Chapter 56
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"Everyone, sleep now! I'll stand guard first and wake up someone to replace me after half a night.", Beta commanded.
No one wanted to object him as they were all very exhausted already. It wasn't anything unusual for Beta to stand guard first either, so no one thought anything about it.
Brian walked up to Beta and looked out of the window with him.
"What do you think will happen at night?", Brian asked, looking at the darkening sky.
"There will probably be more beasts, maybe even of a different kind we haven't encountered yet. But we have to go through this. Also, according to what I know about the mysteriousness of runes, there's a certain possibility that the key will appear at night after all. But then again, even if nothing much happens tonight, we at least saved a lot of time by sleeping here.", Beta answered quietly in order to not disturb the others who were already trying to fall asleep.
"What do you think happened here hundreds of years ago?", Brian asked again. He already suspected the things Beta told him about as well, so there wasn't really anything to talk about.
Beta just stared out of the window as if reminiscing about the past for a while before answering.
"There are many reasons a fight can break out. Politics, love, greed, and sometimes, it just brings people happiness to destroy whole cities. It might have been the entrance ceremony of an evil sect for all I know.", Beta said laughingly.
Brian didn't know what to say to that. It didn't sound like a laughing matter to destroy a city just to enter a sect. What kind of sect did even have such hard requirements? If even the ones entering the sect were so strong, how strong were the ones who have stayed there for some time?
"You should sleep now too. I have a feeling that we won't be able to sleep for long.", Beta said quietly.
"There's no need to sleep if we have to fight in a bit anyway. Let's just train until the fight starts.", Brian said, preparing to train.
"I agree. We should just warm up for the upcoming battle for a bit.", Domian joined in, coming from the side.
Beta agreed with a smile while thinking that both were truly battle maniacs. Well, he admitted that he's the same. So, it was really true to say, "Birds of the same feather, flocks together". He also always liked to train with them as everyone shared their insights at that time, advancing faster together by debating over how to kill a beast in the fastest way. Beta trained in Death's Physique, Brian imagined a hoard of enemies which he cut down with his saber using the fastest way, and Domian pierced dropping leaves that were swept in by the wind with his sword, aiming to pierce every single one in its four corners. When some of the squad noticed them, they couldn't help but show a small smile on their faces and turned around as if it wasn't something special. The scene of three young boys happily training in the moonlight that shone through the window was very memorable for them. It was a symbol of power and effort that was needed to get to this point. Every time they saw them like that, they were reminded of why they accepted them as their leaders.
This scene continued on until many steps were heard, closing in on the house they were in. Beta woke everyone up quietly and then moved towards the window to take a look outside. On the streets, he saw a group of shadows moving about, chasing what seemed like a group made of light. For some reason, the shadows were darker than the night surrounding them and the light wasn't piercing in the eye, even having a certain gentleness to it.
" Oh! So, it is like this… They look like the dark and bright figures that were drawn in some of the houses we were in. I wonder how they are connected... And most importantly... how did they come to be? Why are they still fighting? What is it with this city that makes them fight even today? Hmm… In the first place, where did they come from?", Beta thought as he watched the dark figures brutally killing the bright ones.
Suddenly, one of the dark figures noticed their squad and it looked like it was letting out a silent shout. What was more surprising was, even though it was silent, the other shadows seemed to have heard it and together they rushed at the house Beta and his team were in.
"They saw us! Prepare the defenses, go to your positions! We have to fight at the door and make sure they won't be able to get deeper here! Secure our escape path and always remember – protect each other's backs!!!", Beta commanded right away, the urgency in his voice was quite evident.
Seems like they really were in a dire situation for even Beta to be that serious. Everyone didn't dally at all as they got out and went into their usual positions swiftly, bracing for the fight. Soon, the door was broken down with no resistance and the shadows rushed in, holding their weapons high in anticipation of the soon to come slaughter. Now that the shadows were closer to Beta and his party, they noticed how they didn't look much different from normal humans. It was just that their mouths were sharp and jagged. Just as Beta had thought, they were immaterial, which is why he commanded everyone to attack them with weapons that are made of soulpower or coated in it. It was kind of scary to look at their sinister teeth-like jagged mouths. One would also feel the overflowing malice and killing intent the longer one would stare at it, so the whole party stopped observing abruptly to not falter right away.
