New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live-Chapter 1119: Assailants Unknown

Spinning his head left and right, Alex couldn’t spot Aoi anywhere, even when using his mana vision. Her mana signature wasn’t anywhere nearby either, as he couldn’t detect her presence within a mile-wide radius.

Kary couldn’t sense the woman either, as she spread her senses further away than Alex. Regardless, something caught her attention.

In the crowd, a few hundred meters away from them, four mana signatures flared up in her senses, and by the intensity of them, she could tell they were charging up some kind of attack.

And the target couldn’t have been clearer.

"Everyone get down!" she shouted, as two blades of wind, a fireball, and a bolt of lightning flew at them, whistling, roaring, and crackling with danger.

Alex’s mind went into overdrive instantly, on reflex, his ’Thousand Thoughts’ skill activating in a heartbeat.

He looked at the attacks, their movement suddenly barely perceptible, aside from the lightning bolt, which was still moving along, albeit at a much slower pace, and looked at the people targeted.

The bolt, he could tell, was aimed directly at him, most likely trying to aim the fastest spell at the one who could move quickest in the group, while the fireball was aimed at Rì-Chū, and the two wind blades flew toward Kary and Violette.

He knew that the spells weren’t a threat to the two girls, their defensive spells already taking shape, and a skeleton was spawning at Rì-Chū’s feet, while his eyes were still widening in surprise.

’He needs to learn to react better,’ Alex thought, noticing the lack of physical reaction aside from his expression changing.

David, on the other hand, was already locked on the incoming threat, or more so, the people who had launched the attacks themselves; his eyes glaring in anger.

As for the lightning bolt heading this way, he felt only mildly threatened by it, knowing he could move out of the way more than fast enough.

However, looking over his shoulder, he could see a group of innocent Chinese kids running behind him, unaware of the danger they could be in if a battle between awakened people erupted here.

He knew the attack was lethal to an unawakened adult and dared not imagine what would happen to a child getting hit by it. Therefore, he decided to tank it himself.

Unfortunately, that also meant fusing with one of his spirits, since his body, even if already greatly enhanced by the mana coursing through it, was far from enough to absorb the highly charged attack.

Sadly, his only tanking spirit was still out of reach for him on the Earth side of the veil, so he could only meld with White Death and hope not to mentally scar the children for life in his werewolf-like appearance.

His hair started turning white and growing in length, as the hair on his body grew longer as well, puffing up his clothes, threatening to rip it at the seams. When the bolt reached him, the transformation was already done, and his arms crossed before his chest, a look of determination flashing across his eyes.

’I am not letting children get caught in a fight that doesn’t concern them. What kind of monster attacks in a place filled with innocents that could get caught in the crossfire?’ he wondered.

Time resumed its normal pace in his mind as the skill deactivated. There was no point in keeping it active any longer if everything was already in place to react to the attack.

The roar of flames, whistling wind blades, and crackling thunder re-erupted around him as the four attacks hit their targets.

Screams of terror echoed all around them when debris flew about, hitting people nearby but inflicting minimal damage to them. Panic immediately ensued; the bystanders fleeing from the center of what seemed like a bomb exploding.

But the onslaught was not over.

More attacks started flying in their direction, a mix of flames, wind, and lightning, forming an array of colours mixing inside the rising dust cloud, until everything was but a multicoloured mist, roaring and booming, debris flying everywhere.

After what felt like an eternity to the scared Chinese residents, but only lasted about a minute, the attacks ceased, the attackers waiting to see if their strike had had the intended effect.

But as the dust fell, they were sorely disappointed.

Standing inside a dome of fire, Kary was locked on to them, a spell already formed between her hands, ready to launch forward and scorch anything between her and them.

Next to her, a solid sheet of ice separated Violette from the danger, whilst also hiding her from view as she concentrated on her retaliatory spell, Alex already feeling the temperature drop around them.

As for Rì-Chū, he had finally snapped out of his surprise and erected a wall of stone and vines before him, pulling Yeoja behind him protectively, making her blush slightly. His other hand was already planted on the wall, as he seemed to sense the attackers from within the nature of the wall and stones that stretched under their feet.

David was already summoning a throng of undead minions around him, ready to unleash hell upon their assailants at a second’s notice.

Surprisingly for Alex, though, the man was also eyeing the surrounding people, his face showing a slight sense of unease.

’Huh... He is actually considering the lives of the surrounding innocents. That’s a surprise,’ Alex thought.

He didn’t know how long that feeling would last, or if it would last at all, but he had no intention of finding out.

Snapping his head toward Rì-Chū, Alex barked an order,

"Get these people to move away, now!"

Immediately, the boy shouted in Chinese, and the crowd that was still not panicking started running away frantically.

Only the five kids behind him were frozen in absolute terror and didn’t budge a muscle.

Knowing the chances of them understanding him were low to none, he did the next best thing: lowering his face in front of them, flashing them a toothy grin.

"Boo!" he said, spooking them out of their minds.

The five of them bolted out of there, not even thinking of looking behind them, lest the big bad wolf was chasing them to eat them.

And with them gone, Alex could finally focus on the threat before him.

Because what had been four attackers at first had now climbed up to eight, and he could tell there were more incoming. There were always more.