บท 17: The heart Ch.17

*Rustling*

Somewhere along the woods surrounding the manor, a few heads of serpent were lurking around, desparetly waiting for a sign of a beating heart.

"…Haaa…We've been here for a few days now, haven't we? And there's still no sign of it." A man with a taller frame spoke.

"Do you think they'll just put it on a platter for you to see or something? Be quiet and have patience... The lord has given us this important mission to retrieve the item, so we can't go back with empty hands now, can't we?" A woman replied.

"Y-yes captain..but how long are we gonna be hiding in these woods?" The man asked again. The woman went silent for a moment, then let out deep sighed.

"As long as it takes-" The woman was interrupted.

!!!

Suddenly, there's a huge fluctuations of mana disruptions from the room that Kannavis was in, spreading out to the woods. Such Terrifying Aura!!

"Captain!?..Th- That's-" The man spoke nervously.

"Yeah wait's time is over, let's go."

*Back to Kannavis room*

…I-Irene? Wh-what are you doing here? Th-that thing she's holding… ahh I get it now, all along that was her goal…

"My lady…" Irene said. Her facial expressions were showing a mix of regret and sorrow.. I can't quite understand her intentions..

"My lady.. I-" Suddenly something grabbed her attention from the window and her gazed becomes full on alert.

Before I could react to anything, the window from my balcony exploded opened as a figured of a woman seemed to crash through, she was in full black armor embedded with what seemed to be serpent like scales, and she was wearing a hood that bind with a spell that plunge her face in to total darkness, making her identity unperceivable and undetectable by magic. Irene was instantly locked in and about to start battling, but the window that shine on her side was busted in with two men having the same fit as the woman. These people… even though they're hiding their aura… I can tell.. each one of them is comparable to Irene's level.

Irene looked a bit anxious, but most importantly she was staring at me with a concerned look. Without a second to waste, they started to attack. The men rushed in to close the distance between them and trying to immobilized Irene movement. Luckily, she quickly dodged and while doing so, she casted a spell to enhance her physical attributes and fires back a few attacks.The men were a bit flustered… w-what? This woman is fast?! They changed their tatics and started to fight more aggressively. They pulled out their wand and began shooting magic pebbles… so they are mages? No.. their movements are stealthy, more like a well-trained assassins.

They started to launch at Irene again; meanwhile, the woman got me in to the cornered of my bed.

"mmm..You don't seem to possess a mass amount of mana, but earlier, the wyvern's aura was definitely coming from you." The woman said with certainty as she got closer.

She moved in close and activated a spell that caused her hooded face to glow red in the spot of her eyes. Is she using some kind of magic to examined me?

"…!! what? The wyvern hearts.. it's mutated in to yours?!" The woman said in shock. By the visions she was seeing, using her serpent eyes that allowed her to perceive visions straight to the very molecules of the body, and exoskeletons, she was witnessing something bizarre. A conjointed pair of heart, or rather another heart was growing out of my mine and was imbued with gravelstoned of runes.

"This is.. outrageous… haaa… let's take her to the fort, maybe they'll have a way to deal with this." The woman said. My resistance was futiled, she grabbed my hand and lifted me up, hitting me unconscious at the neck . Upon seeing my abduction, Irene was fueled up and began to push back the men.

"Urkk!.. h-how is this girl keeping up with us?" The taller man spoke.

"Damn it.. she doesn't even have a wand with her! This is irritating!" The other man said.

"Hurry up. We can't be here any longer." The woman spoke.

"..! MY LADY!! Urkk!" Irene grunted as she was distracted by Kannavis's situation and got hit with a suprised attack from the man.

"Where are you looking at huh?!" The man said in a taunting manner.

No… at this point… her lady is going to be taken away! I have to do something.! But these guys are persistent..

…wait her lady is..? Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Kannavis rises up and bit the woman shoulder's, she screamed in pain then dropped Kannavis to the ground.

"Ughh… what is with this b*tch?!" Her shoulder started to bleed, she seemed a bit confused as to how Kannavis bit through her armor, her bite force has to be that of a crocodile or something to break it.

The woman was pushed back in to the balcony whilst Kannavis was laying under the darkness in her room. For some reason, the woman noticed her visions was turning blurry, and as from the description of her perspective, she saw Kannavis arised from the floor, her eyes glowed golden like a predator hunting in the nigh. A frightening beast!- she thought.