The moment the shadows cornered their targets, they couldn't wait any longer and tried to rush forward through the door, with their weapons in their hands. That was when they noticed that they couldn't move anymore as their upper bodies fell on the ground, slowly fading away. Domian and Brian, who stood at both sides of the door, instantly cut them apart with no sweat as soon as the shadows came in. Their first move easily took care of the sacrificial lambs, but then many more shadows rushed in, which to Beta's surprise, even got into a formation. "These aren't simple monsters at all! They clearly are more intelligent than beasts with the capability to fight in numbers! Ugh… we really are in big trouble!", Beta thought worriedly.
Suddenly, Beta couldn't hold back anymore, judging how they were all in critical danger. He dropped down from the ceiling where he had been waiting and landed right into the middle of the formation of the shadows. Just when they were about to turn their heads because of the sudden noise behind them, Beta started to move and used one of the techniques described in the Monkey Stick Tactics.
He rotated the staff all around his body as if he was playing with his staff as it traveled on his body for more momentum and at the same time hitting every target around him, knocking them up and some even got pushed back into the walls. None of them got out of Beta's tornado-like attack unscathed which basically destroyed their formation and they slowly dissipated in the air. But instead of being happy, Beta frowned. That was because there were still more rushing at them non-stop through the broken door. According to what he saw earlier, there shouldn't be that many shadow soldiers around here, so he was wondering where they all came from.
"Did the silent shout earlier attract that many?", Beta thought while killing shadow soldiers at the same time without taking a breather.
Everyone had their own job in this battle. The Earth Elementalists took most of the damage, which was in turn healed by the Water Elementalists. Wood Elementalists controlled the crowd by rooting them in place and made it easier for others to handle the enemies one by one. Everyone else just madly killed the shadow soldiers that seemed to not know any fear as they endlessly rushed up to their squad. Exhaustion was becoming evident on their faces as they kept on fighting longer.
While everyone was distracted killing as fast as they could, suddenly, a wall to their right broke down with a crumbling noise and the shadows immediately rushed in from that side as well, surprising their backline. Beta now knew why there were so many houses with broken down walls all over the place. The same must have happened hundreds of years ago as well and that phenomenon was somehow still ongoing even now. It was no wonder people didn't know much about the happenings at night, seems like very few managed to survive and lived to tell the tale. Noticing the huge number of shadows swarming in from the back line, he quickly rushed backward, standing in front of the hole in the wall, blocking it off as much as he could. His squad quickly reacted and assigned him a Water and a Wood Elementalist to support him from behind. It was one of their strategies where Beta goes forth to handle the heavier burden, then supporting elementalist must immediately support him so that he is able to last longer. But without Beta's help, it increased the pressure on the other side immensely.
"Pia, go back to healing the others! I don't take much damage anyway! Johann will be enough to help me!", Beta ordered.
Pia wanted to talk back at first, but seeing the difficult situation on the other side, she listened to him while showing a scared look. Even though she was clearly exhausted too, she knew that Beta was suffering more, so she was really hesitant and scared of what will happen to him. Johann, on the other hand, didn't stop using his abilities at all within this process, though he himself was trying his best not to fail with supporting Beta. He finally has the opportunity to prove Beta that he was worthy of fighting alongside him too, so even if his life depended on it, he poured all his concentration and attacked the most efficient way.
He shot arrows made of soulpower with his longbow through the gaps that Beta left him open. The bow helped with accelerating the arrow faster, making it hard for people to dodge it. They were all precisely hitting the head, showcasing that the S class didn't only consist of three powerful people. He has always been trying his best to catch up to the trio but they were just too far ahead from him when it came to raw power. It's just that Beta usually chose tactics that didn't need much skill to preserve their soulpower, the same could be said about the other two, Brian and Domian, who can fight without using their soulpower much. Johann, on the other hand, was a better fighter when it came to soulpower utilization since he focused in that area with his training. So, he was actually the best next choice to assign as a help for Beta at the moment, thus, due to her trust in Johann's capabilities, Pia still followed Beta's instruction even though she was hesitant.
"Crumble!"
When everyone heard the crumbling noise again, their faces all went pale.
