This is bad!" The Priestess announced.
"Yeah, we know," Ryan responded as the monster's red eyes turned to him with nothing but the gleam of hatred and rage.
He, in turn, quietly assumed a stance, raising his blade before him.
Now that it had fully coated its body with that dark stuff. It was only logical to realize that they were dealing with something else.
It was still his fourth day, and now he had to face this.
'Are Rare's always this strong?' He wondered. The only way to find out was to survive this abomination first.
The Beast stared at him, its misty black body stood upright as a green aura appeared at the crux of its shadow and reached into its lower limbs.
A black, shadowy spear manifested around its arm before it was gripped by its fingers. Ryan maintained his focus, preparing to activate his leaping skill the moment it attacked.
Once again, he was fooled; the Shadow Hulk simply twisted its body as it struck, hurling the spear towards a weakened Pierre.
"DAMN YOU!" He cursed before cutting the wind with his sword.
Flames extended out of its blade and rushed towards the attack, exploding off its hilt and yanking off a significant chunk of its insubstantial form.
Yet, the object continued its path. And as an already exhausted Pierre reared his head, spotting the tip of an ever-encroaching dark blade, he brought his sword in front of his chest, hoping to deal one last defence.
"Flaming Mark of the Saint Pigrinix…"
All of a sudden, a red barrier enveloped the fighter and deflected the weapon towards a nearby tree where it exploded into thick, dark mists on impact. Slowly, the mist around the tree receded, exposing its withered, shriveled trunk.
'That was close,'
Ryan stood in his post, relieved.
'But the battle's not yet over.'
"Your Majesty and Sir Nameless. I can only chant three more times before my amplifications," The Priestess announced.
Ryan frowned. Now was not the time.
"Earlier, you said we didn't need to worry."
"Well, Sire. I said 'chant', not that my mana would be exhausted."
His frown grew even deeper. How much mana did this lady have?
"I'm going to refurbish both your mana pools and strength. Please use this advantage to win."
From behind the bushes, the Priestess then crossed two of her fingers and chanted.
"Goddess of fire, the hearth and war, restore thy fighters' vigor with your burning gaze."
As she stretched her fingers apart, a flaming orb followed, rapidly spinning at the space between her fingers as it vanished.
Immediately, a dim red light enshrouded the bodies of the duo. In seconds, they felt their strength return.
Ryan looked at his stats and concluded that whoever this Priestess was, she was an extremely helpful fighter to their cause.
His stats had completely replenished.
Now he could properly repay the favour to the enemy.
Fire rapidly gathered in front of his fingers and shot forward in sharp, speeding attacks.
Having spotted his move, Spider Monkey manifested balls of darkness in its palm and launched each of them to clash against the rays, letting out a bang.
While the beast was now preoccupied with the Ruler, Nameless had already gotten to his feet, and from the distance, he struck his sword, releasing an attack.
The strike rushed at the enemy and burned through its shadow covering, revealing its rotting flesh.
This allowed Ryan to connect the dots, figuring out that the Shadow Ape was using its flesh to conjure up its spells and defenses.
'Magnificent,'
"Sire, it is my turn to serve," He heard the fighter say with the telepathic link.
"Please use the Chance to defeat this abomination," thought the Priestess.
'The Chance,' Ryan wanted to laugh.
The chance was that he had to behead this thing before it killed them. And that was what he was going to do.
Pierre's attack had drawn the beast towards himself, allowing him to grasp the hilt of his blade and focus on the target.
A shadowy black spear careened towards the fighter as he pointed his blade. The runes lit up from the blade's spine and converged their light into an orb that lurched forward, countering the attack with a boom.
However, the time to rest was long overdue.
Spider monkey swung its arms as two orbs flashed near its position. Upon seeing this, Pierre jumped to the side, evading the orb as it crashed into the floor, causing the plants to shrivel and wilt.
