'Mhmm… I wonder how much time it will actually take them,' thought Syrmax as he was sitting in front of the entrance. Multiple minutes had already passed, but the group hadn't returned yet.
'They said that they would just rush towards Catripple to save her… Tyel said that she was the only prisoner brought there… so why is it taking this much time?' Syrmax looked at the entrance of the prison; his whole body was extremely strong and big, as he had remained there charging nonstop.
"Execution formation."
Syrmax immediately heard a whisper and positioned himself in a defensive pose. As he looked around, he noticed Corvinus's blades creating a sort of cage around him. 'They knew we were there?' thought Syrmax as he looked at the entrance and finally noticed something: there was a small camera, almost impossible to spot, that was pointing exactly at the entrance.
'And Corvinus arrived here to fight against me… I will not lose.' Syrmax looked around as he remained still, knowing that as long as he didn't move, the blades wouldn't hit him.
'I just need to find his position… and launch my attack there.' Syrmax closed his eyes; he couldn't move his head in any way as the blades would have rushed at him, and his only option was to remain still and silent, trying to hear for the slightest sound produced by Corvinus and then immediately attack.
"I'll keep going… I will not stop here," whispered Vane as he turned into a buffalo again and was ready to charge.
"Going directly into the front will be certain death… I'll put a crystal be—" Orechin started to whisper the plan to Vane, but he couldn't even finish his words before Ashikunz immediately launched himself towards the group.
"I can hear you!" he shouted as he was about to swing his spear.
"I'll stop you!" barked out Vane as he was able to charge enough and launched himself towards the Krukin.
While both of them rushed, Orechin took a few steps forward and, the moment Vane's horns and Ashikunz's spear were about to smash against each other, a huge red crystal appeared between them.
Ashikunz was the first one to strike, as he was significantly faster than Vane with his movements. 'You're too exposed now!' Vane, now that the red crystal had been destroyed, rushed towards the Krukin, who seemingly couldn't do anything to defend himself.
Or at least, that's what everyone else believed. 'He didn't let it explode? He simply made the air hotter… not that it would be a problem.' To the surprise of everyone, right before Vane was about to hit him with his horns, Ashikunz changed the direction of the spear's blade, and now it was pointing back at Vane.
"You won't escape anymore!!" shouted Vane angrily as he hardened his horns as much as he could so that he would be able to pierce through the armor.
Just a few inches before Vane was about to make contact, Ashikunz looked him directly in the eyes and, with bare effort, pierced his spear into Vane's side. Vane, clearly not expecting that after the hit, stopped and remained still while blood dripped from his injury.
"VANEE!" shouted Liro, scared, as he saw tons of blood dripping from Vane's body. "I'm alright, I can still hea—" Vane answered back to Liro when suddenly Ashikunz gave Vane a strong kick and launched him directly towards the wall.
The moment the buffalo's body crashed against the wall, a huge crater appeared, and the moment Vane fell to the ground, he returned to his human form, his side bleeding profusely.
Vane was breathing heavily while he remained on the ground, lying in his own blood. He looked at Ashikunz and tried to reach for him with his arm, but it was totally useless; Vane was slowly losing his strength and could barely move.
"I'LL FUCKING END YOU!" shouted Darian angrily. The moment he shot a shard, a tail appeared over his body, the shard became drastically huge and more resistant, so much so that Ashikunz could barely realize what was happening.
'It is faster? Strange… before they hadn't reached this speed… it must be an illusion.' Without any fear, Ashikunz remained still, realizing that if it were an illusion, it would never be able to pierce his body.
But once the weapon got too close, Ashikunz realized something. 'Why has the temperature gotten lower… that isn't an illusion!' Ashikunz immediately tried to move his spear to pierce the shard, but he was too slow.
The shard started to pierce into his armor and Ashikunz completely missed the timing. 'It shouldn't be possible… unless—' While his armor was being pierced, Ashikunz looked down and noticed a blue crystal right under his foot.
Even though this crystal was extremely small, it was enough to make everything slightly faster for Ashikunz so that he completely missed the timing. "ARGHHH!" shouted Ashikunz angrily when suddenly the shard exploded, and a mist appeared that covered Ashikunz's whole body.
