"GUARRRRGGHH!!!"
Colmano let out a wailing because of the pain that ran through his whole body. He fell to his knees and used his battle ax to support his massive body.
Ice spikes shot again from the window of the wrong building in front of him. Colmano knew that he couldn't dodge because of the attacks he had already suffered.
But Cuzia managed to reach him in time to stop all the ice spikes before they embedded themselves in Colmano's body again.
Cuiza moved to block all the ice spikes that shot toward her. Her movements are so fast that only blur motion remains when she moves.
In the literal blink of an eye, Cuzia has already cleaned up all the ice spikes that were shot at her. Her eyes stared straight at the window where the ice spikes had come from and saw something moving quickly to hide.
Cuzia clicked her tongue. At this time she was really angry because she felt that they were helpless.
"Alessio! I can't stand this anymore!" Cuzia shouted.
Despite being in a fierce battle, Alessio could hear her without any problem. Then, beyond Samuel's expectations, who was fighting with him, it turned out that Alessio was still able to reply to her words.
"You can unleash your abilities now!" said Alessio.
Samuel felt his anxiety rising. What does it mean to unleash her abilities?
Samuel wanted to look at Cuzia about what she was going to do. But he couldn't take his eyes off even for a second from Alessio or else he would have to suffer dire consequences.
Fire came out around Cuzia's body as soon as she heard Alessio's words. A grin that looked savage also formed in her mouth.
Cuzia turned to Colmano. "You heard it, right?"
"Yeah... But... I don't want to use it yet."
Cuzia frowned as if what Colmano said was something she could hardly believe.
"Don't tell me you want to test your body's endurance without using the blessing from the Archangel," Cuzia said.
Colmano raised his face towards Cuzia. A mysterious grin appeared on his face amidst his pained expression.
Cuzia snorted then shook her head. "You are crazy."
Asqa had only been with them for a few days so she was still a bit surprised by Colmano's crazy fighting nature. He has a strange obsession with fighting both the victory and the pain caused by the battles he is undergoing.
With the blessing of the Archangel Uriel, their strength was boosted several times. However, Colmano was reluctant to use it because he wanted to see how strong he would survive without the blessing.
Let alone Asqa, even Alessio and Cuzia who had been with him for a long time still couldn't fully understand him. But that's also a good thing because it means they have friends who aren't afraid to step into the fray.
The flames that came out around Cuzia's body looked like it burning her skin. But she didn't feel the heat. Instead, she felt a great power surging inside her.
"Then, I'll go first." Cuzia kicked the ground and shot at the building in front of her. The place where the person who shot the ice spikes earlier was hiding.
*BOOM!*
A huge explosion accompanied by fire spreading in all directions was created when Cuzia struck the building. She immediately looked for the whereabouts of the person who attacked in secret. But she did not find them.
'Where are they?'
~~~
Kiara appeared next to Leyan just in time before Cuzia found her. A flat object stuck to the floor of the building was still dimly lit after she used it to teleport here.
The flat, mirror-like devices were attached in several places so they could move around quickly to launch attacks. But now one of the devices has been destroyed by the explosion that Cuzia created.
"Fuck! Did you see that just now?" Cuzia whispered to Leyan with a look of fear evident on her face.
"Of course, I saw it," Leyan replied. "They're stronger than we thought. But, well, we already know this mission won't be easy."
"What now? Samuel can no longer attack sneakily."
"We still have Clyde. He's still hidden, right?"
"But why hasn't he started attacking yet?" Kiara asked.
Leyan shrugged. "I don't know."
Then Leyan drew his bow. "That little girl seems to be their healer. It would be better if I kill her first."
"Yeah. That's a good idea."
~~~
"We have to get the artifact right away, Clyde," Kei said to Clyde.
Clyde was staring at the battlefield below. From the few minutes he had seen of the fight, he could tell a little about their enemy's strength.
And they don't look like easy people to beat.
