[!] [Unique Challenge!]
[Survive.]
[Reward: 3000 Affection Points and AP Conversion.]
My mouth hung open at the reward.
AP Conversion.
[Affection Points Conversion: You can use Affection Points as fuel to rise your strength from XXX level for a short time. It will depend on how many Affection Points you are willing to use. Beware! It's extremely addictive!]
It was the same conversion of the game.It was thanks to that I managed to defeat several Bosses with Jayden.
It was amazing but the condition to get that was 'Survive'.
Survive.
it seemed simple but that short word didn't put me at ease at all.
I looked at the guy who was glancing at the three of us.
Elona, Aurora and me.
We were all extremely on guard.
"I will not repeat it," his cold voice rang in a low tone. "Elona Falkrona, surrender yourself or your brother, Simon Falkrona, to me."
"Or else? What are you going to do?" Elona glared at him.
"I will kill one by one each resident of this city, be it men, women, or children, until you beg me to take you."
My heart skipped a beat. This guy was really freaking dangerous.
'No, Mary,' I whispered to myself. I forced Mary, who was nearly coming out, to stay in her dimension.
[<Amael, prioritize your life.>]
"I know," I replied.
"You will not kill anyone. We will not let you." Simon finally joined us.
It was 4V1, but did we have any chance even like that?
"Be it."
A horrible and suffocating pressure bore down on all of us.
That monster...
I bit my lips and glared at the guy.
I couldn't even tell which Ascension he was in, but he was surely several levels higher than me, who was in the Third Ascension.
"Falkrona Bloodline, Second Wing!"
Idiot!
I wanted to stop Elona, but it was too late. With her enhanced speed, she was already near the scarred man. Taking out a beautiful silver sword from her ring, she swung it. The slash was fast and accurate and it reached the target. For a moment, I thought she sliced down the guy in two equal parts, but no.
The sword sliced through his body, but only fire sputtered out and not blood. The fire was burning like the sun and melted Elona's sword instantly.
"What!?" Elona looked blankly at the naked handle of her sword. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, like everyone else.
"E-Elona, step back! Sand Fists!" Simon's usually serene tone was quivering now. He sent more than giant fists of sand toward the scarred man. The man still didn't move an inch, and waves of heat rippled around him.
"What kind of monster is he?" I muttered to myself.
Before his fists could reach us, a wave of heat burned and vaporized the sand instantly.
"Thousand needles of sand!" Simon shouted, conjuring up hundreds of sturdy spikes that floated off the ground before gathering and feeding his attack.
The man's only red eye glinted, glowing in a deeper shade of red as a wave of heat swirled around him, rippling like powerful shockwaves. The needles vaporized again in less than a second upon coming into contact with the shockwaves.
"W-What?!" Simon let out a shocked voice.
This guy is not normal. He's a freak. Out of all the bastards I've met, he's probably the most dangerous one.
"Step back!" Aurora shouted suddenly.
As I looked around, I saw all the people who were watching fearfully stepping back or running away. Something was delimiting them from us. A burning sunfire was surrounding the four of us in a circle.
That fire is dangerous. It reminds me of my Anathemas Fire…
My breath quickly became ragged as my heart raced in my chest. I knew I had to stay calm and focused.
"We should fight him together!" Aurora took the lead and spoke to us.
"R-Right." Simon nodded but he still didn't recover from the earlier shock.
"I agree." Elona nodded seriously.
Then Aurora glanced at me for my consentment. "I agree as well." I obviously nodded.
We stood there, facing the man, unsure of what to do next. Suddenly, he let out a deep, guttural laugh that sent shivers down my spine.
"You think you can defeat me?" he taunted us coldly.
He charged towards us with blinding speed, his fists flying through the air. We scattered, each of us dodging his attacks. But he was too fast, too powerful.
Shit!
I felt his fist connect with my stomach, knocking the wind out of me.
I stumbled backwards, struggling to regain my breath. The man turned to face Aurora, who had conjured up a wall of light to protect us.
With a wave of his burning hand, he shattered the wall of light, sending shards flying in all directions.
Aurora fell to the ground, her body wracked with pain. Simon and Elona tried to attack him, but their attacks were useless against his power.
