Chapter 58: Getting Harder
Jaden turned and looked at Arden and Jamie in a new light, and both of them slowly stood up. Jamie had a wide grin, while Arden had a pained expression on his face.
"Don’t do that again," Arden said slowly as he took the bow from his shoulder and checked it.
Jamie raised an eyebrow at his words and argued.
"But it was cool and it’s safe too. We reached here without dying, didn’t we?"
Arden blinked a few times and answered.
"Is that what you consider safe?"
"Ugh! Stop being a bitch." Jamie spat as he turned towards others with an annoyed look.
Selina looked at Jamie with a frown as she called out.
"Jamie..."
Jamie turned towards her with a dark look, but didn’t say anything. Things were not going well between them after Jamie’s outburst during the meeting at the cafe.
Selina also didn’t push further and turned silent as she glanced between Jamie and Arden. Arden had lowered his head, hinting she would have to deal with it herself.
"I don’t see any nightmares or any other kind of danger here." Navin voiced as he leaned against his spear.
Jaden nodded at his words; he also couldn’t see anything after all.
’It would be better to refill our mana before moving.’
He looked at the others and spoke loudly.
"We will move after refilling our mana. Only two should absorb mana at a time."
Everyone nodded to his words, and Arden and Jamie were first to refill their mana. Time passed, and soon all of them refilled their mana, but nothing happened during that time. They once again took their formation and began walking towards the next slab. Just as they took a few steps, the ground beneath their feet shifted, hurling them apart.
Arden and Navin asked as they looked around with shocked expressions.
"What the?!"
"What just happened?"
"Holy fuck, what was that?"
Shelly took out her daggers. She narrowed her eyes and looked before her. The hardened mist was rippling before her, and soon it began to rise as it took the form of a mistwraith. This one, however, was a little bit different from the ones before because its glassy body didn’t have flowing mist; instead, it was hardened like the floor’s mist.
She moved before the mistwraith could adjust to its surroundings and attacked it with her daggers. To her surprise, however, the daggers only left a scratch on the mistwraith’s body, and it had already turned towards her. It clawed at her with its glassy fingers, but she simply jumped back a few steps.
Her expression had turned dark, and her eyes were colder than usual. The frail, glassy body was the main weakness of the mistwraiths, but the one before her didn’t seem to have such a weakness.
She turned to look at others, and they were in a similar trouble.
"Die monster," she mumbled and attacked once again.
Jaden stared at the mistwraith before him with a contemplative look because he didn’t know if he should just kill it or capture it. He didn’t want others to find out about his ability, and at the same time, he wanted to know how and why this mistwraith was different from the ones before.
"Is it because the mist is different and nearly solid?"
Jaden simply parried the attacks of the mistwraith and glanced at the others. He didn’t want to kill it too soon and cause the attention to fall on him, so he was waiting for them to kill one of them.
His eyes then fell on Selina, and seeing her, a few words unknowingly left his lips.
"Blasted hell... how the fuck is she doing that?"
Selina wasn’t fighting the mistwraith, no, she was toying with it and considering that both of them were of the same E or Initiate rank made it that much more impressive.
"She is way better than me with the sword... she may even be better than all of us," Jaden muttered as he focused more on her fight than his own because he didn’t have to... he was fighting an E rank while being a D rank after all.
His eyes shifted and fell on Navin, who was also doing pretty well using his shield and spear... the only one at a disadvantage, however, was Arden; he may be the best archer within the first year of Arcane Knight Academy, but at the moment, he was forced into close combat.
Jaden’s expression turned dark as he mumbled.
"I have to help him... but no one has killed their enemy yet. What should I do?"
He thought for a few moments as he continued to parry the ravaging claws of the mistwraith and dodged the ones he couldn’t parry by side-stepping or ducking down; he was simply playing with it.
"This might work."
He took a step back and just as the mistwraith attacked him, he slipped with his back to the ground, but before he could touch the ground, he looked at the mistwraith attacking Arden and pointed at it, the mana within his body flared, and water elementals gathered at his fingertip before the [Water Bullet ★] whistled through the air and blew the mistwraith’s arm off.
Arden looked at Jaden with a dark look as he could see the mistwraith’s claw reach him. His lips parted to shout.
"Jad—"
But he stopped midway as Jaden simply blocked the attack and gave him a slight nod before continuing his fight.
Right then, Selina beheaded the mistwraith before her, then Shelly sliced the neck of hers, and Jaden simply sliced his into two.
Navin lifted his shield and smashed at the mistwraith’s shoulder before sweeping backwards with his spear and crushing the head of the mistwraith.
Jamie cut off the forearms of the mistwraith with his swords, and he raised his bow and positioned it at the now defenceless mistwraith’s head. He spoke as he loosened the string.
"Die bitch."
Arden also killed the one before him at the same time.