Chapter 624: The Crypt of the Forgotten King (part-2)
"Seriously, you are still afraid of zombies and ghosts? You are a 9-star Arcana Master who just killed a gargoyle," Azzy couldn't help but let out a chuckle, finding her actions cute.
Leah continued to bury her face onto his back while holding onto him, "I… I can deal with undead but can't handle ghosts. It's a past trauma from childhood."
Due to their mind sync, Azzy knew that she was genuinely afraid of them and not lying.
Hence, he could only turn around and hold her, patting her back as zombies rose from the graves with their disfigured bodies and spirits surrounded the party of six and started circling around them, "Now, now… you can fear the real ones but it is quite shameful to fear the illusion. Or just close your eyes and fight."
"Illusion?" Louis, who heard it, couldn't help but observe his surroundings once again. "It doesn't seem like one."
His leg was instantly kicked by his wife, startling him. "Read the room, will ya," She whispered.
"Ah!" Louis realized something and quickly changed his words, "Oh boy, we haven't even explored the dungeon yet and we already encountered trouble in the form of illusion masters. I guess they must have been working together to conjure this world. That is why it became impossible to break through sheer will."
Azzy slightly raised his hand and gave a thumbs-up to his friend, as Leah broke free from his arms and focused on her surroundings, albeit with her eyes closed.
Elias only tilted his head in confusion, not understanding what was going on with these couples. But, the enemy surrounded them and he prepared himself to battle, just like the rest of his companions.
While the enemies weren't strong enough, their onslaught was never-ending.
For five hours straight, they kept on coming at the group of invaders. As Azzy and others could not use their energy, their stamina was slowly being chipped away as time passed.
"Damn, these pests just don't stop at all," commented Fey, shooting the last arrow of the quiver and going on changing to a new one.
She was sweating hard and breathing heavily. The speed of her arrows also got reduced significantly.
Louis, who depends majorly on his spatial skills, also started taking a bit of a break once in a while and increasing the workload of the white-winged lion and Elias.
Even Leah was feeling tired but her attacks actually grew wilder and stronger as time passed.
"Hahaha, 1162, 1089… Azrael, just 27 more lead, and I will win the wager. You sure you don't want to speed up a bit?" Leah didn't even seem like she cared about her stamina at this point as she was too engrossed in competition and most importantly, excited about winning against the guy who she always kept losing.
"Talk after you win," Azzy smirked in response to her warning, although not increasing the speed. He was killing the zombies and the ghosts one after another at his own pace, using his Plasma scythe.
Slowly, Leah's lead increased to 80 and then 90.
It even reached 97 and Leah was at the height of her excitement, looked like an addict if Azzy had to be honest with his inner feelings.
Leah raised her leg and gave a kick to the zombie's head, splitting its head into two and making it disappear, "2 more…" She shouted.
A ghostly wisp passed through her, throwing her in the air. A zombie wrapped in cloth jumped toward her by opening its mouth to bite her.
Leah twisted her body in mid-air and was about to give a kick to its chest; it was at this moment Azzy, whose eyes turned pitch back without any visible pupils, raised his head to look up and motioned his plasma scythe, aiming at the sky, "Disappear." In his vision, there was a moon-like object glowing in the sky.
Streams of Plasma energy suddenly pushed out of the scythe's blade and formed a concentrated arc of energy, striking the moon-like object.
As it was destroyed, the entire illusionary world disappeared in a second, transforming the scene back to the cave; the scarlet gems on their respective staffs were cracked and the mages turned into stones, leaving everyone in surprise.
"Wha… what was that earlier? Don't you think you owe us any explanation?" Leah couldn't help but shout at Azzy. One second, she was in mid-air and the next second, she was standing in front of the mages. Not to mention, she clearly saw an energy beam erupt from Azzy's weapon.
Turning away from the lady with a frown on her face, the latter answered in a calm manner as he slowly walked toward the mages that transformed into stones, "The energy in our bodies is sealed by the dungeon laws and we couldn't also use the natural energy as the dungeon itself didn't have a single sage particle. But, the plasma energy in my weapon is from an external source.
It was literally created by science. Hence, there was no restriction on it."
"That's not what I meant," Leah swiftly caught his collar and pulled him back. Perhaps, Azzy was caught off guard, or perhaps, it is because Leah used too much force. Azzy lost his footing and fell toward her.
She caught him by his waist and looked at the boy, "You already found out its weakness and just played with me, didn't you?"
Leah's eyes looked quite bigger as Azzy looked at them so closely. His eyes wandered all over her face.
He had seen this face many times in the past but never observed it before. When he did, he felt like her face was like a work of art, with high cheekbones, a slender jawline, and smooth, flawless skin. "Wow, didn't expect your features to be delicate and symmetrical, like a perfectly sculpted statue of a goddess."
"Eh?" "Huh?"
"Huh?" "Huh?"
"What?" "Huh?"
Azzy and Leah are surprised at the same time. Leah was stunned for a moment as she stared at Azzy. The latter appeared even more surprised by the words that came out of his mouth.
Freeing himself from her grip, Azzy let out a cough and changed the topic, "*Ahem* let's go. We wasted too much time because I wanted you to get used to those zombies because we might face stronger ones later."
Azzy was about to go to their next destination instead of inspecting the mages as he originally wanted to, but Leah instantly rushed after him and caught him once again. Grabbing his arm, she asked, "Did you just praise my beauty?" There was this glow on her face and Azzy could swear that she was trying to tease him, based on her expression. "I'm like a goddess, huh?
Never thought you have such thoughts about me," She added in a hushed tone as she pulled him closer.
Embarrassed by his own act, Azzy looked away and scoffed, "Please, wh… why would I have such thoughts? I was just kidding to distract you, that's all."
"Really?" Leah leaned her body to the front and looked at his face. As their eyes met, Azzy turned away his head again, "When you get a compliment, you just say thank you and forget. Mind I tell you that I have a girlfriend…" he freed himself and hastened his footsteps.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Leah watched his back with a playful smile on her face and folded her hands to the body, "Leah, it looks like you need to push this brat further to force out his true feelings. Let's practice mind synchronization more…"
Meanwhile, Fey let out a chuckle as she put her arms around her husband's hands, and whispered, "Told ya. There is some spark between those two."
Louis shook his head with a smile. Elias remained in confusion and the white-winged lion didn't understand why these human companions were wasting too much time on silly matters.