Omega's Rebirth-Chapter 734: Unwanted Company ()

A flash of lightning lit up the small room, and then a loud clap of thunder tore through the sky, soon followed by a another, indicating the beginnings of a storm.

It did not take even a moment for rain to begin pelting down heavily. "A downpour out here?...At this time of the season?" Neveah murmured.

A loud crash echoed from the lower level of the inn, it sharply interrupted the silence of the night before Xenon could provide a response, and they both exchanged an uneasy glance.

They were far out in the stronghold and they had ensured no traces of their whereabouts were left behind, no one could have guessed Neveah was away from the protection and security of Dragon Keep, especially at this time of unrest.

Neveah frowned slightly, she reached for her outer robe but Xenon stopped her. "Stay here... I’ll take a look first. If it is an unwanted company, they are most likely after you." He said.

"Don’t even think about it. Together or not at all, I’ll be damned if I let you out of my sight again." Neveah replied, pulling on her outer robe, she got off the bed.

Xenon chuckled despite the situation, he did not insist further and led the way out of the small room and down the stairs. Down in the lower level, Verothrax who seemed to have crashed into a table slowly got up to his feet, his gaze fixed on the entrance where the door had been knocked off its hinges.

There was a pool of water around him and Verothrax was completely drenched.

Neveah and Xenon got to the bottom of the stairs, Dante and Estelle were not far behind and Ida also came down from the stairs, it seemed Verothrax had sent her in to rest while he took first watch alone. Ida hurried over to Verothrax, whilst Neveah glanced over at the door.

"The attack came out of nowhere, I didn’t catch the attacker coming and couldn’t react in time." Verothrax explained to the group, taking Ida’s hand in a gesture of comfort.

His words revealed that even Verothrax was yet to know who had attacked him and where the attack had come from, which made one wonder how fast the attacker had to be to catch Verothrax off guard, all eyes moved to the entrance of the inn.

The darkness of the night beyond the dimly lit inn made it nearly impossible to see who had attacked Verothrax, the storm clouds had obscured the moonlight, casting the sky in total darkness and the heavy downpour dimmed every other sound so it was difficult to pick up on footseps.

Neveah squinted slightly, willing her eyes to adjust to the darkness but the best they did was pick up on silhouettes from far away.

Silhouettes that only became clearer as they got closer. Neveah blinked, watching the strange looking figures become more visible.

There were four of them, thin and tall, but what was most strange about them was the silvery color of their skin. The closer they got, their gleaming silvery skin became apparent, small, blue-green scales lined some surfaces on their skin, in a different pattern from one to the next.

For one, the scales were lined up along the sides of his neck and down to his collar bone, forming a swirling pattern.

Another had some littered across his face and upper arms. Their hair was a variety of different shades of green, and their pupils were more like small slits than rounded orbs.

In all their strangeness, Neveah could not help her awe at the beauty of these four strange people.

"Mers!" Estelle exclaimed, passing a look to Neveah who was equally astonished as she had realized the exact same thing. However, they did not have the luxury to be surprised.

"Get out of the way!" Dante exclaimed just as one of the mers dashed forwards in a flash, his movement as fluid as water, the rain droplets around him solidified into sharp icicles and with a wave of his hand, they shot straight for the group.

"Dante..." Xenon growled lowly.

Neveah spun out of the way on instinct, pulling Estelle along with her. Dante stepped forward, releasing a torrent of flame that melted most of the icicles but a few still got through and lodged into the walls and the wooden floor.

In the next moment, wave after wave of icicles was launched at them and Dante did his best to neutralize the attack whilst advancing on the attacking mer.

The storm had grown even fiercer and a lightning bolt tore through the roof of the inn, right into the ground, splitting a table in half and setting the wood on fire.

"Why are they attacking us?!" Estelle exclaimed in concern. "We have no disagreement with the Mers!"

"None that we know of." Verothrax replied, his tone was cross and he lifted a hand, a black mist swirled around his hand. "I do not plan on waiting to find out."

Neveah panicked at the familiar sight. "Don’t do anything! You can’t use your magic yet! It’s out of control!" Neveah dashed forwards and grabbed Verothrax’s wrist, preventing him from summoning void magic.

Verothrax’s sharp gaze settled on Neveah but Neveah held his gaze with a deadly glare of her own. "You still have a mess you haven’t fixed, don’t add to it. Keep your wrath in check and leave this to Dante and Xenon." Neveah said sternly.

Grunting in displeasure, Verothrax shrugged off Neveah’s grip on his wrist but he lowered his hand and complied.

"There’s just four of them! Do they not realize they don’t stand a chance?!" Estelle said, raising her voice over the fierce storm.

"Those four are the Cardinals... the strongest disciples of the Sea Oracle." Xenon relayed to them. "They are no dragons, but they are not easy opponents either."

"See how they box us into the inn? They understand we need space to take on dragon form so as not to crush those around us... and they intend to use that to their advantage." Xenon observed.

"I’ll take care of it, you stay put." Xenon said to Neveah and then he lunged.