Abyssal Awakening - Chapter 923

Capítulo 923: Finding Food

During the time of famine, I kept watching the man in front of me. The red haired knight that lowered himself to do chores despite the power he wielded.

The kindness that he shows to everyone in this time of need.

Even if that person is me.

He didn’t blame me, he didn’t berate me.

He… Accepted everything I did and forgave me.

It doesn’t bring back the victims, but people survived because of my actions.

Or at least that’s what he keeps telling me.

Sometimes I have nights where the guilt comes back.

When I feel a chill because of my actions. When I feel them haunting me during the night.

But he would allow me to sleep peacefully.

I found myself reverting back to who I was before. At least partially.

I sat on the logs and watched him work.

Despite having a sword, he used an axe like everyone else. Cutting down trees and preparing them for firewood.

I wanted to help but he denied it.

Saying that it’s better for me to conserve energy and hunger.

I recalled what he told me the other night.

That even with this power at his disposal, he was scared.

I couldn’t imagine it. Not him.

Not Aldric who led this many people with a smile on his face.

Then, he threw the log down. The smile on his face faded and he recalled his blade.

“Stay behind me. Something is coming.” He whispered, gesturing for me to take cover behind the logs.

I didn’t want to be a burden and did what he said. I hid behind the logs and watched.

The snow began to fall.

What began as a small vibration started to grow in intensity.

The entire world felt like it was shaking and in front of us, a fissure began to crack open.

A gateway to the Abyss. Unstable, small but beasts began to pour out.

The other villagers won’t be able to handle this. We struggle with just one never mind multiple!

Aldric made the first move.

I couldn’t even see his movements as blood splattered against the snow.

The fluttering of his cape, the swing of his greatsword.

A dance of death, a blender of destruction.

I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

With him making the first move, he immediately became the target for the beasts.

Tendrils of bone and flesh crashed down from above.

*CLANG!!! KRK!!!

An overhead parry into an instant counter that crushed the beast’s skull.

But despite fighting a large group, he kept scanning his eyes towards me, making sure I was safe.

I found myself mesmerised by that power.

The way he handled the beasts, how he was using one as a shield from another. The way he pushed them back despite being one man…

I saw human tenacity in his shadow.

The will to not surrender. To fight to the bitter end.

Even though he didn’t take any damage, he was being exhausted by the waves of beasts.

Yet he stood firm. A wall that the beast could not bypass.

I stopped thinking about food after a certain point.

This many beasts fleeing the Abyss wasn’t normal. Food is only good for the living, what use if you are dead?

Panting heavily, Aldric stepped onto a beast and placed his foot on one of the corpses.

Using his greatsword as a crutch, he glared at the monsters through the gate.

“You’re running from something. Step aside.” His voice was different from the one I’m used to hearing.

There was anger, rage and malice in his tone.

Not directed at me, but at the monsters pouring out of the gate.

I should’ve been scared of that tone…

But I wasn’t.

In fact, I found myself liking him more. He wasn’t just all smiles. He was just like everyone else. Someone stuck in the times of famine.

Someone who had anger against the world for what it’s done to the north.

He was human like the rest of us.

The beasts took a step back in fear.

Those with intelligence.

Beasts without intelligence lunged at him or tried to flee.

But he didn’t let them leave.

Grabbing the handle of his sword with both hands, he tore his blade apart and transformed it into two longswords.

A crimson aura exploded from his back as red cracks spread across his body.

Above us, a spectral figure manifested. A demon of destruction. Its form veiled by the energy that erupted from its body. All I could see was a pair of crimson eyes that stared at the fleeing beasts.

With a swing swipe of the blade, a cavity was carved through the land while Aldric dealt with the beasts lunging at him.

The instant the job was done, he transformed his swords back to normal and the ghost disappeared.

Seeing this power, the beasts began to cower.

I felt like I saw something in the fissure.

A silhouette with a smile.

