Chapter 315: Jade Soldier

Maria grew dark wings behind her back and soared into the air after the Jade Knight. It’s sword slowly started transforming into a crossbow already loaded with deathly sharp bolts. Suddenly, a barrage of them stormed around her figure. Maria dodged them gracefully, trying to close the distance as much as she could.

She ducked underneath a bolt and threw her spear as hard as she could. It managed to scratch the smooth surface of their armor but didn’t do much damage beyond that. The Jade Knight had now regained control of their momentum and turned their weapon into a massive broadsword, similar to the one Slimo wielded for a while. Maria smiled, anxiously anticipating them to come closer. However, despite her expectations, the knight never moved.

Maria did not care either way. She allowed the spear to reform in her hand before throwing more of them. The Jade Knight started deflecting each one with their sword, but every impact dented the surface of the blade more and more. Maria expected it to shatter at one point, but it looked like the knight was infusing their weapon with some power to keep it from breaking.

"You mortals are making a grave mistake. You MUST join Zalo!"

Maria closed the distance instantly and thrusted her spear inside the knight’s visor.

"Shut up."

However, she was met with no resistance. The Jade Knight brought their broadsword down and slammed it against Maria’s armor, leaving a deep gash in her shoulder. Just as quickly as she was wounded, her skin had already healed itself, along with her armor. The Jade Knight appeared to recognize her regenerative capabilities and hesitated on its follow-up attack, allowing Maria to dodge it with ease. She stabbed her spear through the side of its armor, allowing black smoke to leave the armor before kicking them away.

The Jade knight held onto the hole in the side of their armor before looking at Maria.

"A wannabe god carrying a weapon of divinity. How did a mortal like you come across such a thing? How can you even wield it?"

Maria ignored their talks and threw another spear at them. The Jade Knight caught the spear and broke it in their gauntlet. They tightened their grip on their broadsword and whispered to themself.

"This infuriating mortal... I can’t win with Zalo taking away most of my power. And that spear..."

Maria’s spear was illuminated with infinite dark energy. The Jade Knight chuckled once more before turning their weapon into something Maria had never seen before. It had a long cylindrical barrel, a small scope and a trigger sitting near the butt of the weapon. Along with this, the helmet of the knight began to melt and morph into a different shape.

After three seconds, a green skull now floated above the armor set. Its eye sockets as dark and lifeless as Zalo’s.

Maria felt a cold tingle flow down her spine as the words next to the Jade Knight’s description began to change to something else.

Name: Jade Soldier

Before she had time to read anything else, it raised its weapon to its face and squeezed the trigger. Suddenly, dozens of green pelletts exploded out of the barrel towards Maria. She had no time to react to all of the projectiles coming her way, so she used her spear to deflect as many as she could. However, a few pellets managed to pierce through her skin with ease.

After shaking off the initial shock of the encounter, Maira soared as fast as she could towards the Jade Soldier. Hundreds of shots whizzed past her ear as she closed the distance. She managed to get close enough to slide her spear through the cylinder, but the Jade Soldier grabbed a similar weapon from its hip and pressed the barrel against her head before pulling the trigger.

Maria’s vision went white; her ears began to ring, and her mind drifted far from the battle. She was in a field of beautiful marigold flowers. Jacob was picking up the yellow flowers with his back to her. Maria held her head as she walked towards him.

"Jacob. I just had the craziest dream. You would never believe me if I told you!"

Jacob turned his head around, causing Maria to scream.

Where his face should have been, an onyx black skull took its place.

Suddenly, she came back to her senses. There was a massive hole in her head, but black tendrils were already rebuilding its damage. She panicked and grabbed on to the barrel still against her head, crushing it in her grasp before punching the Jade Skull as hard as she could. As they plummeted through the air, Maria chucked her spear at the ground and chased after them.

The spear landed in the earth with its tip pointing straight up. Meanwhile, Maria threw her leg down as hard as she could into the soldier’s armor. It cracked under the force of Maria’s kick before being sent down even faster than before. As the Jade Soldier crashed into the ground, Maria’s spear had penetrated right through its stomach, holding them in place as dark mist continued to seep out of them.

