"Field," Mrs. MacNeil spoke from the center.
Richard could see with his Spiritual Vision that the seven silver threads at the center wavered slightly.
As she was at the center, the moment her attention was diverted, the entire formation immediately showed signs of strain.
"Hold on!" was her only reply.
The wolf in the Silver Ring was busy holding back another cluster of Shadows and couldn’t let up.
The Jade Bird was still perched on the highest beam in the hall; if it closed its eyes, they would all be blind.
The woman from the Black Ebony Comb was in the middle of weaving something and couldn’t stop either.
The robed Spirit from the Moonstone Pendant was engaged in an extremely draining negotiation; if it stopped midway, the children would instantly go berserk.
The two voices from the Coral Earrings were singing a song of misdirection, making the Shadows see the Hunters on the perimeter as the most tempting targets. Without it, the two Hunters could never have held off more than twenty Shadows.
The Silver Pocket Watch had already transferred every wisp of light it could spare to the Captain.
The old woman in the Bone Bracelet was the Anchor for the entire formation; if she so much as moved, they would all come crashing down.
’That only leaves the Captain. Can he hold on?’
Richard knew the Captain probably wouldn’t die, but that his leg would most likely be crippled.
For a Low Tier Hunter, losing a leg meant one of two futures: retirement, or death on the next mission.
’So, what does this have to do with me?’
A calm voice spoke from within Richard’s chest.
He glanced at the Captain.
The man furiously battered the other Shadows with the back of the axe in his left hand, his right hand propped him up on the ground, his face beet red with exertion.
He wasn’t looking to anyone for help, nor did he expect any. He didn’t even look down at his leg as it was slowly being devoured.
He was simply holding his post.
Richard let out a soft breath.
The words his Mother had spoken that night surfaced in his mind.
"If one day your sister falls, and your first reaction isn’t to help her up, but to first calculate whether her injury is worth your time to stop... from that moment on, you’ve already paid a price you aren’t even aware of."
He had agreed when she said it.
Although the Captain wasn’t as important to him as family, the current situation was a perfect illustration of his Mother’s words.
’I shouldn’t be weighing the pros and cons. I have the power to save him, so I should just follow my gut!’
"Sir."
"What is it?" Mr. Hutton replied quickly from the other side.
"I’m going to be a half-beat slow with my next Judgment."
"Why?"
"I’m going to lend the Captain a hand."
Mr. Hutton’s red pencil paused on the Rubbing Copy.
He didn’t look up, but in that fraction of a second, a thought crossed his mind.
’For Richard to be able to help the Captain in this situation, it had to be with something I didn’t teach him—something not found on any conventional bookshelf.’
He asked only a single question: "Have you thought this through?"
"I have."
Mr. Hutton nodded.
"Then don’t hesitate. Go for it!"
Richard no longer hesitated. During the exhalation phase of his third Breathing cycle, he reversed the flow of Ether, directing it outward from within.
In the Material Realm, Shadow Armor was a Technique that "used a target’s Shadow as a medium to apply an additional burden to the target’s physical body."
Under the Curtain, where the Ether concentration was several times higher than in the Material Realm, the output of any Technique was amplified by the environment.
The hand that had seeped into the Captain’s left thigh was itself a Shadow.
The rest of the child’s body was connected to that hand, its lower half still buried in the seams of the floor, with only its torso and the offending arm exposed.
Richard added "weight" to the half of the body below the seams in the floor.
The entire body of child number nineteen was suddenly dragged down from the waist by an overwhelming sense of sinking...
In that instant, the hand inside the Captain’s leg was violently yanked out by its own lower body.
With a wet POP, the hand was pulled out of the Captain’s left thigh.
The Captain seized the opportunity, swinging the back of the axe in his left hand.
The flat of the axe struck the child’s newly exposed neck, knocking its entire upper body back into the seam.
Richard remained where he stood, his face a shade paler than normal.
His Spiritual Appearance dropped from 10 to 3, then down to 1...
Just as he was debating whether to use the Deep Ether Condensate in his pocket, the Captain used the precious moment of respite to unleash a second burst of power.
His entire body erupted in crimson flames.
The muscles on his arms bulged, and the veins beneath his skin glowed a blistering dark red.
His two Enchanted Axes merged, forming a single Heavy Axe.
The Captain swung down fiercely.
"Get the hell away from me!"
The axe fell, scattering the three spawn that had been pinned to the ground by Shadow Armor, as well as the two that had been wrapped around the Captain’s waist and left shoulder.
The blow shattered the children’s "formation," and the remaining ones lost all coordination.
They scrambled about like a scattered flock of birds.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
At that moment, Sarah’s rifle fire switched from vital shots to finishing blows, sending four Silver-Lead Bullets into the opening the Captain had created.
