novelraw Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Chapter 7: A Narrow Road for Enemies
Lina held back Annie, who wanted to rush over and help, and said in a low voice, “Don’t hurry, let’s watch first.”
The two hid behind the rocks and carefully observed the battle.
They saw that Sibyl and three other witch apprentices had their backs against the rock wall, forming a somewhat disordered defensive line, and were locked in fierce combat with two cultists in tattered black robes and the two Cave Lurkers under their control.
Sibyl’s command did indeed play a key role. Making use of the terrain and their limited magic in coordination, she barely managed to hold back the assault, and even slightly suppressed the enemy.
But the overall situation of the battle was not optimistic. Bloodstains had already appeared on the robes of two of the apprentices, and their movements had also become sluggish, as if they had been poisoned by the Cave Lurkers. Their defeat was only a matter of time.
“Do you see the cultist on the left holding a dagger, hiding behind the Cave Lurker?” Lina quickly whispered to Annie. “I’ll count to three. Use Ice Crystal on the patch of ground under his feet and make him lose his balance. Then get the next spell ready immediately and wait for my command.”
Annie nodded nervously, and cold air began gathering in her palm.
“Three, two, one!”
Lina shot out like an arrow loosed from the string! Almost at the same moment, Annie’s Ice Crystal was cast with perfect accuracy beneath the dagger-wielding cultist’s feet!
“Crack!”
A thin layer of ice rapidly spread. The cultist had been fully focused on controlling the giant spider, and his foot suddenly slipped, making him lose his balance on the spot.
Now!
With a raise of Lina’s hand, a blazing fireball had already shot out, blasting toward the Cave Lurker that had paused for an instant after losing control!
“Boom!” The fireball exploded, and the lurker let out a sharp hiss, instinctively recoiling. The off-balance cultist behind it was instantly left wide open.
“Finish him, Annie!” Lina shouted.
Annie, who had already been prepared, cast Ice Crystal again almost by reflex. This time, the freezing chill struck the cultist directly in the middle of his back!
He let out a miserable scream, and a layer of white frost rapidly spread across the surface of his body, completely freezing his movements.
“Hand me the head! Big sis will give you a buff!”
Lina followed like a shadow and closed in. A fireball struck his face directly, and the completely unguarded cultist died on the spot just like that.
Sibyl stared wide-eyed at Lina and Annie as they charged into the battlefield.
Wasn’t that the somewhat shabby-looking apprentice from outside the secret realm? Why was she here?
Not long after their team entered the secret realm and had just found the Moonlight Moss, they had been ambushed by this group of cultists.
The two men in black robes had come charging out from the shadows with several controlled Cave Lurkers, catching them completely off guard.
Two teammates had been sprayed by the lurkers’ venom on the spot. They could only use magic power to slow the spread of the toxin, but they would not be able to hold on much longer.
What was even more desperate was that when they tried to activate the guardian magic stones to retreat, they discovered that all the magic stones had failed!
With their only escape route cut off, they could only fight while retreating until they were forced into this stone chamber.
One of the cultists, the one wielding a sword, was especially difficult to deal with! A strange dark shield constantly surrounded him, and their magic had never been able to break through it.
Only then did the other cultist react. Shocked and furious, he brandished a short sword wrapped in black energy and roared as he charged at Lina, “Die!”
Not good, it was him! This little girl was in danger!
“Dodge! This guy has a magic shield!” Sibyl shouted anxiously, desperately gathering magic power in an attempt to help Lina, but at this distance it was already too late.
Facing the enemy rushing at her, Lina neither dodged nor retreated, and shouted, “Fireball!”
Hmph, as expected, she was just a little girl with no combat experience!
A savage grin appeared on the cultist’s face, and a black shield instantly emerged around his body!
“Dodge! We can’t break through this shield—” Before Sibyl could finish speaking, the situation on Lina’s side suddenly changed.
She had not gathered a fireball at all! At the very instant the other party raised his sword to slash down, Lina’s figure flashed, and she suddenly became three people!
Clone Spell!
The cultist was instantly startled. In the brief moment of his hesitation, Lina, who had already flashed to his side, poured the strength of her whole body into her arm, swung that hard black breadstick in a full arc, and aimed straight at the cultist’s completely unguarded head—
“Stun!”
“Bang!”
Along with the muffled sound of a skull colliding with a hard object, the cultist’s forward momentum came to an abrupt stop. He swayed twice where he stood, then collapsed face-first to the ground.
The battlefield instantly fell silent.
Only the two Cave Lurkers that had lost control remained, wandering in circles blankly on the spot. They were quickly dealt with by the recovered Sibyl and the other apprentices working together.
The stone chamber was temporarily safe, but Lina immediately noticed the two injured witch apprentices. Their faces had turned bluish-green, and their lips were purple. Clearly, they had been poisoned by the Cave Lurkers.
They seemed to be Sibyl’s two little followers from earlier?
Lina walked over quickly, crouched down, and examined the wounds, her brows knitting slightly. The poisoning was not mild, but there was still time.
