Chapter 98 - Temporary Truce
The huge building had one entrance that was currently being guarded by scores of weird figures, each one radiating an aura as they stood there awaiting the challengers of this event's participants
'Only around twenty? What are the others dallying around for'
Seeing only a few creatures surrounding the entrance loosely while watching out for each other YuJu couldn't help but laminate their slow reaction, something he wouldn't have minded if not for Anput's likely predicament
'I need to speed things up'
Grabbing one of the last few spatial knives he threw them silently into the guards' formation
All eyes, be it of the still guards or tense participants, darted toward the knife stabbed into dirt as soon as the spatial energy leaked out of it
"Damnit!" "!@$" "Rooar!"
Words in many languages were yelled as well as roars and screeches, every one of the participants knew this energy was no good sign, the explosions from before were a clear indicator of that
Everyone here had trained years for this opportunity, some even considered it their last hope thus each sent their own energy or aura filled attack at the unstable spatial energy, even the guards recognised the severity of the situation with their instilled will to protect the castle and started to pile around the would-be explosion hoping to bear as much of it as possible
Ba!....
One small boom shook the earth slightly, that was all there was to it though and the castle remained unharmed
Just when sighs of relief were about to be heaved an unstable sense of spatial energy caught their attention once more, this time coming from a smoke covered figure running through the guards with its destination being the big castle doors
The scene from before repeated itself once more, sadly this was YuJu they were up against and not some still object rendering their valiant efforts to waste
The closer he got to the doors the more impatient these aura holders were, it didn't take more than a few seconds before the first one burst into action, chasing after the unknown sabotager with all the speed it could muster
That seemed to be the spark that ignited everyone's fighting spirit, plunging into the large group of guards in chase of YuJu
'This should be enough"
With the ball already rolling there was no need for him to be the focal point of battle
'Now lets test something out'
Removing the attracting smoke off him and blending into the messy horde of guards he awaited the first victim to arrive
A tiger with white hair was at the forefront of chasers, covered with a similarly white aura giving it the air of a holy beast among the mad bunch
'A good target''
Not the white tiger, of crouse, but the two-legged creature some distance from it
Allowing the smoke like aura to spread from him toward whatever creature this was he watched on as the two-legged being was successfully covered with a very attracting mysterious smoke, something that surprised the fellow long enough for others to notice
It dispersed the smoke hastily with its own aura seeing the ones in close range glaring hard, sadly this did not help at all as the figure from before was now untraceable and then this happened making them very suspicious
"Roar!"
Just as YuJu predicted the tiger acted out quickly, slashing at who it thought dared try and play tricks using these silly methods, such an insult to its intelligence would not be tolerated
'Heh, looks like it works'
As the first experiment bore fruit he started moving around the battlefield covering both guards and aura holders with temporary smoke, enough to cause confusion and hostility between them fanning the flames of war and igniting a bloody battle royal
"That's more like it"
Now some distance away from this chaotic fight the perpetrator smiled in satisfaction at his handy work
'She's finally here?'
Turning to the back he saw Ellis coming from the distance, when she got closer a bloody gash could be made out on her stomach, not too deep but dangerous nonetheless
"Tough fight?"
"No, an assassin got the best of me, other than the gash he couldn't land another hit"
"Are you capable of fighting with it"
"Yes"
"Good, we've got a few more of those assassin types to deal with"
With that he led the injured redhead toward the outskirts of the expanding warring zone, more and more participants were jumping at the opportunity to land some kills and steal other's tickets, only a few of them lurked in these outskirts waiting for the eventual end so they could sweep in and claim the cumulative prize
These lurkers were precisely who YuJu and Ellis were now aiming for, waiting for the final victor and sneak attacking them was his job so these sneaky wannabes needed to go
"Come out little rats"
With the mysterious aura put to use the assassins had nowhere to hide after being covered with the attractive smoke, it made them an obvious target not only to Ellis but to the surroundings hostiles as well who were more than happy to put an end to these opportunistic basterds
"Kill only the easy targets and let the stronger guys tire themselves out, I have your back in the meantime"
Nodding she fully entrusted her safety to his capable hands, or feet, and dashed towards the nearest squishy looking fellow
Taking on an attack stance the swordswoman slashed her twin swords wildly leaving not an ounce of chance for the enemy to escape even with their wide range of skills
'As I thought, most of the assassin types put plenty of skill points into stealth and similar skills, this leaves much to be desired in a confrontational fight'
He would know this best as he was a one-trick assassin as well
'Ugh how agonising it was to own such a class'
Sure it made one feel invincible being capable of killing enemies of a similar power level with a single stab but it wasn't worth the utter lack of strength when facing others with slightly stronger senses, impressive armoured builds, or a shocking vitality
'Let's not forget those guys who have their domains always active, such a pain in the ass'
All in all made a pretty crappy class for a lone wolf, only when put in a group would his useful abilities find their timing
Shick!
"It still feels good to one-shot enemies though"
Watching as another sneak attacker fails to land a hit on Ellis after receiving a knife to the throat YuJu smiled, shoving thoughts of distant past aside and focusing on the moment where everything was under control
…
The battle continued to rage on for more than half an hour, for every guard that fell another rose from the ground to replace them and attack the newly arrived aura holders who unwillingly joined this blood bath
Just as before there were a couple who evaded the massacre, their fate turned out to be much worse than others though as YuJu quickly found and exposed them, putting the unlucky fellows under focused fire
'That's about a hundred of them already, not many are joining anymore which probably means the rest are already dead'
While scouring the colourful battlefield where skills and auras were being thrown left and right he recalled the estimated number of participants was around a hundred and fifty for this event, triple the usual number, it wasn't a surprise though with it being the last time this Aurascape opens
All of a sudden the big doors of the castle opened up catching his attention, a week green light shining from the inside accompanied by ten light enveloped orbs floating out and landing not much further away, the person who opened the doors paid them no heed however and jumped into the light instantly
"They already started escaping huh? Good this one didn't try and pouch the treasures, though they didn't seem valuable by the light they were giving"
Well if the person tried to take them and run then nothing but minced meat would be left of them, only due to surprise were they able to run anyway
"Enough playing with these assassins, lets go guard the gate"
The two of them rushed into the centre of war where three figures were doing their best in keeping everyone else away, it was the white tiger from before as well as a troll riddled with injuries and some creature YuJu couldn't tell heads from tails of as it was only a sphere with many holes dotting it used primarily to shoot pressured air at any approaching organism
Instead of approaching the trio's barring circle he started filtering the ones trying to escape but without the use of smoke, gaining everyone's attention was unneeded at this point in time
The three noticed hidden assassins being forced into the open after being stabbed out of nowhere before a redhead came slashing at them, that took a lot of pressure off of them but they figure out who the hell was throwing these well-hidden knives, a very worrisome matter since they would most likely have to face it at some point as well
Still, all of them were on the same page since they wanted to claim the treasures for themselves, so many tickets would surely give something valuable after all, this brought about a temporary truce between the four strong sides, perhaps even a lasting one if they could strike a deal somehow