Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 100 - 95: Rescuing Elista III
’The pendant protected me?’, she blankly stared at the pendant, not sure what to feel.
The thing she wanted, but couldn’t take off, had protected her.
Elista froze, feeling complicated emotions.
But reality didn’t wait for her.
Several bone spikes shot from the ground, aiming to pierce the golden barrier around her.
-Thunk
-Thunk
-Thunk
The barrier held for now, but no one knew it’s limit.
"You come HERE!!", Mark shouted as he pulled Gellian back with all his might. And no, he wasn’t putting cart before the horse. He had tried to move Elista away stealthily, but was flabbergasted when his strings couldn’t grasp the barrier.
So, he simply pulled.
His face turned red, muscles bulged, and his mana spiked, and yet Gellain stood rooted to the ground.
It wasn’t that the horned beast men was just that strong, instead, it was his clever use of bones.
What he did notice in his fight with Mark was, his lack of a single powerful attack. So, the only thing he had to look out for was getting surrounded by strings on all sides and being bound or being flung around and getting bound.
And honestly, that was proving to be quite difficult in the abandoned building, which was crawling with Mark’s strings, that’s why he jumped out without hesitation.
Here in slums, that mostly had mud roads and no underground mana supply, he had the ground on his side. His bones could easily dig into the mud and spread out, much like tree roots which kept him rooted to the ground, thus failing Mark’s attempts to uproot him.
On the other hand, it added an element of surprise to his attacks which rose from the ground unpredictably.
But there were downsides to fighting in open too.
He couldn’t let the fight drag on too long.
The commotion he caused was sure to attract city guards to their location. They were in slums which didn’t have any. So, he still had time before the guards from other districts came and called for powerful reinforcements, as they wouldn’t be able to interfere in a fight between two C ranks.
Though he wasn’t really concerned about the guards, what actually had him on the edge were the reinforcements Mark called.
Sure, he didn’t give Mark any chance to use his amulet and call for reinforcements. But if Mark had a silver of intelligence in him then, he would surely keep an C ranked friend or two, on standby, to help him out during this whole incident.
It was his enemy’s home territory, after all.
This was also the reason Gellain wanted to kill Elista as soon as he saw her again. To anger Mark, to make Mark want to kill him no holds barred, and finish the fight quickly.
But it was not working thanks to a stupid barrier.
"ARGH!!", with another shout Gellain used the same move again, bone protrusions breaking free from the encirclement of strings.
Then, without a delay, his massive fist bulged even more, almost reaching the size of a truck, when he swung it down.
No one believed the barrier would hold neither Elista, nor Gellain or even Mark and yet he didn’t shout, didn’t rush, and didn’t panic…
Why?
Cause the reinforcements had already arrived…at a staggering pace at that.
-Crack…!
-Crack…!
For the first time today, Gellain’s armor cracked, with bone splinters flying in the air.
Surprisingly, his fist was being pushed down on the ground by a huge, yet comparatively small mace, and in front of him stood a figure strikingly similar to Mark, just bulkier.
The figure stared at him with fierce eyes and declared, "Don’t touch my sister-in-law.", much to Mark’s and Elista’s embarrassment.
***
[Meanwhile, in the underground complex]
[Rayne’s POV]
For most adults, life is boring.
Just a cycle that you do again and again and again. The same places, the same people and the same interactions.
Eat, sleep, work and repeat.
A boring and exhausting process that you want, but can’t get rid of.
Why?
Because adults are too comfortable in their own ’cycle’ or maybe they are too afraid of breaking out of it.
Once again, why?
Because change synonyms with susceptibility.
Yes, it also means exciting, and can also mean thrilling, but adults tend to look at the bad side of things more. They don’t want to lunge into something they have no experience in.
For them, being experienced is precious.
But all it takes is one step.
’Cause once they take the lunge; they get carried away.
A simple example would be talking with a stranger. It doesn’t happen often, or maybe you haven’t experienced it yet at all.
But if you did talk with a stranger once, a proper talk, not something like ’excuse me’ or ’move it bitch’, then you probably had this thought the next day, ’I babbled too much yesterday.’, with different degrees of embarrassment.
The same thing was happened with me, except I felt more than just embarrassment.
