Aethernea : Soulbound [Book 1]

Episode 149 - Sacrifice

Previously:

Kiel and Elaru are waiting for the results of their Muni entrance exams. Meanwhile, Nelaira's squad finally sees the end of the Valley of Eternal Snow. Unfortunately, a Tainted takes them by surprise and beheads one of their comrades before anyone could react. Due to the extreme speed and power of the Tainted, two more comrades are killed off in succession, after which, the Tainted sets his eyes on Nelaira. Nelaira is unable to escape but Aurel comes to her rescue. Unfortunately, due to an unforeseen circumstance, Aurel ends up getting hit by the creature and rendered unconscious. Laica loses her bearing and intensifies her magic, attracting the creature's attention onto herself. Luki starts treating Aurel, but the creature's stomp causes an earthquake and the two of them fall into the nearby pit. Laica rushes towards the pit to help them.

* * *

Seeing its target flying away, the Tainted twisted its body to follow. The sudden rotation jolted its insides and putrid black innards started to fall out through the hole in its torso.

They fell onto the ground with a squish, splashing a large stain of black onto the white snow.

Nelaira's heart sank. It would take mere seconds for it to catch up with her best friend!

Episode 149 – Sacrifice

"I'll halt its movement." Nelaira yelled to the comrade with the orange-green crew cut who was controlling the arrowheads. "Finish it off!"

And then, just as the Tainted was upon Laica, Nelaira's aura exploded.

Her maximum mana channeling speed had always been higher than Laica's. When Nelaira disregarded her own safety, the aura flare she could produce was significantly brighter than Laica's.

The creature suddenly felt another bright torch of life in its dark world. One that was even more enticing than the one it was chasing. Attracted by the waves of mana battering against it, the monster instinctively halted its chase.

The arrowheads floating above it immediately capitalized on this brief window of opportunity. They slammed into the remains of its brain, turning it into a paste.

However, the remaining Purgers didn't even have the time to let out a breath of relief before the previously still corpse started convulsing violently.

Its limbs flayed around with such speed that only blurry shadows could be seen.

Its tail was especially vicious as it whipped around, looking as if it would slice through space itself.

It cut through the air pushing slices of air outwards into countless wind blades.

Volatile as the wind itself, they whizzed in all directions, shredding anything in its vicinity.

The wind blades caught Laica by surprise. She was too close to the epicenter of the attack, having no time to exit the attack range.

Even dodging them was hard enough, leaving little time for evasive maneuvers. She could only shrink her body to minimize the number of attacks she would take and hope that she could shift her body enough to dodge the majority of the blades.

She was about to bring her arms and legs towards her torso when suddenly her eyes landed on Luki.

He was raising from the darkness of the hole in front of her with Aurel on his back.

He had managed to activate his flying boots in time.

Just in time to be caught in the monster's dying attack.