Clang… Clang… Clang…
It was a bell sound.
The sound echoed in the dark. It was as though it rang deeply in the hearts of people. Rhode stood up and scanned his surroundings meticulously, and at the same time, he clenched the card on his palm.
"Lize."
"Ah, yes!"
"Do you still remember what we did in that town before?"
"I remember!"
Once she recalled her previous encounter, Lize immediately remembered what she was supposed to do. Her body posture was firm as she illuminated the air around them with a warm, light ball. And as though something reacted to the holy light, a strong wind suddenly blew, causing the embers to scatter in all directions.
"Mr. Rhode, is this enemy something similar to what we fought back then?"
"Its characteristics are somewhat similar."
"…"
Hearing Rhode's indifferent reply, Lize's heart finally became a lot calmer. If it were in the past, she would undoubtedly be unable to keep her composure. However, after gaining experience from the battle in the Fog Ruins, she was elated that she found out that her ability could gain the upper hand with those terrifying monsters. After all, ever since forever, her role was to stand behind the frontlines, unable to help directly.
But now, it was all different. Under special circumstances, she could participate in battles as well and not just rely on the protection of her team. This gave Lize a staggering amount of confidence. Thus, once she heard Rhode mention about Fog Ruins, her fear of this haunted house reduced somewhat.
Since Rhode mentioned about it, then he must have a way!
Subconsciously, Lize began to trust and rely on Rhode who she had just known not too long ago.
The battle already started.
Rhode raised his vigilance. He swept his gaze carefully at his surroundings, but without any warning, in a quick motion, he flipped his right hand. The Star Mark appeared on Rhode's hand, and he immediately sliced towards the darkness without any hesitation. In a fluid motion, he followed up by throwing out his sword. Suddenly, a scorching wave of flames formed at the position of his sword, which soon unveiled a black hound covered in flames.
The Flame Killer.
The fire hound immediately went into its battle stance. It arched its body towards the back and gripped the ground tightly with its claws. The Flame Killer then gave a low roar. As an elemental creature, it had a keen sense of danger, which in turn, responded with a growl instinctively.
"Lize, cast a shield over yourself. Remember, if you encounter any danger, the first thing you must do is to use a healing spell… I think you know how to do that."
"Yes, sir."
After being reassured with his confidence, Lize quickly calmed down. Rhode nodded his head slightly with satisfaction. With his keen observation, he felt that this girl was almost perfect in her meticulous nature, but it was a pity that she had no definite goal. So when he issued a command to Lize, her personality immediately changed, and she wasn't the scared and frightened girl from before.
"Follow me."
Rhode turned around and walked towards the hall.
There was a deathly silence along the exterior corridor.
A chilling wind blew continuously through the broken windows. The frame kept slamming against the window sill, causing eerie echoes throughout the house.
At the first glance, nothing seemed to be different.
However, some nasty beings were already in motion.
Rhode noticed a shadow moving, and it finally hid in a corner. The Flame Killer also growled in excitement. From behind its razor-sharp canine teeth, an intense light gathered in its throat, and tiny licks of flame flickered around its mouth.
Suddenly, a human sculpture that was missing half of its body appeared out of the darkness and flew towards him, as if something hurled it.
It's coming!
Facing this attack, Rhode flicked his sword towards the incoming sculpture, slicing it cleanly into two.
Boom!
The sculpture broke apart when it landed on the floor. At the same time, Lize felt a shiver down her spine.
She subconsciously turned around and discovered a bluish human figure on the steps of the stairs.
These were evil spirits that existed on this continent. A tragic soul that couldn't leave the world because an evil source of power had tainted them. They were nothing more than a former husk of its previous self, possessing no sentience, but only deep hatred towards the living. And of course, as a Cleric, Lize certainly had considerable knowledge of them.
Now that she had been through the Fog Ruins, she had even more confidence to deal with this evil spirit. Thus, she formed her own strategy in her mind before attacking the evil spirit unhesitantly.
However, just before she could take action, Rhode stretched out his arm towards Lize's shoulder.
"Mr. Rhode?"
Sensing Rhode's odd behavior, she turned around with surprise in her eyes.
"There is a better way, Lize."
Facing Lize's doubtful gaze, Rhode's expression maintained its tranquility. He lowered his head and whispered something to Lize. When she heard what he said, slowly, her expression turned from doubt, to surprise, and finally to joy.
