The half man half beast leapt towards the figure in cloaking that just killed the tattooed man with his claws fully extended and his fangs fully revealed. The figure in cloak turned around and charged at this opponent, and the curved sword swung at the opponent’s neck through a winding trajectory. The half man half beast raised his right arm to defend his own neck and after a loud dud and the gush of blood, the half man half beast managed to block the blade with the bones in his forearm. The curved blade, which cut through the tattooed man’s neck bone like a hot knife through butter, was not able to do any damage to the bone.

“Now, try again?” the half man half beast let out a gnarly laugh as he grabbed the cloaked figure’s arm holding the curved sword.

The cloaked figure gasped and inhaled sharply in pain as the half man half beast ripped his entire arm off, but his scream did not go on for long, for the half man half beast had already tossed his severed arm off and tore his head away from his shoulders.

“Where’s the fucking portal, Corin?” the half man half beast looked to the direction of Emilia Corin and asked.

“Ting ting ting!” Emilia Corin swung both her swords and parried four out of six of another wave of the tiny sharp blades from the cloaked figure targeting her, but at the same time two of the sharp blades struck her in her abdomen and leg. The tiny sharp blade that landed on her abdomen winded up falling onto the ground with its momentum absorbed by the dark leather armor, while the one that struck Emilia Corin’s leg got embedded in her skin and muscle.

“One fucking minute!” Emilia Corin removed the tiny blade immediately, but she could already feel the poison seeping into her blood streams: “If you don’t mind, give me some fucking help here!”

The cloaked figure’s body flickered and then her one figure turned into five, and all five of them charged at Emilia Corin from five different directions at the same moment.

Emilia Corin’s pushed herself once again, and the golden and red light from her eyes flashed like a warning light. And the cloaked figure, for a very brief moment, felt that even though her clones were barely distinguishable from herself both from an external appearance perspective and from the radiated energy signature perspective, she couldn’t help but feel that her attack would be seen through and countered.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

But she was in no position to retreat or back down, and she just continued with her charge, with her wrist blade raised and her power infused inside and concentrated on the edge of her blade, ready to slice through even the thickest armor.

Emilia Corin stumbled backwards, her overexerting her power had dried up her meridians, numbed her limbs and muscles, and more apparently, led to profuse bleeding through the corners of her eyes, her nostrils and the cracks around her eye sockets. But still, she infused every last drop of her power into her swords, and when the five figures came close to her, she thrust her longer sword forward. A dark red energy blade shot from the tip of her sword, and pierced through the left chest of the second figure on the left.

The other four figures dissipated into the air as they got even closer to Emilia Corin, but not before all of their wrist blades struck Emilia Corin on her shoulders, her back and her left arm. Though these were only clones from energy, they still left some mark on Emilia Corin’s body, and even quite a grievous wound on the back of her left arm.

“How...” the cloaked figure choked blood, which even seeped through her mask, and when she raised her arm, in an attempt at a final strike, her head was removed from her shoulders by the half man half beast.

“How ‘bout now?” the half man half beast licked her palm and sucked on the tips of his blood stained fingers, panting and blowing two streams of steam from his nose: “How’s that portal going?”

“Here. You know how to use it right?” Emilia Corin could hardly raise her own arm, and the scroll she took from her pocket just fell onto the ground.

The half man and half beast picked the scroll up, then slowly tore it open. Apparently the scroll needs some specific magical energy trick to open, and it was taking him quite a bit of effort just to open it correctly.

A portal with light yellow edges appeared in the space beside Emilia Corin and the half man half beast. The half man half beast extended his hand and picked Emilia Corin up, then walked into the portal carrying her on his shoulder.

When the two came out from the exit of the portal, both of them fell onto a smooth, reflective marble ground inside a spacious room underground with an altar in front of them. Several guns and enchanted weapons were instantly pointed at them the moment they touched the ground.

“Why here?” a young woman called off the people on guard, then gently raised both her hands to help the two up: “What happened?”

“The other portal scrolls were disrupted, we lost two men just from the disruptive spells they prepared.” the half man half beast said: “We’re lucky, please tell Ms. Summers, the mercs from Bitch Reaper were targeting this precious little apprentice of hers.”

“Emila? Are you alright?” the young woman took a look at Emilia Corin, and found that she seemed to have passed out, her face cracked up and almost entirely covered in blood: “Find the healers, now!”

“They knew what they were doing, they had preparations for almost all of us.” the half man half beast said: “And it worked - we’re the only ones left. Hell, if I didn’t have my new bones, I would’ve not made it too. You guys have a fucking spy among you.”