Ch.422Chapter 422 – Shadow Warrior Party (2)

I charged toward the hero.

The shadow hero’s sword lunged for my neck.

I twisted my blade to deflect it.

Then, as if supporting the hero, the priestess’s sword flew toward my neck, and I quickly raised my arm.

‘Carefully.’

The priestess’s attack was so fast it was barely visible even to my eyes.

Unfortunately, my skills weren’t enough to counter it without a strategy.

‘But her attack directions are limited.’

That’s why I stayed as close as possible to the hero.

The priestess was focused on supporting the hero.

Paradoxically, if the hero and I were too close together, I could somewhat predict the direction of the priestess’s attacks.

Even a priestess wouldn’t slash through her own comrade to get to me.

If the direction of the sword strikes was limited, then it was the shield’s turn.

I readied my shield in the anticipated direction of attack and braced myself.

-Whoosh!

Almost simultaneously with the sound of air being cut, impact struck my shield hand.

‘That hurts.’

The impact was stronger than expected, and I almost lost my grip.

But I blocked it.

While I couldn’t speak for a real priestess, it was clear that a shadow priestess’s skills couldn’t cut through a sacred relic.

I sensed a slight frustration from the shadow.

‘Do they have emotions?’

While pondering that vague impression, I moved my body.

I flexed my slightly numb hand while deliberately exposing a small opening.

And through that small gap, an arrow came flying.

‘So predictable.’

A normal archer wouldn’t have shot for fear of hitting allies, but this was the hero party’s archer—an elf, no less.

She had precisely aimed her arrow at the deliberate opening I’d shown.

But as I’d noted before, she was straightforward.

Since I’d intentionally baited the attack, I could dodge it if I knew the timing.

After successfully blocking three attacks,

Ive swung her sword as if it was now our turn.

Her blade aimed for the shadow hero’s head. As the hero quickly ducked, the priestess blocked Ive’s sword.

‘Considering the priestess’s skill alone, Ive can’t win.’

Given the priestess’s lightning-fast sword techniques—too fast for me to see and enough to terrify Sia—it would be difficult for Ive to face that shadow alone.

But that was only if she fought alone.

Just like the shadows had done, we could overcome skill deficiencies through cooperation.

“Take this!”

With Sera’s voice, paper pouches flew from behind Ive with measured precision.

Sensing something dangerous from these pouches that carefully avoided her comrades, the priestess swung her sword.

Then Sera shouted.

“Explode!”

The pouches exploded with magical energy.

She must have prepared something on the spot, timing it to catch the priestess’s interception.

As the intercepting shadow priestess hesitated, the paper pouches burst, scattering powder of a distinctly unhealthy color.

While the priestess, hero, and elf quickly retreated, Ive and I stepped back lightly to escape the powder’s range, and I blocked another arrow from the elf with my shield.

“Kei, are you alright?”

“Managing somehow!”

I answered with a grin, hiding my tingling arm after blocking the arrow—straightforward in trajectory but still powerful.

Then Sera spoke quietly toward the shadows.

“I thought I could just ignore you since you’re shadows, but surprisingly, you try to avoid poison?”

“What kind of poison is it?”

“Since I didn’t know what would work, I mixed paralysis poison, sleeping poison, and regular poison together.”

Sera added that these were items she had originally planned to use against the monsters here.

If poison effective against the fierce monsters of the snow fields worked on these shadows, that was useful information.

Or perhaps the poison didn’t actually affect them, but some memory imprinted in the shadows made them react instinctively.

‘Either way, they’re cautious.’

It would have been troublesome if they had completely ignored Sera’s tools.

But their reaction confirmed that even though they were shadows, Sera’s attacks were effective—or at least concerning enough to warrant caution.

“I can breathe a little…”

“Kei, to your left!”

The moment I heard Ive’s words, I raised my shield.

The hero had somehow approached and was swinging his sword, while Ive thrust her blade to interfere with the priestess who was trying to support him.

Thanks to Sera casting magic at the elf first, no additional arrows came flying.

“Let’s coordinate calmly.”

Ive said while swinging her sword.

