บท 30: Zaros
"What can you see?" Zane asked with a huff.
"Give me a minute will you?" Edana retorted.
She was looking through the keyhole of a wooden door, at the end of a corridor filled with doors.
Peeking through for a while, she finally stood up and turned around.
"They're starting the ritual. The leader is on the stage with 2 red robes. Everyone is lined up below." She reported.
"Could you see where the one we interrogated went?" Zane inquired.
"I could see him going up the stage to hand the relic over, but after coming down, he blended in the middle." Edana shook her head.
"That's good. You did well." Zane was grinning while looking at the door, and so he praised her unknowingly.
Her cheeks went red, "S-so what are we going to do now?"
"Let's back up a bit." Zane walked back from the door and others followed him, albeit confused.
He took out the bell and spoke, "Close your ears!"
As soon as everyone put their hands on their ears, he shook the bell.
*Bang*
They heard a loud explosion from inside the hall.
Everyone's eyes widened. Edana looked towards Zane, who had the biggest grin on his face. She had already understood what he did. Thinking about the state of the cultist who swallowed the clapper was enough for her to feel nauseated.
Zane put his hand on her shoulder, "No time to think about it, let's rush in." With that he gave everyone the signal to rush in the door.
Weapons ready on their hands, they quickly rushed in the hall, which was filled with dust from the explosion.
The dust died down and they saw the result of the explosion. Every inch of the room was painted red, body parts scattered through the floor.
Zane heard sounds of puking from the back, all three cadets were holding their stomachs, retching out everything inside.
Edana was barely holding on, covering her mouth with her hands, but her gaze firmly locked at the middle of the stage.
Zane also turned his head towards the stage.
The leader of the cult stood in the center of the stage, his right arm raised up, a display case with the wooden box on the top and a thin translucent red barrier in front of him. Behind his back, one red robed cultist was kneeling down, clearly injured.
The leader of the cultist looked towards Zane's group with his red glowing eyes. He flicked back his orange hair with the hand he was raising up, which dissolved the barrier, and grinned.
"Hello everyone, I am Zaros. Pleased to meet you. Nice trick you did there. I'm impressed. I'm sure our God would also like the Mayhem you have caused here." He chuckled.
"Unfortunately, you have disturbed us during a very crucial time, so, you must die." He stared at the group with cold eyes.
"Enough blabbering. I'm not interested." Zane dashed towards him, with a spear on his hand. He jumped on the stage, stabbing towards Zaros.
"Fine. Let's talk like this then!" The loose robe of Zaros fell down on the ground, showing off his well defined body. He blocked the incoming stab with his forearm, which was glowing with a tint of red.
*Clang*
The collision of the spear and his arm produced some sparks and a sound like a hammer striking iron.
Zane widened his eyes and backed away. As soon as he landed, the injured red robe slashed towards him from behind the leader, a sword in his hand.
Zane barely dodged the slash which grazed his neck and backed away further.
"Val, can you guys handle him?" Zane shouted.
"Yes!" a whip came slashing down towards the red robe, who blocked it with his arm.
"Interesting, you may go deal with them." Zaros smiled.
"Sir!" The red robe replied promptly and jumped down, heading towards the cadets.
Edana also came up on the stage, behind Zaros.
"So you two will be fighting me then. Come on then, no need to stand on ceremony." He invited both with open arms.
Clenching his teeth, Zane dashed towards him, stabbing the spear rapidly on his body. Zaros moved his body like a snake, easily evading the spear.
While Zane was stabbing with his spear, Edana attacked Zaros from the behind with her sword.
*Clang Clang Clang*
Her attacks hit his back, but it was not affecting him even slightly.
"It's no use." Edana appeared at Zane's side. "Weapons don't work on him, he must be an Intermediate Seeker."
"You're close." Zaros smiled. "Now it's my turn." He flexed his muscles and punched forward with his fist. The air pressure generated from his punch was enough to break the balance of both.
Zane blocked the punch with his spear, which resulted in him being sent flying backwards. His spear was also broken into two from the impact.
Zaros didn't stop and jumped towards Edana next. He punched downwards, towards her head. She quickly rolled to the side and dodged the attack, which landed on the stage. A huge crater appeared on the point of impact.
"You're good at dodging. Like a fly." Zaros stood up and started dusting off his hands.
As he spoke, Zane came dashing towards him. "NOW!"
A blue flame came from behind Zane, which extended his shadow towards Zaros. Timing it right, he ducked down and made his shadow into a thick thorn and stabbed it towards his body.
The shadow thorn stabbed his gut while the blue flame hit Zaros on his face covering him with smoke.
"Did we get him?" Edana walked towards Zane.
"Back!" Zane screamed and dived backwards, holding Edana in his arms.
*Thump* They fell down on the floor and Zane quickly recovered. "Ready!" He shouted, crossing his arms to block.
*Bam* A red fist struck his crossed arms, breaking his radius. He clenched his teeth and held on.
The smoke died down, revealing Zaros, who looked nothing like before. He skin was all red, his body radiating heat waves. His orange sleeked back hair was spiky now, pointing towards the heaven.
"So you were Seekers. One of Nox and one rogue. Hahaha, the outsider from Lastwind huh." He spoke with a gritty echoing voice.
The attacks from before had not done much damage. His face was barely scratched while there was only a small wound on his stomach.
Edana stood up and backed away. "Buy me some time!" She held both her hands up and closed her eyes.
Zane clenched his teeth and dashed towards the side of Zaros, keeping his eyes on the ground. He backed away a bit and used the shadow thorn again.
Zaros dodged to the side, the thorn grazing his waist, which was now bleeding.
"Interesting", he grinned, "<Shadow> huh, we were right on searching for you. Too bad the idiots couldn't capture you." He flicked his finger, throwing a ball of air towards Zane.
Zane rolled to the side and dodged the ball. He stood up quickly, but he was late by a second. Zaros had already appeared in front of him.
Zaros extended his hand towards Zane's neck and grabbed him. "Ugh." Zane struggled to remove his hand but couldn't even budge it.
"You'll be useful yet. Misfortune breeds fortune this time. You destroyed our ritual, but handed yourself in a silver platter. Hahahahaha." Zaros spoke and tightened his grip.
"Uck Uck" Zane struggled to even produce a sound, but he was flailing his hands, hitting Zaros's arms.
"Seekers who have barely opened their hearts, you dare challenge me?" He grinned from ear to ear and punched Zane on his stomach.
*Bam*
The punch affected Zane's internal organs, creating small orange-glowing cracks on it.
*Bam*
He struck again, this time, Zane coughed a mouthful of blood.
He was still flailing his arms around and so Zaros grabbed it.
"Tch. Stop moving." He twisted the arm around, breaking it.
"AAAAAAGH" Zane cried out loud, spit and blood coming out of his mouth.
"Brother!" Valentina and the other two came running towards the stage, the red robe dead on the ground.
"....do....it" Zane spoke with his mouth full of blood.
Zaros widened his eyes and a blue wave of flames enveloped him from behind.
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