The other orb shot forth while he was in mid-air, and he reacted by slashing his blade, releasing fire. Both attacks collided with an explosion as he slid against the sands before stabilizing his position.
What he didn't expect, however, was for another orb to appear from behind, ready to shrivel his form when a yellow ray flew from the forest and blasted it apart.
He turned to the back in shock, seeing a familiar figure saunter through the bushes, twirling a paintbrush with his fingers.
"My my, so this was where you were both hiding?"
"Ian."
Whatever they both didn't like about each other would have to be put to the side for now.
The One Word Artist whispered to his brush and pointed it at him. Rays of light hurled from its tip and crashed against the orbs that were reeling towards Pierre.
"You shouldn't let your guard down when there's a monstrosity that you're fighting," The Light user warned.
Pierre responded with a huff and turned to see the Shadow Ape swirl its two palms around the air as two new shadowy spheroids manifested.
"My my, it does look dreadful," Ian remarked when he came to stand with him.
Three pairs of crimson-hued eyes admonished the newly arrived figure. The Ape then let out an ear-splitting roar as it tossed its attacks forward.
"I'll grant you face this time," The Drapey-haired fellow laughed as he twisted his brush. He used the create spell to form a rope, which was eventually spiked.
In a single swing, the construct cut through an orb, completely destroying its form.
At the same time, Pierre had dismantled another orb when he heard the word "Enlight!"
A flash appeared as yellow light rushed to the ground under Spider Monkey's legs, brightening them.
"Spike!" Ian whispered again. Large spikes then rose from the earth, blocking the beast from all sides, restricting its movement.
"It hasn't moved," Pierre informed, to which the light user responded with an 'oh.
"Regardless, you've given him enough time,"
"Time for what? Who?" Ian blinked as his face contorted out of confusion.
From a distance, Ryan smiled at the light spikes in the fore. Had he known, Ian would have been the most desirable choice in fighting this thing.
Alas, he swung an arm, releasing a flaming halo that whirled into the enemy's nape before exploding its back, revealing a gaping hole of torn, bloodied flesh along with a pinkish white substance.
'It sure is eating its flesh, uhn.'
The Otherworlder then raised his blade, fire extended around its edges. Once again, he aimed, and the flames converged near its tip.
This was it; he had put almost eighty percent of his mana into this one attack. He stared at the open wound, and with one long, mighty thrust, the flames flew out of the blade with a dash.
The burning attack blazed into the creature's nape, eating through the flesh as blood burst out of its form, spilling onto the floor with a splat.
In the blink of an eye, the attack had burned through the ape's neck, revealing a gaping hole near its neck.
A long silence followed, and Ryan slowly drew in his breath in anticipation.
[You have slain the Shadow Ape - Quest Completed]
The voice filled his mind with a profound sense of joy. This was when the ground rumbled with a violent quake, breaking his focus.
~~~~~
Within the War Room of the Red Heart Castle. Liam stared out into the open window, with his eyes fixed on the moon.
"No signs of turning red," said the Strategist, who then heaved a sigh of relief.
"Sometimes, I question if both of us should have switched places. I become a Marshal and you become the Defense commander," said Berny as he came from behind.
"Both of you could change," said Rictor, who poured himself a bottle of red wine and sipped, "If his majesty would allow it." He added.
Liam's ears perked up in interest, and he turned towards the Counsellor. "Speaking of the King. The Danger zone his highness picked was clearly a risk. Why did you allow him?"
"The King does what he wants. Who am I to refuse?" Rictor responded as Liam counterargued while frowning, "If it's something that can threaten his life, you will need to react."
"Hmmm," Rictor's eyes hung low, "We'll cross that bridge when we get there,"
To Rictor, it was obvious that neither Liam nor Berny knew about that assassination attempt, and he would rather leave them in the dark about it.
For now, at least.
When the King wanted to go, he could tell what was lurking behind his mind and voted to allow it.
'There isn't much time, Sire, you need to be stronger for what's to come.'
Those were his inner thoughts.