Deklan covered his mouth.
He was startled that he unconsciously spouted nonsense.
From this angle, with the tree blocking his vision of the river, he could not tell whether the other Pale Draggles had heard him or not, but one thing is for sure; he needed to take out this one that managed to spot him.
Swiftly, Deklan turned his spear and thrust it straight at the Pale Draggle that found him.
[Pale Draggle killed: 1 Spooky Dollar obtained!]
Not heeding the notification, Deklan yanked the dead Pale Dragle out of the bushes and hid it.
Carefully, he checked the coast—desolated.
Not a single one could be seen.
It was crowded and rowdy earlier with Pale Draggles playing with each other and running around.
But now, there wasn't a single one seen.
Deklan sucked in a cold breath when he realized the Pale Dragles along the riverbank were all gone.
As he was about to turn to check behind him, his eyes caught sight of something on the ground not too far from him. "A rotten flesh?" He thought aloud, tilting his head. "That's not there before, or did I miss it? In any case, I need to get out of here."
He still has to investigate the root cause of this infestation of Pale Draggles.
Going into a fight right now would be a bad idea and would only be draining his stamina needlessly.
Just then, Deklan paused as he sensed more than a dozen presences behind him.
He turned to look and then gasped.
More than a dozen Pale Draggles were already behind him—some came out of the bushes, while some utilized their long arms to climb and swing on the trees like a mutated monkey, and it was clear that each one of these Ghosts wanted to kill him right then and there!
"Shit!"
Deklan leaped away, but his back slammed against the tree.
He looked up and saw another Pale Draggle was directly above him, and it was reaching its claws to scratch him, but he managed to maneuver around and leaped out of the bushes. Deklan's shoes dragged across the earth, and he stood in the open place.
Since the Pale Dragles even climbed the trees, sticking to the river is the best move he could make.
It'd be bad if he were to be attacked from above, too.
If he wanted to have a fighting chance, then standing on the open space is best for his spear.
"Here they come…"
Like minions of the darkness, the bushes burst open with a chorus of shrill laughter as the Pale Draggles emerged from the dark undergrowth—their arms trailing behind like loose ropes and eyes blazing dark red in the gloom.
Angered or perhaps excited that another human came their way, these Ghosts came all at once.
A swarm of twisted bodies scraping against the dirt.
"I guess this would help me gauge—how good I am at using a spear," Deklan's grip tightened.
He was training last night exactly for a situation like this, and earlier today, he was firm on surviving the moment the barrier was taken down. Now, the world was testing his skills already, and he wasn't going to give a bad performance.
Against creatures like these, range was king, and he's going to take full advantage of that.
"Come on, suckers! Come to daddy!"
Deklan stepped back, putting the river right behind him, and infused mana into the spear.
He waited until the spear hummed with power and then swung in a wide arc.
Swish!
Perfectly, the spear cut through the air with a sharp, windy sound—and three Pale Draggles fell in one blow, cleaved clean through, their bodies scattering like torn rags. More notifications appeared, but he focused on the battle.
Before he could pull the spear back, more emerged—three this time.
Each came running from both sides.
Deklan swung his spear, attacking them before they could get too close.
Sparks flew everywhere with each clash between his spear and the Pale Draggles' claws.
He dropped low when these three pounced at him.
Then, he pivoted on his heel and swept the spear above him—two fell instantly, but the third caught the shaft mid-swing, its lips peeling back into a nasty grin as it let out a warped giggle. "Fuck, I guess range is your thing with those damn long arms!"
It was hard to keep the advantage in close quarters when their arms are longer than his.
Deklan barely had a second to react before another came barreling straight at him, claws raised high.
Brak!
Almost on instinct, Deklan thrust his foot forward in reflex.
His foot connected with its chest with a hard thump, and to his surprise, the creature went flying.
"Huh? I didn't even kick that hard," Deklan stared at the Pale Draggle rolling across the ground in utter confusion. Then, he turned to the other one who was holding his spear, and pulled the spear hard, "Oh? Am I that much stronger than them?"
Deklan easily took the spear back from the Pale Draggle.
Raah!
Another one came and dragged its claws across Deklan's chest.
Other than ripping his clothes, the swipe did nothing—it couldn't even pierce his skin.
Seeing this, the remaining Pale Draggles stepped back, seemingly shocked.
Deklan, on the other hand, blinked a couple of times, his mind was making sense of what he saw—and when it clicked, his lips curled into a smile. His lips stretched so wide that his smile reached all the way to his cheekbones.
It was a face that caught the Pale Draggles off guard.
"Hoho… Would you look at that? How the turns have tabled," Deklan let out a hot exhale through his mouth, eyeing the remaining Pale Draggles that were now stepping away in pure fear. "Looks like the prey has turned into the predator!"