“Kei, protect us. We’ll protect you.”

Without taking her eyes off the enemy, Ive continued.

“I’ll watch for every small opening, every dangerous gap, to create a path to victory.”

“That’s reassuring.”

I smiled slightly at Ive as I raised my weapon.

I covered myself with my shield and pointed my sword at the enemy.

“Let’s continue then.”

I spoke as if addressing the shadow.

And at the moment when the hero’s shadow seemed to nod slightly,

The hero charged again.

I swung my sword according to Ive’s instructions.

Sometimes I wielded my weapon on instinct, switching from sword and shield to halberd and spear, or to a flail to keep the enemy at bay.

The hero and priestess’s attacks grew increasingly fierce and fast, but I reacted to Ive’s voice, dodging preemptively or receiving support from Ive and Sera’s attacks.

Sometimes I blocked both their attacks with my shield, while Ive and Sera targeted the elf or hero.

At first, we were barely defending.

But as our coordination improved, the battle gradually reached a stalemate.

Wounds accumulated with each clash.

The shadows also began taking effective hits.

Then, in the midst of the fighting,

Ive shouted.

“Kei, halberd!”

As the priestess and hero rushed from both sides simultaneously, Ive’s voice reached me.

Without hesitation, I changed my weapon to a halberd and swung it low.

The halberd scraped across the ground with a terrifying sound, and I saw the shadow priestess and hero jump to avoid it.

Then the priestess seemed to flinch, realizing her mistake.

“Connect!”

Suddenly, light began emanating from the scattered papers around us, forming magical ropes that linked together.

The airborne priestess and hero were surrounded by these ropes, and as the elf quickly raised her bow to rescue them,

“I was already aware.”

Ive, who had somehow appeared beside the elf, swung her sword, causing the elf to roll backward.

Then, above those bound by the ropes,

I saw Sera’s magical orb falling.

“This is my first time using this here!”

Sera had already taken out her castanets.

Sensing the ominous energy, the hero began twisting violently, and Sera raised her castanets and shouted.

“Release!”

With a crisp sound, the magic contained in the orb was released, sending electricity flowing around.

The electricity, originally meant for multiple monsters, bounced everywhere, engulfing the hero and priestess.

The rope-bound hero and priestess twisted desperately to respond, but having been caught at close range by the electrical discharge, they were helplessly entangled.

‘With this…’

We might have defeated them.

Even if not, they certainly wouldn’t be in perfect condition.

The electrical light was so intense that I couldn’t see what had happened to the hero and priestess, but it was a tool even Beatrice had vouched for in terms of power.

In this golden opportunity with the two shadows engulfed in light,

‘Now to eliminate the archer.’

To gain numerical advantage, I turned to deal with the relatively easier target—the shadow elf.

I needed to quickly capture the shadow elf before it could escape or try to rescue the priestess and hero.

And then,

“Don’t try anything foolish!”

With Ive’s voice, I saw her swinging her sword toward the shadow elf.

It seemed the shadow elf had attempted something while I wasn’t looking, but Ive kept swinging her sword to prevent it from rescuing the priestess and hero.

However, the archer continued to dodge Ive’s attacks by the narrowest of margins.

“Still not easy to hit, I see.”

It wasn’t that Ive was holding back.

The issue was physical ability.

While Ive was reading the archer’s trajectory and swinging her sword, the elf-like opponent was reacting properly even after seeing Ive’s attacks a beat late.

I quickly exchanged glances with Sera, who nodded.

As I rushed to help Ive, her gaze briefly met mine.

In that brief moment when our eyes met,

The strategy was decided.

“Try dodging this!”

Ive swung her sword at the shadow elf.

As the elf dodged Ive’s sword and retreated slightly,

I changed my weapon to a halberd and threw it with all my might.

-Whoosh!!

The halberd flew with a terrifying sound.

Naturally, the archer looked at the halberd upon hearing the sound.

Recognizing this as the most dangerous attack, the archer leaped backward, avoiding both Ive’s sword and the halberd.

Immediately, Ive’s sword pursued the archer, but perhaps because the original was an elf, it elegantly twisted in mid-air to avoid the second attack as well.

