Chapter 244: Color Me Surprised [Bonus - ]
Chapter 244: Color Me Surprised [Bonus Chapter]
Thor’s brows lifted.
Spectra was thoroughly surprised for what seemed like the first time ever. "Well well. You really are something indeed, Espel."
Espel gave her a straight look. "I know."
Lancet let out a breath and smiled at his healer. "Well done, Es."
Espel lowered her hands and glanced at him softly. "Thank you." Her Bloomwings returned to her, while Astensia walked up and placed her gauntleted hand on her shoulder.
When Espel looked up at her, Astensia gave her a well done nod.
Lancet turned to the others. "All right. As we planned, we’ll be splitting up to different parts of the town so we can rendezvous in the middle. The old citadel building. That way not only can we be faster but all of us can get a good deal of action."
Thor immediately looked pleased by the idea. Anything involving direct violence was a good time if you asked the Valkyrie. "Good."
Astensia was more measured. "What will the groups be?"
Lancet had already thought it through. "Astensia and I together."
Spectra chuckled out loud.
Lancet looked at her. "What?"
"Oh nothing," the Demoness said playfully. "It’s just... color me surprised, that’s all."
Astensia gave the Villainess a half-apprehensive and half-defensive look. "If you want to be grouped with Master Lancet, Spectra, that is fine. I will not stand in your way."
Spectra peeked at her teasingly then waved her hand, her mischievous smile still plastered below her pointed nose. "Of course not. In fact, I do not wish to be grouped with anyone. I work alone."
Lancet gave her a bland look. "Alright then. If that’s what you want." He turned to Thor. "Thor, who would you like to be grouped with?"
Thor seemed completely disinterested in the conversation and was already looking ahead into the town, dreaming of murdering some demon scum.
"Anyone is fine, Master Lancet," she said half-mindedly. "As long as they don’t get in my way."
Lancet looked at the Emerald Princess. "Kestrel? You think you can work with Thor?"
Kestrel inspected the thunder goddess then returned her eyes to Lancet. "I suppose so. I get to use my blades after a hundred years. That is all I care about."
"Great!" Lancet replied. "Spectra can go alone..."
Spectra smiled faintly at that. "Naturally."
"And that leaves Espel," Lancet said. He looked at her and she shot him her blandest stare. "You’re coming with Astensia and I. Since I’m the weakest here, I’m likely going to need your healing. If you can, you can rebuild the parts of the town we clear."
Espel accepted that with a brief nod. "Okay."
Thor pointed her hammer lazily at the town’s interior. "I want the strongest thing on my path."
Spectra’s smile widened. "How unsurprising."
Kestrel glanced toward the streets ahead, then toward Thor. "If we’re splitting, we should keep the routes open. Push from the sides and force whatever’s inside toward the center."
"Exactly," Lancet said. "We clear the outer half and work inward. There’ll likely be a huge fight there. Many Demons will attack us but many will also retreat to the center. "
Astensia tilted her head. "I love a good fight."
Thor barked her beautiful but rough laughter. "So do I, Astensia."
Lancet’s grin thinned a little. "Alright. Let’s move."
On Lancet’s order, they separated and ventured to their different areas.
The town was bisected by a fortified frontline which was called the truce line. Lancet and his team were in the part of the town submerged in the dense, corrosive demonic miasma that reduced visibility and altered the physical environment.
Within that part, there were three zones — like slices of a pizza. Lancet and Astensia’s zone led down the civilian areas.
The streets of Deathrock narrowed very much right after the gate. Stone homes rose on either side in staggered tiers, their lower walls stained with rot and their upper windows hidden beneath thick overhangs of rock.
Some buildings had been carved directly into the cliff, their front doors opening onto sloping walkways that curved upward or downward depending on the shape of the mountain.
A collapsed water channel ran along one side of the street like a broken vein. Farther in, Lancet could see old lamp posts and half-buried signs, their metal surfaces blackened and warped by the miasma.
Astensia walked beside him with a calm focus, looking around and evaluating angles of attack. Both of them knew they wanted to say something to each other, but they were mostly quiet, using the upcoming battle as an excuse.
A few steps deeper into the street, Lancet saw something move.
He stopped. Astensia stopped right after. Even though he had heard it first, Astensia spotted the source of the noise before him.
She pointed into a broken archway on the left side of the road. The sound was coming from its shadow, low and dragging, making the air seem colder. Then another shape rose from behind it. Then a third. The first one stepped into view fully and Lancet’s mouth tightened.
It looked like a Demon that had been assembled by something that hated symmetry.
Its body was bent and hunched, with one shoulder higher than the other and a neck too long for the frame beneath it. Its skin was stretched thin over sharp bones, dark in some places and raw red in others, as though it had been partially flayed and then left to heal wrong.
Its jaw split too wide down the face, revealing rows of uneven teeth and a tongue slick with black saliva. One arm dangled longer than the other, ending in hooked claws that scraped at the stone as it took an unsteady step forward.
The miasma around it thickened as it breathed.
It turned its head.
Its eyes found Lancet.
Then the thing screamed.
A furious, raw shriek, high with animal rage and something uglier beneath it, as if the sight of living human Grace had insulted it on a spiritual level.
Astensia’s hand had already moved toward her weapon, but Lancet merely smiled, spun the Radiant Guillotine once in his hand, and set his feet into a ready stance.
"Happy to see you too," he said.
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A/N: Rather than a ten Chapter mass release. I’ll be uploading 4 Chapters every day for the rest of the month. 2 at separate times of the day. We’ve completed today’s.
If we get up to 200 golden tickets by the end of the week, this will carry on to the next week.
If we get 400 by the end of the next week, it will also carry on to the following week!
Hope everyone’s prepared!