Chương 13: No Mortals Here (I)

The dust was beginning to settle, revealing the remains of the scorched vegetation. The trees farther away, still left standing, had little embers clinging to their trunks and branches, while everything at the point of impact had been vaporized.

"As expected, you two won't disappoint me. It was worth coming here." A tall man with fiery hair descended from the sky, a glowing sphere drifting aimlessly around him. At the very edge of the blast, Aren was pushing himself back to his feet, his clothes slightly singed. Beside him, a wall of melted shields held together by charred skeletons was collapsing and revealing Nerez, completely unharmed. Neither of them answered at once.

Their attention was fixed on what the newcomer was holding by the head: Vilkie's limp form. Aren raised Oath's Edge, which he had already summoned, but Nerez stopped him, walking over and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Leave this to me. I have an idea." As he watched them, Helux rested his free hand on his hip, a broad smile spreading across his face.

"Are you planning some kind of tactic? Before anything else, let me introduce myself, you've earned that much," he declared confidently.

"I am Helux of the Celestial Conclave. I'd like to hear your names."

"I'm Nerez. There's not much else to say."

"My name is Aren, descendant of Ulzor, god of light," Aren replied, his sword still raised.

"Your reputation precedes you, Helux, though I didn't take you for someone who'd use hostages."

"Hostages?" Helux echoed, puzzled. As he scratched his head, his gaze wandered from side to side until it finally settled on the girl he had been dragging across the ground.

"Ah!" It seemed Helux had only just realized what he was doing, but Nerez did not waste the chance created by his opponent's distraction. Two skeletal hands shot up from the ground and clamped firmly around the demigod's feet, while another group of skeletons emerged from below to surround him by surprise. I thought the whole coming-out-of-the-ground thing was just a visual effect of this skill. Who would've thought I could use it like this?

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. One of the skeletons lunged at once, driving its sword straight toward Vilkie. There was no doubt it was going to pierce her.

"Hahaha!" Far more delighted than alarmed, Helux tossed Vilkie into the air, only for another skeleton to catch her midair. Bringing his hands together, Helux caught the blade between them, wrenched it away from the skeletal soldier as if it were a toy, and cut off its head with that same sword.

"By the way... I wasn't planning to turn that cutie into a hostage, so don't get me wrong," he said as he examined the rusted sword he'd taken from the skeleton.

"But I also didn't expect you'd sacrifice her so easily. With her that close, I had no way to defend myself from that thrust, and it would've skewered both of us... A rather ruthless strategy, I must say..." With two swift slashes, he severed the hands of the skeletons gripping his feet.

"The plan was never to sacrifice anyone. If you hadn't managed to move her in time, I was confident I could stop the skeleton's thrust before the wound got too deep," Nerez replied, taking Vilkie into his arms as the skeleton handed her over.

"I'd rather not be skewered at all, to be honest..." Vilkie's voice was soft, almost too faint to hear.

"I'm sorry... thank you..." That "I'm sorry" was almost certainly about the fact that, without meaning to, she had led Helux straight to them.

"Hmph. I'm not interested in thanks from girls with boyfriends." A smile touched Vilkie's lips before she lost consciousness. After quickly checking the demigoddess's condition, Nerez carefully leaned her against the trunk of a tree.

"How is she?" Aren asked once Nerez returned to his side. He still had his sword trained on Helux, but the demigod was too busy tearing through the skeletons that had rushed him all at once.

"Badly injured, but nothing life-threatening. How do you see the situation?"

"He hasn't shown another opening worth exploiting since that first feint with Vilkie. If I rush in blindly, I'm probably not coming back." After cutting down three skeletons in a single sweep, the rusted blade finally snapped. Helux glanced at it in disappointment before tossing it aside.

"These aren't normal skeletons," he said at last, looking at Nerez and Aren.

"For a mortal, even one of them would already be a headache." At that, the glowing sphere floating near him began to shine with great intensity and rose above his head.

"But there are no mortals here." A concentrated ray of light shot out from the sphere, tracing a circle around Helux and vaporizing every skeleton around him. By the time the new cloud of dust began to clear, the demigod realized that Nerez and Aren had disappeared.

"What?! They ran off after my epic delivery?!" Helux blurted, scanning the area.

"No, the cutie's still there, slumped against that tree trunk... Then-"!! Helux never got to finish. Aren burst out of the last cloud of dust, both his eyes and his sword shining with an ominous red light.

"Predictable!" Helux barked. The sphere of light above his head exploded again, and a ray shot straight toward Aren." Severance." Aren's sword moved, trailing red light in its wake, and cleaved straight through the concentrated ray of light rushing toward him, splitting it in two. Helux's eyes went wide as the severed attack flew harmlessly past Aren and exploded behind him.

"How can someone cut light?! What are you?!" he exclaimed, thrilled, almost gleeful. But that was when instinct made him turn around.

"What?! How did I not notice?!" Nerez had been hiding behind a tree and started moving the instant Aren launched his attack, masking his presence as he closed in. Now his hand was only inches from Helux's face. Death's Touch He didn't have to say a word. The skill he had just selected activated on its own the instant his hand closed around Helux's face.