Bearing the weight of a captain was too much for Linthia.
She was consistently stumbling to catch up since a Dark Fairy is not as strong as an Elf or even a Dryad, she has to do two or three times the amount of work, to reach her level—of strength compared to them.
Not only was it hard for her physique but also mentally.
To say that it was challenging was a gross understatement, it was extremely challenging.
Days passed abnormally long for her—and the air was choking her harder, with each day.
Now, Linthia was only glad that everything was going to end.
All of that training was worth it—she saved Nadia and proved that she was not as useless as the others portrayed her to be. She could die with her chest puffed, and chin high, she could die proudly with honor.
'At least... at least I managed to save Nadia, I'm not... useless'
Closing her eyes, Linthia accepted death with open arms.
But as she was accepting death, a loud scream echoed and reverberated into her ears."Linthia!!"
Upon hearing the familiar voice, Linthia opened her eyes and saw Dindora blocking the feral claws with a massive impact. Despite her strength, parrying the attack tore her entire shield arm off, spewing blood into the air.
"D- Dindora?!" Linthia gasped, seeing Dindora managing to come in time.
Not minding her severed arm, Dindora did a quick maneuver—she swung her right arm which had already taken the form of a massive wooden bastard sword—with its edge sharpened by her energy, and brought it crashing down onto the minion's snarling maw.
Her strike's impact sent the creature stumbling several paces sideways, its growl faltering.
Following Dindora's attack, the Elves behind them attacked.
Charging their nature energy, they formed a group of five and cast a combination spell.
Each group summoned a massive arrow made entirely of energy, whistling with gusts of wind—and fired it at the minion. It was a devastating combination spell—allowing them all to exert the power of an early ninth-rank realm minimum.
Struck by a barrage of arrows, the minion was pushed back, allowing Dindora to recover.
Glancing over her shoulder, she glared at Linthia, "Get up, this is not the time for you to die!"
"Didn't you say that we are going to be a fitting general of the Clarentium Empire?! Then why in the hell are you giving up?!" She thundered, mounting fury laced in each—and every word, that came out of her lips. "Stand up and honor your words!"
Upon hearing this, Linthia was stunned.
In the heat of the moment there, she forgot that she made that promise to Dindora.
Both of them are going to be strong together and become a worthy general of the empire.
Dindora saw from the distance that she accepted death instead of fighting until her very last breath, and that sight was infuriating. If she gave up that easily then she shouldn't make that promise.
Shaking her head, Lintha climbed to her feet again, 'I can't believe I accepted death there,'
"I'm sorry, I got caught up in the moment," She apologized.
In response, Dindora only snorted, she didn't say anything and only waved her hand.
Several Elven healers came down and tended to their wounds.
Linthia's stomach was torn open while Dindora had her entire limb blown off.
Once their wounds were closed—Dindora quickly gestured for the Elves to act and surround the minion in a circle. As the Elves moved to their position, Dindora channeled her newfound power as a War Dryad, raising her only arm upward.
Following her gesture, thick vines and plants grew rapidly and created a massive wall.
It surrounded the entire area, trapping the minion at the center.
She deliberately forbade a ceiling as the Elves began firing their arrows from atop trees, they rained down arrows at the minion who was now pinned. Dindora used the exact same trap as she did earlier against the minion.
Earlier, the minion got lucky as it was able to vanish into a shadow.
But now, Dindora wouldn't let it do that again.
"Go, throw the fireflies inside!"
Under the Elven Captain's command, the other Elves took a massive pouch and unleashed its content into the trap. Inside it were thousands of mutated fireflies, they were all fully crippled so they could only wiggle on the ground, lighting the entire place.
No shadows for the minion to flee to now.
"Come on, enhance me now" Dindora urged, lowering her stance poised to strike.
Linthia nodded and cast the Four Dream Lock spell.
Once the spell took effect, Dindora let its boost permeate through her entire body first while watching the minion struggle to free itself, from the barrage. Even though it had gotten, way stronger than before for some reason, it would still fall under this barrage. Continue your adventure at empire
Roaring thunderously, the minion tried to escape by climbing the wall of vines.
It tried to power through the unending barrage of arrows, wounding its body more and more.
Dindora moved quickly, she was going to be the one who kept it here.
She coated her right arm with her energy and made a vertical downward slash, "Gold Light!"
Even though it was partially blinded as the barrage of arrows was aimed at its eyes, it could sense the concentrated energy and leaped away. Dindora's arm hit and pierced the ground, shooting a gold light that cut everything in a straight line.
It was strong enough to pierce the wall but the vines quickly regrow and close that part up.
"You dodged it? Not taking it head-on again?" Dindora mocked.
Upon hearing this, the minion created a barrier of death mana and opened its eyes, glaring at the person standing before it with hatred. Just hearing Dindora's voice alone—made the scar on its back throbbed.
Growl!
Giving it no time to recover, Dindora sprinted with quick steps.
She thrust her right arm forward, piercing the tip into the death mana barrier.
Once her right arm got in, she smirked as the tip of the blade oozed out a substance.
It weakened the barrier, causing the barrage of arrows to pierce through again.
