Chapter 24: Rescue Team.
The ground shook as hundreds of Eidolons stampeded across the frozen ruins of the city.
Snow burst into the air beneath their charge.
The ballista bolt slipped from Seris’ hands as terror gripped her.
"Chad". Her voice was surprisingly calm as she was faced with the reality of imminent death. "Should we run?".
Boom
A ballista shot out from the siege weapon, impaling several Eidolons in the distance, Chad finally gave up and stepped away from the siege weapon, before gently holding Seri’s shoulders.
"We can’t outrun them, and the tunnel has already collapsed... Stay behind me okay, I will protect you, I promise".
Seris’ eyes reddened. She nodded and quickly wiped away the tears threatening to fall. Chad had always been like a big brother to her. From the very first day they entered the Tower, he had protected her without asking for anything in return. He was more than her closest friend. He was like family.
Clap, clap, clap...
"Wow, such a touching moment".
A man with rough red hair blew into his handkerchief while wearing an exaggerated expression of pain and remorse. Standing beside him was a chubby red-haired woman with an exhausted look on her face.
Chad and Seris froze, not because of what the man had said, but because two people had somehow appeared beside them without making a sound.
Then they recognised them.
Absolute joy spread across both their faces.
"Ethan! Claire!". They both exclaimed simultaneously.
Claire snatched the handkerchief from Ethan’s hand and threw it to the ground, before stumping on it.
"Stop wasting time, the Eidolons are about to crush us".
Ethan blinked before turning his gaze towards the encroaching Eidolon army, they were only a few dozen steps away, and in the blink of an eye, they were already upon them.
Ethan’s face was as calm and composed as ever, gently raising his hand, his finger extended outwards, pointing squarely at the first Eidolon to reach them.
The Eidolon’s eyes closely followed Ethan’s finger as it somehow tapped the bridge of its nose. Then things began to change around the finger, or more precisely, around Ethan and every other person the Eidolon could see.
They were moving away, no. The space between them was expanding endlessly, try as the Eidolon might, it was only being sent further away from Ethan and the others.
"Dormant ability, Spatial distortion". He said arrogantly.
Claire wrinkled her nose as a speck of snow flew into her nostrils.
Achew
She frowned in annoyance before smacking her brother, Ethan, across the head.
The moment she did, he vanished into thin air.
"Guys, come on. We need to leave. My dormant ability, Spatial Shift, has a time limit."
Chad and Seris didn’t need to hear it twice. They rushed to her side, and with a light tap on each of their shoulders, they vanished as well.
Claire turned towards the charging Eidolon army. The space between them stretched endlessly, warping farther and farther away beneath Ethan’s Spatial Distortion, but she knew it wouldn’t hold for much longer.
The next moment, Claire also disappeared.
The world around her shifted, and Ethan came back into view.
He was tightly hugging Seris while crying dramatically, whereas Chad was desperately trying to pry him off her.
Claire let out a helpless sigh. Of all the things she wanted to deal with right now, her brother wasn’t one of them. Unfortunately, Spatial Shift didn’t teleport people. It merely merged them within the surrounding space.
They could still see the Eidolons, but the Eidolons could not see them, and although they could see the Eidolons, both parties couldn’t make physical contact with one another.
... ...
Damien tilted his head.
Something peculiar was happening. A beautiful woman had somehow appeared out of thin air and was now wrestling with the Eidolon chief.
She wore thin, pristine white armour that looked almost heavenly, as though it had been forged from polished light itself.
Damien had no idea what heavenly steel looked like, but if it did exist, this was probably it.
"Andrea," Yuri said quietly.
"Oh, so this is the famous saviour."
Damien looked up.
Andrea had already reached her sword. After wrenching it free from the chief’s arm, she leapt forward and grabbed hold of its antlers once again.
Using her body weight, she swung herself toward its head. Before the chief could react, her sword flashed downward.
The blade bit into its face, carving away a large chunk of flesh.
The chief roared in agony once more.
Damien didn’t need anyone to tell him the sword wasn’t ordinary.
The wound was barely more than a flesh wound for a creature of its size, yet it writhed in pain as though its entire face had been flayed.
Andrea landed several feet away before rolling to a stop in front of them.
She was even more beautiful than Damien had initially thought. Standing only a few feet away, she looked almost unreal.
"Is she alright?".
Damien was still frozen in place.
"Huh".
Andrea’s eyebrows slowly knitted together.
"Yuri, is she still alive?".
Andrea once more asked as Yuri didn’t move a muscle since she arrived, and for some reason the dead looking guy hugging her from the behind wasn’t responding.
"Huh. Yeah, she’s fine, she’s just exhausted".
Damien finally snapped back to reality, but the chief was already composing itself, it wiped away the blood from its face and roared angrily at Andrea.
"What are you doing here? We had an agreement".
Andrea turned her waist in his direction and said coldly.
"Just how stupid do you think we are, you were never going to give us our friends. You were planning to sacrifice them to the lord of beast".
The Eidolon chief’s face froze for a moment before it growled angrily.
"No matter, I will just kill you and the wretched King... then your people will have no leader". It said while pointing at Damien.
Damien blinked twice.
"Who? Me... Nooo, she’s the big dog. I’m just the little dog".