. This time it was in the leg where it had been injured from before.

Wrik looked back to see Anton approaching, equipped with his blade on the left while a long knife at the right. The two brothers exchanged glances as Anton gestured towards the immobile figure next to him. "Take her away, I'll delay it for a while."

Wrik's mind raced as he assessed the situation immediately. "Stay away from its claws, it's poisonous. It had a monstrous healing ability too."

Wrik left the battle to Anton for now. He knew it was not something that could be finished soon. Anton jumped and stood between them. Whilst Evan left Kevin to a safe spot a dozen meters away; he wasted no more time after that, came to help Anton in haste.

Wrik kneeled next to the frail body of the girl. Her exterior was pale-colourless, lips and nostrils red with blood. Her head was wrapped with dark-red bandages. He called before picking up her body. "An Byul?"

There was no reply, but he could tell she was awake. She looked at him with pale and teary eyes. She was trying her hardest to open her mouth, but her attempts failed.

Wrik didn't ask again, lifted her small body as softly as he could, and took her near where the unconscious body of Kevin lay. He laid her quite close to Kevin. He was about to check her condition with his ability when a golden light came out of her arm that was touching his shoulder.

Then a familiar blue window appeared in front of his eyes.

[User An Byul initiated her innate ability 'Link' on you.]

[Are you willing to Link with her?]

[Affirmative | Negative]

Wrik blinked at the girl he was holding. He was confused; what's going on? He looked at the golden glow coming out of her hand. The glow was plummeting as each second was progressing. But surprisingly enough, It didn't look like anything harmful to him.

"Pl . . . please . . ." then he heard the desperate whisper. It was a painful voice, as if the person who was saying it was at death's door. He looked straight at the chestnut eyes of the girl. She struggled again. "Please . . . I don't want to die."

'Die?' Wrik momentarily stunned. Yes, her wounds were devastatingly severe, but they didn't look life-threatening to him. He didn't have much time to consider, glanced deep into her eyes. It's one of his quirks: he could guess someone's motive or intention through peering into their eyes. It's not as ground breaking as knowing the inner truth, but he could guess if their intentions were good or ill. It didn't fail him most of the time and guess it wouldn't now as well.

Her eyes were tear strained, almost cloudy, but she still had a speck of clarity in them with a miserable plea. The pitiful figure still looked at his eyes, pleading. Wrik shuddered. He knew this look. It's all too familiar with him. His mother had the same gaze even after all the years struggling between the narrow edges. 'She is a strong girl,' Wrik thought, looking at the tiny figure in his lap.

He finally nodded and made a mental command to affirm the 'Link'. He didn't know what was going on, but he agreed.

The golden glow flowed faster in that instance he affirmed it. It flowed straight from her palm to his body. As far as his knowledge about this sort of thing goes, he could tell that this golden glow was not 100% Maha Mana. There's something else in it. Something familiar, yet he could not recall what it was.

Nonetheless, he didn't have the time or fortune to ponder over where the familiarity came from as another familiar thing came into his head. It was the familiar pain, the same agony—he felt in his consciousness when the [Eye of Insights] awakened for the first time. Though not that heavy, it was still painful enough for him to grit his teeth.

He looked at her again. She was feeling the same as well, but the muscle on her face seemed to be too stiff from the previous misery. But her eyes lost the urgency from before, it's more relaxed now.

The pain didn't last long. It started to bleak out after a few moments, and then a notification confirmed his suspensions.

[A link has been established between User An Byul and User Wrik Everknight.]

[The User An Byul being physically and mentally injured, and not having a prior control over her ability, the Link is extremely unstable. It wouldn't last even a couple of minutes if the two users are not touching each other physically.]

But that wasn't over yet. Suddenly, an extensive amount of Maha Mana rushed from the body of An Byul to him. It wasn't like the golden glow, but flowed in like invisible smoke. And the smoke was not slow at all. It's berserk like a storm. "What's going on?"

[User An Byul is suffering from the side-effects of a failed cast. The Berserk Maha Mana from User An Byul is flowing to User Wrik Everknight intuitively. Advising User Wrik Everknight to absorb all the berserk mana from the Linked user as soon as possible . . .]

"That answered why she was so desperate," Wrik mused. He didn't have to read all the information in the notification to understand what was happening. But the problem was that he didn't know the actual process through it. The only thing he can do now was mahasaying. And it seemed like it was working, though the flow was anything but smooth.

"What are you doing?" Suddenly, he heard a familiar female voice approaching. He looked back to notice Tanya approaching while Davin went up to help Anton and Evan in delaying the Ghoul.

Tanya instantly let out a sigh of relief to see that everyone's alive. Though in not good health. She came near him to touch the other palm of An Byul. Her expression turned grim instantly. "Her Mana circuit is almost broken . . . the Mana? Wait," she looked at him in astonishment. "How are you able to do that?"

It appeared that she had noticed the Mana flowing out of An Byul's body to him. Wrik opened his mouth immediately. "Actually, I don't know myself. It was her." He pointed his eyes at the unconscious girl. "Can you do something? I don't think I'm helping much."

"I don't think I can," Tanya shook her head. "Establishing a link between the mana source of two individuals is a high skill to master. I don't know how she did it but I think she can't establish more in her current state."

"So what should I do?" His expression turned grim. He could feel the total amount of Mana inside her body was more than double the quantity of his. The speed at which he was absorbing was not enough. That was not the only problem here. The link was extremely vulnerable. He was doing his best with the [Eye of Insights] in maintaining the uniformity; if not, it would have broken long ago.

"Hey guys, we need some help here," Anton yelled out as he cleaned the blood from his lips. His complexion was not as good as when he started confronting the thing. While he was standing up from the side, Evan was barely keeping the thing at bay.

"I need to help them," Tanya said as she got up. She gave him one last piece of advice before leaving. "Remember Maha Mana is like water, it flows wherever is unbound and finds empty space."

"Water?" He asked.

But there was no reply.

How do you empty your Maha mana? Wrik didn't have to fret over even a second to know the answer. A crazy plan came to his mind.

_________________________

One more chapter is coming in few hours. It'll be the end of chapter eighteen by today.

Comment or send Power stone to let me know you're appreciating the story. Or if you want more chapters, let me know in the comments.

And remember, I'll lock the chapters from the end of the nineteenth (around the 60th). But that would be a month or two later. In between them, I'll upload more chapters, so don't worry for now.

Peace. Stay Safe.