"What the.” Stevan Exclaimed.
Before his very eyes is a sea of flames, drowning their previous tents into ash.
He looked at the slaves and was glad they were out of the blast, though the fire seems to be rapidly spreading in their direction.
“What the hell did they do to make the boss this angry?!” He exclaimed.
Stevan knew this was his only chance, so he immediately tried to go to the cage to free them.
Only for something big to crash into it first.
After the smoke cleared, Stevan noticed that it was Dylan, the guy who had [Concentrated Flame], he hardly knows the guy, since he always keeps everything to himself. Even then, he knew his strength.
He was speechless, but immediately understood that this was a very serious situation.
He went to his friend. Only to be pushed away by him.
“Help the *cough* boss.” He said, coughing a lot of blood before passing out. Dylan is at the 8th rank of core manipulation, so he could probably recover in a few days, but he is still too injured, he shouldn’t leave him here.
Stevan knew he had no time, so he once again faced the direction of the slaves and hoped that they don’t hold a grudge.
“Please help him.” Stevan said, then threw his keys to them and ran in the center of the flaming battlefield.
The slaves immediately removed their handcuffs, one by one until the last drop of metal rang. Despite his plea for help, they do not intend to save their slavers. They are adults, the hate that they have is far more rooted than this.
Many of them had experience a loved one being taken away, including Fates mom, who now had to find her daughter.
This is simply karma.
Before the cage was unlocked however, one of them noticed an approaching figure.
It was a little girl with ash colored hair. She looked rather harmless, cute even. But her dark, empty eyes spoke of indifference.
Behind her is an ephemeral undead, a skeleton that emits a mysterious fog.
“The first lesson,” It spoke “ Is that no matter the race, morals, or deeds, all life is equal in the eyes of death.”
----------
“Goddamit! I told you guys to fucking run!!” Keren shouted as soon as another volley of abilities hit the skeleton.
Surrounding her and the Undead are her men. The same idiots that chose to disobey her orders, hiding in the smoke while firing in the hopes of taking the thing down. They most likely think that such a strong undead holds valuable materials to sell, more specifically its busted bone armor that they can't pierce.
Unfortunately, it’s the exact problem they are having. It is not taking a scratch, merely standing in place and occasionally swinging it arms when any of them gets too close.
“Sorry boss but we are not leaving our only female member!” one of them joked, confident he won’t be recognized by his voice.
“Once I take this thing down, your next Tom!” She shouted and exhaled another [Fueled Breath].
It swung again, barely missing her by an inch, though it seems the undead aimed for two people, as she heard a scream quickly fade away as it went flying from the hit. ‘Damn it. Another one down.’
“Keren!” an approaching voice shouted.
She turned her head and saw Stevan getting closer.
“ What is happening? What is that?” he exclaimed.
Keren, not taking her eyes of the undead, immediately answered, “I don’t know, but it’s not something we can fight. The others are too weak to gauge its strength so they think it’s killable, but I know better.”
The skeleton, which was stationary the whole time, finally started walking.
Keren immediately panicked, “Quick! Hide on the smoke and tell the idiots to leave!”
“But I don’t-“ Stevan said, but before he could finish, he was pulled by the collar, facing a few inches away from Kerens face. He saw her plight for help, she was not asking him, but begging him to do it. She knew that he is the only one that could convince the others, and if that doesn’t work, then she would stall the damn thing until he drags them out of the fight unconscious.
It was all going so fast. All in one night, he might to lose someone that is important in his life again. This event wasn’t the first time, and he wished that was the last.
Maybe, if he just stayed with them. If he didn’t bother to free a kid and just went back quicker. His luck would have prevented this. He wouldn’t have to lose anyone.
Yes they raided a village. Yes they were scum. But they are still humans. They still value each other as friends or maybe even family.
Now he had to face the consequences once again.
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His 10 year fortune, culminated into a another unfortunate event.
Stevan nodded, and silently blended himself on the smoke.
Keren sighed, finally able to convince someone. The smoke is getting thicker, even affecting her breathing.
She was at Core Perfection, so her body could handle much smokier environments, but she doesn’t know If her weaker companions could handle the same. She is hoping that Stevans luck would help them this time.
‘I’ve always liked you, you know ’ She thought, recollecting some past events.
It was back when they just established her group. Composing of Her, Stevan, and Marie.
They didn’t used to accept job quest like this ones, they were just naïve adventurers, barely even adults. She, the leader, would often get herself into trouble, Stevan, the youngest, would always find himself gambling all their money, while Marie, their healer, had to always drag them away after battles as she would often be the only one left standing.
It was a fun blissful time.
That is until a misfortune occurred.
Now it is one of those again, and she is the target.
“Don’t blame yourself Stevan, It’s not your fault.” She whispered and formed a smile.
“It’s this monstrosity.” She glared at her enemy, which was approaching at a leisurely pace.
Keren has three abilities, [Cries of the Fallen] , which she got not long ago, [Fueled breath] which is her signature move, and her first ability that saved her countless times and allowed her to dodge the undeads strikes.
[Moments before disaster], an ability that lets her move in extreme speeds for half a second. Despite that, she can only cast it every three seconds, in which she has to dodge the attack the hard way.
