By the time Numa arrived at old man Deen's house, Jules was already in full battle mode. His entire body was glowing red, and his sword was engulfed in raging flame.
At first glance, it looked like he was merely swinging his sword around like a lunatic. But the sound of sharp objects clashing against each other, followed by an inhuman screech, was undeniable proof that the Spellblade was indeed fighting an invisible monster near the village entrance.
Numa didn't want to repeat the same mistake as last time. So the first thing he checked was the Chief's house. It was empty.
"They've already evacuated," shouted Jules. "Don't worry about them, they're safe. You should focus on finding the other monster."
"Yes, sir!"
Numa stood still. He tried to calm his breathing. His eyes darted around the fog, trying to find the slightest movement that could indicate the location of the other Pallwyrm. And that's when he came to a realization.
"Sir Jules, can't you use your tracing magic to find the location of the other Pallwyrm?" shouted Numa to his senior.
"I can. But I couldn't do it while fighting this one," said Jules as he parried a powerful slash that managed to push him back a bit.
Numa paused for a second. There was only one solution in his mind. "Sir, let's switch!"
"What? Are you sure?" Jules took a glance toward his junior. "You could be dead!"
"I could do it, Sir. Trust me."
Jules could see the determination in Numa's eyes. "Fuck it! Let's do it. Switch!"
Jules jumped backward to create some gap between himself and the monster. At the same time, Numa ran full speed toward Jules' initial position. Once he arrived, he activated his magic.
Avara!
The moment Avara engulfed Numa's body, he could feel a sharp and powerful impact on his left arm. Had he activated his spell just a split second too late, he would've lost his upper body. The thought of being dismembered by the monster sent shivers down his spine. But he quickly regained his composure. For the next thirty seconds, his job was to become an unmovable object. He would tank the relentless attacks of the Pallwyrm until Jules found the other monster.
Jules, on the other hand, had already cast the tracing magic and currently waiting for it to pinpoint the location of the second Pallwyrm. This spell could only detect living beings within a ten-meter radius. So if the monster happened to be outside of that range, they were screwed. Luckily for him, the spell found a tall living creature, standing still beside the tree, about five meters away from the old man Deen's house.
"Found it." Jules gripped his sword tightly, ready to cast one of his mid-range fire spells. He swung his sword in the direction of the second Pallwyrm while casting the spell. "Fire Slash!" A crescent-like fireball launched out of his sword at high speed, hitting the unsuspecting monster right at his torso.
"KKRRRAAAAAHHHH." The monster screeched as the fire started to spread across its body.
"Numa! Switch!" shouted Jules as he jumped back to his old position.
Hearing that cue, Numa looked toward Jules and noticed the burning monster. The moment Jules jumped toward him, he also began running toward the burning Pallwyrm. The monster was still invisible, but Jules' fire made it easy for Numa to see his target. He clenched his fist, jumped, and landed a powerful punch to the monster's body.
This attack sent the monster tumbling about two meters away. Numa instinctively knew that this was the only time he had to get the monster out of the fog. The fog ended right at the entrance of the village, so he needed to get this monster across the gate. Numa chased it down, grabbed its right leg and used every ounce of strength in his body to throw it toward the broken entrance gate.
Once the monster was airborne, Numa readied himself for another jump. He needed to be outside of the village the moment the burning Pallwyrm hit the ground. Otherwise, it would get back on its feet and re-enter the fog. A regular Avara-enhanced jump wouldn't cut it. He needed more.
So Numa instinctively lowered his body, like a runner preparing to jump off the line, and sent all of his mana toward his feet. He essentially tried to redirect the enhancement toward certain parts of his body. He focused only on his feet in order to increase his jumping strength many times over. He had never done this, nor had he ever thought about using Avara like this before. But desperate times called for desperate measures, so this was about as good a time as any to try something new.
Once he had redirected most of his body enhancement toward his feet, leaving only a handful of it on his arms, something strange happened. His feet started to emit something that looked like electricity. It wasn't much, just some little crackling here and there. But he could definitely tell that this was something different.
But time was of the essence. The burning Pallwyrm was about to hit the dirt any second now. So Numa kicked the ground as hard as he could.
BOOOOOM
Numa launched forward at an inhuman speed, like lightning splitting the sky apart. In the blink of an eye, he already covered the ten-meter distance between him and Jules, and he still didn't show any sign of slowing down. Less than a second later, he had already passed Jules and the entrance gate. Now, Numa was merely inches away from the burning monster.
His initial intention was to catch the Pallwyrm with his arms. Maybe deliver a punch if the angle was right. But he moved way faster than he anticipated and there's no time to change the position of his arms. So he could only put them up in a guard position and brace himself.
SPLAAAATTT
The sound of something being swatted filled the air, followed by three loud crashes.
Numa could feel the impact on his body, but he didn't know whether he simply hit the ground or managed to hit the monster as well. He opened his eyes. His hair, arms, shoulders and most of his upper body were covered in green gooey.
"What the hell?"
As it turned out, his incomprehensible speed combined with his hardened hands created tremendous momentum that caused the monster's body to explode upon contact. At that moment, he was no different from a hammer traveling through the air at great speed.
He looked up. He realized that he had landed way farther than intended. He couldn't risk the second monster getting up and attacking Jules, so he rushed toward the monster as fast as he could. But when he arrived at the monster's landing spot, all he could see was the destroyed body of a Pallwyrm. Its midsection was blown apart. It was an instantaneous death.
"What? Did I do this?" asked Numa to himself while looking at his wet, gooey hands.
Suddenly, a tower of fire emerged from the direction of the village entrance. Jules was still fighting. He looked at the faint blue glow on his body.
"Not much mana left," he said. "Gotta finish this quick."
He ran toward the entrance. He needed to help Jules take down the other Pallwyrm while Avara still protected his body and enhanced his strength.
When he arrived near the gate, he saw that Jules had successfully dragged the monster outside of the fog. In fact, even a rookie like Numa could notice that the fight would be over soon. He realized that his help was not needed.
The Pallwyrm had already lost one of its upper arms. There were cuts and burnt wounds all over its thin, dark body. But the biggest thing that allowed Numa to surmise that the battle was about to end was the fact that the monster was engulfed in crimson flame.
SKRAAAAAAA
The monster screeched even louder. Its face contorted into shapes that would give nightmares to anyone who saw it. It was stumbling and wobbling around, trying its hardest to stand. Its arms flailing all over the place, trying to at least land a decent hit before it lost its life.
"Okay," said Jules. "I see that you already took care of the other monster. Good job, Kid. Now it's time for me to finish this one as well."
Jules grabbed his sword tightly with his right arm and then moved it across his chest, making it obvious that he was about to do a horizontal slashing movement. He crouched briefly, then jumped as hard as he could. When he reached the height of the Pallwyrm's head, he unleashed a powerful, fiery slash, beheading the monster.
Jules landed at the same time as the monster's burning head. Seconds later, its big, burned body fell to the ground, still twitching and squirming. The unpleasant smell of burnt corpse mixed with urine filled the air.
Seeing the death of the Pallwyrm brought a huge relief to Numa. He looked at his hands. They were no longer glowing blue. He had run out of mana. With Avara no longer supporting his body, the young soldier collapsed to the ground.