Despite its anger, its body was giving out from the relentless pursuit throughout the day and also the sundering firepower, from the barrage of arrows. It was caught, and there was not a single chance for it to escape.
Finally able to finish what she started, Dindora moved in.
She struck the minion once again, sending it bouncing off of the wall and continuing.
As she did this, the Elves timed their arrows to not interfere with her movements.
Upon shaking its head and recovering, Dindora didn't let up—and made an uppercut with her right arm, stabbing the minion from below its chin and through its upper muzzle. Bearing fury—Dindora pulled out her arm, grabbed the minion by the head, and pulled it to her knee.
Bam!
Considering the increase in strength, Dindora aimed to end this fast.
'Shadow became stronger earlier, it must've also influenced its minion,' She pondered.
Aiding from the background, Linthia also uses another spell—influencing the minion's mind— and keeping it from retaliating by stripping its willpower. Finally, the minion fell to the ground, it took more than a minute of endless attacks for the minion to go down.
Seeing that it was down, Dindora raised her hand, signaling for the Elves to stop.
Dozens of arrows stuck to the minion's carcass, it was bleeding so much—that a pool formed right underneath it. Linthia approached while still keeping an eye on the carcass, "Finally, this minion is so hard to kill. Had it not for being trapped like this, we won't be able to kill it"
"We don't have to kill it but this is good," Dindora replied, sighing in relief.
It was a pain in her mind that she let the minion slip from her hands earlier.
Fortunately, it was now dead, and nobody got hurt.
"What are the Elves doing?" Linthia asked, nudging towards the Elves ahead.
All of them immediately tending to the carcass.
Seeing this, Dindora reprimanded, "It could still explode, remember? We need to be careful"
"Ah, right..."
"So, what happened? How did Nadia get here?"
"I... I forgot that I allowed her to come to the Elves to get a spirit to assimilate"
"How could you forget such an important thing?! If she dies, we're all going to be in trouble"
"I'm sorry, with what we had on hand, I got overwhelmed"
"Sigh... Forget about it, let's not report this to the royal pack. Nobody got hurt so it's fine"
On the other hand, the Elven Captain stepped into the barrier.
Knowing that the minion's carcass could explode—the Elves outside maintained—an airtight and powerful barrier by constantly infusing it with nature energy. It would minimize the blast if the carcass did explode.
As for the Elven Captain, she would be the one to take the beast core.
Since the other minion was reported to have one, this one might have a beast core too.
It was too valuable to pass up and the Elven Captain volunteered to take it.
Going down to one knee—she took out a sharp knife and enhanced it with energy before she prepared to dig into the minion's belly. Inhaling deeply, she pushed the knife hard but a frown instantly crept to her face.
"Hmm...? It's so hard, maybe it's because it's so strong" She muttered.
Infusing more energy into her knife, she pushed even harder but frowned again.
She was almost going full strength but she couldn't pierce the knife into the carcass' belly.
Pushing her hand into the carcass' body, she tried to find a pulse.
But there was none so she was relieved.
Having experience in dissecting, a ninth-rank realm mutated animal, the Elven Captain knew that—this was not a matter of strength. She should be able to puncture through, "No matter how strong the beast is, once it was dead its flesh would soften. Other than those that have hard scales this shouldn't be a problem"
Just as she said that, however, the Elven Captain's heart skipped a beat.
She turned towards her hand as she felt a throb.
Initially, she thought that she was imagining it but a second throb pushed her hand.
"Its... It's still ALIVE!!"
Almost instantly, all eyes shifted back towards the minion.
Under the onlookers' gazes, the minion yanked its head, and opened its mouth, attempting to chew on the Elven Captain's body. But Dindora reacted quickly, she summoned vines to wrap around its mouth.
However, in that next second, the minion exploded with violent death mana.
It freed itself, shattering the barrier, and charged at Dindora.
Dindora clashed against the minion again but as the two locked in a struggle, she could feel that the minion was burning through its beast core. Instead of exploding, it burned its beast core's energy to fuel it for one last attack.
'A last-ditch attempt, if I kept it here, it would die,' Dindora nodded.
But then, she saw its devilish eyes shift towards Linthia who was late to react.
Smirking, the minion's eyes glowed with death mana, seemingly poised to fire a beam.
Upon seeing this, Dindora gritted her teeth and prepared to get in the way, Linthia would not be able to sustain, its attack. However, this was precisely what the minion was aiming for. As Dindora's attention was divided, the bone horns on its head elongated.
Linthia's paled when she saw this, "Dindora, no!!!"
Splash!
Too late to react, Dindora's eyes widened when she felt something pierced her throat.
It became hard to breathe suddenly.
Faked by the minion that seemed to be preparing to attack Linthia, she got careless and got stabbed through her throat. For a moment there—everyone was frozen in their spots except for the Elven Captain who kept charging to help.
Even with her determination, she was way too late.
Smirking in satisfaction, the minion's other bone horn elongated and moved fluidly like an eel.
Not stopping at Dindora's throat, it stabbed through her chest, reaching for her heart.
But as the tip punctured the heart, the last bit of its strength faded as it fell to the ground.
Despite that, it was able to exact revenge.
"DINDORA!!"
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