Awakening: I Ascend As A Legendary Ranked Necromancer-Chapter 46: Get ready!

We froze as a painful scream tore through the air, and a cold chill settled over us. My hair stood on end. That didn’t sound like a monster. That was a human screaming. It was definitely a human scream!

Because our sense of direction had been completely messed with, I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. The sound surrounded us, distant and close at the same time.

And what terrified me most was that we could hear the screaming clearly, yet nothing else. No wind, no footsteps, no echoes.

I swallowed hard. It was as if the voices were there and yet running from us at the same time. This place was messing with our heads. I understood then.

What if we couldn’t see but monsters might be able to? And that somehow made it worse and made my skin to shiver into goosebumps.

And just as suddenly as it began, the scream was cut off and silence followed, thick and suffocating.

"Ah." A playful voice drifted through the stillness. "Oh, I forgot to mention. You can steal green coins from other warriors by killing them. May the Grace of Solomon be upon you!"

"Start moving, now!" Temur suddenly shouted.

He yanked us forward, pulling us with him. Our hands stayed linked, and through that connection, I could sense the others, their fear and tension, the unease bleeding through the bond.

We started moving awkwardly, like crabs.

I walked backward, sweeping the ground with my legs to feel what lay behind us. Earlier, this village had been packed with buildings but now, no matter how much we moved, we didn’t touch a single structure. It was as if we were in an open space with no obstructions at all.

Then we bumped into an Awakener moving blindly just like us. She cursed loudly when we collided, then hurried away, clearly just as terrified.

We kept going like that until, finally, Tim brushed his shoulder against something solid. The brief contact was enough to see, and a building appeared dimly in my perception.

We guided ourselves toward it and slipped inside through a crumbled wall. It was a single-room structure, but at least we were out of the open.

"Now we can think," Temur said.

"Think about what?" someone said. "The spirit said we have to kill monsters and get green coins. But we can’t even see in front of us, let alone hunt anything...."

I ignored the conversation and focused on the ground beneath me. I swept again with my leg, something solid met my foot.

I jerked back.

"Hmmm... guys?" I said carefully. "I think there’s a body here."

"What do you mean?" Cele whispered, fear creeping into her voice.

I nudged it again with my foot. "There’s definitely a body. Unless they’re just sleeping."

They weren’t.

We carefully moved closer, positioning the body between us. One by one, we briefly cut our connections and reached out to feel it.

It was an human male. Blood pooled beneath it, his head was gone, torn clean off, leaving a wet, jagged stump.

My chest tightened.

Something or someone had done this and recently too. I felt like I was drowning as that realization sank in. We reached out again, gripping each other tightly. I felt Tim’s hand trembling. Litha clutched mine hard enough to hurt.

"It seems he was alone," I said, my voice unsteady.

"But whatever killed him could still be nearby," Temur replied grimly. "The blood’s still warm, and we can’t see a damn thing."

I could hear him forcing calmness into his voice, relying on his training as a warrior and hunter. Which made it worse because if he was worried, we were in serious trouble.

"The monster might not be here anymore," Cele tried to reason.

But none of us could be sure. For all we knew, we were already surrounded.

"Everyone, calm down," Temur growled.

I could almost hear his thoughts and heart racing.

’What kind of trial is this? How are we supposed to hunt monsters blind? I need to lead them, but what the hell is going on?’

Then realization hit Temur. "Don’t panic. We can still use our powers," he said sharply. "Litha, put up a shield. You don’t need your hands for that, right?"

"I can," she replied, "but I can’t do any serious attacks without my hands though, that would be difficult."

"That’s fine. Focus on the shield. Cele, Tim, you can also use your powers without your hands. You won’t be able to go all out, but be ready as well."

Litha raised the shield around us, stirring the air gently.

The moment it formed, it felt like we were wrapped in a cocoon and the oppressive darkness vanished.

Suddenly, I could see again, and I could hear.

Litha blinked, her blue eyes igniting. "Well... shit."

Cele’s fireball from earlier still burned nearby, and I flinched as my eyes adjusted to the bright light that seared the eyes. We released each other’s hands and quickly checked ourselves.

"The five senses are really taken for granted," Litha muttered as her breathing steadied.

Whatever had been blocking us was some kind of spell and the shield had cut it off as we created our own personalized space. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"We still can’t see past the shield," she added. "Everything else is still darkness out there."

Temur exhaled slowly. "At least we can see now, we can plan."

I crouched beside the corpse, studying it properly. "Looks like a freelancer. Nothing on him says where he came from. What do we do with the body?"

"Nothing," Litha said. "Unless we want to loot it."

"No," Temur said immediately. "Leave it. We already have enough problems. And it could’ve been another Awakener who killed him, and they might still be around."

"Can we move while keeping the shield up?" I asked, touching its edge. It felt solid, humming with power.

"No," Litha said. "Unless I keep sustaining it continuously....!!"

Something slammed into the shield. The blue, translucent barrier flared violently, sparks dancing across its surface as it ripped.

I snapped my head toward the impact but saw nothing.

Only darkness rolling like fog beyond the shield.

"Get ready for battle!" Temur shouted in panic.