Looks like I will need to reveal myself to survive against that freak.
"Falkrona Bloodline Third Wing!"please visit
Just when I was thinking that, Elona muttered and took out a new sword from her space ring. As expected of our family, she had plenty of powerful swords even though they couldn't replace the one she lost.
"Mana Agglomeration!"
The Third Wing of the Falkrona Bloodline enables us to gather with more efficiency and speed the mana hovering around us.
Smart.
I thought when I saw the circle of fire around us slowly losing its intensity as Elona was 'robbing' the mana.
But she was exhausting her body a lot while doing that. That fire wasn't normal and the amount of mana behind that circle was a tremendous amount.
"..."
The scarred man didn't seem bothered as he took out a small green sphere out of the void.
I had a bad premonition so I tried to summon a mirror but it was too late.
The green sphere floated in the sky before emitting a dark green glow.
"!"
The effect was immediate.
We all fell on our knees as all the mana inside our body were sucked into the sphere.
Are you kidding me?!
"I-Impossible…" Elona muttered with a pale face.
Even the mana surrounding us was getting sucked. It was similar to the Third Wing of the Falkrona bloodline but more powerful and more deadly. Such artifacts shouldn't exist. It could kill all weak people by absorbing every single drop of mana inside their body.
I tried to summon Mirrors but as expected I couldn't.
The Anathemas Fire as well. I could summon a little spark of fire.
Mary couldn't come as well since she was contracted to me and was using my mana.
The staff was useless too.
The Lifestone…no I can't even channel my mana in it.
My face turned pale in exhaustion and dread.
[<Amael, run. Escape from this place without thinking of anything else.>]
'I know…but how?'
Should we buy time until someone strong appears? They should have been alerted and should be there in a few minutes but we had to survive until there.
"Falkrona Bloodline, Second Wing!"
Elona shouted and her speed raised again. Pure grey mana swirled around her contrary to her previously simple mana.
Ah, yes. Elona had another mana which was the Unique Mana of the Falkrona Family. The mana I had lost when I gave my Wings to Jayden. Even a powerful artifact couldn't absorb such a pure and powerful mana.
The Falkrona Mana was strong but that's why she couldn't use it for a long time. The reserve wasn't big and could only be recovered with time.
"Elona!" Simon stood up and gritted his teeth. "Don't go alone!"
"We have to do something…" Aurora muttered with her brown hair sticking to her face.
Her disguise was still there so it didn't need mana—like my white blindfold.
"Falkrona Art," As she reached the scarred man, Elona coated her sword in pure grey mana. The Falkrona Art was a Sword Art only usable with the pure mana of the Falkronas. I could have used it if I didn't abandon my faith but well, I couldn't even use it even when I had them so there was no use crying over spilled milk.
"Clawed Wave!" Elona's sword glowed grey before lashing out a sharp thorny wave.
For the first time, the man moved as he raised his right hand. The sun-color fire appeared again and engulfed Elona's attack though it had ripped his fire.
It was working. The Falkrona Mana could deal damage to his Sunfire but Elona was weak compared to him.
The scarred frowned when he saw that and clenched his fist gathering fire around it. "Burn." When he said that, the sunfire sizzled and reached Elona at unimaginable speed.
"Aah!" Elona protected herself with her grey mana but the fire was faster and burned her waist
"Elona!" Simon shouted worriedly.
Before I knew it, I was standing nearly rushing to Elona.
"Falkrona Bloodline, Fourth Wing." Elona's words really surprised me.
She already learned the Fourth Wing?
Her grey mana acted like little living beings and started to heal her injury. Slowly her crisped skin returned back to spotless white.
A smile started to appear on my face but-
[<Amael, concentrate.>]
'Right…'
But for why?
I am useless there.
I glanced at Simon and despite being relieved for Elona, he was clenching his fists. He felt useless like me.
What can we do?
We don't have any Unique Mana.
Wait.
Elona wasn't the only one possessing a Unique Mana.
I glanced on my left and saw Aurora raising her sword.
Her eyes became sharper and her body shone gold.
The Golden Mana of the powerful Celesta Bloodline.