Chương 3: [BL] 3. New World [3]

The flower was quite pretty with its four petals, but Willow did not wallow on it much as she plopped it inside her mouth. The light. Willow could feel the light traveling down her throat and forming into a similar source of power that she felt when she absorbed the Lich's wind. Anette pointed at another six flowers. Willow scurried down and picked them up. She ate all of them, and her rune recovered by two, reaching six.

"Rune count?" Anette asked, eyeing the three approaching Liches who by now had seen them. Their glide went faster, and they spread out.

"Answer! Fast!" Willow swallowed the last flower.

"Six,""Don't get them to zero," her voice sounded dire.

"You hear me—" Anette paused, her face paled for a second.

"Two classes…" She whipped back toward the Liches and to Willow again.

"Go! Free them! I will hold them back."

"Wait, I should go with you—" The other girl did not let her finish. Anette screamed and charged; her sword suddenly glowed with blue light. The Lich's attention focused on her, and they pointed their fingers. Was that a rune? But Willow's [Guard] class did not have any. To be fair, she had not experimented much. A gale shot straight at Anette in point-blank range. Seeing the spell coming, Anette positioned her glowing sword like a shield, and the wind dispersed across her sword.

The second spell also dispersed as well. But the third one banished Anette's light. Willow hesitated over whether or not to help her. If the Liches' attention narrowed on Anette, then she could send Scythe to kill at least one of them. Besides, according to Mera's memory, most of the class holders were dead, and they struggled to hit the Liches. So was it wise to use her Scythe to free them? No, of course it was not.

Unless she found another Class holder to at least draw the Lich's attention, it probably would just harm those without power if she freed them. Here goes nothing. Dark wind brimmed across Willow's hands and spun around her fingertips. Anette dashed forward, barrelled her shoulder into one Lich, and stabbed her sword down onto its chest. She pinned the lich to the ground. Her sword was not covered by whatever spell she had used earlier.

The Lich beneath her just raised its head and shrieked at her, pushing Anette's brown hair back. Behind Anette, the other two Liches built a fresh wind just beyond their fingertips. Willow swung her hand down. Two Scythes surged forward. In the last second, Willow switched targets from one to both since they targeted Anette, who could not move. The girl struggled to pull her sword off. The wind slashed at the nearest Liches across its shoulder. Its hand dropped, and the gust of wind hit the cave's ground.

For the other one, it reacted to Willow's scythe at the very last second and dodged by twisting its body; that caused its fingertip to move, and the gust of wind hit the downed Lich across its thigh, blasting away the robe and blood sprayed. Bad. That was horrid. She barely damaged them, and her rune was already down to four.

"You stubborn little shit—" The nearest Lich pointed its finger at Willow. She had already moved first, closing her distance and faking a hand motion. It worked. The Lich shot its gale shot. Willow stopped, opening her palms forth and absorbing the wind. [You recover one Dark Wind Rune] Then, in one sweeping motion, she sent dark wind to carve the Lich's neck. Its neck torn apart, and blood spurted. The Lich's body craned backward, revealing another Lich already gathering its wind.

Willow let out a surprised yelp, opening her palm in reflex. She forced her focus forward and— [You recover one Dark Wind Rune] [You recover one Dark Wind Rune] Right after, Willow cast Scythe on both hands and slashed forward. The two Scythes tore through the Lich's forehead, adding wounds atop one another. [You recover one Dark Wind Rune] Two might be too much there.

"Move!" Willow ordered Anette, who was strangling the Lich with her legs. She hurled her body aside, and Willow's wind cleaved through the Lich's neck, who gurgled and died. [You recover one Dark Wind Rune] The Lich jerked to a stop. Anette stared at her, body on all fours. The other girl took a step back first, as if assessing if Willow was a threat or not, even clenching her sword handle, then she glanced at the ritual where the young man was still screaming.

"Come with me!" Anette said, hastily grabbed her sword, and ran toward the iron cages. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Willow winced when Anette brought her sword up and slashed down upon the bolted door; with a loud clang. Nervously glancing at the ritual, Willow opened her mouth to tell her that this might not be wise, but another strike cut through the bolt. Exiting the cage was a wiry, lean young man; he gave Anette a nod.

The man also wore a guard uniform, but he did not have a class, or at least whatever strange power there was did not show Willow anything.

"My sword…" He mumbled, stepping behind his cage where another cartwheel rest against the iron bar. His face brightened, and he reached down for two swords.

"I will go for the other line, Josha. You free the other three with her, then we will charge to get Normund out. Go! Go! Fast!"

"I get it!" Josha groaned as Anette ran to the other side to free the others. They sure don't waste time, unlike me, Hold on… charge? Before Willow could gather her thoughts, Josha pushed a sword toward her, and she almost dropped it. She gave the young man a sharp look, but he just slammed his sword down on another cage. Willow tried to find more of those flowers. She needed them, but they were all gone. I could have absorbed more of those liches' wind! She palmed her head.

If the Lich had no other attack, then she should have taken her time to absorb more runes. Maybe I'm hesitating too much. But these people get into trouble because they did not think much. That's exactly why Willow hesitated. She smothered her hesitation, for now she should just work with them until they got out. Willow drew her sword, not wanting to use Scythe. As Josha freed another man, Willow walked toward the next cage and forced it open.

