Chapter 76 Killers
Nial sensed six Originals that were at or above the 3rd Origin rank only moments after he emerged from the portal that closed behind him.
"Fuck we're too late," was the first thing he heard, and from the anger evident in their voice, he immediately knew that they meant trouble.
He couldn't be sure about that, but the chances that his gut feeling was wrong were slim.
Thus, he quickly retracted the blades on the Viper spear, hiding some of its glamor before attempting to walk past them.
If there was a different way to leave, Nia would have taken the other path, but the alley was a dead end.
This was kind of troublesome, but he still tried his best to avoid getting dragged into unnecessary trouble.
"Greetings."
Bowing towards the Originals, he greeted them politely before he continued to walk away.
His heart began to beat wildly when he started to walk past them, and it almost skipped a beat when he brushed past the last one of them.
Unfortunately, the Originals had spotted his leather armor, the spatial ring on his finger, and the Viper spear.
Nial might not be able to see, but the others could, and they didn't need to be intelligent to understand the value of his equipment.
Easily perceiving that he was blind and only at the 1st Origin rank, they presumed that Nial was an easy target to take out, which caused them to smile.
"My little sweetheart, wait a moment!" One of the female Originals called out to him in a seductive voice.
While her charm would have worked on others, Nial figured that she was a sly fox, which caused him to hasten up his steps.
To his misfortune, this didn't make the situation any better, as the female Original's voice turned furious.
"I SAID WAIT!"
Hearing her switch from talking like a sultry siren to a furiously angry woman within seconds was unexpected, but sensing that the other Originals had finally turned their attention to him as well, Nial could only halt in his tracks.
Simultaneously, he prepared himself to run for his life, but he would wait a moment.
"Miss, what may I help you with?"
He asked her in a carefully neutral voice signaling that he didn't want any trouble, but that was easier said than done because the Originals that spoke to him were definitely seeking trouble!
"Brat, don't you want to apologize for taking away our dungeon?"
The moment Nial heard the woman's annoyed tone, he felt that he had found himself a brand new problem to tackle.
There was no way he could reason with someone, who was being a hypocrite and acting as if she was eager to recreate one of the most basic clichès from the fairy tales his parents had read to him when he was younger.
But he could sense that his life was on the line, which made him act even more carefully than before.
"I'm sorry Miss, I only saw that the dungeon was labeled as 'open for public use'... If that was wrong, I will apologize!"
Even though he was trying his best, Nial knew that it was to no avail.
However, what he didn't expect were the faint traces of killing intent that began to leak from the bunch of Originals.
This caused him to swallow his saliva, and his throat tightened, making it more difficult for him to breathe when he heard the next words.
"If you didn't know about it, you can seek forgiveness by handing over your entire equipment. We would consider that as an apology. That's fair, right?
Just like their attitude, their request was ridiculous too, even more so because their bodies were releasing killing intent.
That meant, even if he would give them everything he had, it was not safe for him!
'Fuck this shit!'
His mind was working relentlessly, but there didn't seem to be a solution to what he was supposed to do.
Meanwhile, while he was thinking, the Originals began to speak amongst them.
At that moment, he heard steps from further ahead of him, giving him the necessary courage to take the risk of running away.
Within a moment, the Viper spear disappeared inside his spatial ring, while he circulated the entire mana reserve in his mana core throughout his body.
Pushing himself off the ground, Nial attempted to flee toward the few Originals that were ahead of him.
Even if he was not sure if they were kinder, or possibly much worse than the group of Originals he had already encountered, they might take out each other, and free him of the worry of taking down a few high-ranked Originals.
That had been more than enough for Nial to rush ahead as he heard angered voices from behind him that made him sprint even faster.
"Catch this rat!! By all means!"
"It doesn't matter if we injure or kill him, we just have to dispose of his body afterward! GO!!"
Though he was extremely tired, he used every bit of strength he had left in his body to run away.
Yet, before he was even able to cross half of the distance toward the people in front of him, Nial sensed that one of his pursuers was closing in.
From the looks of it, the ability of the Original that was the closest to him was related to the enhancement of his speed.
This was quite an advantage for hunting purposes, but certainly not great for Nial.
He quickly realized that it would be impossible for him to reach those ahead of him, whom he had yet to identify, causing him to grit his teeth in frustration,
'If they catch me now, they'll definitely kill me and store my body away before the others can even hear my voice.'
The only plus side of the situation he was in seemed to be the fact that speed was the only strong property of the Original behind him.
He was fast but only at the 3rd Origin rank.
'I can face him head-on for a few seconds, right?' He asked himself, but the exhaustion of his body was already wearing him down.
Knowing that he required some rest and that he was already using his entire storage of mana, Nial just continued to run for a few seconds.
Thankfully, his desperation seemed to have made him run faster, closing the distance between himself and the noises in front of him which became louder. His mana perception perceived several Originals in front of him at a closer range.
This meant that they were only 100 meters away!
However, these 100 meters felt like a thousand kilometers because it was an endless distance contrary to the distance of five meters the Original behind him, who had pursued him, was.
Everything felt quite disadvantageous and he regretted not having bought flashbang grenades.
Even a single one of them would have been enough to attract the attention of the Originals in front of him, while his pursuers would have been distracted, or possibly even dazzled.
Sighing inwardly, he continued running, attempting to close the distance he had to the new Originals that were his last hope.
Nial had already attempted to make his Odyssey seed pulsate or vibrate just once, but that didn't happen.
Rather, nothing happened, leaving Nial with nothing but the fear of his untimely death.
Since awakening the Odyssey seed, it had been rare for him to fear something if he were to exclude the fear of not seeing his family again.
But even that had disappeared when he had promised himself to grow stronger and rescue them.
Nevertheless, the Originals that pursued him were truly odd, and not the bunch of people he would want to encounter if he were to be in his prime condition.
They seemed ferocious and merciless, which caused Nial to curse his bad luck.
It was just a moment later that he seemed to have jinxed his luck once again.
Instead of being able to run further ahead, he noticed that one of the Originals from further away had stopped in their tracks.
A premonition flashed through his entire being, and as if he knew what was about to happen, he suddenly heard the noise of a bowstring releasing an arrow.
Fractions of a second later his ears pricked up, and the noise of an arrow flying through the air filled his entire mind.
Unable to predict the arrow's target, Nial had to wait for a moment, attempting to figure out a way to evade the sudden long-range attack.
Unfortunately, the speed of the arrow was much faster than he had expected, and by the time he figured that it was simply aimed at his back, it was too late.
Instinctively moving towards the left, the arrow had already reached him, only to make a sudden curve towards the ground.
This gave Nial some hopes of evading the attack.
Yet, before he could rejoice, Nial was once again deprived of his joy as the arrow pierced into the back of his thigh, throwing him off balance.
He crashed to the ground, preventing him from continuing to flee from his pursuers!
His heart almost jumped out of his throat, even faster than it had been the case before.
Nial believed that he was done for good even if the distance of the Originals in front of him was lesser than before.
He could feel death approaching him, crawling towards him like a predator but Nial still didn't want to give up.
That was not who he was, and he had more than enough reason to continue fighting, even if death was the final end.
At least, he would die knowing that he tried saving himself till his last breath.
With that resolution, he was just about to manifest the Viper spear in his hand and fight, when he suddenly felt a heavy weight crushing his hand.
It was the male Original who had pursued him.
He was angered about the fact that he had to pursue Nial, but that was not something the young blind Nial, whose heart was racing, could bother about.
Out of nowhere, his mana core seemed to react in accordance to his heartbeat, making the Curse [Hodur's Heir] react.
Black miasma was released, yet before anyone could notice something about the sudden change in the atmosphere, a loud and thunderous voice echoed through the entire dark valley.
"What is going on here?!"
Hearing the voice, Nial felt instantly reassured, and the pain in his thigh momentarily disappeared.
This was even more so the case when he recalled the voice as a small figure emerged right next to him.
Meanwhile, the other Original who had been standing on one of his hands had been blasted away, as if he weighed no more than a feather.
A strong draft of wind and dust brushed into his face, but he couldn't care less.
Instead, he perceived the dwarf-like figure of the middle-aged man he had encountered when he entered the Originals association for the first time in his life!
It was exactly the same man, who had given him advice out of kindness.
His words were hard to forget and feeling that he finally had help, he got up from the ground, ignoring the searing pain that spread through his thigh as he bowed deeply.
"Hel-lo Sir…Nice me-eting you again!"
Speaking while trying to gasp for air, Nial greeted him while the middle-aged man didn't understand what he meant.
Yet, when he looked at him again, he felt that he was oddly familiar.
Seeing his eyes, the dwarf-like figure recalled Nial, which was not difficult.
After all, his eyes were a distinct mark of his appearance that remained stuck in the mind of others.
It wouldn't even be unlikely for someone who had just walked past him to remember Nial.
Turning his attention from Nial's eyes to his injured thigh, and seeing the several Originals who had pursued him, Kark Mandra, the dwarf-like man understood what was going on as he sighed deeply.
'Fortunately, we have someone with good ears in our group…'
Looking towards Nial, he couldn't help but feel anger surging up within his entire being, understanding that the youth had been running for his life.
As such, he immediately asked,
"Kiddo, do you want me to help you a little?"