Chapter 73 - Seventy-One

We jump out of bed and run towards the hall, the others doing the same with messy clothes and hair but sharp eyes as no words were needed to pass the seriousness of the situation.

"Where are the twins?!"I scream over the sound of explosions, my palm on the wall for support as the place keeps shaking.

"Here!" One of them screams from the end of the hall, running up to us.

"What the hell is going on?!"

"Yeah, wasn't the place supposed to be safe and hidden?!" Says Isa, the ex-woman.

"It was! You guys saw it yourselves! They shouldn't have been able to found us, unless… no, no, I'm not sure…" The older brother starts, but at that a bigger explosion seems to finally break through the magical barrier as waves after waves of aftershock hit us, the colorful invisible magic seeming like a string that has been let loose after being stretched to the max, making uncomfortable to keep looking at the rapid color changes with my third eye.

Fortunately I insisted in keeping it open by instinct, the crystal shinning with a deeper light on my forehead as I saw a quick flicker of a black line strike like a whip on the corner of my vision, only giving me enough time to pull Leo out of the way as something exploded the side of the house, breaking wood and incantations with the same facility and making debris fly in our direction.

I let a growl escape my lips as the rubble fall in front of us, the smoke hiding any creature or being that could be there.

Well, hiding from most… but not from me.

The creature jumps towards us, using the camouflage to its advance, but I stay in between and, seeing the stretched out hands coming closer I lock its fingers with mine in a strong grip that holds the creature mid-air, only truly seeing what was attacking us when Leonel uses his wind magic and makes the smoke disappear.

I should have guessed by the size of the hands, but in front of us was a small girl, her whole body warped around in bandages so that no skin was left visible, her head and back cover by long coat with hood.

But what gave her oddity away were the eyes, staring dead into mine, two all-white orbs widened in a permanent crazy look as her lips seemed to curve up under the bandage.

As her eyes curved up in a crescent moon shape my third eye captured a message, a corrupted one that seemed oddly familiar…

%$F234o%$U¨$6n12$*d^}@Y%&(o-09¨%[email protected]

Wait…

F-o-u-n-d-y-o-u?

That sends a shiver down my spine stronger than the creepy smile on her face.

So had she being really there last night? And who was she? What did she want? How could she have broken so many spells to get here?

All of that happened in mere seconds, but it gave enough time for Leo to bring his sword up as I held her, a silver glint speeding up towards her side, faster than my reaction to her.

And yet it hit the air.

As the tip was about to strike her side, it simply… passed her, opening her bandages on the side but not leaving any traces of blood or wound behind.

I had no time to analyze any further as her fingers seem to turn into mist and materialize centimeters farther back, only enough to let her free from my grasp as she jumps back, or rather, flows back.

The odd movement, starting from her back, makes it appear as she has strings attached to her, like a puppet would, and sure enough with my third eye I can clearly see the black lines seemly almost goopy with a weird substance being pumped in the girl, like tubes.

She cracks her neck sideways, in a complete uncomfortable and odd angle, eyes staring, never lingering.

"We need to get out of here, now!" I hear Eyope say from behind me, but Leo and I were occupied with the creature in front of us.

I faintly could hear fighting breaking in behind us as other parts of the wall gave in and other creatures intruded on the hall, but the girl did not waste her time and attacked us again.

It would do me good to have information about her, but the odd corruption keeps happening, mere letters threw around symbols and numbers. How could this be possible? My appraisal seemed flawless to this point, it may have blocked information because of level differences, but never corrupted data, never like this!

Thoughts for later though, now dodge!

I step to the side as her sharp long black claws pass right beside me, and seeing that the sword did not harm her I went with another type of attack: I breathe fire at her.

My now black flames seemed to mix with her body as they consumed her bandages with hunger, only to reveal what was inside as she simply kept moving, as if unaware of the fire or the pain.

And it was… difficult to describe with one word, but if I had to choose I would say… creepy.

As she keeps fighting the fire consumed what was last of the bandages, revealing her black goopy skin, as if made of condensed darkness or countless black worms wiggling about, and that made it very different from mine form; I had a silky smooth type of shadow, as she had a goopy wax one.

When she finally steps back from slashing her claws at me and only hitting air I could see her small body better as she turns her face to stare me down with countless of eyes blinking their white orbs, some in her face, sideways or accompanying the forehead like spider eyes, one right where her mouth should be, a white oval globe that seemed to want to suck me in, all with a livid shot out glint to them.

5%#B-o%w!?/@t$23o*9m!$^>a}s!

:t;>e^?:r!!/~;

Like an automatic appraisal the information simply popped on my mind, but there was no time to think as her belly suddenly swollen, growing big as if with worms in it until it cracks right in the middle and opens up like a flower bud, but instead of colorful the thing was full of tiny horns resembling sharp teeth pointing inwards, as if hold whatever felt victims to her embrace inside.

I haven't been wondering, and really didn't want to know, where her mouth was.

Guess is one of these impossible to unseen things now, ugh.

As if not enough a long black tongue falls out of her belly, almost touching the ground between her legs, eek.

"Attack with magic!" Someone says from behind between blows, and while I was tempted to look back I needed to trust that they would cover it for me for now, the need for finishing this fight quickly growing.

Her tongue shouts out to get me, quick as a snake, but we dash sideways as Leo tries to stab it on the ground only for the sword to pass thought it like if made of smoke.

But this time he was prepared, and once the sword is all in with the tip on the ground a rune appears as if made of light on the metal, his patterns growing like veins all over the blade and making it somehow tangible while inside the goopy flesh of the thing, holding the tongue in place.

I don't stop to ponder though, the creature, with the tongue stuck, was an easy target, but as Leonel I test my own attacks against the thing to understand it's weakness better.

Needless to say that no bites nor strikes could harm her, unless embedded with magic, so that what I just did; I used my shadow claws and got a satisfactory slash right across her body, but eerily she did not react to it, as if I had just hit a doll, even if her anger seemed to increase with the successful blow.

Seeing that my attack wasn't as effective as I hoped at first I soon realize that only a deadly blow could stop the creature, so, with my shadows moving as if alive, I swiftly use my Shadow Slash right at her neck, parting that round full of eyes thing from the rest of it.

And yet she still moved, her body still trying to free her tongue as the head rolled around with her eyes scanning the place with a creepy vigor, her gaze never losing her targets from sight as it kept rolling about.

I frown at that, but for the first time hearing a scream from behind us, I simply chose to not hold back anymore as I keep my attacks into a continuous flow, the slashes swiftly cutting the air and hitting her goopy skin, making puddles of puddles ooze out of her.

She may still move, but there will be no limbs to attack us with anymore.

It was eerie to see pieces of cut meat still twisting and wobbling about, the now unrecognizable pile of minced goop twisting and spasming, making me wanting to puck.

With a last slash, however, I hit one of the strings behind her, and a noticeable change happens; part of the goopy body stops moving and starts bubbling up as if warming up, until they get too hot and start evaporating, leaving the rest behind to twist about.

Then it downs me.

The strings!

I hit the other one without thinking twice, and the same effect happens to the rest until all of her body had disappeared into mist, but I did not have enough time to feel relieved nor share my knowledge with the others as more explosive sounds resonate behind me, making me finally turn around to see the fights breaking loose behind us.

And what I saw… wasn't pretty.

***

Author note:

Yay, I manage to write a chapter, uhuu! I have being sick since last Friday, can you believe that? Ugh, hopefully this cough will move on from me, I don't want him anymore!

I think the flu melted my brain…(ﾟ￢ﾟ)

Thanks to the awesome people that donated ink this month!

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