Chương 50: [BL] 49 Tier-2 Class [4]

Willow found herself in a world of war once again. Her cheek was smudged with dirt, and she swallowed a building bile. The smell of blood wafted through the air, accompanied by myriads of screams of various tones. One of despair. Another of helplessness. Then one of pure fear. They shared the same underlying cause: terror. She pushed herself up, leaning against a wooden wall whose top did not reach her head.

Burning hay scorched through the stable, and the scent of burning flesh made her almost gag; she did when she saw the corpses of horses burning away, their faces half-marred and melted. Even inside the dream, Willow threw up. The bile rose in her throat, and a tear slid down her neck.

"What in the hell?" She rasped, trying to see around. The building to which the stable was connected was a two-story inn. She made her way out the stable's low door and saw a creature of bulging green muscles slam its two-handed cleaver, splaying apart a man's body from head down. The cruel, heavy sword stuck in the man's stomach, and with a booming laugh, the orc ripped it away, kicked the man, and cackled. It moved on to a little boy who stood frozen.

All around, more orcs streamed in, killing human after human; their glee was apparent, and their laughter accompanied the slaughter. It raised its blade, and Willow's feet moved. She leapt off the low-hanging door and threw herself at the boy. They rolled as Willow hugged the boy tightly, her back slamming against a shop's wall. When she forced her eyes open through the pain, the orc looked down on her with a cruel glint. She reached for her class, but none reached back.

"Anatomist!" She cried out, but the damn class did not respond. She tried to call on others too, but none came. She almost froze at the sight of the cruel cleaver. It swung down, and all Willow could do was hug the boy tight against her chest. The boy breathed, crying onto her. She slowly opened her eyes, and an arrow of pure light lanced through the earth. The orc's head was gone, a laser had just seared through it. Its headless body toppled backward.

Confusion entered the Orcs; their slaughter stopped as they raised their heads upward toward where the arrows were coming from. One arrow, in a zip, slammed right at an Orc's chest, staggering it backward, and another got its throat open by searing light. Five orcs roared upward; each silenced by raining arrows; each was accurate and dug into their bodies in an efficient killing stroke. After every single Orc died, Willow tried to rest, but the boy tightened his grip on her clothes.

"It's okay," She whispered, and when the boy still clung tightly to her, she let him, huddling him up. As she stepped onto the open road, she turned to see a spiraling white tower that reached skyward. A figure of brilliant gold stood upon it—too far for Willow to see. [The Light Bound Long-Archer produces light and weaponizes it even in the darkest sky. No one escapes its gaze and its aim, as who can run at the speed of light?] Darkest sky? Through the sky, red clouds blanketed everything.

Peeking between them were dark skies with no sign of a moon. A creature with thin wings rose across the skies, hundreds of them, and each challenged the Long-archer. Arrows of light filled the battlefield like stars launching as thin, cutting meteors, felling the flying creatures one by one. Willow's world spun as the shining gold stars shot took away the lives of the riftborns, drilling them one by one, not a second apart.

Every fallen monster was met with the cries of the innocents—cries of joy even in the darkest times. Something inside her stirred, and Willow cheered too. The boy bravely raised his tear-soaked face and billowed a roar. Humans slowly streamed into the streets and let out sky-reaching cheers as the last rift-born fell. The hero won. [You have seen the Light Bound Long-Archer] The cheers of victory slowly dimmed in Willow's ears.

The boy, still clutching her shirt, kept roaring, tears of anger and defiance rolling down his cheeks. Followed by his sound, his body disintegrated like paper of light being shredded into thousands of pieces. The world was shredded apart and re-knit into a broad, elevated, milk-white platform that hung in the sky. At first, Willow thought she was standing on the tower the Long-archer had stood upon, but that was not true.

Instead of red, the sky was white with fluffy clouds drifting in a spiral around the humongous platform. The wind billowed onto her, and she pulled her shirt tighter, her hair whipping around. Right in the middle of the platform, where strange golden lettering was carved across the white surface, a thin figure knelt in a pristine cloak. When the figure raised her head to Willow, she thought she was her for a moment until she saw the dark cloth covering the figure's eyes.

"She is blind?" Willow mumbled, already not liking this class. The girl in front of her glanced around in a fraction of a second—a familiar habit Willow retained from her football days. Air shimmered around her and formed into an elemental of wind. Their lower bodies were made of typhoons, with their windy chests and arms materializing in dark wind. The elementals did not waste time as they drifted straight at the figure—a dozen of them.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Clutching the edge of the dark cloth with two fingers, the girl tugged it down for one gold eye to peek through. A blinding light was expelled from the girl's eye, striking an elemental and burning it with such intensity that the white platform below was charred, even forming a slight mound beneath the impact.

