There was a flash of red and a man in intricate red and gold designed robe appeared before them. His hair fluttered despite the fact that the passage was a place that did not have wind.
Cheng Xiu stopped in her tracks. The others followed suit.
The man blinked his eyes open and looked at the people in the area with green eyes. His eyes darted to the female Queen.
"Brother," the woman called out.
The man nodded. He looked at Cheng Xiu and the rest of the trio.
"And who are these?" the man asked. His voice was deep and alluring.
Cheng Xiu tilted her head. In which part of the world would this man be mistaken for a female? Even as a youngster, the man should have a strong masculine presence.
"They are the Invaders, Brother," the queen said to the man, "They are the people who are assigned by the Clock Tower to stop you."
The man tilted his head as he sent the three people an assessing look. His face was blank, not giving a clue to what he might be thinking.
"Hello," the man said, a charming smile forming on his lips. "I am Henrik."
Cheng Xiu nodded. "Selafia."
"San Zhe."
Yaksha just kept quiet.
Henrik looked at the man in silence.
Cheng Xiu jabbed him in the side.
"I am…Yaksha," he confessed.
"Lord of the Ghost Realm," Henrik muttered. "Should I say that I am honoured? Should I just give up now that such a great man has come personally to stop me?"
"You have heard of me," Yaksha said. "I was not aware that I was so famous."
The NPC laughed. "No. I suppose not. How could you have been aware. I am a fan of your accomplishments."
Yaksha nodded.
"But that does not mean that I am going to stop my plans for you," the man said, "You see, I seem to have misplaced some of my counsellors and the Power Storages that I had saved in my Nest. Which is strange. Anyway, that means that I can not stop this plan unless I want the entire Vermin Empire to fall down and crash."
Cheng Xiu sighed. "You want to fight still."
"It is not what I want, and what I don't want. It is about what is the right thing to do."
"Attacking those children and turning them into batteries for you to use is the right thing to do?" Cheng Xiu asked in disbelief.
"And there is our culprit, sister," the man said to the woman next to her. "Did you not try to stop them?"
"I did. But they double teamed me and their prowess is…high."
"Were you hurt, Fiona?"
Cheng Xiu was surprised. So her name really was Fiona?
"They tried but no, brother," Fiona said.
"Mm," the man took out his spell book. "There is only one way this can go then."
The woman opened hers.
He started to mutter a string of Latin words.
Cheng Xiu was sure that they were just meaningless words that were strung together, but she had to be cautious as she was not sure how this would go.
"Aquis Artus!" the two shouted at the same time.
Cheng Xiu's eyes widened at the familiar words. Was this not the same words that was spoken by the first set of twins? Was it their most common spell, so everyone learnt it?
Cheng Xiu was not aware but that was the exact case. As complicated as this quest had seemed, it truly only had one objective. To kill the final boss. All the other things that they found in the Mission dungeon was to train them and to ensure that they would be able to defeat the enemy when the time comes.
The twins of both times of the sub-plot especially. The quest of the counsellors would give them more insight into the world itself with the introduction of the Chasm, and the creatures in it. And over all, the combat effectiveness of the players would be high as it was to get a sweeping victory.
As the arms made of water rose from the blue geometric design under their feet, Cheng Xiu and San Zhe jumped away. They already knew how to take care of these threats.
Just like before, Yaksha was spared from the NPC attacks.
Cheng Xiu created the sword copies and had them destroy the diagram on the ground, destroying it completely.
She smiled as she watched the swords move under her command. She had truly missed using this skill set. In fact, it gave her a satisfaction that she did not get from using the Ghost Flame.
The water arms disappeared.
She sent the sword copies to the second diagram as well, doing the exact same thing.
The twins glared. They knew that these people must have found a way to escape the spell in the first place. That was the only way that they would be able to reach this part of the dungeon. But still, the fact that the method was so…crude was something neither had taken into account for. After all, given the temperament that the three seemed to have, none of them seemed to be the overly demented type. Yet now…it seemed to be the case.
What kind of a person would have the mindset to destroy the spell construction itself?
As for Fiona. She had kept an eye on the two but that did not mean she was there personally. She just looked at the reports that her minions sent. And yet…now it seemed she should have read the report deeper.
Cheng Xiu looked at the two Rat Queens. And yes, she did consider the man as the Rat Queen as well. It was what the mission called him and he seemed to not mind the label, though considering the story she heard…it might be that he just did not care enough about the title.
She knew that they were powerful people. The only way to kill them is to get close enough as to be able to assassinate them before they had the chance to counter attack.
The second round of spell began.
Cheng Xiu saw the red glow of the new diagram.
Fire?
Cheng Xiu thought of the first Counsellor man to die. He seemed to have that power.
Cheng Xiu sent the swords out again.
There was something satisfying to see the swords do their weaving in the air.
San Zhe used the Crimson Flame that was in his trident to destroy the second Diagram.
The next should be earth? That was the nest counsellor to die. And San Zhe was the one to kill him.
And her guess was right on the mark.
Two yellow diagrams appeared. Just like before, the diagram was destroyed.
Cheng Xiu could not help but think….this seemed to easy?
She looked at the anthropomorphized rats.
They had created a barrier around them at some point in time.
Cheng Xiu frowned. She knew what that meant. Even if they could not attack Cheng Xiu and San Zhe as the two players could destroy the diagrams before they formed, the players also could not attack the NPCs recklessly because they had barriers to protect them.
She then remembered the way that she destroyed the first set of barriers.
Could she do that again?
Almost as though reading her thoughts, Fiona called her brother.
"That human girl has a Chasm flame that consumes anything with Qi. Could it consume the Qi in the barrier and destroy it?"
The man seemed to have thought of something. "Get to the next step."
Fiona's eyes widened. Could her brother be thinking of getting rid of the human cultivators using the female Counsellor's way of attacking?
The NPCs read another spell.
A pink diagram formed under their feet.
Cheng Xiu destroyed these as well, her attention on what the twins were doing.
And it was a smart thing too as the two seemed to have already guessed that she would destroy this one too and had started on another one, this one under their own feet.
Cheng Xiu had a premonition. She had thought until then that the rat Queens would go through all the spells and skills they had encountered until now. But she had forgotten one thing. The adaptability of the NPCs.
And the siblings, realising that Cheng Xiu and San Zhe were able to put a stop to the spells before they even began just because the diagrams could be destroyed. That meant, to deal with them, such spells that are created under the players' feet could not be used.
The diagram should be on their side.
The diagram was pink in colour.
There was a flash of bright pink and then creatures emerged from the ground.
They were bulky, tall, and held pickaxes and hammers and stood in three rows.
Each row contained seven of them.
The two players cursed their bad luck. Things just got real bad.
***
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