The next moment, she was suddenly engulfed in a tight hug by a sniveling, doe-eyed, raven-haired girl.

"Mera, thanks the stars," she cried to Willow's chest.

"What are these clothes? Oh! You got the class. How did—""Later," Willow cut her off. The other girl tilted her head in confusion and hesitantly nodded. They freed the last one, a young man with a [Guard] class this time. Like Anette, he has a scar running across his [Guard] clothes. [Guard—Level 3]"Sword. Give me a sword," he said as he stumbled out. Willow led him by the shoulder, bringing him to sit on a box just beside the cell. Josha gave an extra sword to him.

"We're getting Normund out," Anette said, walking with one girl and a young man behind her. It did not escape Willow's attention that all of them now had swords in hand. The first thing they sought after being freed was to fight again. Maybe they come from a warrior culture or something? Mera's letter did mention an apocalypse.

"I'm the vanguard," Anette said, walking straight toward the Liches that were still doing their ritual. The waterfall let out a brimming light that banished shadow around the ritual chamber, and they extended toward the island they stood on, where darkness still held most of the cave ground. Anette did not hesitate to step into the light where any of the Liches would have seen her.

"Moash, you with me," Anette told the other class holder. Moash did not hesitate; he stood right next to Anette.

"The rest of you protect her," Anette said, throwing a glance toward Willow. She explicitly did not mention Mera's name. The young woman's eyes held Willow's, and this time Willow understood. Let them focus; whatever happens can come later.

"Mera can kill the Liches, so make sure nothing happens to her. Let's go! Behind me." The classless four form a square with Willow in the middle. Sheathing her sword, Willow cast two Scythes in both hands; each dark wind went spiraling around two fingers. A collective gasp went out—the girl who hugged Willow earlier gave her a grin, even clapping her back. When Willow did not respond, her grin turned into a worried frown.

"Mera? What is it?" the girl asked.

"Shera! Focus. Dorian is dead, remember?" Josha said the last part in a small whisper. Around her, everyone was tense, and their gait went faster. They suddenly became eager; their eyes held anger, and they openly growled at the Liches. A guilty look passed between them toward Willow. What is that about? Willow briefly saw Dorian appear in Mera's memory, but she did not focus on that for now. For now, all her mind's intent was only on surviving and nothing else.

"Right. Sorry," Shera said, her doe-eyed eyes went narrow. A blinding green light rose as the Lich brought the dagger up. With final cries, it was about to stab the tied young man who cried out in a shirking voice.

"Charge!" Anette screamed. She and Moash roared out, and they sprinted across the stone bridge into the island, whose edge shimmered by the blue glow of the pool. The bridge was a short one, so Anette, with her sword, jumped and rammed her sword through one Lich's back. Before the closest Lich turned, Moash lunged forward and tore through its robe, but his attack just phased through the Lich's body as if he had just struck at air. Willow briefly chided herself for going along with this foolisness.

She narrowed down on her target and swept both of her hands down. The first wind streaked forward, cutting across the Lich's throat that Anette held with her glowing blue blade. Red blood went cascading down onto Anette's hair. [You recover one Dark Wind Rune] Her second Scythe launched at the other Lich that Moash was fighting and scored a deep gash across its chest. But not killing it.

Willow gritted her teeth and sent another quick flick of her finger, adding to the wound and shredding the creature again, toppling it backward. [You recover one Dark Wind Rune] Quick, quick. She built another two Scythes and whirled to her left to face the other two Liches while Moash jumped over the table and over his friend to slam his sword toward the glowing green daggers.

"Watch out!" Anette screamed. One of the Liches held a crystal orb right above its palms. The orb glowed with bright blue light. Anette vaulted forward with one hand on the table and rolled toward it. She lurched with her sword, targeting the ball, until a gale shot from the other Lich caused her to retreat backward. Willow separated her Scythe into two for each Lich, sending them over Anette's head.

"Protect her!" Anette screamed. The other four ran forward and shielded Willow with their bodies. A sudden wave of winter spread from the blue orb. The snow burst in violent, blinding white that crushed Willow's throat. When she breathed, her own throat tried to choke her with intense cold. She brought her hand up just to gather her breath as the cold sped into her skin. The other cries were cut off. Willow braved a look to see her Scythe kill one Lich; it had fallen with its throat cut.

The other one, however, tanked Scythe across its chest. [You recover one Dark Wind Rune] Relentless frost still descended. Anette's body turned into a frozen blue with crisp frost covering her entire being. Behind, Josha screamed for her; he was the most protected out of everyone due to being directly behind Anette. The young man battled a step forward, hand grasping the frozen Anette's shoulder. With a warcry, Josha lashed his sword forward to strike at the crystal orb.

But the relentless frost grew stronger for a brief moment and blew the weapon away from his hand. Around Willow, the snow got weaker. She tried to sweep her hand down, but the gust was still too strong. Willow bit her lip until it bled. She forced her hand down and pointed at the Lich.

"Dismember" Dark wind [1/10]