Whether through luck or skill, Stevan found the noble.
It’s not easy though. Many times he had close encounters with monsters that could easily beat Keren, while the weaker ones he easily dispatched with a fist. The fact that the majority of the elite part of the horde was fighting at the front while he snuck behind is nothing short of dumb luck. Even his [Lucky Fool] can’t come up with so many favorable encounters.
Still, the best one yet is finding the cause of all this mayhem.
As he was trying to go around a large troll by sneaking behind him, he quickly ran behind a massive corpse of a burnt snake. He could feel his heart beat like a drum as he rushed towards it, hoping he won’t had his head smashed the moment it would notice him.
Stevan sat at its side, out of the line of sight of the troll and other monsters. He wiped the sweat of his face and crouched to the next corpse, getting closer to the blinding battlefield.
As he was peeking behind the body of a giant lion. He noticed the figure of a man surrounded by monsters that aren’t attacking him. He seems to be looking up, observing, concentrating hard on controlling his army.
Stevan almost stumbled at the coincidence and unconsciously look up to meet eyes with Marie.
He was at a loss for words and simply shrugged his shoulders as he revealed himself for her to see their enemy. Stevan himself knew he would never be able to scratch Kreig, so the best he could do is help her locate him.
Amidst the blurry exchange of attacks, he noticed her smile, yet she did not bombard Kriegs spot with her [Small spark].
If she attacks him at this moment, Stevan is confident the noble would die near instantly, but why can’t she do it already?
Out of nowhere, a large gush of water swept through the monsters, dragging them away and ripping off several buildings that were still standing. The water met the melted magma, creating a brief fog throughout the battlefield before unveiling a large empty path in the middle.
At the end of that path are the adventures and civilians that were fighting for their lives. Manny tried to cross thought the path, but was quickly swallowed by the monsters that filled the gap completely.
Stevan realized that she can’t activate her devastating ability or it might harm the people she is trying to protect, he also realized that it includes him.
But what could he do? It’s not like he had had something that would block everyone except Krieg and his monsters. The barrier had long been breached and the caster was nowhere to be seen from all the chaos.
“Hi.” A voice echoed in his head.
Stevan almost dismissed it as paranoia or stress, but the next word made him believe that it was not an illusion.
“Seraphine.”
“Seraphine?” He mumbled, then tried to communicate through his head, much like how he converses with Lord Verum, “How are you doing that?”
“[Unworthy].”
‘Unworthy?’ He wondered, then felt an unnatural chill go through his spine as if the word triggered his natural instinct to obey, ‘Why does it sound so…..threatening?’
He then shook his head and focused on the task.
“Do you know a way to shield the people here from attacks?”
There was a brief pause, then answered him with a monotone voice.
“Shield.”
“Yes, a shield.” He repeated, “Do you know one?”
“Shield.” She answered.
“Again, I need something to protect them from her attack. We would win if we find one.” He said with a bit of annoyance.
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‘Annoying.’ Seraphine thought.
She isn’t asking him the question, but pointing the solution to his problem. Seraphine wondered if he is even trying to understand her at all.
When a powerful adventurer tried to open a path forward, Seraphine noticed a white staff amongst the current, being dragged and smashed through each floating rubble.
After the water left the battle, she found it stuck on a white rock, blended in from the surroundings.
Conveniently, it is also a few dozen meters away from Stevan, who she noticed right before the horde took over the open field.
She knew that staff belongs to the high priest, she also knew that the priest stopped conjuring her hexagonal transparent shield for some reason, which, when combined, helped her briefly block the skinny man’s slashes. If that item is the same as the [Beacon], then it should contain the ability itself, and If he gets that activated to a larger scale, Stevan would have ended the Fat mans life on the spot.
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Unfortunately, Stevan seemed to not understand the solution to his problem.
“Useless.” She spoke, channeling her energy and sending it to him.
The way she uses the energy to do it is incredibly inefficient and incomplete, but the help of her masters [Unworthy] really helped relaying the jumbled mess of energy into comprehensible words.
“What do you mean useless? Look, I know your trying your best, but if you have nothing then please don’t bother me. Your father is trying to save a kingdom from doom and I hope you understand that this is very important.” He replied and promptly went silent.
Seraphine tried to send him a message again, but she found no response. He was either ignoring her, or he could conjure a mental block made of energy to stop it.
It looks like she herself needed to give it to him and save the day instead.
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“That girl is crazy.” Fate summarized when she saw her supposed sister suddenly sprint towards the horde.
She doesn’t know what the hell she is doing, but its not like she cares either. She knew she wouldn’t die, and she had that ghost skeleton as her servant. What really matters right now are her own safety.
As she comments on Seraphine, a small green ugly humanoid creature jumped towards her.
Fate almost didn’t notice it until she turned around. When she realized a small blade is about to land on her chest, a quick footstep came by and kicked the monster away.
“Don’t freeze up!” She shouted, “If your done stitching her then run!”
