Chapter 123: Blocking the Way
Kazuka at this time had a free day, he sat in the forest practicing; there were matters outside but he couldn't participate, he was sometimes a bit slow, but not stupid enough to just follow emotions, he still knew how to distinguish.
Sitting in an empty clearing, eyes closed, legs crossed, sword placed beside him.
At this moment he was absorbing surrounding energy into his body, leaves rustled slightly, the green grass was not exactly withered, could be said not very fresh.
A large source of energy was constantly being absorbed into Kazuka's body, but mixed with that azure energy was still a bit of black and within that black there was a slight purple glint hard to see.
…
At some bamboo forest, there was a small group of five people riding horses like flying, racing along, the sound of hoofbeats echoing loudly in the silent space.
The rider leading was Funa, the second daughter of Cavensyl. She had black hair, wearing tight-fitting clothes that were quite revealing, the lower part exposing muscular legs, the upper part from the waist up showing a bit. She was hurriedly directing her eyes forward without looking away.
Following immediately behind were four people going with Funa, they seemed to be her friends.
A young man with a prominent appearance. A middle-aged man with a thick beard and carrying a large shield and large sword on his back, a girl with some mature features holding a staff with a purple stone at the tip, another young man not too prominent but indeed his face looked only about ten years old.
They rode horses like the wind, those horses were not like normal horses. They were a bit larger than major horse breeds, greyish-ash appearance, bodies like a moving block of muscle and growing bone at the joints of the body. They were Bone Horses, speed four times faster than normal horses.
Unexpectedly from afar, there was the silhouette of a man standing still as if waiting.
Although not yet in clear sight, also obscured behind the bamboo thickets on the dirt road. But they all sensed it and entered a state of alert, faces full of tension.
Funa turned back to warn:
"Everyone, be careful."
Whoosh!!
The sound of wind shrieked piercingly from afar, the air as if torn apart, small bamboo thickets blocking the way were immediately blown away. It was a spear with black color and a few small white details, it was surrounded by azure energy.
Funa and the man carrying the shield immediately opened their eyes wide and both turned to their left, it seemed the two had the best reflexes in the group.
But it was too late. The spear extremely fast shot straight at the girl holding the staff. The stabbing blow immediately tore her body apart before there could be any reaction, blood splattered onto the face of the young boy and the one with the handsome face.
Right after the stab was finished, the spear glided away. The group immediately stopped their horses, eyes shocked turning back to look at the horse the staff-holding girl had sat on, the upper body and torso fell down terrifyingly. The Bone Horse stepped its hind legs on the two-halved corpse and walked forward like a horse without a rider.
Before they could get over the shock and say a word. From afar, a middle-aged man stepped forward, he had a shiny bald head, dressed simply, raised his voice:
"Been waiting for you to appear, Funa Ravencourt, waiting here the mosquitoes bite is uncomfortable."
The four of them together directed angry eyes that hadn't ceased being shocked toward the bald man in front.
From the left, the clear voice of a young man stepped out, hand holding the spear he had just thrown to kill the staff-holding girl. This person was quite young and slightly short in stature, the spear stabbed into the ground and he stood beside a bamboo thicket smirking:
"It seems your journey to explore the perilous ruins must end here."
The four of them were still shocked because their friend was killed, emotions chaotic not knowing how to react. Jumping off their horses with eyes full of hatred and looking past both of them.
The man carrying the shield suddenly knelt near the corpse of the staff-holding girl, voice low:
"We will avenge you." He knew this was not the time to cry given the situation.
Funa clenched her fists and bowed her head, her body trembling in bursts. Then her energy erupted outward. Her beautiful face distorted due to fury.
The young man behind shouted, he knew Funa wanted revenge:
"Calm down Funa..."
Boom!!!
Suddenly from the sky, two iron blocks shaped like squares as big as wooden bathtubs. They fell with extremely fast speed.
All four of them sensed it, heads about to look up.
But from afar, the bald man lowered his hand sharply.
Two giant iron blocks crushed the young boy and the guy with the somewhat handsome appearance. They had only just radiated a bit of energy to defend, unexpectedly the two iron blocks had crushed them into a mushy pile mixed with blood, meat, and pulverized bone.
The bald man was stunned, if he had been given one more moment to think he could have protected the two of them. His body stiffened before the scene of his friends dying without being able to react, his head filled only with regret.
Funa was strongly provoked, her hand manifested a sword with red-gold color. Immediately she lunged forward making the ground crack, anger had clouded her reason, tears flowing in streams.
