Helial gazed intently about himself. He sensed the presence of perfectly hidden Auras in the distance. If it hadn’t been for the continuous training he had dedicated to Perception, the Skill wouldn’t even have let him spot them.

Judging from their Mana density, it must have been a group of twenty Third-Phase warriors. They were likely to be in the Intermediate stage. One of them though seemed by far denser and darker than the others, ss if it were soaked into death. That must belong to a Fourth Phase practitioner.

Helial violently furrowed his eyebrows. If all their enemies had been in the Third Phase, then Helial and his group would have had at least one chance of running away. But against a Fourth Phase practitioner… They could not make it.

Snowflake slightly raised his face and sniffed the air. A strange light flashed across his eyes. Him and Helial immediately exchanged a glance. They had both realized they were right in the middle of an ambush. Helial shortly shook his head. Those opponents were too strong. They couldn’t afford a direct fight; this was what Helial meant. Snowflake got this. His expression darkened.

If even that monster of a teenager said the situation was helpless, didn’t it meant their opponents had at least a Forth Phase warrior in their ranks?

However, Helial decided not to let his expression betray his feelings. They kept on walking as if nothing had happened while cheerfully chatting – everyone but Vlad, who dragged his feet unwillingly at the back of the group. Did the little bastard sense the incoming danger too? Snowflake asked to himself. Suddenly, a deathly smell pierced the cat’s nostrils.

Who would come all the way there in order to kill them? The little group earned a number of strange looks in Orma. Someone surely wanted them dead. The Auras of their pursuers gave off no good intent. Helial was no fool. If such a team was chasing after them, it meant it would be no ordinary group of Royal Academy Disciples. Someone had been sent there to kill them all.

Helial smiled as he suddenly said: “Guys, I think I’ll reach for Circe. Go back to Orma, I will catch up with you later.” He made sure his words carried a vague hint of Mana, just enough to persuade his friends and not alarm their watchers. Helial had a feeling it was him those people wanted. If he managed to divert the Fourth Phase warrior’s attention from the others, they would have a chance to run away.

The others nodded and shrugged without finding anything to object. The only one frowning was Lumia, who cast her brother a furiously jealous look. She bit her lip, however, and followed the others on their way to Orma.

Snowflake took a couple of steps forward. Suddenly, he stopped and cursed in a low voice: “Shit.” His Aura erupted all the way to the sky, as if in an attempt to pierce the heavens.

“Step out, you pieces of shit! If this Supreme Cat leaves a brat alone for fear of being killed, then his corpse can be buried in a sea of shit!” Snowflake screamed in a tyrannical fury.

The whole group was puzzled. Vlad slightly squinted. He had noticed something amiss too, but his senses weren’t as sharp as those of Snowflake.

Skill Activated:

Scarlet Eye

Vlad’s eyes were shrouded in a bloody Aura which immediately amplified his sight by three times as much. His expression darkened visibly. He instantly said: “Can the freak help us?” He quickly inspected the surrounding area and realized they were surrounded by stronger warriors than they were. Even if their group had joined forces and fought strenuously, given that they had any Mana left, they still couldn’t hope to face up to this threat. And Vlad had no intention to kick the bucket on that very day. The only one who could save them was the kid lookalike freak who had torn his nails away without even touching him.

“He won’t. He’s our guide, but he doesn’t care at all whether we live or we die,” Helial said with a solemn expression on his face. They had to fend for themselves. Helial cast a glance at Snowflake; the cat decided to take action. His decision though wouldn’t necessarily have positive effects.

Helial could not but deeply appreciate the sincere loyalty of Snowflake, which he so often concealed under a candid shroud of arrogance.

Clap Clap Clap

The sound of clapping hands spread through the woods as the canopy of trees began to shake all around them until it revealed twenty frighteningly revolting creatures.

Before the eyes of those kids stood a number of sickening disgusting dead corpses. Their decaying skin was corrupt with a number of bulbous oozing an unearthly pus. Their putrescent smell engulfed Helial’s group.

“Undead?!” Helial exclaimed in bafflement.