Then, upon landing, it even stepped on Ive’s sword.

Though she didn’t let go of her sword, the archer raised its bow as if this was the end.

An arrow was already nocked, and the archer aimed to pierce Ive’s head…

“Got you.”

Ive quickly released her sword and rolled on the ground once.

Just like the elf had done, Ive dodged the arrow aimed at her head by a paper-thin margin as it struck the ground.

Ive continued rolling on the ground, and as the archer, slightly surprised that its attack had missed, prepared for a second shot,

“Look behind you, shadow of Abies.”

At Ive’s words, the shadow archer looked back.

And by then, the archer’s body had already been split in half.

The halberd I had thrown returned, cleaving the archer in two before coming back to my hand.

“You were too fixated on me.”

Ive spoke softly to the shadow archer.

The bisected shadow of the archer began to dissolve into the scenery.

[To think Abies would be the first to fall. Well, she was always too honest and fell for tricks easily…]

A slightly amused female voice was heard.

And just as Ive retrieved her sword and stood up,

[But the priestess and hero from that time were never pushovers?]

With a bang, electricity began to scatter in all directions, and I saw Sera scream and fall backward.

Sera quickly regained her posture and retreated, and I immediately realized who was responsible.

‘…The priestess?’

As if confirming my thought, I saw the priestess sheathing her sword.

Somehow, with a single sword, she had cut through both the electricity and Sera’s scattered papers.

At first glance, she didn’t seem to have taken much damage.

‘No.’

Looking at the slightly singed shadow, there was indeed some damage.

However, her minimal injuries were because someone had shielded her.

Looking at the hero, who appeared to be in poor condition despite being a shadow, I could tell he had thrown himself to protect the priestess.

Just as I was beginning to understand what kind of person the hero had been,

With a thud, I saw the priestess’s shadow stamp the ground.

“…It’s hard to see since they’re shadows, but…”

“She seems angry.”

Those were the words of Sera, who had retreated to join us, and Ive, who had also returned to our side.

“Are you okay, Sera?”

“Yes!”

Sera smiled slightly as if to say not to worry, and I nodded before looking back at our opponents.

Despite being shadows, the hero and priestess were emanating a menacing aura.

They seemed absolutely unforgiving about us eliminating their comrade.

‘He wasn’t called a hero for nothing.’

I raised my halberd while observing the hero and priestess.

Then, as if it was his turn after the priestess, the hero’s shadow began gathering strength by bringing his hands together.

Soon, I saw him gradually recovering damage with a red energy.

“Indeed, they said the hero had a dragon’s regenerative ability.”

I recalled what the real Lumen had told me in Albheim long ago.

With such recovery ability, it made sense that he would choose to throw himself to protect his ally.

Although we had managed to eliminate the shadow archer by exploiting a brief opening, more dangerous enemies remained.

After exchanging glances with Ive and Sera,

They both nodded and said to me.

“Kei, please handle the hero.”

“Will you be alright?”

“With that regenerative ability, no matter how hard we try, we can’t finish him.”

“It’s better if you face the hero while we hold off the priestess.”

Ive and Sera stood side by side as the priestess approached with determined steps.

Despite the intimidating presence, the two didn’t back down as they faced the priestess.

“We may not win, but we’re confident we can hold out.”

“And coincidentally, both we and that priestess probably have similar feelings.”

As if hearing Sera’s words, the priestess seemed to glance at the hero.

A look of concern.

It might have been a coincidence, but I felt Sera was right.

“Kei. You absolutely must not draw on the dragon’s power.”

“…I know.”

I nodded at Ive’s cautionary words.

Dying here by drawing on that power would be counterproductive.

“I’m counting on you.”

“Yes.”

Moving away from Ive and Sera, I walked forward.

As if reading my intention, the hero also approached slowly.

I advanced slowly, holding my halberd.

And the moment the priestess, Ive, and Sera engaged in battle,

The hero and I began exchanging blows.

The greatsword and halberd intertwined in mid-air.

From the faceless shadow, I sensed an unwavering determination.