Chương 212: B3 - Chapter 44: Lesson On Mercy

Crouched behind a massive, moss-covered boulder, Seth and Elena pressed themselves flat against the stone. Through a narrow split in the rock, they watched three isolated imperial soldiers slowly patrolling the bottleneck ahead: a narrow stretch of open ground wedged between two small forests. Roughly a hundred paces away, Nightmare prowled through the undergrowth between the trees. Elena leaned in closer to Seth, her voice barely above a breath.

"Why would they only send three scouts when they know you're inside the Rift?"

"It's a bait," Seth whispered back, his own attention locked on the surrounding tree lines rather than the patrol itself.

"There's probably at least a dozen other soldiers lingering close by." Under normal circumstances, Seth would have already switched Share's connection from Shadow Step to Illusory Emptiness so he could go out and help Nightmare find every nearby enemy, but he had decided against it. Keeping Shadow Step available gave him far more flexibility. And if anything went wrong, he wanted the option to shift the bind to Colossus' Sandstorm Dome and summon the defensive barrier around Elena.

The noblewoman moved beside him, causing her blue robes to rustle against the dirt.

"Then we should use the orb and tell Marine so she can join us with the squads."

"No." Seth's answer came without hesitation.

"I'm waiting for Nightmare to finish assessing them, then I'll launch an attack." Elena frowned.

"What if there's more than a dozen?"

"It wouldn't matter." Elena pressed her lips together into a hard, frustrated line.

"You are taking entirely unnecessary risks right now."

"It has worked perfectly for me so far," Seth answered as his gaze swept through the clearing. Elena stared at him, then she gave a single, reluctant nod.

"Fine." A few seconds later, Nightmare's voice echoed through Link: ' One Priest. Three Elementalists. Four Rogues. Ten Warriors or Guardians. And all of them are staring at those three scouts like starving predators waiting for fresh meat.'

'Thanks,' Seth answered. Nightmare occasionally misidentified a class, relying on equipment and physical cues rather than a spell, but after two dozen battles, the direwolf had become surprisingly accurate at it. Seth turned his head to face Elena.

"There are almost twenty hidden ambushers. Only a single Priest, though. We can win." He looked back to the forest.

"Just make sure to position yourself so Colossus stays directly between you and them. But avoid standing too close, otherwise you'll get caught in the crossfire of their area-of-effect spells."

"No need to worry about me," Elena answered.

"I will be fine."

"Still." Seth's eyes met hers.

"If you find yourself in real trouble, shout for help." A faint smile touched Elena's lips.

"Go ahead and activate your Protecting Belt now," Seth added, reaching into his Endless Pouch.

"The moment we move, I'll be deploying a distortion field. I don't want them getting the chance to use any artifacts or spell-scrolls." Elena nodded and pressed a hand against the enchanted buckle at her waist. A faint shimmer spread across her robes. Seth copied her and activated his own belt.' Take out the Priest the moment the fight starts,' Seth said to Nightmare through Link.' She hasn't left my sight,' the direwolf replied.

Seth closed his eyes, drawing in a deep breath as he moved his focus entirely to his core. The fierce energy that had evolved thanks to his Talent surged violently through his body, racing along his aether channels and urging his muscles to move forward and thoroughly crush the soldiers patrolling the plain and hidden behind the trees. His eyes snapped open.

"Get ready." Seth summoned his bow of light, the weapon materializing in his grasp with a soft ethereal hiss, and began feeding aether into the grooves of Ravenous Arrow. Energy gathered rapidly in his right hand and condensed into a hungry projectile that vibrated with restrained power as it took shape above his palm. Beside him, Elena planted her ebony staff into the ground and started channeling one of her own spells. Seth nocked the luminous arrow and slowly drew back the string.

The tension hummed through his fingers. Remaining hidden behind the boulder, he peered around the edge of the stone. The distance separating them from the patrol would have been absurd for a conventional archer. Seth narrowed his focus. The forest disappeared. The wind vanished. Everything contracted into a single line stretching from him to the nearest of the patrolling soldiers. A woman.

Through the narrow corridor of his vision, he caught long dark hair tied into a braided ponytail that swayed gently behind her as she walked. Light leather armor covered her torso, offering little protection against a direct hit. Seth settled his aim on the center of it. Then he released. The Ravenous Arrow streaked silently across the open space of the plain, carving a flawless route through the air. Seth didn't wait to see the outcome; he exploded out from behind the boulder and sprinted toward the trio.

