Chương 76: Chapter 75: Introduction

William was confused. He didn't know who the hell this woman was, but the shock and tension radiating from both Ophila and Senna's expressions told him everything he needed to know. She was an enemy. His eyes darted to the glinting golden needle in her hand. Seriously, how was this fair? She was fresh and entirely uninjured, while they were battered and exhausted, cornered at their lowest points.

"Hand her over?" William rasped. He stepped in front of the giant, six-armed construct carrying Ophila. He could barely hear, the dried blood in his ears still drowning most of the noise out.

"Not a chance. Who even are you?" The beautiful woman raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow.

"Oh, where are my manners?" she purred, her voice dripping with poisoned honey as she gave a mocking curtsy.

"My name is Sparrow." Beside William, Senna growled. Her face was the color of chalk, and her body was trembling violently. Still, with a fierce, defiant glare, she raised her trembling hand, attempting to push her last remaining will into the six-armed knight.

"Go... take her down..." Senna choked out. But before the arcane soldier could even take a single step forward, Senna's body violently revolted. She doubled over, coughing a stream of dark blood into the ground. Then her eyes rolled back, her consciousness slipping away. Yet, in a final flash of lucidity, Senna managed to force her rune to stop the summoning. And thankfully, too, as William had seen what horror would unfold if she'd blacked out while the connection was active.

This way, the corruption that had happened to the Velites wouldn't happen this time. And so, with the last spark of her consciousness, she dismissed the six-armed knight. The massive construct dissolved away, scattering away like salt in the wind. Without the soldier holding her up, Ophila fell, her face contorting in agony as she slammed into the ground. The children shrieked, scattering blindly away. William dashed forward, grabbing Ophila by her collar and began dragging her backward. His mind raced.

Their odds weren't good at all. Senna was out cold. Ophila was actively losing blood. He had nothing but a small knife, and because of the blood in his ears, he couldn't even use his rune. Sparrow's feline smirk widened, her eyes glinting.

"Oh, how tragic. Now, are we going to make this difficult, or—" William snarled. No. He wasn't going to go down without a fight.

"Hey! You overgrown, slimy piece of shit!" William didn't even think. He just opened his lungs and roared at the top of his voice, channeling all of his remaining panic and adrenaline into the scream.

"YOU FUCKING AKKOROK! WE'RE OVER HERE! COME EAT US OR SOMETHING, YOU FUCKER! WE'RE RIGHT HERE!" Sparrow frowned, cocking her head in confusion.

"What the hell are you—" But she didn't get to finish the sentence. Because William's desperate gamble had worked. The ground began to tremble. A thrumming vibrated their shoes, rapidly escalating into a violent earthquake that shook up the loose dirt and rocks. The Akkorok had heard him. And driven into a renewed frenzy by the sound of fresh prey, the apex predator was tearing its way back up the incline. The Akkorko's massive, rubbery tentacles erupted into the chamber.

They slammed blindly into the walls, shattering the stone into a spray of gravel. Sparrow's eyes widened, taking a step back. She looked on with shock as the absolute monster of thrashing flesh and rage spilled into the room. William watched the colossal horror squeeze itself into the much smaller cavern, his heart hammering. He had bought them some time. But w hat the fuck do I do now? he thought, his hand tightening around his knife. Sparrow turned to William, her eyes filled with a blazing fury.

"You absolute idiot!" she shrieked. But, contrary to what William had expected, she didn't turn and run. Instead, she stood her ground, brandishing her golden needle with absolute composure. And William watched, eyes widening, as the mysterious woman activated her rune. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Immediately, a wave of impossible heat began radiating off her supple brown skin, visible as a faint haze. But the environment around her did the exact opposite.

With a crack, the ground beneath her boots turned white. The moisture in the air froze into a thick fog, and a layer of frost spread around her, racing up the nearby stone wall. The temperature in the chamber plummeted so fast that William's next breath was a cloud of vapor. What the hell… William shivered. He had never heard of a rune capable of manipulating temperature on a scale this large.

Even the man who had kidnapped him—the one who could command those terrifying golden flames—could only manipulate the fire itself. He couldn't change the temperature of an entire environment like this. This woman was on a completely different level. Even still, the Akkorok didn't seem to care much about the cold. Its senses noticed the immense heat that Sparrow was giving off, and sent three massive tentacles whipping through the darkness, hurtling directly at the woman's head. She didn't even flinch.

As the first rubbery limb entered the frozen zone surrounding her, its movements visibly slowed, its skin instantly freezing into a brittle, icy crust. Then Sparrow lunged forward, her golden needle slicing cleanly through the frozen flesh of the tentacle. It was like hitting glass with a hammer. The limb shattered into frozen chunks, scattering across the floor. Without hesitating for even a second, she spun on her heel.

