The Sword and The Shadow

Soulgrasper

When Leguna and Linq were halfway there, they encountered two odd dark elves.

They were a man-and-woman pair. The man was dressed like a warrior, and the woman, a magus. Their clothes were rather unkempt. While they obscured their critical parts, they were practically seventy percent bare.

The male elf was kissing the shapely feet of the woman with a look of adoration as if he had been given a blessing.

The woman, on the other hand, was a picture of pleasure. Her eyes were dazed as if she was enjoying the sensation on her foot.

"Kyaaah!" Eirinn cried as she turned away with a blush.

"Quick, use the ring!" Leguna reminded.

Eirinn didn't hesitate and pulled her hand back to twist the ring on her right hand.

The next second, Linq watched as Eirinn vanished before his very eyes. Due to how dark the Dusk Zone was, it was quite common for dark elves to sense their surroundings with heat and sound waves. Annelotte, however, had obtained a ring that could hide the heat signature of the wearer from Myr. This way, while Eirinn appeared to be standing there awkwardly and helplessly to Leguna, she had become invisible to dark elves.

As if Angelista had just noticed Leguna and company's presence, she kicked away the mouthy dark elf warrior and anxiously yelled, "Buzz off! Go away! You buffoon, they're already here!"

The elf warrior hurriedly pulled his clothes in order and looked at Leguna and the rest with hostility.

"So, are you the ones sent here to stop Linq?" Leguna asked, before he realized that he didn't know the elven tongue.

He took out a scroll with an omniglot spell and muttered as he read the instructions to use it.

"Take a mana crystal out… Put it in the groove of the scroll and tear it…" he muttered as he followed the motions.

All three dark elves stared at him complete the task with shock. Leguna repeated the question. "Are you here to stop Linq?"

"Actually, we're here to take this half-elf girl," Angelista said as she put on her shoe using Magus's Hands, "I thought that we wouldn't have to fight, but it seems Linq found quite a good helper, a human one at that."

"Lady, are you someone from House Andalir?" Linq tried to negotiate with a bad feeling looming over him.

"I'm Angelista," she said, puffing out her chest as if it was her signature.

"It's actually her…" Linq's expression soured.

"What about her?" Leguna asked.

"Angelista is strongest magus-for-hire in Darklight," Linq explained in a whisper, "She's a 17th-stratum magus and she's famed for her destructive abilities and her ravenous sex drive."

Leguna frowned at hearing the second point.

"Don't look down on her, ever. They say her personality is unhinged and her mood swings faster than a pendulum. She's not an expert in scheming and tactics, but she's a fearsome fighter if anything. Many dark elves had tried to take her place or wealth and even forced her into dangerous situations, but she fell all those obstacles with her sheer magic power."

"Is she… as powerful as Annie?" Leguna asked pensively.

Linq stared blankly for a second and said, "She shouldn't be. Facing that human lady, I couldn't even muster the will to disobey her. However, I'm confident I can last a few minutes against Angelista at least."

"Good, then." Leguna made up his mind and took two steps forward only to see her just finishing putting on her shoe.

"Since you know who I am, Mister Linq, isn't it about time you handed the lass over?" Angelista said with a smile, "If you cooperate, I might lay with--"

Clang!

Before she could finish, Leguna used Shadow Blink to appear behind her and sent Lighteater into a straight thrust. However, it struck a silvery barrier.

"Whoa!" Angelista jumped with shock from the sudden attack and took a fearful step back. Her warrior partner charged forwards from behind her.

"You actually tried to attack me before I was even done! How shameless!" she cried angrily before she dictated even more defensive spells on herself.

Leguna didn't speak a word and flung two shadow throwing knives to disrupt her dictation. He then used Host of Darkness to the 5th stage. A magus working with a warrior was a really troublesome combo in his experience and he would have to kill one of them as quickly as possible. If he couldn't shave down their numbers, then he would slowly lose ground in the fight.

His sudden rise in power had pushed the elf warrior to his limit. All he saw was a flash before a visible wound appeared on his back. Leguna had employed Lighteater's Spatial Cut ability. He only had to move his sword a little bit forwards just now to cut the spine of the dark elf.

"Let me help you!" Linq said, seeing there was an opening he could take advantage of. He rushed to the warrior and cried, "Let me deal with this one! Go take on Angelina!"

Leguna eyed Linq before turning to face the magus.

Angelista's fireball whooshed towards him, but he didn't avoid and merely stared at her coldly. Right before it touched him, he blinked away.

Clang!

Leguna broke through Angelista's first defensive barrier and lashed out with Ebony in his left hand to cut into her right lower rib.

Stoneskin had been weakened considerably by Lighteater. If the strike with Ebony connected, Angelista would no doubt be critically injured.

Clang!

His dagger once more crashed into that silvery barrier. Angelista seemed completely unfazed by his fierce attack. Instead, she looked quite excited. She backed away in a hurry and used an oil spell to slow his advance.

Hmph, little tricks! Leguna thought. Before Annelotte lost her memories, he would often train with her. After being beaten up countless times, he more or less could tell what spells were going to be used based on their tells. Angelista's decision to use an oil spell was a wise one, but the location she placed it was obvious. If it were Annelotte, she would definitely use it right before Leguna's leg contacted the ground. Only then could a high-order assassin be made to trip.

However, Angelista wasn't capable of that feat as she couldn't do what Annelotte could: dictate level-one spells like it was an instant cast.

Leguna stepped onto the oil puddle. Thanks to his training (read: beating) under Annelotte, he had developed the skill to not slip from an oil spell. He could even use it to propel himself forward.

Angelista's spell ended up lending him a helping hand. He let his impetus surge and shot towards his target like a pitch-black arrow.

Swiftshadow Slash!

That was a strike that would definitely land. His body blurred and Lighteater was swung towards Angelista.

Bam!

A sheer, insurmountable force of will invaded his mind. It felt like someone put a bucket over his head and had a truck traveling at full speed slamming into it.

Leguna's attack lost its edge due to the mental attack. Lighteater touched Angelista's silver barrier powerlessly and was bounced away.

[Oh?] The silent Gahrona finally seemed surprised. [Looks like this dark elf is a soulgrasper…]

[What's a soulgrasper?] He seemed to recall seeing that word in some of Annelotte's books before, but he didn't have a deep impression on it.

[Soulgraspers are people with special kinds of entthymemic powers. They don't have to rely on mana as a medium and can directly use enthymema to influence the physical world,] Gahrona explained, [The ethereal lifeforms that exist in the realm of stars are basically all soulgraspers, but those lifeforms are exceedingly rare and the base plane doesn't have a strong connection with the star realm, so normal people wouldn't be able to meet soulgraspers even once in their whole lives.]

[Then is Angelista a denizen of the star realm?]

[No. Apart from them, other lifeforms on planes other than the star realm can become a soul creature due to a sudden change in their consciousness. Cases like these are just exceedingly rare.]

[Are they easy to deal with?] Leguna still felt that his head was ringing. Thankfully, Angelista seemed quite drained from unleashing the mental strike as well. Otherwise, she would've wiped Leguna out long ago.

[Unlike you gifted, soulgraspers' abilities are fixed. There's less randomness when it comes to them. However, they are still rather formidable. Though…] Gahrona smirked as she went on. [this lass has a lot coming for her if she's trying to use her soul powers before a spiritual being like me!]