“This looks like what I need, cicada!” Caroline laughed while wiping away blood from the corner of her mouth: “Boss, thank you.” Then, she infused her Xuanli into the wooden card in her hand - she was not informed by anyone on how to use it, but somehow, she felt like she knew already.

An orange and red cicada with light green eyes and wings appeared in the air, and started vibrating its wings and making the normal summer cicada sound. This sound was noisy and annoying, but somehow it completely silenced the deafening screams from the attack unleashed by the tattooed man in a broken grey cloak.

“There’s more where that came from.” the tattooed man outside of the safe house warned: “Come out now, and hand us the key you found, you will be spared the torture.”

No one answered him, this was thanks to the energy cicada conjured by Caroline’s use of the wooden card. And with this time and opportunity to breathe, Caroline did not hesitate to cast “Flame of Vitality” on Aimee and Thomas to help them recover.

“You need help man?” Jason looked at Garret Peyton and asked: “I can use my healing spell on you, but it’s not that much of a healing spell and more of a fortification and resilience enhancing spell.”

“Yeah sure, why not.” Garret Peyton took a few deep breaths and cast some kind of simple healing spell on himself: “What is that card? You have any I can use?”

“I am not sure these cards work with your kind of power. But here.” Caroline handed a card with a badger on it: “I think it’s gonna be quite powerful, so be careful.”

“So, not even gonna come out?” while the five inside the safe house were regrouping, the tattooed man outside felt taunted and decided to strike again - he made a few hand seals with both of his hands, then he placed his hands in front of his mouth like he was about to shout, and he blew through the space between his palms.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

This time, the shadow of a giant human head came out from his hands, with quite visible rotten flesh and skin on its face, its left eyeball hanging out from the eye socket, and the lips totally missing, revealing the crooked and sharp teeth. As the shadow head got close to the safe house, it grew in size and its mouth opened up to an extreme angle where if it happened to a normal human it would mean a dislocated jaw, and it just bit down on the top of the safe house.

A terrible scream broke out once again inside the safe house, but this time, there was an energy cicada inside to counter it. The cicada’s wings flapped so quickly and violently, that all five people nearby could sense the heat waves being released from its tiny body.

The sound waves made by the cicada clashed with those that came from the pale human head shadow crashing into the protective arrays of the safehouse. The collision of energy created countless flashes of energy sparks and distorted sceneries like that around a fire around the five that were inside the safe house.

Still, a small portion of the terrible scream from the shadow of the human head seeped through the barrier. Caroline and Jason felt like there were hundreds of hands pinching their muscles, bones and organs from inside their bodies, while Aimee and Thomas were still struggling on the ground. Garret Peyton was in a better condition, and he created the golden energy bubble once again to shield everyone from the influence.

The orange and red cicada’s body slowly cracked and crumbled into cinders in the air as the battle of the soundwaves continued. And when the attacks of the screams finally stopped, the cicada was already on its final straw and turned into dust in the air. The wooden card in Caroline’s hand cracked and burst into burnt splinters.

Caroline fell on the ground and gasped, then she instinctively grabbed her flask, only to find out it was empty long ago.

“If they tried something like that again, I don’t know if I can do that again.” Caroline looked at Garret Peyton and Jason: “We must do something.”

“Please, what can we do?” Aimee and Thomas asked.

“They are going to attack the safe house directly now.” Jason thought for a while and said: “This last attack was probably their last probing attack. I suspect they wouldn’t want to kill us directly, they’re going after the protection arrays next.”

“That makes sense.” Garret Peyton nodded and said: “If that’s the case the best chance for us would be the moment the array collapses. If I remember correctly, the protective arrays have a final outburst mechanism, where if it could not hold any longer they would explode outwards and at least push the attackers away to buy the people in there some time. If we are able to survive the last blow, then we have a chance to burst outta here.”

“Okay.” Jason rifled through the wooden cards sent to them by Rash, and had his eyes on one card with the relief sculpture of an insect on it. A strange feeling of “this is it” occured in his mind, and he felt like he already knew how to use it without even having to try. Then he turned towards Aimee and Thomas: “I think I know what to do, get ready. How many of those enchanted guns did you bring?”