"HUFF HUFF HUFF… W-wait… I think I know how to counter her attacks," William says.
"Huh? You know- urk,"
Abigail just managed to dodge a blade to the throat by ducking down, but a counterattack wasn't possible as she flinched in pain. It seems her injuries were too much, even for her high pain tolerance.
But William, on the other hand, seemed to be focused. He was only blinking once every 10 seconds, displaying his high level of concentration. It was like he was a completely different person than before.
"Look at her eyes! I'm pretty sure she looks towards where she wants to pop out before sinking into the shadows!" William shouts.
The woman had appeared once again, but this time, William had already jumped away from where the woman rose from.
She wasn't happy by William's discovery as this time she sunk into the shadows, but in just a split second, William almost lost his finger. The time between her slipping into the shadows and coming out was only a split second as William was bȧrėly able to dodge.
William remained calm and pushed Abigail, causing the woman's next attack to miss. But, unfortunately, the woman immediately slipped into a shadow right after missing, allowing no room for any attack.
In the next second, William gripped the cleaver tightly and pushed Abigail out of the way once more before slicing downwards. A sudden dagger deflected it, but it also ripped part of the woman's arm off.
The demonic flames spread to the arm, slowly eating away at it.
William wasn't satisfied with his work as he clicked his tongue and spun around, blocking another attack. His demonic flames continued to burn as they started to melt the lady's daggers, forcing her to retreat into the shadows.
"Huh- where did she even look," William mutters, eyes darting all over the place.
It seems he slipped up, but in the distance was the woman running away with the demonic flames still attached to her arm.
She was sweating profusely and had dropped both of her daggers, allowing for easier movement down the hallway.
WHOOSH
The cleaver had taken off the woman's ear, causing her to fall onto the ground in pain. She tried to reach for the shadow beside her, which was illuminated by the sun, but William threw his cleaver at her hand, stopping it in its tracks.
The woman screams in pain, but it didn't last long as William tore the cleaver out and slit the back of the woman's neck. She instantly died, with her struggling hand flopping to the ground.
"Hmmm… her shadow stone must be a pretty low rank if she can't even travel down the hallway," Charna mutters to herself.
"What do you mean?" Amanda asks.
"So, with the lower-ranked shadow power stones, they can only travel where they look initially, plus if the rank is low enough, they can only travel a certain amount of meters. Once the shadow stone gets to B-rank, you can mostly travel wherever you look," Charna explains.
"That's pretty overpowered," Nuala mutters.
"Nah, I said mostly travel wherever you look. That doesn't mean you can sit on top of a building and look at an alleyway halfway across the city, then travel there—that's something of an S-rank shadow stone.
It's just the amount of distance a B and A-rank stone can allow you to travel is about 500 meters. That's more than enough for regular ȧssassinations," Charna says.
"That's cool and all, but those guys are about to die. Shouldn't we send some people over there- never mind. Here they come," Ethel says.
The members who have Healing related power stones arrived just in time. They could close up all the wounds and regenerate the missing flesh, but the stamina and lost blood weren't something they could regenerate with power stones.
"Do people with blood power stones have increased vitality?" I ask Nell and Astra.
"Like, do we regenerate blood faster?" Charna asks.
"Yeah,"
"Nope. But if we wanted to, we could actually manipulate the blood of another being into our bloodstream, giving us some more blood. And thanks to the power stone tampering with our blood, we actually aren't affected by any diseases or side effects," Nell replies.
"What about monster blood?"
"That's a no-go. One of my cousins actually tried to do that, thinking he'll grow stronger, and he ended up showing deviation within his genetics. It actually gave him more power for about 3 years but then scales appeared all over him," Astras says.
"Yeah… And then, after about 2 years of hiding those scales, they began to spread rapidly, eventually turning him into a snake-man hybrid. After another year of being holed up in his room, he burst out one day and slaughtered everybody in his mansion. Of course, he was put down,"
"Is that the first time somebody ever tried that?"
"Nah, there's been multiple cases, but it still hasn't been banned. So I could only ȧssume my family is letting anybody do it until they have good results… like they're experiments," Astra says.
Experiments? Just like that group that is trying to experiment on me.
"Wait, Lucy. Do you think it is the same group that is trying to experiment on you?" Mia asks.
"That's what I was just thinking,"
"You think my family is the one trying to kidnap you?" Astra says, slightly raising her eyebrow.
"I never said that. It might be a group supporting your family from behind… What organizations are supporting your family?"
"The first ones that come to my mind would be… Monsters ondergeschikten… uhhhh… Jev… uh… Luck… That's all I can remember," Astra says.
"That was clean as hell. What language was that first one?" I ask.
"It was Dutch," Charna says.
"Yep. My ancestors were originally from Belgium… wait, how did you know it was dutch?" Astra asks.
"Remember how I told you I study languages in my free time,"
"How much free time do you have? Geez…"
"Wait for a second,"
Charna freezes up before holding her chin with her hand. A drop of sweat ran down the side of her cheek as she was able to turn the air in the room upside down.
She was able to make everybody tense for a reason we don't even know.
"What?" I ask.
"Hold on… Monsters Ondergeschikten… Monsters Ondergeschikten… Monsters subordinates… Monsters subordinates… Monsters… Térata… Térata… Terata Ypogachtia… Hump Monsters… Humpback Monsters? Hmmm… Damn, I thought I had something. Of course, it might just be a coincidence, but the underworld supplier that the Write woman gave us is similar to Monsters Ondergeschikten," Charna says.
"If they are the same group, then doesn't that mean they're a large group in the underworld?" I ask.
"I guess… I mean, it could just be a coincidence. Plus, their names really only have 'Monster' in common," Charna replies.
My blood starts to boil when I think about that woman who was controlling Auntie. I could bȧrėly restrain my bloodlust even from just the thought. If I didn't have Mia, I probably would've broken down once again.
This made me hug Mia tightly as she smiled back, stroking my hair slightly.
"Do you want to meet my mom?" I ask Mia.
"You mean her grave?" Mia replies.
"Yeah,"
"Okay, after the raid. It looks to be finishing up soon," Mia says, continuing to stroke my hair.