The third undead snarled and Blinked as well, only to discover that aside from its coordinates, nothing had changed.
‘Master of space, jackass.’ Friya thought while her weapon easily pierced through the enemy’s tough skin and released a blast of darkness magic. She had used one of her personal spells, Lock.
Unlike normal dimensional magic, it didn’t lock on spatial coordinates, but on energy signatures, allowing her to follow her mark and making Blink useless.
The creature was stronger than the others, so even though it had suffered quite some damage it was still able to fight.
Yet all Friya had to do was pump more mana into Dreadnought to release one energy blast after another until the undead started to turn into ashes. Orion had enchanted the rapier so that it could emit all the six elements, even light, so as to give his daughter the greatest versatility in battle.
She could even use it to heal her allies or to stab and heal her target at the same time, so she could more easily capture them alive.
Phloria’s failed attack gave Lith an idea. He Blinked away, to buy himself enough time to weave a simple spell. Then, when the Wraith was upon him again, Lith slashed at the creature so fast that all of its body became immaterial at once.
Lith smirked as a tier two vortex erupted from his left hand, sucking in the smoke while it shot upwards, quickly reaching above the treetops. The remaining sunlight was weak, but more than enough to make short work of the still ethereal undead.
The black smoke was set ablaze and an inhuman scream of pain accompanied its demise.
‘Now, where is that ghoul?’ He thought.
Now that two of her opponents were gone, Phloria could finally focus on the offense. Her conjured tower shield blocked all the incoming attacks and limited the enemy’s field of vision while her estoc was getting closer to its target at every exchange.
Her left hand was free to cast the hand signs for one Mage Knight spell after the other, coordinating sword and magic to pressure her enemy as if it was fighting two against one.
The undead shot a ray of concentrated darkness magic at point-blank range, exploiting its superior speed, but the shield stopped the spell with ease while the estoc almost took away the undead’s life.
Its instincts warned the creature to not let the blade touch it. While dodging the lunge, the undead stepped on a small wisp of light that exploded with enough power to blast away its foot.
The creature stumbled, creating an opening that only someone blind, dumb, and deaf could miss. The undead cursed the human and quickly formed the hand signs for a Blink. Unfortunately, its right hand touched another small wisp of light.
The resulting detonation wasn’t enough to kill, but it maimed the hand, making the spell fail, and blinded the creature long enough for Fang to find its mark. The estoc pierced through the undead’s chest, releasing all the kinetic energy accumulated with each swing and block Phloria had performed.
The effect of the hit was akin to being run over by a speeding train. The creature exploded due to the force of the impact and turned into shreds.
“What was that?” Friya asked, referring to the odd spell her sister had used to seal her opponent’s movements. It wasn’t a dimensional spell nor anything she had ever seen before.
It was Phloria’s personal tier five Mage Knight spell, Blast Field. It used air and fire magic to create and compress dozens of fireballs, making each one of them not bigger than a firefly while even enhancing their destructive power.
They would scatter all around Phloria and remain stable until someone touched them. In case of need, she could even trigger them all at once, causing a chain reaction that would serve as a perfect means of offense and defense thanks to her own mana being harmless to her.
“There’s still one enemy around!” Phloria replied. Even in the heat of the battle, she had counted the death throes, so she was aware of the missing ghoul.
‘Solus?’ Lith thought, hoping her mana sense would accomplish what his Life Vision was failing at.
‘It must have run away after its companions started to fall like flies.’ She replied.
Quylla used the protection her group granted her to cast an Undead Sensing array, which came out negative as well.
“We’re alone, but since the sun is setting, it won’t be for long.” She said.
“Way ahead of you.” Friya opened a Warp Steps that brought them directly back to the hotel’s reception, where she had left one of her Warp Stones, allowing her to cover the distance with only one spell.
“This is an awful mess. Our vacation is as good as ruined!” Friya whined during dinner. She had reported everything to the local authorities before going back to her room and preparing for the evening.
“I guess Lady Ernas is right. Someone here really is bad luck.” Kamila chuckled, poking at Lith with her elbow.
She knew how that particular rumor about him irked her boyfriend, but it was an in-joke between them linked to the first mission they had taken together. So it made him laugh as well.
She had reached Javvok soon after their return and after taking a quick shower with Lith, they had joined the others for dinner.
“Please, don’t call Mom ‘Lady Ernas’.” Quylla said. “Jirni is fine. It’s not like she’s here to reproach you, and hearing someone calling Mom by her title always sounds weird.”
It didn’t take long to bring Kamila up to speed since there wasn’t much to tell except for all the oddities they had encountered.
“It doesn’t make sense.” Friya said. “Parasite plants capable of possessing monsters that took down a good piece of the forest and a bunch of wandering undead, all in the same place.
“To make things even odder, the undead seemed to belong to different species while they are usually very territorial and don’t mingle unless their interests align.”
“Do not forget how famished they were and how tattered their clothes were.” Lith pointed out. “With an entire forest at hand, I wonder why they let themselves be reduced to such a poor state.”
“How odd indeed.” Kamila nodded and then became absorbed in her meal. She could only hope that Lith wouldn’t notice her distress.
“That’s your ‘I know something but I can’t tell you’ face.” He said crushing her hopes. Even though her job required nerves of steel and an unbreakable poker face, Kamila was used to lowering her guard outside office hours.
Especially with Lith. Even more after he had shared so much with her and he continued to open up to her little by little. Being honest with each other was something that she was too happy about to even consider lying to him.
“Yes, I do. Be right back.” She took her army amulet and went into a corner of the restaurant to call Jirni. Even from a distance and with the Hush spell preventing them from hearing her voice, they recognized her hologram at first glance.
Kamila returned to the table, placing the magical device in the middle before making sure that there was no one beside them inside its area of effect.
