Chapter 288 (2/2)

I looked back overup the rear He was surrounded by a dim white aura, and he ran with his hand on the leather-wrapped hilt of his sheathed saber I alht my eye

“Duck!” I shouted as I spun ondipped his head without hesitation, just barely enough to avoid a black blur that sailed past, right where his head had been

“W-as that?” Ada shrieked She was still being carried by her eldest brother and had been able to see it the ed

We picked up our pace, the faces carved on the wall nothing but a blur noever, I knew that it was only abeneath us would catch up

The distorted wail of the beasts, along with their chittering, grew to a deafening din beforeup from the sea of darkness

It was under Kalon’s illuainst, and they were sohtirth of aclaws Atop their long necks, each ured huh, were alive with hatred and fury

Kalon dropped Ada and drew his weapon for the first time It was a spear, much like Ezra’s, except with a pitch black blade that seehoulish creatures tilted their heads as they climbed up onto the narrow path Their boney jaws clacked repeatedly to create that eerie chitter,with the lowthree of the ghoulish serpents in a single swing

“We need to keepat anotherinto the abyss

Ezra, taking the lead, followed his brother’s order, spinning his spear to knock away the serpentine ghouls rather than trying to kill theis asked, bri with anticipation as I struck a beast withsome of its aetheric essence in the process

Not yet The others still seeone after the other with grace and precision

Kalon, on the other hand, fought with thedoheat in a field His spear cut wide arcs through the air, often shearing throughothers back off the bridge, easily s fell short

Ada, despite hanging over Kalon’s shoulder like a sack of grain, had summoned a circular saw of fire that was not only able to lacerate its eneer with each foe it cut down

Controlling this left her completely defenseless, however, as it clearly required all her concentration toers to control the saw’s h, she was defended as well as any of us frohouls

Still, more and more of the serpentine un to interlink with one another, creating chains of snake-like bodies down into the depths and allowing others to cli to be run down if we keep going like this!” Riah shouted, trails of sweat lining her brows and cheeks as she blocked the sharp boney claws of one of the ghouls with the flat of her wide blade before hurtling it aith a gust of sharp wind

“I’ll try to buy us so Ada”

Our line shi+fted as EzraRiah at the front while Kalon went to the very back

We ran, the three students leading the way I took down a trio of ghouls,into their defor me to siphon more aether from their bodies as they collapsed in broken heaps or tumbled back off the path

“Ada, now!” Kalon roared

Another rune lit up on Ada’s back, and the whirling saw of jagged fire, which was now the size of a carriage, disassembled into dozens of thin ropes of fire that slithered in the air

A spark of electricity erupted fro cords of fire as conduits for the tendrils of lightning The chains of electrified fire dispersed, coiling around the ghouls closest to her, burning through the tendrils of lightning to leap fro effect that felled dozens of ghouls in an instant

Ada sluht of fire

“Good job!” Ezra said, breathing hard as he fended off another pair of ghouls with a swing of his cris while houls nearby

“Riah, underneath you!” I yelled, spotting a boney claw about to grasp the short-haired striker’s ankle

She tried to step back out of its reach, but a deafening explosion shook the stone path and Riah stuid claws

With both Ezra and Ada in the way, my only option was to use God Step to reach her in time to save her

But I hesitated

I hesitated at the thought of exposing my aetheric abilities to these people

In that ed off her feet

Despite myself, I turned back to see what the cause of the explosion was and saw that a large portion of the stone path had been blown to pieces by Kalon

Haedrig was only a few paces behind houls, which were practically piling on top of one another trying to reach him

I jerked around at the sound of Riah’s panicked scream

“Ezra!” she cried in desperation as she clawed at the edge of the stone path, her fan-like blade spinning away into the abyss

“Riah!” Ezra gasped, wide-eyed, unable to houls that were after his sister

My mind spun in that instant I could bypass Ezra and Ada by using God Step to reach Riah, but revealing that here and noould be too risky

Instead, I utilized my imperfect, aether-version of Burst Step in order to close the short distance between

Ada had resorted to using shouls, even though it didn’t do any lasting da theured hu desperately to bite down on Ada, I twisted, snapping its neck and causing it to slu screaers as houls climbed on top of her small body

I pulled Ada behindahead to save Riah

With the trail of ghouls behind us unable to cross over the large gap in the stone path, Kalon and Haedrig were free to dislodge the ones cli a moment’s respite

While the rest of the ascenders were sweating profusely froy than I had spent due to the li

“What happened, why did you guys stop?” Kalon asked, his breathing still steady despite how long we’d been fighting

Before I could answer, Ada let out a sharp gasp, her face paling in horror “Riah!”

Kalon’s eyes widened as his sister ran ahead I turned around to see Ada pulling Riah off the ledge Ezra had just killed the last of the ghouls that had nearly pulled the girl fro and I focused on killing any of the ghouls that lance showed nawed off at the ankle and deep gashes lined her back and her legs Her face isted in pain, tears strea desperately to Ada

“We have to houl to sla down and out of sight

“Do you think she’s in any condition to ht We can’t stay here,” Kalon cut in, turning to , Ezra, and I will be responsible for keeping the two of you and Ada safe”

I nodded, hastily scooping Riah up in my arms

Riah’s entire body convulsed as she let out a pained screaed to wrap her arive us sohoul

‘Are you sure you—well, they—don’t need is asked, apparently bored by the situation

Not yet, I quipped, beginning to run

Haedrig and Kalon were a flurry of strikes and slashes as they focused entirely on protecting houls, I had to resort to ducking and weaving past soet ahead of us

We only made it a few more minutes up the path before Ezra suddenly skidded to a stop

“No way,” he gasped “That’s not possible”

The rest of us caught up to hie chas our way

The same chasm that Kalon had made