Chapter 4245: The Bitterest Poison (Part 2)

He and the other soldiers reacted as one, pointing their fists at the violet cores. Each member of the Corps was equipped with what looked like a bracelet made of several wooden sticks, exactly for that kind of situations.

The alchemical wands of the Hammer produced a barrage of powerful tier three spells that couldn’t be stopped by elemental sealing arrays and required no cast time.

The world energy was stored inside each wand, and the spells ready to be unleashed.

"Please, this is ridiculous." Rayko blocked the first volley with a Spirit Barrier and immediately Blinked in the middle of the soldiers, releasing a tier five spell from his body.

The Raging Sun took the members of the Queen’s Corps by surprise and threw their battle formation into disarray. It would have also killed them, if not for the protective barriers imbued in their battle armor.

"Still alive?" Xarto said in amusement, like an adult watching a kid’s exhibition. "You fake mages are way better than I expected."

The violet cores cast spells while they moved, whereas the soldiers only had their alchemical tools and the spells stored in their rings. Everything else they had prepared had been lost when the Raging Sun had broken their focus.

Even though the soldiers had a significant numerical advantage, every one of their attacks was easily countered. Even with the tattoo potions, the gap created by the Awakened’s body refinement was too big.

All the military training and equipment were useless against an opponent who could read their every move and cast spells nonstop. The roof of Zekell’s house had yet to fall, but every member of the Corps was already full of burns and cuts.

A deep, guttural howl resounded above the bustling sound of Lutia and the clash of spells.

"What are those morons doing?" Allion, one of the violet cores, said. "We told them to seal the area with an air barrier just like we are doing. We can’t afford one of the Verhens’ pets alerting the Kings of the Woods!"

Gorko and the others were not to blame. They had followed the plan by the letter, and not a peep had escaped Zekell’s house. What the Awakened had failed to consider was that the Queen’s Corps wasn’t the only one tailing the Verhens around Lutia.

One King of the Woods would always follow them from a distance and stand ready to intervene. The cloaking ring Sentinel the Garmr wore made her almost invisible to Life Vision, while her disguise as a girl had fooled even the Lutians.

More and more howls spread like wildfire through the Trawn Woods, until they were the only thing one could hear.

"It doesn’t matter." Rayko grinned at the sight of the Proudhammers’ roof coming down. "They’re just blue-cored beasts, we have plenty of-"

A glaive thrown like an arrow pierced his barrier, armor, and chest. The impact with the ground was so violent that not a single healthy bone was left in Rayko’s body.

Howling for reinforcements was just the second step of the contingency plan that Lith had assigned to the Kings of the Woods. The first step was calling Faluel the Hydra.

"You invade my turf." She appeared in her hybrid form, with seven serpentine heads swaying on as many long necks.

"You attack my disciples!" Strife returned to her hand as one of her heads unleashed a heat ray large enough to hit Allion from head to toe.

It carried so much heat that, even with the Spirit Barrier protecting him, the air surrounding the violet-cored Awakened burned his lungs with every breath of Invigoration he took.

He Spirit Blinked to safety, but Faluel cast the Collapsed Space spell on his exit point. The dimensional door collapsed while Allion was crossing it, displacing his body for dozens of meters.

"Faluel, please wait! We can explain!" Xarto raised his hands in surrender.

"You attack my godchildren!" The Hydra ignored the plea and performed a two-handed lunge that turned Xarto into a gory firework. "You made a mistake. The last you’ll ever will!"

The members of the Queen’s Corps didn’t miss the opening in the formation of the remaining violet cores and bolted towards Zekell’s house. Just in time to see flocks of Crons (bird type magical beast) blot out the sky.

Packs of Rys, Shyfs, and Byks emerged from Spirit Steps in the middle of Lutia, flooding its streets. The agile Rys ran amid the citizens without touching them, while the nimbler Shyfs preferred jumping from one roof to another.

The Byks had no notion of finesse and just charged forward like a living catastrophe. Their roars were the only warning they gave to those who stood on their path.

"Please, Faluel! Stop!" Belto said as a river of acid turned him into a puddle of rotten meat.

"I’ll stop when you’re all dead!" She would have liked to check on the Verhens, but she couldn’t let the violet cores live.

They were too dangerous, and only someone with a superior mass and the ability to cast multiple powerful spells at the same time, like her, could beat the Awakened despite their numbers and skills.

***

"Give Teryon back!" Leran’s body had moved before he could realize what was happening.

Rena’s daughter was just a bit younger than Fenrir, his younger sister, and every fiber of the human-Skoll hybrid burned in anger. The unknown men were threatening a helpless member of Leran’s extended family, and that was an unforgivable crime for him.

The young boy knew that he was no match for the bigger and stronger Awakened, yet he didn’t hesitate to throw his cover away just to increase his chances of victory even by a small margin.

Leran shapeshifted into his hybrid form, flapping his wings to catch up with the blue-cored Awakened.

"How in the gods’ names is that thing so fast?" Arkus said while turning back to look at the young boy.

"Who cares about that?" Alusha Blinked away, and his companion followed a split second later. "He’s just a deep green core, and we have our prey. Just make sure you don’t drop the girl, and our mission will be a success."

"We have three problems, you moron. Number one..." Arkus held Teryon tighter as he used his now free hand to point at Leran.

Skolls displayed incredible speed even from a young age, and whenever the two Awakened didn’t Blink forward, the young hybrid gained ground and closed the distance between them.

"Number two..." His fingers moved to Slash the Geri.

"Leran, wait for me, dammit!" The Emperor Beast had not only a deep blue core, but could also Blink as well.

Once she combined her dimensional magic with the boy’s speed, the two kidnappers would lose their advantage.

"And number three!" He pointed at the violent auras the boy and his steed released. "They are Awakened Emperor Beasts. They know our smell and energy signatures and we can alter neither.

"If they pass that information to Verhen once he returns, we’re dead. Or do you think we can afford to experiment on the kid while living on the run?"

Many mocked Orpal for his many flaws and made his escape from the net that Lith had cast to find him easy, but it was far from the truth.

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