Chapter 274: Backed into a Corner

The darkness slowly faded, replaced by another darkness, illuminated by the crescent moon in the sky. It was still nighttime. Roughly a day had passed since this battle began. The earth had spun a full 360 degrees, bringing us back to the same time when all of this began.

Even though it was now night, the little light provided by the moon was still blinding since we had spent so long in that dark space.

For a moment, I was forced to pause and squint my eyes to see what was happening. I finally saw the faces of the people fighting in front of me.

I turned my head to the person who was impaled by the object Damian had thrown. It was Mariah. She had a long piece of metal protruding through her body.

With my senses slowly returning, I tried to focus on her heartbeat. It was faint, but I could hear her heartbeat.

The person holding her up was Isabella. She looked panicked. It was because the attack was originally aimed at her, but Mariah stepped into its path just in the nick of time.

’Thank you, Mariah. I owe you.’

In the sky above Damian was Khalissi, desperately firing out magical attacks.

Further out to the right of them, I spotted Kumo. She was weaving webs, using them to wrap around Damian.

Seeing that they were all mostly alright, I felt relieved and heaved a sigh. Though they were still in danger.

Damian had his eyes on them. In a matter of seconds, he could kill them without me being able to react.

Realizing this, I immediately pulled out the angel bone Mariah gave me. Last time, it elicited a reaction from Damian as if he knew what it was capable of.

And I was right, as the moment I took out the angel bone, he snapped his head in my direction. It was the perfect distraction.

This in turn caused Isabella, Kumo, and Khalissi to turn in my direction.

“No, not yet!” Khalissi shouted the moment she saw it.

Damian’s eyes narrowed, but it didn’t feel as if he was looking at me. His eyes were solely locked on the piece of bone in my hand.

As if driven by a primal need to act, Damian snapped Kumo’s webs that were wrapped around his arms and launched himself at me.

I readied myself, preparing for his attack. When he moved, it was as if a white line had been drawn in the air.

He moved at a speed faster than the eye could follow. I saw a faint outline of his figure as his hand stretched out towards my heart.

But just as his fist was about to plunge into my chest, a whip made of bones wrapped around his neck just in the nick of time. At the other end of the whip stood the Dullahan.

With just a single tug, he pulled Damian back at the last second and slammed him down to the ground.

The speed at which Damian was moving and the force at which the Dullahan pulled him back caused a huge crater to be created in the ground when he was slammed.

Damian’s veiny hands grabbed onto the whip wrapped around his neck as he tried to pry it off, but his struggle was pointless.

The whip began to glow ominously. A purple aura oozed off of the whip, and soon Damian’s entire body went stiff and began jerking uncontrollably.

“GRAWW!”

A loud blood-curdling inhuman scream escaped his mouth as his body continued to jerk violently, as if he was having a seizure.

’What is he doing to him?’ I couldn’t help but question.

The bone of a titan, huh? That was where the Dullahan’s whip came from.

At that moment, I realized that the Dullahan was far more powerful than I first thought. He must’ve been holding back quite a lot when we first fought.

Damian’s voice rose so high that I could hardly believe this was him. Soon, blood began dropping from his nose. This was the first time I saw him bleed.

But soon, the ominous purple aura around the whip faded. It seemed that whatever it was, the Dullahan couldn’t keep it up for long.

The Dullahan then drew his whip back, releasing it from around Damian’s neck.

Damian’s face went pale. At that moment, he no longer looked like a mystical creature and more like a god who had been angered.

He touched the blood dripping from his nose, staring at it silently before his pale yellow eyes rose and met the Dullahan.

For a moment, I feared for my summon’s life. Khalissi said the members of a legion cannot be killed unless the demon in charge of them is killed.

They would always respawn back into their domain. In my case, my phantom pack, upon being killed, will return to my shadow realm.

But at that moment, I wasn’t so sure. By the way Damian was looking at my Dullahan, you would think there was nothing this man couldn’t kill.

Seeing the danger of the situation, I readied myself, preparing to defend at any moment.

I could reach evolution stage any time now. Getting killed here wasn’t an option.

For the time being at least, Damian’s eyes weren’t on me. With movements so fast that it looked as if he teleported, he was in front of the Dullahan.

With every movement Damian made, it felt as if the world was glitching before my very eyes.

I just couldn’t keep up with his fast movements. It felt as if he was moving twice, no, three times faster than he was before.

He grabbed the Dullahan by his armor and raised him into the air before slamming him down to the ground.

The moment the Dullahan was slammed onto the ground, I heard a loud clang from his armor, and a cloud of dust was kicked up from the impact.

With the cloud of dust blocking my visibility for just a second, I immediately activated my thermal vision, and I was right to do so.

Damian was right in front of me with another attack aimed at piercing my heart.

Without skipping a beat, Sköll and Hati activated their ability and froze time.

Five seconds later, I was standing beside Isabella holding Mariah in my arms while Sköll and Hati stood to the right and left of Damian respectively.

Before Damian could react, Sköll activated his fire ability and blew a torrent of red-hot flames.

While Hati, who stood on the left of Damian, released his powerful frost.

The two attacks collided at once. The collision of these two attacks led to what was known as a steam explosion.

Hati’s frost was heated so rapidly by Sköll’s fire ability that it underwent an instantaneous phase change into gas, leading to the explosion.

It sounded as if a bomb had gone off as dust and rubble flew in every direction. The entire surroundings were covered in thick fog that gave no visibility.

I decided to use this chance to make my escape. So while the Dullahan, Sköll , and Hati distracted Damian, I took Mariah, Isabella, Kumo, and even Selthia and Sylvie who were far behind, and made my escape.

We all gathered in an empty building far away from where the blast had taken place.

Mariah still had the metal lodged in her chest. She was a vampire. Something like this shouldn’t even faze her.

So why do I get the feeling that this isn’t the case?

“The metal grazed my heart,” Mariah whispered while wheezing through her words. She must’ve realized what I was thinking.

The heart was a sure weak spot for every living creature there is. A direct blow to the heart is a surefire way to kill anyone or anything.

“I don’t think this wound is enough to kill me, but still, it’s causing my body to shut down until my heart is fully healed. My hearing is already gone, and my vision is blurry. I don’t know how long I have left,” Mariah explained, but talking so long caused her to begin coughing up blood.

“She saved me. This could’ve been me if she didn’t step in the way of the attack,” Isabella said.

“If you want to repay her, then watch over her. She’ll be vulnerable in this state and will need someone to protect her,” I said, to which Isabella immediately began nodding her head.

“What about us?” Selthia suddenly asked. “What will we do now? Damian is coming after us. I don’t think it will take him long before he finds us.”

“Now we wait,” I responded.

My next level up will be soon; I can feel it. With this power boost, I hope I can face Damian.

Just then, I caught Khalissi’s eye on me.

She looked worried.

Far too worried.

But I didn’t have time to dwell on it, since in the next instance, I could feel Damian’s murderous killing intent spread around the building we were in.

This was it.

[Congratulations, you have ascended to level 75]

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep