SB: Chapter 257 – Escaping A Demon (Patreon)

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The good news was that the case worked as advertised and I had left a surprise in the chamber. The bad news was that the demon clearly wasn’t dead to whatever it had been fighting. I had felt it retreat after fighting that other monster.

I had no idea where it might be, but it was probably waiting for us to emerge. I had Ozy begin tunneling the opposite direction from the bottom of the near vertical shaft, away from where the sword had been hidden. It would take time, but I had no doubt if I emerged the demon would get me.

While tempting to use the Compass Of Desire on the demon, there was a very real risk of the demon detecting such a skill. While it may not be able to precisely track it back, I had no doubt it would generate a feeling of being watched.

And even if I knew where it was, it would be watching the area and I still needed to get away. At least the stupid sword was in my possession now. Without the sword case, all of this would have been a lot more dangerous. Proper preparation had been key for dealing with such a troublesome item.

My Danger Sense began to increase a few days after retrieving the sword. Focusing on my senses, whatever the demon had been fighting was releasing a lot of Mana, which was rapidly spreading outwards. With as many skills as I had and had studied, this was some kind of heat sensory aura skill, which was very bad.

Of course it couldn’t be easy.

Checking the bottom of the tunnel, Ozy hadn’t made that much progress in only a couple of days and would need to go back up to the surface if we wanted another exit route. I had left the sword case down here, since I planned our escape through another tunnel. Checking the way back to the original chamber, Cold Mana was spreading outwards.

The monster had used the sensory aura skill and was now slowly putting more and more Mana into it. I quickly climbed back up and got Boris. He came down and we tied him up with ropes to the case. Ozy was busy sealing the original horizontal passage, to slow the spread of Mana in our direction.

Even with collapsing the passage, the Mana would still spread through the ground but at a slower rate. It was a race against time. Once that monster, that had driven off the demon, locked onto us I had no doubt it wouldn’t let up and attack at range.

Both Ozy and myself worked on moving the sword case back up the near vertical tunnel. Ozy landed Boris and used Flight on him to reduce his weight. Skills couldn’t be used on the sword case. I was below the case pushing up with one hand, while climbing up with just my feet, and using my other hand to steady myself.

It was exhausting work and took an entire day. Boris needed ten stamina potions over the entire day, even with breaks at each ledge. But we needed to move as quickly as possible and he didn’t complain.

There was nothing to do but rest after that ascent. The next day I checked the vertical tunnel and Mana was slowly filling it upwards. We were in big trouble. The demon was waiting outside, no doubt ready to pounce once we tried to escape and the other monster was slowly filling out its sensory aura skill with more and more Mana, covering a vast area.

Waiting was no longer an option. If we waited, we would be found and that monster would move towards us. If it could drive the demon away, I had no chance against it. Escaping the demon would be just as bad.

The amount of Mana it had released in the battle, clearly put it at around level 200 to 250. That was around the same level as 100 to 125 for an adventurer, which meant it was a legend. The ground shaking indicated that its attack skill was Tier 5 or Tier 6, depending on the support skills used and how high level that attack skill was at.

I had no chance against such a powerful attack skill and the differential in stats made any other kind of direct confrontation a death sentence. Whatever monster was out there, the amount of Mana it was using and the strength of its skills put it far beyond anything I could handle. I was between two forces that would kill my team and myself.

For a single moment I thought about hiding. I would redesign the runic layout in this cave to hide from the monster, but I would have to seal us in and use a continuous surface. That would be a death sentence. While I was confident in my runic skills beating the sensory skill, we would never be able to leave without being immediately detected.

That meant escaping.

I used Compass Of Desire on the nearest demon. It was pointing off to one side for a moment, before I focused on something else. I knew which direction to absolutely avoid once we left.

The surprise I had left had been set on a ten day delay or enough Mana breaking its barrier. I knew enough about runic structures from my time at the College to estimate when it would break with the amount of Mana saturating the ground with the aura search skill.

I had been planning to use that to distract the demon initially or take it out.

Sensing the Mana, it was approaching, we had an hour at best. “We are leaving at speed. No matter what happens, hold tightly onto the sled and don’t stop,” I said while getting more runic plates out.

“Understood,” Boris said and put on cold weather gear. I also got mine on, while working on runic plates as quickly as possible.

