294 And Here We Are...
‘I knew it!’ Tomin thought as he gnashed his teeth. ‘Was he watching all along so that he could…<cough>… swoop in and help, taking that as a favour?! I told them that keeping one of his bodies was a bad idea!’
As he had thought!
A hooded figure that looked like it had just come from an intense battle emerged, with a torn, hooded dark jacket and pants, dried and dirtied with blood and dust.
The mask it wore looked like it could shatter with a single touch, the green and white colours looking to be fading.
The fact that this figure was missing an arm brought on an eerie sense to the onlookers who were none the wiser; Tulnas’ group, giving them nothing but apprehension and confusion as they wondered if this was a sudden hidden enemy to fight or something else entirely.
However, it was unmistakable.
The hazel glint from behind the mask that this individual wore as well as the heavy presence he exuded which seemingly hardened the air immediately buried everyone in tension.
This was it!
The body that Tomin and Guissepo had been instructed to keep for Actuass when the man had returned from Evic with Revia’s body!
As a favour, he had asked to keep this body here, claiming that he would feel better if it was ‘protected’ by powerful elites as he had a nigh perfect sync with it.
This is why Tomin had been upset, flaring with frustration towards Guissepo earlier.
“…Once more… I receive no answer even when I’m standing before the evidence…” Actuass said with his gleaming eyes looking at Skullius.
The Discount Human froze for a bit.
When Actuass’ presence became all but clear, he had sensed its composition clearly.
Undeath!
This was definitely Undeath energy!
A form he was not used to with thickets of perfectly weaved energy which made an immaculate horror in the air!
This was no scrub!
Was this man…
The Discount Human placed his hand on the sheath to [Demion’s Dance], but he hesitated and loosened it afterwards.
Would a blade made to harness a death flinging technique work on someone who wielded undeath?
Gertreld who was at the side kicked up Tulnas’ blade which was on the ground over to him, the topless Tamer quickly handling it as he got ready for another brutal fight, mana oozing from his body.
Post using his Territory, his tamed beasts would all be recuperating from him having used their abilities. Furthermore, he couldn’t use his Aura as it would have all been used up.
He only had himself to work with at the moment.
He saw that Actuass was keeping his eyes on Skullius and also…. perhaps the floating hand shaped object before the young man but…
Was this all?
Actuass shifted his view to the two remaining Evenfall members who were looking at him with complicated expressions.
“I suppose I could help you before I go on to reap this murderous fellow here. A good enough trade for keeping one of my proxies right?” Actuass asked, making Tomin grunt in disgust as he felt his body continuously degrade.
‘Tsk. This guy is insanely strong…I think. I can’t tell where he stands exactly… Our best course of action is to swarm him with attacks. A full scale wave with all we have,’ Tulnas thought before his eye suddenly shifted to Ginie who was sweating, memories of what had happened earlier swirling in his mind. ‘No. It’s better to take the careful approach. Let’s hold off on attacking aimlessly. Hmm? What’s this?’
Natalika, Gertreld, Ginie and Tulnas felt something peculiar within themselves but not the Discount Human.
Skullius was fully swimming in his anxiety as he gulped unconsciously. Memories of his exchange with Eobald raced in his mind and he recalled the message that he had initially been supposed to take to the Green Neolists as per the man’s request.
‘Find the Green Neolists and tell them that, They are onto us…’
As if the Discount Human would have spent his time searching for these guys when his null life was on the line.
But now, it looked like that portion of his story had caught up to him, the crest he had in his possession being used to track him somehow.
‘This is pretty bad…’ Skullius thought.
Actuass turned from the two captured members and back to the rest.
“Do I really have to do this again with you?” Actuass deliberated, seeing as everyone was experiencing IT already.
Everyone outside the Evenfall captives and…
“What?” Actuass narrowed his hazel eyes as he looked at Skullius.
Because of the natural ability afforded by his powers, anyone he was facing against him would start to lose their life energy aka, their lives immediately.
In Actuass’ vision he could see the bodies of the three ladies and Tulnas spilling the green life energy steadily as expected but…
This was not the case for Skullius!
This man leaked nothing at all!
This… was an unexpected occurrence.
‘Strange. This is the first time this has ever happened…’ Actuass thought.
It seemed the people before him were waiting for him to make a move first.
Because of this new and strange phenomenon, he was happy to oblige.
He wouldn’t mind losing a few shapely jugs of undeath energy if it meant he could take this seemingly more mysterious killer of Eobald before him and study him.
‘And here I thought it would be an uneventful journey…’ Actuass thought as he took a step that prompted everyone he was up against to grow tense as they prepared their strongest moves against this foe.
However…
A prolonged last fight against this menacing villain wasn’t going to happen, as Direction seemed to have other plans.
Actuass was the first to notice it as it was something from his arsenal.
A quivering that broke free of his control and summoned itself.
A figure promptly appeared before him.
A dark green figure, skeletal in stature.
Thick bones with deep gashes and cracks could be seen as this image loomed between Tulnas’ group and Actuass who stopped and uttered in confusion…
“SoSei?”
The tool he only used when things when absolutely necessary sprouted from storage on its own!
This wouldn’t happen unless…
“Haaa….” the dark green skeleton opened what would be its mouth and spilled a dreadful air with a mix of terrifying energies.
As it did, bright red flames flared from its sockets, first as mere wisps that danced languidly, then as twin ferocious tongues of mad flames that rose and lit the entire cavern in a helish red hue!
As this occurred, only silence descended as all wills to fight were extinguished, because unlike Actuass’ presence, this one didn’t incite one to fight for survival but to simply… stand there and watch it with horror!
Ginie dropped to her knees with a pale face while shivering horribly as the immense waves of power from this skeleton warped the air around everyone!
Natalika’s hand trembled as she loosened the hold over the hilt to her sword prior to launching her attack.
Gertreld merely stood frozen in place while Tulnas…
The Tamer gulped as he took in heavy breaths, unable to speak or move.
What. The. Hell!
Gwendelina sensed the enormous palpations of power from the skeleton and could only suffocate under the pressure from her advanced senses while Tomin…
Well, he had died immediately from the shock of having the raging powers slam into him which allowed the poison in his system to finish him off.
All this said and done, one person was terrified beyond everyone’s wildest inference.
Skullius.
His eyes almost popped from his sockets as the horrors he imagined after seeing the green, the red and feeling this menacing energy, turned out to be true when he felt the gaze of this skeleton over him and no one else as it then went on to speak.
“And here we are…. against Direction. Against your god-like favour. We meet again, in flesh and bone, Skullius…”