Ch-44 Giving Up

Jasper desperately wanted to avoid alerting the creatures but alas they swarmed him and his pet.

Jasper decided it was time to unleash his skills. He killed the foes one after another in swift motion, his moves so smooth that anyone observing his battle could mistake him for dancing instead of fighting. He was using ' Ren Style Swordsmanship' his master had created.

Ren Style Swordsmanship was derived from the swordsmanship passed down to his Master by his ancestors. The style didn't suit him so he created his version. Being a fan of dancing, he mixed a lot of parts into it. This had the effect of surprising the enemy which made them take a small pause to process his fighting style, this small second of hesitation was all Ren needed to deal with the enemy. Its lethality increased substantially when the opponent did not know dancing.

The Lynx was not to be underestimated as it used its newly acquired psychic powers to kill the creature decreasing the load on Jasper. The creatures of the swamp attacked it but none were able to leave any scratches on it because of its skills.

Unfortunately, Jasper and the Lynx stamina was not enough to deal with the insane number of creatures. They lasted for an hour before being overwhelmed.

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Multiple arrows shot past Jasper at high speed killing the swampy aberration and other creatures. He was surprised and at the same time stumped about this. He had no allies except Julian if he could even be considered one. But the old geezer left for some important work.

Jasper ended up with the only remaining plausible answer, an unknown person was helping him. He didn't know their intentions behind this action but in this desperate time, all help was welcome.

The following arrows helped him and the Lynx get free. Left with no other choice, they headed in another direction against Julian's instructions but were stopped when by a large number of creatures.

More arrows were shot taking down a large number of creatures but unfortunately it didn't make a difference to Jasper's situation. Soon fear started creeping inside him as he realized escaping death was impossible. He entered a dazed state despite the efforts of the Lynx to stop him.

The hooded figure hid behind the tree with a bow in her hand so she had a clear view of Jasper. Soon she picked up on the fact that Jasper was losing hope and close to giving up. She may have been extremely socially awkward but it also gave her a different perspective on life. Her social awkwardness meant instead of interacting with fellow humans, she just observed them from a distance. This made her good at reading people's minds. Looking at his expression and the situation he was in, it wasn't hard to guess what Jasper was going through but she couldn't let him die, her only lead to getting out of the Beast Lands. His death would make it much gettng out complicated.

The hooded figure acted, coming out from her hiding spot killing creatures one after another, the Lynx noticed the stranger advancing towards Jasper. Deeming it as an enemy, it jumped at her. She didn't want to hurt it, so all she did was hold it by the neck to pin it down and then helped Jasper come out of his dazed state, " You lethargic moron, pick up your sword and start killing them, or do you want to die??! Also, order your dumb cat to help us, we need all the help we can get to make it out alive."

This brought Jasper out of his dazed state. His first impression of the hooded figure was that of an enemy. How couldn't it be an enemy when she was holding his pet by the neck ready to strangle, on top of that she used an onslaught of slang. He was enraged by her and got ready to attack.

" Wait, I am not an enemy instead I am your benefactor."

"What?" The comment somewhat brought Jasper out of his bloodthirsty state as he gained some rationality," Then why are you strangling my pet to death!"

"Huh? Oh, this. The cat wouldn't sit still so I had to bring it under my control." She released her hold on the Lynx, who quickly ran towards his master shooting deathly glares at the Hooded Figure.

Having the Lynx beside seemed to calm Jasper down as he patted it lovingly " You came to help me?"

" Yes"

" I see. Never thought a stranger to rescue me but why would you even do this?"

"Becau..." A creature very similar to a centipede only 10 times larger, with different colours of scales, and its teeth have pointed edges appeared

" I will explain later. First, let us get out of here."

"Since you decided to save me, you must have a strategy to get out, right ?"

" Hmmm, yes I do. I am an archer so let me take care of your flank. You will be the attacker while the Lynx will be the finisher making sure the enemy stays dead."

" C'mon we need a much more detailed plan."

" We are short on time, moron."

Jasper was once again pissed at the use of slang but her words made him take another look, the centipede was too close now. They had to act fast or else it might be too late.

The three of them started executing the plan conjured by the hooded figure and it worked. They were able to deal with the centipede with slight difficulty. They continued killing the swampy aberration and creatures that appeared but there was no end to them and before long they were in a position of being overwhelmed.

" Hooded figure, do you have a way to end them?"

" Call me ' Rhea '. I have two ways to deal with them, however, both of them are time-consuming and have less than a 50% chance of succeeding. "

" What? Then why are you trying to save me? I don't know you and you don't know me. " We can talk about all of this after surviving the battle, what's important now is to stop this onslaught of swampy aberration and kill whatever the source of this problem is. "

" You are right, then tell me the two ways. "

" The first entails destroying the swampy area in one swell swoop, after the attack, nothing not even an inch of the swampy area should be around. That small inch would be enough for the swamp monster to regenerate.

The second way is to keep fighting these swampy aberrations. They may now keep coming at us but there will be a time when the swampy region would become short of energy. We will take advantage of its weakened state to put an end to this. "

Jasper was busy killing while also talking with the hooded figure so he didn't waste his energy to make an oh face but he did make it in his mind, " That's not much of a choice, you know. Our energy cannot be compared with the swamp's energy which has been accumulating for ages. Why did you even bother telling the second option? From the start, we only had one way to end this. "

"Well, having two choices would mean, if you ended up dying then it would because of your desicion . "

" Seriously, how do you have the gall to joke at this moment??!"

" I am not joking, would you be happier dying because of a choice some stranger made?"

" Woah, Rhea. Seems like you are not one to converse much. Anyways, tell me what needs to be done to kill the swampy monster."

"I can deplete the enormous amount of energy it has and then use this energy to destroy it completely. All you need to do is follow my instructions word for word and start trusting me. "

Jasper only understood half of what Rhea was saying, but he did understand she had a way to put an end to this nightmare. He had lost the fight from the moment the creatures overwhelmed him, constant fear of death plagued him as he killed swampy aberrations one after another.

By chance, he looked at the Lynx, at the pitiable state it was in as it killed with its small body even after reaching an extremely exhausted state. He didn't have a choice did he, he was too weak to have a choice. It was all up to Rhea, now.

" It's hard for me to trust someone in a short time. But, I am willing to follow your instructions for the sake of my survival and my pet's. If you can kill it, then please do. "

Rhea acted immediately," Make a pathway for me to the core of this swampy monster. I must reach it for my plan to work with 99.9999% certainty."