“We meet again, little Hero.”
Thick lips covered in a dense beard suddenly split open, revealing a set of gleaming white teeth.
Anna’s gaze briefly flickered over that muscular, sinewy body. She sidestepped to evade the incoming blade, stomped down with a crisp crack on the shoulder of the Skeleton before her, and vaulted toward Wululu.
“I didn’t expect to see you here.”
Anna lowered her body, toes pressing hard against the bridge’s surface, and shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bowstring, heading straight for Wululu’s chest.
A Rock Wall blocked her path. She swung her sword to cut through it, but the blade became lodged in the stone, unable to move.
Tsk. Anna drew a deep breath, rousing the scant Magic within her body. Azure runes flared along her sword’s edge, and with a boom, the rock shattered and crumbled beneath the sword’s strike.
Anna darted through the shower of flying debris, but Wululu’s Skeleton soldiers abandoned Jessica and closed in on Anna from all sides, threatening to bury her within the Skeleton Sea.
Anna had foreseen that things would come to this. She neither dodged nor fled, dragging her sword behind her as she charged headlong into the ranks of Skeleton soldiers.
At breakneck speed, she reached Wululu and slashed her sword at his bare, black-furred chest.
Her sword struck stone and failed to leave a mark.
Dense stone clusters erupted from the bridge beneath her feet. Anna sprang back, dodging the pillars before her, but one behind her grazed her back.
Her dress tore along the sharp edge of the stone pillar, exposing a large swath of snowy, delicate skin.
Wululu watched Anna weaving through the Stone Forest as if admiring a marvelous play, wanting to claim that exposed skin for himself with his eyes.
Marvelous, simply marvelous.
Wululu felt as if he’d just downed a bottle of strong liquor—his entire body was aflame, his blood surging.
His gaze became ever more glued to the petite Hero; her every subtle movement burned like fire. Wululu felt as if his eyes had been glued to her body.
As for the female knight surrounded by Skeleton soldiers… she didn’t look bad either. Fiery red hair, golden eyes—this young knight was like a snarling lion cub. Wululu couldn’t wait to savor the thrill of conquering a lion.
And then there was the white-haired one beneath the bridge, still battling the assault.
She was indeed a gifted mage, but her Magic must be nearly depleted by now, right? A mage with no Magic left is nothing more than an ornament. When the time comes, he could slowly savor that graceful figure…
Wululu, victory assured, let his imagination drift far from the bridge.
“Now’s the time!”
Anna’s cry shattered Wululu’s fantasy. He hurriedly surveyed his surroundings—everything seemed normal, just a bluff.
Pfft. A dagger plunged into flesh, splitting muscle, slicing through tendons, piercing bone.
Wululu stared blankly down at the blade jutting through his chest.
He didn’t even have time to register the pain.
“When…?”
He hadn’t sensed anyone approaching at all.
The instant the dagger was pulled from his chest, all the strength in Wululu’s body seemed to pour away.
He tried to turn around, but even twisting his waist was unbearably hard.
Just a slight movement tugged at the wound in his chest, nearly driving Wululu mad.
Flames gathered in his hands, sweeping across the bridge in a surge of fire. But ice crawled up his feet from beyond the fire, threatening to freeze him solid.
Pfft—another sword pierced his abdomen.
Then the stabbing grew faster. In the short moment Wululu struggled to breathe, the sword made eighteen holes in his body.
Wululu staggered to his knees, turned his head, and saw the pink-haired hunter he’d overlooked.
Careless… How did she get onto the bridge?
Wululu’s gaze shifted to the far end of the bridge, where a steep cliff dropped into a torrent below. A thick rope hung from the cliff, and the hunter had climbed up from there.
Did she have a death wish? How could she climb up from such a hellish place?
But it was too late for regrets. Lydia, expressionless, seized the little tuft of hair on his head and slit his throat with her sword.
It wasn’t so much a slash as a sawing motion.
Lydia slowly sawed through Wululu’s neck.
Wululu died with his eyes open. His eyeballs, swollen from lack of oxygen, bulged outward, making Lydia sick to her stomach.
Crunch. Sharp heels crushed two bloodshot white orbs.
All that remained was a corpse with hollow eye sockets.
As Wululu fell, the undead Skeletons he had summoned instantly ceased their movements. Their bodies crumbled, turning to dust.
They… had won.
Anna’s hand trembled slightly as she gripped her sword hilt.
The blade shivered imperceptibly, as if echoing the ripples in Anna’s heart.
Clatter. Ophelia hauled herself up onto the bridge with the rope.
Her steps were unsteady, as if she might collapse in the wind at any moment.
“Thank you… all of you.”
Jessica rested her nicked knight’s sword on her shoulder, tilting it away; her gesture of knightly courtesy was warped by exhaustion.
“As for the Bow Hero… can I deal with him myself?”
Her gaze was sharp as she looked at Anna.
“How do you intend to deal with him?”
Anna edged aside, shielding the blood-drained, unconscious Damir with her body.
“These so-called unworthy Heroes… of course, all of them deserve death.”
Jessica reversed her blade and advanced, step by step.
“You know nothing about who they really are!”
Lydia stood before Anna.
“And what about you? Do you understand them? Or are you an accomplice of the Heroes too?”
Jessica’s words were cold as ice, as if she were aiming her sword not at an ally she had just fought beside, but at an enemy yet to be eliminated.
Her frigid hostility spilled forth, plain for all to see.
“An accomplice?” Lydia’s brows knitted tightly. She did not step back; instead, she stepped forward, almost bumping her chest into Jessica’s blade.
“Yes. And so what?”
Lydia brushed aside the blade with her fingers. She wanted to tell Jessica about her own suffering, but the moment she opened her mouth, Jessica’s sword was at her throat. Jessica had no intention of listening to her grievances.
“Your suffering… what’s that to me?”
Jessica sneered, her gaze fixed past Lydia, landing on Anna.
“You’re a Hero too, aren’t you?”
She was demanding an answer.
“Yes.”
Anna didn’t bother to defend herself, but neither did she back down.
“He’s still useful.”
Anna’s tone was icy. She knew there was no way to explain to those who had died, but Damir couldn’t die yet. The information he held… might be the key to saving the captive girls.
“One chance.”
Jessica gritted her teeth so hard it seemed she would grind her hatred to dust.