But Richard quickly discovered that the children’s dispersal was only temporary.
New grey bands began to seep from the seams in the floor.
The outlines of the shoulders and necks of the children who had been struck by the axe began to re-form, like scattered mercury slowly coalescing.
"They aren’t separate individuals."
Mr. Hutton spoke in a low voice from his side of the room. He didn’t look up, his red pencil still moving across the Rubbing Copy.
"They share the Mother’s root."
"Scattering one only brings them closer together."
"So brute force alone can’t finish them," Richard finally understood.
"Correct." Mr. Hutton finally looked up from the Rubbing Copy and glanced at Mrs. MacNeil.
The figure at the center gave a slight nod.
"Captain. Sarah." Mrs. MacNeil spoke softly. "From now on, don’t try to land any more finishing blows."
Reading settings
Size
18
Font
Alignment
Theme
Spacing
1.7
Width
Original text
Progress marks
I Loaded the Mysticism Panel — Chapters
1
Chapter 1
2
Chapter 2
3
Chapter 3
4
Chapter 4
5
Chapter 5
6
Chapter 6
7
Chapter 7
8
Chapter 8
9
Chapter 9
10
Chapter 10
11
Chapter 11
12
Chapter 12
13
Chapter 13
14
Chapter 14
15
Chapter 15
16
Chapter 16
17
Chapter 17
18
Chapter 18
19
Chapter 19
20
Chapter 20
21
Chapter 21
22
Chapter 22
23
Chapter 23
24
Chapter 24
25
Chapter 25
26
Chapter 26
27
Chapter 27
28
Chapter 28
29
Chapter 29
30
Chapter 30
31
Chapter 31
32
Chapter 32
33
Chapter 33
34
Chapter 34
35
Chapter 35
36
Chapter 36
37
Chapter 37
38
Chapter 38
39
Chapter 39
40
Chapter 40
41
Chapter 41
42
Chapter 42
43
Chapter 43
44
Chapter 44
45
Chapter 45
46
Chapter 46
47
Chapter 47
48
Chapter 48
49
Chapter 49
50
Chapter 50
51
Chapter 51
52
Chapter 52
53
Chapter 53
54
Chapter 54
55
Chapter 55
56
Chapter 56
57
Chapter 57
58
Chapter 58
59
Chapter 59
60
Chapter 60
61
Chapter 61
62
Chapter 62
63
Chapter 63
64
Chapter 64
65
Chapter 65
66
Chapter 66
67
Chapter 67
68
Chapter 68
69
Chapter 69
70
Chapter 70
71
Chapter 71
72
Chapter 72
73
Chapter 73
74
Chapter 74
75
Chapter 75
76
Chapter 76
77
Chapter 77
78
Chapter 78
79
Chapter 79
80
Chapter 80
81
Chapter 81
82
Chapter 82
83
Chapter 83
84
Chapter 84
85
Chapter 85
86
Chapter 86
87
Chapter 87
88
Chapter 88
89
Chapter 89
90
Chapter 90
91
Chapter 91
92
Chapter 92
93
Chapter 93
94
Chapter 94
95
Chapter 95
96
Chapter 96
97
Chapter 97
98
Chapter 98
99
Chapter 99
100
Chapter 100
101
Chapter 101
102
Chapter 102
103
Chapter 103
104
Chapter 104
105
Chapter 105
106
Chapter 106
107
Chapter 107
108
Chapter 108
109
Chapter 109
110
Chapter 110
111
Chapter 111
112
Chapter 112
113
Chapter 113
114
Chapter 114
115
Chapter 115
116
Chapter 116
117
Chapter 117
118
Chapter 118
119
Chapter 119
120
Chapter 120
121
Chapter 121
122
Chapter 122
123
Chapter 123
124
Chapter 124
125
Chapter 125
126
Chapter 126
127
Chapter 127
128
Chapter 128
129
Chapter 129
130
Chapter 130
131
Chapter 131
132
Chapter 132
133
Chapter 133
134
Chapter 134
135
Chapter 135
136
Chapter 136
137
Chapter 137
138
Chapter 138
149
Chapter 149
160
Chapter 160
161
Chapter 161
162
Chapter 162
163
Chapter 163
164
Chapter 164
165
Chapter 165
166
Chapter 166
167
Chapter 167
168
Chapter 168
169
Chapter 169
170
Chapter 170
171
Chapter 171
172
Chapter 172
173
Chapter 173
174
Chapter 174
175
Chapter 175
176
Chapter 176
177
Chapter 177
178
Chapter 178
179
Chapter 179
180
Chapter 180
Comments
Log in to leave a comment.