"Go!" he yelled at Elena. His boots hammered against the ground as he poured a stream of aether into his Distortion Rod. The artifact answered right away, and a suppressing field surged outward to seize the surrounding area. The three scouts barely had time to react before the Ravenous Arrow struck true. The glowing projectile buried itself deep into the scout's chest.

Her eyes widened in shock as she staggered backward, a hand clawing toward the shaft protruding from her armor while the spell devoured her lifeforce from within. The two remaining scouts drew their weapons—simultaneously, the surrounding forest erupted with movement. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. Bushes shook violently as 'hidden' soldiers surged out from their spots.

Warriors burst from the undergrowth, Rogues abandoned their invisibility, and several figures who had been using concealment artifacts were abruptly snatched back to sight by the approaching distortion field.

"Attack!" one of the Warriors roared, raising a massive broadsword. The entire formation lunged forward. At the same moment, Elena completed her spell. A cluster of enormous ice lances materialized above her head and flew across the plain toward the two scouts, the projectiles' crystalline surfaces gleaming beneath the morning light. One of them reacted swiftly, activating a speed-enhancement spell to move out of the way. The second wasn't fast enough.

A protective barrier flared around him, but the shield shattered at the impact of the first lance. The next projectiles then struck him violently, lifting him completely off his feet before hurling him a few feet away. Seth continued to run at full speed, already shaping the next Ravenous Arrow. In the distance, Nightmare dropped the invisibility of Illusionary Emptiness. As planned, the direwolf leaped and snapped his large jaws shut around the neck of the Priest hidden in the back. The imperial formation split.

One armored soldier and two Rogues broke away from the main force and rushed to the direwolf, while the rest of the detachment charged toward Elena.

"Kill the Elementalist!" someone shouted. Several arrows and crackling bolts of lightning streaked in the noble's direction. Colossus had other plans. The giant scorpion emerged from Seth's necklace and lunged toward her to cast Sandstorm Dome. The swirling wall of dense grit flared outward, intercepting every one of the approaching projectiles. Seth smiled in relief and released his second Ravenous Arrow. The bright projectile struck the scout Elena had already struck, who was rising from the ground.

The man's eyes widened before the spell pierced his head and dropped him dead into the grass. Not missing a beat, Seth dismissed his bow and summoned Dusk Scythes. The twin blades of shadow condensed along his arms. Many yards behind him, Elena completed another spell. A freezing gust swept across the battlefield, and frost spread over the ground between her and the charging soldiers, coating grass, dirt, and exposed roots in a slick layer of ice. Before they could react, she followed up with another spell.

With a flick of her staff, dozens of ice arrows materialized around her and surged forth in a deadly volley. Seth lunged at the remaining scout from the previous trio. The man barely raised his swords in time to block the incoming dark blades, the impact forcing his boots to slide across the grass. In the distance, Nightmare cast Twin Mirages. Two perfect doppelgängers split from his body, materializing on either side of the direwolf. All three direwolves dashed toward the three soldiers heading their way.

Meanwhile, Seth wove through a coordinated attack from an Elementalist and an approaching Rogue. A lightning bolt scorched the air where his head had been an instant earlier, while an arrow whistled past his shoulder. Neither attack came close to stopping him from burying one of Dusk Scythes' blades into the throat of the scout before him. The condensed shadow passed cleanly through flesh.

Behind, Colossus let out a deafening Chitinous Taunt and forced five of the charging enemies to redirect their focus at him, then followed the cast up with both Desert Aegis and Quartz Armor to meet the ensuing flurry of offensive spells. A few steps away, Sandstorm Dome finally broke under another series of attacks. The moment the barrier vanished into dust, an arrow shot through and struck Elena.

The blue layer of her Protecting Belt flared, yet the noblewoman didn't seem affected at all—it seemed she'd deliberately allowed the shot to hit her so she could finish her complex incantation. A small, pulsing orb of dense blue energy surged between her palms, and she released the projectile forward, sending it flying right into the middle of the dozen rushing soldiers. The sphere detonated. Shards of razor-sharp ice exploded outward in every direction.

The fragments sliced into armor and defensive spells, injuring several men. Yet the primary effect of the spell was on their speed: their rapid charge slowed into a sluggish crawl. Seth smiled and dashed forward to meet the hindered soldiers. He cast Shadow Step, vanishing from the spot to appear directly behind one of them, and sliced through the man's neck before he could register what had happened. Beside them, one of the Warriors roared, and an extreme amount of aether blazed around his two-handed battleaxe.