Her needle parried a second tentacle easily before she pivoted toward the third, instantly freezing it like the first and shearing it off in a single stroke. She was completely dominating the fight. Yet, curiously, she stopped there. She made no effort to press her advantage against the beast, nor did she make a move toward the exit. Instead, Sparrow leaped backward, retreating deeper into the icy sanctuary she had made for herself.

Her face was horribly flushed, and a thick sheen of sweat coated her body despite the sub-zero air, but her mocking grin was still plastered over her face. William's heart sank into his stomach. She was using her terrifying power only as a shield, destroying only the limbs that directly threatened her space. She was choosing to let the Akkorok live, fully intending to let the rest of the tentacles finish off William, the unconscious Senna, and the bleeding Ophila.

The Akkorok, completely blinded by rage and pain from the severed limbs, turned its massive body away from the freezing zone. Its remaining appendages whipped around the chamber, sensing the vibrations of the children and William's movements. Then, disaster struck. One of the children tripped over a piece of fallen stone and went down, tumbling down onto the ground. William opened his mouth to shout a warning, lunging forward, but his battered body was too slow.

A massive, rubbery tentacle zeroed in instantly toward the sound of the child's sharp cry. It lashed out, about to skewer the kid through the chest. Without a second thought, William flung his knife. It wasn't a perfect throw, and the small blade didn't do any meaningful damage to the behemoth's thick hide. But the hilt struck the moving limb just enough that the sudden impact redirected its trajectory by a couple of feet.

And just like that, the tentacle missed the boy completely, crashing into the stone wall instead, spraying debris everywhere. The boy scrambled back to his feet and kept running, wailing in fear. Now William didn't even have a knife. He looked down at his empty hand. He was now completely defenseless. And the thick column of hardened flesh didn't hesitate to seize the opportunity. Robbed of its initial target, the Akkorok's tentacle whipped away from the pulverized wall and locked onto the closest source of life.

William. The massive appendage tore through the dark, aimed straight at his chest. William stared it down. His limbs felt frozen in place. There was no way he was going to avoid it in time. I'm dead. The thought passed through his mind. He had always thought that when he died, his life would flash before his eyes. And yet, there was nothing. The tentacle grew impossibly close, mere inches from his face, blotting out what little light remained in his vision.

He instinctively braced himself, closing his eyes as he waited for the crushing blow to arrive. But… Nothing happened. Huh? There was no impact that shattered his bones. No sudden darkness of death. William cautiously peeked one eye open, and his heart seemed to skip a beat. The massive tentacle was hovering right in front of his face, completely halted—because it had been completely severed.

The detached, heavy clump of flesh slammed uselessly into the dirt beside him, its blood—a strange black fluid—spraying across the gravel. William's eyes widened as he studied the decapitated limb. Embedded deep into the stump were two familiar, ugly daggers.

"So this is where you guys were?" A cold voice drifted down from above. William snapped his head up at the acquainted sound. Perched on a small stone ledge near the upper part of the stone wall, looking completely unbothered by the chaos, sat Lio. William could only stare, dumbfounded. Lio's calm demeanor in the middle of all of this was just so utterly jarring. Yet, as William's eyes adjusted, he noticed the boy wasn't completely unscathed after all.

For some reason, Lio's shirt and pants were ripped in multiple places, while the edges of his coat were frayed and burned. Still, despite the shredded clothes, the boy's expression remained frigid and unchanging. Lio dropped down from the ledge in a single fluid motion, landing silently on the stone floor. He walked forward, completely ignoring the thrashing Akkorok—shrieking in pain at its lost limbs, and casually ripped his two daggers out of the twitching flesh.

"Well, well," Sparrow said, trying to regain her composure, though the sudden variable had clearly caught her off guard.

"Another little mouse enters the trap." Lio gave a small nod, not answering immediately. He flicked off the excess blood from his blades, cocking his head as his cold eyes studied her sweating complexion.

"That's an interesting rune," Lio said, his tone entirely devoid of any fear.

"Very nice output." Sparrow's eyes narrowed.

"It is, isn't it? I could freeze you to death in a second."

"I doubt it," Lio shrugged, completely unphased.

"Judging from your condition, your little ice trick won't last forever. So just tell me who sent you, and what you're after here, and maybe I'll let you walk out of this place alive." Sparrow smirked, her voice dripping with mockery.

"Oh, you think you're in a position to negotiate?"

"I know I am," Lio replied immediately. Sparrow's smirk twitched.

"I see."