"Ahhhh!"
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"Everyone, sleep now! I'll stand guard first and wake up someone to replace me after half a night.", Beta commanded.
No one wanted to object him as they were all very exhausted already. It wasn't anything unusual for Beta to stand guard first either, so no one thought anything about it.
Brian walked up to Beta and looked out of the window with him.
"What do you think will happen at night?", Brian asked, looking at the darkening sky.
"There will probably be more beasts, maybe even of a different kind we haven't encountered yet. But we have to go through this. Also, according to what I know about the mysteriousness of runes, there's a certain possibility that the key will appear at night after all. But then again, even if nothing much happens tonight, we at least saved a lot of time by sleeping here.", Beta answered quietly in order to not disturb the others who were already trying to fall asleep.
"What do you think happened here hundreds of years ago?", Brian asked again. He already suspected the things Beta told him about as well, so there wasn't really anything to talk about.
Beta just stared out of the window as if reminiscing about the past for a while before answering.
"There are many reasons a fight can break out. Politics, love, greed, and sometimes, it just brings people happiness to destroy whole cities. It might have been the entrance ceremony of an evil sect for all I know.", Beta said laughingly.
Brian didn't know what to say to that. It didn't sound like a laughing matter to destroy a city just to enter a sect. What kind of sect did even have such hard requirements? If even the ones entering the sect were so strong, how strong were the ones who have stayed there for some time?
"You should sleep now too. I have a feeling that we won't be able to sleep for long.", Beta said quietly.
"There's no need to sleep if we have to fight in a bit anyway. Let's just train until the fight starts.", Brian said, preparing to train.
"I agree. We should just warm up for the upcoming battle for a bit.", Domian joined in, coming from the side.
Beta agreed with a smile while thinking that both were truly battle maniacs. Well, he admitted that he's the same. So, it was really true to say, "Birds of the same feather, flocks together". He also always liked to train with them as everyone shared their insights at that time, advancing faster together by debating over how to kill a beast in the fastest way. Beta trained in Death's Physique, Brian imagined a hoard of enemies which he cut down with his saber using the fastest way, and Domian pierced dropping leaves that were swept in by the wind with his sword, aiming to pierce every single one in its four corners. When some of the squad noticed them, they couldn't help but show a small smile on their faces and turned around as if it wasn't something special. The scene of three young boys happily training in the moonlight that shone through the window was very memorable for them. It was a symbol of power and effort that was needed to get to this point. Every time they saw them like that, they were reminded of why they accepted them as their leaders.
This scene continued on until many steps were heard, closing in on the house they were in. Beta woke everyone up quietly and then moved towards the window to take a look outside. On the streets, he saw a group of shadows moving about, chasing what seemed like a group made of light. For some reason, the shadows were darker than the night surrounding them and the light wasn't piercing in the eye, even having a certain gentleness to it.
" Oh! So, it is like this… They look like the dark and bright figures that were drawn in some of the houses we were in. I wonder how they are connected... And most importantly... how did they come to be? Why are they still fighting? What is it with this city that makes them fight even today? Hmm… In the first place, where did they come from?", Beta thought as he watched the dark figures brutally killing the bright ones.
Suddenly, one of the dark figures noticed their squad and it looked like it was letting out a silent shout. What was more surprising was, even though it was silent, the other shadows seemed to have heard it and together they rushed at the house Beta and his team were in.
"They saw us! Prepare the defenses, go to your positions! We have to fight at the door and make sure they won't be able to get deeper here! Secure our escape path and always remember – protect each other's backs!!!", Beta commanded right away, the urgency in his voice was quite evident.
Seems like they really were in a dire situation for even Beta to be that serious. Everyone didn't dally at all as they got out and went into their usual positions swiftly, bracing for the fight. Soon, the door was broken down with no resistance and the shadows rushed in, holding their weapons high in anticipation of the soon to come slaughter. Now that the shadows were closer to Beta and his party, they noticed how they didn't look much different from normal humans. It was just that their mouths were sharp and jagged. Just as Beta had thought, they were immaterial, which is why he commanded everyone to attack them with weapons that are made of soulpower or coated in it. It was kind of scary to look at their sinister teeth-like jagged mouths. One would also feel the overflowing malice and killing intent the longer one would stare at it, so the whole party stopped observing abruptly to not falter right away.
