Chapter 183 - 177. The Biggest Threat
The tip of the dagger stopped right before it pierce the guide’s neck. The black blade grazed the skin below the mask, drawing a drop of blood that ran through the fair neck. Tendrils of dark thread held the arm holding the dagger, preventing it to sink into the guide’s flesh.
"Fuck!" Bassena cursed and let out more binding threads from the ground as Zein stubbornly took out the knife of Acheron from his storage ring.
He bound the threads tight to the ground so Zein couldn’t move his limbs, and swiftly teleported in front of the guide. "SHIN!" he yelled, furiously, at the rest of the people who were getting too stunned at the unexpected turn of events that they stopped moving altogether.
"Shit--" Han Shin immediately activated his skill as Bassena tackled the struggling guide to the ground.
In a bout of fright and bad feeling, Bassena punched the button of the mask open, just in time to shove his fingers between Zein’s lips as the guide tried to bite his own tongue.
"What the fuck!" the healer cursed as his skill kept getting rejected. There were so many layers covering the guide’s mind, mana that was so hard to get penetrated, and the spirit was hiding right there. "Fuck, Bas--his protective wall is so thick! I’m gonna need more time!"
"Godsdamnit!" Bassena gritted his teeth, feeling his heart crushed at every jerk and tug the guide made on his binding. "Destroy that crystal!" he shouted to the other espers, before turning back to Zein again.
Despite the struggle of his body, the blue eyes just opened up blankly, unfocused, unblinking. His face, which wasn’t expressive to begin with, looked even more like a doll; lifeless. The only facial muscle that moving was his jaws, which still biting down, teeth sinking into Bassena’s fingers.
"Hurry up!" Bassena pinned Zein’s body to the ground even more, just so the guide stopped jerking and seizing to break free. He snatched the dagger and the knife with his darkness, throwing them out of Zein’s reach. Even then, the arms still struggling, clawing at the dark threads binding him. "Not yet?"
"I’m trying, okay?! He’s strong!" the healer snapped back. He tried his best, he really was. But Zein had been absorbing so much corrosion that he was brimming with magic energy, and the spirit used that energy to shield itself inside Zein’s core.
"Damnit!" Bassena grasped the guide’s nape to stop Zein’s head from snapping. "Come on, Zein, stop this. Snap out of it!" Bassena hissed and gritted his teeth in frustration.