Bab 81: What More of Luca

"I haven't returned the favor yet. Are you free today?" Nadin laughed out before going into an assault stance. "You won't live through this one now!"

He dashed straight to Noah and threw a blast before he could get so close. Noah evaded to the side and emerged from the smoke like bullets piercing through the wind. The white ghost fired her guns at the white figure while chasing him around. It was as if her life goal was to protect Bomberman.

Of course, Noah chose to gauge their individual abilities to see which one to take down first, the familiar or the master. Now that he didn't have his dogs, he could only deal with both of them. His blue flame claw grew larger as the blue color on his eyes intensified.

Noah got inside Nadin's range, and the two entered a close-quarter battle. Though Bomberman was known to be a mid-range fighter, he had capabilities to fend off for himself. It was noted in his file that aside from his ability to produce an explosion, he was also versed in martial arts.

Moreover, his familiar was a cybernetic-looking doll… which had the abilities to transform her body and manipulate recorded realities. She was known to pull out every kind of weapon by making use of any part of her body. No one had ever gotten really close to Bomberman before…

Unless they were at the same level or was higher than five.

Boom! After a close-quarter explosion, Noah used his left arm to shield himself again. However, as it was nothing close to the charged state he had before, Bomberman's attack didn't even scare Noah. A smile came as Noah's answer.

He then kicked Bomberman to the side to knock him down, but the other jumped away as soon as he hit the ground. The white ghost then came in between them and rained bullets at him, but Noah could easily dodge those before closing in and swiping down at the familiar.

Bang! The white ghost suffered from three deep valleys from the claws. She flew down next to Bomberman and stopped moving. The white glow around her body then soon died down.

The master only glanced at his familiar before readying to attack again. Noah, however, dashed down and fought hand-to-hand again. He managed to claw at Nadin's chest, and the terrorist retreated. His hand was on his bleeding chest, and blood dripped down his mouth.

Noah's eyes glinted, and his body pierced through the wind again. He went past Nadin, shattering the flesh of the other witch. Nadin couldn't even make a noise when he felt his body torn apart. In the end, he only fell down… along with the two other regions of his mutilated body.

The hellhound master landed not far away and turned towards the body of the two people he just fought. His brows frowned as he started huffing. He then looked at his hand…

"Something's not right…" Noah glared at the hand and then at the bodies at the distance. "It's not right…"

Bang! Another bullet came from the distance, and Noah only evaded by moving his head out of the way. Then, he glared at the source of the bullet again. As soon as the familiar figures came into his sight, Noah's eyes widened so badly.

"I haven't returned the favor yet. Are you free today?" Nadin laughed out again before going into an assault stance as if he had not seen him earlier. "You won't live through this one now!"

…

Alessa, Winona, and Isla woke up in the same place. They all got up one after another before Isla glaring at her netbook. The screen was being jammed. Even if she could still see flashes of the map, she didn't like what was happening to her screen.

"Alessa, we're on another floor of the maze. We should be able to meet with others if we continue west for the stairs." Isla closed the screen and put away her netbook as it was also made of light. The gadget then transformed into a bracelet which was like Luca's power ring.

"I see. Then, let's move." Alessa bit into her lips. She tried to get to Luca, but she was a second late. Who knew what kind of place Luca had fallen into? Right now, Alessa needed to prioritize gathering their group. If not, they could just meet at the sixth level.

Just that, what if some of them got stuck and could not get out?

Alessa and the two others walked across the darkness, only to begin seeing broken structures. It was as if they had walked out of the besieged castle. Rubble and debris were everywhere, and the three only glanced at one another as if a message to be very cautious of things around them.

Their heels echoed as they walked on the stone pathway. Alessa looked around and noticed movements in the dark on top of the broken structures. She flicked her hand, signaling that they had company. Winona released her whip from her sleeve while Isla dropped a spiked ball from hers.

Roar! An ugly spiked blob hopped from behind them, and Isla spun around to hit the blob with both of her spiked balls. The blob exploded mercilessly, dying without even getting close enough to them. Soon, more and more dragon-like blobs dropped from the invisible ceiling.

"Let's not get trapped by them. We have to keep on moving!" Alessa summoned her four pairs of scimitars from the belts of her robe and carved a path forward. Isla got to the middle while Winona covered the back.

However, they only continued to be met with a sea of dragon blobs that didn't seem to be exhausted no matter how long they fought.

…

Bubble…

Gianna woke up when her breath escaped her nose all of a sudden. She then quickly realized that they were underwater, and Tabitha was already floating lifelessly next to her. Since she could scan her surroundings through her magic, she could tell that Tabitha was still alive.

She weaved a bubble of magic around their heads and drained the water. All of a sudden, Tabitha started choking as she regained her breath. Her pained eyes looked at Gianna before looking around.

"Where are we, Lady Gianna?" Tabitha waded her arms around, not used to the feeling of floating underwater.

"I'm not sure yet, but this water is corroding magic. We should be left here to drown, but don't worry." Gianna smiled before she glared in a direction. "There should be an exit somewhere. I can feel a heart in the water. We should be able to find it and destroy it."

"Okay, I'll follow your lead."

Gianna glanced behind her before swimming away from her position. These two White Magi had been so engrossed with Alessa that they were willing to subject themselves in the service of Alessa's family. As White Magi, they should be at the top of the food chain. Gianna could only hum in displeasure.

She swam ahead and felt the movements of other entities in the water. She then glanced at Tabitha, asking her to go in front and fight. However…

"Lady!" Tabitha gasped as she saw something take form right in front of Gianna and hugged the magic bubble around her head. She dashed towards her, but her arms were held by something similar. "What are these things?!"

"Level sevens!"

Gianna's eyes glowed white, and her hands waved in front of her as if chopping at the water blob in front of them. The blob let go of her and retreated before roaring lowly in the water. Dozens more of the water blobs moved in to swim towards them.

Tabitha then drew a sword from her palm and summoned a shield from her brooch. "Lady! Get behind me!" She slashed the blobs and dashed to protect Gianna from the impact of the blobs rushing at her like torpedoes, her shield expanding to become a spherical barrier. "Are you okay?"

"Hold them off. I'll charge a purification spell." Gianna closed her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her. Foreign words flitted from her lips as the glow on her hands began to crawl up. Tabitha only focused on keeping up with the torpedoes.

In the back of Gianna's mind, she was so worried. If they were having a hard time like this, what more of Luca? Would he be okay? Was he still alive?

Gianna's heart continued to rack, sending a little wave of uncertainty to even Isla and Alessa.

��

"Help!"

Luca gasped as he waved his arms and tried to pull himself up from the sea of mud that he was in. It was like water, and yet there was no air underneath. He was even sinking whether he stayed still or moved around. He had been swimming a lot earlier, but there was nothing but mud.

However, he had seen a vague figure at the distance. That was why he decided to call out for help. Even if it could be an enemy, he wanted to put his faith in the positive side of 'what if it's not?' It's just that… he didn't really have the chance to know if it was one or not.

He was pulled down even before he got to see another glimpse of the figure. He only took a deep breath before he got pulled down for real. The mud restricted everything, and it didn't help that his magic was being corroded as well. Even his other saint tech items were rendered useless.

There was too much dark magic that his power alone couldn't pull in light.

Luca felt how the mud moved inside all possible holes in his face. He only had a hand on his nose to preserve himself a little. The air in his body rapidly ran out as his heart raced inside his chest. Death was gripping at him as if it owned the mud that coated his entirety.

'Noah…'

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