The System

CH- 98: Chaos (XII).

    "Can you?" Tetsu chuckled, and a tremendous *thud* vibrated through the mist, the connection between Val and Mor severing alongside the impact. "Guess not," he smiled, pointing up.

Val dodged two clay boulders but got pinned down by the third, fourth, and fifth. "Thank you for the offer. Undead sounds cool, but I already have parents, and they will kill me if I change sides."

Tetsu knew clay boulders wouldn't be enough to end the undead and used the time to sprint with all the speed his sneakers could provide. Pulling the boulder this far from their normal radius almost drained him, and there were no more boulders or living creatures around for him to use as fodder for his stamina.

The undead used a weird black goo-like aura instead of mana, making it harder to reclaim the lost mana. Their presence also drained life from their surroundings, giving them the terrain advantage, so Tetsu used the terrain to head away from their domain.

Devour worked overtime, converting the opposite energy edible. He made a mental note to concentrate more on the basics and blinked to find the cameraman. As expected, the invincible cameraman moved, unrestricted by the terrain or the million obstacles in his path.

"I need to catch him for some advice," Tetsu pants, waving in the cameraman's direction.

He slows down to a jog to catch his breath. To pass the boring jog, he keeps a constant eye on the cameraman for some pointers. Their footwork was worlds apart, and the best way to learn the art is to mimic the best, so switching it to easy mode, Tetsu slowed down to a crawl and mimicked the cameraman's walk before he switched the phase back up to a jog, and later a sprint.

The results were instantaneous; he felt lighter than before while covering more ground. Impressed, he next mimics his stature, albeit adjusting it, as he had no camera. The cameraman falls back, and Tetsu frowns, assuming he doesn't like Tetsu learning their techniques. Tetsu slows down even further to stay closer, but the cameramen keep increasing their distance to a point where their roles reverse.

Tetsu takes the positives, learning the cameraman's technique better, darting around the clashing armies. Yet his frown grows deeper once the camera isn't facing in his direction. Their damn race was up to something, and Tetsu had a sinking sensation to what that was; based on his bad luck, they were going to blow up all of his hard work.

Tetsu slips the backpack off his back and confirms his suspicions of the cameraman's expression. Out of greed, Tetsu tries to pull out more spatial pouches, but none comes out. In a rush, he pulls and stores a clay cube, some herbs, a weird credit card, and a sleek black sword.

A rune activates on the backpack, and Tetsu flings it with all his might, the rune and a cloud bird above carrying the bag to greater distances, without their knowledge, of course.

"Farewell," Tetsu sheds a fake tear and wishes to encounter the Krantz next, having to return a sword that belonged in the leader's back.

"Where did he toss the bag?" Val squints yet missed the backpack's trajectory. The mist blocked their view, and the backpack had no life energy to track.

"I can't trance it either. It has anti-tracking enchantment."

"Damn those Krantz."

*BOOM-BOOM. BOOM-BOOM!*

Sets of explosions turn the tide of battle, one more prominent than the rest as it explodes inside the largest summoning tomb of the undead, cutting off their reinforcement.

"Lord!" Mor exclaims.

"That was their plan all along. Va'silek," Val curses, his throat twisting and gurgling the sound out. "After the human."