I will save you in this 5th Life

I ran to the side where I heard the sound, with the four knives floating beside me

I walked to brace myself and readied up a running start to make sure that I could jump over the wall, but I don’t think this will be easy

I took a look at the surrounding red ropes wiggling creepily which might come at me when they realize I am coming for the controller of the ropes

I started to run while making sure I had control of the knives so that they would not lag behind me

As I ran, I felt more of the iron scented air enter my body through my nose and mouth

The cool breezy air hit my face as my leg and arm muscles started to heat up due to the increase in motion

I ran towards the wall, which became closer as the seconds passed by

3

Shit, it seemed to be much taller than I thought

2

What if I forget to jump and just crash in head first

1

Why did I not think it through

0

Screw it

I thought as I jumped up the moment, I thought I would be able to cross the well

With my muscles working overtime, I had enough push with the running start to grab ahold of the top of the wall

I pulled myself up using my arms and sat on top of the wall for a bit to look at the ropes that were surrounding me

I thought I had to catch my breath for a bit

But then I realized I was not as tired as I thought, or rather I was not tired at all

I guess this is what happens if you have a monstrous teacher

I shuddered as I remembered the training my mother put me through

But man, I am going to be so tired once this ordeal is done

I bought my other leg to the other side and readied myself to drop off the wall

I looked at the ground to make sure I had something soft to land on

I guess the grass-covered ground should be okay

But I should remember to roll as I fall so that I don’t break anything

3

2

1

!

As I prepared to jump something grabbed ahold of my neck and was about to violently pull me back down

Luckily, I was able to hold onto the wall by harshly digging in Carnwenhau’s blade to the top of the wall

But the stranglehold of the rope was still very strong and now it was trying to do a tug of war by trying to detach my head from my body

As I felt the life slowly leaving my body, I immediately tried to use the four floating knives in order to cut the rope that was wrapping around my neck

I quickly moved them behind my body and made them slice in a zigzag pattern to make sure I could cut off the ropes on my neck

After a few seconds, I slowly felt the ropes loosen and felt some liquid fall down my back

Seeing this moment, I quickly dropped down and rolled forward to break my fall

“Ack”

I coughed as I felt my strangled windpipe slowly regain its use after the obstacle that was strangling it was removed

I took some deep breaths in order to catch my breath and compose myself after that ordeal

But once I made sure my breathing was in order I immediately started to run towards the side where I felt that I last heard the sound of grass crunching

But I also made sure to make the knives lag behind a bit this time to cover my blind spots, I set them in motions in order to cut up the ropes that might sneak up behind me

I continued my dash towards my assailant in order to get my revenge and also to prevent another from getting attacked like me

I reached a corner after running for a bit, and immediately turned the corner in order to prevent the ropes from catching up to me

I looked back to see the ropes hit the wall but not break it since it seems to be quite softer than I thought, and also because it seems to be catching up to me more carefully than I thought

Then I ignored the ropes behind me again and continued to move forward

I heard something hitting the floor behind me, and I took a quick look to see that the blades I set in motion behind me had cut off some ropes that were chasing after me

I found four of the ropes were on the floor, with more of them bursting out of the ground and turning from the corner

Luckily only took a quick look, because when I turned back, I reached another corner and immediately put my hand out to stop my run by pushing myself to the left which led to the street where I saw some trace of something being dragged on the floor

Which made me think the person behind this incident might have gone that way

And as I made my way to that side, it seems my suspicions might be correct since suddenly more ropes started to burst out from the road in front of me, in an attempt to prevent my progress to the controller

I moved two of my knives to the front and made them orbit around me as I continued on my path to the owner of these ropes

Or actually, maybe I should just call them tentacles because they are what those rope-like objects look like to me

Although they don’t have suction cups like the average tentacle

But all these other features make it seem like tentacles to me

I guess tentacle should be fine

I continued to make the knives orbit around me

When the tentacles in front of me suddenly jumped towards me

And I raised up my dagger in order to prevent them from grabbing hold of me again

Schlack

Schink

But the sounds that happened next proved to me that I did not have to be worried since the orbiting knives were able to completely cut them off from reaching me

I think it is best if I pull one more knife from my back row and position it in front of me to increase my defence towards the tentacles in front

I input my commands and floated one of the knives in the back to my front and pushed it slightly further than the other two that were in orbit around me

I started to me it to orbit vertically in order to make it so that I had a pseudo shield in front of me that cut off the tentacles coming from the front

I did the same for the lone knife that was floating behind me in order to prevent back attacks

With the two knives orbiting vertically behind and in front of me, and with the two more knives orbiting around me in an X formation

After making sure my knives were in position, I moved forwards with the knives still orbiting me

I started by walking slowly at first and then sped up in order to make sure the knives will not lag behind too much

The ropes are still constantly popping up behind and in front of me, to capture me again

But luckily the knives I had readied were still able to cut through them as I continued to follow the tracks on the floor

While I was following the tracks on the floor, I also wondered if it was practical for me to use my orbiting knives for solo battles or if I am going on adventures in a team setting

