Chapter 137: Rescuing the refugees
Elaine just spectated coldly, barely showing any signs of reaction.
She stared down at the Blood Priestess and the sea of scaley heads behind her, but Elaine’s heart never so much as skipped a beat.
Cackle.
Akin to the crack of a whip, the heads whipped her way, maws agape.
Her gaze turned cold. ’I don’t have time for this crap!’
The thing about battle was that, though their superhuman perception of time made everything seem slow — making evolvers able to make countless exchanges in battle within a second — the truth was that unknowingly one could get so swamped in the rhythm of battle, so immersed, they could end up going at it for hours without realizing.
And such a thing Elaine couldn’t afford to happen, so she had to take a risk.
A cold blue spark flickered in her palms, and on her wrists the silver watch flared in warning.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Blaring alarms rang out. Elaine curbed as much as she could, but it seemed the world couldn’t even handle this little.
Well, in actuality, it wasn’t that the world couldn’t handle this much by now. After all, it was in a constant upgrade.
By all sense and reason, it should be able to bear some weight of an Awakened, no matter how little — especially an early grade one at that.
But the issue was that Elaine and the others weren’t your regular bunch of early Awakeneds.
Their might already rivaled the peak of leader-grade Awakeneds. In simple terms, they were so absurdly strong, their abilities even more exaggerated, that Earth in its still fragile state could barely muster to bear it.
So she could only continue to curb her attack until it was barely a shadow of its former might... but still, this was plenty enough.
She flicked it forward. The gleaming spark of blue shot ahead, erupting into a wave of chilling glint, tearing through the air and swallowing all in its cadence.
The priestess’s smile faltered, her pupils constricted, and she knew there was nowhere to escape to this time.
This was an AOE attack through and through. Its effect swallowed both its caster and all its foes in a sea of biting frost.
By the time the frosty lights had dimmed, everything was encased in ice — well, except for Elaine...
She stared at the icy sculpture that was once her foe. She just waved her hands, causing it to crumble into a pile of glistening blue shards.
’Elaine, I have gotten to them. We’ve located a pathway out of here. We’re ready to evacuate now!’ The earbud in Elaine’s ear cracked.
Her eyes lit up. Naturally, the person on the other end was none other than Trisha.
While it did seem she asked Trisha to stay hidden and out of trouble so she could focus fully on her battle, in truth she had also instructed Trisha to go make contact with the refugees ahead.
She was already planning ahead, in case this battle dragged on more than she could hope.
"Oh, so soon??" Elaine’s brows raised. She hadn’t accounted for things to progress so quickly, but surely it just made her mission even easier.
Her figure flashed, whisking down the open path that led to the hall where the captives were held.
Quickly she could already see littered corpses of men in crimson sprawled all over.
Her brows raised. To think Trisha could be this lethal. The girl might be blind, but it seemed her efficiency was nothing to scoff at.
At this point Elaine had subconsciously stopped treating this new friend of hers like a disabled person.
With how high an evolver’s senses could be, even losing one as vital as sight could hardly cause too much of a problem.
Though the lack of sight would still cause impediments, it would still be manageable to some degree.
Quickly she burst into the hall. Her nostrils were instantly assaulted with a foul smell.
Her eyes almost stung from the air. Holding her breath, she scanned the room full of freshly liberated refugees.
Chains clattered as one after the other they were all set free. The room, once rowdy, now silent and still as everyone stared her way.
The refugees uncertain if this was friend or foe.
"Don’t panic, she’s with me..." Only on hearing Trisha’s voice did everyone visibly calm down.
Audible breaths of relief rang out.
The refugees hadn’t even been given the decency of hygiene on capture, stripped to rags, the wounds inflicted upon them by their captors left untreated.
They were required to defecate and pee in the same room. Some had died from infection to the open wounds and unclean atmosphere, and their bodies weren’t maintained — just left to rot.
The sight was infuriating as it was disgusting and degrading. To think they were reduced to such treatment.
Even prisoners had premium treatment compared to this.
It took every bit of self-control for Elaine to stop herself from retching and vomiting at the sight.
She could only bear it and walk to Trisha. "We have to get them out of here, and very quickly."
Trisha smiled. "We’re on it. Meet Tyrone." She introduced a haggard man, his skin blackened from dirt but his eyes bright.
The lad quickly greeted and gawked at Elaine. In his eyes, he had never seen such beautiful ladies ever!
First there was Trisha, now this immortal fairy.
"He has a pathfinder ability. With his lead, getting out of here will be easier and faster," Trisha explained.
Elaine’s eyes lit up. Even better! She turned to Tyrone with a smile. "Then we’ll be in your care."
Tyrone blushed hard. "Ah... it’s a pleasure, miss."
With that, the entire crowd was mobilized, with Tyrone and Trisha leading from ahead, Elaine behind to protect them in case.
...
Back in the earthen room crusted with crystalline ice...
The bloodied shards that once consisted of the priestess slowly pulsed.
Then her dead fragments began to swirl, a mini tempest breaking out as a glow of sanguine burned in the atmosphere.
And when the lights settled, the whole figure of the priestess was slowly revealed, levitating mid-air.
Her eyes snapped open. "BITCH! I’LL FUCKING RIP YOUR HEAD OFF!!"
