‘There are so many of them.’
Zich counted the shadows slowly approaching them. At a glance, there were about thirty of them.
‘There must be more than the ones I can see.’
The empty streets were now filled with a great number of beings. Their presence gave off ominous and cloudy energy like the shadows right in front of him. It seemed as if they had dropped from the sky or shot up from the ground.
‘Whatever. I already knew that it would be difficult to detect these guys.’
At most, Zich was besieged. Although it was a dangerous situation for most people, for Zich, it had simply been a fact of life before his regression.
“Zich! Those guys even appeared on top of the roofs!” Lyla shouted.
“Come down with Elena now!”
“All right!”
Since they were ambushed, it was better for them to group up. Zich thought about joining his companions on the roof since being on high ground was advantageous in a battle; but in the end, he decided to have Lyla and Elena come down and stand next to him. The biggest reason for his decision was the structure of the building.
‘If the building breaks down while we fight on top of it, that would be bothersome in many ways.’
It was unlikely that the rooftops of the shabby houses in the back alleyway would be able to withstand their fights. Moreover, Zich was someone who had decided on doing kind acts. He had to avoid a possible scenario of accidentally destroying a building and dragging civilians into the fight as much as possible. Of course, if the battle got too rough, it could damage their surroundings like the time he fought Glen.
‘It can’t be helped then.’ Zich made a clear decision. There was nothing he could do about things that couldn’t be helped. Then, he jumped while carrying Lyla and Elena, and the shadows began to attack them.
Tang! Tang!
Although they were dawdling around before, the shadows moved with agility now and attacked Zich and his companions. Their bodies flew towards them like arrows.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Zich swung Windur. The fast and sturdy sword moved dizzily across the air.
“Ahhhh!” Elena screamed and closed her eyes at the shadows coming her way. On the other hand, Lyla simply glanced at these shadows, and the expression on her face remained unchanged. Before the shadows reached her, Zich’s sword struck them first.
Pop! Pop!
Dozens of shadows bounced off at once. From the clear sky, Lyla gently landed down next to Zich’s side.
“Huh? Huh-uh?” Unable to calm her thumping heart, Elena looked around her surroundings as if she had seen a ghost.
“Hans! Snoc! You guys team up and fight there!”
Unlike Zich, Lyla, and Evelyn, who had been relatively close to each other, Hans and Snoc were quite a distance away. Thus, Zich commanded them to stay in their area. He also gave his command because he believed that the two could handle their opponents after all the training and experience they had gained until now.
“Yes, sir!”
“I understand!” The two answered loudly as they pressed their backs against each other.
“Lyla! Capture and kill those guys from far away! And Elena!”
“Y-Yes!”
“Bring that person to me!” Zich pointed to a collapsed man on the ground after the shadows attacked them. He had fallen a bit of a distance away from Zich. The kidnappers usually left one person in place after kidnapping one of the lovers, but since a battle had erupted like this, there was no guarantee that the culprits would let the man live. Furthermore, even if the culprits left the man alone, there was a possibility that he could be injured or even lose his life in the aftermath of the ongoing battle.
Elena didn’t know what to do. She felt anxious that she had to separate from Lyla and Zich while mysterious shadows were edging closer to them. Thus, Lyla said, “Trust us, Elena. Besides, if you want to continue traveling with us, you have to get used to situations like this. It will help you improve your skills too.”
Elena looked at Lyla and then shifted her gaze toward Snoc fighting in the distance. Unlike his usual sloppy appearance, Snoc skillfully used the earth around him and the mithril he had taken out to battle. Elena gripped her staff.
Thud!
She jumped, and the shadows wriggled and followed her. She suppressed her feelings of wanting to turn around, run away, and closing her eyes while hugging Lyla. Instead, she had her eyes wide open.
Tang! Tang!
The shadows bounced in Elena’s direction, but she didn’t stop.
Whoosh!
Elena’s hair flapped, but it wasn’t because of her running. Something transparent passed her.
Crash! Crash!
Walls of compressed air that Lyla shot targeted the shadows. The shadows bounced off before they could reach Elena.
“Huff! Huff!”
Elena approached the man’s side and held her breath. However, she didn’t have any time to rest. Elena placed her arm between the man’s armpit and pulled him up.
“Ehh!” There was no way a girl like Elena who stayed inside her house and studied magic all day would possess great physical strength. Furthermore, she had to carry a full-grown man with a big build. Naturally, it was very difficult for Elena to move him. Yet, she gritted her teeth and pushed herself until she succeeded in dragging the man to where Zich and Lyla were.
“Huff! Huff!”
As Elena took in all the breaths she had missed from her relief and physical exhaustion, Lyla patted her back.
“Good job,” Lyla said.
Elena smiled brightly, but Zich’s next words made her face grow pale.
“You really lack stamina. You should get some physical training from me later.”
Even if they had taken an easy road to Janmalpi because of her, Hans and Snoc continued their training rigorously. Since she witnessed their training firsthand, Elena couldn’t help but be stricken with fear—even more so because she heard about how Zich used to run his past training from Snoc before.
