231 Death Departure
The silver-haired newbie was pushing boundaries unexplored previously in her mana efficiency, launching wind after wind.
Sharp bursts of air shredded the thick skinned orcs, handling them after the shielder concussed them.
Combatting a slim, tall goblin that wielded bladed forearms, Yuna clashed against the shockingly fast fiend. It had its mouth completely stitched closed, silent and speedy as it spun around to utilize its sharp forearms.
A skilled goblin. It’s physical abilities are respectable as well— a far cry from the norm of its kind, Yuna thought.
She was able to evade the edge of its blades, though finding an opening for an attack was a challenge in its agile aggression.
Sparks fluttered in the air as metal slid against metal, daggers smacking against flesh-infused blades.
Though she didn’t speak of it, the dagger-wielding demi-human had pride of her own, especially when being challenged by a goblin—a being often thought of as the lowest of the low vermin.
“Tch,” Yuna clicked her tongue.
Changing her approach, she leaned back to avoid a wide slash before falling backward purposefully, flipping around into a sweep of the goblin’s leg.
Even agile maneuvers like that weren’t quite enough as the tall goblin leapt up.
“—!”
Yuna’s cat reflexes tingled, autonomously blocking an unexpected strike: from the bottom of the goblin’s foot, a sharp blade protruded for an unseen counter.
It was a close call, but she repelled it, lunging forward after the skilled goblin leapt back, rushing forth and using an array of swift slashes paired with superb footwork to bypass its agility.
An onslaught of eviscerations found their way on the goblin’s body.
It’s skin is tough—a half-baked slash won’t reach deep enough. In that case…she thought.
Not deep enough or seeming to faze the pain-immune fiend, it silently lunged forward to go for a penetrative thrust.
As it aimed for her heart, Yuna dropped back, wrapping her legs around her opponent’s arm and snapping its elbow with a violent crack.
After breaking its joint harshly, she used her legs to contort its limb, causing the blade stuck to the goblin’s forearm to stab into its forehead with a bloody squelch.
“Not a sweat,” Yuna said.
—
Amidst a high-octane clash, Emilio found his body heating up through his extended usage of the third stage; each breath felt like he was breathing fire as he rushed through Collector’s acid sprays.
It splattered through the air like dozens of flesh-melting bullets, hailing towards the Dragonheart.
“—That won’t work,” Emilio mumbled.
As he chased towards the murderous criminal, he swiped his beloved sword forward, unleashing a heat wave that repelled and vaporized the droplets of acid in his path.
“Scary! Scary!” Collector smiled.
Before Emilio could close the distance completely, Collector activated the mystical ring on his hand as it shined.
Two portals opened in front of the transformed man, releasing a pair of serpent-headed, massive beasts that leaped and hissed towards the Dragonheart.
“Cannon fodder won’t save you!” Emilio yelled.
Beginning to feel the heat bearing down on him, desperation and anger surged as the young Dragonheart found himself becoming reckless, swinging his blade forward with a massive release of power following.
I’ve got to finish this now—back-to-back transformations isn’t exactly easy on my body! He thought.
FWOOOOSH
A burst of wind propelled forward, infused with a swirl of azure flames, swept through the beasts, spinning the Collector as it threw the man off his balance and slammed him into a fiery explosion.
The massive release of explosive flames roared outward, rumbling the entire area before dispersing, revealing the state of Collector who wobbled onto his feet.
“…Burns….Burns!” Collector anguished as blood seeped from his mouth.
Most of the skin had been burnt off completely from Collector’s body, revealing his tainted flesh below as his skull was left exposed.
Pointing towards his own chest, the grotesque criminal began to conjure his special stitches.m
“It doesn’t matter!…I’m unkillable! I’m the greatest! I’m—”
Spieling on as he began to lengthen the stitches on his chest for another rebirth, Collector was interrupted as he spit out blood, seeing the world upside down.
“Wh-what?…” Collector gasped.
“I won’t make the same mistake.”
Emilio stood there with his blade already swung as the head belonging to his foe bounced off the ground, leaving the monstrous body decapitated and inanimate.
There were no second chances taken; no half-measures would be left to give the tenacious, devil of a man a chance to continue living like a cockroach through nuclear winter. With that resolve in mind, he held his hand forward, emitting a massive heat wave that left the body of Collector desolated.
Finishing the job, not a second longer as taken in stage three as the young mage relinquished his transformation, allowing his azure scales to crumble and fall from his body.
“…Phew…” Emilio breathed out, covered in sweat.
By the end of Collector’s tenacious life, the others finished their foes as well, taking out the last few abominations.
“And that’s…that!”
Everett grunted out as he bashed the last of the goblins’ head, seeming to gross himself out from the grotesque splat on the ground.
Melisande stood there, panting after frequent castings of spells as she leaned down with her hands on her knees, sweating, though smiling to herself. It was an achievement for her; feeling the mana in her body strained as her muscles ached and throbbed, knowing she pushed herself to new limits in this fight.
“Nice work!” Everett said, raising his hand.
The shielder offered a celebratory high-dive to Melisande, who looked up at the man’s hand for a moment, too exhausted to respond in kind before catching her breath a moment more, slapping his hand.
“Yeah,” she huffed out with a smile.
