Riza and Sonalius slept on the soft and mossy ground burying their dead. Both of them were exhausted from traveling and slept until it was nearly afternoon.
With the sun shining down in all of its brilliance, Riza furrowed her brows as she slowly opened her eyes, revealing her gold-colored irises. Her blurry vision rapidly adjusted to daylight within a few moments as she let out a soft yawn and stretched her arms and legs.
Birds chirped merrily as they flew above Riza. She looked up at the blue and red birds in awe and wonder as she grabbed a nearby tree for support and rose to her feet.
"Strange, I've seen plenty of Jade birds here, but never in blue and red until now..." Riza spoke to herself as she rubbed her eyes to ensure that she was seeing correctly. Even when she blinked, though, the Jade birds were still blue with a red belly and red-tipped wings. With the birds flying above the tall green trees and the few mountains in the distance, it almost looked like a beautiful painting had come alive. The Jade birds flew towards Mist Valley and disappeared from Riza's sight as she was still lost in thought.
Breaking away from her daydream, she noticed that Sonalius had already got up and wasn't nearby. She dismissed her worries and decided to walk down to the Degasi river to get a drink of water. As Riza was walking, however, she continued to see strange things. The green leaves of some trees were purple, pink, red, and other fascinating colors. She saw a giant squirrel that had red and blue stripes, despite most being grey or brown. Recognizing these changes and abnormalities, Riza grew wary and began to approach the river cautiously.
"This is too weird. First the jade birds, then the trees, and now the squirrels? What is happening? Not even practicing laws would create such changes in a creature's body." Riza thought as she kept her guard up. Suddenly, however, she began to smell something extremely delectable. As if she couldn't stop herself, or rather, she didn't want to stop herself, Riza kept moving closer to the strong smell with each passing second.
When she finally got into view, she saw a short man with blonde hair holding a giant worm in both his hands. There were a bunch of creatures around that were eating pieces of the worm and running off. Riza instinctively wanted to run away because she realized that the man was from the lychnus race, and that amazing smell was coming from a disgusting, bloated worm. However, when she tried to run away, her body wouldn't listen to her, and Riza continued to walk towards the man. Just as she was about to walk into his view, a hand reached out and covered her face and mouth. Riza was about to scream from the sudden movement when she realized that the hand over her mouth was familiar. She turned her head and saw Sonalius plugging his nose. Before Riza even realized it, she was able to move her legs again.
Sonalius gestured for her to be quiet and he placed Riza's hand over her nose. They both silently walked away with their hands covering their nose. Sonalius gritted his teeth as they got far enough away from that man.
"I think we should travel to Mist Valley." Sonalius whispered, "Even though the danger is great over there, it's far better than staying with the lychni near us." Riza was shocked, yet she also realized that it was safer than where they were at currently. Riza thought of what her fate might have been if Sonalius didn't show up at that moment. Being captured and tortured at the hands of the lychni and Sig'car was likely, and many other incomprehensible things. Needless to say, Riza nodded and agreed with Sonalius that going to Mist Valley was a better option. The creatures and other races there may be more powerful, but at least they were predictable and didn't hold a grudge.
Riza and Sonalius went back to their small make-shift camp and packed up everything they could hold that was of value and headed to cross the lake. Along the way, they saw more of those worms and a few hundred lychni combing around for them.
"Over here! I found a fire and graves! It's them!" They heard a high-pitched voice exclaim in a loud voice. "Contact his Holiness through Sanctuary! Relay the message to his Holiness!"
Sonalius' and Riza's heart dropped to their stomach as they abandoned all stealth and, in a mad dash, quickly started to sprint to the river. Six other lychni who were in the area heard their rushed footsteps and saw the two run away.
"We found them! Quick, don't let them get away!" A shrill voice shouted as she took off after Riza and Sonalius. She and another five lychni were 50 meters to Riza's right.
Running through the tall grass hazardously, Sonalius bit his tongue and pushed ahead with Riza. He was having a harder time than Riza to put distance between him and the lychni. Riza was empowered by the light law to increase her speed, but Sonalius hadn't trained much in the light law, so he could only gain a little boost in speed from the life law; most of his speed was coming from his physique and level.
After 5 minutes of running, there were over 100 lychni and a few beasts following behind them another 150 meters away. Those who got in their path, watching and waiting to ambush, were directly killed by Sonalius when they neared him.
By the time they reached the edge of the river, Sonalius' and Riza's bodies were covered with small cuts. Though none of the cuts were fatal on their own, each one bled and was filled with poison. Thankfully Sonalius had some degree in healing poisons, otherwise, they would have long collapsed. Even though it wasn't much, especially since the death law was needed for most poison, it was still far below Sonalius' capabilities. Since the poison wasn't meant killing, but for incapacitating, removing or altering its effects wasn't very hard for him.
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"Can you hold them off for another 15 minutes?" Sonalius asked with anxiety. They were surrounded by enemies with only the dark turbulent waters to give them some semblance of comfort, but they knew that even their best shot was dangerous.
"Fighting a hundred at once?!? No, I don't think I can..." Riza exclaimed as she continued to catch her breath.
"What about fighting 10 at once?" Sonalius said.