The moment the shadows cornered their targets, they couldn't wait any longer and tried to rush forward through the door, with their weapons in their hands. That was when they noticed that they couldn't move anymore as their upper bodies fell on the ground, slowly fading away. Domian and Brian, who stood at both sides of the door, instantly cut them apart with no sweat as soon as the shadows came in. Their first move easily took care of the sacrificial lambs, but then many more shadows rushed in, which to Beta's surprise, even got into a formation. "These aren't simple monsters at all! They clearly are more intelligent than beasts with the capability to fight in numbers! Ugh… we really are in big trouble!", Beta thought worriedly.
Suddenly, Beta couldn't hold back anymore, judging how they were all in critical danger. He dropped down from the ceiling where he had been waiting and landed right into the middle of the formation of the shadows. Just when they were about to turn their heads because of the sudden noise behind them, Beta started to move and used one of the techniques described in the Monkey Stick Tactics.
He rotated the staff all around his body as if he was playing with his staff as it traveled on his body for more momentum and at the same time hitting every target around him, knocking them up and some even got pushed back into the walls. None of them got out of Beta's tornado-like attack unscathed which basically destroyed their formation and they slowly dissipated in the air. But instead of being happy, Beta frowned. That was because there were still more rushing at them non-stop through the broken door. According to what he saw earlier, there shouldn't be that many shadow soldiers around here, so he was wondering where they all came from.
"Did the silent shout earlier attract that many?", Beta thought while killing shadow soldiers at the same time without taking a breather.
Everyone had their own job in this battle. The Earth Elementalists took most of the damage, which was in turn healed by the Water Elementalists. Wood Elementalists controlled the crowd by rooting them in place and made it easier for others to handle the enemies one by one. Everyone else just madly killed the shadow soldiers that seemed to not know any fear as they endlessly rushed up to their squad. Exhaustion was becoming evident on their faces as they kept on fighting longer.
While everyone was distracted killing as fast as they could, suddenly, a wall to their right broke down with a crumbling noise and the shadows immediately rushed in from that side as well, surprising their backline. Beta now knew why there were so many houses with broken down walls all over the place. The same must have happened hundreds of years ago as well and that phenomenon was somehow still ongoing even now. It was no wonder people didn't know much about the happenings at night, seems like very few managed to survive and lived to tell the tale. Noticing the huge number of shadows swarming in from the back line, he quickly rushed backward, standing in front of the hole in the wall, blocking it off as much as he could. His squad quickly reacted and assigned him a Water and a Wood Elementalist to support him from behind. It was one of their strategies where Beta goes forth to handle the heavier burden, then supporting elementalist must immediately support him so that he is able to last longer. But without Beta's help, it increased the pressure on the other side immensely.
"Pia, go back to healing the others! I don't take much damage anyway! Johann will be enough to help me!", Beta ordered.
Pia wanted to talk back at first, but seeing the difficult situation on the other side, she listened to him while showing a scared look. Even though she was clearly exhausted too, she knew that Beta was suffering more, so she was really hesitant and scared of what will happen to him. Johann, on the other hand, didn't stop using his abilities at all within this process, though he himself was trying his best not to fail with supporting Beta. He finally has the opportunity to prove Beta that he was worthy of fighting alongside him too, so even if his life depended on it, he poured all his concentration and attacked the most efficient way.
He shot arrows made of soulpower with his longbow through the gaps that Beta left him open. The bow helped with accelerating the arrow faster, making it hard for people to dodge it. They were all precisely hitting the head, showcasing that the S class didn't only consist of three powerful people. He has always been trying his best to catch up to the trio but they were just too far ahead from him when it came to raw power. It's just that Beta usually chose tactics that didn't need much skill to preserve their soulpower, the same could be said about the other two, Brian and Domian, who can fight without using their soulpower much. Johann, on the other hand, was a better fighter when it came to soulpower utilization since he focused in that area with his training. So, he was actually the best next choice to assign as a help for Beta at the moment, thus, due to her trust in Johann's capabilities, Pia still followed Beta's instruction even though she was hesitant.
"Crumble!"
