Chapter 97: Blessed Slash - Holy Reinforcements
Not wasting any more time, the vanguard split.
Vernon Heavenblum, Valeria Bloodgood, Kaleb Vance, Evander Nightcross, Silas Mercer, and the rest of the offensive class groups peeled left, racing toward Thor’s position at the central square.
Lancet caught a glimpse of the Valkyrie already wading into a separate horde, her warhammer swinging and blasting Demons with her lightning.
Thor’s kill notifications began flooding Lancet’s vision.
[Heroine, Thor Stormchild, has killed 8 Demons (Rank: Fallen)]
[Heroine, Thor Stormchild, has killed 5 Demons (Rank: Fallen)]
[Heroine, Thor Stormchild, has killed 3 Demons (Rank: Descending)]
⸢ Thor has gained 5000 EXP ⸥
⸢ You have gained 10000 EXP ⸥
⸢ You have gained 1020 CP ⸥
Giving his difficult summon a final almost sad look, Lancet turned right, falling into formation with Astensia and the evacuation team: Class Groups B, C, and the remaining members of D.
Renan moved up beside him, Frieda on his other side, Amira close behind. Nereus took the rear, his shadow already stretching and writhing along the walls, ready to strike.
They moved.
Astensia led, and she led violently.
She didn’t wait for Demons to come to her. She advanced at a steady, relentless pace, her Blessed Blade cutting down anything that entered her range.
A four-headed Bug Demon lunged from a second-story window, pincers aimed for her neck. Astensia raised her left hand and caught the thing by the throat mid-air like it was merely a babe.
Then, she slammed it into the ground hard enough to crack the cobblestones.
When the creature tried to rise, she drove her sword into its central head, pinning it to the ground like a floor poster.
[Heroine, Astensia, has killed a Demon (Rank: Fallen)]
⸢ Astensia has gained 1000 EXP ⸥
⸢ You have gained 2000 EXP ⸥
⸢ You have gained 220 CP ⸥
"PATH CLEAR!" she barked, wrenching her blade free with a wet shlick. "MOVE!"
The evac team moved.
Cassian Roa, the Wind Mage, ran alongside the column. He made gusts of clean, cold air from his palms, to push back the miasma, successfully creating a breathable corridor for the group.
The red fog recoiled from his winds, hissing like scalded cats, but it always crept back in behind them, hungry to reclaim the space.
But Darian Vale was there to stop them.
The Ice Mage made a wall of ice on the path behind them, stopping the miasma from advancing. Then he created patches of sludge on the ground to create stable footing.
Wherever red pools of corrosive demon blood threatened to block their path, Darian flash-froze them into brittle sheets that shattered under their boots.
Torin Halberd, the Moon Knight, walked the left flank, his silver-coated blade gleaming. A Demon burst from a shattered storefront—smaller than the others, faster, its multiple mouths dripping black drool.
Torin intercepted it with a horizontal slash that opened its belly from hip to hip. Silver light flared along the wound, and the Demon’s flesh began to smoke and peel, the metal’s natural antipathy to demonic flesh causing it to corrode on contact.
The creature screeched, clawing at its own stomach, and collapsed.
Rilla Daunt’s wolf beasts ranged ahead, darting through alleys and doorways to flush out Demons that were intending to ambush them.
Once they were flushed, Astensia would smite them with her sword.
Finnea Starling walked in the center of the formation, her hands were outstretched, sending a pink aura that settled over the Students’ shoulders.
Lancet felt the magic. He could tell that he was supposed to be a little terrified, but Finnea kept him and others calm, soothing their fears.
She suppressed the psychological weight of the miasma, making sure they were all focused and free of the paralyzing dread that the demonic aura naturally induced.
And Astensia continued to kill.
[Heroine, Astensia, has killed 12 Demons (Rank: Fallen)]
[Heroine, Astensia, has killed 7 Demons (Rank: Fallen, Descending)]
[Heroine, Astensia, has killed 4 Demons (Rank: Descending)]
⸢ Astensia has gained 13000 EXP ⸥
⸢ You have gained 26000 EXP ⸥
⸢ You have gained 3020 CP ⸥
She didn’t use any more named skills for a while. She didn’t need to. Her fundamentals were so far beyond the Fallen ranked Demons that every motion was lethal.