The middle-aged bald man remained calm. A rectangular metal block taller than a head sprouted up suddenly.
Funa who was lunging was forced to halt for a beat and lunged around the iron block. But when she rounded it there was no one, making Funa's anger even more fierce.
An explosive sound echoed from behind. Funa as if waking up a bit called out softly:
"Tyghan."
Immediately turning back, Tyghan and the spear-wielder were continuously attacking and defending. Looking briefly one could see the spear-wielder with his small body was incredibly flexible, continuously dodging the large sword swings of Tyghan and counter-attacking, making Tyghan constantly use his shield and block.
Wanting to run over to help, but the bald man fell from the sky with yellow energy surrounding him.
Funa jumped back and avoided it. The place the bald man landed created a large crater.
Funa frowned seeing the bald man with a body that was just one metallic color of iron.
-"He controls metal? Just iron?"
Funa gripped the sword in hand and swung forward. A large-range slash burning with fire shot away, making the ground charred black and burning even the bamboo leaves below.
An iron block rose and blocked the slash, the blow sliced through the iron block and flew toward the bald man, but he had quickly dodged to one side and avoided it.
The bald man lunged, Funa also lunged to face him directly.
Funa swung large slashes, the bald man's hands continuously blocked and he had the intention to grab Funa's hand but all failed.
Funa gritted her teeth, she struggled to block and dodge the bald man's punches. Fortunate because Funa's sword had recognized its master, so it wasn't stolen by the bald man's metal control ability.
The bald man smirked, he threw a punch as if with full force toward Funa. She blocked with the sword in front and defended, but her body flew away.
His voice was full of contempt, energy radiating more when he saw Funa had regained balance. His hand raised to the sky and lowered decisively:
"Originally intended to play with you, but I forgot I have other business. Goodbye."
Funa lunged forward, but then she sensed something wrong and the hair on her neck stood up, she looked upward.
A series of iron blocks fell just moments apart, they were as large as a carriage, piercing through the large bamboo canopy.
Funa immediately increased speed, energy channeled down to her legs as she wanted to run outside in panic.
But the range was too large…
Boom!... Boom!...
A series of iron blocks fell stacked on each other in a large range, crushing many bamboo thickets and within them was Funa's body.
…
On the side of the spear-wielder and Tyghan, Tyghan was struggling to defend against lethal stabs and spear swings, making it so Tyghan could not have a single swing of his large sword to respond.
It seemed this battle was a very clear disparity in level.
The spear-wielder threw a kick with both feet when the spear was stabbed into the ground. The kick was straight at Tyghan's large metal shield, the heavy kick made the energy layer surrounding the shield only a thin layer, then it quickly filled back.
Tyghan stepped back several large steps, teeth clenched from the great force of the kick.
The spear-wielder jumped backward, while in the air. He concentrated a lot of energy into the spear. When he landed, a downward spear-cleave was brought down making the ground crack and split into two major parts. The energy slash in a crescent shape shot away, continuously plowing up the ground.
Tyghan had just regained his senses after the spear-wielder's kick which made his left arm stiff. When he looked up he saw the slash shooting toward him.
Tyghan slammed the large shield into the ground and meanwhile pushed as much energy as possible out and concentrated it at the front of the shield.
The crescent energy slash hit the large shield directly, the two energy sources collided for a long interval.
While Tyghan was concentrating, suddenly the bald man was floating level with Tyghan's head and swung his arm, along with a large square iron block encasing his arm. Tyghan sensed it and turned, what awaited was the iron block lunging in, blocking his entire vision.
The heavy smash made Tyghan fly away. His face distorted, teeth mostly knocked out, face covered in blood. Only the large sword remained in hand.
Struggling to get up with extreme difficulty, but what awaited was a horizontal spear sweep, but fortunately he still reflected in time and stepped back.
But his eyes were being covered by blood, making him unable to see clearly, only able to sense.
The spear-wielder lunged with a stab. Tyghan sensed it and dodged to one side. But as he dodged to the right, the spear-wielder who was thrusting his spear suddenly stopped and threw a sweep to the right.
The sweep sliced open Tyghan's stomach and he flew away. Mouth spitting blood in horror.
The spear-wielder didn't stop, he lunged. Standing looking down with a satisfied smile. The spear in hand raised and stabbed through the thin energy layer and aimed for Tyghan's heart.
Stab!!!
The body jerked violently from the stab, then quietly and slowly relaxed all muscles and died.