Steps reverberate throughout the insides of the pillar's staircase, everyone now properly recuperated and well-rested as they reach the entrance to the second floor.
While the third floor has four bridges, the second floor has two bridges instead. Both expand diagonally to the left and right.
The one on the left was the broken bridge where Sirius and Thea fought, while the one on the right is a bridge that is still in its normal condition.
Walking towards the right bridge, everyone stealthily enter the city and climb up the buildings. Gaining the upper leverage, they scouted the Calamities with the help of Adam's Rune.
One peculiar thing about Runes is the fact that it's not random powers that you gain after you gain your first Rune as a Seed and ascend further up.
Every [Blessed] after Seed, upon reaching the next Class will gain another of their respective Rune's abilities, be it active or passive that branches from your main Rune.
Adam's actual Rune is [Detector], not specifically just detecting living beings. His first Rune ability was the aforementioned, but his second ability that follows upon ascending to Evoker was...
"There and there, those two are the weakest group I filtered through."
Thea nods as she looks at Sirius.
Nodding back at her, he climbs down the building along with Chad as they both rush to their west.
Sirius siphons the thick mana in the air before releasing high volume of it into the atmosphere. Acting as a beacon as he pique the interest of the Fallen Calamities, one group of them.
The group chases over Sirius, screeching.
Another group follows behind, but meters away. The two groups slowly get separated from each other and their patrol spots.
Soon, one person stands against the path of the group of Calamities that followed behind.
Luna stands firm, holding her silver rapier as she points the tip against the oncoming Calamities.
Adam hides in one of the houses, watching over the situation, just in case another group pops up.
Luna dashes forward, aiming her rapier at a ghoul that lashes out with its sharp hands and mouth. Aiming to devour Luna.
As if pulled towards Luna, several more ghouls stack up behind the one in front of Luna. Luna aims her rapier at the ghoul's head and thrust forward— her thrust fast —as if guided by something or forced by something other than her own strength.
The ghouls are pulled into the path of the rapier, the tip of her rapier emits a burst of light as a thread-like burst shoots past the ghouls' head. Killing them instantly.
Another ghoul pops up from the side, its hands raised, ready to claw onto Luna. But Luna slams her free elbows to the side, as she does so, the ghoul also seem to be pulled into her strike.
The ghoul screech, taken aback as it staggers back. But is soon growing still as Luna thrust her rapier to its head.
Behind the group, Yuki emerge from the shadows, his katana slicing through necks of the ghouls. The ghouls quickly realize that they have been caught in between the two Evokers.
Yuki efficiently cut off their necks, each time the ghouls were about to reach him, their arms couldn't fully extent.
Some of their arms appear to be slow, seemingly freezing as cold ice forms around their joints.
Yuki simply massacre them with his katana from behind as Luna does so with her rapier. The both of them piling up bodies upon bodies.
The ghouls, though they were Fallens, simply were too weak. Their only advantage being numbers, acting in groups.
But they did leave a few of their marks on the two Evokers, minor wounds scratch their body or some fists struck them, but it was manageable.
On the other side further away,
Sirius and Chad brawls against the ghouls, their hands, shield, spear, everything is into account.
Chad thrust his spear while bashing his shield against one of the ghouls. The ground transmute, turning into a spike that thrust upwards as the ghoul that got bashed by Chad falls onto the spike.
Sirius whips his sword, his body twisting and dancing through the battlefield. Some claws and punches hit his body but he continue nonetheless. The claws couldn't pierce through his armor but it sure pack a punch, as strong as an average man that does sports.
But Sirius shifts his body so the punches that do manage to hit him mostly hit the parts that won't impact his flow much.
Blue needle-like threads stab through the heads of the ghouls, while his sword ravage through their necks.
Sirius notice that forming these needle-like threads consume less mana, but depending on how sharp he made it, it would consume tad bit less mana from forming a sword.
He's sure that for now he would form these threads more often than swords since it's more efficient. But summoning those swords really looked cool.
Chad laughs, roaring as he takes on ghouls all at once. Sirius picks up the ones that Chad bashed away or the ones that aren't onto Chad.
Claws and ugly sharp teeths tries to bite onto Chad, but Chad bashes them away and spear their heads.
As Chad does so, the terrain around him changes, the ground becomes an advantage to him, helping him on making the enemy loose their footing, run into him, and so on.
"Sirius!"
Chad grabs the neck of a ghoul, and with herculean strength, he throws it at Sirius. Sirius whip his sword up. Accurately slashing off the neck as the beheaded body tumbles away.
"Focus, Chad."
Chad simply laughs before jumping and using mana to change the terrain slightly. The ghouls that were standing slipped and falls to the ground. Chad roars with ecstasy as he body slams onto the ghoul along with his shield.
The ghouls turn into mesh, like a sandwich. Chad fought like a barbarian as he ravage the poor Calamities.
Sirius sighs, slicing through his enemies.
'The others must be done by now...'
***
Sol, Anna, and Thea monitors the battlefield from afar, Thea holds her scabbard as she watch with anticipation.
"Anna, Sol, prepare to move. Me and Sol will go to Sirius' group, and you Anna will go to Adam's group."
"Got it lady boss!"
Anna cheer out as she climbs down the building and start running to where Adam's group are.
Thea kneels down and look back over her shoulder to Sol.
"Heh...~"
A grin marks her face, Sol blinks for a few times before shaking her head.
"No, no I'm not go-"
Thea clicks her tongue before sweeping Sol into a princess carry. Channeling mana through her mana vessels, she powers her body with mana, strengthening it.
Sol yelps as Thea jumps through the rooftops with ease, she looks at Thea before sighing.