When everyone heard the crumbling noise again, their faces all went pale.
"Ahhhh!"
"Everyone, sleep now! I'll stand guard first and wake up someone to replace me after half a night.", Beta commanded.No one wanted to object him as they were all very exhausted already. It wasn't anything unusual for Beta to stand guard first either, so no one thought anything about it.Brian walked up to Beta and looked out of the window with him."What do you think will happen at night?", Brian asked, looking at the darkening sky."There will probably be more beasts, maybe even of a different kind we haven't encountered yet. But we have to go through this. Also, according to what I know about the mysteriousness of runes, there's a certain possibility that the key will appear at night after all. But then again, even if nothing much happens tonight, we at least saved a lot of time by sleeping here.", Beta answered quietly in order to not disturb the others who were already trying to fall asleep."What do you think happened here hundreds of years ago?", Brian asked again. He already suspected the things Beta told him about as well, so there wasn't really anything to talk about.Beta just stared out of the window as if reminiscing about the past for a while before answering."There are many reasons a fight can break out. Politics, love, greed, and sometimes, it just brings people happiness to destroy whole cities. It might have been the entrance ceremony of an evil sect for all I know.", Beta said laughingly.Brian didn't know what to say to that. It didn't sound like a laughing matter to destroy a city just to enter a sect. What kind of sect did even have such hard requirements? If even the ones entering the sect were so strong, how strong were the ones who have stayed there for some time?"You should sleep now too. I have a feeling that we won't be able to sleep for long.", Beta said quietly."There's no need to sleep if we have to fight in a bit anyway. Let's just train until the fight starts.", Brian said, preparing to train."I agree. We should just warm up for the upcoming battle for a bit.", Domian joined in, coming from the side.Beta agreed with a smile while thinking that both were truly battle maniacs. Well, he admitted that he's the same. So, it was really true to say, "Birds of the same feather, flocks together". He also always liked to train with them as everyone shared their insights at that time, advancing faster together by debating over how to kill a beast in the fastest way. Beta trained in Death's Physique, Brian imagined a hoard of enemies which he cut down with his saber using the fastest way, and Domian pierced dropping leaves that were swept in by the wind with his sword, aiming to pierce every single one in its four corners. When some of the squad noticed them, they couldn't help but show a small smile on their faces and turned around as if it wasn't something special. The scene of three young boys happily training in the moonlight that shone through the window was very memorable for them. It was a symbol of power and effort that was needed to get to this point. Every time they saw them like that, they were reminded of why they accepted them as their leaders.This scene continued on until many steps were heard, closing in on the house they were in. Beta woke everyone up quietly and then moved towards the window to take a look outside. On the streets, he saw a group of shadows moving about, chasing what seemed like a group made of light. For some reason, the shadows were darker than the night surrounding them and the light wasn't piercing in the eye, even having a certain gentleness to it." Oh! So, it is like this They look like the dark and bright figures that were drawn in some of the houses we were in. I wonder how they are connected... And most importantly... how did they come to be? Why are they still fighting? What is it with this city that makes them fight even today? Hmm In the first place, where did they come from?", Beta thought as he watched the dark figures brutally killing the bright ones.Suddenly, one of the dark figures noticed their squad and it looked like it was letting out a silent shout. What was more surprising was, even though it was silent, the other shadows seemed to have heard it and together they rushed at the house Beta and his team were in."They saw us! Prepare the defenses, go to your positions! We have to fight at the door and make sure they won't be able to get deeper here! Secure our escape path and always remember protect each other's backs!!!", Beta commanded right away, the urgency in his voice was quite evident.Seems like they really were in a dire situation for even Beta to be that serious. Everyone didn't dally at all as they got out and went into their usual positions swiftly, bracing for the fight. Soon, the door was broken down with no resistance and the shadows rushed in, holding their weapons high in anticipation of the soon to come slaughter. Now that the shadows were closer to Beta and his party, they noticed how they didn't look much different from normal humans. It was just that their mouths were sharp and jagged. Just as Beta had thought, they were immaterial, which is why he commanded everyone to attack them with weapons that are made of soulpower or coated in it. It was kind of scary to look at their sinister teeth-like jagged mouths. One would also feel the overflowing malice and killing