Apollo's Chronicle by Seraph Wedd (book club reads TXT) 📖

mainly on driving off the monsters.

Her halberd’s blade couldn’t cut deep enough on the monster’s skin even after receiving a full swing.

And so, she decided to send all approaching monsters away.

The boy ran fast all around the place, creating corpses of monsters at an outstanding pace.

3 minutes passed and finally the last monster was slain.

The surrounding was dyed deep red, however no signs of the monsters remain.

“Mama! Are you alright?!”

“Y-Yeah…. Just a few scratches…”

“Where’s everyone?”

“…………”

At his question, a shadow was cast on his mother’s face.

“There’s no time to waste… We need to save everyone we can… However, we ended up getting ambushed by a monster’s group… All the others were…”

“Where’s papa?”

The boy asked with a serious face.

“He’s at the front lines. Holding off the boss of the monsters… All of his top students were helping him hold off the wave…”

“A monster that papa can’t beat?”

“…. Probably.”

“….”

The boy just stood in silence. After a few seconds of pondering, he raised his head. His eyes were filled with determination.

“I’ll go and provide backup… Mama, please lead the evacuation… Save everyone that is still alive.”

“I know. Most of the survivors are stuck near the east side. We need to pave a path for them.”

The boy nodded at his mother’s words.

They then went inside the shop for a moment, gathering medicines that could be used.

Right after doing so, they ran as fast as they can towards the east side.

They are now currently running at the main road. It is a straight, pebbled road used for carriages’ transportation.

Down the road, swarms of monsters could be seen.

The boy, deciding that they have no time to pick the monsters one by one, drew his bow.

He nocked a total of three arrows. Infusing mana to its limit, he aimed at the horde.

As soon as he released the string, the arrows flew at unbelievable speed. They flew in three different directions, one is far away from the horde.

The two arrows that managed to hit home exploded upon contact. The explosion enveloped the swarm, eliminating most of them in an instant.

They then continue running while slashing at the enemies as they go.

Finally, after reaching their destination, they quickly eliminated all the monsters around the vicinity.

It took longer than anticipated, around 10 minutes. After that, they knocked and shouted at the door, trying to confirm those inside.

However, nobody answered. Not even a scream or shout.

Checking inside, by breaking the door, they became pale in an instant.

The whole house, the largest and sturdiest house in the village, was covered with blood. Pieces of garments, accessories, weapons and armors are scattered all around.

Also, severed body parts such as an arm, a leg, a decapitated head, a limbless torso, even bones, were scattered like garbage all around the house.

They quickly checked around the house for signs of life, however, not even a single mice could be heard or seen.

They could do nothing but regret their powerlessness in this situation.

Without even speaking, they both reached the same conclusion.

All the non-combatant villagers are dead.

Without even giving them a chance to mourn, monsters started to flood around the house once again.

They silently slayed every monster that they encounter.

Quickly, they head towards the front line.

Their pace was a bit faster than before. Probably due to their anxiety.

However, it didn’t reflect much towards their battle capacity. Monsters fell one by one like dried leaves at the side of the road.

Her mother switched her halberd with a giant axe about twice her height. She acquired it inside the armory on the basement of the previous house.

One swing from it and the monsters will be sliced, bones shattered and at worse, beaten to a pulp.

Not a single monster was let alive. They slaughtered each and every monster in sight.

By the time they reached the front line, they both already had rugged breathing.

After seeing the state of the front line, they both almost fell to the depths of despair.

Fighting the boss while surrounded by dozens of monsters, his dad was already too tired.

Scattered here and there, corpses of soldiers could be seen.

Of all the elite soldiers, only five of them are still standing. Wielding their already cracked shield and chipped swords, they desperately held the front lines hoping to buy enough time for everyone to evacuate.

The boy quickly dived at the swarm around his father.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!”

He shouted to the top of his lungs as he swung his sword with all his strength.

Dozens of monsters were caught by the mana blade released by the sword, instantly dying.

His father quickly backed off towards the clearing his son made.

His shoulders were heaving up and down. Extreme fatigue and exhaustion of stamina. The boy quickly threw a recovery medicine to his father.

His father quickly drank it in one gulp. Mana quickly filled his body and he slowly regained stamina. His mother quickly ran to his father’s side, as if to protect him.

Taking his father’s place, the boy stood in front of the monster’s leader.

Determining who the leader among the monsters are quite easy. First, it is the only one acting with proper logic. Next, it is almost always the largest being on the horde. And last, it’s ominous aura.

The monster currently in front of him, lit by the moonlight, fits the bill perfectly.

His skin feels like burning the moment he stood in front of the monster.

Suddenly, the monster vanished.

Almost reflexively, the boy raised his sword defensively in front of him, applying mana to his legs. The moment he did, a bone breaking impact was felt through his sword.

Not missing a moment, the boy applied mana to his whole body to increase his speed and power.

Bystanders couldn’t see anything but sparks flying here and there.

Every time the sparks appeared near a group of monsters, all the monsters near will suddenly drop dead, their bodies showing signs of being hit by a strong blunt weapon.

However, the monsters weren’t directly hit.

What hit them was only the short shockwaves of the impact of the clashing fighters.

