The dog-kin however suddenly spoke up, engaging in conversation for the first time. “Hehehe! Ghost loves the reaction, but shouldn’t you know already? Ghost is Master’s loyal pawn, which means that she is just a side attraction. She’s nothing more than that. Thus she can’t help but wonder; why is everyone so focused on her like she’s the final boss of a labyrinth when she’s just an underling?”
“… Huh?” Katie exclaimed with great shock. Then her brain soon began working. ‘That’s right! Shit! There were more…!”
Katie wasn’t a stupid woman, in fact, she was highly intelligent for a simple, low-ranked adventurer, but Ghost’s cruel presence was so overwhelming that they all forgot that she had allies.
Before the longsword wielder could glance to the side to check, another voice spoke up. This one was just as sinister as Ghost’s, but much deeper, meaner. “Kekeke… Well said, Ghost. You ladies wanted a boytoy, right? Here I am, let us play then.”
Before they could even react to ask for a peaceful resolution for this unneeded conflict, came the incantations that turned the blood in Katie’s veins to ice.
“[Aqua Bolt] [Fireball] [Air Slash] [Boulder Throw]!”
‘Four elements?!’ Katie screamed inwardly.
“It’s him! The man with the strange smell!” Wolfie whimpered with dropped ears. He’s evidently given up.
Katie barely had time to think, let alone react. Her instincts screamed as the words “[Aqua Bolt]” reached her ears, and she dove to the side just in time to avoid a high-velocity bullet of water. It whizzed past her head with terrifying speed, missing her by a hair’s breadth, and slammed into the lush forest foliage in the direction she’d been standing.
Her heart thundered in her chest as she landed hard on her side, but there was no time to dwell on the pain. The sinister voice spoke again, this time with a deadly litany of spells:
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“[Fireball], [Air Slash], [Boulder Throw].”
Katie’s eyes went wide in horror as she watched her squadmates.
The fireball came first, roaring through the air like a comet. The blazing sphere of flame streaked toward a pair of her comrades who had taken up a defensive stance. They didn’t even have time to scream as the fireball hit them head-on, exploding in a fiery inferno. The force of the blast sent their burning bodies flying, engulfed in flames that devoured them whole.
The smell of scorched flesh and charred armor filled the air, the ground around them blackened and cracked from the heat.
Katie could only watch in horror. “Dodge already!” No one listened to her desperate shout.
Next came the [Air Slash], a razor-sharp crescent of wind that howled as it cut through the forest. The deadly arc of wind was so fast, so precise, that the two men in its path barely had time to react. One of them, a man from the other team, raised his sword to block, but it was useless.
The wind blade sliced through his steel weapon like it was paper, severing his arms clean off before continuing its deadly path through his chest. His lifeless body collapsed into the dirt in a shower of blood.
The woman beside him tried to run, but the slash caught her mid-step, cleaving through her torso with surgical precision. Her upper body slid off her legs, hitting the ground with a sickening thud, her eyes frozen in shock as the life drained from them.
Then came the final blow- [Boulder Throw].
A massive chunk of earth was torn from the ground by unseen forces and hurled toward a pair of mages who had been preparing to cast a counter-attack. The boulder swirled toward them, and though they tried to scatter, they weren’t fast enough. The massive stone slammed into them with a sickening crunch, flattening their bodies beneath its weight.
Blood sprayed outward as bones shattered and armor crumpled like tin beneath the crushing force.
Katie could hear their screams, their desperate cries for help as their lives were snuffed out in an instant.
She clenched her teeth, forcing herself to stand. Her body trembled with a strong mixture that was made up of both fear and fury. Her squad, her team- they were being picked off one by one. Massacred like filthy pigs in a slaugtherhouse.
Their numbers had dwindled drastically, from more than a dozen to just 7 of them left. Seven versus six. The man had murdered 7 of them with his barrage of spells in a matter of seconds. An overwhelming sense of dread pressed down on them, and Katie realized they were truly facing enemies far beyond anything they’d ever fought before. The greed of their leaders had led them down a path of no return.
‘We should’ve just remained adventurers…’ She thought dejectedly.
To become a Phenom one had to be under 30 years of age, and while the Heralds under them could be older, they had to be weaker than the Phenom levels wise or they would not be eligible. They thought that since their leaders were young upcomers of level 14-16 they had a good chance, but…
The enemy’s leader gave his cold command. “Solace, how about you show us what you’re made of? Scourge, Dream, you also go in. Need to get as many levels as you can.”
Katie’s eyes locked onto the robed woman who unholstered her bow. But there was no arrow. Confusion twisted Katie’s thoughts for a second. Is she going to fire an empty bow? Is she a nervous rookie?’
Then the masked archer spoke.
“[Arcane Arrow].” she murmured under her breath.
A pulse of shimmering energy crackled to life at the end of the bowstring, growing brighter as mana coalesced into the form of a glowing, ethereal arrow. For a single tense second, Katie’s instincts screamed at her to run, but she was rooted to the spot, unable to tear her gaze away from the sheer focus with which the archer aimed.
The arrow was loosed.
The spell shot forward with a deafening crack, faster than anything Katie had ever seen. The radiant arrow split the air, closing the distance in an instant and slamming into the head of one of her allies. His skull exploded like a watermelon hit by a sledgehammer with shards of bone and sprays of blood flying everywhere.
