New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 1005: Strange Sensation

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On the first strike both of them made, felling a kobold in one hit almost simultaneously, they felt the weird feeling that came with the attack, like striking at water.

Alex waited for another kobold to come at him, and instead of cutting him down, he raised his hand to catch the kobold's crude blade.

Instantly, a sharp pain pulsed in his hand as blood trickled down the caught blade. But when Alex cut him down, anger in his eyes, he felt it again.

Like he was slashing through a liquid object, his blade slowing down on contact and feeling like it was sluggishly pushing through water. And this time, it was accompanied by the same feeling in his hand as the blade phased through it, clattering to the ground before him with almost a dull sound.

He looked at his hand, with the wound on his palm already closing on its own, and couldn't understand how something that looked and sounded so immaterial had caused actual damage.

He cut down another incoming kobold, not giving it time to swing at him, and the feeling under his weapon came again.

"What the hell is going on?"

Behind him and Winston, the casters had stepped forward, taking moments between their attacks to step a few feet forward at a time, stopping as they reached behind their front liners. "Why the frowning?" Kary asked as she reached within talking distance.

Alex cut down another kobold, the last one that made it through the now much closer barrage of spells and projectiles, and turned his head to respond.

"The enemies. They felt weird under our weapons; almost like hitting a mirage. There is definitely something going on. We'll need to push further to find out what, though."

Kary wasn't sure how confident she was to bring the entire party towards the bend in the tunnel, especially when they had no vision beyond it, and that was where the torrent of foes was coming from. But she trusted Alexander's instincts.

The tunnel curved about a hundred feet ahead, and Kary knew it would take a moment to reach there. But if Alex said they needed to see beyond the curve, she sure as hell wouldn't hold back in achieving that.

"Jin-Sil! How's the view from back there?! Still some clean line of sight?!" she shouted over her shoulder at the girl.

"All is good for me!" Jin-Sil replied, nocking an arrow as she spoke and unleashing the projectile over her allies.

"I'm fine as well," Killian replied, doing the same.

The distance to their foes was close enough for him to barely have to aim. As for Aapo, the young man didn't waste time responding, instead popping the head of two other kobolds with his trusty rifle.

That was enough of an answer for Kary, though.

"Winston. Are you fine with pushing further into the enemy line?" Kary asked the boy.

He grinned in response, bracing his shield before him with a tight grip.

"With Alex next to me? I doubt measly lizards will bar our path," he responded, his grin wide and toothy.

Alex joined in on the grinning, slapping the kid's shoulder.

"That's what I'm talking about!"

Kary smiled at their enthusiasm.

"Good. In that case, frontline forward thirty feet!" she barked, hurling a fireball above them.

As the ball of flames exploded in the enemy line, taking away half a dozen of them instantly, Alex and Winston started pushing forward again.

As the broader hitting attacks stopped striking the closer foes, Alex and Winston had to push through the few kobolds that made it past the barrage, but it was barely a challenge.

David's undead pushed ahead, thinning the herd as much as possible. David focused on controlling their movements minutely from the caster line, which was working miracles.

Once they had pushed forward thirty feet and stopped, holding back a heavier flow of kobolds that still felt like striking water, Alex heard Kary behind him, ordering the back line to move.

It took them a little longer to reach them since they were the primary attack source right now, but the casters were behind them again after a minute.

"Ri-Chū! Make some platforms behind us. Once they are made, archers move!" she shouted, looking behind them.

Over the din of spells, Kary heard three responses.

"Yes, boss!"

"Aye aye, Ma'am!"

"On our way!"

She nodded and focused back on the front, where the action was still going strong. "How do they have so many bodies to throw at us?" she asked in a mumble, more to herself than the others.

But David's sharp senses didn't miss her words.

"Most likely a high-level illusion spell. But I don't know what could be casting it. Kobolds can learn magic, but it wouldn't be this type," he replied, his face still scrunched up in a frown.

He didn't like this one bit, either.

This continued for almost fifteen minutes before Alex and Winston finally reached the corner and could glimpse past it.

That's when Alex understood the strange behaviour of the mana particles floating around them.

His head snapped toward Winston.

"I know what I have to do. Can you hold the line alone?" he asked the boy.

"Hah! Who do you think you're asking this to? I'm the best damn tank in New Eden. I could hold a line twice, nay, three times bigger than this on my own," he replied, smirking at Alex. "Alright, then. I'll be going on ahead a little," Alex grinned.

"Do what you have to do," Winston replied, bracing his shield again, gripping his mace

tightly.

Alex's eyes turned white, his skin black, and wings sprouted out of his back. Alex blasted off into the tunnel with a high-pitched screech, immediately falling out of Kary's sight. "Hey! What are you doing?!" she shouted, in vain.

He was already out of hearing range for her. But Alex wasn't doing this out of spite or thrill-

seeking.

No.

He now understood what was going on and knew that if he didn't act on it fast, they would be stuck fighting in this tunnel until one or many of them exhausted themselves and someone

died.

He had to act fast.