Free Web NovelChapter 31: Rain of Fire
A few streets from where Ethan was hiding, a cracked plaza was sinking into chaos.
Victor Hale raised his energy shield before him. The blue shield trembled violently as three monsters charged in at once. They were only about the height of a grown adult, their bodies like skinned wild wolves, but their backs and leg joints were covered in purple-black crystals. Each time they clawed at the shield, a patch of energy on its surface was eroded into gray.
Victor shouted through gritted teeth: "Nolan, left!"
Nolan Greaves rolled to dodge a claw and raised his energy rifle, firing in succession.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three blue rounds pierced through the heads of two monsters. They fell, but before Nolan could even let out a breath, five more had charged in from the vine-covered street.
Nolan cursed under his breath: "Damn it, we can’t kill them all!" fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
Behind the two of them, Mira Vale placed a hand on Victor’s shoulder. A pale white light flowed into the armor on his body, healing the wound just eroded by Void energy. But the moment the light touched the purple-black streak, Mira’s face immediately went pale.
Mira said urgently: "The corruption is eating my energy in reverse. I can’t sustain it any longer."
Victor chopped his energy sword down, cleaving a monster that had just leapt up in two. "They’re just Black Iron and Bronze. Why are they so hard to kill?"
Nolan shot another one’s leg to pieces, then retreated backward. "Because they’re not normal. At first they even avoided us, then suddenly went berserk. Don’t you see the purple-black crystals on them?"
Mira looked around.
More and more black shadows appeared among the ruined buildings.
Ten.
Twenty.
Fifty.
The space at the end of the plaza was still warping, occasionally spitting out a few more monsters from another layer of terrain. They weren’t strong. But there were too many of them. What’s more, the purple-black crystals on them made each collision a drain.
The three of them were all elite students.
All had reached Gold.
In a normal situation, this group of Black Iron and Bronze monsters wouldn’t be qualified to make them struggle.
But this place wasn’t a normal situation.
This was the Anomalous Coordinates.
Here, space could crack open at any moment. Monsters could appear from layers of terrain that didn’t belong to the present. Void energy could erode shields, rounds, healing magic, even the bodies of the living.
Victor took a step back.
The energy shield in his hand flashed, then dimmed a stretch.
Victor roared: "Mira, restore the shield!"
Mira replied through gritted teeth: "I’m doing it!"
Nolan looked at the energy crystal mounted beneath his rifle, his expression turning uglier. "I’m running out of compressed-energy rounds."
Victor turned his head and shouted: "Then conserve them!"
Nolan said angrily: "Conserve? You want me to shoot them with my bare hands?"
A humanoid monster crawling on all fours suddenly leapt down from the roof of a rotted car. It charged straight at Mira.
Mira changed color.
Nolan immediately swung his rifle.
Bang!
The round pierced through the monster’s shoulder, but couldn’t stop it. The purple-black crystals on it blazed bright, and the wound that had just appeared was sealed by a layer of rotted flesh.
Victor wanted to turn back to save her, but three other monsters had slammed into his shield.
Boom!
The energy shield cracked.
Victor was pushed back, both legs plowing across the ground.
Mira raised her hand, creating a curtain of light before her. The monster rammed into the curtain, its claws nearly reaching her face.
Mira said through gritted teeth: "I can’t hold it any longer!"
The curtain of light began to crack.
Nolan raised his rifle, but the energy crystal on it suddenly went out.
He was stunned.
"Damn it."
The monster opened its mouth, its sharp teeth covered in purple-black fluid.
In the moment Mira thought she was about to be torn apart, the sky above the plaza suddenly turned red.
No one had time to react.
A spark fell.
Then a second spark.
Then hundreds of sparks.
They weren’t like rain.
But like red arrows fired down from the sky.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Each spark pierced through a monster’s body, pinning them to the ground. The monsters that had just been howling frantically were immediately swallowed by dark red flame. The purple-black crystals on them gave off a piercing shriek, then shattered into ash.
Mira’s eyes went wide.
The monster before her was pierced through the head by a spark. Its body froze, then burned clean in less than a second.
Victor raised his head too.
Nolan even forgot to change the crystal for his rifle.
The entire plaza was covered in a rain of fire.
No large explosion.