The skeleton was only standing previously, allowing her to strike when her ability comes back on, but now that it’s on the offensive, she has no doubt that each step she makes would be of life and death.
‘At least it doesn’t hit that hard’ she thought and calmed herself, ‘Or else I would have seen a lot of bodies separated.’
Like a standoff, both the monster and Keren faced each other. One with a slow, menacing walk, and the other bending the knee, with a huge smile and a determined face, ready to dodge the first strike.
Suddenly, the skeleton turned into a blur and disappeared on her sights. Keren immediately activated [Moments before disaster] and still saw it coming at her at the speed of an arrow.
‘0.01 seconds’ she thought.
She immediately jumped to the right, letting the behemoth to pass through.
Only for it to stop in its tracks and change the trajectory towards her.
She kicked the shoulder carapace of the skeleton on a downwards motion, which it reacted unfazed, but the axe kick was enough to use it as leverage to bounce behind him. Letting herself turn behind it on an upside-down position and let out an ability.
‘0.15 seconds’
“[Fueled breath]!” She loudly said, breathing out brilliant flames that envelope the monster.
‘0.22 seconds’
It struck amidst the flames, making her stop her ability and block it with her arms. It swung at insane speeds and sent her flying, crashing on several trees.
‘0.3 seconds. Damn he hurts!’
Before she gets to move, its already charging towards her, like a giant fireball with crimson eyes.
Just in time, she used her [Cries of the Fallen], letting her unleash fire to her surroundings once more. A hidden mechanic of that ability is that before the flames appear, she first had to absorb energy from the surroundings, then release it all at once, creating a small explosion near her if the energy comes into contact with an object too closely.
With the small explosion, she propelled herself using the tree behind her and damaging her back in exchange for avoiding the undead charge.
There was a boom as the skeleton ran over the large trees, creating more smoke from the chaotic battlefield.
‘0.4 seconds, Damn I made it.’ she thought as she caught a tree branch to swing herself up from a trunk.
Her goal isn’t to kill that thing, it’s impossible, she only needed to lure it away and then retreat on the smoke.
Fortunately, she accomplished both. ‘Getting hit away was such a smart move, not worth the risk though.’ Keren thought.
None of it was planned of course, she was improvising. If it attacks with the same strength the equivalent of its realm, she would have been obliterated.
Her job is not finished however, she still needed it to go farther.
Now she just needed to stall time until her [Moments before disaster] comes back on.
For the first time in this fight, Keren finally saw hope.
Until she heard it roar.
It was extremely loud, it’s deep voice shaking the ground like a small earthquake.
‘I wonder how it produces sound.’ she thought, then widened her eyes as Keren saw it put its arms together and rise it high in preparation for slamming the ground.
‘Oh shit!’ she thought, ‘The bastards going to destroy the forest!’
Normally, every person, regardless of where you are, who you are, and even what you are, must learn a specific technique.
It goes by many names in many regions, but the gist of it is to concentrate their attacks, letting them output more power each hit in exchange for a smaller radius.
It is naturally learned at the earlier realms, but anyone at Core Perfection and beyond must practice to do so.
Keren herself once never cared for it, her [Fueled breath] could cover an entire mountain in seconds, and her [Cries of the Fallen] could do so in an instant.
That got her permanently banned in a lot of towns as a walking hazard, so she had to learn it by force. Increasing her damage a lot more for destroying things a lot less.
Now this undead, which is most likely many times stronger than her, is about to do the opposite, which will wreck the forest and the surrounding mountains to bits.
Keren was at a dilemma. On one hand, it won’t hurt her group, on the other, traveling in these woods would be much harder in the future, not to mention that they would be the primary suspects for the destruction and get hunted down.
She maybe strong but she is merely considered a veteran, any talented warrior could reach her realm at age 50, and many people consider that young, especially since each realm is an increase in lifespan. She herself is only 38, someone considered slightly above average in talent.
She could pay someone to repair the place. There are some individuals that could heal the environment, the problem is just that they are rare and very VERY expensive.
She has no choice but to interrupt it now and hope for the best.
Fortunately, its scream was long enough for her ability to come back.
“Round two!” She shouted and leaped toward the undead like a rocket.
-----------
“Hey guys, where are you!” Stevan shouted within the smoke.
All he could hear around him are explosions and collapsing trees, and all he could see are thick clouds of smoke blocking his vision.
“Over here!” A voice shouted.
Stevan was glad for a moment, then realized it was Tom, the same guy that joked about not leaving Keren because she was the only female member.
“Where is here?!” He asked, frustrated at his friend that still can’t help but joke. Following his voice was not enough to find a man in such a loud environment. He needed more information.
There was no response.
“Hey, Tom!” He shouted again “Don’t joke around, this is serious!”
Still, there was not a single shout back.
He heard an explosion in the distance, then a horrendous roar.
Stevan could only hope she survives.
‘Where the hell are-huh?’
Beyond the smoke, he could see two silhouettes, and as he got closer, the full picture emerged.
They were two people. Fate, the girl that he let escape was sitting with her back facing the ground. She is crying, staring at another little girl with Grey ashen hair and rugged clothes, her face showing no emotion.
Right next to Fate is Tom, unmoving, and burning alive.
“Hey!” Stevan shouted.
Fate did not react, while the other girl slowly, ominously turned her head to face him.