Pierro and his group stopped when night fell upon them, making a camp to finally rest their bodies. They still traveled a lot and were proud of what they achieved. It was soothing to finally just sit down beside a campfire and enjoy the little peace after placing down basic warning spells. They could finally rest, talk and sleep a little, and none of them thought they would be in any real danger. Not in the Amarin's home territory, where they were the strongest. This was also why they almost died without realizing it.
None of their spells worked in alerting them when with a sudden, loud pop, a figure appeared right in their campfire's flames. He was surrounded by a dark, black, and green mist that instantly snuffed out the fire. Their stares registered the white hair, the green eyes, the unnatural feeling emanating from him… yet their consciousness was lagging behind to put things together and realize it was an ambush from an Undead. From clearly an Intelligent variant.
"Your soul is mine!" Cabrao grinned, unable to hold back, stretching forward to hold onto Pierro's head; yet another pop echoed right next to them before he could grasp onto it. A metallic, flexible blade wrapped around Cabrao's wrist as crimson flames burst forth like a dragon's breath. "...!" The Undead Grand Elder was now in the same shoe as his perceived prey, failing to react in time.
"No… you are mine!" Lia whispered, her mismatched eyes glowing in the darkness as she pulled and, with a swift move, cut off Cabrao's hand, who kicked out, distancing himself from the rest.
"Shit!" He held his severed wrist that failed to bleed.
No blood was in his body anymore, but that did not mean he was not feeling the pain of being maimed. His first thought was to flee, but he could not teleport anymore, and by spreading his consciousness, he realized why. Four mages were standing nearby, creating a formation around the campsite, cutting it off from No-Space. Three men and a woman. Their light- and nature-based mana were mixing together peacefully, and it rebounded his own from creating an opening into No-Space, cutting off his escape route.
"Troublesome!" He dodged Lia's slash, yet before he could slam his intact palm onto her back, he was made to roll away, barely escaping a black blade that aimed to stab through his nape.
Without hesitation, Miasma flowed out of his body, reforming his cut-off hand from that filthy energy while a smoking staff appeared before him, which he used to block the rock-covered fist of Raufon. When the two made contact, the smoking miasma started to eat away Raufon's armor while Cabrao was pushed back, tearing up the ground with his feet but remaining unharmed.
"Pests!" He cried inside his head, redirecting the immense strength behind Raufon's attack, pirouetting out of its way, and bringing his staff down to smack his next opponent in the face before he could land his attack.
"Tsk!" Keily clicked his tongue, erecting a flaming shield before him, going into a defensive stance, forgoing his attack in a fluid motion. Although he was already mid-air and casting his spell, he seamlessly switched and avoided being hurt. He was trying to use Raufon as a cover, sneaking up on Cabrao, but the Undead's senses were extra sharp, and his battle experience made him a dangerous opponent for the Misfits.
"Another one?!" Cabrao cried out deep in his skull when he felt the change in the soil below his feet. It became muddy and sloppy, making his legs stuck to it, realizing there was a water mage in the vicinity, setting a trap for him. He could not escape quickly, and he just started using his mana to break free when he heard a soft pop. "You can still teleport?!" He cursed, twisting his body in a wholly unnatural angle.
His torso turned 180 degrees, facing directly towards the other direction, blocking Lia's sword with his staff. The moment the two met again, it resulted in a blast and the mixing of crimson flames and blackish Miasma, pushing the two apart and throwing the muddy earth into the air as if it was a puddle of water. By then, Pierro and the rest finally reacted, all getting ready to join the fight, but the appearing Koadriana waved her hand.
"Back off for now! Make sure it does not escape! If you join in, you will just get in the way; we are used to working as a team!" She ordered them, watching Lia land and the Undead realign his body with ease; even his severed hand found its way back, reattached in a blink of an eye.
"Damn… he regenerates even more quickly than the ones in the Academy!" Keily mumbled, waiting for their next move.
With Solren's lead, the rest of the group maintained a light cage around them, preventing the Undead from leaving. It was rejecting everything that was unnatural, blocking Cabrao's teleportation attempts while it led Lia's mana to flow freely, enabling her to fight without restrictions, including her teleportation skill.
"We need to smash him into pieces!" Lia shouted, and Raufon made his move at once.