Without letting more beasts through, the silhouette flicked their hand and the fissure was sealed.

Leaving behind the remains of a battle.

Corpses strewn across the ground and a handful of beasts cowering in Aldric’s presence.

He gasped for air.

Falling backwards, he slammed into the snow.

I wanted to run over but Aldric sat up and warned me not to appear just yet.

The crimson cracks have yet to disappear.

They continued to burn against his skin while the sword next to him pulsed with veins appearing within the metal.

A pulse to the rhythm of a heartbeat.

It was only after a while did he finally calm down and smiled like before.

“Alright, it’s safe now.” He gestured over to me and I finally crawled out of my hiding spot.

“Are… you okay?”

“I could certainly be better. But we don’t have to worry about food for a while. As for these guys… I suppose we can put them to work. Can’t have everyone else carry the food right? We should build some carriages and have these beasts haul them.” Aldric suggested.

Since the other beasts have submitted to him, it’s better to make use of them than to kill them for food. Sure, the amount of food they need will increase. But it’ll also allow them to make large amounts of progress hiking through the country.

“This much food… won’t some of it go to waste?” I asked.

With how many beasts he killed, even the ones that tried to flee, this was more rations than what we could carry.

One option could be for us to camp here but… this area was too empty and not suitable for camping.

It’s better for us to find somewhere better.

“Don’t worry, we’ll take what we can and ration things out. We need to set aside a few portions for the beasts anyways.” He shook his head.

I decided to put my trust in him.

After letting Aldric rest, we told the rest of the camp. Had people create bigger carriages so that we can carry the carcasses back after a bit of cleaning.

Aside from the food, we also got a lot of hide that we turned into warm clothing and blankets.

The overall mood of the camp improved, they stopped whispering things near Aldric and were all smiles when talking to him.

I felt my stomach churn. Just the other day they were clearly annoyed but now, they acted as though that never happened.

I couldn’t stand it.

But before I could say anything, Aldric patted my head.

“Don’t blame them. Famine brings out the worst in people, isn’t that right? Just be happy that things didn’t have to reach that stage and we managed to find food earlier.” He smiled, handing me a large bowl of soup with several large chunks of meat.

I hesitated for a bit before nodding my head.

If he said so, then it must be right.

Regardless, we have food, we have transport and we even have warm clothing. The group was getting bigger but we can handle things for now.

###

Alice couldn’t understand Aldric’s goal.

There’s been a few moments where she could’ve easily died to his attacks.

And yet, he held himself back.

They simply continued to exchange attacks even though she knew she couldn’t breach his defence.

Not only was his technique on par and even superior at times, with the gap in their stats, it was hard for her to surprise him.

Through all of these exchanges, she was the only one losing hp.

An impossible fight.

If she wanted to beat him, she must have at least equal speed so her attacks can surpass his defences through trickery.

Meaning, zone two Embryos weren’t enough. She’ll have to backtrack and hope she gets higher tier Embryos in the other zones before fighting Aldric again.

But that doesn’t explain why he wasn’t killing her.

If anything, it felt as though he was buying time, waiting for something.

At this point, if she didn’t do anything, he won’t attack.

The two of them simply spent this time staring at one another and Alice was beginning to find things annoying.

“Warrior.” He spoke, surprising Alice.

“What is your name?”

“Alice. Alice Agnelia.” Alice replied simply.

She couldn’t relax fully yet. Even though he hasn’t made a move, she could feel her defences being probed right now.

“Has the great famine ended?” He asked as he lunged forward.

Quickly parrying his strike to the side, Alice twisted her body and kicked the guard, forcing the blade deeper into the ground before trying to strike his helmet.

Dodging the strike, Aldric grabbed Alice’s hand, preventing her from using her rapier.

“Great famine?”

“So you’re not one from the North… Or… You’re from the past. Tell me, Alice. Where am I?”

Alice froze.

The boss in front of her…

Was trying to get information?