The class was not done as she fired another laser beam at another elemental, one-shotting it like it was nothing. The remaining ten sped up, and it was clear they would get to the girl before she could fire again. Pushing herself up, and with one palm propped down, she leaped in a cartwheel behind one elemental. The girl swooped her head down to her left, then swung it in a line. Her laser cut through like butter against a sharp knife. In one swoop, the piercing light carved apart seven elementals.

[The Eyeless Assassin might lose her sight, but in exchange her gaze becomes death itself as her faith in the light will remain unquestionable] With fewer than five remaining, the Elementals recognized they stood no chance.

Still, more Elementals of wind summoned around the platform, appearing out of thin air as they hung in the sky above and, like a dome, surrounded the Eyeless Assassin—the class's problem was not over yet, as more elementals followed with the summon—Fire, Rock, Water; all of them filled the platform. Willow was trapped between two rock elementals and struggled to see the class until everyone knelt. The Assassin ripped away her eye cover.

Brilliant golden eyes shone so brightly that when they found Willow's gaze, Willow could not help but kneel. What made her do so was the pressure. A strange pressure that somehow felt light? As if this was a natural, foregone conclusion, of course she knelt after such force. This. This reminded her of when she faced the Lich Queen and the Blackfyre Imp. An overwhelming power that could stop her by just pointing. What a perfect assassin. But, blinded?

[You have seen the Eyeless Assassin] A flicker shone through the skies once like a kindling of gold. Flicker then flicker again until the horizon trembled, and a crack rippled like a living, gleaming spiderweb. The world broke apart, and the Assassin stayed still as she glanced upward, tipping her head. Everyone shredded into pieces of light except for Willow. Darkness stretched across the sky.

Her throat was suffocated by murky air that loomed across the stifling, shadowed world of dark caves where a city of depressing black architecture rose around her. She found herself above a roof. Below, the street itself was dark and gloomy, with countless holes that led to a deeper hell where lava swooshed downward. Upon small pieces of land, built-in cages stood filled with screaming humans, all of whom had pointed ears. They were stripped naked and beat their hands against the cage bars.

There were demons here as well—creatures of red skin, more similar to an overgrown imp than a devil's intricate, lanky body. Their wings were dark, and they held a whip. Every time an elf screamed, they were lashed across the face. The whip extended downward, striking elves in the cages. Willow knelt, hand on the edge of the fat roof. She peeked her head out. One demon opened a cage and yanked an elf with its whip, looping around her hand.

The elf cried and tried to fight, but the demon merely pulled her up and released her again; she plunged into the lava, her fellow elves screaming for her. More and more demons did the same, regardless of whether or not the elves were children. Despite knowing this was a mere dream, anger still flared inside Willow. What with this senseless murder? It was only when she saw a figure with six bright wings of burnished gold that Willow forced her gaze away.

The figure wore a white hood; her skin glowed with dimmed bronze as she descended. Her dual swords were already slick with blood. The figure sheathed both of them and traced the sky for a golden bow to materialize. She gripped it, entered the hole into the world of lava, and when the demon noticed her, it was far too late. She flapped her wings, and her body spun. Dozens of arrows of light pierced through the demons.

When the arrows pierced their bodies, the demons disintegrated as if the attack burned away their sins. The creature of hell, however, was no slouch as they whipped their wings across in a loud crack and sent themselves after the figure, who let go of her bow and unsheathed her thin blades. The next instant, a cut that Willow's eyes couldn't follow sheared across all the whips. She tucked her wings and burst forth at one demon who barely called a red spear, but too late.

The golden sword carved through its neck and, in a swoop, decapitated the demon. She hung in the air for a moment. When the rest of the demons didn't want to come, she sheathed her sword again and brought her hands together in a clap. The figure uttered something, and a sign of golden arrows appeared right above each demon.

With an open palm, arrows flew out like a godlike streak of brilliance, and they went streaking for all the marked demons, carving through their bodies, going through their very being, disintegrating evil. From above, Willow's gaze focused on the class. Two pointed translucent white ears peeked out from her hood. Her ear twitched, and one last surviving demon flew at her from behind. The demon rose from the lava and spread its wings. Willow screamed a warning, but it was not needed.

The Auric Huntress spun, her hand gleaming, and shot thin white strings that looped around the demon's neck, then pulled the creature. She skewered the riftborn with a sword through the demon's chest. [A perfect Huntress will not let any method of hunt be. She will master them, whether it's Efficient Magic, Swordsmanship, or Archery.] Efficient magic? Did that have something to do with those ears?

[You have seen Auric Huntress] Just like the last two, everyone started to disintegrate like they were just a part of a film. Everyone but Willow and the Auric Huntress. Inside the Dark world, the Auric Huntress rose, flexing her wings and unfurling them in front of Willow. Two points of light materialized right beside her. The Long-Archer, who held an enormous longbow, and the Eyeless Assassin, who had her eye cover back on. The Auric Huntress stepped to the roof's edge, and Willow stepped back to allow space.

They each put their hands over their hearts and bowed their heads. [You ascended to Tier-Two] [Please choose your class]