With loud, banging steps, he transformed into his beast form, wearing metal and rock-like armor that shrugged off Cabrao's precise strikes as he slammed into him like a freight train. Sion was correct; the Undead had a similar fighting style to Pierro, focusing on speed and precision. Luckily, he had a staff and not a twin-blade, with sharp, sword-like endings. Even though the two clashed directly, Cabrao managed to redirect the energy of Raufon once again, who in turn felt like he collided with something soft, capable of absorbing all the power behind him.
"Need help!" Cabrao gasped, feeling troubled, knowing that with these numbers, even if they were individually weaker than him, he would lose. With a long breath, he released his mana, which was part of his soul, blasting the nasty Miasma toward Pierro's spectating party.
"Cleanse." Appeared a violet-colored word, glowing in the night, followed by black fog spreading out, standing in the Miasma's way. With Aurora's spell, it intercepted the nasty, mind-controlling clouds before they could burrow into their heads. "Contain." She wrote, and her dark mist formed a prison around the Miasma with her focused guidance.
"No, you won't!" Lia and Koadriana said simultaneously, attacking Cabrao, who was aiming to disrupt Aurora before she succeeded. While Lia used her sword to strike, Koa formed a whip from water as the two attacked in tandem.
"Tsk!" Cabrao had no chance to continue, returning to the defense, redirecting Lia's sword and blocking Koa's whip in one elegant move.
"Heh! Big mistake!" Koadriana grinned as her water-whip coiled around his smoking staff, spreading and starting to cover it like some kind of sticky slime, trying to disarm Cabrao.
"Earth prison!" Clapped Raufon, much more easily molding the wet, muddy ground, raising it up around Cabrao, forming a mortar-like bowl around the Undead. At the same time, Lia and Keily appeared on its edges and blasted the inside of it with their strongest fire spell. Both of them swallowed a fire seed right before, and their flames were black as night, harmonizing with each other, increasing their intensity to an unbelievable level.
"Aurora!" Lia shouted, and she arrived at once, throwing the captured Miasma into the fire, letting it be purged and burned away before it could do any harm.
"Why isn't he screaming?" Koa asked, nervous, looking at Ceiline, Solren, Simbad, and Sion, who were still in a meditative posture, standing around them and maintaining their magical prison. Their plan was simple… do not let up, not until only ashes remain.
"I don't know if they even feel pain," Raufon answered, watching Lia and Keily cook the Undead.
"Keep vigilant!" Aurora snapped at them, her words appearing as flashing signs from her fingers.
"Boss!" Keily shouted, and with a nod, Lia agreed.
The two took out potions, gulped them down, and then formed the same spell in perfect synchronization. Lia's deep crimson and Keily's golden flaming fireball landed in the mortar the next moment, resulting in a violent reaction.
"Close!" Raufon roared, using all his strength to reinforce the trap and turn the mortar into a sealed prison.
Everyone could hear miniature explosions inside it as the black, crimson, and golden flames reacted to each other and attacked the Undead's Miasma and its wretched body. Raufon held his hands together, focused on keeping the trembling sphere intact, resealing all the cracks appearing on it while the destructive, elemental storm raged inside. It took a solid minute for everything to calm down, but only looking at Raufon's face, they knew it was not over.
"Release it!" Lia shouted, already thinking she might have to summon her second sword and use her blue flames to deal with their target. This Intelligent variant was the strongest she ever saw, and she was sure that it had to be someone important in the Undead's army.
Watching Raufon end his spell and let the ball crack, it quickly fell apart, dispersing some of the remaining black, crimson, and golden flames into the air. What appeared before their eyes was a dark, melon-like cocoon made out of Miasma, still swirling rapidly around a severed head. Everything else was burnt to ashes, falling onto the ground like sickly-looking snow, but the Undead itself was still alive, looking at them.
Aurora was the first to move in, bringing down her blade with full force, but it simply bounced off of his Miasma as if she hit a solid metal wall. When Lia arrived as the second to strike, her blade also rebounded with a sharp, ear-shattering clang. She felt the violent force vibrate the bones in her hand, pushing her away, and she had to look at her artifact, afraid it was chipped or cracked because of the impact.
"Too strong…" Aurora signed with her hand.
"Let me." Solren stepped forth, leaving their sealing spell to the remaining three. He knew they could only maintain it for a little more, but his sister and her group were still below this Undead's strength.
By his second step, he already summoned a broadsword into his hand, swinging it with such elegancy and speed it looked like it was always with him and everything was part of one, single, fluid movement. Cabrao also felt that this was dangerous. The new enemy was someone who could pose a danger to him, especially in his currently weakened state… but it was also what he was gambling on.