"Did you hit him?" asked Tyel as he got next to Darian, who was breathing heavily. The tail over his arm had already disappeared and Ashikunz was nowhere to be seen.
"Hey, that shard surely was huge! I've never seen you hit anything like that," said Liro as he started to walk towards Darian, unaware of what was happening in the room.
Liro, realizing that Darian wasn't answering him, slowly raised his head and noticed his horrified look. 'Eh? What happened?' he thought as he noticed that Orechin, Tyel, and Lily were all looking extremely scared. As he moved his eyes, he noticed something that scared him more than anything.
Ashikunz was pointing his spear in front of Vane's face, who could barely move. "I… will not… fall here…" whispered Vane as he slowly tried to get back on his feet. Ashikunz looked at him, annoyed, and positioned the spear right next to his neck.
He slowly started to pierce the skin, and a small cut appeared. "STOPP!!" shouted Lily angrily as she summoned two roots that rushed towards Ashikunz's arm to block it.
"It's pointless…" whispered Ashikunz. Without any problem, he cut off Vane's head and sliced Lily's roots with just a single strike of his spear.
Vane's head rolled on the ground next to Ashikunz's feet. Liro, Darian, and Lily couldn't believe their eyes; one of their most precious friends had just been killed, and there wasn't anything they could do about it.
"You want this?" asked Ashikunz as he kicked Vane's head. Liro, who couldn't move at all, didn't even notice the head rushing towards his body. The moment the head touched his white dress, it became covered in blood.
As Liro felt something touching his body, he slowly lowered his head and noticed Vane's head still bleeding on the ground, with some of the blood right on his shirt.
"AHHHH!" shouted Liro, terrified, as he couldn't believe what had just happened. "AHHH NOO VANEEE!" Liro let out a desperate cry as he fell to his knees and, with his hands over his head, kept screaming and crying nonstop.
"Destroying Yalemba and killing Garoo wasn't enough for you Krukins…" whispered Lily as she clenched her fist together angrily. "I SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU!" she shouted. "Vine Walk!" With that, roots appeared under her and she started to rush around the room.
'I'll plant as many seeds as I can… just to fucking en—' thought Lily as she kept walking, countless seeds were left on the ground. Once she activated another of her spells, all the seeds would grow into countless roots that would block Ashikunz.
But Lily couldn't even finish positioning all of her seeds before Ashikunz, without any problem, immediately rushed towards her. In an instant, he was already in front of her. Lily, in surprise, opened her eyes wide as she realized it was over for her, too.
Ashikunz slashed his spear to cut her body in half, killing her completely. The upper part of her body fell to the right while the lower kept traveling on the root for a few more seconds. Suddenly, the roots and seeds disappeared, and the body lay on the ground, leaving a huge trail of blood.
"Let's escape! It's too dangerous!" shouted Tyel as he immediately commanded everyone to reach for him. He was standing near the exit of the room and waved for everyone to go outside.
"Liro, we have to go!" shouted Darian as he got next to Liro, who had just witnessed Lily's death too and could barely move. He remained there on his knees, crying, unable to do anything.
"Oh no… you will not escape anymore… you rebels!" shouted Ashikunz as he launched his spear towards the group. The wind generated by it was able to push Darian, who was getting closer to Liro, away. Liro slowly moved his head towards Darian, who was flying away because of the wind generated by the spear, and smiled.
Darian tried to reach his hand toward Liro as if to touch him, but the spear pierced through Liro's head, completely making it explode in front of Darian's eyes.
'Damn!' thought Orechin as he realized that he wouldn't be able to dodge the spear in any way, and in fact, the weapon pierced directly into his leg.
"ARGHHH!" shouted Orechin as he found his right leg totally missing.
"Ashikunz asked me to keep you alive… I guess he wants to discover something more from you," whispered Ashikunz as he walked slowly through Liro's blood, he even walked on the body, not caring about anything.
"Go away, Tyel! Reach Syrmax and get out of this city!" shouted Orechin as he cried and signaled for Tyel to go away and not help him. Tyel, not knowing what to do, remained still.
"I'll escape too…" whispered Orechin as he started to crawl on the floor, losing tons of blood with more than half of his right leg missing.
