97 The Eldritch Terror [1] - Flashback
Silas’ hand shoot past Jessica’s head, barely grazing her cheek as it stabbed through the tree behind her.
She looked at the hand with an ounce of fear, before looking back into the emerald eyes of the man who had attacked her.
Her heart was beating out her chest, while her breathing rate had become so high that it would have probably been considered hyperventilation.
Maybe, if she wasn’t injured, she would have survived… but right now… Right now she didn’t know how to feel.
She was scared.
She was helpless.
And in front of such a dominating aura, she couldn’t help but cry a little.
“P-Please… I don’t want to die. Who ever you are, please don’t kill me.” She cried out in a whispered voice.
She felt like crying out for help would only quicken her death, and the chances of people being out at this time were extremely low.
“Oi! What do you think you’re-” Before the man in the distance could even finish speaking, an ice spine shot through his abdomen, causing him to gasp for her while falling to the floor and creating a pool of blood under him.
“Ice? Is that you, Game?” Jessica asked with a hopeful tone. However, that’s when she remembered…
That’s when she remembered the monster she saw on that day.
***
“We can’t hold them back. We’re going to die!” A man holding a long sword cried out as he tried his hardest to block incoming attacks from the assassins.
However, despite Silas helping them out every now and then, they were too many.
However, when most of them went to attack Silas, the team quickly realized something else.
The assassins were also too strong.
“I can hold them back… I’ll have to use my trump card, but I can do it.” Jessica explained to them while giving them a small smile.
“Are you sure you can hold them back?” One of the other men asked while trying his best to defend against the incoming onslaught of slashes and punches.
The assassin’s attacks were so quick that two of them had to fight the assassin at the same time, yet even then, it seemed like they couldn’t even hold back all their attacks, causing their bodies to be littered with cuts and bruises.
“Yes. But when I do this… I want you to run as quickly as possible. I’ll try my best to save Game since it doesn’t seem like he can hold on much longer.” Jessica looked toward the swarm of assassins trying their best to kill him.
However, no matter how much they tried, for some reason, their blades always fell short of the target.
Silas was somehow dominating the fight, but Jessica knew that it wouldn’t be too long until Silas’ strength would wear out.
She didn’t understand why he wasn’t using his magic, but that didn’t matter.
Opening up her jacket, she quickly pulled down her shirt and tapped on a necklace she was wearing around her neck that couldn’t be seen due to her clothing.
The necklace seemed to be embroidered with a sapphire mana crystal. It was tiny and had traces of blood-red lines going through its insides. Those red threads expanded and retracted as if they were alive, similar to how Greed had crystals similar to hers embroidered within it.
Looking at one of the assassins, she tapped on the crystal and caused it to shine with a deep blue light.
Suddenly, the toki around her became visible to the naked eye before also beginning to glow with a similar radiance.
While Silas didn’t recognize it back then since he was neck-deep in the battle of his life, if he had seen what she had just done, he would have been shocked.
Her toki, which is usually made out of pure mana, had suddenly had all its mana particles turn into elemental particles, specifically the water element.
Jessica felt as if her body was as light as a feather, while at the same instance, the fluidity and speed of her movements had reached a whole new level. A level that not even Silas could reach even if he used water fusion.
This was probably because of the fact that she was more skilled and experienced than he was, but also due to the fact that her toki alone was capable of rivaling that of someone or something in the solid-amethyst core.
However, not only had the crystal made her toki become a water variant, but it also doubled the amount of toki she was capable of controlling.
Suddenly, she had become a force to be reckoned with.
Her body became a blurry streak as she quickly moved toward her enemy, and stabbed him in the throat before moving toward the one that was attacking two of her teammates.
With a single slash, she decapitated them before dashing toward the last one and killing it before it could kill their last teammate.
“Holy shit, Jessica. That’s so cool.” One of them jumped up and down with joy, yet Jessica simply glared at them.
“This form takes a lot of energy out of me. I can only do this for a couple minutes. Take your asses and leave.”
“What about…” One of them looked at the dead healer.
“She’s dead. You can’t do anything about it. Don’t sacrifice yourself over something as stupid as carrying the dead out of the battlefield.” She snarled and dashed toward the swarm of enemies.
The others took her advice and began to run away.
If they had to be honest, they were glad they didn’t have to carry the body with them since it would have only made their escape harder.
After running for a minute or two, they felt like they were finally stepping into freedom, but at last, fate was not on their side.
“My snipers could have deal with you, but I guess it’s important to stretch my muscles every once in a while.” A man with black hair towered before them while releasing a menacing aura that made all of them instantly drop to their knees.
They couldn’t speak.
They couldn’t move.
They were completely incapable of doing anything, even blinking and breathing.
“Be glad. At least you get to die by the hands of someone truly superior to you.” The assassin’s guilt leader smiled maniacally before he disappeared from where he stood.
Next thing they knew, the sound of crunching and breaking entered their ears, before eventually, they suffered the same fate as the rest of their comrades.
***
As Jessica ran around trying to kill everyone in sight, she could feel her boost in strength running out.
However, she quickly realized why that didn’t matter.
After dodging an incoming arrow, she leaned forward to attack, yet she quickly realized something.
She didn’t hear the arrow hit the ground.
Looking to her right, she saw a large man, standing at a height of 6 and a half feet, towering above her while looking into her eyes with his devilish-purple ones.
What stood before her was a man that not many could even touch.
Despite being the leader of one of the weaker guilds, he was still incredibly strong, having reached a level of power that would have instantly made him the general of the Death faction back in the Darkless organization.
Hell, the commander had even tried recruiting him before, yet he had refused the invitation long ago.
It was rumored that he was able to kill a sapphire-cored great centipede with his bare hands, and now that he was in front of her, Jessica no longer doubted the rumors.
“You must be Greed’s right hand woman, right?” The man smirked while Jessica tried to step back, however, she quickly felt his hand around her throat as he picked her off the floor as if she weight nothing to him.
“I’ll keep you around. I wonder how Greed will react when she sees the aftermath of my torture. That will teach her for messing with me.” His grin turned into a malicious teeth-grit face that was filled with so much fury that it essentially radiated off him.