Orianna shook her head with clear disappointment. “I see that you’re still the proud little kid who likes to brag about his stupid experiments. Isn’t it time for you to finally grow up?”
“Kekeke! I refuse!” Mordecai’s energetic shout was interrupted. freёweɓnovel.com
“[Mother Nature’s Reach]”
Instead of continuing the conversation Orianna simply extended her arms upwards, and in an instant thick, strong vines erupted from the ground with incredible force. They wrapped around Mordecai, Draven, and Elara.
However, the vines weren’t even attempting to hurt them. Within a single moment of them materializing into existence, they had already hurled the three enemies far off into the air. I’m guessing Orianna knew that they would be able to easily come out of the confines of her spell, so she only wanted to create some distance between them and us.
She turned her head around and I got the distinct feeling that she was staring directly at me in particular. “Children, we will handle the old guard. The rest I leave to you. None of them are beyond your skill. Best of luck.”
Being called a kid by such a petite woman who was multiple feet shorter than me was certainly very strange, but she had an air of extreme maturity surrounding her delicate frame. Orianna felt like a person who truly lived for many centuries and has amassed a great deal of life experiences.
Raika then grinned fiercely, evidently having quite an intense hunger for the upcoming battle. “I will kill my opponent sooner than either of you, older sisters.”
“It’s good to dream while you’re so young!” Vex cheered.
Orianna wasn’t game, though. “This is not a competition. You’re to kill them as efficiently as possible, that’s it.”
The three Phantom League members have already landed on their feet. They were looking entirely unfazed by having just been thrown across the sky with the help of the angry vines.
Raika, Vex, and Orianna wasted no time as they moved in on their chosen duel partners. The three ’sisters’ distinct personalities shone through in how they approached their enemies.
Raika shot through the battlefield like a canon ball and before I could even blink she was already throwing punches at Draven. She was very eager to prove herself to her two rivals who based on context were older and stronger than her.
Vex meanwhile practically skipped towards Elera with happy little jumps like a schoolgirl who was overjoyed from passing a hard exam. She was having fun and enjoyed the moment despite the harsh death battle she was about to partake in.
Orianna lazily strolled towards Mordecai with a borderline bored expression. Her oppoent was in the midst of gulping down the contents of some elixirs which he got from his robe’s inner pockets. The pink-haired beauty wasn’t at all concerned that Mordecai was fervently buffing himself up. She had a poker face as she calmly made her way towards him. Enjoy new tales from freewebnovel
They temporarily took care of the final bosses, but in the process left us with the remaining henchmen, the hundred combatants. “Fuck! This isn’t what was supposed to happen… Two more of them were following us all along?!” Soren shouted with frustration.
I had to give it to him, I totally ate up his acting. I thought he was nothing but a spoiled brat. Well, he likely still is, but there’s certainly more to him than I initially thought.
“Wrath!” I shouted Iris’ criminal alias to gather her attention. “I swear on everything I hold dear that I won’t disclose your secret. Let’s work together.”
She thought about it momentarily before nodding. “I’ll keep yours with me as well. We do need to talk afterward, though.”
“Agreed.” Just as so, a temporary ceasefire emerged between us. She was a mighty fighter who I couldn’t afford to have backstabbing us while we were fighting the enemies. Now only Selene and Cedric were the possible traitors who I had to keep in mind.
“Selene, these people will kill you just like they will kill us. Let’s have a ceasefire between us until we get out of here alive.”
“… Alright.”
With that out of the way, we created a circle with the backliners standing lumped together behind the frontline who formed an even bigger circle. Thankfully Abudha and his 4 Heralds were all melee, so they could even the numbers out better. I wanted to move to the frontline too, but couldn’t leave our fragile members standing next to Selene and her scheming mind.
27 vs ~100
I didn’t like our odds. These enemies might’ve been nameless soldiers of the Phantom League but such big shots like Mordecai shouldn’t be masquerading around with weaklings, especially since he knew of Vex’s strange spell that let her mark 20 of them. Based on Orianna’s words, it should be a very hard but winnable battle if we all work together.
“Devil!!” Suddenly I heard Vex’s jovial tone shouting my name specifically for some reason. “This is a gift from big sis! Accept it with a great deal of gratitude! [Dark Covenant: Revenant’s Sacrifice]”
Before I could even process her words, an eerie, horrifying phenomenon unfolded around us. Those of the Phantom League soldiers who had their shadows stolen by Vex earlier suddenly stopped moving.
Their faces froze in expressions of shock and horror and in the next moment they collapsed lifelessly to the ground, like puppets whose strings had been abruptly severed. No visible wounds marked their bodies, and yet they were unmistakably dead. They lay there with an eerie stillness blanketing the battlefield as everyone took in the surreal sight.
And then I saw it- the shadows. Dark tendrils began to slither out from beneath the fallen soldiers by peeling away from their lifeless forms. The shadows stretched and swirled, twisting through the air as if drawn by some magnetic force. They were all converging toward Vex’s location.
They glided across the ground in order to enter her shadow one after another, only to be absorbed into the growing darkness beneath her feet.
As each shadow melded into her own, Vex’s shadow grew larger and more distorted, transforming from the slender silhouette of a kendo outfit-wearing girl into something far more ominous and monstrous. Her shadow writhed and expanded with its edges curling and twisting as if living its own separate life. It ended up shifting into the grotesque shape of a monster- a towering creature with multiple limbs and an aura of pure malevolence.