Free Web NovelChapter 43: This Is The End
On the other side of the island was one hell of a battlefield where both parties had lost at least one member, and though the human team still had more members alive than the Avariels, they were utterly defeated and heavily wounded.
Rose was painfully crawling away from the three weary Avariels still standing, and one staggered over to her, grabbing her ankle to pull her back, when a dagger suddenly flew and embedded itself into his right eye.
The Avariel cried out as he dropped Rose to grab his wounded eye, and the only female Avariel in the group quickly charged towards the heavily injured culprit and punted her in the abdomen, sending Joan crashing and coughing blood.
The Avariel crouched over her, grabbing her hair and lifting her head as she placed a blade on Joan’s neck. But contrary to her expectations, the latter began laughing like she’d suddenly gone crazy in the face of death.
"What are you laughing at? Huh?" the Avariel spat mockingly.
"W-Why am I laughing?" Joan struggled to ask. "That’s because I’ll be seeing you soon in hell," she said with a bloody grin.
"What do you mean by that?" The Avariel tightened her grip around Joan’s hair, pressing the knife to her throat. "Are you just bluffing to stall for time?"
"Maybe. Because there’s one of us who isn’t here yet. He’s always ahead of us, snooping around on the enemy’s island alone, and somehow always makes it back alive. Guess where he is now?" Joan asked in a mocking tone.
The Avariel paused before she began laughing like the human before her had cracked the best joke. "If this teammate of yours really stepped onto our island, alone or with an army, he’ll end up dead two out of three times."
"Are you sure about that?" Joan asked again, her bloody smile not faltering for a second.
The Avariel was confused about who this person the human before her spoke of was, that gave her such confidence even in the face of death.
But just as she was deliberating on it, a dagger flashed across her face, cutting her. The Avariel screamed in pain as she fell off Joan.
Joan had been too weak and had entirely missed the throat for the face, but forced herself up to finish off the Avariel, when a third one suddenly drew a bow and pulled its string at her. At the same time, the one she’d injured in the eye had recovered enough to grab his axe and charge for her head.
Her bluffing had saved her the first time, but what could save her this time?
Looking around at her injured teammates, including Felix and the others, she forced herself to stand upright, grabbing her dagger with both hands to steady herself as she watched the charging cyclops through blurry vision, the archer who was stalling for his companion to take revenge, and the female Avariel who was feeling around for her blade while clutching her bleeding face.
She only had herself now and could only go down fighting till the very end.
She could hear the muffled screams of Rose crying on her behalf, and that of Felix, whose sword had broken in battle, rendering his Talent useless.
But even now, it wasn’t her life flashing before her eyes, but the face of a mysterious young man from the moment he made his first appearance on the island.
’What the hell are you up to now?’ she mused to herself with a weak smile.
And like a divine reply, the charging Avariel suddenly paused in his steps.
Not just him, but his companions as well.
Joan didn’t need to ask, as she could see it clearly in her vision and turned to exchange glances with the Avariel whose face she’d slashed.
[Your island has conquered the Avariel island]
The surviving parties had yet to recover when the island hummed at its core.
It was familiar, yet different from the island invasion earthquake, as the island began breaking apart and reassembling itself to expand.
This confirmed it all for both uncertain parties; the Avariel island hadn’t been conquered by a fluke. It was intentional by someone from that island, and the fact that they didn’t hesitate to devour the enemy island proved they were strong and unbothered enough to only care about that after a supposedly life-or-death battle.
When two figures began materializing before the two parties—three, to be precise—the groups were stunned by the sight they saw, as the two people were someone both teams knew personally.
"M-Mistress?"
"A-Arc?"
The cyclops Avariel wanted to ask what was happening, and why their leader was standing with the enemy teammate he’d spotted earlier, when it clicked in his brain and he couldn’t help but laugh out loud in excitement.
"Mistress, I was worried for a moment that a vermin had defeated you, and I apologize deeply for underestimating your strength for a second. Your ways are indeed mysterious and can never be understood by weaklings like us," he praised.
The archer Avariel backed him up quickly, coming to the same conclusion as his companion. "Indeed, it doesn’t matter which island devours which, as long as it’s ours in the end." He beamed with a reverent smile.
’Huh?’
Arc couldn’t understand what the two Avariels were saying and looked at them before running his eyes across the wrecked battlefield.
Every other person besides the Avariel warriors was staring at him in confusion and curiosity.
"M-Mistress, you don’t have to stress yourself anymore. You can go in and have your rest now, and we’ll finish up here quickly. You can also leave that one to us if you have no use for him," the one-eyed Avariel said, referring to Arc.
But contrary to his expectations, he watched his mistress turn to look at the human standing before her without a word. It was almost like she was waiting for orders from the nonchalant human.
"Kill them."
The two words that escaped the human’s lips dropped like a bombshell, and the Avariel warriors were stunned before they were filled with rage.
"How dare you talk big before our mistress? You think you can lay a single finger on us with our leader being here?"
"That’s it, I’ll end you first." The one-eyed Avariel drew his sword as he charged at Arc.
He hadn’t gotten close when a needle and blood threads flashed around him, wrapping him tightly and spreading him out as he was lifted into the air.
The other Avariels were stunned, as this was none other than their leader’s trademark ability, and looked at their mistress in confusion, only for the blood threads to surround them as well, wrapping around their arms and legs as they were lifted into the air.
The one-eyed cyclops wanted to scream for his mistress, to tell her she’d made a mistake and gotten the wrong person, only to see his companions get trapped as well, and he was dumbstruck. He turned to take a better look at his mistress and the human.
It was only then he noticed that not only was his mistress standing awkwardly, but she was standing slightly behind the human as well, the way they stood behind her as subordinates.
This human wasn’t a captive, and neither was his mistress the leader of this unlikely union.
Why were their elite warriors dead? The notification of their deaths rode in tow with the previous one, while only this human had stepped onto their island. And why was his mistress now answering to him?
He shifted his gaze from Rhea, whose expression was hidden in the shadows of her gray hood, to take a better look at the human. His eyes turned bloodshot as rage consumed him.
"You filthy human, what have you done to our mis—"
He couldn’t complete his sentence when the blood threads tightened around his body and a needle flashed through his head, and that of his companions in tow.
They dropped to the floor in a heap.
The entire island was eerily silent now, with all eyes shifting from the dead Avariels to the hooded one whom they were certain they wouldn’t survive a battle with after what they’d witnessed. Then their gazes shifted to Arc, staring at him silently in a conflict of emotions.
Some were stunned and utterly speechless, while others were confused and relieved. And in some, a flash of recognition appeared in their eyes.
While Arc was distracted by Seraphina, who was running about around his legs like she was excited, a blonde-haired girl clutching a broken bow stood up with difficulty as her eyes locked onto him. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
"A-Arc?" she suddenly called out in recognition. "Is that you?"
