Chapter 237 The Calm Before The Storm
'Everybody it had taken away so far…'
The weight of those words echoed in Helena's heart, fueling her resolve.
Her grip tightened on the crackling black rod as she braced herself for the coming battle.
Beads of sweat formed on Helena's feral face, but she forced a grim smile.
"Damn, this is going to be troublesome," she muttered under her breath.
With a swift, fluid motion, Helena swung the rod in a series of arcing strikes, the edge cutting cleanly through the thick, stale air of the woods.
The black sparks dancing along the length of the weapon seemed to hum with barely contained power.
Helena shifted her weight, positioning the rod over her shoulder as she kept her keen brown eyes vigilantly scanning the trees.
A couple of seconds later, they began to emerge, slow and steady.
Humans just like them, armed with swords, spears, daggers, bows, some bare-knuckled.
They all began to emerge from the woods like zombies.
They paused around ten meters away from the cohort, drenching the area in a momentary silence.
Then, in a loud burst of motion, they rushed forward, swinging their weapons.
Helena's heart pounded in her chest as the horde surged towards them, their weapons glinting in the dappled sunlight filtering through the trees.
She took a deep breath and centered herself, the black rod in her hands thrumming with energy.
The first attacker reached her, a burly man with a wicked-looking sword raised high.
Helena sidestepped his clumsy swing with the grace of a dancer, bringing the rod around in a blinding arc. It connected with the man's ribs, and he crumpled to the ground with a strangled cry, wisps of black smoke trailing from the point of impact.
Not pausing, Helena whirled to face the next opponent, a wiry woman wielding a rusty dagger.
The woman's eyes were blank, devoid of any emotion or humanity.
Helena grimaced as the woman charged towards her, a hint of recognition flickered on her face then vanished.
The dagger thrust towards her face, but Helena parried it aside with the rod, stepping into the woman's guard.
She seemed to mutter something sadly, then with a sharp twist of her wrists, the rod crackled with dark energy that lashed out, slamming into the woman's chest.
She ragdolled backward, hitting the ground hard.
Helena gritted her teeth as she fended off another wave of mindless attackers.
The woman she had struck down had indeed been familiar - one of the few drifters she had befriended while living within the stronghold.
And she was from the third group sent to try to subjugate the forest and find the lost.
Helena felt a pang of regret, but there was no time to dwell on it now.
All around her, the rest of their cohort was engaged in their own desperate struggles.
Raven danced through the fray, her twin blades flashing like liquid mercury.
A sword thrust towards her midsection, but she batted it aside with almost casual ease, her counter-attack a blur that left her assailant crumpling to the ground, clutching a ruined shoulder.
Terence was formidable, although she couldn't match the Sage and the Master, she fought with brutal efficiency, each movement speaking of her hard work and tenacity.
Her long silver sword swung here and there, biting into flesh and leaving deep lacerations. Yet for each one that fell, more surged to take their place.
The Oracle's lithe form danced amidst the chaos as she ducked and weaved past wild swings.
Her sword was a thin sliver of razor-sharp steel that found gaps in armor with amazing accuracy.
An arrow streaked towards her, but she dropped into a slide, the missile passing through where her head had been as she came up in a vicious cross-slash that dropped her archer.
Barely registering the fallen man, she swung her head to the back.
Northern, who was facing the other way, had his head tilted, her heart beating fast. At that moment she thought she had given Northern away to an attack by dodging it.
But it seemed the strange boy also had his way around things.
Even though Northern was occupied with whatever he was doing, he still had the [Eyes Of A Terror] effect which allowed his armor to take reflex actions to protect him from harm.
The horde, however, continued to surge, their numbers growing quickly, a seemingly bottomless well of thralls clawing and slashing their way forward.
Helena blocked a wild overhead chop, muscles straining, before shoving her attacker back.
As he stumbled, she followed through with a brutal thrust, the tip of the black rod slamming into his sternum with a sickening crunch.
Black tendrils of energy lashed out, and he flew backward, body convulsing.
She looked ahead and threw a quick glance at Northern.
'Damn it, whatever he's doing must be really affecting the monster,' she hissed and faced her own battle.
Raven appeared at her side in a blur of motion, her eyes intense. Then she said, amidst the din of combat,
"Please step back, let me deal with all of them…"
Helena grunted as she deflected a flurry of knife strikes, pivoting to slam the butt of the rod into her assailant's jaw.
"Aren't you getting too confident? Isn't this supposed to be a team effort?"
"We need your strength for when Northern eventually locates the monster's true form. I know you haven't used your abilities and they must be reserved for a reason, right?"
Helena frowned slightly.
"Just mind your own business!"
No sooner were the words out of her mouth than a deafening roar shook the forest.
A massive, lumbering shape burst through the treeline, towering over even the largest of the thralls.
It was vaguely humanoid but scaled and misshapen, muscles rippling beneath mottled grey skin.
Rows of jagged fangs protruded from a jaw that could swallow a human whole, and beady black eyes burned with feral malevolence.
"You have got to be kidding me," Raven growled, blades at the ready.
The beast opened its cavernous maw, another ear-splitting roar ripping forth as spittle and rank breath washed over them.
It took a thunderous step forward, each footfall shaking the ground.
The thralls charging them parted like a wave, clearing a path towards the monster's goliath form.
It fixed its baleful glare upon Helena, Raven and Terence, muscles tensing as if to pounce, then its eyes slowly diverted to the human in black armor standing apart behind the cohort.