Five arrows flew into each of the magic circles. The room shook as each one make it's mark, fracturing the connective enchantments written to create the circles.
Magical Flux sparkled in the air as all the magic circles shattered.
"What have you done to my Array?!" Faron exclaimed.
"Dad! Where did those arrows come from?" Lanson asked his dad.
"Quiet it down boy! I'm trying to see!" Commanded Morion.
{"You think I'm done? Though I'm not the best at using magic… my wife is. I can still use it."}
Curlin shot out from my shadow and hovered in the air.
"What the fuck is that!" Exclaimed Lanson.
"It's a… it's a… shadow creature!" Stammered Faron.
Curlin swerved his bow around in the air and all the magical flux started to float towards him.
It was faint but I could hear Curlin mumble something and then all the flux entered the tip of Curlin's arrow. A giant dark circle appeared above him.
{"I'm a dark elf not a creature! Take this, Phantom Arrow!"
The arrow shot from Curlin's bow straight at the door but as it came closer to the door it stopped. A barrier had been activated and blocked the arrow.
I looked up at Curlin and he seemed unfazed as the whole white room filled with dark magic circles. After the circles appeared, arrows that looked like the one that's piercing the barrier, shot out of the circles. Hundreds of arrows barraged the barrier and not after a few seconds the barrier began to crack.
The amount of arrows that came from the circles increased to the point that the whole barrier was littered with arrows.
It was then Curlin waved his hands and all the arrows retracted back a bit exposing the crumbling barrier. Curlin waved his hands again and all the arrows shot forward once more.
But as soon as the arrows moved passed the barrier, all of it evaporated.
Shock etched on Curlin's face as all his arrows was no longer there.
"I don't know why there is a shadow creature in here or why it's helping you but that kind of parlour trick won't work on me!"
Swoosh!
A large dark object shot out from me and headed straight towards Faron.
"Like I said it won't work!" Faron shouted as the large object charged towards him.
Faron waved a hand and a barrier formed in front of him.
{"Stupid mage."} I heard Rosewood laughed.
The large object started to rotate and drilled into the barrier. Sparks of magic flux flew everywhere as the object drilled into the barrier.
{"Lance Piercer!"}
Rosewood shot out from me at full speed and as he did, the Lance pushed forward until the barrier broke and smashed into the wall. As the dust settled and the Lance disappeared, Faron was still standing there.
{"Well… damn. He's a lot stronger than we initially thought, brother."}
{"Eh… we're not trying to beat him, you know. We need to find a way to escape. Our main objective is to find his daughter."}
{"Oh right. I'm sure she's safe. Since sis is with her, they will never find her."}
As soon as Rosewood said that, a man in a cloak ran to Faron and whispered something to him.
{"You and your big mouth…"} Curlin scowled at Rosewood.
A grin formed on Faron's face and he turned his head to Morion.
"Hey Sir, we found your stepdaughter. Why don't you guys follow this young man here and he will lead you to her. I will stay here and deal with them."
"Alright." Morion said as the trio started to make their way down the corridor but Faron stopped them.
"Wait!"
Marion turned his head to Faron with a raised eyebrow.
"You ruined my investigation for a petty thing. I hope once this is over, you will uphold your end of the deal. If not, the magic association will hunt you down!"
"You will have what you asked for, you have my word." Morion nodded before he turned his head back around and continued running.
{"Uncle Burch, Uncle Murker. Follow them."}
Two shadows shot out from me and faded into the air.
"Tavish, no hard feelings, it's only business." Faron said with a grin.
"So. What's your aim Faron? Whatever deal you made with Morion must've been something big, to put the whole of the magic association's reputation on the line for."
"You're always so sharp Tavish but this time you're wrong. There's no reputation involved with this, they simply offered me a deal and I took it. The magic association is not involved with this. Anyways, I think you should stop worrying about the deal and worry more about your daughter. I think I'm doing you a favour."
"What rubbish are you spouting right now?"
"Tavish, listen. You should let them have the girl. It would be a good thing for her. She will have both parents, money, power and a husband that could give her the world if she wanted it. You're just a servant to the king. A lapdog. Not only that but you're an immigrant. You're no match for them."