Although those two apprentices had spoken offensively to her outside earlier, Lina, a gentle big sister who had lived through two lifetimes, was not about to bicker over it with two half-grown little girls.
Without the slightest hesitation, she pulled out the Silver Star Grass and Purple Fern Flower she had gathered earlier from that bulging cloth bag. Then she borrowed a small mortar and a little clean water from Annie, and with practiced movements began preparing an antidote.
Very soon, two small portions of dark green ointment giving off a cool scent were prepared.
Lina applied them to the wounds of the two injured girls, then gestured for them to swallow a little of the medicinal liquid for internal use as well.
The medicine worked immediately. The bluish-black tint on their faces quickly faded, and their pained expressions also eased.
“Th-thank you…” one of the girls said weakly, shame on her face. “Earlier… outside… I’m sorry…”
The other also said softly, “We were wrong… thank you for saving us.”
Sibyl watched Lina’s crisp, efficient movements and the rapidly effective antidote with a complicated look in her eyes. She stepped forward and extended a hand. “Thank you for this. I owe you a favor.”
Without even lifting her head, Lina continued tidying up her mortar while raising two fingers and giving them a little wave. “Don’t rush to thank me. Antidote, two portions, one Silver Lion each, no bargaining. Cash or put it on the tab?”
The moment those words came out, not only did the two followers who had just recovered freeze in shock, even Annie opened her mouth wide in surprise. Sibyl, too, frowned, and instinctively wanted to rebuke this kind of behavior of “taking advantage of others in their distress.”
So she really was a greedy and rude sort!
Yet the moment that thought arose, she suppressed it.
One Silver Lion per portion… She quickly recalled the market price of intermediate antidote potions.
This price could be called quite fair. If Lina’s two antidotes’ remarkable effectiveness was taken into account, then one Silver Lion was in fact already very affordable.
Looking at Lina’s expression that clearly said “clearly marked price, fair to young and old alike,” the doubt in Sibyl’s heart only deepened.
This apprentice witch called Lina did not fit any type she knew at all.
She was neither the kind of good person who asked for nothing in return, nor a villain driven only by profit. She seemed to have her own unique set of principles for dealing with the world.
That trait instead made Sibyl even more interested in Lina.
Beneath that seemingly down-and-out, impoverished exterior, what kind of person was really hidden?
“One Silver Lion per portion, very fair.” Sibyl suppressed the thoughts in her heart, took out two gleaming Silver Lion coins from her exquisite waist pouch, and handed them to Lina. “I’ll pay for them.”
Lina accepted the money without the slightest courtesy, weighed it in her hand, then satisfiedly slipped one into her own pocket and stuffed the other into Annie’s palm, who was still staring blankly. “Deal. Give me two minutes.”
Then, right in front of everyone, Lina began searching the two cultists for valuables.
“Uh… what is she doing?” Sibyl tilted her head slightly in confusion as she watched the black-haired girl feeling all over the cultists’ corpses.
As Annie harvested materials from the Cave Lurkers, she explained, “Big Sister Lina said we can’t waste these materials!”
“Tch, two paupers!” After finishing her treasure search, Lina kicked the unconscious cultist disdainfully.
“The two of them together couldn’t even scrape up one Gold Dragon. With treatment like this, they’d be better off sweeping toilets for the Holy Light Church! Why join some evil cult?”
The corner of Sibyl’s mouth twitched. This little black-haired girl really did have her own set of values and methods.
After collecting the spoils of war, the group walked on for a while longer and arrived at the end of the hall.
Just as everyone let out a slight breath of relief and prepared to head toward the exit teleportation gate that symbolized safety, Lina suddenly raised her hand and shouted sharply, “Stop!”
Her light golden pupils suddenly contracted, and a premonition of danger, far stronger than when she had encountered the Demon Shadow Wolf before, stabbed into her consciousness like an ice spike—Divination was issuing its highest-level warning!
Something had been lurking in the shadows all along, watching them.
“Stop hiding!” Lina turned around and faced a dense patch of shadow at the entrance of the stone hall that appeared to hold nothing at all. “Get out here!”
After a brief deathly silence, the slow sound of applause came from the shadows.
Clap, clap, clap.
A tall, gaunt figure slowly stepped out from the darkness.
He was also dressed in black robes, but the material was clearly much finer, and twisted dark-gold patterns were embroidered along the edges.
His hood was pulled low, covering most of his face, revealing only a pale, sharpened chin and lips curved in a faint smile.
“Truly astonishing, little girl.” His voice was hoarse and soft in a sinister way, like a venomous snake sliding over dead leaves. “The shadow granted by my lord went unnoticed even by the mental scan of that S-rank Great Witch of yours. You… how did you discover me?”
“Speak, and perhaps I may let you… die without quite so much pain.”
He raised his head slightly. Within the darkness beneath the hood, two points of crimson light flashed past, and Lina also saw that twisted, bizarre scar on his profile!
Norsen!
The current cult leader of the Returner Sect!
A madman who should have been burned by the Star Witch Lavinia years ago until not even a scrap of his soul remained!
How could he possibly still be alive?!