When Solren's blade landed on the protective spell of Cabrao, it immediately exploded, receiving a great burst of energy from its source. Solren reacted quickly, pulling his sword back and casting a wide-range light spell to catch and destroy the escaping energy before it could hurt the others. The violent explosion's aim was the shield first and foremost, as Cabrao wanted nothing more but to flee. Ceiline, Simbad, and Sion were not strong enough to wholly withstand it, and multiple holes were punctured into it at once.
"Freedom!" Cabrao smiled, and the head dissolved as his original appearance, that of a single, slightly transparent soul, slipped out, flying through the air and slithering beyond the cracks, leaving at once.
"After him!" Solren roared, flashing forward as the Misfits followed suit, pursuing the Undead, leaving Pierro and his astonished group behind.
"Brother, I can catch up to him-" Lia explained, wanting to teleport forth, but Solren shook his head.
"No. The fact he did not slip back into No-Space means he has reinforcements. Or a goal…."
"Or he is weak." Lia reminded him quickly. "It is the best time now to-"
"We follow!" Solren ordered them as their Major. "He is escaping to somewhere… and I want to see where!"
Solren was not wrong, and neither was Lia. Cabrao was too weak to open up an escape route into No-Space. Even if he could, in his current state, that would also affect his soul, and he may enter reincarnation early and be swallowed up by the Sea of Souls, becoming part of its infinite energy once more. That would mean his soul gets purged of all memories, all feelings, everything he worked for. Something he was not willing to do. What option remained for him was that he had to run back to where Yuya was. Where the Supreme Elder's soul fragment was hiding with her immediate disciples. It was already a reinforced place where they had a chance to kill or even capture his pursuers.
"Yes…" Cabrao thought, calculating the risks and rewards in his mind. "This could turn into a big win if I can gift them these… I bet Master Yuya would love the bodies… at least one of them for sure… yes, yes… this is the way for me… yes…."
What Cabrao failed to realize was that he was bringing chaos to his master's place. Even if she wins, that alone would alert everyone to their presence… and this was the land of Amarins. This was a region governed by the leaders of the Six Houses. The moment Cabrao escaped, no matter if they won or not… they were to die at the hand of an Amarin one way or another.
Pierro and his group stopped when night fell upon them, making a camp to finally rest their bodies. They still traveled a lot and were proud of what they achieved. It was soothing to finally just sit down beside a campfire and enjoy the little peace after placing down basic warning spells. They could finally rest, talk and sleep a little, and none of them thought they would be in any real danger. Not in the Amarin's home territory, where they were the strongest. This was also why they almost died without realizing it.
None of their spells worked in alerting them when with a sudden, loud pop, a figure appeared right in their campfire's flames. He was surrounded by a dark, black, and green mist that instantly snuffed out the fire. Their stares registered the white hair, the green eyes, the unnatural feeling emanating from him… yet their consciousness was lagging behind to put things together and realize it was an ambush from an Undead. From clearly an Intelligent variant.
"Your soul is mine!" Cabrao grinned, unable to hold back, stretching forward to hold onto Pierro's head; yet another pop echoed right next to them before he could grasp onto it. A metallic, flexible blade wrapped around Cabrao's wrist as crimson flames burst forth like a dragon's breath. "...!" The Undead Grand Elder was now in the same shoe as his perceived prey, failing to react in time.
"No… you are mine!" Lia whispered, her mismatched eyes glowing in the darkness as she pulled and, with a swift move, cut off Cabrao's hand, who kicked out, distancing himself from the rest.
"Shit!" He held his severed wrist that failed to bleed.
No blood was in his body anymore, but that did not mean he was not feeling the pain of being maimed. His first thought was to flee, but he could not teleport anymore, and by spreading his consciousness, he realized why. Four mages were standing nearby, creating a formation around the campsite, cutting it off from No-Space. Three men and a woman. Their light- and nature-based mana were mixing together peacefully, and it rebounded his own from creating an opening into No-Space, cutting off his escape route.
"Troublesome!" He dodged Lia's slash, yet before he could slam his intact palm onto her back, he was made to roll away, barely escaping a black blade that aimed to stab through his nape.
Without hesitation, Miasma flowed out of his body, reforming his cut-off hand from that filthy energy while a smoking staff appeared before him, which he used to block the rock-covered fist of Raufon. When the two made contact, the smoking miasma started to eat away Raufon's armor while Cabrao was pushed back, tearing up the ground with his feet but remaining unharmed.