intent the longer one would stare at it, so the whole party stopped observing abruptly to not falter right away.The moment the shadows cornered their targets, they couldn't wait any longer and tried to rush forward through the door, with their weapons in their hands. That was when they noticed that they couldn't move anymore as their upper bodies fell on the ground, slowly fading away. Domian and Brian, who stood at both sides of the door, instantly cut them apart with no sweat as soon as the shadows came in. Their first move easily took care of the sacrificial lambs, but then many more shadows rushed in, which to Beta's surprise, even got into a formation. "These aren't simple monsters at all! They clearly are more intelligent than beasts with the capability to fight in numbers! Ugh we really are in big trouble!", Beta thought worriedly.Suddenly, Beta couldn't hold back anymore, judging how they were all in critical danger. He dropped down from the ceiling where he had been waiting and landed right into the middle of the formation of the shadows. Just when they were about to turn their heads because of the sudden noise behind them, Beta started to move and used one of the techniques described in the Monkey Stick Tactics.He rotated the staff all around his body as if he was playing with his staff as it traveled on his body for more momentum and at the same time hitting every target around him, knocking them up and some even got pushed back into the walls. None of them got out of Beta's tornado-like attack unscathed which basically destroyed their formation and they slowly dissipated in the air. But instead of being happy, Beta frowned. That was because there were still more rushing at them non-stop through the broken door. According to what he saw earlier, there shouldn't be that many shadow soldiers around here, so he was wondering where they all came from."Did the silent shout earlier attract that many?", Beta thought while killing shadow soldiers at the same time without taking a breather.Everyone had their own job in this battle. The Earth Elementalists took most of the damage, which was in turn healed by the Water Elementalists. Wood Elementalists controlled the crowd by rooting them in place and made it easier for others to handle the enemies one by one. Everyone else just madly killed the shadow soldiers that seemed to not know any fear as they endlessly rushed up to their squad. Exhaustion was becoming evident on their faces as they kept on fighting longer.While everyone was distracted killing as fast as they could, suddenly, a wall to their right broke down with a crumbling noise and the shadows immediately rushed in from that side as well, surprising their backline. Beta now knew why there were so many houses with broken down walls all over the place. The same must have happened hundreds of years ago as well and that phenomenon was somehow still ongoing even now. It was no wonder people didn't know much about the happenings at night, seems like very few managed to survive and lived to tell the tale. Noticing the huge number of shadows swarming in from the back line, he quickly rushed backward, standing in front of the hole in the wall, blocking it off as much as he could. His squad quickly reacted and assigned him a Water and a Wood Elementalist to support him from behind. It was one of their strategies where Beta goes forth to handle the heavier burden, then supporting elementalist must immediately support him so that he is able to last longer. But without Beta's help, it increased the pressure on the other side immensely."Pia, go back to healing the others! I don't take much damage anyway! Johann will be enough to help me!", Beta ordered.Pia wanted to talk back at first, but seeing the difficult situation on the other side, she listened to him while showing a scared look. Even though she was clearly exhausted too, she knew that Beta was suffering more, so she was really hesitant and scared of what will happen to him. Johann, on the other hand, didn't stop using his abilities at all within this process, though he himself was trying his best not to fail with supporting Beta. He finally has the opportunity to prove Beta that he was worthy of fighting alongside him too, so even if his life depended on it, he poured all his concentration and attacked the most efficient way.He shot arrows made of soulpower with his longbow through the gaps that Beta left him open. The bow helped with accelerating the arrow faster, making it hard for people to dodge it. They were all precisely hitting the head, showcasing that the S class didn't only consist of three powerful people. He has always been trying his best to catch up to the trio but they were just too far ahead from him when it came to raw power. It's just that Beta usually chose tactics that didn't need much skill to preserve their soulpower, the same could be said about the other two, Brian and Domian, who can fight without using their soulpower much. Johann, on the other hand, was a better fighter when it came to soulpower utilization since he focused in that area with his training. So, he was actually the best next choice to assign as a help for Beta at the moment, thus, due to her trust in Johann's capabilities, Pia still followed Beta's instruction even though she was hesitant."Crumble!"When everyone heard the crumbling noise again, their faces all went pale."Ahhhh!"
