Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 137017 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 685(@200wpm)___ 548(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137017 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 685(@200wpm)___ 548(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
The monster.
It really was one. Unlike anything I’d ever seen before.
It was huge and almost skeletal in its appearance as it took steps towards us on two deceptively thick, strong legs. The shape of its head reminded me of an alligator, yet there was something inherently more demonic about its glowing yellow eyes. Spikes protruded in a line along its snout from the top of its head to the two thin slits that were its nostrils, and it opened its mouth to roar again, showing off three rows of razor-sharp teeth, some of which were dripping with blood.
It stood upright, and the shadow it cast across us sent the most blood-chilling river of fear cascading through my body. Two skeletal wings stretched out behind it, and the skin between each bone was stretched as thin as it could be, giving it a horrifyingly translucent appearance.
I had never seen anything as terrifying as this in my entire life.
I truly hoped I never would again.
“What the hell is a wraithhusk doing here?” Rina froze, then quickly looked behind me. “My lady, you must run! Its claws are imbued with a paralysing agent!”
“But Rina, you—”
“My job is to protect you!”
She was right.
I would only hurt her if I stayed.
“Come, quickly.” I swept the little girl up into my arms. “I’ll get help!”
What was it doing here? I knew a little about wraithhusks from my studying, but they hadn’t been spotted anywhere near the capital for seventy years. It made no sense for one to be here—they lived largely underground and clung to mines. Young ones were a constant source of trouble in Stein, but ones of this size…
The girl was sobbing as she clung to me, and I broke into a run. Where the hell were the knights? We were quite far from the rest area, but they must have heard its roars. Why weren’t they here?
“Agh!”
“Rina!” I stopped, turning back.
She was on one knee, and her right arm was bleeding from a giant slash that almost ran the entire length of her upper arm. She almost looked as if…
Oh, no.
Had it got her with its claw?
Was she paralysed?
Why was nobody helping us?
I couldn’t let her die.
Heat flooded my body. Every inch of my skin prickled almost painfully, and I was both energised and lethargic at the same time. My head grew heavier and heavier as inexplicable pain throbbed across my skull, almost dulling my senses. The intense heat that was enveloping me had my legs trembling, and I stumbled, gritting my teeth as I desperately tried to stay upright.
What was happening?
Noisy.
It was noisy, but muffled to my ears, almost as if I was underwater. The shouts and screams around me were distant and hazy, and I was vaguely aware of someone taking the child from my arms.
The heat within me morphed into a suffocating pressure. I was going to burst from the inside out. I couldn’t breathe. I was completely numb. I had to… get rid of this.
Yes.
I had to let this, whatever it was, out.
I forced my eyes open. The wraithhusk was a blurry mess of slow-moving blackness to my weakened vision, but it was clear enough that I could see the moment it raised its spindly arm, flexing its long claws.
No.
Rina.
These people. The innocent people around me.
I couldn’t let it hurt them.
“No,” I croaked, holding out a hand.
A mix of blue and golden light poured out of my body. It flew towards the creature, spreading out into something that almost resembled a dome that stretched back over Rina and the rest of us.
Sweat dripped from my brow as the light petered out from my hand. The pressure was gone, and so was the blinding pain in my head, leaving behind nothing but an aching emptiness that weighed me down.
Darkness tickled the edges of my vision.
Oh.
“Allie!” Kalon’s voice cut through it, and I turned towards the sound.
“Kalon,” I whispered, my legs finally giving out beneath me.
A blazing red light cut through the air accompanied by a guttural roar, and then…
Darkness.
Chapter Thirty-Four – Kalon
A Coincidence
Rage.
That was all I felt when I saw the wraithhusk towering over a paralysed Rina and Allie trying stay on her feet. I knew exactly where dome barrier had come from—only one kind of power manifested as a golden light, and there were no priests around who could have constructed such a strong wall of protection.
Allie’s latent powers had awoken.
Judging by the way they’d burst out of her, she’d had no control over either her mana or divine power.
I pulled my sword out of the wraithhusk’s mouth, and it roared with pain, throwing back its head. A flash of green in the corner of my eye was quickly followed by another earth-rumbling groan from the beast, and that told me Marquess Rainforth had succeeded in his mission to cut through one of its wings.