Elena tried to say something, but Zich focused on his battle again.
Crash! Crash! Crash! Zich repelled all the swirls of attacks the shadows made. Their hits were heavy, but they couldn’t pierce through Zich’s defense. At the same time, Zich did not stop swinging his sword.
Thud!
A shadow from far away blocked Zich’s attack, and its movements became slower—it was the shadow that recently swallowed a woman. Unlike the other shadows, it tried to run away from Zich, but Zich persistently attacked the shadow running away.
Slice!
Zich sliced a shadow in half. Without even a scream, the shadow disappeared into the air. However, Zich had only defeated one opponent; other shadows quickly filled up the space. Zich calmly continued to swing his sword. The number of shadows he sliced through soon became one then two, and then three.
Flash! Flash!
Lyla consecutively poured out spells and attacked the shadows in the distance. Even though they were in a back alley, they were still in a city; since she was unable to use magic of great magnitude, she made up for it with quantity.
With Zich’s support, countless spells attacked the shadows and made them burst. Elena only recently learned to use her mana, but she helped Lyla by using magic too. Hans and Snoc were also fighting well. Estellade’s light swept through the shadows and mithril tied the shadows up. They defeated a great number of shadows. It seemed as if Zich and his companions’ victory was only a matter of time.
However, the shadows weren’t going to be defeated just like this.
Slide!
The shadows suddenly withdrew. The shadow that was trying to run away also vomited out the woman and joined the other shadows. Lyla looked at their movements with suspicion. “Are they trying to run away?”
“No,” Zich coldly replied and ran towards the shadows.
Zich’s companions followed him from behind and continued their attacks. Some of the shadows popped out and defended against their attacks. The attacks from Zich’s group slowed down momentarily. The shadows used that time to gather together in specific places and fuse together.
The shadows began to slowly take up shapes; they got longer as if a crouched person was slowly rising up and something that looked like arms and legs began protruding out. The black shapes also grew more and more colorful.
“What the hell?” Zich sliced a shadow blocking him and looked at the figures in front of him.
Before he realized it, the shapes now looked completely like humans. The shadow humans were expressionless and had slightly dark skin, but if they hadn’t seen the shadows transform and change shape, they would have never realized that the people in front of them used to be masses of shadow monsters.
“What?” Zich was surprised after checking the face of a shadow human. “Those things, perhaps…”
At that moment, a shadowy human’s gaze turned towards Zich. He instinctively raised his sword.
Crashh!
Before Zich realized it, the shadow man’s fist collided against Zich’s sword.
“Ugh!” Zich let out a small groan. The shock he received was completely different than before.
‘It got stronger!’
Then, Zich swung Windur towards the shadow human who tried to pass Zich and rush towards Lyla. The shadow human crouched its body and evaded Zich’s attack. Zich raised his leg and kicked the shadow human.
Thud!
Zich’s shin and the shadow human’s arm hit each other. The shadow human withdrew a few steps back.
“This guy is strong! Sharpen your focus!” Zich shouted to his companions. Fortunately, Hans and Snoc were adapting well to their opponent’s sudden change. However, what was important wasn’t the fact that the shadows had suddenly changed form.
“Zich! Those guys’ faces!”
Zich replied, “I know!”
Crash!
Zich and the shadow human collided again, giving him a clear view of the shadow human’s face. It was a familiar face; it wasn’t only this face that looked familiar. All the shadow humans around him looked familiar. He had never met them before in real life, but he had seen all of them in portraits.
‘They’re the victims of the kidnapping cases!’
All the shadow humans had the faces of the victims.
“Are they perhaps the victims themselves?” Lyla began to hesitate in her movements; if they really were the victims, it was difficult to attack them.
“There’s no way. I’m sure there’s a connection, but I don’t think they are the victims. I think it’s the opposite. With this, the possibility that the victims died has grown higher.”
There were many among the kidnapped victims’ families and lovers who desperately wanted them to still be alive. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that this was all they hoped for. Zich hadn’t denied them this hope either.
‘However, it’s a different story if there are monsters that look like the victims.’ From Zich’s experience, there was a high chance that the victims were dead.
Crash! Crash!
The battle became even fiercer. Fighting one shadow human was doable, but it was honestly a bit strenuous to fight a large group. Even though there were fewer enemies than before, the shadow humans were exponentially stronger. Zich extended his senses. It seemed as if people had finished evacuating because he didn’t sense anyone near their surroundings.
“Hey!” Zich loudly called his companions. “There is no one around us! It’s okay for us to destroy the surrounding buildings, so use all your force to attack our opponents!”
It was too tiring to control their strength while facing the shadow humans. Moreover, another worry popped up in Zich’s head as their opponents’ abilities spiked up. ‘If the culprit sent these shadow humans because they felt threatened by us, the culprit might have also sent these guys to Joachim and Evelyn.’
Zich fused an enormous amount of mana into Windur and swung his sword.
Crasssssssh!
A powerful swing swept the city’s alleyways like a storm.