Chapter 59: Scared
Just as the bodies of the mistwraiths turned into fine white dust, glassy white luminescent orbs appeared at the places where they were.
Jaden looked at the orb in front of him and mumbled.
"Spirit core?"
Jaden had never seen a spirit core before, so he didn’t know how one looked for sure, and none of the mistwraiths or other nightmares he had killed so far gave him any spirit core.
Others also got one, and Selina was first to pick hers. She looked at it for a moment before crushing it. White sparks appeared and entered her body; her eyes glowed dimly before they dulled as before.
’So that’s how you do it.’
Jaden walked forward and picked up the spirit core. He followed what Selina had done with her’s and the white sparks appeared and entered his body. Just as they entered his body, he felt like his mind had become sharper and wider... even if it was just a minuscule change.
Turning around, he looked at the others who had also finished absorbing their spirit cores.
All of them walked towards Jaden, as he was the one nearest to the next slab. He glanced at all of them, and his eyes stopped at Arden, who had a wide claw mark on his chestplate, as he asked worriedly.
"Are you alright, Arden?"
Arden lifted his head and looked at him for a moment before replying with a nod.
"I am... I was just surprised."
He gave Jaden a bright smile and walked over to Jamie. Jamie looked at Arden before clicking his tongue and clenching his fist as he spoke solemnly.
"He is not a kid. He’ll be fine."
Jaden looked at Jamie with a surprised look and gave him a short nod before turning towards the other three.
"Are you guys alright?"
Navin gave him a faint smile and responded.
"Talk about yourself, weren’t you the one who fell while fighting a mistwraith?"
Hearing that, Jaden’s eyes narrowed a little as he thought.
’He was focusing on my fight during his own?’
"I just happened to see it."
Navin answered with a shake of his head, at which Jaden further narrowed his eyes. He continued to look at him before turning towards Shelly, who nodded at him even before he said anything.
Heaving a sigh, he finally looked at Selina, who was looking towards him with her left hand on the handle of her sheathed sword and the other one clenched into a fist.
"Are you fine... Selina?"
Selina looked into his eyes before answering with a slight nod.
"I am."
Jaden also gave a short nod and turned towards the next slab, which floated a few meters away from the current slab.
Selina looked at his back as she thought.
’Not yet...’
"We should continue moving, as we don’t know what may happen here."
They continued moving, and just like before, they jumped towards the next slab using their magic spells; this time, however, Arden didn’t accompany Jamie while mumbling something about him being unwell upstairs.
Similar to before, mistwraiths appeared, and this time they took care of them much easily and absorbed the spirit cores as they continued. The next slab was similar.
However, no mistwraiths appeared on the one after that.
"Nothing?" Navin said doubtfully; he was sure that there was a reason behind there being no mistwraiths on this slab.
And he turned out to be right as the slab shifted and detached itself from the wall. Similarly, three more slabs detached themselves and appeared before the one they were on as descending stairs.
"We only have to move three more slabs and then we will reach the gateway," Selina added as her grip on the sword tightened.
Jaden nodded somberly as he thought.
’Those three slabs are going to be different from before...’
Even if he knew that, there was nothing they could do except continue forward.
They rested a little, and Jaden gave each of them a bag of bread and water; all of them looked at him with questioning eyes, but Jaden’s reluctance told them that he didn’t want to hear any questions. After filling themselves, they refilled their mana and continued towards the next slab.
Just as they reached the end of the fourth slab, it moved forward and lowered itself near the fifth. Seeing that, their sense of danger multiplied, and their grips on the weapons tightened.
The ground shifted once again, but this time they were placed in three groups of two.
Jaden and Selina, Navin and Shelly and finally Arden and Jamie.
The mist rippled again and rose from three places around each group before forming into three mistwraiths—each being of E rank.
Everyone’s expressions darkened, and a silent curse left Jaden’s lips.
"Blasted hell..."
’If this continued like this, then I would have to use my true strength.’
His expression turned worse on that realisation. He turned his head and looked at Selina, who was already in her battle-ready stance.
"Are you not scared of three beings with similar strength to us?" he questioned as he also took his stance.
Selina glanced at him from the corner of her eyes before responding flatly.
"You ask if I am scared? Of course, I am. But fear won’t change anything; all I can do is fight until the things that scare me can’t any longer."
Jaden’s eyes shone, his lips arched up as he muttered.
"I can see why I would have fallen for you."
Selina’s lips curved up, and both of them attacked the mistwraiths near them while keeping the third one at a distance. Jaden’s sword arched and left a deep cut at the waist of the mistwraith, but from that cut, mist began to seep out, and that mist began to dull his movements.
Selina also felt his movements turn dull as she cursed under her breath.
"Blasted hell..."
Others were also in the same predicament, and right then a mistwraith clawed at Arden’s chestplate. Arden jumped back to dodge, but the claws sank into his chestplate and took it off.
"UGH?!"