No chaotic aftershock.
Each spark fell precisely on a target. None struck the three of them. None destroyed the ground beneath their feet. None detonated the corrupted crystals. Simply piercing through, incinerating, ending.
More than a hundred monsters vanished in a few breaths.
The plaza that had just been full of roars immediately turned quiet.
Amid the rising dark red ash and dust, a figure hovered in midair.
Long red hair stirred in the wind.
Dragon wings spread open behind her back.
The white dress was covered in a few streaks of gray dust, but still couldn’t hide her overwhelming presence.
On the back of her hand, a blazing red sun mark was slowly going out.
Laira lowered her eyes to look at the plaza.
Her amber-red gaze coldly swept over each corpse burning to ash, then settled on the three survivors.
Victor gripped his energy sword tight.
Nolan unconsciously stepped back half a pace.
Mira raised her head to look at the figure in midair, her lips trembling slightly.
Nolan stood frozen in place too.
He had encountered no small number of strong Awakened in the Sanctuary Academy, and had also seen a few special humanoid races in the alternate-world regions. But a Dragonkin woman who could use a few hundred precise sparks to incinerate a pack of corrupted monsters in just a few breaths, this was the first time he’d seen.
Nolan said hoarsely: "Dragonkin..."
Victor said nothing.
His gaze rested on the dragon wings behind Laira, then looked at the blazing red sun mark on the back of her hand. A very quick flash of heat flickered in his eyes, but was immediately hidden as he lowered his head.
Laira paid no attention to the three of them’s gazes.
She only raised her hand.
The energy crystals left behind after the monsters were incinerated immediately flew up, gathering into a small ring around her.
Mira watched that scene, her face still deathly pale. "She... is she an Awakened?"
Nolan said in a low voice: "Doesn’t seem like it."
Victor gripped the hilt of his energy sword tight. "Doesn’t seem like a monster either."
Laira coldly glanced over them.
"This area isn’t safe."
Her voice wasn’t loud, but the three of them heard it very clearly.
After saying that, Laira turned her head to look behind her.
From the vine-covered street, a young man slowly walked out.
His face was pallid. His left arm was hidden under his torn shirt, with a few streaks of burned black exposed around the arm. But his gaze was very calm, so calm it didn’t seem like someone who had been walking through the Anomalous Coordinates with such an injury.
Victor immediately grew wary.
Nolan also raised his energy rifle on instinct.
Mira froze slightly, her gaze falling on Ethan’s injured arm.
The three of them didn’t know who Ethan was.
They had entered the Anomalous Coordinates before his awakening ceremony took place. All outside news had been cut off. To them, Ethan was just a stranger who had suddenly appeared beside an extremely dangerous Dragonkin woman.
Victor asked coldly: "Who are you?"
Laira landed beside Ethan.
The cold attitude from a moment ago immediately changed.
She leaned over to steady him, her voice far lower: "I told you, you didn’t need to follow."
Ethan looked at the pile of ash on the plaza, then replied: "I needed to see if there was anything worth using."
Laira frowned, but didn’t refute it.
The other three watched that scene, their expressions all stiffening.
A Dragonkin woman who had just easily incinerated a pack of corrupted monsters.
A being so strong it made them afraid to breathe hard.
Yet when standing beside that injured young man, her aura changed completely.
Nolan looked at Ethan, then looked at Laira.
He asked in a low voice: "Are you two... together?"
Ethan glanced at him.
"Yeah."
Victor frowned. "What is she to you?"
Laira narrowed her eyes slightly.
The surrounding temperature immediately rose a little.
Ethan reached his right hand out to gently place it on her arm, stopping her from getting angry.
Then, he calmly said: "My Partner. Laira."
The air immediately fell quiet.
Mira’s eyes went wide.
Victor gripped the hilt of his sword tight.
Nolan looked at Ethan with a disbelieving gaze.
A Partner?
That Dragonkin woman strong enough to have just saved their lives was the Partner of this injured young man?
Nolan unconsciously asked: "You awakened not long ago?"
Ethan didn’t deny it.
"Not long."
Victor was silent for a few seconds.
Then, his gaze rested on Laira again.
This time, the wariness in his eyes gradually mixed with something else.
Greed.
Very thin.
But Ethan still saw it.
