Chapter 378 Facing The Earth Drake [Part 3]
A group of seven made their way through the forest. They had been walking around the edges, circling the perimeter of the forest, trying to find clues to the task they had been given.
They walked in a defensive formation, appearing cautious of their surroundings, two stood in front while a single person guarded the back with one person on each side while a single person stood in the middle, focusing all the energy it had on the scroll that floated in front of him.
As for one other, he was the lone wolf of the group. Circling around the formation as he felt right, the man was the defense, offense and the support of the group and naturally, this person was the leader of this whole group.
With special abilities in swordsmanship and a leather armor capable of blocking various attacks, the man was light and agile. Being the perfect example of someone who could mercilessly kill their enemy and even defend against stronger opponents when needed.
The leader circled around for a bit before sending his voice to his teammates,
"I will go and take a look. I feel something strange heading our way," saying so, the leader vanished with the wind while the others only nodded and stopped moving.
If the leader had gone for reconnaissance, they didnt need to move forward for now. Only after the leader had come back would they start moving.
"Hey man, did you find anything?" A man on the side asked, looking at the guy in the middle.
"Nothing, the scroll is as empty as it could be. I don't get what the oracle wants us to do. Even though the edges of the forest arent too dangerous, there is still danger everywhere while us searching the edges without any directions is nothing but pure suicide," as the man in the middle said all of this, a delicate hand slapped him from behind, shutting him up in a way that he was unable to refute any longer,
"Its the oracle. He had helped us get out of various dangerous situations for who knows how many years. Let's trust him and wait for the leader to return," a feminine voice spoke as a girl walked past him.
"Sure," the man in the middle could only nod along with the girl and then settled down. Keeping the scroll in front of him open at all times, making sure that he wouldn't miss any change on the surface of the scroll.
As for the girl, she seemed to be around early twenties, wearing a cloak that hid most of her presence. Along her waist were two thin blades sheathed in their scabbard, giving off an eerie aura.
She was the second strongest person of the group and that was why she took the rear, making sure that there was alway a way to retreat in dangerous situations. Not just that but the girl's cold and aloof attitude made it so that the group members were more cautious around her compared to their leader.
"Uhm, when will the leader return?" The person at the front asked. He was a man with a heavy build and both his arms were covered by thick bracers. The man stood still for a moment, seemingly thinking something before he shook both of his arms and the bracers disappeared.
Sighing in relief, the man muttered,
"Even though they provide great defense, wearing them all the time isn't suitable. Their weight just makes it hard to have them on," as the man muttered those words, a woman came and slapped his back as she lectured,
"Those are the best defensive items in the whole settlement. You should be lucky that the spirit of those items chose you and should instead get used to using their full potential instead of mumbling useless stuff,"
"Yes mam," the man dejectedly nodded at the woman and walked away. The woman seemed to be in her thirties and given her mature aura and the way she carried herself, experience wasn't something she lacked in. She wore a full leather body suit equipped with various pocked while two daggers hung on her waist.
She was the eldest member of their group and also the most calmest. While her looks and figure was to be dreamt about by men, her skills and personality would make anyone gulp in fear. She was a superb assassin capable of killing various enemies within short amounts of time and given her special ability, her assassinating capabilities weren't second to none.
As the group settled down, forming a circle and sitting under a tree, they took out a bit of their rations and started eating. Given that they had been walking around the edges of the forest a few hours now, everyone needed a little break and their leader had just given it to them.
Meanwhile,
A bit deeper within the forest, a dark miasma moved; taking form of an ashen fog, it condensed around a figure in black cloak. The figure had wings coming out of his back as they curled up around him, hugging his body tightly while curled together within those wings with the figure was Amanda.
As the dean flew through the air, his domain moved along with him, obscuring the senses of the Earth drake by a bit. Even though it only hindered the drake by a small margin, it nevertheless helped the dean and Amanda by a lot. After all, in such situations; every second mattered and that was exactly what the dean was after.
He was trying to get every second he could get and charge all of his mana into one singular attack. All so he could get past that drake's defenses and retreat at a faster rate. He knew that the drake's attacks weren't that strong but if it kept chasing after them even the few attacks it would make against them would cause deep trouble for dean and Amanda both.
Hence, the dean was betting all his strength on one singular attack so he could get past that scaly defense and buy himself enough time to run away for good. As for killing the drake, the dean didn't delude himself with such thoughts because he knew how good the vitality of drakes was. After all, they were still a part of the draconic bloodlines and that made them resilient and hence they could endure even the strongest of attacks before succumbing to their injuries.
"Amanda, I need you to retreat as far as you could, I will try hitting it one final attack and will be right behind you. Just run," the dean sent his voice to Amanda while the cloak that he wore opened up and flew away from the dean, wrapping around Amanda and then carrying her with it.
Without his cloak, the dean only wore a plain shit and a pant that had various blood stains on its surface.
His shoes were worn out while his whole appearance could be describe as tattered and unmaintained but he didnt care. As he stood in the air, his aura started to rise. It increased to the limits of a Celestial and then shot up once more, rising to another level before eventually stopping. The scythe in his arms vibrated slightly, showing its pleasure for the coming battle while the flame that burned over it danced around the blade, showing its desire to burn away all its enemies.
"Hehe, you guys are ready and so am I," the dean smiled as his gaze sharpened. Looking in front of him, he saw the drake coming in with quite some speed.
"To think that it would be able to run so fast with those tiny legs. It's a miracle in itself," the dean muttered, scratching his chin and then raised his scythe. As he did, the air around him blew faster and faster, responding to the surging spirit energy from his mana.
After all, the dean was 'The Lord Of Souls' and so, he had control over not only mana but also Spirit Energy and right now, he had converted all of his mana into Spirit Energy for the sake of this one attack.
As his Spirit Energy rose, the flames dancing on his scythe got darker and darker until their color changed to pitch black. They were so dark that even the little light in the surroundings was sucked into the them.
The scythe gleamed a deadly light as an illusory figure appeared behind the dean. It overlapped with his own figure, giving a dangerous premonition. After all, right now, the dean looked no different than the grim reaper itself and given the aura he gave off, the drake finally stopped and raised its head to look at him.
As if sensing the incoming danger, the drake opened its mouth as energy started to gather in front of its mouth. Seeing this, the dean turned serious as the wind around him blew even more, circling around his body as if he was some deity who had descended on the ground,
"Using dragon breath, how interesting. Lets see whose stronger," the dean muttered and swung his scythe.
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