Riza looked at him as the army was 50 meters away, starting to throw their shurikens. "10...possibly, but wha-"
"Then that's enough," Sonalius said as his aura became mysterious and fiercer. Riza looked at him in shock.
"This aura...a Pseudo-Saint??" Riza couldn't help but say. She knew that Sonalius was a Novice, but suddenly his aura became incredibly ferocious and dense.
The army seemed to notice the change in the atmosphere as they slowed their speed. Sonalius looked up at them and smiled.
"Too late," Sonalius spoke and many of the lychni collapsed on the ground. Some were struggling to stand up, while there were 10 of them that seemed unaffected. "Buy me 15 minutes to catch a ride over the water." He spoke as he dived in.
Riza turned back and saw the 10 people looking at her with madness in their eyes. The aura they were giving off was of peak Adept. Determination flashed in Riza's eyes as she drew her daggers towards them.
"Capture her at once!" One of them roared. The rest started attacking as well. Riza gritted her teeth as she performed light absorption. The soldiers slowed down slightly but were still charging towards her. Riza was momentarily shocked until she remembered that the lychni called Leo able to do the same thing by feeling the light energy around them. They could sense the packets of light around them and others who had light energy within their body.
Riza, thinking of this, decided to try something before going head-on with 10 enemies. She grabbed a small rock and threw it at the closest lychni without using the light law. The lychni kept charging towards Riza, however, and didn't even evade.
Pang!
The lychni got hit squarely in the face and hurled curses out towards Riza. It didn't harm him, it just pissed him off. Seeing this, Riza's lips curled into a mischievous smile. So that's how it works, huh?
Riza reached into her pouch to grab a few small daggers. She made sure to rely solely on her physical strength once again, and not use the empowerment of the light law.
Pshew!
The daggers cut through the air as they were sent towards three lychni. The first one felt movement, but by then it was too late, and he was stabbed deeply on his neck. He screamed out in pain, alerting the other two before he fell down and collapsed on the ground. Nine more to go!
Hearing their friend's scream, the rest of the lychni instinctively crouched down and put their hands over their head to block whatever was barreling towards them. The daggers made a sharp clang sound as they hit their armguards.
"Enough, I want to test just how much light she can absorb!" A female lychni towards the back shouted with a smirk. She and the rest of the lychni let out a bright light that enveloped their surroundings. As if the sun descended onto the earth, the whole area was filled with radiance. Sweat began to form on their heads as Riza was also feeling the burden. Absorbing that much light was taking a toll on her too. After a few moments, her ability failed and she was forced to stop light absorption.
"As I expected!" The lychni girl said as her vision cleared enough. However, their situation was less than desirable because they expanded quite a bit of energy to stop that ability. Riza furrowed her brows as she thought of how to buy more time. With the other 9 lychni soldiers headed towards her, she pulled out two better crafted and longer daggers. The lychnus threw shurikens and attacked Riza with their own daggers as she continuously dodged their attacks. Each person attacked one after the other, forcing her to defend with no hope to counter unless she could disrupt their flow.
"Come on Sonalius. Hurry up!" Riza mentally urged, wondering what he was doing. For the split second that Riza was distracted, one of the lychni slashed at her arm, drawing blood.
"You're wide open!" one of the lychni said as he pulled his blade back. Gritting her teeth, Riza pushed the pain and thoughts out of her mind and became consumed with the rhythm of battle. If she was careless or distracted for a second, she may die.
As she was fighting, her perception of fighting against people improved, and she began to notice small gaps in their defense and timing. As soon as the girl lychni, who was shouting, slashed 3 times, she would retreat and then attack three more times.
"Should I attack?" Riza hesitated as she weaved through the oncoming thrusts and slashes, occasionally blocking them with her own. "What if it's a trick and she can actually attack once more?" With this thought, Riza's back was covered in sweat at the possibility. If she did try to attack, then she might be the one to die instead! How cunning and vicious are these people! Riza decided to just wait until Sonalius was done doing whatever it was.
15 minutes past and Riza was completely exhausted. Small cuts covered her body as she pushed herself to the limit. Her breathing was heavy, arms numb from the constant force, and feet sore from evading. Riza felt like she was about to collapse from exhaustion when she pulled her head upward and saw a peculiar scene. A small bird's wing was bloodied from their battle and the bird's mother extended fire out from her body and ran it through the baby bird's body. Strangely, the fire didn't burn the creature, but invigorated it and boosted its natural ability to regenerate.
Seeing the weird sight, Riza fell into enlightenment. She subconsciously coated her body in thin waves of light that meshed together and flowed around her organs and muscles. Suddenly, she felt a soothing warmth well up from her body and extend outward to her limbs.
"A breakthrough? Right now, without blood?!" The female lychni said with dread. Her head was feeling fuzzy as she didn't realize that it was even possible for someone who's only a Pseudo-novice like herself.
Foreign light entered Riza's skin and pores, slightly restoring her fatigue and healing some minor cuts. As she was lost in comprehension and ranking up to the Pseudo-novice level 3, she unconsciously fought all 9 of them and still had the advantage; her body moved on its own as she was fully absorbing the knowledge of the light law.
"Now, shall we continue?" Riza said in a monotone voice, scaring the rest of them.