I met a stranger with whom I talked with.
Our talk maybe a little unusual, cause we were using swords instead of words, but I didn’t mind the single letter difference cause it was fun.
’I want more.’
Instead, I craved for more.
-Tang…!
-Tang…!
-Tang…!
The sound of our clash that tickled my ears, the force of our blows that permeated through my muscles and tingled my bones, the sparks of our swords that illuminated my eyes, everything…felt so good!, so thrilling!, and so fucking satisfying!
…I couldn’t get enough.
But I didn’t know why I felt that way.
I had fought before.
I fought against training dummies, knights, monsters, demon cultists. Hell, I even survived an archmage, a vessel and even a mad god.
So, why was it that I was feeling it only now?
’Ah! I know.’
It’s because I am getting stronger.
My body has no limits. It means my body stats can grow simply with effort.
(A/N: Body Stats: Strength, Agility, Stamina, Endurance, Dexterity, Intelligence, Perception)
It’s nothing new. I knew that already for a long time. But for the first time ever, I was experiencing it real time.
Bit by bit, little by little, with each blow my body was getting stronger. The process that usually took a day’s hard work was being compressed in an instant.
It was fascinating.
What I was feeling was the joy of getting stronger.
And thanks to that joy, I got carried away.
Even though I was immersed in the fight, I felt my amulet beeping. At first, I couldn’t afford to check it. But now, when Claire had joined me, I had enough leeway to do so.
But I didn’t. I prioritized myself getting stronger.
So, when I felt a location just pop in my head, as the bracelet I wore suddenly shattered, my mind froze up.
"HEY!! Don’t space out in the middle of a fight!"
Claire’s voice brought me back, but all I saw was a sword in covered in flaming blue aura, about to pierce my skull.
’Huh?’
-Tang…!
A water bullet hit the sword from the side, altering its trajectory enough to miss my skull and graze past my ear.
It stung, but the pain cleared my head enough to lift my sword and block the next incoming slash.
I allowed myself to be pushed back, to create some distance between us, but the speedster was restless. He didn’t me a break and chased after me right away, like he did throughout the fight.
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’Wait, is he just tying me down?’
Thanks to the broken bracelet, which was a pair of what I had given Elista, doubts started entering my head.
During the whole fight, he didn’t give me a break. At first, I thought it was because of his attribute that overlapped aura with each charge. But, he continued chasing me even when his charge was interrupted.
Not to mention, his attacks were fierce but non-lethal in general.
Looking at things from this angle, he was a decoy to keep me busy.
’Something must have happened above.’, I thought deciding to call my party members first.
"Claire! Keep him busy for a while.", shouting that, I did a hasty retreat.
"Hey! Wait! No! I just agreed to support you!", Claire complained as I ran past her with a, ’Sorry!’ and a ’Please!’
"Ugh! You have to pay me later!", she groaned a little more, but complied anyways.
She knew I was a wealthy man and wouldn’t make mind paying her more. Moreover, she was from my faction; she was ought to help me when she could.
(A/N: 3rd person POV from here.)
So, that’s what Claire did.
Towards her aggressor who wore desperation on his face, she shot four walnut sized bullets compressed of water.
Without stopping, Nadol cut through the bullets easily.
"Yeah, thought so.", Claire said, as she waved her hand. "How about this, then?"
On her command, the water changed shape. From the bits of sliced up bullets, the water changed into sharp needles that stabbed at the speedster from both sides.
Nadol’s reaction was fast, within an instant he changed his direction, meeting one batch of needles head on, while the other batch chased his back.
With a large sweeping moment, he struck the water needles, both in the front and the back, with the flat side of his sword.
The movement caused the water to loose shape and threw it away from him, so that Claire couldn’t follow up with something else right away, but it also stopped his own charge.
Then again, it was like Nadol didn’t have the word ’stopping’ in his dictionary. Without a moment’s rest he charged at her yet again.
’Just as I expected.’
Claire’s lips curled up as Nadol was just a step away from her.
’Exactly where I want him to be.’
-Surge…!
A blue magic circle flashed on the ground as water as dense as mercury surged from it.
Startled, Nadol tried to jump out of the trap, but the magic circle just doubled, then tripled covering the whole width of the passage, leaving Nadol with no way to escape.
