Chapter 82: 82

Leaning against the wall, Michelle heard the footsteps right behind a corner. With the group already so close, even Ivona could hear them. The sound of the small claws hitting the ground drew an enigmatic smile on Michelle’s lips.

Just as she smiled, she heard something squeak beneath her, but she didn’t open her eyes.

Ivona stared at one of the rats, the size of her foot, and frowned a bit. It did seem harmless, but after Michelle told her they were tricksters, she noticed some traits which peaceful creatures wouldn’t have. Though looking cute and harmless, the rats had sharp claws, clearly for tearing, and the little teeth peeking out of their mouths were clearly fangs.

At first, the rats acted scared and quickly scattered around the cave, but when it seemed like Michelle was asleep and Ivona was unguarded, they bared their fangs. Since Ivona seemed more of a threat since she was awake, they attacked her first, but before they could reach her, she let a small ball of her spirit energy explode in front of her, making Michelle frown. Though the explosion didn’t graze her, possessing the dark element, she was naturally aversive towards Ivona’s light element.

The rats were blown away, but as Ivona restrained her power, they only sustained light bruises and scratches, which just enraged them. They wanted to attack again when they felt something threatening surround them, but they couldn’t see it. Only the instinctive feeling of danger surrounded them.

Michelle opened her eyes; a cloud of black mist rolled around her hand, controlling the very thin layer of black mist around the rats. “These are just the scouts. Their leader and the strongest bastards should be blocking the entrance.” She explained as she clenched her fist, and the black mist around the rats closed in on them as it got denser, swallowing them up.

“…” Ivona was quite surprised by how quickly Michelle killed the rats. “You killed them quite… quickly…” she remarked.

Michelle smiled slightly and retracted the black mist, revealing the rats. They were alive, but just barely.

“Why didn’t you kill them?” Ivona felt even more confused.

Michelle looked at the dying rats and formed some icy spears around her. “Though the dark element is mostly used for complete and instant annihilation, that can only be done after reaching the spirit rank, since elements gain their final, unaltered shape after their carrier reaches that power.”

“Does that mean you can’t kill them? You can just leave them waiting for death to claim them?” No matter how nasty the rats or any monsters were, it was too cruel to half-kill them before leaving them to suffer.

Michelle shook her head as the ice spears surrounded the rats. “I can finish them off with my ice.”

Hearing that, Ivona raised an eyebrow. She couldn’t see clearly in the dark, so though she had seen the rats when they entered the cave, she couldn’t see them when Michelle finished them off. She had seen the black mist, since it was quite large, but seeing the small ice spears Michelle formed was impossible. “You have two elements?” Ivona asked, confused.

Michelle retracted the ice spears and glanced at Ivona “For now, please keep it a secret!” she smiled as she spoke. Her voice was calm and lazy, but that just showed the trust she had in Ivona.

“I won’t tell a soul!” Ivona nodded slightly. “But, why are you keeping it a secret?” she asked, curiosity getting the better of her. She couldn’t think of a reason why someone like Michelle would need to hide that she was a dual-element master. From what she knew, Michelle wasn’t the type of person who would hide her talents or abilities as a mere precaution, so there was a high probability that she was planning something big.

“At the moment, I don’t have any big plans.” Michelle could guess what Ivona was thinking. In the end, likewise minds think alike.

Getting such an answer, Ivona wasn’t satisfied. “At the moment?” she raised a brow. “Does that mean you have something planned for the future?” she asked.

Michelle shook her head: “I just feel like something will happen soon…” she muttered.

Her words made Ivona raise a brow, but from Michelle’s expression, she knew it was just a feeling Michell had, so she decided not to ask pointless questions.

“What will we do now that the rats here are dead?” Ivona asked with a tilt of her head.

Michelle thought about it for a while before answering: “We will wait!” she said after considering it for a moment. “Soon, more rats will come. I’ll leave the killing to you this time!” she said as she leaned back against the wall lazily.

That made Ivona raise a brow: “Why can’t we just go ambush them outside the cave?” she asked in confusion.

“Well…” Michelle closed her purple eyes. “These kinds of monsters usually have heightened senses, so if we tried to ambush them, they would sense us even before we reached the cave entrance, and that would make the whole ambush pointless,” she explained.

Understanding Michelle’s intentions, Ivona nodded her head as she sat down on the cave’s damp ground. Though she was originally from an aristocratic family, she was always neglected and ignored, so she didn’t mind sitting on the ground. She was used to it.

Only after being in the cave for quite a while did the two girls hear movements from the cave entrance. Michelle opened her eyes and smiled brightly. Just from the footsteps she could tell that the group coming in at the moment was stronger. And she loved that. Though she knew she wouldn’t be the one fighting them, the thought of stronger opponents excited her a fair bit.

Hearing the approaching rats, Ivona stood up and moved her spirit energy around her body. Knowing that Michelle had the dark element spirit energy, she decided to try and use her spirit energy to create a weapon for herself. Soon, Ivona was holding a small bow in her hand, forming arrows with her spirit energy.

Michelle retreated to the back of the cave so she wouldn’t need to be so close to Ivona’s light element, that felt so repulsive to her.

Just as Michelle retreated and hid her presence using her dark element spirit energy, a group of rats entered her line of sight. Ivona also noticed it, and, without giving the rats a chance to react, she started shooting with her bow at them.

Her shorting rate wasn’t that fast, as she was just getting used to creating arrows with her spirit energy, but it was fast enough to keep the rats away from her after she caught them off guard.

At first, Ivona could keep away the rats because they were caught off guard, and when they finally came to their senses, Ivona was already able to shoot arrows at a blinding speed, so the rats were helpless against her.

But soon, the rats realized that Ivona was nearly blind from the darkness in the cave. So while she kept raining arrows at the rats, some of the smarter ones from the back crept to the side and slipped out of Ivona’s sight. They hid away, waiting for the right moment to strike Ivona when she let her guard down

Michelle noticed the rats sneaking away, but she didn’t tell Ivona, because she wanted her to deal with it herself, and if she ended up in danger, Michelle would go help her.

And very soon, it all happened. When Ivona’s shooting speed reached a new peak, and the rats in front of her were being pushed back, the rats hidden in the shadows jumped at Ivona from the back and sides.

Ivona winced as she felt small, sharp fangs pierce her leg and kicked her leg to the side, kicking away the rats biting her. She gritted her teeth in pain as she coated her legs in her spirit energy, which lit up the whole cave. That made Michelle shrink back in instinctive repulsion, but also raise a brow in surprise. For someone never trained by a master or teacher, to be able to solidify their spirit energy as a shield was something people instinctively learned to use only after reaching the spirit rank, and for Ivona to be able to use it meant she had high comprehension ability and a natural affinity with skills of a higher level than her spirit energy.

Ivona protected her feet from the rats with her spirit energy as she started shooting the arrows at the rats much faster to push away the bastards trying to bite her. Then she condensed the spirit energy on her legs and from which she formed her bow and arrows, which all exploded and blasted away the rats. Michelle instantly formed an ice shield in front of her, so the light element spirit energy wouldn’t touch her.

When all the rats finally died, Michelle let the ice shield melt away as she walked over to one of the rats’ corpses and picked it up before forcing its jaw open to check its teeth. “Ivona, show me where they bit you!” she said as she let go of the corpse.

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