Tales of Astora: Legacy

Chapter 84: Dragon Hunters

Chapter 84: Dragon Hunters

While Cynthia was running from her pursuers after being separated from the group, another battle was taking place inside the court hall of the castle of Eiseinheim.

Facing three assassins at once surrounding her, Morrigan closed her eyes and controlled her breathing. In this darkness where nothing was seen, small flames in humanoid shape began to manifest themselves, recreating her field of vision. Only this time it was no longer limited to what she could see with her eyes but rather her entire surrounding. This special vision called Soul Sense was basically a higher form of Mana Sense, allowing one self to detect not only the presence of anyone nearby but also even their slightest motions, granting a complete vision of everything that was happening around her.

The sword she was holding since earlier started to illuminate a pale cobalt luminescence, the color of the soul as one would see. Then with a single slash from her sword, as if time has stopped itself, the three assassins fell like the bugs they were. An unsurprising result as it would be unthinkable to consider this unfortunate trio to be anywhere near her level. Being an arcane swordsman, a special class reserved only for the elite warriors of Zagon, Morrigan had access to a full arsenal of magic and sword skills unmatched by any other. In addition, her ability to use soul magic just like her sister, the Hero Lakyus, granted her an even phenomenal dominance in the battlefield.

But Morrigan was not the only one that stood out in this chaotic combat zone. Among the combatants, one individual was quite conspicuous not because of her fighting skill but also because of her appearance. Skillfully slithering around the arena in a graceful manner, Martel fought with both magic and her monstrous strength to smash her enemies into oblivion. Her crimson tail, adorned with a pointy blade at the end, was capable of moving at incredible speed and sought the assassins like a living weapon before impaling them from behind while they were distracted with the main body. Furthermore, her favorite weapon, a golden trident, allowed her to fight in close combat and served also a catalyst for magic incantation.

The young couple Viviana and Lucas was also quite proficient with their skills, especially the cat girl with her spirit staff Yggdrasil. Needless to say, the assassins picked the wrong group to mess with as they were being slaughtered one by one like flies.

"Snipers on the opposite building!" shouted Morrigan just after she sensed the presences of intruders from afar. With such a large hole in the room, the archers would be able to target them with ease.

"<Birth of Trees>" Viviana invoked trees branches rising from the ground and covered the hole, stopping the incoming arrows. But the snipers were no fools either. They quickly changed their tactics, this time imbuing their arrows with fire magic and lightning to pierce through the timber barrier.

Under the volley of projectiles, the group could only stay down and cover themselves as they waited for the archers to run out of arrows. The walls and floor were now coated with arrows as the onslaught went on. Then it stopped, strangely. The timing was simply too soon. For such a carefully prepared assault, it was weird that they would run out of projectiles this quick. Or was it their strategy to lure out their targets and then resumed the attack?

Using her Soul Sense, Morrigan tried to figure out their intention. Yet, to her surprise, something strange was going on over there. One by one, the souls of the apparently attackers began to vanish. Something or someone was killing them. That must be why they stopped their attack. But who could be doing that? Surely her troops could not have arrived at the place in time to interrupt the snipers as it was just a moment ago. And the experienced fighters and Martel and the others were still here. So who? What was even weirder was the disappearance of the souls. Unlike Mana Sense, even if a foe was killed, their soul would still linger around for a little while, although such a difference would be easily noticed compared to a 'living soul'. In this case however, the soul disappeared the moment the individual died, as if it just vanished into thin air like it was never there.