"Just... be careful. Also, don't spend too much mana."
Sol scolds her sister as Thea simply nods with a smile.
"Yes yes, my dear sister~"
Thea cheerfully nods while heading to Sirius, Sol shakes her head before smiling while watching the buildings go by.
A loud tremor booms through the city. Thea furrows her brow before tightening her grip on Sol.
"Hold on tight!"
Thea speeds up her pace, expending a tad bit more on her mana reserve.
***
A ground shatters from the powerful strike the towering werewolf landed. Spider-web cracks form around the ground as Sirius launches himself at the werewolf.
'Seems like it healed itself... a grotesque method of healing though...'
Sirius thinks to himself, brandishing his red gleaming sword.
The werewolf looks back at Sirius, its eye socket that was blast through is still empty with rotting flesh. But the left arm is recovered, though it looks more like it glues a pile of mass and flesh onto its severed arm. Like a hastily attached arm with only the intention to fix the severed arm.
Some holes are still visible on parts of its body, it doesn't seem to care about the holes. Weirdly enough, theres no blood flowing down the holes, as if it doesn't have any blood flowing in its body.
The werewolf, reels back its right arm and thrust forward. But a wall forms from the ground right in front of Sirius as the werewolf's fist penetrates through the wall, now stuck inside the rock wall.
Though a bit surprised, Sirius quickly adapts and side steps before twisting and lashing at the arm that is stuck on the wall. He lets out a short exhale as he whips his sword down at the arm.
Sadly, even with the momentum, his sword only manage to cut deep into the arm but not enough to sever it.
The werewolf lifts its hind leg and throws a kick at Sirius silently, as if its arm is not a mangled mess.
Sirius dodges to the side but the claws on its feet manage to scratch at his armor. Though no dent is seen, Sirius could feel the impact of the kick as he coughs.
Taking that time, the werewolf quickly kicks at the wall to pull back, its mangled arm dangles as it skips back.
Only for it to slam onto another wall.
It looks around and see Chad suddenly floating from the air and onto it, with his spear latched on his back.
Chad roars, and with both hands grabbing his shield, brings it down to the werewolf.
A loud squelch ensues, but surprisingly, even if it looks like a pile of mass and flesh, the left arm is quite sturdy.
The wolf with its mangled right arm somehow manage to grab Chad's neck. But Chad encase his neck around with rocks, the rocks that covered some part of his body move up.
The sharp nails scratch through the rocks but not enough to penetrate Chad's neck.
Chad widens his eyes as the wolf with its left mass of flesh grabs onto the shield and peer it away. It then open its jaws wide. An ear-to-ear wide, its teeth are jagged but Chad is sure those teeth would snap his neck clean off.
Sirius materialize a needle-like rod, as tall as him and with the width of around 5 inches.
Throwing the blue stellar spear, Sirius aims it at the wolf's cheek.
The whistle of air being cut resonates as the blue spear penetrates through the wolf's cheek. A momentary stagger lapse in the wolf's movement, Chad takes the chance.
Chad roars and stretch his arm inside the wolf and grabs its tongue before violently tearing it out of its mouth with all his strength.
Yanking it off, Chad is surprised to see that the werewolf simply acknowledge that its tongue is ripped off but doesn't care.
A powerful burst of mana echoes through the battlefield, followed with a loud boom. The werewolf, about to snap Chad's neck off looks to the side towards the roof where it felt the mana source and the loud boom.
Thea is already upon it.
High up on the air, crackles of lightning spits off her body, her form like that of a descending eagle.
The werewolf lets go of Chad and jumps back far away.
Thea's sword dug deep into the ground, bursts of lightning spreads like a spider-web. Thea quickly takes out the silver sword as she points it at the wolf.
"Are the both of you okay?"
Thea spares a glance to Chad and Sirius. Seeing them both nod, Thea nods back before looking back to the towering fur.
Waves of powerful mana congregate, Thea takes the vanguard and engage in a fast combat with the werewolf.
The werewolf uses its body as a weapon, legs, tail, arms, mouth, and even sometimes roaring loudly to try and disrupt Thea's flow.
Thea dodge and weave through the blows, but so do the wolf. They were both at a stalemate.
Each thrust Thea did follows with a burning force of lightning, some part of the wolf's body scorch slightly before going out. Even though it had been burned and sliced, the wolf doesn't seem to mind it at all.
'This werewolf's endurance is... insane.'
Thea thought to herself, clenching her teeth as she exchange blows that nearly misses.
Suddenly, the ground underneath the werewolf moves, becoming unsteady.
Chad moves from the sides, intending to trap the werewolf.
Unfortunately, the werewolf seems to notice this and easily escapes by jumping up high on the air.
Even more surprisingly, the werewolf manage to maneuver in the air to move even further back.
"What the hell?! It noticed even that?!"
Chad shouts in shock, Sirius contemplates as he sees the weird movements of the werewolf. Something isn't right.
"That thing... it's running away!"
Sol shouts, Thea seems to pick up on this too and dashes to follow the werewolf.
Chad, Sirius, and Sol, unable to use mana to strengthen their body because of not having mana vessels simply run at an athletic pace.
"That direction... is that where the others are?"
Sirius asks, Sol nods in reply while they move through the road before speaking.
"How did it notice that we were baiting it so that Luna and the others could eliminate the weak groups..."
A worrisome explanation appears in Sirius mind, he hopes that it is not the case but the clues seem to be showing him that what he thought of, is the explanation.
"Best get there as fast as possible to aid Thea and the others, we can talk about it after we escape. I have a bad feeling."
Sirius adds, the three of them quickly fasten their pace regardless of their stamina.