*whoosh!, Boom!*

"Urk.." In that instant, something big, flexed like a whip, immediately slashed laterally towards her and she barely dodges it, leaving a scratch on her cheek, and destroying the side of the wall. It was too fast! I can barely see it with my serpent eyes! -The woman thought.

"I barely dodge that.." The woman said, that thing… it's shaped almost like a tail.. and the tip of it is sharp like a razor..!!!

"Kneel." The woman heard a graspy old voice came out of Kannavis's mouth. It sent chills down to her spine. Then, She fell onto her knees… a sharp pain felt across her face and blood started to gush out of her mouth,..

The woman realized-wait.. I got poisoned?! She was stunned. She tried to think of something to explain the situation, then realized- The thing earlier must have been venomous.., this is getting too dangerous, the venom is too strong, my body is slowly getting paralyzed..and I think I'm seeing stuffs.. I have to use my life aura to stop the poison from circulating further in my body… we must retreat..

"Fall BACK!" The woman yelled out.

Her men were a bit puzzled by the order but followed through as the person in front of them is still standing to them head on. The men created a divergent by using a smoke bomb. Quickly, they moved and turned around to escape.

"What the hell…?" The men were flabbergasted.We're the best warrior of our House selected by our god, and this maid is holding up against us? Everything here is strange.. The men thought.

*Kannavis POV*

They quickly dashed out and disappeared in to woods. Irene was out of breath, and suffered a heavy blow to her left shoulder, her legs were shaking and she can barely stand still. Despite all of this, she rushed over to my side. I am barely conscious myself, my head was pounding and pretty much everything around swirled upside down. I could hear a faint voice of the crow, but I couldn't understand it.Then I felt a deep throbbed in my throat..

"My lady!" Irene yelled out as I fell down and started to puke out a sea of red. The floor was painted with my blood, it felt like I swallowed a box of razors and it's cutting through my vocal cords. Irene looked extremely concerned as she doesn't know as to what is happening. The room was a disaster, the furnitures were destroyed and everything was broken. The walls were covered in cracks that formed like a deep slash all over… the battle of strong mages are incredible… woahh..!

Before I knew it, Irene lifted me up bridal style and said- "Let's get out of here."

I couldn't reply, my throat was numb with pain. I noticed her shoulder was a mess, but she's still able to lift me up like this. The manor was awaked by the sudden intrusions in the room, the maids were shocked at the sight of us, Galium stopped to questioned us for a moment, then led a team to search around the estate.

Meanwhile, a healer came in and checked our wounds. We were in a small room with a small window, a few beds lined up, and curtains on each side of the bed to covered for privacy. This seemed to be an infirmary room of the manor, there were four people present in there including me, Holly, Irene and the Healer. Using a spell, he chanted and the wounds on Irene's shoulder seemed to swell down. He gave both of us some health potions, and did a check up with my throat.

"…Mmm you said you felt pain in your throat right?.. Well there seemed to be nothing particularly in there that seemed to be damaged.. maybe because of the shockwave from the battle that had caused a bit of disruption in the blood vessels or perhaps caused by a spell... but there seemed to be no signs of danger right now, summoned me again if there's seemed to be any trouble." After his examination, he then left the room.

*Click*

"I'm sorry I couldn't be there by your side, my lady. Like that time.. and now.. I was worried to death when you came out in such a state..." Holly was in tears as she held on to my hand. It must have been hard for her to see me wounded this often, hasn't it?

"It's alright Holly… See? I'm all healed up! This much is nothing." I said as I tried to cheered her up. Suddenly, both of her hands grabbed my hand and placed it against her forehead.

"Oh goodness my lady… you have always been such a strong person… but you have always been alone… I can not help but think… that maybe I am not enough to help lift your burdens.. I promised her duchess to look after and protect you… but right now…" Holly couldn't continued and broke in to a stream of tears.

"…I'm sorry I had you worried like that.." I held her body in to my arms, I had been nothing but a worrisome person to her… she has always tried her best, but I keep getting in to this type of predicament.. I don't want to fret her anymore..

Huuu.. there was a bit of peaceful moment in the room, I cleared my head. Then I realized she is also here. "Holly, can you give us a second. I have something to discuss something with Irene."

"Ohh… alright my lady. I'll be waiting outside, call me if you need anything…" Holly said, then excused out. The only left in the room was me and her…The real confrontation is about to start.