"Pests!" He cried inside his head, redirecting the immense strength behind Raufon's attack, pirouetting out of its way, and bringing his staff down to smack his next opponent in the face before he could land his attack.
"Tsk!" Keily clicked his tongue, erecting a flaming shield before him, going into a defensive stance, forgoing his attack in a fluid motion. Although he was already mid-air and casting his spell, he seamlessly switched and avoided being hurt. He was trying to use Raufon as a cover, sneaking up on Cabrao, but the Undead's senses were extra sharp, and his battle experience made him a dangerous opponent for the Misfits.
"Another one?!" Cabrao cried out deep in his skull when he felt the change in the soil below his feet. It became muddy and sloppy, making his legs stuck to it, realizing there was a water mage in the vicinity, setting a trap for him. He could not escape quickly, and he just started using his mana to break free when he heard a soft pop. "You can still teleport?!" He cursed, twisting his body in a wholly unnatural angle.
His torso turned 180 degrees, facing directly towards the other direction, blocking Lia's sword with his staff. The moment the two met again, it resulted in a blast and the mixing of crimson flames and blackish Miasma, pushing the two apart and throwing the muddy earth into the air as if it was a puddle of water. By then, Pierro and the rest finally reacted, all getting ready to join the fight, but the appearing Koadriana waved her hand.
"Back off for now! Make sure it does not escape! If you join in, you will just get in the way; we are used to working as a team!" She ordered them, watching Lia land and the Undead realign his body with ease; even his severed hand found its way back, reattached in a blink of an eye.
"Damn… he regenerates even more quickly than the ones in the Academy!" Keily mumbled, waiting for their next move.
With Solren's lead, the rest of the group maintained a light cage around them, preventing the Undead from leaving. It was rejecting everything that was unnatural, blocking Cabrao's teleportation attempts while it led Lia's mana to flow freely, enabling her to fight without restrictions, including her teleportation skill.
"We need to smash him into pieces!" Lia shouted, and Raufon made his move at once.
With loud, banging steps, he transformed into his beast form, wearing metal and rock-like armor that shrugged off Cabrao's precise strikes as he slammed into him like a freight train. Sion was correct; the Undead had a similar fighting style to Pierro, focusing on speed and precision. Luckily, he had a staff and not a twin-blade, with sharp, sword-like endings. Even though the two clashed directly, Cabrao managed to redirect the energy of Raufon once again, who in turn felt like he collided with something soft, capable of absorbing all the power behind him.
"Need help!" Cabrao gasped, feeling troubled, knowing that with these numbers, even if they were individually weaker than him, he would lose. With a long breath, he released his mana, which was part of his soul, blasting the nasty Miasma toward Pierro's spectating party.
"Cleanse." Appeared a violet-colored word, glowing in the night, followed by black fog spreading out, standing in the Miasma's way. With Aurora's spell, it intercepted the nasty, mind-controlling clouds before they could burrow into their heads. "Contain." She wrote, and her dark mist formed a prison around the Miasma with her focused guidance.
"No, you won't!" Lia and Koadriana said simultaneously, attacking Cabrao, who was aiming to disrupt Aurora before she succeeded. While Lia used her sword to strike, Koa formed a whip from water as the two attacked in tandem.
"Tsk!" Cabrao had no chance to continue, returning to the defense, redirecting Lia's sword and blocking Koa's whip in one elegant move.
"Heh! Big mistake!" Koadriana grinned as her water-whip coiled around his smoking staff, spreading and starting to cover it like some kind of sticky slime, trying to disarm Cabrao.
"Earth prison!" Clapped Raufon, much more easily molding the wet, muddy ground, raising it up around Cabrao, forming a mortar-like bowl around the Undead. At the same time, Lia and Keily appeared on its edges and blasted the inside of it with their strongest fire spell. Both of them swallowed a fire seed right before, and their flames were black as night, harmonizing with each other, increasing their intensity to an unbelievable level.
"Aurora!" Lia shouted, and she arrived at once, throwing the captured Miasma into the fire, letting it be purged and burned away before it could do any harm.
"Why isn't he screaming?" Koa asked, nervous, looking at Ceiline, Solren, Simbad, and Sion, who were still in a meditative posture, standing around them and maintaining their magical prison. Their plan was simple… do not let up, not until only ashes remain.
"I don't know if they even feel pain," Raufon answered, watching Lia and Keily cook the Undead.
