Chapter 178 Exposed



Asqa's eyes widened as he saw Colmano fall on his back after being hit by the arrow. She looked at the arrow and realized that it was created from Mana and not a real arrow.

When she looked up again, an arrow was already shooting at her at high speed. Asqa, who was still focused on healing Cuzia, couldn't dodge in time.

But Alessio was suddenly in front of her and swung his fiery sword.

*CLANG!*

A loud crashing sound was heard. The arrow flew toward one of the buildings and destroyed a portion of that building.

"We must get away from this place immediately!" Alessio said while looking at Asqa. The urgency was clear on his face and voice.

"Yes. Let's go!" Asqa replied then helped Cuzia up. Her healing process with Cuzia was still not finished, but for now, they couldn't be out in the open like this.

"What about Colmano?" Asqa asked.

eaglesnovɐ1,сoМ "Don't worry about him. He's fine," said Alessio. He didn't even need to see Colmano to know he was just fine. 

For so long they had been in the same party, Alessio knew that Colmano's body resistance was more than enough to withstand such an attack.

"Quickly take Cuzia away from here!"

After hearing Alessio's order for the second time, Asqa immediately pulled Cuzia's body even tighter. A groan escaped her mouth because she had to share her concentration between continuing to heal Cuzia and carrying her on.

Luckily, Cuzia was able to regain her consciousness after continuously receiving healing from Asqa. She could carry her body on her own though Asqa still had to provide a little help.

Behind the two of them, Colmano who was still lying down pulled an arrow from his chest and then threw it to the side. He sat up with his jaw clenched.

"Protect them!" Alessio immediately gave orders to him as soon as he saw him awake.

Colmano let out a growl like an angry beast. But he didn't object to Alessio's order and immediately moved to protect Asqa and Cuzia.

Asqa flinched to see the look on Colmano's face that looked terrifying. But then she breathed a sigh of relief at his question.

"Are you all right?"

"I-I'm fine. But Cuzia..." Asqa replied.

"These bastards around here mess with the wrong people," said Colmano, his eyes scanning around.

Suddenly an arrow shot from Colmano's left side. The arrows suddenly fired from different directions making them think that there was more than one archer. 

However, this time Colmano was ready with it. He raised his great battle ax and the arrow only hit his battle ax before flying towards the building.

"So you were there!" Colmano shouted. He prepared to jump towards the building where the arrow came from.

"Don't go anywhere!" 

But Alessio immediately stopped him before he took off. 

"You take Asqa and Cuzia away from here first!" said Alessio. 

Alessio then proceeded to scan the area for their attacker. From the incoming attacks, Alessio was certain that there was more than one archer. But the number of other attackers was still unknown to him.

Colmano gritted his teeth and the same grunt of a beast as before escaped from his mouth. He immediately drew closer to Asqa and Cuzia.

"I'm taking you both off," Colmano said. And then, he proceeds to pick up Cuzia from Asqa and cradle her on his broad shoulders. He then held Asqa's waist so he could immediately carry her too.

Colmano was about to jump forward. But of course, their attackers would not let that happen.

Once again a wave of crimson lightning emerged from the two surrounding buildings and struck them. 

Luckily, Asqa, who had expected this to happen, had already prepared a dome of light to protect them all.

*JJRRZZZTTTT!!!*

The lightning hit the dome of light that Asqa released at a critical time so that Colmano and Cuzia didn't get hit by the same attack as before. But she had to stop her healing process on Cuzia.

Fortunately, Cuzia is already much better than before. She opened her eyes and saw what was going on around her.

"Urgh..."

"I cannot continue to heal you, Cuzia. Do you have any potions with you?" Asqa asked.

"No." Cuzia shook her head. "But that's not necessary. I'm fine and ready to start counterattacking."

Asqa's brow furrowed hearing that. "What?"

"Ha ha!" Meanwhile, Colmano looks pleased. "Let's get this bastard, Cuzia!"

Asqa was dumbfounded. Cuzia's current condition is far from fine in her eyes. However, she didn't know her actual endurance because she had only been with them for a few days.