"I will try my best Mr. Rhode.
"Very good, then leave the rest to me."
More than a dozen of evil spirits appeared and surrounded the duo. Their ethereal forms floated in the air as they stretched out their arms and screamed. They rushed over with the intention to tear apart their living bodies.
However, their rash actions were futile.
To the side, the black hound that had been dying for battle, leaped and launched a sea of flames from its terrifying jaws towards the evil spirits.
The ultimate weakness of undead creatures was the holy element, but closely following that was the fire element. In this battle, Rhode possessed both of them. That was the reason why he wasn't afraid of challenging this quest. If it was only by himself, he would surely not play with his life with a measly 500 gold coins.
When faced with Fire Breath, the evil spirits screamed in agony. Their ethereal bodies were immune to physical attacks, but it was useless against magical attacks. Soon, two to three spirits disappeared as they died to the fire elemental attack. Fire Breath had no way to discern its targets and resulted in the furniture being caught in the flames as well.
The evil spirits formation began to weaken, and at this time, Rhode activated Shadow Flash.
In a flash, as though he was a swallow flying over the fence, a dull shadow passed through the wall of flames unhindered. Before the evil spirits could even react, a white sword had already penetrated through their cores. One by one, they fell like flies.
Swoosh.
An evil spirit that attempted to block the attack was sliced into two like a hot knife through butter. Soon, the rest of the evil spirits somehow managed to comprehend that he wasn't a foe to be trifled with and they retreated with great haste. They flew towards the wall and disappeared.
The stairs then began to shake.
A rusty armor suddenly made a creaking sound. It slowly raised a gigantic sword over its head and smashed down towards Rhode.
But before it could even pull the attack off, the black hound noticed and preemptively sprayed its flame towards the armor.
[EXP 360/2500]
Not enough.
Rhode glanced at the prompt with the side of his eyes and found that his experience gain was too slow. It was far below the time at Twilight Forest. But it was no mystery why. Since these evil spirits weren't elite monsters, he could easily kill a dozen of them. Thus, naturally the experience wouldn't be worth much. But to Rhode, there was more important things to be done.
Rhode saw his system prompt and found that his experience increased too slow, it was far beyond the time at the Twilight Forest. But it was no wonder. After all, these evil spirits were not elite monsters and he could easily kill a dozen, so naturally, the experience wasn't worth that much… But to Rhode, there were more important things that he needed to do.
He turned his head and stared at the girl on the stairs.
Rhode could hear the screams of the evil spirits clearly.
Observing the cold and dead figure, Lize raised her right hand as she recalled Rhode's words from before.
"The healing light's usage isn't only for healing wounds. Remember: Condense, overlap, and compress. Then cast it. I believe that you can do it."
Condense…
She could sense the sacred power coalescing by her own will and slowly reaching its peak. According to the process, she could already cast the healing light, but she did not do so.
Overlap…
The sacred power continued to condense and fluctuate. She realized that after reaching a certain point, the concentration gradually became effortless.
Compress…
Once the two types of sacred powers began to merge, Lize's spirit power was already hitting the limit. Her palms were trembling and her expression was as though she couldn't keep it in any longer.
At this time, some evil spirits managed to use the delayed casting time to rush to her side.
When Lize regained consciousness, an evil spirit with hollow eyes brimming with deep hatred suddenly appeared before her. She subconsciously took half a step back and the energy on her hands vanished because of her fear. At that moment, a sword emerged from behind and pierced through the evil spirit.
"Again," Rhode said with a calm tone.
"Yes."
Lize bit her lips and raised her hand once again. Learning from her failed experience, she quickly condensed the energy between her hands. Staring at the evil spirit from afar, Lize clenched her teeth and reached forward with her right hand.
Swoosh!
A brilliant light appeared from thin air. The beam that was as thick as a pillar, engulfed the evil spirits in an area of attack and before those spirits could react, they turned to ashes.
"Eh?"
Lize retracted her hand and watched what happened before her with surprise. Of course, she knew that the healing spell could damage undead creatures, but she didn't expect that it was THAT powerful.
Holy soul bless me…
Can this even be called a healing spell? The power completely overwhelms the temple bishop's Hammer of Trial.
However, before she could even switch her expression from shock to joy, Rhode's calm words was like a cold bucket of water splashed across her face as he pulled her back to reality
"Keep up the work. This is just the beginning."