I thought for a bit and came to the conclusion

This is only working now due to the mindless nature of the tentacles, and I think if I am fighting an experienced fighter, they would be easily able to break through my guard since the knives are a perfect guard as one would expect

Furthermore, my knives actually seemed to be orbiting at a slower speed than I thought, meaning someone with a keen eye would be able to take advantage of the gap in my defence

Up til now, I have just been very lucky with the fact that the knives were able to successfully stop the tentacles from reaching me

If I can make them orbit faster to hide the gap in the defence it might be worth a use during battles, but I will have to see how it goes

But I will have to say the biggest problem is with the knives orbiting around me, I can't really use the weapon I am holding in my hand since it will disrupt the defence

Making this a purely defensive skill that will hinder my combat ability, and only useful in situations where I am alone and I don’t know where the attacks will come from, which is the current situation

But when I am in combat with an enemy I can see, I think it is best if I just launch them towards the target and return them to my side if they miss

As I continued to think of how to use the skill, I found a person wearing a red hood and crouching on the ground

I slowly made my way to that person, and the more I got close the more anxious I felt

I don’t know if it was due to the way the person was writhing or because of the weird sound that I heard the person was making

I continued to slowly step towards the person in order to take them down before they could engage with me

Snap

Of course, this will happen at this moment

I stepped on a twig on the ground

Where did this twig even come from

But that’s no time to think that, now I have to be prepared for battle now

I jumped back as I heard low guttural sounds from the hooded figure in front of me, slowly stand up and turned towards me

I could not see the face of the assailant

Not because the hood was covering it, but because there were tentacles covering the eye of the controller and the only thing I could see is the mouth

I took a closer look and it seemed like they were holding a book in their right hand, but I had no time to take a closer look

The assailant raised their hand and the book glowed slightly red before more tentacles burst forth from the ground in order to attack me

I moved slightly backwards in order to avoid their attacks, and my orbiting knives were also able to successfully cut them apart before they reached my body

The assailant, whom I will call Red because of their outfit, did not move for a bit after their initial attack missed

And I thought this was a good chance to attack them when they suddenly moved again

They did the same thing they did earlier and sent out more tentacles to grab a hold of me

I waited for my knives to cut the incoming tentacles when I realized something was wrong and saw the tentacles pass through the orbit of my first knife

And I immediately tried to move backwards in order to avoid the incoming attack

But the attack never came due to the tentacles instead grabbing ahold of the knife that was in front of me

While I think it could have cut through one, more and more tentacles started to swarm the knife, and eventually, I felt like it was a burden to continue controlling the knife

So I gave up the connection with the knife and the tentacles crushed it into fragments

Seeing the knife being crushed I jumped back again and made all my knives stop orbiting and instead made them return to float beside me

The tentacles saw me retreat and jumped forwards yet again, this time I made note of how many tentacles were coming towards me and made three of my knives rotate and fly at a higher speed to take care of three of them

And then I took care of the remaining four that were coming to surround me

I did not let Red rest before dashing forward again in order to catch them before they summoned more tentacles

I think the red light I saw earlier was the chanting that led to the summoning of more tentacles

I immediately sent forward one knife in order to knock the book off their hands

The knife successfully cut through their hand and made them drop the book

I continued forward as Red let out a loud guttural scream

I made the knife that cut through their pin the book on the floor and I sent two of the remaining knives forward to pin their left leg on the ground and to make sure they cannot use their right hand

I used my full power to make sure the knives were tight and they were pinned well

I then jumped forwards and readied my dagger to stab them in a location where the heart was

“This is for making me miss my dinner”

I said as I used both my hands and my body’s momentum to stab it into their chest

They let out an even louder noise and slowly keeled over

I caught Red before they fell on the ground

And I pulled back the knife on their left foot and laid Red on the ground

I used the knife to pin Red’s hood on the ground and made sure the knife on the right hand was pinned firmly on the ground as well

And went to check out the book that was being pinned on the ground

I picked up the book with a hole in the middle and realized this book was the book I saw in the library that gave me a bad feeling

I turned a few pages and saw that there was a bloody handprint on the pages

I got a headache from the book as I tried to turn more pages, and I immediately thew it on the ground and returned to look at the defeated Red

I bought up my dagger as I needed on the ground, to cut open the tentacles that were surrounding Red’s eye

I put my dagger near the first tentacle to cut it when suddenly, tentacles burst forth from Red’s chest where I stabbed them

It came out at such a fast speed that it instantly knocked me back to a wall, and made me hit my head

Dammit is it some sort of failsafe that activated once it is dead

I thought as I tried to get up and shake off the feeling caused by my head hitting the fence behind me

My visions started to blur because of the impact

God Damit, I was so close

The last thing I saw was the tentacle from her chest acting like legs and Red went over to pick up the book on the floor

I was not able to pin them down since my consciousness was fading in and out, making me also lose the concentration required to control the knives

I saw them come towards me after picking up the book with one of its tentacles

Is this how I die

I saw a bright light hit Red before I closed my eyes and hit the grass