The fact that Colmano looks excited means that Cuzia is indeed fine. He of course knows more about her real condition than her.

*SYUUUTTT!!!*

*SYUUUTTT!!!*

*SYUUUTTT!!!*

...

A barrage of arrows then came towards them from a building to the right. The arrows hit Asqa's dome of light and made it crack on several sides.

"I can't last much longer," Asqa said. She, who had used a lot of Mana to heal Cuzia, didn't have too many Mana reserves anymore.

"You've helped me enough. Thanks," Cuzia said. She got off Colmano's shoulder and drew her daggers from their scabbards.

Suddenly, a fire serpent shot from behind them attacking the building where the arrows had come out.

*BOOM!*

Just like before, the fire serpent destroyed the building in a matter of seconds. But Alessio didn't stop his serpent fire in the building. He aimed his fire serpent at the building beside it.

Alessio was still concentrating on directing the fire serpent with his sword to destroy as many buildings as possible. But because of that he didn't immediately notice someone sneaking through the building behind him with a spear ready in hand.

Samuel saw that Alessio was still focused on destroying nearby buildings with his fire serpent and decided that this was the right time to launch a sneak attack.

Samuel jumped off the building while raising his spear. He poured Mana into his spear to make the attack stronger. Then Samuel thrust his spear as hard as he could at Alessio's head while landing. 

*CLANG!*

However, the spear just stabbed into the ground and sent sand flying around with a powerful shockwave.

Samuel widened his eyes. He had clearly seen that Alessio was standing in this place just a moment ago.

But it turned out that Alessio had dodged to the side right before Samuel's spear impaled his head. He lunged back at Samuel and then swung his flaming sword.

*CLANG!*

Samuel was able to raise his spear in time to prevent the flaming sword from decapitating him.

"Finally you appeared," said Alessio while looking at Samuel with his eyes reflecting the flames of his sword.

Samuel threw a kick at Alessio who he was able to block with one hand. But that also made Alessio pushed back a few meters.

"Alessio!" Colmano shouted and intended to approach him.

"No!" said Alessio. "You stay there. They still haven't all appeared."

Hearing that, Colmano backed away again and again cast his gaze around, waiting for the rest of their enemy to come.

'Fuck!' Samuel gritted his teeth because he failed to launch his sneak attack on Alessio. That means he has discarded his advantage to be able to attack stealthily and must face direct confrontation.

Alesio lunged at Samuel. Samuel also shot towards him so the two of them collided in the middle with such a strong impact that sent a shockwave all around. 

Sands rose and were blown away creating a curtain of sand that covered them from view for a few moments.

Colmano, Cuzia, and Asqa heard the sounds of weapons clashing behind the sand. Then Cuzia turned to Colmano.

"They must be after the artifact," said Cuzia. "We have to do our best to protect it."

"Who are they?!" Colmano asked angrily.

"It doesn't matter now. What is clear is that they have all this prepared and are waiting for us to retrieve the artifact before attacking," Cuzia said.

"Looks like we can't leave this spot," Asqa said.

"Why?" Colmano stared at her.

"We don't know how many traps they have set here. Without Alessio's ranged attacks, we will only be putting ourselves in danger."

Colmano stamped his foot in a fury. While Cuzia gritted her teeth regretfully.

"I didn't bring a lot of potions or equipment because I thought this mission would be easy," said Cuzia.

Asqa bit her lip because she felt the same regret. If she had known this mission would be this dangerous, she would have brought more Mana potions with her.

"What should we do next?" Colmano asked.

Cuzia paused to think. But while she was silent, another attack came towards them from an unknown direction.

Dozens of ice spikes shot out at high speed. Colmano, who had sharpened his instincts, realized that and immediately acted to destroy the ice spikes.

However, he didn't expect that the ice spikes would freeze his battle ax the moment they touched it. Ice spread across Colmano's battle ax and he felt his battle ax getting heavier.

Colmano's movement got slower so the ice spikes were able to strike him.

*CRAATT!*

*CRAATT!*

*CRAATT!*

...

~~~