Purgatory (3)

I pulled Hela's hand and started to run.

Our sudden movement alerted the specters. They looked in our direction and let out shrill screams.

The screams awakened the forest completely.

An uncountable number of specters came out of the trees, all of them staring at us.

Then, they chased after us while screaming hungrily.

Fortunately, the specters were not that fast, but the sheer number of them made it impossible to avoid them completely.

One of them charged from our right, its cloud-like body opening widely as a huge mouth appeared from it.

"Saphire!" I shouted and called out the name of my contracted partner.

Understanding my intentions, Saphire lent me her power as her body was summoned and she transformed into a beautiful spear.

Saphire's Awakened Form: [Illusion]!

The light blue spear, akin to solidified water, manifested on my right hand.

Holding a weapon bolstered my courage. I felt my strength being boosted as I infused the spear with lightning and swung it toward the specter.

*Screech!*

The specter let out a cry of pain as part of its body was decimated.

But surprisingly, that was not enough to take it down.

The specter only stopped briefly before charging once again despite its injuries.

I swung my spear again, this time infusing even more lightning into it and destroying the specter completely.

'They are surprisingly tough.'

The specter I just killed was not that strong. In terms of mana, it was around tier zero or barely at tier one.

But even so, it managed to endure two of my attacks.

Although I was concerned, I quickly adapted to it.

Specters were known for being hard to face, so I was prepared for this kind of situation.

At the very least, I had the means to kill them.

After the first specter managed to reach us, more of them caught up.

They came from all directions, making it difficult to guard against them.

Moreover, the specters ahead of us were also waking up due to the commotion, impeding our advance.

I continued swinging my spear left and right, cleaving any specter that approached us.

Hela was also trying to use her skill to attack them, but strangely, her skill was not that effective.

The only effect of her skill was making them freeze briefly, but that only happened once for specter, making it virtually useless in our situation.

Maybe specters were not considered living beings, so she could not drain their life force with her skill.

In the end, our defense depended solely on myself.

But I could not keep up with the growing number of specters.

For every specter I killed, three more appeared in my field of vision. They seemed endless.

At this rate, we would be surrounded soon.

[So, what is your plan, boy?] The demon asked nonchalantly.

I bit my lips without answering.

My best bet was to try to get out of this forest, but the problem was that I had no idea where the exit was.

Maybe we were running deeper into the forest instead of out of it.

'Any plan, demon?' I asked while skewering a specter with my spear.

[You need a way to lose them. At this rate, the commotion will attract a truly dangerous fellow. If that happens, you'll be in deep shit.]

'And how do I do that!?' I asked.

[Confidence may help. Try it.]

I furrowed my brows in thought.

Now that I think about it, specters seem like a kind of spiritual creature, and Confidence is a kind of mental skill.

So, what if I use it to attack?

I tried it immediately.

With a thought, I infused Confidence into my spear, trying to use it as a kind of aura.

To my surprise, it was easier than I thought.

And the effect was overwhelming.

When my Confidence-clad spear hit one of the specters, it screeched painfully as its body started to disintegrate.

My eyes opened wide.

But one second later, I was filled with excitement.

"Success!" I shouted while trying the same move against another specter.

Just like the previous time, the specter let out a cry of pain as it turned into broken fragments of mist.

Confidence seemed to be more lethal against them than I expected.

But it was not enough.

There were hundreds of specters rushing toward us, trying to kill them one by one was unrealistic.

'Then, can I use Confidence as a kind of AoE attack? Maybe send it out as a shockwave.'

I put my thoughts into practice immediately.

Once more, I activated Confidence, only that this time, I tried to materialize it as an attack.

A shockwave full of mental energy was blasted out from my mind, hitting all the nearby specters.

Immediately after I released the attack, I was assaulted by a sharp headache and a strong nausea, probably a side effect of overusing my mental energy, but I tried to ignore it as I observed the specters.

To my delight, their movements froze as soon as they were hit by the shockwave.

Next, they started to shake chaotically as though they were drunk.

'It worked!'

Although the attack did not kill them, it made them stop chasing us.

I suppressed my headache and used the same method again, infusing more of my mental energy in it than last time.

All the nearby specters were stunned.

"Hurry up, let's get away from here." I panted softly while stumbling due to the pain.

Hela nodded and supported my body to help me to run.

I didn't know how long the specters would remain like that, but we needed to get as far away from them as possible during that time.

After that, I could mask our auras again. That should delay the specters from discovering us for a while, giving us time to breathe.

But all of a sudden, I felt a familiar sense of danger.

The hair on my body stood up, and my dizzy mind froze in fear.

Hela also stiffened, looking behind us with a pale face.

Without needing to look, I knew what had happened.

It was back.

The stunned Specters started to shake in fear. They let out soft whimpers, as though begging for mercy.

But the creature behind us ignored them.

It inhaled with several of its mouths, swallowing dozens of specters whole as they screamed in fear.

Then, it turned its attention to us.

I could see its mouths twisting up, as though it was happy for having found a delicious meal.

Just then, a somewhat familiar voice sounded in our ears.

"Get down and close your eyes!"

I did not hesitate and pulled Hela to the ground with me. In the next instant, something was thrown toward the monster.

It was a small metallic ball emitting a soft light.

The next instant–

*Bang!*

The ball exploded, releasing a torrent of light, noise, mana, and spiritual fluctuations.

The specter roared in pain and started to trash violently.

At that moment, I felt someone pulling our arms.

"Follow me." She said.

Hela and I looked at each other and nodded.