In less than a minute, the monsters were thinned down by a considerable number. His father, regaining his strength and catching his breath, joined the fray.

In this super-accelerated battle, the father and son combination was almost perfect.

The enemy was clearly being overpowered.

The boy will slash at the monster with disregard to defense. The slash will barely hit, however the monster will initiate a counter. The counter then will be parried by his father that is focusing on defense.

They’ve done this sort of battle many times before.

Every time that they join hands, no monster could escape alive.

However…

“Guuuuh!!”

Behind them, they heard the grunt of a woman. And there’s only one female in this battlefield.

Losing concentration for a moment, his father couldn’t manage to defend in time and received a hit.

His armor was easily crushed and a deep wound was opened on his right side.

He quickly applied mana to close the wound but it can’t be closed in an instant. The bleeding won’t stop.

Landing quite a distance out after being blown away, he then saw his wife.

She was currently swinging an extremely large axe at an impossible speed. However, her left shoulder, right thigh and temple are all bleeding profusely.

The father quickly decided to help his wife.

Returning to a one-on-one the battle of the two continued. Both sides have visually equal strength.

None of the two could land a decisive blow.

It’s more like, none of them can land even a single blow.

Even when the boy tried gambling and attacked while disregarding his stance, all he could manage is to cut a small wound on the steel like fur of the humanoid like monster.

With his stance disturbed, he couldn’t properly evade the following hit.

He braced himself and focused great amount of mana at the apparent spot of impact.

Even then, he still received a cut on his cheek.

Monsters started flooding the area where the two fought.

Without anyone noticing, all soldiers died. His father and mother are the only ones left defending against the wave.

Death was probably laughing right beside the three of them.

However, before that could happen…

“RUN!!!”

His father shouted to the top of his lungs. He then jumped towards the boss monster and engaged it in a fight.

“TAKE OUR SON AND RUN AWAY!!! QUICKLY!!!”

Hearing the desperate shout of her husband, the wife quickly grabbed the boy’s left hand and started running away.

Tears are falling off her cheeks as she ran in front of the boy.

The boy tried going back to his father but he couldn’t break off the strong grip of his mother.

They ran heading north while circumventing the perimeter of the walls.

Every monster that approached are slashed by his mother wielding a giant axe one-handed.

When they reached the northern gate, they saw the large number of monsters around it.

The mother let go of the boy’s hand. Then, the two of them started slaying the large number of monsters.

The boy accelerated his body to his limits, disregarding its effects.

Hundreds of monsters were slain in a matter of minutes. However, it was for naught but a drop in a bucket.

The swarm seem limitless.

The boy then changed strategies.

In order to protect his mother from the swarm, he needs to eliminate them all quickly.

He drew his bow once again, this time while using only a single arrow.

He filled the arrow with as many mana as it could carry before breaking.

The instant it was released, it flew in a straight line towards the center of the swarm.

A large explosion incomparable to his previous tries occurred.

The blast covered a certain death blast radius of over 50 meters.

Monsters that are hit by the shockwaves are either injured or stunned.

Quickly deciding that it wasn’t enough, he released arrows to where the monsters’ density is high.

One shot, two, three…

He continued to shoot explosive amount of mana all around.

After a dozen of shots, the monster was thinned considerably. There’s only less than a hundred remaining standing.

His mother quickly cleared the remaining monsters. The boy just held his position and only attacked those that tried to attack him.

After a minute more, they finally cleared the gate of enemies. His mother then ran towards the boy while reaching around her pocket for a potion.

“Drink this!”

The boy quickly drank the potion he just received. He could feel that his internal mana recovers much faster.

Gaining enough energy to move, they continued running.

They didn’t even think of looking back.

They just continued to run as fast as they can away from the village.

Few hours of running passed and they decided to rest.

They entered a small cave that is hidden by the forest. There, they examined their states.

The boy has only few wounds, most are limited to the level of scratches.

However, his mother is quite severe.

She had heavy wounds that are still bleeding. Large beads of sweat falls down from her forehead.

Her long blonde hair was disheveled but still hasn’t lost its luster.

Her breathing is ragged and labored. She also seems feverish.

The boy started tearing off the cloth on her wounds one by one, then applying first aid and tying it with makeshift bandages. However, the hands of the boy stopped after seeing her mother’s shoulder.

The wound on her shoulder started turning purple, sign of being poisoned. It couldn’t be seen from under her clothes but it seems that the poison has already spread on her body after the long time it was left unattended.

The boy started to panic. He first rummaged through the few items he brought, searching for an antidote. However, there is none.

Even on her mother’s luggage, not even ingredients for antidotes could be found.

When he tried to stand up to start looking for herbs around his mother gripped his hand tightly.

When the boy looked at his mother, she just shook her head with a weak smile.

“… It’s already too late… I can feel the poison around my body since we fought the swarm at the north gate…”

“T-There’s still a chance to––”

“Haha… I know my own body well… And I know that I don’t have much time left…”

Her blue eyes seems cloudy. However, she stared at the boy’s eyes showing her resolve.

Tears started flowing down the boy’s eyes.

“… Don’t cry…”

His mother said as she tried