Chapter 278: Vako City I
Vako City
Planet Gade
Unknown Galaxy
Varona Realm
October 8th
Year 717 of the 50th General Calendar.
While Arthur was beginning his 144-hour law comprehension speed run, Layla, Esna, Nicole and Edward finally arrived at the City on the other end of the forest that the inferior grandmaster knight was heading to with his squad.
According to him, Vako city was a growing major city in their Empire, mainly supported by wood production, jewel crafting and carpentry, things made possible due to the nearby forest and the mine on the other end.
There was a large concrete road through the forest which was used by passing merchants on their way to the city, with fences on either side all embedded with monster repellents to prevent them from being attacked.
As Layla and her group got closer to the city, Undine suddenly manifested her physical body with a light frown on her face, and the four of them instantly deduced that something was wrong with the city.
[It’s under attack, by various monsters all infected with those parasites. I think you’d start seeing the signs soon enough.]
"You guys go ahead and leave us, we’d catch up."
The aged grandmaster spoke, as he knew the reason Layla’s group was limiting their speed was because of them and the injured knights. Although Nicole had healed them with her magic, they were still slightly anaemic and could not move too fast.
The quartet acquiesced with his words and increased their movement speed, and it didn’t take a minute for them to start seeing the signs Undine spoke about.
All the magnificent trees and their lush green leaves that stood on both sides of the road gradually turned into rotten pieces of wood with decayed leaves, and at one point, it was as if the forest had disappeared completely.
"This is quite bad."
Layla spoke as they dashed towards the city, while Nicole turned her around, narrowing her eyes lightly as she noticed that the spirits in the area were all scared, too scared to even flock to her as they always did.
In another minute, they finally arrived at the large clearing that separated the town from the forest, about a few hundred meters wide, and they were greeted with the sight of more than a dozen monsters of different kinds either banging on the city’s walls and gates or chucking magic at them.
People who looked like knights or adventurers were fighting hard battles against some of the stronger monsters who were in the grandmaster realm, however, their prospects of victory seemed to be very slim.
All of a sudden, all the monsters stopped moving, ignoring the attacks from the mages on the city walls that rained down from them as they simultaneously turned their heads in the direction of Layla’s group.
"Called it.
Whoever’s behind those guys definitely has it out for us."
As if trying to confirm Esna’s words, the monsters all let out strange roars before charging towards the four of them, something that had the knights of the city turn pale as Layla’s group only looked like a quartet of ’helpless’ children.
"Shit RU-?!"
The knight’s words, however, were suddenly cut short when Layla suddenly released a burst of energy and charged forward with a speed he could barely perceive.
"WHAT?!"
The girl who he thought was a helpless teenager, turned out to have an aura that was even more powerful than his, and he was a ’prestigious’ intermediate grandmaster!
Before he could comprehend what he was seeing, a sword had appeared in Layla’s hands and she gripped it tightly, locking eyes with the monster before unsheathing the blade.
**SWISH!
The slash was so fast that the grandmaster could barely catch sight of the black aura that coated the blade flash through the air, with Layla landing on the ground and sheathing the sword slowly.
**THUMP!
A head rolled off the neck it was on merely 5 seconds ago, dropping to the ground, with the body of the creature that possessed it dropping to the ground right after.
"Are you for real now, Layla?
You chose now of all times to replicate the scene you saw in a movie?"
"Says the guy who’s about to drop his sword into a pool of water like he’s activating a certain black-haired swordsman’s Bank-"
"Copyright!"
Esna cut Layla and Edward’s little conversation short as she snapped her fingers materializing a dozen light magic circles in the air.
"Light Magic: Astral Smite, Purifying Javelin."
Six of the magic circles shot out dozens of fist-sized bullets of light-attributed magic, while the other six launched six giant lances of the same element.
The six lances of light shot towards the large dark troll that was about to swing its large orb towards Layla’s body, impaling it through the chest and arms.
Layla calmly moved to the side, avoiding the large body that tumbled to the ground with a loud thud a moment after.
"Hmm?"
She rose an eyebrow as she noticed something trying to creep up on her with shadow magic, her hand moving to her sword as she released another slash of dark aura at a barely perceptible speed.
As she walked away from the area while putting her sword away, the corpse of a small panther-like monster could be seen hanging halfway out of the shadow of the dead troll’s corpse.
As for Nicole, the girl had gone over to where the adventurers and knights who were fighting against the monsters earlier were and was calmly telling them to group themselves together so she could heal them en-masse.
"Water Magic: Blue Quartz Cleansing."
She created a huge bubble of water to encapsulate all of them, with small tiny fish spirits swimming around in the bubble as they saw their wounds heal in real-time.
Naturally, there was no way that the monsters were going to ignore her casually healing the people they were just trying to kill a moment ago.
"Young Miss!"
One of the knights tried to charge towards the monster that was trying to attack her from behind, but one of the large humanoid spirits manifested its physical body and held him back.
"Behind you!"
Nicole did not need the adventurer’s warning to know that something was indeed trying to kill her. It was a humanoid monster dressed in ragged brown robes and a wide-brimmed straw hat that covered its face. The only thing visible was its pair of glowing red eyes that locked onto Nicole.
The monster, a blade wraith, had a long black curved blade that seemed to be joined with its left palm and said the blade was currently infused with its strongest aura and death law essence it could gather.
It swung its blade, delivering a quick and precise strike towards the neck of the black-haired girl, and the monster—or rather, the parasite controlling it, was all but sure that it had succeeded in beheading her.
That is until its blade collided with a thick layer of ice right before it pierced her skin.
"?!"
Immediately the blade slammed into the ice barrier on Nicole’s neck, the girl rose her hand which was covered in a thin layer of blue ether and grabbed the thing’s blade before muttering one command word.
"Freeze."
Her ether was roused in response to her command and the thin layer of blue energy around her palm surged forward, engulfing the blade wraith in a second and turning it into an ice sculpture.
And then, as if she did not just freeze an intermediate stage grandmaster level monster with ease, she returned to healing the group of men and women who were looking at her with slacked jaws.
The last member of their group, Edward, had given up on replicating a certain swordsman’s sword’s second release.
"I know I’m just a minor character who’s here to let readers know that Esna isn’t gonna end up with Arthur but couldn’t the Author give me a second release technique."
He grumbled to himself as he rose his great shield to block the cobalt bone ape’s blow, before thrusting his lightning-covered long sword forward and piercing its chest along with the parasite embedded in it.
"I wanna shout a certain activation word before unleashing my cool special technique!"
With his incomprehensible shout, he infused light magic into his blade and slashed at another giant troll’s leg.
"GROARR!"
As the monster roared in pain, it sent down punches with fists coated in magic power and death essence, forcing Edward to dodge as he certainly didn’t have plans on getting hit by a universal law’s power.
"All right, enough bullshit."
The boy put his shield away and grabbed his longsword with two hands, holding it with the blade pointing upward.
"Haze Style."
*SWOOSH!!
Both Edward’s body and his presence disappeared in the next instant, with only a small cloud of dust being left behind where he was standing a second ago.
The troll he was fighting widened its eyes in shock, spreading out its aura and looking around rapidly in an attempt to detect Edward but it was futile.
"Rumbling of Heaven."