-Ack…!
The surging water, denser than mercury, engulfed him and rushed into his lungs, causing him to gasp as his breathing got cut off.
-Shaw
-Shaw
The water surged even more, forming a dome with a vortex which sucked Nadol in regardless of his struggles.
’Phew, that worked somehow.’
Claire sighed in relief as she saw Nadol trapped in the dome of water, still struggling but trapped nonetheless. Claire was an assassin after all. Direct confrontation was not her forte, instead tricks and ambushes were.
’That ought to buy me some time.’
Never did she believe that a C ranked magic user would die by her spell that easily. Each high ranked magic user had atleast a few cards and moves to save the day, but she did think that it will buy her a minute or two.
Alas, her opponent was just too desperate.
From within the vortex, a striking black color flashed. And along with it came a terrible feeling of power and sharpness.
’Wait! Wait! Is he using his ultimate move!? Doesn’t he remember where he is!?’
Claire panicked as she felt the sharp aura of a blade, even though she couldn’t see it.
"[Charge Burst]!!!"
And then, she heard Nadol’s voice, as a black aura blade bigger than the dome itself slashed the entirety of it. Even the walls of the passageway were cut, as the whole passage rumbled and seemed to cave in.
’Mad! He is gone mad!!’, Claire shouted inside her mind as she saw rocks falling from above. Hastily, she jumped back to avoid them.
But at that exact moment, the black light flashed again.
"…!"
A blade bigger than her body loomed over her, about to hack her in two.
Caught midair she couldn’t dodge properly, nor could any hastily made barrier block the attack of that calibre.
Still, she tried to resist.
A blue film of water covered her body hastily as it expanded outwards to form a barrier.
But…
-Schwing…!
…it was futile effort.
The blade went through barrier and Claire as if it was slicing a tofu, hacking her in two. Blood and organs fell from her body, painting the muddy floor red as light of life left her eyes.
-Huff
-Huff
In the end Nadol did it, he killed the girl blocking his path, but it consumed too much of his power.
He was tired.
And he had every right to be.
Fighting two C ranks alone without giving them any break also meant having no break for himself.
He was working himself to the bone the whole time, not to mention his last attack that consumed most of his accumulated mana.
-Huff
-Huff
’I needed to go…go…I need to go after him…’
He felt dizzy, and his body was tired. And yet, he had to chase after Ray.
’Just a few seconds…’, he resigned as his body refused to move and fell on the floor butt first.
Finally, the black aura surrounding his sword dissipated and he allowed himself to relax.
Taking deep breaths, he looked at Claire’s corpse in anger, frustration, and regret. Honestly, he wasn’t as cold blooded as his teammates and didn’t want to kill someone unrelated.
However, his hand was forced. If he didn’t but enough time, then it would be his corpse in ground instead of Claire’s.
In the end, he still placed his life above some stranger’s.
It happened right then, in front of his eyes, the corpse, the organs and the blood, all of it lost color and structure, before falling on the ground to form a puddle of muddy water.
’Was she an undine?’, he thought at first, but discarded that thought as his instincts warned him of great danger.
’A water clone! So, she’s still alive!’
His hair stood on his end, but he couldn’t determine what the danger was as he looked around.
Then it came.
Without a single sound, a transparent drop of water, the size of a coin that almost went through Nadol’s temple.
’Shit…!’
He survived. But his hands trembled as he looked at the coin sized hole in his sword and shoulder.
It seemed that their fight still had just started.
Meanwhile, just a few tens of meters away. Rayne had finally called Syrus and was getting updated about the situation.
***
[Attribute: Charge]
Active: The user can overlap mana reinforcement over and over with each successful charge. The mana overlapped can’t exceed twice the amount of user’s total mana.
Note: A charge is considered disrupted if user stops.
[Derived Spell: Disruption and Accumulation]
Passive: After a charge is disrupted, the mana overlapped is accumulated. The accumulated mana can’t exceed twice the amount of user’s total mana.
[Derived Spell: Charge Burst]
Active: Releases the accumulated energy collected using [Disruption and Accumulation] to unleash a powerful strike.
Note: Puts a huge strain on user’s body.
