บท 5: 5
"What is he doing?" Felicia voiced the question Arthur had in his mind when he saw Billy. Based on his distress call and the troubled expression on his face, it was quite obvious that he was under duress but the weird thing was both Felicia and Arthur had no idea whom or what he was fighting. There was simply no enemy in sight. It appeared like the man was just waving his sword blindly in the air.
"Billy!" Felicia called out loudly from where she and Arthur were standing. They were about 8 metres away from Billy. When Billy turned to look at them, both Billy and Felicia sighed in the relief; Billy did because reinforcement had arrived and for Felicia, it because Billy's response meant that he had not come under the influence of some psychic spell that messed with one's mind.
Before Felicia could ask the man what was wrong, Billy winced from pain as he went down on one knee. Felicia gasped when she saw a wide gash form on Billy's left knee and the blood that started to pool under the man.
There was a flicker at the edge of her eyes and Felicia understood what was happening instantly. She yelled out for Arthur's benefit, "Phantasm!"
She scooted back and used her hand to shove Arthur backwards as she yelled, "Arthur, get back into the tunnel!" She wasn't sure that would be of any use but at least inside the tunnel, Arthur wouldn't leave himself open to attack from all sides.
From the urgency in her voice and from what had happened to Billy, Arthur realized the gravity of the situation. He did what he was told.
However, before the young man could run into the path, there was a loud echo that seemed to form at the left of the opening. Since they ran through the path in such a hurry, neither Arthur nor Felicia realized the opening actually came with a stone door. The echo seemed to materialize into a force and it pushed the stone door forward, blocking the opening fully. Arthur was stuck, he couldn't retreat into the path even if he wanted to.
The shape of a human flickered by the side of the wall. It seemed to be the culprit behind the force that pushed the door close.
Making use of this opportunity, Felicia loosened an arrow at the target. The arrow arced through the air before lodging itself into the wall. Felicia cursed under her breath. She had missed. As good as a marksman Felicia was, it was very hard for her to hit a target that was half or fully invisible.
Felicia called Arthur to her side as she put her bow away and pulled out her dagger. "Arthur, stay close to me!"
Since her archery was not going to be of any use until she could see her target, Felicia abandoned it and relied on her trusty dagger. Felicia was not a good close-ranged fighter but it was better than shooting around aimlessly.
Felicia tried her best to keep calm but she had to admit things were not looking well. The group of phantasms was making quick work of Billy who was barely hanging on. Even though their attention hadn't been fully directed their way, after Billy was taken down, the phantasms would focus their attention on Felicia and Arthur.
"I told Billy not to rush into things!" Felicia grumbled, "These are not normal phantasms! The phantasm we've faced so far has semi-physical form, these are elite phantasms that have mastered phasing between the spiritual realm and physical realm!"
Amidst all these chaos, Arthur suddenly decided to close his eyes. Felicia was too busy trying to keep both of them safe to realize what strange thing the young man was doing.
When the phantasm used the power of its voice to push the stone door close earlier, Arthur could feel the violent vibration in the air and 'see' the sound waves coagulated to manifest in the form of a kinetic force in the physical realm. For some reasons, Arthur was attuned to how the philosophy behind it worked. He believed it was no different for people reading a foreign language. Some might find the text a jumbled mess but for those who had mastered the language, it would make total sense.
It was the same way for Arthur. The 'language' of the voice was something he was familiar with and could easily decipher.
Arthur closed his eyes because he wanted to focus on his sense of hearing. Didn't they say when you suppress one senses, the others would become more focused and heightened?
Arthur didn't know whether that was true or not but he knew when he focused on the vibrations in the air, he could 'see' the movement of the phantasms as they glided through the air. Probably thanks to his powerful hearing, Arthur felt like he could 'see' them better with his ears than his eyes.
Right at that moment, Arthur sensed a powerful oscillation in the air to his left. The phantasm was aiming an attack at Felicia. Arthur jumped forward to push Felicia out of the way. Felicia could feel the phantasm's spectral claws slashed at the air before her eyes as she was shoved to the side.
Felicia's heart was racing, she was inches away from having her head yanked from her body. However, she knew it was not the time to let her guard down. They still had not gotten themselves out of the danger. She picked up her up as quickly as she could and turned to breathe a quick thank you to Arthur.
She assumed Arthur merely lucked out when he saved her life but when she saw what Arthur was doing, she realized the young man had more to him than he appeared.
Arthur side-stepped in an almost graceful manner and seconds later, there was a deep gash on the ground where he stood earlier. The phantasm tried to claw at him but it missed.
Felicia asked with surprise, "Arthur, you can see them?"
Arthur turned to her voice with his eyes still closed and he answered, "No, but I can hear them."
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