Glancing around, Yuna made sure that they well and truly did finish off the abominable forces of Collector before easing her guard, wiping her daggers off before sheathing them.
After gathering themselves, the three looked over at Emilio, who was across the room, knelt by Collector’s headless body.
“–” Emilio was silent.
There was hesitation when it came to touching the grotesque, purple-skinned body of the felled criminal, though he had little choice if he meant to retrieve the unique ring worn on the figure’s finger.
…I hate to loot somebody like this, but…what’s fair is fair, he thought.
Luckily enough, he was a bit too exhausted to put much stock into what was ‘gross’ as he tugged on the ring before it finally slid off of the fallen Collector’s finger, relinquishing itself into Emilio’s possession.
“There we go,” he whispered, inspecting it.
The ring was made of a black metal with a dark gem in the center, bearing the complexion of the cosmos in its dark slate, filled with the faint glitter of stars and periodic glows of planetary bodies.
…Fascinating. I guess somebody called “Collector” would have something valuable like this. At least, I’m assuming a magical piece of jewelry like this is pretty high-end, he thought.
“Hey! Emilio! Are you good?!”
Running over, Everett yelled, checking up on the young mage as the other two followed behind him.
Emilio glanced back, sliding the ring onto the index finger of his right hand before nodding with a small smile, “Yeah. I’m fine.”
Besides a few scratches and bruises, most of which were endured by the sturdy shielder, they came out of the hectic battle mostly unscathed, though the real infliction was suffering the grotesque injury and smells inhabiting the underground lair.
“…Can we get out of here? Now that we stopped fighting, the smell of this place is kicking back in…” Melisande said, covering her mouth and nose.
“Yeah, I’m right there with you…” Emilio nodded, scrunching his nose.
–
After some scouting, Yuna managed to find a proper passage for the group to travel down, leading to a wide tunnel that was surprisingly, and welcomingly, devoid of abominable contraptions and experiments.
Marching at the back with his shield strapped to his back, the blonde-haired bumpkin looked back at the cat woman, “What about you? Demi-humans have pretty strong noses, right? I bet this must be the worst for you! Ha-ha!”
Yuna crossed her arms, sticking her nose up while keeping a straight face, “While that may be true, I’ve trained myself to handle such environments without a problem. I am a professional, after all.”
Though she said as much, Emilio looked back, noticing that Yuna’s straight face was hardly enduring the rancid stench inhabiting the tunnel they walked down as her dark-red tail swayed rapidly.
Yeah…no way you can train yourself to get used to a smell like this, Emilio thought.
After passing through the tunnel, it seemed to be a secret area that Collector used for quick travel, leading the group to finding the very thing they went into the accursed lodge in the first place for: the anchor.
“Bingo,” Emilio knelt down.
It was a single nail driven into the ground, inscribed with runes and emanating a malignant aura of the tainted mana used to activate it.
“That’s it?” Yuna asked.
“Kinda small, ain’t it? Something like that is making the barrier out there invincible?” Everett scratched his head.
After inspecting the anchorpoint of the barrier for a moment more, poking it and standing back up, Emilio nodded, “Yeah, this is it. An anchor doesn’t need to be anything special–it’s just a catalyst for the magecraft’s set limitations. Now…”
“Time to bust it up?” Everett smiled.
“…Don’t tell me you’re planning on bashing it with your shield?” Melisande asked.
“Huh? So what if I am?! It’ll get the job done!” Everett looked over in surprise at the questioning of his methods.
After some arguing, mostly with Everett wanting to break the nail serving as the anchor like an impatient child, it was done by Emilio with a simple, unceremonious fireball that shattered it to pieces.
VRRRRR
The ground rumbled as the sound of the barrier above ground, surrounding the perimeter, perished at the destruction of the spell’s anchor.
“There,” Emilio said.
“Wha–?! That was totally–urgh, fine,” Everett huffed.
Without a word, Yuna began climbing the ladder that was positioned by the wall, leading upward towards a latch on the small portion of the ceiling upward.
As they climbed out, one by one, following one after the other, the hatch above was reached by Yuna, who smacked it with her hand, knocking it up to reveal a much yearned for sight after spending time in the unsavory lair: the outside world.
“There we go! Ha-ha! Sunlight!” Everett smiled.
Though it wasn’t exactly the light of the sun that shined down through the Valley of Parmesus, Emilio didn’t feel like correcting him as he felt relief as well through the sight, surprised he’d ever feel happy to see the deadly valley.
As they resurfaced from the Collector’s lair, they left the trapdoor built into the soil itself, glancing back at the wooden lodge without any positive feelings.
“…Alright, how about some breakfast?” Emilio asked.
“Now you’re speaking my language!” Everett smiled wide.
“I could go for something to eat,” Melisande placed her hand on her stomach.
Though not outwardly excited, Yuna pulled her scarf over her mouth as if hiding her emotion, “I guess I could use some nutrients.”
“Let’s get going then,” Emilio smiled.
–
Another day was survived in the harsh trial for the recruits of the illustrious “World-Class” rank for new adventurers, overcoming a long, stressful day.
A period of peace came as they found a new place to camp out in the woodlands, swapping watch times and hunting duties, making it through the time needed before finally–the final day of the trial arrived.
[The Last Day of The Trial]