Alairc gritted his teeth, steadying his breath to avoid wasting too much energy while wriggling through the sharp, scattered rocks along the slope. Sometimes, he looked back to gauge the distance between himself and the pack of fiends, trying to keep his speed within limits. Either way, he had to save as much strength as possible for what was coming soon.
Before long, he reached the base of a towering rocky cliff wall. Without hesitation, he stretched out his hand, grabbing a small jagged rock that jutted out like a fang from cliff walls, and began to climb.
Minutes later, he had already climbed high enough to avoid the fiends' fangs and claws.
He glanced down to assess his current situation.
"Great. I'm starting to like my blessing... no, it's still a trash blessing."
Even as he said that, what he truly felt was joy—seeing the fiends fail to reach him. At that moment, he finally understood his blessing completely. As described, he was a friend of stone, so most terrain related to rocks or cliffs seemed to be on his side—not that they turned into golems or stone knights, but they helped him in ways too abstract for him to fully grasp or explain logically.
For example, he would feel oddly good and comfortable when lying on a big stone. Uh, all in all, he could probably sleep better on a rock than in a bed with a girl or on a pillow.
Even now, though the jagged rocks were wet and slippery, for some reason he could still grip them without any trouble. Climbing felt strangely easy and favorable, even though it should've been impossible for a frail and fragile slave like him.
In contrast, the pack of fiends could barely climb. The terrain itself seemed to be their enemy—some slipped and fell before making any progress, while others managed to climb a bit higher, only to tumble back down moments later as the rocks broke or slid beneath them.
Still, the fiends' vitality was frighteningly strong and stubborn; even after falling again and again from such a height onto the rocky ground, they just kept moving.
"My sick body seems to suit the fiends' taste."
Well, that was the only explanation the slave could come up with for the pack's starving, crazed pursuit.
He turned back his attention toward the fiends' lair, where his companions were still fighting the remaining monsters. As expected, the pack had left a few behind to guard the skull piece while the others chased him.
Judging by that, his companions should be able to defeat those left behind and claim the skull piece soon. It was good news... and bad news for him.
"I must go quickly."
He resumed climbing as high as possible, and after thirty minutes finally reached the top of the rocky cliff wall. Catching his breath after those harsh moments, he sat down for a brief rest.
But he knew he had no time to waste.
He quickly summoned a massive stone egg beside the edge of the cliff with a single thought… but he nearly collapsed afterward.
"D—Damnation!"
His face contorted and grew paler than before… it was bad, his disrupted mana circulation began to hit him hard after all that effort.
With his vision slightly blurred, he managed to focus on a spot he had noticed since arriving.
Massive jutting rocks protruded from the cliff walls beneath. Far below, scattered along the rocky slope, lay many gigantic, sharp, fragile rocks.
Alaric had to destroy the largest jutting rocks from the cliff; If so, he made sure the whole row of dominoes toppled, triggering a chain reaction through the place.
This was his only chance to change his situation. He might wipe out most of the pack of fiends, and maybe even kill the bastards who had pushed him into this danger.
Normally his chance would have been nearly zero, but with the blessing, he thought his plan might succeed to some extent.
"It's time to finish this once and for all."
The slave gritted his teeth, struggling to get up, but then reeled and against the massive stone egg.
"C—Come on, just a bit more."
Sure, his time was running out; he could hear the fiends' starving screams below him. They were about to climb up.
"C—COME ON…" Alaric used all his strength to push the massive stone egg with his bony back, pushing beyond the limits of his already fragile body, feeling as if some bones might break from the effort.
His barely controlled breath focused solely on moving that stone… push… push.
F—Finally, his attempt succeeded.
He collapsed, lying motionless on the ground… while the massive stone egg tumbled down the rocky cliff, mercilessly smashing the fiends and breaking the largest jutting rocks from the cliff walls… just as Alaric had expected… a chain reaction had begun.
The shattered rocks rolled and slid down the jagged slope, sending countless stones—large and small—toward the fiends' lair.
Both Butler and the fat man were bewildered and horrified. They had already killed most of the fiends here and taken the skull piece, but now, there was nothing they could do except grit their teeth and flee the lair before it was too late.
The pace of the rockslide was simply terrifying. Even if they used summoned creatures to shield them from the sharp rocks, the creatures could only withstand the first wave of the slide, and were then destroyed completely by other massive shards. With that, they couldn't summon them all in three days. Uh, actually, not exactly—after a summoned creature died, the time before it could return depended on its potential, rank, and many other factors. In this case, after the summoners were crushed by the falling rocks, they might never see their summons again..
No one survived.