The Hunted Regressor: Rise of the Heretic Saint-Chapter 130: So This Is Love?

They were everywhere.

A hungry sea of dead eyes and too-long claws.

The Malevolent Undead moved with no particular purpose.

With no leader now, no Demon to focus them, they attacked everything. And that meant that Alba was in trouble.

Thankfully, Ignotus was there before anything could happen to it.

Bouncing on the balls of his feet, his sword loose in his hand, and Alba tucked under his left arm, he ran around them.

Meanwhile, an acid glob sat in his right palm, neon green and humming, ready to vomit death on anything stupid enough to touch it.

Eris, his internal guide, sighed in his head.

'Don't enjoy yourself too much.'

Ignotus replied because the dog deserved amusement, and She deserved an attitude:

'I'll try my best~.'

The first wave hit with eight Malevolent Undead lunging at him at the same time.

He ducked beneath their claws, and just as he was about to drown in their bodies, all eight split apart, allowing him to rush forth and meet the next.

His blade flashed only for it to pause on a Malevolent Undead's flesh.

[Wise Fool] hadn't crit this time; the sword had met resistance.

Yet Ignotus, seemingly unbothered, casually stepped away from its lunge before jumping up high, avoiding another pile-up of Malevolent Undead that he quickly sent a glob of acid at, killing many of them.

Another 'many' Malevolent Undead jumped after him, meeting him in the air, surrounding him from all sides.

He glanced at each of them, threw Alba up high, and stabbed one in the chest.

Just then, all the Malevolent Undead punched out, aiming to crush him to pulp.

But Ignotus wasn't there any longer, having used his sword as a step to reach Alba.

Now out of harm's way, he caught the dog and looked at them as they fell back down.

In the next second, as many of them reached or neared the ground, his sword appeared back in his hand. That made it obvious that in the short moment where he stepped off the sword, he'd quickly called it to his inventory.

Pivoting on one foot, he swung another acid glob at those approaching him.

This time, he had aimed it above them, exploding it in a shower of sizzling green mist.

The nearest Malevolent Undead melted into dark, steaming slush, while some of the rest just outside his attack's range faltered, their skin bubbling and their exposed bone smoking.

But more kept coming, perhaps more determined for it.

Woof!

That was when Alba pointed his horn at the nearest of them, and for a moment, the undead's jerky coordination fell apart.

A few turned around and began to bite at each other, confused about who to attack.

Ignotus used the chaos his pup created, juking between biting claws and hacking away. The sword found purchase with each strike as his [Wise Fool] kept flickering, making true slashes that couldn't be parried.

'Keep on going.'

He caught himself smiling at the thought.

Luck was a cruel lover, and She liked to surprise him. After all, She was also of Calamity, the same coin.

A boulder came flying at him.

Ignotus noticed it at the last second.

It came from a Malevolent Undead...

They were getting smarter.

But he didn't have time to think about that.

His left hand blasted a glob of acid at the boulder, melting much of it and slowing it down, before he swung with his right. His sword cut it in half, sending its remains splattering all around him, killing whoever was close.

"Go, boy!"

Spinning around, Ignotus raised Alba with his right hand and flung him at the boulder-throwing Malevolent Undead, wanting to kill it fast before its kin learned of that annoying trick.

Alba flew between them all and pierced straight through the undead's head with its horn, somehow coming out clean on the other side.

Yet before Alba could drop, a hand of rotten flesh grabbed it by the scruff.

The little dog yelped and commanded it to fling him back into Ignotus. And that was exactly what it did, though a bit too strongly.

Chuckling, Ignotus jumped into Alba's path and let it latch onto him before rolling across the blood-soaked ground and back into a stance.

"Good boy."

Ignotus wedged Alba under his arm again and kept moving.

They pressed on, and the Malevolent Undead fought back harder, adapting to them.

Still, Ignotus wasn't so easily predicted, ducking and parrying his way through them.

He used the acid sparingly, a glob blast here, a toss there, wanting it to last as long as possible, because this... this was about endurance.

One, two, three, his sword cut through their torsos in a single arc. Their heads flopped, and their bodies unstitched, filling up the area with their corpses.

A dozen or so of them were caused by Alba, who, after seeing his savior's deteriorating state, left his embrace and began to attack them himself. Alba paused them still and charged through their ankles, dropping them to the ground to give Ignotus an easier time at killing them.

And yet, the end had yet to arrive.

There were even more clusters before them. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

'More' they had to kill despite their exhaustion.

That was bad enough; Ignotus admitted that.

But unfortunately, it didn't stop there.

While they kept coming, while Alba darted between them, tearing through tendons and snapping necks with that little mind power of his, while Ignotus began to feel his fatigue more and more, the acid in his palm dimming to a faint glow, while they fought together as if they'd been doing this all their lives…

Everything stilled.

Behind them, the few half-bodied Malevolent Undead had dragged themselves over one another. Their dead fingers gripped into each other, their broken jaws locking into flesh, making them one.

A few dozen… on top of one another, even the terminated. Only when Ignotus killed those surrounding him did he finally notice.

He could do nothing but pause and watch the mound of mangled bodies knit itself together.

Bone to bone, flesh to flesh, ichor to ichor until something huge rose from the center of it all.

'A giant.'

A grotesque colossus made entirely of the corpses he'd slain.

The thing stood much taller than the trees, its form patchwork and writhing.

"GRarrrrrrrrraaaaaaaah!"

"GRaaaaaRAAAAAAARRAAH!"

"GRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Eyes blinked from random spots on its chest as screaming mouths opened everywhere.

"Haaaaa..."

Ignotus let out a long breath.

Once more, he was before death.

And yet his smile remained.

Rather, it widened...

"…so this is love?"

He was happy.