CHAPTER 86: GUILD DEFENSE

The words rung vividly in her mind. This was the last thing Cassia expected to hear.

“Intruders?” She frowned deeply and hurriedly activated her Soul Weapon. Beams of radiant gold weaved into strings across her body, manifesting into a pair of draconian wings on her back. Her tail grew larger, as the scales reflected more of the ethereal light surrounding her body. Then her cheeks and hands began to morph, covered in a thick layer of scales and the latter growing sharp claws.

Finally, her pupils dilated then changed into narrow slits as she eyed the distant corridor like a predator. Cassia turned to Candice, who had a worried expression on her face and ordered:

“Go back to the lounge and warn Joyce about what’s happening. Head deeper into the dungeon together with her.”

Candice glanced at the little girl and frowned. She wanted to protest but nodded along and turned away in a somewhat calm sprint. “May the Gods be with you.”

Cassia scoffed, I hope not.

She turned to Noctharn, who had stopped hammering and was now staring at the distant corridor with his cold, dark gaze.

“What should we do?”

He answered, “We wait.”

And so they did.

Seconds ticked slowly as both prepared themselves for the incoming assault. At first, Cassia began to doubt they would ever come. The dark passage before her had not changed one bit since the massive explosion that occurred just earlier. The only thing that kept her from dropping her guard was the distant echoes of footsteps slowly approaching their direction.

Then, the footsteps disappeared, alarming Cassia even more. Just as she was about to turn to Noctharn for advice, all hell broke loose.

A speeding arrow shot forth from the darkness, splitting the air in its wake—its target was Cassia’s head. She had but a half a second to react and twist her body, letting the projectile leave only a faint scratch on her scally cheek. The impact of the arrow hitting the wall behind her left an entire crater of damage to the mortar and brick.

Cassia grit her teeth and expanded her Soul Realm as she took flight. In just that moment, a hundred more arrows streaked in the air toward her direction, however, this time, she was prepared.

With her Soul Realm expanded, her spellfocus ring blurred with faint light as her anima shaped into rigid formations. The spellform instantly stabilized, forming a wall of amber flames around her.

In an instant, the super sonic arrows passed through the smoldering flames, disintegrating into ash before reaching her. However, she wasn’t done yet. With her mind racing to calculate everything, her Soul Realm morphed into a straight line, shooting toward the distant corridor as three radiant beams of light shot forth through them toward the approaching intruders.

At the same time, Noctharn stayed silent for a moment, then almost instantly, the room dimmed as shadows hidden underneath his mysterious cloak escaped out into the open hall. It was as if a dam had broken, unleashing a flood of darkness onto the world.

Cassia glared menacingly toward the distant corridor, waiting to see if her attack had done anything. And only a few seconds later, she got her answer.

In the dim dark world created by Noctharn, strange shapes were seen growing out from the distant corridor. It took a moment for Cassia to register what she was seeing…

Vines.

Wooden vines covered in moss were stretching across the floor, ceiling and walls of the corridor, expanding out in all directions to meet the ancient darkness. Stepping out from the abyss—three hooded figures appeared.

One was holding a wooden staff with flowers growing out from the top of it—each of them looked carnivorous in nature. At the bottom, small roots could be seen, stretching to connect themselves to the network of vines beneath their feet.

To their left, a shorter hooded figure stood with two curved swords radiating in a shimmer of pale white light. But the most dangerous of the three had to be the one standing to the right of both of them.

Although she was hooded, Cassia could tell that it was a woman. In her hands, a lustrous glaive that hid the colors of the moon could be seen. Although she didn’t know why, something about that weapon screamed dangerous.

Cassia’s Soul Weapon, Figments of the Serpent was a part of the Augment Class. This meant that unlike most Soul Weapons which exist as a separate entity to the person, hers would manifest as an extension of her own body. However, this did come with a cost to her humanity. When she manifests the full extent of her Soul Weapon, a part of her mind also morphs to account for these changes, making her thoughts more bestial in nature.

Usually, this would be seen as a negative, but not for Cassia.

After all, she has always been known for her temper, anyway. What difference would it make if she became even more crazy in battle? And for the most part, it also gave her a slight advantage in fights since her instincts would heighten to a monstrous degree, unlocking some form of sixth sense that could keep her from falling into truly dangerous situations.

But that was exactly the problem right now…

…Her sixth sense… It was desperately trying to get her to run away…

Cassia bit her lips to ease her dread and glanced at Noctharn. “That… That lady…”

Noctharn nodded. “Leave that little one to me. Handle the other two.”

Even though it was shameful, Cassia couldn’t help but be relieved. Before the enemy had time to launch another attack, she refocused her Soul Realm and raced to channel two more spellforms. A second later, her claws which were already menacing enough, were now enchanted in deep ember flames. With her wings moving in a blur, she shot fourth toward the enemy holding the wooden stave.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

The hooded woman with the scary glaive gave her a glance. She was about to skewer Cassia with its sharp end, but the shadows around them morphed in shape, turning into several sinister tentacles that wrapped violently around the brazen intruder. She struggled for a second then thrusted her glaive downwards into the nearest tentacle. Pale white light exploded outward, destroying the ancient shadow.

Just as she was about to reorient herself out of the trap, Noctharn manifested himself in front of her out of the darkness, like a god of destruction looking to cast judgement. It was hard to tell what exactly enacted the attack—almost in a blur, the hooded woman flew all the way back, slamming against the wall, leaving a large crater behind.

Incredible…

This was Cassia’s first time seeing Noctharn fight. She had heard rumors from Myrin as well as small stories from the mistress herself, but nothing could have prepared her for what she was seeing before her eyes...

