67 Corpse Explosion
Vlad woke up at the first ray of light, and after eating a large piece of Champion Monster's meat and drinking a large amount of blood, he continued advancing. He advanced extremely fast for half of the day and only began to slow down as he reached a small mountain.
On the other side of that mountain was another town, Quiet Breeze Town. It was smaller than Good Side Town but still home to thousands of people. Originally, Vlad planned to perform a rescue operation in this place after leaving the civilians of Good Side Town safely in the Silent Wind Military Base, but things were more complicated due to the high demonic horde.
He needed to reach his destination fast and could not distract himself by helping hundreds of people. It was not just killing the demons in the place that he would need to care about but also securing the probably weakened and famished civilians.
After all, what would be the point of spending hours or maybe an entire day killing all the demons, just to leave these people here since a massive demonic horde was coming this way?
A soldier must make harsh choices, as the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
Vlad made it to the peak of the mountain, and as he glanced at Quiet Breeze Town, his eyes widened before a murderous coldness appeared in them.
"I guess I no longer have to worry about whether or not to save them."
Pure coldness appeared in Vlad's voice as he uttered those words, burning rage rising in his heart as he focused on the town now completely overrun by demonic beasts. Unlike Good Side Town, where many buildings stood firm, allowing civilians a place to hide from the demonic beast, there was not a single vertical structure still standing in this place.
The reason for such a massive change between both towns was the giant demon resembling a bipedal lizard. That creature was a Champion and had decided to destroy every building so no one could hide.
It was a simple plan yet very effective, and Vlad had no doubt that every person in Quiet Breeze Town was now in the belly of those demons.
As the Depravita of Wrath, the rage in Vlad's heart burned with immense strength, urging him to go crazy and kill everything, and he clenched his fists with all his might as he stared at the town. The death of adult men was not something he found comfortable, but it was the cost of war. However, things were different when it involved women, children, and elders.
Although it might sound old-fashioned, Vlad felt a strong sense of outrage as he thought of all those women and children dying under the maws of those demonic beasts, so much so that he wanted to follow his heart and flash forward to kill all of the demons, ripping that massive lizard in half.
However, just like Vlad could not afford to save the people who might have been alive in Quiet Breeze Town, he could not go into a rampage and kill all these demons. There were hundreds of them, and among them was a demon Champion that could grant them some order, making them much more dangerous.
Ultimately, Vlad could only go around Quiet Breeze Town and continue advancing. He would have to forget about killing them, but he made sure to engrave the face of the Champion demon in his mind, and he would not forget it anytime soon.
Vlad continued moving forward, and luckily for him, there were no more moral decisions on his path since no more populated centers were on the way to his destination. After four more days of running non-stop for nineteen hours and resting five, he finally reached his goal.
What appeared in front of Vlad was a massive bridge connecting two masses of land divided by an enormous, water-covered, and extremely deep canyon. The high-ranking demonic horde would cross this bridge to continue its path into the Silent Wind Military Base, and it was exactly the place he wanted to destroy.
The bridge's name was Solidarity Bridge, and it stood firm since its creation several decades ago. It was meant to connect both sides of the massive city, connecting the people of the Constantine Country. However, now, it needed to fall to save them.
Without the bridge, the demonic horde would have to circumvent the canyon or descend and swim past the current before rising.
For the ordinary demon beasts, it would be a short delay of no more than two days, as they had agile bodies and could easily climb. However, it would be different for the larger demons, delaying the entire horde for several days, maybe even weeks.
Vlad had been running at full speed as he needed to arrive before the high demonic horde would reach this place, and it seemed he had succeeded. Still, he kept focus and climbed into one of the tallest trees before refocusing on the distance. After a few seconds, using his Force to enhance his sense of sight, he detected small dots of light in the distance that must belong to some powerful demons.
"They are about two days of marching. Good, very good."
After seeing that everything was in order and time was on his side, Vlad could finally relax, and a sense of utter fatigue assaulted him. Even with the rune, running for so long had been extremely taxing. He still had a lot of things to do, but it was dark, and it would be easier to work in the day. He had time and urgently needed to rest, so the young man fell asleep after finding a secure place.
Vlad rested for a total of eight hours this time, and while it was not a true sleep, it was enough for him to feel full of energy and with more than enough strength to carry on the mission. After taking his usual breakfast of Champion Monster's meat and blood, he went to the Solidarity Bridge and began to inspect it.
Taking down a bridge might seem easy, but that was the furthest thing from the truth, as they were designed to remain firm and hold hundreds of tons of weight.
Just attacking it would do minor damage. Luckily, part of Vlad's military training included demolition training, and he was able to recognize the weak points in the bridge with a single glance. However, even if he knew the right points to strike, taking this bridge down would take several days.
As one would generally assume, demolition required explosives to work. Still, all the grenades and high-ranking explosives were useless due to the changes in Terra's physics laws. Luckily for Vlad, he was able to handle that through the use of runes.
Vlad waved his hand, bringing several corpses of demons from his space ring, including the one from the Abyssal Mantis. He took a large piece of demonic skin and, using the blood from the Champion-level demon, began to carve a rune.
The first rune that Vlad created would work as the detonator, signaling the others to trigger their effect and explode. Once he finished, he turned to the demon corpses and began to engrave runes all over their bodies.
The Rank 1 Rune that Vlad sought to create was called Corpse Explosion.
