When his skill finally ran out Zane kneeled on one knee in exhaustion, panting.
Anne was overjoyed to find she was still alive, but when she heard Zane groaning she turned and ran over worriedly.
"Are you ok?" She asked worriedly. She didn't need to ask to know it was him who saved them.
Terran also walked over.
"I'm fine, Anne. However, I need a few minutes… Keep your guard up." Zane replied, hiding the blood that was seeping out of his lips due to the damage to his soul. However, she knew that he probably used some sort of forbidden skill just now, and it was taking a heavy toll.
She nodded worriedly. She gave him a brief hug before standing back up and turning over to see Terran with his bow drawn, he was aiming into a nearby hall.
"We got company…" He said.
Zane tried to get up but Anne stopped him with a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Rest, brother. I got this."
When she turned back around, a fierce expression covered her face. She was pissed, to say the least. She hadn't known Zane for a long period of time, but she respected him. He was very realistic, and he was caring to those he trusted. He wasn't a pushover either, he was really strong for his level because of his will to get stronger.
Mote's of light left the ring on her finger turning into a rapier which she grasped.
Before they were taken by surprise, hence they couldn't react. However this time, their opponents were not only slower, but they knew about them in advance.
The blade of her rapier emitted crimson lightning. It resonated highly with her innate abilities amplifying the might of this 3rd profound sky-grade weapon. It is roughly equivalent to a 1st exalted earth rank artifact without the high energy usage under the effects of this.
With a single step, she was already in front of an undead drake. She thrust her rapier straight into the forehead of the skeletal drake.
*BOOM!*
The rapier pierced the drake's skull and the lightning along its blade channeled to the tip and exploded outward. This caused the drake's bones to scatter everywhere.
The red flames in the eye sockets of the drake faded.
"It seems this clan specialized in making undead… That puppet was equivalent to a mid-4th martial realm too." Anne muttered before turning around and stabbing her rapier out once more. Lightning discharged from its tip before her rapier even touched the pouncing drake.
The lightning pierced through its eye socket causing its flames to flicker and fade, her rapier piercing its head did the killing blow.
*BANG!*
*BANG!*
*BANG!*
Countless explosions rang out followed by the clattering of bones as she single-handedly stopped the advance of over a dozen undead drakes. It was natural after all, she was a wyvern, a step above drakes. Even in her human form which weakened her strength, she was capable of dealing with these undead drakes.
Dragons have 2 routes they can go through when they devolve. They either become Wyverns or Drakes. Drakes then become Lung Dragons, then Lindwurms. While Wyverns then devolve to Amphitheres, then Wyrms. However both sides, in the end, will devolve into snakes.
However, there are rare cases where a Dragon can become a Hydra or even a Zmey. This was how the Hydra and Zmey clans were started. Usually, these types of creatures are born with 3 innate elements, one for each head. This has made for a heated debate about whether this is evolution or devolution. Some argue, that it's a mixture of both.
However, regardless, wyverns are known to be superior to drakes by a noticeable margin. Some argue that it's because they retain the essence of dragons, the wings. A dragon's wings allow them to soar high above the sky, and swim deep in the ocean. This is why a dragon's wings are considered its essence.
Terran also kept firing arrow after arrow taking care of the other side of the hallway on his own.
While explosions were ringing out, Zane was slowly recovering.
After several minutes Terran shouted "I'm running low on energy, Brother Zane! Try to recover quickly!"
Zane finally got off of his knee, slightly swaying.
He took a breath before a ferocious expression covered his face.
With a thought, the golden heaven and earth sword appeared in his grasp. (A/N: Renamed it, sounds cooler.)
A bright white flame covered his sword while golden arcs of lightning flickered across its blade.
This sight made both Anne's and Terran's hearts palpitate. Even the undead, despite being dead, froze for a moment. The technique of the clan that created these undead, allowed the undead to have at least a semblance of instinct. Like a feral beast of sorts.
With a slash of his blade in the air, an arc of white flames and golden lightning came crashing through the hall with Anne dodging to the side.
*CRASH!*
Dozens of undead were wiped out in an instant, and the arc of light didn't stop. In the end, one strike wiped out 100 undead. He charged another strike and slashed towards Terran's side of the hall.
In the end, 317 undead were destroyed.
The moment he charged up the third one, the undead froze. They immediately began running away.
Zane breathed a sigh of relief. Just those 2 strikes drained half of his energy, combined with the system's earlier forbidden skill, he only had a quarter left. Thus, he was glad they left otherwise he would have expended all his energy.
He had noticed that they had a semblance of instinct and will despite being dead, so he intended to use fear against them.
The attack slowly dissolved with 80% of its energy returning to him. One couldn't just cancel an attack as a spiritualist, at least not when it was one of your strongest attacks. They had to dispel it carefully.
Now that they were in the clear, the fear that he should have experienced earlier flooded him all at the same time.
He looked at Anne and noticed she was injured but ok, thus he breathed a sigh of relief.
'Perhaps I do love them… I care far too much for them despite only knowing them for a few weeks. Still… I'm more than satisfied with our current relationship.' Zane thought.
He walked over to her with her looking at him with a worried expression. She could see the exhaustion on his face.
"Are you ok?" She asked.
Zane shook his head and brought his hand out carefully caressing her cheek. This caught her by surprise but she didn't stop him, rather she closed her eyes, enjoying his touch.
"I thought I lost you…" He said worriedly bringing his forehead to hers while closing his eyes.
She smiled sweetly.
"I trust you won't let me die while you're around." She replied softly.
A cough was heard a moment later "Do you 2 want some time?"
Zane sighed and shook his head. "No, Terran, we're fine."
Zane backed up and opened his eyes to see Anne with a smile. Although a little disappointment could be seen.
Zane felt a little pain seeing that disappointment, as soon as a certain thought ran through his mind Alina teased him.
[What happened to no harem? Didn't you say you would only have 2 women at most? Hehehe.]
Zane wanted to roll his eyes, but he didn't want Anne to misunderstand something. He closed his eyes before they snapped open looking to the left. "Let's go, maybe we can find the scripture to create undead like this here. This place has only opened twice since the golden dragons disappeared so it's not unrealistic considering there was blood essence left behind."