Ditching what they were doing—and forgetting that Deklan had killed some of their own, the Pale Draggles turned around and ran away. Never in their entire lives had they encountered a human like Deklan within this forest.
"Why are you running? Don't you guys wanted to killl me?!"
Like a madman, Deklan chased after them and swung his spear left and right.
Now that he realized the Pale Draggles have no chance against him, there's no reason to be strategic.
It's time to grind and accumulate Spooky Dollars!
"Come back here, you pussies!"
Swish!
"Aren't you the ones who swarmed me earlier? What happened?"
Swish!
"What's wrong?"
Swish!
"Don't run away from daddy!"
Not too far from the riverbank where Deklan was chasing the Pale Draggles like he was the Ghost and the Pale Draggles were the Humans, Adrian and Hendric were hiding in the bushes. Both of them came as Granny Linsa instructed, and have been tailing Deklan along the way.
Considering how many Ghosts there are along the riverbank, there will certainly be opportunities to take him out.
But instead, the two of them watched Deklan chase the Ghosts instead.
Adrian and Hendrick exchanged a look.
"What the actual fuck?"
Neither of them could believe what they were watching right now.
Even though Deklan proved to be strong earlier, as a normal human, he shouldn't be a match for even the weakest Ghost. His spear might be imbued with mana, so he could fight Ghosts, but at most, he'd take out two or three.
Instead, Adrian and Hendrick watched as Dekla took down many with ease.
Not only that, he doesn't seem to be taking damage from the Pale Draggles, either.
"Are you sure he's not an Exorcist?" Hendrick asked, pointing at the lunatic who was hunting down the Pale Draggles with ease.
"Of course, I'm sure," Adrian frowned, showing that he wasn't even sure that he was right. "But why would the Tiernan House exile him here if he has even a shred of talent? It must be a fluke. Something is protecting him!'
Adrian watched Deklan closely, determined that Deklan was wearing some kind of protection.
And he was right.
"Look," Adrian shook Hendric by his shoulder. "Look around his neck!"
"Hmm? Is that a Spirit Talisman?" Hendrick narrowed his eyes. "Yes, that's indeed a Spirit Talisman."
"See? What did I tell you? No chance that trash young master is an Exorcist."
"You're right. Let's keep stalking him then."
Realizing that Deklan was wearing a Spirit Talisman, the two found renewed hope and continued.
For the next five minutes, Deklan spent running around along the riverbank and killing every single Pale Draggles that he came across. His agility was his strongest suit, so keeping up and even outpacing these Ghosts is easy for him.
Not to mention, if he wanted to, there's still his Breeze Affinity.
Catching up to them isn't that hard for him.
In five minutes, he managed to rake in many Spooky Dollars.
Considering that a day the Ward would generate 15 Spooky Dollars, these five minutes were at least akin to almost three days' worth of Spooky Dollars. And the best part? He wasn't done, far from it.
Deklan looked ahead and saw that the Pale Draggles were running towards the bridge.
About ten of them, and five of them were conveniently running in line.
Deklan smirked.
He held the spear with two hands and then channeled his Breeze Affinity.
Dash!
Using his newly acquired skill, dash, Deklan burst forward with speed, eating the distance between him and the five Pale Draggles in an instant. He cleaved hard once again, splitting their bodies into two and killing them instantly.
[Pale Draggle killed: 1 Spooky Dollar obtained!]
[Pale Draggle killed: 1 Spooky Dollar obtained!]
[Pale Draggle…]
On instinct alone, Deklan raised his gaze and fixed his eyes on more Pale Draggfles.
Even though he didn't know how, there are a lot of them in this area; it doesn't matter, as it's basically a free haul for him. Deklan picked up his pace again and ran towards the bridge.
Despite being afraid, the Pale Draggles were still cackling as that seemed to be the only thing they could say.
"Don't even bother," Deklan sprinted through the bridge. "None of you can escape me…?"
Just then, he stopped when the Pale Draggles halted abruptly and turned towards him.
Alerted, Deklan also stopped.
But then his eyes noticed something, "Wait a minute, did I become color blind? Why are the colors fading away?"
As soon as he said that, his body froze.
It was nighttime, and his perception and physique were stronger now.
And right at this moment, Deklan could feel a cold wind blowing against his nape like there was something behind him. Then, he heard the sound of rustling that made his body stiff—like a statue.
He stared forward, unmoving.
On the other hand, the Pale Draggles were laughing at him.
"Something is behind me, isn't it?" Deklan asked with a wry smile.
In unison, the Pale Draggles nodded their heads as if they could understand him.
"Am I fucked?"
Once again, the Ghosts nodded.
Deklan slowly looked over his shoulder, and his gaze saw a dark phantom.
"Yeah… I'm fucked."