"Keep vigilant!" Aurora snapped at them, her words appearing as flashing signs from her fingers.
"Boss!" Keily shouted, and with a nod, Lia agreed.
The two took out potions, gulped them down, and then formed the same spell in perfect synchronization. Lia's deep crimson and Keily's golden flaming fireball landed in the mortar the next moment, resulting in a violent reaction.
"Close!" Raufon roared, using all his strength to reinforce the trap and turn the mortar into a sealed prison.
Everyone could hear miniature explosions inside it as the black, crimson, and golden flames reacted to each other and attacked the Undead's Miasma and its wretched body. Raufon held his hands together, focused on keeping the trembling sphere intact, resealing all the cracks appearing on it while the destructive, elemental storm raged inside. It took a solid minute for everything to calm down, but only looking at Raufon's face, they knew it was not over.
"Release it!" Lia shouted, already thinking she might have to summon her second sword and use her blue flames to deal with their target. This Intelligent variant was the strongest she ever saw, and she was sure that it had to be someone important in the Undead's army.
Watching Raufon end his spell and let the ball crack, it quickly fell apart, dispersing some of the remaining black, crimson, and golden flames into the air. What appeared before their eyes was a dark, melon-like cocoon made out of Miasma, still swirling rapidly around a severed head. Everything else was burnt to ashes, falling onto the ground like sickly-looking snow, but the Undead itself was still alive, looking at them.
Aurora was the first to move in, bringing down her blade with full force, but it simply bounced off of his Miasma as if she hit a solid metal wall. When Lia arrived as the second to strike, her blade also rebounded with a sharp, ear-shattering clang. She felt the violent force vibrate the bones in her hand, pushing her away, and she had to look at her artifact, afraid it was chipped or cracked because of the impact.
"Too strong…" Aurora signed with her hand.
"Let me." Solren stepped forth, leaving their sealing spell to the remaining three. He knew they could only maintain it for a little more, but his sister and her group were still below this Undead's strength.
By his second step, he already summoned a broadsword into his hand, swinging it with such elegancy and speed it looked like it was always with him and everything was part of one, single, fluid movement. Cabrao also felt that this was dangerous. The new enemy was someone who could pose a danger to him, especially in his currently weakened state… but it was also what he was gambling on.
When Solren's blade landed on the protective spell of Cabrao, it immediately exploded, receiving a great burst of energy from its source. Solren reacted quickly, pulling his sword back and casting a wide-range light spell to catch and destroy the escaping energy before it could hurt the others. The violent explosion's aim was the shield first and foremost, as Cabrao wanted nothing more but to flee. Ceiline, Simbad, and Sion were not strong enough to wholly withstand it, and multiple holes were punctured into it at once.
"Freedom!" Cabrao smiled, and the head dissolved as his original appearance, that of a single, slightly transparent soul, slipped out, flying through the air and slithering beyond the cracks, leaving at once.
"After him!" Solren roared, flashing forward as the Misfits followed suit, pursuing the Undead, leaving Pierro and his astonished group behind.
"Brother, I can catch up to him-" Lia explained, wanting to teleport forth, but Solren shook his head.
"No. The fact he did not slip back into No-Space means he has reinforcements. Or a goal…."
"Or he is weak." Lia reminded him quickly. "It is the best time now to-"
"We follow!" Solren ordered them as their Major. "He is escaping to somewhere… and I want to see where!"
Solren was not wrong, and neither was Lia. Cabrao was too weak to open up an escape route into No-Space. Even if he could, in his current state, that would also affect his soul, and he may enter reincarnation early and be swallowed up by the Sea of Souls, becoming part of its infinite energy once more. That would mean his soul gets purged of all memories, all feelings, everything he worked for. Something he was not willing to do. What option remained for him was that he had to run back to where Yuya was. Where the Supreme Elder's soul fragment was hiding with her immediate disciples. It was already a reinforced place where they had a chance to kill or even capture his pursuers.
"Yes…" Cabrao thought, calculating the risks and rewards in his mind. "This could turn into a big win if I can gift them these… I bet Master Yuya would love the bodies… at least one of them for sure… yes, yes… this is the way for me… yes…."
What Cabrao failed to realize was that he was bringing chaos to his master's place. Even if she wins, that alone would alert everyone to their presence… and this was the land of Amarins. This was a region governed by the leaders of the Six Houses. The moment Cabrao escaped, no matter if they won or not… they were to die at the hand of an Amarin one way or another.
