Emery held on with both hands at the sword and positioned himself facing the fuller of the sword to make sure he wouldn't meet his own demise.
"Damn boy, I don't know if you're lucky or unlucky. It's rarer to find level three beast in this forest than the plant," Topper said, pulling out the large axe on his back before starting to hack wildly at the monster's feet.
Roots, vines, branches, flew everywhere every time Topper's axe slashed but as soon as he pulled the axe out, vines crept to where he had hit, reinforcing the damaged part that was already as hard as a metal. Nevertheless, Topper kept on swinging his axe like a crazed lumberjack.
Mags, on the other hand, had her fireball ready at the top of her palm. She was looking for an opportunity to burn this monster down but Emery kept on holding tight on his sword, despite the violent swinging of the angler vine.
"Jump now!" Fatty exclaimed.
Emery dazedly looked toward the direction of Fatty and noticed a faint green light behind him. He didn't know what it was but it gave him an ominous feeling. He used the force of the angler vine's swing and threw himself toward the body of a nearby tree and braced himself. As soon as he hit the tree and fell on the ground, his sight became blurred as he watched as the green light shot toward where had been hanging on.
The angler vine managed to narrowly dodge the green light but one of its shoulders got hit instead and dropped to the ground. Mags threw the fireball, burning its other shoulder. It uttered a high pitched screech, which made all cover their ears and close their eyes.
At that moment, Emery heard the rustling of the bushes beside him, then a woman wearing light-greenish uniform, pale skin, and long white hair appeared as if she had come straight from a fairy tale scroll he had read back in his father's estate. His pupils dilated at the sight of her.
"Ohh, it's you again" Silva said, her snake-like eyes stared at him with coldness.
Emery tried to get up but his body sent shocks of pain. He watched Silva got on one knee, her palm glowing green.
"Entangled," Silva said. Several larger roots and branches than the one Cole had made, appeared and wrapped around the burning angler vine. The angler vine thrashed violently and managed to send Topper flying with a kick.
Everyone was dumbfounded on how she had easily killed the level three beast, angler vine. She approached its corpse, touched the ring on her finger and made the angler vine disappear before turning around.
"You! How are you—"Cole saw her eyes and his face darkened—"no wonder. You're a half-breed."
Silva ignored him and simply walked away from the group.
"Get back here you beast and return what you stole!" Cole snapped while lifting his spear.
Silva appeared indifferent and simply stood there. She stared at Cole with her sharp eyes and said, "I killed the rare beast, therefore the spoils should go to the killer. So why should I?"
She turned away, but Topper, Mags and Fatty blocked her way.
"And what's the meaning of this?" Silva said cooly.
"Isn't it obvious, filthy half-breed,?? Cole said with his teeth clenched, making his spear light up with green glow.
Silva's glare even turned colder to the point where Emery, who had just stood up, could feel her bloodlust, sending electricity up his spine.
Cole then thrust his spear, sending a green bolt of light toward the large tree behind Silva, purposely scratching her cheek. "The next one won't miss, so hand over the damned magical beast, you disgusting snake!"
"Four against one. Aren't you too much of a man needing backup to fight against a single girl?" Silva said, her lips had half a smile, looking at Cole.
"Shut up, half-breed. You're not a human, you're not even a girl. We don't acknowledge all of you. Therefore, you're our enemy," Cole said, pointing his spear at her neck.
This line of reasoning. It was absurd. Emery was starting to feel the pounding in his ear, heart against his chest. Memories of that night resurged in his mind. The raid. The marauders racial hate for the chrutin.
"Everyone, can't we all just calm down?" Emery said. Actually, he was saying that to himself the most.
"Apparently, these dimwitted purists think we're an abomination," Silva said, staring at him. "But what about you? Which side will you fight with? Them or your own?"
Emery's brows twitched. What was this girl talking about? Them or your own? Did she perhaps mean because she was from the same class as him?
Cole clicked his tongue and spoke while turning his head, "What did she mean by that?"
Cole didn't get to finish his sentence, however, when Silva suddenly whipped out a sword from her ring and slashed!