C446
Emery was exhilarated to discover his [Spatial Gate] had improved a notch further. Now, with only a mere three casts of the spell, he would be able to go to places with a distance equivalent to one day full speed gallop on horse.
This time, Luna had given him the information about a certain bandit group that hid in a cave somewhere on the mountains. This group of bandits had been terrorizing townsfolk and villagers alike; knights naturally had been dispatched to deal with this atrocity.
Unfortunately, they hadn't been able to track, much less find, the location of the bandits' whereabouts. After all, the mountain range was too vast and their cave could be anywhere on that landscape.
However, this seemingly unsolvable dilemma had been easily resolved by Emery, as he only needed to cast his [Spirit Reading] ability until he found his targets. As expected, he already located the bandits' hideout even though only a minute passed since he departed.
With another cast of [Spatial Gate], the figures of Emery as well as the girls appeared in front of a cave that was supposed to be where the bandits were hiding.
Emery noticed Morgana seemed to be in a very bad mood. Through the mental connection of their bloodline, he could perceive the girls' feelings. It was normal for Morgana to be emotional. However, this time, Emery could somehow tell it was different.
The young girl didn't even want to look at him when he briefed the group about this operation.
"Alright, listen up! Here's our target: the bandits' hideout, there are roughly 50 of them inside. Watch your steps and keep your awareness while inside, as the cave is dark and vision is limited. Furthermore..."
Before Emery even managed to finish his words, Morgana had started running towards the cave.
Morgana's abrupt action startled Emery as well as the girls.
"Morgana!"
The other girls tried to catch up to her, but her foot suddenly transformed into that of a Fey. As a result, they were left in the dust by Morgana, as her figure shot to the cave entrance.
"Be careful!" shouted Emery from the back.
Somehow, he felt a very bad omen about this.
Morgana's figure rapidly dashed through the cave tunnel and, as soon as she arrived at a large space where she could see a wide variety of objects, she immediately casted her [Fireball] spell and threw the materialized fire spheres in multiple areas. In an instant, the enclosed space was lit to the apex and alarmed the 50 plus bandits inside.
"What happened? What are those??!"
"That girl!! Could it be the Fairies?! Did they find us?!"
"It's just one girl!! What are you doing there running away?! Come back here before I put you down myself!!"
"Fire!! That girl is throwing fireballs!! She's a witch!!!"
Ignoring the shouts resounded in the air, Morgana jumped into the fray and started using her dagger in one hand and her sharp claws in the other to attack the bandits. While the bandits were still trying to comprehend what was going on around them, she had harvested a few lives already.
"Monster!!"
"Witch!!"
"Mercy!!"
By the time Emery and the others arrived, the place had become a cluster of complete chaos. Flames were seen everywhere in this enclosed space, while the bandits were slowly taken out by a blur of shadow. Some of them tried to fight back, while others tried to find a path of escape.
At the moment, the bandits were so terrified by Morgana's actions they fell into a state of frenzy. The thing that always happened when people were panicking was that their actions became extremely erratic and irregular, especially when they were trapped in an enclosed space.
The chaotic situation made the other girls have difficulty fighting the bandits, especially when the latter were frantically rushing their way toward their direction. Dozens of bandits rushed towards the cave entrance to get out from all this madness.
With the coming masses, Gwen and Glita quickly confronted the bandits that were to come with their sword, while the remaining girls quickly used [Entangle]. In the blink of an eye, dozens of plant roots emerged from the ground and bound the foot of the fleeing bandits, immobilizing them completely. Those who were careless even tripped over their feet and banged their face first on the ground, raising clouds of dust in the air.
"Witch!! Witch!! More witches!!"
In the meantime, Morgana, who was meters away from the group, was casting more [Fireball] crazily, as if she intended to bring the whole place down to smithereens.
Dark smoke had begun enveloping the entirety of space where they were and the chain reaction was more bandits became panicked and charged toward Morgana, intending to pluck off the root of the problem. Seeing that, Glita swiftly charged forward, trying to help her sister.
It was at this time that Gwen realized some of the wooden beams that supported the cave were burning. Unfortunately, the place was completely covered by smoke and, as if that wasn't bad enough, it seemed Morgana and Glita didn't realize this.
"Morgana, stop!!" shouted Gwen in her attempt to stop the rampaging Fey.
Alas, she couldn't hear Morgana's shout due to the chaos. Left with no choice, Gwen was shouting for Emery, but when he was about to take action, he noticed a large wooden pillar was falling towards Glita.
Tyra who saw that shouted, but couldn't do anything as she was too far. "Watch out, sister!!"
[Entangled]
As Tyra, the oldest sister, finished the spell cast, plant roots rapidly rose from the ground and crashed onto the falling pillar, stalling it in the air.
However, Gwen knew the roots weren't enough to hold that massive pillar. Therefore, she quickly dashed to Glita and pulled her back by grabbing her clothes.
The disaster still didn't end there. When the wooden pillar was falling, the structure of the cave also collapsed, and thus, piles of rocks began raining from above.
Morgana finally awoke from her rampage and realized what she did. Seeing how his sister almost met her death due to his actions, she quickly stopped her actions and ran towards Gwen, who didn't realize that a boulder was heading towards her.
Morgana was not fast enough and could only watch as a piece of rock hit the back of Gwen's head and she immediately fell to the ground unconscious.
Another large chunk of rock broke off from the ceiling of the cave and if no one stopped it, it would surely land where Gwen was. At the next split of second, Emery had appeared right next to Gwen and grabbed her before disappearing out of existence again.
The figure of Emery and Gwen appeared on the other side of the cave, near the cave entrance.
"All of you, quickly get out!!" shouted Emery before he once again teleported and reappeared right outside of the cave.
When the girls had already escaped from the collapsing cave, the first thing that Morgana saw was Emery holding Gwen in his arm, while blood was dripping off her head.
Her heart was extremely conflicted as she saw that, especially when Emery looked her straight in the eye.
"I know!! It's my fault!!" screamed Morgana, as she then transformed into her Fey wolf and dashed to the woods.
"Morgana!!" Glita shouted, but Morgana's figure had disappeared in the sea of trees.
The girls were worried about Morgana and quickly transformed into their transformation as well and gave chase, except for Glita who stayed back, wanting to look over the wounded and unconscious Gwen.
She turned her gaze to Emery and asked, "Is she going to be alright, brother?"
"Don't worry, Glita. Gwen will be fine."
Currently, Emery was applying his [Healing Paste] onto the wound on the back of her head.
"Instead of being here, can go after Morgana and bring her back?. I'm worried about her." said Emery, while his hands kept applying the paste.
"Alright, brother. I'll be on my way, then." said Glita, as she transformed and disappeared between the trees.
After making sure the [Healing Paste] was completely applied on the wound, Emery casted [Spatial Gate] directly to the stone formation in the Forbidden Forest and quickly brought Gwen to his estate in Venta Town.
He put her in the bedroom and went to his apothecary room to concoct a potion, an energy potion for her health.
Emery felt the whole process of making the potion went so fast and, without him realizing, the potion was ready.
When he felt that Gwen's breath and heartbeat had stabilized after drinking the potion, Emery took a deep breath to calm his restless heart.
Everything would be fine, he thought to himself.
Emery gently lay the girl on the bed, brought a chair and sat down next to her.
Time silently passed, as he waited for her to wake up.
To be continued