Fate realized it was Aunt Keren. She was trying to help when she saw the elven girl fell unconscious. Using the knowledge she was taught by her village, she could perform some simple methods to stop the bleeding.
She isn’t quite done yet, as it is needed for her to still bandage the woman up several more times.
“one more minute!” She exclaimed.
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Meanwhile, Seraphine just ran in a straight line, confident she won’t get harmed.
Unfortunately, Seraphine did not take into account the words of Kreig and his lack of power to control an army. She never knew that he could only bark simple orders such as telling his monsters to kill everyone in the barrier, which includes her.
When a large moving tree moved its wavy branch to perform a whip like attack, Seraphine barely had time to reinforce herself with [Soul Well] to absorb the impact. She crashed into a pile of corpses made of what seemed like part of a long snake.
Another wooden whip came by, whistling in the wind as it was about to crush Seraphine with the force akin to a falling Boulder.
Seraphine reinforced herself with [Soul Well] again, breaking the corpse and sending her flying on the air. Sooner than that, another whip came down to flung her to the ground, crashing into more monsters on the way.
Despite the terrible beatdown, Seraphine stoop up almost unharmed. Her nose left drips of blood and her eyes shed crimson tears, yet she did not react and merely stared. The damage wasn’t because of the attack, but because she overused the amount of souls she could use for [Soul Well]. In such a death ridden battlefield, snatching souls are as easy as looking in one direction and absorbing the ones in her field of vision.
She doesn’t know the exact amount, but she does get somewhat like a gut feeling in her body. She could feel she has around 400, they were inside her, desperately trying to separate, it felt like trying to endure a stomachache.
She wiped the blood off her nose and looked at the large tree blocking her way.
She wondered what would happen if she unleashes the souls towards him, would it pass through? Or would it be too weak?
She witnessed the monster attack with a dozen of its wooden tentacles like a straight arrow. Seraphine only had a split second to react.
[Soul Surge]
Activating the enhanced ability of soul well, a massive wave of grey humanoid shadows emerged from her tiny body, quickly engulfing the tentacles, and heading towards the tree.
Surprisingly, the tree monster was quickly uprooted and was washed away like water. It’s earth shaking scream hurting her eardrums as it fell in the sea of souls.
After running out, the tree was nowhere to be seen, as if it vanished upon getting swallowed. Many of the monsters also disappeared and created a small empty path towards the horde once again.
Even so, she merely remained emotionless. She knew this was only the start. She still had to get there, but she can’t enhance herself anymore, and her lifespan has greatly decreased.
Her life, which was originally more than one hundred, is now a measly twenty eight years, which equates to 28 days left to live.
Using the last ounce of her strength, she ran as fast as she could, arriving at the fallen staff.
Unfortunately, the end of the staff is wedge between the crack of a large white stone. Even Seraphine can’t possibly pull it out without [soul well], yet she can’t afford to use it again or her body might react worse than just a nosebleed.
Nonetheless, she had no choice.
Consuming the last remaining souls her body could handle, she started to pull.
The staff did not budge, as if mocking her to try harder. Seraphine consumed more, clouding her vision red, but relieved to see it moving slowly out of the hard stone.
Her mouth and nose spilled more blood, her small body started to tear apart from the inside, yet she kept on going.
Until finally, the staff was released. Before collapsing, her mind focused on the last remaining silhouette of average man. Somehow, it reminded her of her brother.
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‘What is she doing here?’ Stevan asked himself.
He then noticed the white staff with the floating orb on her hands. He immediately knew then what she had been planning. Stevan had considered taking the staff since it has [Safe Regards], the problem is that since each palm sized pentagon shield cost a bit of energy, producing thousands to shield each individual people in the shape of a dome would be more than enough to wring him dry several times over.
Suddenly, a loud voice echoed throughout the battlefield.
“[Small Spark]”
Stevan was had little time to think before activating [Safe Regards], covering him and everyone near enough to the orb rapidly approaching them.
“What the fu-!?” Krieg said before his voice were drowned by the falling miniature sun.
Despite covering himself and Seraphine entirely of the barrier, a portion of the heat still went through, easily scalding his back, which was turned from the explosion to cover his daughter.
Every moment is like getting poured by a bucked of boiling water. Every thought is like trying to desperately held up a paper-thin wall against a tsunami, in a few seconds, his energy would be gone, and he would be as well.
As soon as his reserves were emptied, the heat disappeared as if it was never there. When he turned around, all he could see is a giant crater covered in a pool of molten rock.
“Good thinking, you two.” A voice from above him stated. He looked up to see Marie, standing tall and proud towards the kneeling Stevan, as if she did a great job in not killing anyone.
“Wh-why?”
“Hm?”
Before he could finish his sentence, Stevans mind went blank as he collapses right next to his daughter.
Marie had a smile on her face, and answered his question aloud.
“It was a gamble.” She admitted, “But I know your always good at gambling, so I bet on you to keep them safe.”