"…"
"You're a commoner, achieving above your weight, there is only so much you could reach. Your ex wife realised this and took the opportunity to live a better life. You should let your daughter do the same. Let them have the girl and live the rest of your life knowing you did the best you could but it just wasn't enough."
"…"
"What? Cat got your tongue?"
"You're right. My daughter deserves to have a better life and as a single father, I could only give her so much but what makes you or anyone think that I would give my daughter away. The woman that gave birth to her, abandoned her and now she wants her back? No. She's my daughter and I'm her father, I'm her only family and she is mine. I hope this deal you've made with Morion isn't one sided because you're about to fail your part."
I unsheathed my sword and leaped forward. Curlin shot three arrows and Faron easily dodged them. I swung my blade at Faron but when my blade should've made contact, missed him entirely.
What the…
Not only did I missed, he wasn't in front of me anymore. My eyes darted everywhere for him but I couldn't locate him.
Where is he?
{"Watch out! He's above you!"}
I looked up but there was no one there. So I closed my eyes and listened for any sound that could tell me where he was. But the only thing I could hear was a buzzing sound.
Ah! fuck it, I was so close to the door so I decided to make a run for it but as soon as I made it passed the door and into the corridor. Faron appeared in front of me. He grabbed me and the next thing I knew, I was back in the white room. Faron was nowhere to be seen but I could faintly still hear a buzzing sound.
{"He knows portal magic?!"}
Portal magic?
"What's portal magic?"
"How did you… Your talking to the shadow creature aren't you?"
{"It's magic that only a few species of magic users knows how to use. The main ones are the spirits. It's rare magic, that allows the user to teleport anywhere at a fast and consecutive rate, not only that but unlike teleportation magic which is slower than portal magic, teleportation magic is a one user use but portal magic is not. How does this guy know how to use this advanced magic?"}
"I don't know but the fact that he didn't use it to portal the Taroks over to where my daughter is, will give us a bit of breathing room."
"You're wrong." Faron said as his image appears and faded with every word. "I just didn't want that hassle. Whilst I said all that about your daughter, your daughter isn't my concern, this family matter isn't my concern, but what is my concern is getting what I want and that man has what I want. To get it, I must stop you. That's the deal and I'm going to fulfil it."
My eyes couldn't keep up as Faron portal himself all over the place. It almost looked like there were multiple of him.
"Chain lighting!" Lighting sparked everywhere, the whole room became a lightning field. Every time I moved, a random spark would come hurling towards me.
"Combination spark: Lightning serpent!"
The lighting became less sporadic and fused together into a long flowing source of energy. The conjoined lighting started to look more like a serpent as it curled on itself like a serpent would.
I gripped my sword and raised it up high.
"Enchanted blade no.10: Diamond cut."
I charged forward and swung my sword across the neck of the serpent. I then used the momentum to push myself to the side and spun around for my next strike.
"Enchanted blade no.1: Devour!"
The cut I've just made by slicing through the serpent's neck created an opening in which allowed me to use my next skill.
My sword's blade is a bit special. It was created by a blacksmith within this city but the initial forging process was done elsewhere. The forger was a master craftsman who would only forge blades deep inside a volcano. I had no idea how he survived living inside a volcano but during his life time he had made only ten blades and one of them is in my hand.
To separate a normal blade from an enchanted one, the person who makes them must create them at a location where it's has an abundance of latent energy. The environment itself is the fuel to forge the blade and mine came from a volcano.
My blade turned crimson as I swung the blade down it's body. As the blade cuts through the lighting serpent, chunks of it started to disappear as my blade ate the serpent. This skill could only be used once my blade had a taste of it's prey. Prey being the magical source. That's why I did the first cut, so my blade could analyse it's magical source.
Diamond cut has the ability to cut through any strong magical energy. No matter how fortified it is, the cut will still be made.
"What did you do to my serpent?!"
"My blade was hungry, so I fed it. But I think my blade is still hungry and you're filled to the top with magical energy."
"A blade that can eat magical energy?! Impossible!"
"Well then, let me show you."
"Enchanted blade no.5: Instant Flash Strike!"
In a blink of an eye, I was now a few metres in front of where Faron was a few moments ago.