This was either going to be the best idea, or the worst idea. It was something I had considered as a way to escape, but only as an absolute last resort. There were a couple of last stone runic plates I needed to prepare. I had Ozy get to working on making a passage up to the surface through the snow at the angle and direction I wanted.

Everything was ready, as I had Boris move the sled into position outside the cave. The sword case was heavily strapped down to the sled and covered with a tarp. I had Boris sit on the case. The sled groaned, but that was the cost of going lightweight. I also had him hold a runic plate.

I held onto the back of the sled, with my feet resting on the rails. Ozy was hidden under my large cloak. It was incredibly cold, but we were bundled up.

Any minute now.

The waiting was painful as the monster’s Mana came closer, but the trap I had set should be set off soon.

The ground shook and I felt a massive wave of Mana in the direction of the sword cave. I reached out and activated Boris’ runic plate. I then activated the runic plate at the back of the sled, between my legs. A massive force and flame pushed the sled and Ozy pushed himself to use his Flight magic on all of us despite the sword case disrupting his skill.

The ramp Ozy made was perfect. We began to move upwards at an angle. The sled began to groan, but thankfully held together as we broke through the thin layer of ice at the top of the snow tunnel.

It was dark outside, but Darkness Vision helped a lot. In the distance there was a beacon of fire shooting upwards. I could see large floating ice chunks. The monster was massive, and something I had never seen before. It was a non-humanoid and non-flesh and blood. It wasn’t ethereal, but other than that it was clearly insanely powerful. My Status Analysis skill put it around level 300 and didn’t give me any other information.

A monster that had the levels of a supreme legend and a violet core. For a single moment I was tempted by the value of such an item, before I quickly discarded that stupid idea into the trash heap of insanely stupid ideas where it belonged.

As for the terrain, it was like a sea of white, with the top of the mountains now turned into hills. Thankfully I had set up the cave we had hidden in near the top of the mountain. The sled angled away from where the demon was hiding. The stone plate I had used to push the sled had burned through the Mana core. I was more interested in power, and less in long term stability.

I reached down and put another Mana core at the center of the runic array and I felt it lock into place as the Mana was drawn out into the runic array. That Mana was turned into force and flame. I hadn’t had the time to make something more elegant. Thankfully the worst of the heat was behind my legs, otherwise they would have been cooked. If I fell off I would be roasted.

We began to pick up speed as we shot down the snow mountain. Not as steep as the actual mountain, but still steep enough and fast enough to know we were moving faster than the demon could chase after us without a highly specialized movement skill.

Ozy had stopped using Flight once we cleared the tunnel and had switched to holding the sled together. Each little bump made it feel like the light sled would shatter. The Mana the giant ice monster had been emitting had been cut off from the trap I had set up.

There was a rock ahead!

I tilted slightly to the right and the sled turned. I turned back to the left and centered the sled back out in the direction I wanted to head. My Danger Sense was still triggering. I couldn’t turn my head to check if we were being pursued.

We cut past the giant floating monster at half a kilometer. It was closer than I would have preferred, but I wanted to get us out into the Great White Wastes and away from stones that could damage the sled and to put the monster between the demon and myself.

The cold was even worse near the monster. But Boris held a runic plate to heat up the surrounding area and block the worst of the wind. It would hopefully prevent him from dying instantly from the cold and the wind.

I put another Mana core on the stone plate between my legs as the second one was consumed. The consumption rate was insane, but necessary to provide the necessary force. I would have preferred to sneak away, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

I was glad I had come up with an emergency option ahead of time. I could sense another source of Mana behind us. If I twisted around, the sled would crash. I just had to trust we could get away.

The back of my pant legs were hot and slightly smoking, but they hadn’t caught fire yet. I couldn’t offset the flames and transferred force any more than they already were. Even what I had done was risky with such a powerful effect.

My Danger Sense went slightly down as I put in the fourth Mana core. I wasn’t going to slow down and give the demon any hope of catching up. Ozy hit his tail against my body twice. He was low on Mana and couldn’t keep up his efforts. I pulled out a Mana potion and popped the cork off with one thumb. I then reached into my clothes and had Ozy consume the potion.

The stress on the sled was immense as we crashed through another snowdrift. But it didn’t matter; we had to get away or die trying. I put in the next Mana core once the previous one ran out.

The ground began to tilt downwards and I saw the Great White Waste stretching out in front of me. We were on the top of a massive snow plateau due to the weather effect I had created.

The sky was clear at least, giving some illumination to the dark landscape along with our trail of flames.

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