Chapter 363 Aella In Deep Trouble
"Sly Bitch," the Minotaur roared from a corner as it staggered out of hiding. It's feet were wounded with blood still flowing out of the wounds while a huge gash was spread over its shoulder.
The head nurse looked at the Minotaur and smirked. The beast was barely half the strong as it usually would be and given the current condition of its mind, the head nurse was sure that it was in a mental struggle against something.
The irises of its eyes were constantly darting around, the glint in his eyes changing; going form that of a cold merciless killer to that of a proud beast who would fight till the end for his purpose. But this battle, it wasn't his purpose and neither was it his to fight and hence it hesitated.
"I will deal with you first," the head nurse spoke as she turned into a blur and darted forward. The Kamas in her hands swinging as she aimed them right at the Minotaurs head. One clear cut was all she needed and the opponent would be dead.
All was well until the head nurse neared the Minotaur. Swinging her weapon, she roared as adrenaline filled her body. Just as she was to make contact with the enemy, the air whistled and her attack missed.
Something seemed to have influenced her attack, leading to her missing the target. Annoyed, she turned and looked ahead and found Alden standing there, protecting the Minotaur; huffing and puffing due to exhaustion.
"Why?" The head nurse asked coldly.
"Because they are coming back. We have already killed half of them, if we kill any more, the forest wont survive," Alden replied, pointing at the Minotaur, emphasizing the changing expressions on his face. As if fighting an internal battle, the Minotaur kept standing in his place while the expression of agony and pain appeared on his face; only to be shifted to rage and anger.
"But we can't bet on it. He is strong and if he is left to be, he will heal and if he doesn't get better by then; he would attack and it would be the same again," the head nurse replied, brandishing her weapon as she calmly took steps towards the Minotaur.
"We can capture him and bind him tightly. This way no one would be hurt," Replied Alden as he looked into the head nurse's eyes. He knew that the head nurse wanted nothing but to end it but he couldn't let her do so.
The forest was vast and there were barely any lords left to control the frost. He knew that he alone couldn't do it and with three of the five lords already dead, he was afraid that it would make the forest weak and susceptible to further attacks.
He knew he needed to save the first lord, the Minotaur, since it was one of the strongest lords in the whole forest and not to mention; the wisest as well. The forest needed its help and Alden knew he couldn't skim over this.
"Any ideas?" The head nurse asked, making a gesture of capturing the lord. To which Alden nodded and replied,
"Yes, the pack can hold him in place. We will then bind him using a sealing technique. His power would be locked deep in the depths of his soul and only after the tree is defeated would we let him go,"
"And what if we fail?" The head nurse inquired.
"Then we simply kill him. One attack and he would be dead and after that, we would follow the backup plan,"
"Okay, we bind him," the head nurse agreed to Alden's suggestion and put her weapons away. A light spread out from her as it travelled to the humans and Warmacks, healing them and replenishing their mana while her mana itself was consumed rapidly.
However, she didn't care. She had seen the changes to Aliya and knowing the skill she was using, she had an idea that Aliya wont be able to keep it up for long and would faint out right. This wa, she would provide support to Aliya so she could cancel out her skill and even though she would be super exhausted afterwards, the girl would at least keep her consciousness.
Meanwhile,
The battle against the tree only got more heated. The tree would occasionally shudder, releasing a reddish light that would streak in the air, hitting any of the three people attacking it.
The light wasn't much of a problem to Ray and his mother but to Sirius it was a big problem because he wasnt as good at running away as the other.
Ray and his mother could fly and anticipate the reddish streaked attack from afar because they kept a good distance from the tree but Sirius was very near to the tree. His attacks were close ranger and for him, the reddish streak would hit him on point blank. If not for the werewolf's ability to regenerate, Sirius would have probably died of blood loss.
"Sirius, how much?" Ray asked his friend, noticing a pool of blood beneath Sirius's feet. He knew that Sirius was playing with fire right now but there was no better option. Sirius's weapon was the only weapon besides his Void Shards that were able to damage the tree and that too barely.
"I will live but after this, I'm gonna need to some good stuff," Sirius replied in the midst of his attacks while Ray nodded to his request. He knew what Sirius wanted and didn't mind it at all. After all, his friend was risking his life here, what were a few hundred or even a couple thousand crystal in exchange for that.
Looking at the tree, Ray gathered a huge fireball in his hand and threw it at the tree. It was only recently that he noticed the purplish flames that were burning on the tree's canopy. Spreading ever so slowly and when he asked about that from Aurora, his system consciousness remained silent while FengFeng had replied instead, telling him to let them be.
Confused, Ray tried to ask more but he didn't get the time to do so. The branches were still attacking him and recently; their attacks were stronger and faster than before. Ray could barely dodge those attacks and he needed all his focus to not get hurt in the process.
While the battle outside continued,
Elina looked at Aella in shock. Her eyes were wide open as she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Her friend floated in the liquid bubble, her eyes rolled to their whites while strange needles were poked inside her body, as if a pincushion but that wasnt the most harrowing part. The thing that frightened Elina was what the needles were actually doing to Aella. From one side her blood was being extracted while from another side, the needles were inserting some sort of liquid inside her and from what she could see, the liquid being inserted in her was changing her.
From the place where the needles inserted the liquid, her skin had turned green and lost the human pinkish characteristic of her skin.
Not just that, even her hair was changing. Turning into long threaded root like substances and from seeing all this, Elina was sure of one thing.
She had to hurry. If not, her friend wont be her friend anymore and she wont be able to bear that.
"Old Demon, i need your help," Elina asked as a voice rose inside the dark void of her consciousness, "What is it now? I was sleeping,"
"Quit yapping and start helping," Elina reprimanded as she told the whole story to the demon. In the process, her left eye turned pitch black as the demon inside her sighed,
"Such a sly thing. To try and convert the girl given her affinity to Elven inheritance,"
"What does it mean?" Elina asked, a dreaded thought coming to her as she hoped that the demon didn't mean what she just thought.
"No, its not right," hearing the demon's musings, Elina couldn't keep herself patient and outright asked him, "What is it? Tell me now, I don't have time,"
"Sighhh… The tree, it wants to turn the girl into its vessel and is slowly transferring the essence of the forest into the girl so it could strengthen the girl and later, it would occupy the girl's consciousness, taking control of her forever," The demon came clear as he sighed deeply.
"Then we need to hurry," Elina spoke in worry. Rushing forward, she took out her weapon and aimed at the bubble, intending to burst it and rescue Aella but the demon stopped her.
"Don't, doing so would get her out but right now, her consciousness is trapped and the only way to get her out is to first return her to consciousness and wake her up,"
"And how do we do that?" Asked Elina, worry clouding her face as she paced around, trying to think about something but nothing came to her while the demon also accepted defeat in this matter by simply saying,
"Never saw or heard of anyone to have escaped this situation. Her chances are bleak, best we can do is kill her while we still cam,"
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