A black bladed sword appeared at her grip as she pounced up in the air and landed on top of the beast which crashed with one interaction of her shoes. They were currently extremely fragile and it was easy to exterminate them since her magic energy levels freed up more space and less drainage. Her heads felt lighter now, with no headaches and made thinking more clear.
The rest of the group approached her slowly, one at a time as she swung the sword down on three with one blow, and their bodies crumbled into cubes of charcoal. They were absolutely weak at this stage, meaning the following would become more aggressively difficult by the next second.
Black dust settled against her fingers and hand as they all fell at once and blew away with invisible wind, falling back into the debris of the caves. Behind her, the bits and pieces of broken crystal, decomposed instantly and turned into air particles in a blink of an eye. "What is happening?" A few words left her mouth which echoed through the lonely dungeon.
They all seemed to be moving towards something, like a magnetic pole was pulling away matter from the area. Any new approaching species got destroyed with pressure immediately and dragged away towards where the other residues went. Nearby foliage, like growing moss and grass, got uprooted and pulled into a whirlpool on the ground.
It had an abnormal presence coming from the spiralling whirlpool, and the debris were also collecting behind her, so whatever was happening right now, was just a way to make her drain the most out of her herself before she could face the final boss. Until now, the dungeon species had found out her tactics and moves she was placing, so now it had thought about a way to get her by surprise.
"I don't know whether it's just that this is still my first time in this sort of dungeon, but why does it seem like they are just observing me from every directions?" Aefia spoke while looking around and immediately turning around by spinning on her heels. Her strength increased around her hands as the fingers wrapped tightly around the hilt of her sword. She didn't know if her vision was starting to darken, but behind her was very dim light as she stepped backwards several steps.
Dogding the way it was throwing knives at her, she noticed there was a huge loophole that was tied to the tornado that formed over the whirlpool, and stretched upwards to the ceiling. Glittering lights stood out very well due to the darkness and it looked like that one waterfall she had found during her tour around the underground castle of the mission two world.
Her eyes stayed stuck at the whirlpool that pulled back the remaining energy from outside the barrier, as it shut out completely, leaving no way back unless she had defeated the boss around here. "So is that where all the energy was collecting? What is the beast that absorbs that much energy to just form? Regardless, it seems they are somewhat similar to what the elemental absorption skill can do."
Her thoughts encircled around the multicoloured tornado that expanded into a sphere and settled on the ground. The dust clumped together to form twisted and turned trees on either sides as a gate appeared in between both. It all happened in seconds and the wind too seemed to have died down. Her steps unconsciously moved back slowly as her hands shook with the sword still tightly cluntched.
What even is that thing?! Her mind rattled as something seemed to appear from inside the door what moved away it's particles just to allow for the beasts to exit it. A gigantic tiger, with eyes glowing crystal blue and it's body covered in glitter and dust. The rat?! That's the rat when I had caught it staring at me.
Aefia calmed down as she stepped out of the beast's view using stealth and eventually appearing behind the trees. In the short time, just to notice there was a human standing there seconds ago, took huge confusing mind work to settle and it fully emerged from the dust door. The remaining debris fell to the ground with a heavy sound of many small things falling at once from a huge supply of them. Right behind the rat, came a man wearing a cloak formed with tatters and torn pieces hanging.
"This place is too silent for my liking. Where is the intruder?" The hooded man asked as the torn clothes turned anew and matching the look of that on the beast's body. His hand slid through the tiger's false fur and the pet closed its eyes with its nose being tickled with his fingertips. Not waiting long, they both headed towards the only entrance left inside the cave, and stopped short from actually entering the threshold.
"Go, look for the enemy. Finish them before I need to move too. It shouldn't be an impossible task for me to follow, but if you can execute her, you will get a reward." The hooded man spoke as his cloak moved along with his movements. It flapped and folded in the wind as the hood dropped from his face, revealing a mirroring tiger mask. He removed his hand from the beast's body and let it turn back into its dust form, flew through the distance while vanishing out of sight.
The hooded man walked back towards where he had come from. But before he could continue his steps, something felt strange about the environment they were in. "I have learned, mysteriously, that the enemy moves very softly with almost no sound and can stay quiet while walking around. They must be a fool to not be able to realize our approaching, because they ignored the dust formation and the intense pressure." He thought while tapping his face.
His masked eyes looked up at the ceiling, with the star-like pattern made of holographic dust. Within the next thought interrupting him, he turned around one step short from where the tornado had formed. But the next second, a sharp pain slammed into his abdomen as he held his arm towards the blade that poked out from his skin. A black blade pierced out, containing his blood that also dropped to the ground with a splatter.
Aefia, who had struck her sword through the hooded man, spoke from behind as her stealth form deactivated. "I don't know who you are, but I also know that you know who I am." The words fell out in a harsh tone out of her mouth as she pulled out the sword and stepped back. The hooded man fell to the ground while holding his wound, as blood spilt from the edges of the mask and somehow from the mouth area of the tiger mask.
His face seemed to look towards her direction as he coughed for a small time and finally a few words left his mouth. Firstly, it was just unheard mumbles that sounded like incantations but it didn't take long for the words to sound clear to her mind. "I thought heroes didn't attack from behind." A soft laugh echoed along the high rise walls of the cave.
