"Will that really work, though?"
Luke was very questioning of Lala's plan for taking down the shadow elementalist.
"It will work for sure! …At least in theory?"
Luke's shoulders drooped.
'She doesn't sound too sure though…'
"Fine, we'll try your plan, but the moment something goes wrong, we'll retreat. Is that clear?"
Lala nodded energetically.
The extermination plan could now commence.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Luke took Lala to "The Drunken Woodsman".
The tavern was basically empty, save for Boldee.
"Luke! Back already? I take it you found what you were looking for?"
Boldee glanced at Lala while he was saying that with a face akin to a proud older brother.
From Boldee's perspective, Luke left for Millef this morning, so it was reasonable to assume that Lala was Luke's objective in the town since he was back already.
Luke understood Boldee's question almost immediately. He used to spend a lot of time with Alex, the Casanova incarnate, after all.
He quietly sighed and smiled in response, before opening his mouth.
"Nice to see you too, Boldee. I guess you could say I made some progress towards my objective. We're just here to rent a room for the night though."
"Why didn't you just say so! What the hell, pick any room! On the house!"
Boldee winked at Luke.
Lala was just quietly observing all of this with a benign smile, while Luke was stupefied.
'What the hell is wrong with this horny inn-keeper?!'
Luke brushed his face over with one of his hands and sighed.
"Sure, I'll take you up on the offer."
'Even if it's a misunderstanding, why would I refuse a free room?'
Luke picked a room with two beds, making Boldee immediately curse himself.
"I'm so sorry Miss, I misunderstood!"
He bowed with his head hung low in front of Lala.
It was pretty clear what Boldee was apologizing for.
Lala gently smiled.
"I took no offense, so it's fine. Really!"
Lala motioned to Boldee that he should stop bowing to her.
Feeling apologetic, Boldee escorted the two of them to their room for the night.
Still free of charge, of course.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
'This is absurd. But absurd is exactly what we need to be able to deal with this.'
Luke was in a pitch dark room, lying down on the bed pretending to be asleep.
Lala was doing the exact same, on the opposite side of the room.
'I doubt she'd proceed with this plan if she knew that all of the villagers would be killed.'
Although Luke told Lala what he knew about the shadow elementalist and his abilities, he had never told her about what would happen to all of the villagers.
He simply told her that he was being targeted.
*Creak…*
The room's door slowly opened.
*Creak, creak, creak*
Luke could hear someone approaching him.
As far as Lala was concerned, the shadow elementalist's only target was Luke, so she would assume that he would be adequately prepared for all and any resistance.
This was very far from the truth.
The moment the sound of the footsteps came to a halt, both Luke and Lala opened their eyes simultaneously.
Their pupils were glowing with a shade of dark orange, and with such a hue that their eyes could be clearly seen even in the completely dark room.
This was the result of an artifact. It could grant its user complete visual clarity even in the darkest of environments. Back on Earth, this was known as night vision.
'According to Lala, this is one of the artifacts that are very vital to have on you at all times. He wouldn't be expecting anyone to be prepared for him in a small village in the middle of nowhere.'
Luke could see the shadow elementalist's curled up lips slowly changing into a frown.
He was convinced that they had caught him off-guard.
'Now!!'
Luke launched a wind blade from under the blanket, prompting Lala to start conjuring a giant ball of water.
'She said that she would need around one minute to complete the cage.'
The plan was to keep the shadow elementalist busy until she was done.
After trapping him, he could no longer use any of his elementals.
The cage was a special technique developed by the Water Temple, and was a part of what made them scary to deal with.
Lala couldn't explain how the technique works, but assured Luke that it was a technique with an almost 100% success rate.
'Let's just hope that this guy isn't in the sub-percent category.'
The shadow elementalist easily avoided Luke's wind blade by twisting his body to the left.
Luke kept up the barrage of wind projectiles, mixing wind blades with a few wind spikes, making the shadow elementalist go on the defense.
While constantly dodging, the shadow elementalist appeared to be holding something with both of his hands.
Luke couldn't make out what it was exactly, so he just kept his guard up while assaulting the shadow elementalist with all he had.
The room was pretty big, enabling Luke to drive the shadow elementalist towards the inner side of the room and away from the door.
Lala's bed was across from Luke's, both being near the door.
The window was barricaded in advance by Luke, using a big, flat piece of wood that he had carved out from one of the trees around the village using his wind elemental. Boldee was kind enough to provide Luke with a few nails and a hammer.
Ten seconds had passed.
It was all going according to their plan.
Lala knew a thing or two about shadow elementals, which she was happy to share with Luke.
Shadow elementalists were popular among assassination guilds, but they were not perfect.
'He can't merge with the shadows around him if there are no sources of light.'
It was a fatal weakness that a knowledgeful or an experienced elementalist could take an advantage of.
And so they did.
The shadow elementalist wasn't just avoiding Luke's attacks, he was also looking for a way out of this situation.
If he managed to escape the room, he could always make a plan to assassinate them when they least expect it.
But ideally, he would prefer to kill both of them right now.
Luke and Lala knew quite a bit about the shadow elementals, but they missed one crucial fact.
The shadow elementalist took a small orb out of his pouch, and brought his two hands together, crushing the orb and thus conjuring a small fireball and throwing it up into the air.
'No way…'
Luke was not using his fire elemental for one simple reason.
Fire is a source of light.
The shadow elementalist disappeared into the ground and made his way to Luke in a flash.
*Slice!*
Luke was familiar with this sensation.
His stomach was split open, his innards gushing out of his body akin to toothpaste out of a squeezed tube.
The wound was much more fatal compared to the one inflicted by the shadow elementalist in the previous loop.
Blood gushed out of Luke's mouth, as his vision darkened.
'Lala…'
He helplessly fell to the ground, blood streaming down from his eyes across his cheeks.
Next to him, he could see a glimpse of a bloodied robe full of intricate blue lotuses.
'Pretty…'
Light faded away from Luke's eyes.
Twenty five seconds had passed.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Luke groaned as he missed the nail, instead hitting his finger, with the hammer he was using.
"Shit!"
He wasn't cussing because of the hammer hitting him.
"Luke! Are you okay? Let me see that."
She was alive.
They both were.
"Lala. There's been a change of plans."
Luke narrowed his eyes, furrowing his eyebrows.