It twitched and groaned as it tried to free itself, but its movements looked slow and desperate. It was clear it couldn’t put up a fight anymore. Maria walked over to it before placing her foot down on its chest. The Jade Soldier’s skull looked at Maria with disdain.

"Harbinger. You know you can’t kill me with that mark of yours."

Suddenly, Lidia playfully walked over, her crown shining brightly on her head.

"Kill?! How dare you tell my daughter what to do!"

Lidia grabbed the soldier’s leg with her glowing hands before ripping it clean off. More black mist poured from its new wound. The Jade Soldier groaned in pain and started making a weird clacking sound with its teeth. It sounded like it was trying to speak, but it had something else planned that Maria and Lidia were too inexperienced to know was possible.

"Your delay... will be your end."

Lidia and Maria raised an eyebrow, unaware of what else the skull could do in this state. However, Maria’s eyes drifted over to the long-barreled weapon laying on the ground next to its hand. It already had its finger over the trigger. It wasn’t until the weapon made an exploding sound did Maria decide to look at where the weapon was pointing. Her heart dropped watching the bullet travel through the air. She desperately reached for her spear, but she knew she wouldn’t have time to intercept it.

Slimo was overwhelming his opponent. The desert spirit was getting mangled. Its grey branches would smack off from every hit Slimo connected. Corrupted blood oozed out of every hole in its body. However, when Slimo was readying his final punch, the bullet lodged itself in the back of his spine before exploding into thousands of tiny shards.

Slimo was sent hurdling thirty feet away from his dazed opponent. Squabee was the first to respond to the attack. She flew towards Slimo with Sarah holding on to her tightly. Lidia slammed her foot on the Jade Skull, shattering it to dust before rushing over to finish off the desert spirit.

Slimo landed softly next to Slimo, helping Sarah off her back.

"Slimo! What the hell just happened?!"

Slimo groaned in pain on the ground.

"I... can’t move anything. It hit me right in the spine."

Sarah moved her hands up Slimo’s back before sending energy through her hands and into his body. However, as she continued to heal him, her arms began to shake.

"No... something isn’t right."

She blasted him with more energy. Her arms were cloaked in power as a healing aura enshrouded Slimo’s whole body. Squabee looked at Sarah with a worried expression.

"What’s wrong? Can you not heal him?"

After three more moments of trying, Sarah finally gave up. She panted heavily as her arms and hands shook from exhaustion.

"I... can’t heal him."

Squabee’s eyes grew shallow.

"Why? Why can’t you heal him?"

Sarah moved her hands over the spot the bullet had entered.

"Whatever hit him split into multiple tiny pieces. It was as if each one lodged itself in his spine. Not only that, but they also seem to contain some strange nullification power. My healing abilities keep getting rejected every time I try to heal or extract the pieces."

Squabee’s heart dropped. Slimo remained silent.

"Then... that means..."

Suddenly, Slimo started to chuckle.

"Heh...hehe.... hahaha... HAHAHA!"

Both Squabee and Sarah felt very creeped out from his reaction. However, as his laughing died down, he sighed to himself.

"Is this the desperation he was talking about? Give me a break..."

Lidia walked over and picked him up in her arms. Slimo smiled seeing Lidia’s face.

"Sorry, my love. I just thought Sarah looked a little left out being the only cripple."

Lidia couldn’t help but smirk at the inappropriate comment he made.

"You could at least try to act sad about this change."

Slimo shook his head.

"Who has time for that? We have a deity we need to take down."

Lidia looked up at the sky. She could feel Leno’s unfathomable power radiating in the sky like a star.

"Want to tell me what that plan B is yet? Are you still capable of it?"

Suddenly, Slimo’s mood immediately changed. His playful expression turned into a serious one. Instead of responding, he nodded his head — the only part of his body he could move. Lidia brought her ear close to his mouth as he whispered softly to her. Lidia’s expression didn’t change a single bit.

She simply nodded back.

Suddenly, Squabee soared up into the sky towards the keepers.

"I refuse to let him take this fight by himself. I’ll make sure luck is on ALL of our sides today!!"