The Descending Demons present were only at 1 to 3 Stars; not near enough to make the Heroine sweat.
A thrust through a Demon’s chest, a backhand slash that caught two Demons at once, their heads separating from their necks in a spray of purple. A kick to a Demon’s knee that folded the joint backward, and as it stumbled forward, she drove her elbow into the base of its skull, caving in its head.
Blood sprayed across her armor. She didn’t wipe it off. She just kept moving.
The street curved, and Lancet saw the chapel’s spire in the distance—a gray needle piercing the red sky. They were making progress. Fast progress.
But the Demons never stopped.
They came from everywhere. Not just ahead, but from the sides, from behind, from beneath. A clawed hand burst through a manhole cover, grabbing at Finnea’s ankle.
Nereus’s shadow reacted before the Mind Mage could scream; a tendril of darkness shot from the ground, wrapped around the demon’s wrist, and squeezed.
Lancet heard bones crunching, then a wet pop as the hand was severed at the forearm. The shadow pulled the dismembered limb back into the manhole, and a muffled shriek echoed from below.
"Burrowers," Nereus muttered, his dark eyes scanning the ground. "They’re getting bolder."
As if in response, the cobblestones ahead of them erupted.
Three Demons—larger than the others, their bodies encrusted with plates of chitinous armor—burst upward from the earth, sending chunks of rock and dirt flying.
They landed in a triangle formation, blocking the street, their multiple heads swiveling to face the vanguard.
These ones were higher placed in the Descending Rank. Lancet could feel it.
One of them opened its central mouth and screamed, out of its cave came a shockwave that cracked the windows of the surrounding buildings and sent Rilla’s wolf beasts tumbling backward.
"Rotten beast!" Astensia roared in frustration. She had just killed 3 Winged Demons, and lowering her gaze, noticed the monsters that were attacking the vanguard.
"Blessed Slash," she yelled with a Knight’s fury. "Holy Reinforcements!"
She fell from the Winged Demon she had just killed, but in the mid-air, the golden warrior rotated her hips, and brought her Blessed Blade down like a judgement.
The sword not only cut the Demon in front of her, after splitting the creature from crown to groin, it sent a shockwave that chased the second Demon.
Before it could escape, the slash caught the Descending Demon, tearing through its shoulder and out its hip.
The third Demon, five feet behind the second, lost both arms at the elbow.
All three fell at the same moment, their bodies collapsing into pieces.
[Heroine, Astensia, has killed 2 Demons (Rank: Descending)]
[Heroine, Astensia, has critically injured 1 Demon (Rank: Descending)]
⸢ Astensia has gained 6000 EXP ⸥
⸢ You have gained 12000 EXP ⸥
⸢ You have gained 1050 CP ⸥
Renan stepped forward and drove his sword through the injured Demon’s main head, ending it.
Lancet stared at the system screen watching his EXP climb absurdly high. Thor’s kills far away were adding as well, promising a massive pool for him to level up.
And not just that, the Phantom Ring in his finger kept blinking, charging up with every kill from both his summons.
Lancet looked down at his own hands, clad in the Duskguard’s gauntlets. Before the mission, he’d spent every point of EXP from the training simulations on upgrading his attributes and his Grace Retention.
He was stronger than he’d been a week ago. Level 11 now. His footwork was sharper, his reaction time faster, his magical pool deeper.
But Lancet didn’t join in on the fight.
He stayed in formation, following the rest of the evac team, letting Astensia and the others do the killing.
When a Demon blindsided them, Renan intercepted and killed it. When another tried to climb the wall and drop on Amira, Nereus’s shadow summons caught it mid-air and slaughtered it.
It continued like this as they trekked toward the chapel. All Lancet did was watch, allowing others to do the cleansing of the disgusting miasma and the killing of attacking Demons.
Of course if a Demon blindsided him he would eventually fight. But now, he had to save up every atom of power and strength he had.
...Because very soon, he would be diverging and making a run for the town’s cemetery.
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A/N: Force my lazy ass to upload more Chapters! ಡ ͜ ʖ ಡ