Sudden Encounter (3)

At the far back of the wave of unending millipedes, Bella could see a black, skeletal figure holding up its hand. Arcs of blue lightning snaked around the black robes that covered this being's bony figure, and its empty eye sockets were ablaze with a blue flame.

"I've spotted the undead mage leading them!" She suddenly exclaimed, assuming that Kaladin was the undead mage that led this battalion of undead creatures. She raised her arms up high and conjured a rotating sphere of wind above her head. The sphere continued to grow until it was as large as the wagon that the three had used to travel.

"Haa!" She slapped her palms together and threw them forward, causing the sphere of wind to explode and send out dozens of wind blades at once! Her expression paled slightly, and she was left panting for breath from casting such a powerful spell at once, but she thought that it would be worth it.

"Wind Blade Barrage!" She cried out as the wind blades shot forward. The transparent manifestations of wind crashed down mostly on the army of millipedes, while a few went forward to attack Kaladin, as she was hoping to throw off his concentration and hinder the march of the millipedes.

Her hopes were dashed when a strong, black shield appeared out of nowhere, shielding Kaladin from the barrage of wind blades.

Nero stood firm as the force of the continuous barrage threatened to force him back and expose Kaladin to the attack. His bony jaw snapped open as a guttural roar tore out of his empty chest cavity. The shield glowed with a deep crimson light and a shockwave blasted away all the incoming wind blades.

"W-what?!" Bella was so shocked that she involuntarily took a step back.

By this time, the rest of her wind blades had already done their work, and the millipede army was mostly cleared up. Malaki and Adrian killed the last ones before them, while the rest retreated to where the two skeletal beings were.

"What was that?" Adrian asked, retreating a bit to Bella's side. Malaki followed, his sturdy shield held up in a defensive posture.

"I-I don't know... There are two of them?" Bella replied, unsure of what was happening. Just as Malaki was about to add something to contribute, the sound of a steady footsteps that were obviously not trying to hide themselves reached their ears.

Leon walked around the corner, with Nedra following quietly behind him. She had transformed into her intimidating battle form, which made her grow to as long as six meters in length, and a meter in height. Her mandibles snapped threateningly, and her eyes glinted with cold murder.

A cold shiver ran down the backs of the three mercenaries, and they turned their eyes to the most domineering individual that was present at the moment. A skeletal figure that exuded an obviously stronger force of presence than any of the others present. The only one that came close was the giant millipede that was behind it, but from the way the millipede walked, it was obvious that the black skeleton was the one in charge.

Leon stepped forward with a his steely, empty gaze. He flared his aura, trying his best to look as imposing as he could. Nedra had told him that this was his best way to make a superior impression on the humans, so even though he was doing this for the first time, he could tell that it was working well from the frightened look on the faces of the humans.

He raised his right hand that was wreathed in a black smoke and waved it. The smoke spread out before him, and all the destroyed Undead Millipedes were respawned in the midst of the smoke. Mentally, he gave them the order to hold back and not attack, adding on to the pressure that the humans felt, while patting his back for achieving such an effect.

With this small portion of his army being displayed, he was already showing the humans how much more powerful he was than them, and humans of this world feared the strong.

"I told you we should not have come here." Bella, with her wide, frightened eyes, whispered to Adrian, her voice shaking slightly.

"I guess it's too late to reconsider." Adrian shrugged. Silence stretched on for a moment before he stepped forward, still holding his swords at the ready.

"What are you doing?!" Bella asked, appalled.

"It has not attacked us yet, so I want to see if we can reason with it. I don't fancy leaving my fate in the hands of the gods just yet." He replied and continued to take slow, steady steps forward.

"Stop." The voice of the skeleton that had raised the undead creatures resounded through the area. Its eyes glowed eerily with a dark, purple light as it stared down at Adrian. "Who are you three?"

Adrian gulped and turned back to his comrades for a moment, who returned uncertain gazes. He turned back to the black skeleton and cleared his throat.

"We are adventurers. We got a mission to explore these ruins, and that is what brought us here." He replied hastily. The skeleton could speak the common language, which meant he did not need to worry about a language barrier.

"Adventurers. So, you killed my summons. How do you want me to repay you for this kind service that you have done for me?" The skeleton tilted its head in question as he presented a very thorny question. Adrian could not deny that they had killed its summons, as it had very much caught them in the act.

"Forgive us. It was an act of necessity, as we were only trying to protect ourselves." Adrian replied, but the skeleton did not day anything more. A couple of seconds passed before it diverted its gaze elsewhere. Adrian followed that mysterious gaze, and drew a cold breath when he saw that those threatening eyes had been pinned on Bella.