Undead and Goblins had been fighting each other since way back. They were historic arch enemies… How could they possibly be stepping on the Orman soil? This wasn’t some murderous plot planned by the Goblin aristocracy! The news of Caesar’s new Human pupil must have spread all the way to the ears of the Undead, who decided to get rid of him before he could turn into a problem. They got ambushed!

Some fishy detail though was upsetting Helial. How come so many Undead could walk across Orma unobserved by the Divine Sense of the Seniors from the Royal Academy? How come neither of the Immortals living in the capital had sensed them?

The most terrifying Undead of the group, the same who had clapped his hands, burst into laughter. “We have some special item which temporarily blocks the surrounding space. We are currently standing in a space vacuum. It doesn’t matter if the Divine Sense of one of your Seniors stretched as far as here; no one under the Eight Phase could spot us. Or spot you.”

The Undead removed Helial’s doubt as though he had been reading his mind. The boy swallowed. For this drill, only Fifth Phase Seniors had been mobilized. That was, after all, the Dungeon drill of First Phase Disciples. No one could have imagined that all of a sudden, the Undead would become bold enough to pass the Goblins borders.

“My name is Codfish,” the Undead said as a broad smile spread over his face, “and I must say I admire the braveness of your kitty. You sure must be reckless enough to think to face up to me and my men.” Codfish laughed heartily.

The game seemed to be over for Helial and the others

The gaze of Codfish suddenly flew on Lulu and Lumia. His decaying eyeballs glistened in a disquieting light as if they had come back to life.

Codfish raised a hand. It was the sign his men could now attack. “Spare no life, but leave the two little girls for me,” he said as he rubbed his hands.

The Undead slowly moved forward surrounding the group.

“Do you really think you can ran away unpunished after roaming through Orma?!” Lulu threatened them. She thought she could instil some fear in them. However, it didn’t seem to have worked.

“Cut her tongue off. I don’t like it when sluts talk too much,” Codfish said with a twist of a hand. The eyes of the group leader of the Undead little army fixed on Lumia. He gazed at her intently, captured by her bright emerald eyes and silvery hair.

“We stumbled on a tasty treat this time. Looks like I’ll need to thank the young master,” Codfish sneered.

Suddenly, Codfish’s sight was blocked by a fearless boy with a resolute gaze on his face.

“Easy, brat. You’ll die right away. We won’t go easy on you!” Codfish couldn’t help laughing as he pondered on how they were going to end up. They were done for.

Helial’s Aura changed drastically. All around him, the world began to lose its color. He suddenly wound up surrounded by Illusions as some indistinct signs materialized over his temples.

The suffocating pressure suddenly exuded by Helial made all the Undead in the Third Phase retreat. But not Codfish, who icily snorted as he suppressed Helial’s Aura almost effortlessly.

Curse of the Demon flashed into existence in a dark beam. Helial firmly clutched its elsa as a web of black veins bulged on his face.

Vlad stared blankly at Helial, whose Aura was now twice, three or maybe even four times as powerful as during the fight against the Infernal Seagulls. It looked like he had refrained himself, before. Vlad smiled. His Aura drastically changed as well. Caesar’s pupil wasn’t the only one who still had a couple of aces up his sleeve.

Helial’s index fingers gleamed up. “I’ll kill the leader. Can you deal with the others?” Helial sked.

Snowflake looked about himself, a majestically solemn expression on his face: “The mother of all cats be a slut if I couldn’t.”

It was tense. The Undead slowly stepped forward as Helial, Vlad and Snowflake were gathering all of their strength. They were ready to engage in melee-combat.

“So, Circe was talking about them?” Helial suddenly said to himself. “Why wouldn’t she warn us, then?” Helial was baffled.

“You girlfriend must be insane, if she left you in our hands and still hoped to see you again! Hahahah!” Codfish laughed wildly.

Crack

The sound of a branch breaking reached Codfish’s ears from behind his back.

Thud Thud

Clang

The sound of footsteps and clinking clangers hit the ears of the Undead leader, who immediately turned to find out where the sound came from.