Chapter 236: The five II
Although the five were blasted away, none of them had suffered any serious damage, and as such they quickly regained their wits about them. But the next moment they all felt a deep sense of danger in their collective minds!
One of them was under attack!
Instantly they tried to move the one that was under attack with their strange attack, but Vacuse was already there, his face twisted in pain and his steps shattering the ground as if it were made of eggshell.
Vacuse saw the air around his target warp and twist as the strange magic began to work around him. He didn’t chase after him; instead, he bent slightly and then kicked out.
Pow!
A supersonic boom of wind blasted out so strong it stripped the first layer of the ground away and shot it like arrows. Of the target, his body from the shoulder was suddenly gone, ripped away by a kick that didn’t even touch him.
And then the magic acted and the rest of the body was gone, appearing before the remaining four. The now four squad members stared at the mutilated body before them and trembled.
They were a squad of five. Five minds linked together for so many years that they’d stopped counting. Every single thing about the others was known to all. They had no secret and, oftentimes, they thought as a single entity.
But now, one of their minds was silent, and it would remain so forever!
A ripple started in the remaining four minds, quickly turning into a storm and then an earth-shattering rumble. Their bodies trembled, and then for the first time in years, they spoke.
The four opened their mouths and howled!
The air trembled from the passing of their grief.
But their enemy only smiled, his face a twisted mask of pain. He smiled and then forced himself to laugh!
Their howl turned into anger and then they began moving! There was no need for words again as their minds bent over one single purpose—to destroy the one who killed their squad member!
They disappeared! And this time, as they disappeared, they all prepared a mighty spell to unleash on their enemy the moment they appeared.
No matter how strong their enemy was, he couldn’t possibly avoid that much spell!
The moment before them disappearing and appearing around Vacuse wasn’t up to two seconds, but the moment they did, they sensed that something was wrong.
When they appeared, their enemy was gone, and instead they found themselves standing in a circular pit of darkness that seemed like liquid and yet was not.
They didn’t know what it was, but they had fought enough fights to know that they needed to get the hell out of the place immediately! And they tried... they did try, but their magic that was almost instantaneous now felt as if it would take a minute to activate!
They had been caught in Vacuse’s domain!
Suddenly, while the four were still reeling in confusion, a hand appeared in what seemed like a large dot of darkness that hung in the air.
The hand gripped the head of one of the squad members and a destructive energy flickered, destroying the head as if the hand were crushing an apple!
And just like that, a second of the five was dead!
The others reacted swiftly and unleashed their attack spell in the direction where the hand had been, but it was already gone. All their spells did was crack the air, shattering and crushing everything around into dust.
But of the attacker... they saw nothing.
Two of the five were dead, and for the first time in a long time, the squad felt fear. They were the ones who always hunted people and were never hunted the other way around. But the end of the sword had been flipped, the pointy end pointed at them.
It was then that their spell finally worked and they disappeared.
"What should we do? What should we do?"
"Let’s fall back and attack with long-range offense! We can’t get close to him!"
"But who are we going to attack? We can’t even see him! Where is he? Where!"
Desperation thrummed in their collective mind as they tried to think of what they had to do.
The first thing they did was slide their magic around themselves, weaving it into an invisible shield. Only then did they breathe a sigh of relief.
"We have made a serious mistake! He is the one we should have kept our eyes on, instead of that girl!"
"How is such a monster moving around and we don’t know? He’s only a circle two!"
"Our mission still remains the same. We kill him, no matter what. Now that we know his level, we will treat him accordingly. We will surely kill him. We must!"
They shoved their fear aside and focused on the anger they were all feeling. Yes, they must kill him! What else would they do for the ones who killed their squad members?
But... what exactly were they supposed to attack?
Just then, the dark pool on the ground folded up and slid upright, forming an imitation of a door. Something came out of the new door of darkness.
It was a creature of flesh and bone with four hands that ended in knife claws. Where the eyes should be were two pits of darkness, and the rest carried no features.
"What’s this... a monster?"
"But that’s such a weak monster! It’s even lower than a first circle. Is this some kind of a joke?"
And then one of them opened his mouth and actually used his voice. "You... where... where are you, you coward?"
"I don’t know why you are so eager to die," a gasping voice answered them as Vacuse stumbled out of the dark door.
He looked as if he’d been swallowed by a dragon and then spat out again. His trousers around his legs were burnt away as if he had dipped his legs into hot lava.
His legs were swollen even though they were covered in rippling dark and purple swelling energy.