"You've missed." Faron laughed.
I looked at my blade. The bright red sheen shorn from the tip to the hilt.
"Have I?" I turned around and saw Faron knelt on the ground.
"Yes. Because you gave me an opening."
"What?"
Faron unleashed an ground breaking seismic tremor.
{"Bullseye!"}
Curlin fired an arrow at Faron.
{"Capture!"}
Rosewood appeared behind Faron and grabbed him. Holding him still.
Faron struggled under Rosewood as he held onto him.
"Let go of me!"
Bang!
The arrow struck Faron's forehead. Faron's head flew back from the impact and smacked Rosewood's face.
{"Ouch… wait… where did he go?"}
Faron had disappeared right after the arrow had hit his head.
"These shadow creatures are really annoying. Get out of my way!" Faron created a large magic circle that covered the whole ceiling. "Purification!"
The whole room was covered with white specks of light.
{"Eh… does this even work on us?"} Rosewood whispered to Curlin.
{"No idea…"}
Curlin and Rosewood just stood there and wondered what would happen to them. They looked around as the white specks of light floated around them.
{"Nothing is happening brother"} Rosewood observed.
{"I guess that answered one question… we're not shadow creatures as he had called us many times."} Curlin laughed.
{"Of course not! We're shadow warriors!"} Rosewood shouted.
{"Rosewood, this is our chance. He doesn't know if it's working or not. We should attack now."}
{"Okay! Let's go!"}
Both Curlin and Rosewood prepared their next attack.
"Explosion!"
Suddenly all the white specks of light exploded.
{"Ah!"} They both cried out.
As the dust settled, both of them were lying on the floor.
{"Fuck! He tricked us…"} Rosewood said barely.
"Curlin! Rosewood!" I called out.
"Your shadow friends are out for the moment. Your not going to win. Give it up!"
"Give what up?"
"Your daughter!"
"Fuck No!"
I readied my blade by pointing my blade upwards, the tip pointed at an angle.
"Enchanted blade no.3: Phantom tip!"
The tip of my blade glowed white before disappearing. I swung my blade downwards, slicing the air.
"What the fuck? I'm over here. You've missed me again! But this time by a greater distance!"
"Have I?"
"Huh?"
He looked down and his clothing was torn to shreds. Not only that but he was bleeding too.
"Any last words? Enchanted blade no.1: Devour!"
My blade became crimson once again and I charged forward.
Faron only grinned and shouted one word, "Explosion!"
I looked around and noticed that I was surrounded with red specks of light.
When did he…
The red specks of light exploded all around me and the explosion hurled me to the wall.
My body smashed into the wall and landed on the cold hard floor. I coughed out blood as I tried to move my arms and legs.
I couldn't move anything as blood dripped from my mouth.
"Don't worry! You'll live but let this be the day that you won't have a daughter anymore."
Valah…
I stared off at the white wall and thought of the life I've had with my daughter. Tears fell from my eyes.
"Forget her." Faron whispered.
Fuck off! I'll never forget her! Is what I would've love to say but my mouth was full of blood and when I opened it, blood only poured out.
[Welcome! Valah O'Connor to Baihu]
[Baihu Lvl 1: 8/10]
My eyes widened at the words. I felt my heart painfully thumped in my chest.
"Leader! Both Detective Holmes and Miss Winters left!" I head the prick shouted with heavy breaths.
"What do you mean by left?" Faron asked in a calm voice.
"They said that they had enough and decided to save the girl."
"What?!" Faron roared.
[Welcome! Lance Holmes to Baihu.]
[Baihu Lvl 1: 9/10]
[Welcome! Valerie Winters to Baihu.]
[Baihu Lvl 1: 10/10]
[Baihu has enough members to upgrade.]
[Upgrade has been accepted by Ryan.]
[Baihu has now been upgraded to Lvl 2.]
My eyes became glossy and fading as I stared at the words in front me and then even more words started to appear.
[Ryan has used the skill helping hands on Tavish.]
[You are now recovering.]
[You are now recovering.]
I couldn't believe my eyes but then they were filled with even more tears when I heard a voice I thought I would never hear again.
"Dad!"