Ashikunz walked slowly towards him and grabbed the spear in his hands. "Vital… S- puff—" While Orechin summoned a huge green crystal between him and Ashikunz, he coughed up some blood and could no longer move; his arms couldn't drag him forever.
"I can't leave you there!" shouted Tyel as he grabbed Orechin's body and started to carry him away. "It's over for me, Tyel… there isn't anything I can do," whispered Orechin with tears in his eyes as he looked behind and noticed that Ashikunz cut through the green crystal without any problem.
"FUCK YOU ASHIKUNZ! ICE ARMOR!!" shouted Darian, and with all his strength, he created his shard ice armor over his body and immediately rushed at the Krukin.
"I will not tolerate such disrespect for my friends… you didn't even treat them like they were dead!" shouted Darian as he remembered how Ashikunz had acted, how he kicked Vane's head or stepped on Liro's lifeless body like it was nothing.
Darian jumped towards Ashikunz as he tried to hold back his tears. The Krukin simply gave him an annoyed look and slashed his spear towards his arm. The moment the armor perceived the spear, it exploded, and all the shards rushed towards Darian.
Ashikunz gave an annoyed look at all the shards rushing towards him and, without any problem, slashed the spear all around his body and destroyed every single shard that could have hit him. The wall behind him was full of shards, and Ashikunz was totally unharmed, right before the shards were about to hit him, he simply cut them into multiple pieces.
"He said he wanted you alive… but for doing experiments, he doesn't need your arm attached to your body, having it off will make him be able to have more experiments don't you think?" whispered Ashikunz as he looked over Darian's arm and immediately cut it off. The arm cut off was the left one, and the moment Darian lost this body part, tons of blue blood came out of his body. Soon enough, it became red as Snowy was launched outside of his body and fell unconscious.
Darian fell to his knees and looked at his missing arm. "ARGHHH, IT HURTS SO MUCH!" shouted Darian, unable to resist the pain. He fell to the ground while looking at his arm.
"Eh, shut up… it's annoying hearing someone scream." Ashikunz, without any problem, pierced Darian's left leg and created a hole. Darian kept screaming for some seconds before he finally fell unconscious.
"Oh, finally… I always hate when people scream in pain," said Ashikunz as he started to walk towards Tyel and Orechin, simply following the blood trail Orechin left on the ground.
"Don't worry, Orechin. Soon we will be out and we will escape… we will reach Darian's allies… and ask for help, alright?" asked Tyel, his body unable to stop shaking. His whole outfit was covered in Orechin's blood, and Orechin didn't even answer.
'He's cold… please be alive, Orechin…' thought Tyel as he started to pray. 'At least you, Syrmax… be alive…' Suddenly, Tyel heard footsteps coming in his direction.
"Syrma—" Tyel realized it was Syrmax who had reached them, but once the figure in front of him became clear, Tyel stopped, realizing there wasn't anything they could do.
In front of him was Corvinus, who was missing an arm, but in the other one, he held Syrmax's head.
"Look at your face… ahahaha, I can't do this…" he said as he launched Syrmax's head near Tyel's feet.
"I always wondered who was under this mask… and now that you're all dead… I will not have any problem," said Corvinus as he walked slowly towards Tyel to remove his mask. The poor human couldn't do anything as he realized he was completely stuck.
The moment Corvinus removed his mask, he gasped in surprise. "Hey, I remember your face! You're one of the guards!" he shouted angrily. Tyel heard other footsteps and noticed that Ashikunz had reached him, too.
"No, no…" whispered Tyel as he fell to his knees and looked at his arms. "Power, isn't it time to awaken?" he said, with tears flowing down his cheeks.
"Hey, you're not in the best condition," commented Ashikunz as he walked next to Corvinus. "Yeah… that fucker was able to destroy one of my arms," answered Corvinus as he looked over Tyel.
"Do you happen to know him?" asked Ashikunz, as he had never seen Tyel's face, either.
"He's one of the guards in our prison… he's literally the most useless person, as he doesn't even have a power," said Corvinus as he tried not to break into laughter.
"Hmph? Not even a power?" commented Ashikunz as he kneeled next to him. "Zrelekai would have told me if he needed you alive… but because he didn't say anything about you, I guess you can be killed without any problem," added Ashikunz as, without any hesitation, he cut off Tyel's head.
"Déjà Veil"