He brought the weapon down in a heavy blow toward Colossus. The scorpion took the hit directly. The sheer force of the attack managed to shatter a significant portion of his Quartz Armor despite his extreme baseline Toughness and the boost of Desert Aegis, and carved a deep gash along the beast's side. Not missing a beat, Seth summoned Lumi out of his teardrop necklace. The Luminous Otter materialized in a flash, glanced at Elena, and made a chirping sound before turning and flying directly toward the scorpion.

A stream of healing energy left her paws and began to rapidly knit the cracked chitin back together. Elena shot a thoroughly baffled look straight at Seth. Seth simply shrugged, offering absolutely no explanation—he had targets in his sight. One of the vanguard soldiers roared and lunged toward Elena.

"Just die!" Seth snapped his head in their direction, but the noblewoman still refrained from shouting for help. A gust exploded from her staff, and the icy pressure struck the charging warrior head-on, sending him stumbling backward across the slippery grass. Colossus rushed in, his massive, chitinous legs churning the dirt as he crashed into the off-balance soldier with Scorpion Charge. One of his stingers then whipped forth to inject a dose of Deathcoil Venom directly through a seam in the man's breastplate.

I obviously don't have to babysit her, Seth thought while activating Huntbound Overflow. It was time to tear into the main cluster of the enemy formation. His dark blades cut a clean arc through the throat of the nearest Warrior before he triggered Shadow Step once more to reappear behind an Elementalist. The moment Dusk Scythes pierced through her chest, both weapons evaporated into wisps. Having been ready for that, Seth spun around and manifested Armored Phantom Fists to keep the slaughter going.

He wove through the majority of the incoming counterattacks. The few stray blades and spells that managed to hit barely left a scratch against his baseline Toughness with Desert Aegis. And even the minor gashes vanished as quickly as they appeared, thanks to Lumi's healing magic. When the imperial line had thoroughly collapsed, the final three survivors—two Rogues and a heavily armored Warrior—coordinated a desperate push toward Elena.

The Warrior threw his entire weight forward, successfully slamming his shield against Colossus to push the massive scorpion aside, while the two Rogues used the opening to close the gap to the noblewoman. Seth's eyes widened, and he dashed toward them at full speed, heart pounding. Yet the panic proved to be short-lived. Elena remained perfectly composed and even winked at him; her lips curled into a smile as she finished a rapid casting. Ice grew from her and encased her entire body in a thick pillar of solid ice.

The daggers of the two Rogues struck the surface and rebounded off, the vibrations almost jarring the weapons free from their grips. Cursing loudly, the duo abandoned the assault and turned to flee toward the tree line. Seth and Nightmare intercepted their retreat and cut down both soldiers before they could make it out of the clearing.

The thick column of ice surrounding Elena rapidly melted away into harmless puddles, just as the very last survivor—the Warrior—collapsed onto his knees right before Colossus's raised stingers.

"I surrender!" the man gasped, raising his gauntleted hands into the air as both his shield and sword clattered into the dirt. The giant scorpion showed absolutely zero intention of halting his strike, his tails coiled and ready to plunge downward into the man's skull.

"Wait, Colossus!" Elena exclaimed. The scorpion stopped his motion, all three of his stingers now mere inches from the prisoner's face. He slowly turned and looked at Seth. Elena also looked in his direction. Seth glanced at the Warrior still on his knees.

"They don't take survivors, so we don't either." Elena stepped forward toward Colossus and crossed her arms as if to block an attack.

"We don't have to lower ourselves to their level, Seth."

"Prisoners slow us down," Seth retorted.

"In the grand scheme of things, it could even prevent us from saving one or two of our own people during the whole battle." He paused, and a harder edge entered his voice.

"And that's assuming they don't actually try attacking us after surrendering. Like they often do." Elena pressed her lips together into a tight line and glanced down at the Warrior currently on his knees, then looked back at Seth.

"Does he really look like a threat to—" Before the final word could leave her mouth, the man snatched his fallen sword from the ground and lunged upward, the weapon aimed at her chest. Seth lunged, and Colossus thrust his stingers forth to intercept the threat, but someone else moved even faster than both of them. Nightmare phased out of Illusionary Emptiness and pounced.

The dark smoke of Gloom Fang bellowed from between direwolf's teeth, which were closed around the Warrior's throat, and rapidly ate through the flesh. Then, he snapped his jaws shut with a sickening crunch. The man's body went limp, and Nightmare let the corpse fall heavily back into the bloodstained grass. The direwolf's gaze locked onto Elena, whose green eyes had widened to their absolute limits.

"See?" he growled aloud.

"Mercy does not have a place here. Not in this puny human war."