"Then I guess I am not a hero." She replied while her face stayed serious and she dusted off debris from her clothes while flinging the weapon into the air as it shrunk into a smaller size. Using her fingers to catch it, the blade appeared clean out of her grasp with the shine reflecting his face back, with the tiger mask doing an almost good job of covering his expressions.
Removing it, a shocked face took over her pale complexion, followed by her steps turning light and dizzying. What even is this supposed to be called? This can be neither when the person is just...a woman undercover as a man? The grey bobcut hair, it was unmistakably the same person who had killed her back around a week ago. Her grip on the knife vibrated, but her strength regained as soon as the woman threw the mask at her.
With the slice, the two seperate pieces fell to the ground and immediately, her eyes scanned around the dungeon in search of the woman, who had introduced herself as Lady Gray. Her mind echoed with thoughts, one was, is the tiger a symbolism of her element? The metal controlling variable that she used previously to kill me? If so, how can I stop her? How powerful is she exactly? Why is her movement so fast?
She didn't turn around, but she did know that the woman would come from behind her. At the same time, due to the commotion, the tiger had come back while growling and baring its teeth to her, as if to chomp down on her. With a small lag of her brain, she pounched up in the air and landed slightly behind as the tiger continued growling, but stayed put.
Suddenly, her own hand seemed to be caught up into something and it moved with the knife pointed towards her own throat. Lady Gray's one hand lifted her chin as she held her mouth near her ears while whispering. "The last time, I killed you, and you killed me. But this time, I will take your advice and watch out for whatever you do next. It was better to not go against adult like me at that age of yours. Did your parents not teach you anything?"
Aefia's hands wrapped against the woman's arms and she immediately pulled it off as the woman jumped back multiple steps. Her footsteps wrapped themselves up as she flew forward with the same force and summoning the metal knives, throwing them all towards the girl's back at once. With her head turned sideways to face the woman, a few words left her mouth. "Puppet! I call you forth to defend me!"
The words loudly bounched around the large space as a wolf, almost similar looking as the tiger, with illusion-like body and it's fur was shades of red and it's mane lit in fire, along with its tail. The paws created flower patterns for every step being taken and it's jaw agape as it caught the blades before it could reach its owner. Throwing them to the ground, it gnared its teeth at the woman with grey hair.
This way, Aefia was now facing the tiger while Puppet faced the woman. There was a huge difference in power, and all advantages leaned towards her elemental animal instead, because it had taken away more then half of her skills. This left her with the bare minimum to use, but she was determined enough to finish the battle while moving forward, with Nikoan's fate on the line along with it. If she can finish it in time, the palace and the office would be out of reach.
Puppet took off towards the woman while Aefia rushed towards the tiger as she hoped onto the air and her sword extended. Her eyes locked at the beast below her, with bright red eyes as fire emerged from the edges of the black blade, contrasting against the dark cave. The tiger, alert that she was about to slam her sword onto it, opened its mouth to full wide. The tongue was made of deep red and covered with glittery texture as it threw it's claw at her direction.
Her eyes widened as she let loose the sword and glanced down with multiple things flashing through her mind. 'I can't dogde mid-air!' using her bare hands, she formed a fist and used her legs to push herself away from the tiger's mouth, by placing her feet at the slippery whiskers. In that short amount of time, she fell backwards while hitting her head into concrete and spat blood while getting back up.
The sword that had struck the ground, slowly faded and reappeared at her grasp as faint scratches could be seen at the surface. This scratches, although not much, was still enough damage for someone who would have to face more battles up and front. In the far distance, Puppet successfully took on the woman and had her cornered with multiple big wounds from her. Now diverting her eyes, she caught the glimpse of the tiger chasing at her direction.
She stood still as her fingers lightly shoke due to the aftershock of a rattling that went through her bones a few seconds ago. For some reasons, the woman still managed to get up even after sustaining multiple injuries. Her hand extended towards the beast as there was no clue what would happen next, and the wolf stayed silent while watching. This, unknown to them, was a bad move since the next second, while undergoing a fight, one of the fallen knives flew to Aefia and struck her shoulder.
She was busy dogding the attacks coming from the beast, so her focus was stuck to something else completely, and this in return, making it easy to capture her with that knife. While stumbling backwards, her hands immediately reached the blade that was planted onto her shoulder, as her hands suddenly got pulled towards the woman.
She let go of the knife, but the next second, lady grey was right in front of her face, holding her throat and chin with the same hand while holding the knife above her face. "I have a similar characteristic as you, and you won't know that." An evil smile settled onto the woman's face as the knife went back into her shoulder and a certain energy was pulled out of her.
"If you can steal energy from your colleagues, I can do that too. I guess the mask did a good job as a voice changer too. Do you find the link between me and the Guardian of Silence now?" She spoke as green light came from the knife's hilt and immediately went into the woman's fingertips. That was just a reserve energy in case she had gotten hurt.
Suddenly noticing a faint scar at her chin, the woman's eyes widened with excitement. As she pulled the knife out, she threw the hanging girl backwards while her mouth formed words that irritated Aefia deeply.
"It seems, that even your mother doesn't like you. What a pitiful child who suffers in every eternity and in every dimensions! But the pity won't last long." Her eyes turned sinister and shadowed at the last words.