Hollow Twilight - A LitRPG Novel

Chapter 24

Gurn wasted no time putting her words into actions, dashing towards the group with her fist pulled back. A wave of light passed through Reid from behind, shooting outwards and moving through Gurn before halting a few feet behind her. The monster stopped her motion and checked around her but couldn't spot any obvious changes. Reid took the chance to glance back over his shoulder, spotting Mr. Crawford poking out from the alley. His hands were up in front of him and what appeared to be different math equations floating around his head, passing by and fading into the air, shifting as they ran calculations, popping into existence every second.

Reid crossed eyes with Kari, who gave him a nod. This was something the teacher was doing, some sort of barrier or bubble he had put them all in as part of his Twilight. That meant it was at least safe for them, and it certainly wasn't coming from Gurn by her reaction.

Tim took the hesitation to dash in, whipping his scythe ahead of him at the Pariah. She easily parried it with her frozen forearm, the blade glancing off the solid ice like it was a tennis ball. Tim pulled his weapon back to his side just in time to put it across his body and absorb a right hook from Gurn. He was sent flying by the force, throwing his scythe into the ground to slow himself before crashing through the glass wall of one of the skyscrapers.

She's right, Gilphorus said straight into Reid's brain. You're all going to die. He winced at the sound. He was going to prove it all wrong just like he had done before when he killed Marrus. Just like he did every time. That's what got him this far. He repeated it again in his head. He could feel his breathing, feel his lungs expand and contract in his chest, became fixated on the push of blood out of his chest with each pulse of his heart. He needed to bring it all back down to something manageable. To the way he felt when he first logged in. He needed the version of him that didn't feel self-doubt, only determination.

"This is what I'm talking about," Kari yelled, visibly frustrated as she leapt forwards to match Gurn and keep her from following up on Tim. "Pariahs are no joke."

"You come to beg for mercy now?" Gurn said, turning her ire on Kari. "You would insult me but now you balk in my face? Weak, all of you. You'll barely be worth the effort to kill." She held up her arm and a spear of ice shot out from her palm in an instant.

Kari slashed straight through it, sending the two halves to either side of her. They shattered into pieces upon hitting the road. "Your problem is you're not cocky enough." Kari took a swing at the monster from below, sweeping upwards with full force. Gurn stepped back in time, narrowly dodging the attack before getting pushed back by a follow-up force Kari's axe projected. Reid have never seen her actually fight with it. He had no idea what it was capable of when it talked about cutting dimensions or the universe or whatever its name was.

"If you were cockier," Kari huffed, leaping back before an icy fist smashed into the ground where she just stood, "then you could be easily tricked. But you're smart enough to just execute anything."

"You mean like your friend?" Gurn replied, pointing her left palm at the hole in the building where Tim had flown. Another twisted icicle rocketed out from her hand, arcing through the window. "It's best to execute each one of you than play pretend and forget you exist. I don't need to waste time swatting flies when I can crush them each."

"That's my point." Kari swung her axe around again, this time coming from the side. Gurn reached across and met it with her right hand, catching it with ease as she was unaffected by the sharp edge she was holding. She wrenched it from Kari's grasp and flung it away behind her.

As Gurn went for a finishing punch of her own, the axe dropped down from the sky again, deftly caught by Kari as part of a counterswing. She smashed into Gurn's fist, knocking it aside, then thrust forwards with the axe, jabbing it into Gurn's chest and pushing her back. The creature stumbled but wasn't visibly injured. A few flakes of ice had shed from her hand and chest but there was no depth to the cuts.