He was… a monster…

Are all the Aretores this strong?

All giants have powerful bodies, but a giant who’s also able to teleport in the dark was truly a frightening thing to see. With both strength and speed, Noctharn didn’t have many weaknesses to exploit.

Good thing he’s on my side.

Cassia had no more time to admire the shadow giant. With her wings moving in a blur, she readied herself for the pounce. The hooded figure holding the wooden staff moved it to block her attack, but that was exactly what Cassia was hoping for him to do. She grinned menacingly, then landed a few feet in front of him, before jumping once again—this time leaving an afterimage behind.

Her real target was the man holding the two curved swords.

Steel met flame covered claws as a ring of sounds exploded in the closed off dungeon. Catching the hooded figure by surprise, she slashed with her hands, leaving trails of dragonflame behind, then twisted her body mid air to end her pounce with a powerful lash of her armored tail, slamming him to the floor violently.

Cassia had no time to gloat about her attack, however, as wooden vines shot up from beneath her feet, wrapping around her body. She grit her teeth to fly away, but it was no use. Each of the vines felt heavier than metal and sturdier than molten rock.

“You seriously think this will stop me?!” She roared.

Constricting her Soul Realm, a new, more complex spellform began to take shape. She was just about to form its first set of axioms when the man holding the two curved swords returned her earlier hospitality with some of his own—slashes of cold pale light lingered in the air, carrying the fury of its wielder.

Curses… She grit her teeth and twisted her body to gain a better grip of the vines. With her flame covered hands, she burnt through them easily, stumbling away last second before the two curved swords slashed across her torso and throat.

Cassia flew away for a second to give herself some space and time to complete the spellform from earlier, but that turned out to be a big mistake.

Out of nowhere, even more vines erupted from behind. She had underestimated the hooded vine magus. The man was clearly never intending to battle her directly—he was simply bidding for time in order to infest the battlefield with his plants.

His plan… Had finally succeeded.

With nowhere to run, the vines shot through her body from all sides, skewering her. She hissed in pain—luckily, she managed to avoid the most lethal of the vines, making sure none of her vitals were impaled.

But this was only the beginning of the torture. Almost instantly, she began to feel the vines growing inside her, as if they were feeding on her blood… She glanced painfully at the distant magus, who was standing silently alone.

I… I can’t stay here for long…

The shrouded figure holding the two curved swords realized that the trap wasn’t going to last for long. His body left an afterimage as it dashed forward for the kill.

Seeing his approaching figure, Cassia grit her teeth. She knew she had to act fast. However, the problem she was currently facing wasn’t something that could be solved with Dragonflame—after all, the vines had burrowed deep into her flesh and were now feeding on her blood—burning them away would be impossible without burning herself in the process.

Even so, there was one other trick she could try. Rather than magecraft, this one was a Mystery.

Unlike Myrin’s Artist’s Wand, her Soul Weapon was much less creative. There was little variety that she could do with it. However, that didn’t mean it was completely useless.

Figments of the Serpent granted her two abilities for her first tier. The first was something she liked to call ‘Serpent Transformation’, which augmented her body with those of a mythical serpent, giving her an increase in several areas, such as speed, strength, and even vitality. Injuries she would sustain would heal on their own, given enough time.

The other ability however, was something she called ‘Eyes of the Serpent.’ It was a fairly strange ability—one that she was not able to figure out a proper use for until she discovered Runology and began using it as a medium.

Essentially, it would allow her to twist the properties of things that have representation in the Beyond, disrupting their existence partially. Although it sounded useful on paper, it was hard to utilize properly in battle because of its inherent randomness. And since magecraft uses one’s own anima that comes from their Soul Realm rather than the Beyond, it did not grant her the ability to disrupt magecraft itself.

Which left only Mysteries on the table. Abilities granted by Soul Weapons use Astral Anima, which was the anima of the Beyond. Which meant that although this strange ability had no effect on magi, it did have some effects on Phantasms.

And by now, she was fairly certain that the enemy holding her in place was one such fighter.

Without wasting any more time, Cassia activated Eyes of the Serpent and twisted the logic behind the vines themselves. She couldn’t change their entire identity—that would take too much anima and time. Instead, she focused on some of its properties—one being its ability to absorb blood. Even if the effects of this skill were random, she had learned to focus their area of effect on specific properties, narrowing down the possible outcomes by a lot.

Luckily, her plan worked. Instead of growing rapidly, the vines will now whither when absorbing blood. Their logic and representation had twisted to account for such a change.

The effect was immediate—Cassia couldn’t hope for a better outcome. Her binds instantly shriveled away into nothing, giving Cassia a small opportunity to jump away from the incoming blade attack.

She grit her teeth while holding some of her wounds, which were finally healing slowly. Her eyes, however, were focused on the two enemies in front of her. By now, the effect on the vines had already ended, returning them to their original state.

She breathed haggardly—thinking about what to do next. It was obvious to her that both of her opponents were much more skilled than her. Worse yet, the battlefield was in their grasp—not even her ability to fly could make a difference now. Then there was the issue of her wounds. Although they were healing, that didn’t necessarily mean she would be able to regain the blood she had lost.

Fatigue was setting in at an alarming rate. Her body wanted to shut down…

Cassia knew she would need to end this fight quickly.

Should I try that now?.. Her thoughts raced.

There was one last trick in her grimoire that she could try, but it was one that hasn’t been tested yet. A rune of unimaginable power that she had only gained recently—named Sulinar… On its own, the rune was fairly inconsequential, but its importance would bloom when added to a certain spellform… One that she had been theorizing for over a year…

I guess it's now or never…

Cassia will now try to reach the third circle in battle, or perish trying.