Chapter 40: Cutting Free
Arion was shocked to see that there were no visible injuries on his leg except for the dried-up blood from before.
He squeezed his eyes shut and open a few times to make sure it was not his mind playing tricks.
Even if he knew that he could only barely examine his legs due to low visibility, he was sure that he had no injuries since he felt no pain or any uneasiness while moving his legs.
Since he was not a disabled person in his past life, he felt no awkwardness in feeling or moving his legs. Otherwise, even if he gained control of his legs, he would take a long time getting used to his legs. After all, in this life, he was a disabled person from the beginning.
"How did my legs heal on their own..." Arion trailed off as he continued to examine his legs from all sides with a blank look.
"No, this is not the time to think...I should find a way to escape…" Feeling a ray of hope after regaining control of his legs, he no longer felt the same level of despair from before.
He glanced around to look for something to help him break out of the sticky webbing tied around his body.
Fortunately, he saw a small yet sharp stone lying among other stones just beside his leg.
"Ngh...come on…" Arion stretched his legs to sweep that stone towards him. He was careful not to make much sound since he had no idea when those Jawfiends were going to return or if they were still nearby, hidden within the darkness.
Still, he had no choice but to try since he might die either way.
"Phew…" Arion was finally able to push back the sharp stone towards his right hand. His hands were restricted, but he had enough freedom of movement to try and cut the webbing with his hand.
He began to cut against the webbing with the stone, and to his surprise, the strings of the webbing began to snap like a twig one by one.
Arion was astonished and wondered if he was holding a special stone with extraordinary sharpness for it to cut through the strings so fast.
However, he had no idea that inside his body, his heart was undergoing a change slowly. The blood pumping out from his heart looked slightly different from before and still seemed to be undergoing some changes.
His muscle fibers were becoming thicker and denser slowly, his bones reinforcing themselves with a mysterious energy, his nerves and neurons becoming more responsive and firing faster than before, his blood seemingly undergoing a subtle rebirth.
However, all these changes were taking place at a slow pace and so subtly that Arion wasn't even aware of what was happening to his body.
All he felt was that he was feeling more good as minutes passed, and the sluggishness and fatigue from before were non-existent.
Arion was too busy thinking about getting out of this place that he didn't pay much mind to anything else.
"Ooof, finally…" Arion rejoiced after cutting through the strings completely and letting himself free.
Astonishingly, he was able to move his arms without much difficulty other than feeling a slight numbness of being tied up too long.
He slowly got up and found that his legs were good to go, especially when he got used to them a while ago.
However, he realized that his stomach was growling suddenly, making him wonder how long he was unconscious to be this hungry.
He wasn't feeling this hungry when he woke up. So, where did these hunger pangs suddenly come from?
He felt that he was probably unconscious for more than a day and was too delirious before to realize it.
He looked around with wary eyes, searching for any Jawfiends sneaking nearby or if they were quietly watching him from afar.
He still had no idea where they went or why they left him but was not at all interested in finding out when he was busy searching for anything he could use as a weapon before trying to get out.
He knew that even if he found an escape route, he might come upon some Dreadlings and didn't want to be defenseless when facing them, no matter how bleak his chances were.
He knew he had no fighting experience other than street fighting, which was only good against normal humans and nowhere suitable to fight Dreadlings.
Even if he was given the best weapon in the world, he would still doubt himself escaping from a Dreadling, let alone killing one.
He already saw how it took the combined efforts of Cayden and his friends to kill a single Jawfiend.
So how could an Inert like him or someone without any strength hope to kill one?
Still, he didn't mind banking on the fraction of a chance that he would be able to escape from a Dreadling with the help of a weapon.
Arion kept looking around till he came upon a bow and an empty quiver lying a few feet away with a couple of arrows lying strewn about.
He identified those bow and arrows belonging to Ina's and carefully picked them up while trying his best not to make any sound.
Just as he walked forward to collect the arrows, he spotted an axe and didn't spare any effort to take that as well.
The more weapons he had, the safer Arion felt. He felt that he could use the bow and arrow to shoot from afar while using the axe for slashing at close range.
He wasn't proficient in using any of these weapons, but something was better than nothing.
"Oh…" Just when he was about to think that he had enough weapons, he saw another axe and remembered that Alv and Bari each were carrying an axe.
"The more, the safer, I guess…" Arion walked forward to pick up the second axe as well since he felt that using two axes felt better than just one, especially when he wasn't skillful enough to rely on just one.
Arion then used the dim pink light to survey the way forward but...
*Kreeee* *Kreeee* *Kreee*
'Shit!' Arion mentally cried out when he heard the frightening screeches of the Jawfiends echoing in the darkness and getting closer.