CHAPTER 57: THE NEST

Looking at the tendrils that regenerated, he knew he was in a whole lot of shit. They latched onto his legs and pulled him down so hard he slammed the back of his head into the ground and passed out for a second.

As his eyes slowly opened, he saw the two tendrils already shooting down to stab through him. He rolled quickly, pushing his body to move; they stabbed deep into the ground.

"Arghh!" he groaned, getting back up on his feet. Everything was spinning, but he didn’t have the time to rest. He looked up, and the lizardmen had already surrounded the area.

There was no choice anymore, he had to fight or die. Faced with that, he pulled out the spear. "Let’s see how this goes," he yelled and lunged forward. The tendrils attacked, left and right; he dodged both and also slashed up, cutting them. They regenerated back, but he was already through and headed for the first lizardman.

He thrust the spear with all his strength. The lizardman looked at it and was about to dodge until they multiplied, and it was immediately confused. The spear stabbed into its gut and came out through the back.

"That’s one," Silva said. He pulled it out and thrust it through the head, pushing it to the ground and using the spear to pole vault into the air, where he used claw strikes rapidly. Each one hit one lizardman and ripped its body into shreds. It collapsed to the ground, dead.

[You have gained 200 Exp, 50 demonic energy]

[You have gained 200 Exp, 50 demonic energy]

"Mute all notifications except the important ones," he said, not wanting to be distracted. He pulled out the spear and threw it right into the chest of the next lizardman.

The tendril latched to his hands; he cut it with his free claw immediately and then turned to a lizardman coming from above. It spun and used its tail. He managed to block but was blasted back, slamming into a wall and hitting the ground hard.

Luckily, the attack charged the gauntlets, so when another leaped at him, he waited for the right moment. As it spun, the spot where its tail was exposed for half a second.

"Bingo!" He punched, the force shot fast and hard, hitting into the butt and obliterating it instantly, destroying the lower half of it and killing it.

"Booyah!" Silva celebrated, then quickly pulled out a sword, throwing it hard at one lizardman. It stuck right in its head and went deep into the brain, killing it.

But even when he moved fast like that, it was impossible to fight off all their numbers, even if he could sense where all the attacks were coming from.

He could see everything around him; the information was instantly transmitted to his mind, and then he had to act on it with the best judgment call that he could make in that moment—and sometimes his judgment calls were terrible.

A lizardman grabbed him from behind, its claws digging into the body armor and trying to get through. It lifted him off the ground and slammed him into a wall.

BOOM!

He was stunned for a moment, he forced himself to focus, only to see a tail headed his way. He raised his hands fast to block it at the last moment.

BAM, BOOM.

He broke through the wall and went flying fast, slamming into more ruined houses before coming to a stop.

He pushed himself up slowly, his face was covered in bruises that slowly started healing. He took a deep breath to calm down, and then he spread out his sense. It covered the area and picked up every single movement.

Over ten lizardmen were already rushing his way, two tendrils coming from different directions already. There wasn’t a way out of this; fighting them would take everything out of him, but he didn’t have a choice.

He took a deep, sharp breath and activated Minotaur’s Rage, and then pulled a sword out in one hand.

"All or nothing," he muttered and lunged forward, headed for where the tendril was coming from. The risk of going underground now was enormous, as there were over a hundred unhatched lizardmen.

But if he killed the tendril, he was sure that it would affect the lizardmen somehow. He wasn’t certain of it, but he was going to do it regardless.

He ran fast. The lizardmen rushed at him and leaped onto him. He began slashing and blocking, ensuring that every slash he made cut through a very vital part of their bodies. In his rush, he killed a ton of them.

[You have leveled up, 4 free stat points]

He disregarded the message and kept pushing, completely out of breath. His muscles ached, yet he kept going. He leaped into the air when he was close to the tendrils. They attacked him immediately. He gripped the sword with both hands and slashed through the tendrils.

He raised the sword above his head and stabbed down before it could regenerate. The sword hit the ground and dug deep, entering the nest.

"This won’t be enough," he muttered. He turned around, and the tendrils were headed for him again. He raised his gauntlets and blocked the attack, charging up the gauntlets.

He spun around, raised both fists into a hammer strike, and slammed down, releasing a massive amount of force that made the ground cave and collapse.

He fell inside and landed on the cold hard floor of the nest. A few eggs from where he had broken through also fell down, hit the ground, and burst, releasing the lizardmen.

They locked their gaze on him and attacked again, but being newborn, they were inexperienced and slower. The first came, and he easily killed it, shattering its head. He moved on to the next and killed all of them.

After the lizardmen were down, he looked at the spot where the tendrils came from.

"This is probably a bad idea," he said, taking a sharp breath.