...........

Chapter 30: The Miracle Of Specters

...........

A faint smile surfaced on his face, anticipating what's to come, 'One of the most miraculous experiences.

A corrupt soul, forever deemed to stay in the realms of the living unless extinguished by men. I can finally see for myself one of the greatest miracles of this world...'

The group tightly held their weapons, their bodies were tense but ready to face what's to come.

And It indeed came, a clear figure in the distance floating above the ground, seemingly weightless.

The ghostly figure had very few similarities to a human, and it strangely had clothes. It had shredded clothes barely hanging on her body.

Those were the same clothes she wore before her death. The phenomena of specters is still largely a mystery, and so is how they look after they turn though there are clues that led scholars to several conclusions.

The specter's face was its most prominent feature. It had but a large mouth, horrifyingly large as if her face was torn open, leaving the view of a wide mouth of flesh, teeth, and even bones.

The specter's eyes were wide, but twisted and quite depth, seemingly diving deeper into her skull.

Most specters differ from each other. As scholars around the world concluded, it all comes back to the circumstances of their death, how they lived, and their very soul, emotions, and desires.

The moment it reached the group, It started its attack, not willing to give them a chance to respond. Despite being mostly mindless, they're quite hard to deal with since they rely mostly on their instinct.

Its already large mouth widened even further. Despite all preparation, Selena still found herself frozen, not able to cast the ether art she knows she have to cast.

Casting ether arts is a complicated and convoluted process that needs to be performed perfectly. There is simply no margin for errors.

Even a tiny bit of nervousness that leads to a tiny difference in the movement of the ether or a change in the pronounced Nether words will cause the art to fail.

Luckily, her maid came to the rescue. This is why she's here after all, "Resistance of all things -Shield Of Ice." A simple art that combines two aspects together. Ice and the natural resistance of Seekers.

A shield of Ice indeed formed in front of her as quickly as they uttered the needed Nether words, and she uttered them way too quickly, a testament to her experience.

The shield fulfilled its duty as it blocked the strange green sound attack released from the specter's mouth.

The sound attack was beautiful, a ray of green beauty that traveled towards the group, nearly breaking the shield.

Of course, as all things are, the Ice shield dissipated directly after that, consumed by the very thing seekers use, the ether.

Only then did Selena get her wits back as she shouted at the group, "It's a banshee!! Be ready and Val, we'll probably have to rely on you!"

As she said that, she started chanting an ether art, one of the most used throughout the world, "resistance of all things -All resistance."

That's the very core of how seekers fight. Their resistance to reality grows they become stronger, allowing them to resist the limits placed on their bodies and perform unimaginable feats, this includes having resistance to all aspects of reality.

Selena's instructions were on point because banshees are quite hard to deal with.

They can be seen in contrast to some types of specters but they're arguably worst as they keep their distance and attack from afar.

Moreover, they're more prone to escaping once their instinct tells them they're in danger. That would obviously not be a good experience for specter hunters.

However, there is a good way to avoid that. It is the way Val just used.

Specters are born from emotions and desires among other things. That creates an attachment to reality which is more often than their bodies.

Performing that dark art on the specter's body will increase their aggression to such a degree that they won't leave until the seeker is dead.

Indeed, the moment the banshee noticed its attack being blocked, it flew away in the shadows of the trees, flying around their surroundings while trying to get them off guard.

"I c-can't cast..." Lucas stumbled his words, his lips were shaking and his hands were frozen in the air. They both had a clear rune on them though he didn't seem to be able to cast any art.

"It's okay! just protect our back and keep your distance. Your Axes are already blessed so you should be able to hit it."

Boarlian however doesn't seem to have that much trouble casting it. One of the most basic arts but also the most used, and everyone in the group knows it.

The atmosphere was tense as the group carefully watched their surrounding. The banshee has already slipped between the darkness of trees.

"Try to avoid her attacks. They're not hard to avoid as long as you observe her screaming direction, better not waste our ether on defensive arts."

Advised the cautious Natalia, mostly to Selena as she had to protect not only her before but also the rest of the group.

"I'll point you to her direction once she appears but she should still be in that general direction, hiding behind a tree."

Stated Val while frowning, he was quite sure his sight never left her, yet she just disappeared behind a tree, seemingly melting into the ground.

So either she can phase through some things which is a rare talent specter can possess or she's still hidden behind the tree.

Val pulled the string of his bow as far as he can before starting to mutter a few specific Nether words while manipulating his ether to form the rune he seeks, "Blessing of all things -Blood Spear."

The blood art he perform blessed not himself but simply his arrow, and the moment he finished his casting, he released the string.

Just as the blood-red energy he released from the output runes of his hands engulfed the arrow in the shape of a spear, the arrow was released.

Its target was none other than that tree and it went right through it, almost as if it went through butter.

However, nothing was hiding behind it. The arrow and the cost of the art were wasted though Val didn't seem to be discouraged, instead, he said, "The banshee can phase through things, so be ready for it to attack from anywhere."

The specter's phasing is of course limited as everything in the world produces resistance, and it all depends on whether the specter is strong enough to phase through extremely resistant things.

'Interesting, I can't sense it at all, not even when I could see it. However, there was one point when I could sense it... when it was attacking. I felt a movement in the ether then and only then, so I just have to wait for it again.'

Everyone was tense. It was all but silence until Val warned them, "Right there!!"

They listened and started running in that direction the moment they saw it. Their weapons were ready but so was the Banshee as she again tried to escape.

"Encircle her!! don't let her escape, but don't come too close either lest her attack catches you off guard!"

Selena instructed the group one last time before giving her entire focus to the specter before her, not willing to let it slip away. She's already dissatisfied with her performance so far, so she's really not willing to make another mistake here.

That was the thought process of Lucas as he wanted to show where he shines. He seemingly became one with his Axes as he followed closely behind her or at least tried to.

She left him far behind, everyone did. That's the benefit of body arts, they make such a large difference between non-casters that they aren't even comparable.

Val ran behind the group as he continuously shooted arrows at the fleeing specter. None of them had the specter contact potion applied to them, but the Banshee didn't know that, so it had to avoid them all.

Until it suddenly turned around and released a sudden mind-splitting scream, one not of physically damaging energy but a simple mind-numbing scream.

That was enough to slow down the group's movement except that the scream was followed by its sound attack as it widened its mouth even further than before.

The bizarre glowing green energy started concentrating in its mouth, ready to burst at the group. It however stopped as that burst dissipated just as Natalia was thinking of protecting the group again.

What replaced it is a mild scream of agony as the strange soul started wiggling around. A grey mist was being released from its body as if being scorched alive.

It all comes back to the faint hole on its face that was slowly expanding. The cause of it was none other than a gorgeous rapier that went through the specter like an arrow.