Sarah glanced at the scene and shook her head. "You are still weak."
"Let us leave or we'll kill your teammates." The shadow order minions said.
Crimson, Luca, Ivy, Olivia felt humiliated.
They thought they were defending themselves till the last minute, but it turned out they were spared to be used as bargaining chips.
Sarah raised an eyebrow. "I don't like negotiating."
Huge water hands appeared around the Abyssals and shadows order minions, capturing them in one fell swoop.
"Heal yourself. I will take care of everything." Sarah nodded at them and moved a few meters away in a blink.
The water hands brought the captured in front of her.
Her teammates struggled but pulled themselves away from the battlefield and slowly walked away.
He also wanted to help out his teammates, but he argued himself against it.
Today there were enough 'It was a trap' moments.
What if he went there, and it repeated?
But there was one common thing between Varian and his teammates. They both looked at Sarah in admiration.
'Power! This is power!' Varian admired how Sarah was able to change the situation by her power alone.
"I'll ask one by one." Sarah smiled and waved her hand.
The water hands pushed the men in black forward.
Sarah glanced back at her teammates and took a deep breath.
Even though she looked like she didn't care, her cold eyes said it all. She was furious.
With a snap, she removed the masks. As expected, the faces were of celebrities and officials.
Fake faces. She waved her hands, and the masks were put on again.
"Who hired you? Who gave you the information? First to tell me will live."
The shadow order elites glanced at each other and fell silent.
Sarah squinted her eyes and the water hand holding them grew thorns. It pierced deep into their body.
"Arrgh"
"Urrgh"
"Krrr"
They yelled in pain but didn't answer.
"How long can you hold on before one of you breaks down?"
The water thorns turned into ice and they stabbed deep into the warm bodies.
"Bi.tch!"
"Shaddd"
"Nev..er"
They glared at each other and gritted their teeth.
Watching from the distance, Varian felt his hair erect.
Even though they looked struggling, their eyes were resolute.
"Boom!"
The human bodies imploded blasting Sarah away.
It was a small suicide explosion and Sarah was fine. But she instinctively used her mana to shield herself and this meant the water hands collapsed.
And the Abyssals escaped.
Sarah was furious and to some degree, humiliated at her own action.
"Stay!"
She waved her arm and a huge water arm captured the escaping Abyssals.
The Abyssals struggled.
Sarah brought them closer and glared into their eyes.
Then they too glared at her.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
All the bodies of Abyssals and humans exploded.
A huge mushroom rose a hundred meters into the air.
The teammates who were moving away were also affected and were thrown further away into the distance.
It was not fatal, but they were all incapacitated. Their injuries increased manifold.
To live was to truly suffer. They proved it.
As the dust cleared, Sarah coughed blood and collapsed onto her knees.
Unknown to her, Varian's hide out was also blown away, and he was moderately injured despite being a few hundred meters away.
However, instead of complaining, Varian sighed in relief and patted himself.
'I knew it.'
The dust filled the air and Varian could barely see a thing.
However, he heard footsteps.
Weak. Unsteady. Yet heavy footsteps.
No. There were two of them.
Varian felt his heart stop for a moment when he realized the direction.
It was towards Sarah.
'Go or not go?'
At the same time, Sarah was experiencing one of the worst injuries.
Suicide bombing was unique to Shadow Order. So she didn't suspect Abyssals would to the same. They used that to their advantage.
Even though she protected herself at the last moment, the distance was too close. The bomb was also far more dangerous.
Now, almost all bones were broken, and her organs were working only because of her Controller physique.
If she was a normal Water Awakener, she'd be dead.
Even though her water shield blocked most of the power, her survival was attributed to two things.
Her defense star treasure which was broken during the explosion. And her strong body thanks to being a Controller Level 6.
Without either of these, she'd still die.
In fact, even if there was a slight negligence from her side, she'd have died.
'Was... I their target all along?' Sarah felt shivers down her spine.
Why was the management not aware of this?
She was the third strongest cadet in one of the top five Academies of Human Federation!
How could her information leak?
Who could even have the authority?
The more she tried to avoid, the clearer the answer became.
Sarah closed her eyes and exhaled in pain. The pain of knowing the truth overwhelmed her physical pain.
'A traitor at the very top of the pyramid.'
'Maybe they just wanted to eliminate competition. So they used Abyssals.' She tried to tell herself but she knew it was not true.
Witnessing the seamless cooperation between the Abyssals and humans, she was clear that they were not acting together for the first time.
They were long-term partners.
'These beasts... betraying their own race.'
Her pendant shone, and it stopped her bleeding. It was a 5 star treasure and helped her multiple times.
She would be healed in a few hours, thanks to her Controller physique.
Now that every enemy was dead, she could at least rest.
Click.
Sarah's ears perked up as she heard… footsteps.
'Is it Varian?' She tried to move her broken body.
Click.
Click.
The footsteps got clearer and louder.
'No. These footsteps are too heavy.' She felt powerless.
In her 20 years of life, this would be her most vulnerable situation.
She glanced to the side and saw her teammates in the distance. They couldn't even move.
She could only rely on herself. No one would help her.
'Except that one person…' Sarah thought back to the happiest time in her life.
"K-keeek. D-ead." A hoarse voice sounded and Sarah turned to the side.
A human walked towards her. His body was a mess. His internal organs, except his heart were crushed.
The only thing that kept him alive seemed to be a strange star treasure on his body.
Sarah identified him to be the Space Awakener.
'He teleported under guise of explosion...damn it.' She struggled to get up but couldn't.
Her body was too injured for that. Even with the emergency healing from the pendant, she couldn't move.
"Hahaha. My name will be honored. Killing you will make fill my cause. Shadow Order will reign supreme!" He laughed hoarsely.
A sword appeared in his arm. As he raised his arm, his arm just collapsed like a snapped branch.
Even though he teleported and hid himself, he was also injured from the explosion.
"Argh" He grimaced but his eyes were fixated on the injured Sarah. His gaze was fanatical as he raised the sword his other hand.
He was about to swing i—
Creaak
He looked down at his chest in disbelief as a water arrow lodged itself in his heart.
Sarah collapsed on the ground.
She spent most of her mana to shield herself from the fatal explosion.
This was the last bit of mana, but it saved her life.
"Looks like I won." She smiled.
"No, you didn't." A deep voice sounded and an Abyssal emerged behind her.