'Maybe I have to use the Stats Points I earned.'
He had reached Level 100 after several days of killing monsters in this Ruin. He had a few Stats Points that he could use if his current strength proved to be no match for them.
But for now, he had to make sure first.
"We have to defeat them before we can retrieve the artifact," Clyde replied. He drew his sword from its scabbard.
"You want to go?" Haru asked.
"Yes. I'll take care of their healers first."
Clyde had teleported to the building closest to Asqa before Kei or Haru could say anything to him.
~~~
Clyde appears in the building behind Asqa. Now she is only guarded by that big man. Even though the man looked strong, he was also carrying the box containing the artifacts on his back. So his movement should be slower.
Suddenly an arrow from Leyan shot toward Asqa. But a dome of light suddenly appeared around Asqa's body and repelled the arrow.
"GRRRHHH!!!"
Clyde heard the big man growling. The next second, he jumped and dashed in the direction the arrow came without thinking about Asqa's state of being alone.
It was stupid to leave a healer alone. But the move would benefit Clyde.
Clyde jumped at Asqa as the dome of light around her body disappeared. Then snatch her and disappear from there.
Alessio who was still fighting with Samuel turned his head. He realized the moment when someone took Asqa away even though he was the one who was furthest from her.
eaglesnovɐ1,сoМ He saw Colmano jump towards the building and just followed his animal-like instincts.
Alessio gritted his teeth. It could be something bad if something happens to Asqa.
'I shouldn't have given that task to that idiot!'
Colmano is indeed suitable as a frontline fighter and as a person who does heavy duty. But he can't be relied on for something that requires even a little bit of intelligence.
"Where are you looking?!"
The spearhead shot from his front. Alessio immediately swung his sword to block Samuel's spear.
*CLANG!*
Then he jumped backward to get away.
"I can't waste time on you anymore," said Alessio.
The flames on the blade of his sword grew. He swung it forward and the fire serpent leaped at Samuel.
'Shit!'
Samuel channeled his Mana just in time towards his spear then swung it towards Alessio's fire serpent. Because it was flowing with Mana, the spear could cut through the fire serpent before it burned it.
After destroying the fire serpent Samuel immediately charged forward to attack Alessio. But he had disappeared from there.
"What the fuck?"
Samuel glanced around. But he didn't see Alessio around him anymore. 'How can he move that fast?'
Samuel realized that the enemy he had been fighting earlier had not yet unleashed his full strength. He was still able to concentrate on giving a hard fight to him while keeping an eye on his friends even giving them orders.
*BOOM!*
An explosion suddenly occurred from one of the buildings. Samuel immediately knew that there, one of Uriel's party members was facing his friends.
After deliberating for a few seconds, Samuel decided to head toward that building first. He ran and jumped towards the exploding building and found Kiara and Leyan facing a silver-haired woman with a body on fire.
Cuzia turned her head to notice the presence of one more enemy in front of her. Even knowing that she was outnumbered, Cuzia didn't feel afraid.
"So, how many are you exactly?" Cuzia asked with a grin. "Well, it doesn't matter because no matter how many of you there are it won't do any good against us."
Cuzia shot with incredible speed toward Kiara. Leyan immediately shot arrows at her. However, all the arrows only hit the tail of fire that was left behind her body.
Samuel moved forward and swung his spear.
*CLANG!*
The spear clashed with the daggers in Cuzia's two hands. Samuel felt the fire hit his face. He winced because he didn't expect the heat to be this bad.
Cuzia spun her body around and landed a kick on Samuel's head, forcing him to back off. Cuzia didn't stop there and immediately shot forward to thrust her dagger into Samuel's neck.
But suddenly her leg was held by something. When she looked down, Cuzia saw that her feet had been frozen by the ice that had suddenly appeared.
Cuzia gritted her teeth. When she looked up, she saw a point of an arrow right in front of her eyes.
~~~