Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 99 - 94: Rescuing Elista II

[An Abandoned Building in Slums]

"Something is not right.", the ’voice’, which belonged to the horned beastman, aka. Gellian Ramus, spoke.

"What’s wrong, sir?", his subordinate, who was nearby, asked him in justified confusion.

’We are in contact with all our members, the new hostages are being bought here safely, and the C ranked magic user has already left the area. So, what is ’not right’?’, the subordinate thought.

Only silence answered the subordinate’s question though.

Not that he minded it. It was already much better than when team leader Lekas led the team, the atmosphere was much grimmer and scary back then.

So, an unanswered question or two didn’t matter.

But, when about 10 seconds later, he heard the vice leader answering his question, he was a little surprised.

"Hey, if I promise to use only a single finger, do you think you can beat me?"

"A single finger?", he thought as he looked at the vice-leader’s face and thought for a moment, but in the end, he shook his head decisively, "No, I still can’t imagine myself winning."

"Then why do you think it would be any different for him?", Gellian questioned back.

"But…"

The subordinate took a second to find a nice argument before he continued.

"But they aren’t his subordinates! Won’t he obediently take his loved one in exchange for some random chumps!?", he said while pointing at Elista who was chained to a nearby wall.

"Yes, that’s what most people would do. But you missed something, the C ranked magic user behind those two ’chumps’ isn’t a weak one. So, it’s natural to have a deviant thought or two. But he had none, that’s what makes him suspicious."

The subordinate remained silent as he thought about what Gellian spoke.

’On one hand, what vice leader said sounds completely reasonable. On the other hand, it seems like he is just being paranoid with all the on-field members reporting otherwise.’

"So, what do we do sir?", he asked cautiously in the end. "Should we really call off things when they are going according to the plan?"

"Wrong again.", Gellian shook his head. "The plan was to suppress any trouble he caused with my power, establishing a clear difference in strength. I could’ve also used that chance to ’punish’ the hostage for his defiance, which would’ve made him obedient, buying us the time leader wanted…But I have failed.", Gellain said in an even tone as he stood up and walked to the corner of the room.

Towards the chained Elista, who was wearing her usual apron over clothes, quietly leaning against the wall as she slept.

It had been over 12 hours since she was kidnapped, but no one knew if she was a useful hostage or not until moments ago, so no one bothered with her, ignoring her existence. In fact, her clothes were soaked with her own piss as no one had even bothered to take her to the bathroom. And though a magic user cleaned her piss with magic, it was solely because the said person didn’t want the building to smell funny.

"So, what do we do now, sir? Should I have the new hostages delivered to a different location?"

"No. First we abandon this base.", Gellian said as he unlocked the chain binding Elista.

’If the situation is as I suspect then these reports are all fake. The lookout team must’ve been thoroughly overwhelmed.’

The beast men concluded before he barked an order, "What are you standing still for!? Relay my orders to everyone!"

"Yes, sir!!"

The subordinate answered hurriedly, as he was about to do as told.

It was at this moment-

-Schwing…!

A flash of light passed through the said subordinate, a blood red coating it, as it did. And then, time slowed down for Gellain.

’I wasn’t fast enough.’

Yes, he was right. His way of thinking was correct, but he didn’t arrive at the conclusion fast enough.

And this was the result.

He could see it, tiny droplets of blood that were seeping out of his subordinate’s body. Tiny droplets that were about to turn into a stream.

But he couldn’t save him, not did he have any interest to. Instead, his eyes were focused on the now red flash of light that was just inches apart from his face.

The attack had enough power to behead an ordinary C ranked mage. With his beast men physiology he wouldn’t die, but he would be seriously injured.

So, he pulled.

Pulled on the same chain that Elista was attached to.

But his old dirty move was already seen through and prepared for.

Threads that looked normal a second before, moved on their own, mana coursing through them as they kept the now awake Elista from harm’s way.

Yes, the threads still weren’t strong enough, and another stronger tug would’ve broken them, but Gellian didn’t have that kind of time.

The flash of light was right on his nose when he somehow managed to raise his other hand and block.

The flash of light, which was another one of Mark’s string overcharged with mana, bit on Gellain’s arm, easily cutting through his flesh as it dug deeper, i.e., until the string found his bone.

Blood spurted out from both, his arm and his subordinate’s dead body as the upper half of it finally slid down the floor, painting it red.

Unlike his fragile subordinate though, Gellain persisted. His skin was indeed cut by the string, but his bones didn’t give an inch, ensuing a stalemate, which Gellian was sure to win.

And it wasn’t a surprise that he was.

Mark was a manipulation type of magic user who used magic to control and enhance his strings, while Gellian was pure enhancer type who just strengthened his original bloodline ability.

It was simple, straightforward, and most effective, unlike Mark whose magic revolved around control, delicacy and numbers.

-Flick…!

With a flick the string biting Gellian’s forearm attacked him like a whip, pushing him back a meter or so.

’Since my ambush didn’t work, I’ll push him back and rescue Elista first.’, those were Mark’s thoughts.

"Not so fast!", Gellian exclaimed, as he maintained his posture, instead a bony exoskeleton covered his arms, thickening by each layer.

And not just the thickness, but the power, and most importantly the mana in the his arms increased with each fold, making his fists a deadly weapon.

And with those deadly fists, he took a step forward and punched out. His target, none other than Elista.

The attack was powerful. The wind pressure it generated was enough to blow Elista away. If it actually landed…then Elista would be reduced to nothing but a splotch of blood.

-Schwing…!

Once again, Mark’s strings flashed as the floor right below Elista and the chain bounding her, both were cut.

Poor Elista didn’t even scream as everything was happening too fast for her to keep up.

One second, she was pretending to be asleep as she eavesdropped on boss and employee conversation.

The next second, she saw a flash of light and the subordinate was dead while the boss was fighting against a string.

She was shocked. It was the first time she saw someone being killed in front of her.

A man who was talking right in front of her was dead just like that.

He was killed by the person she loved. By the smart but awkward Mark who blushed at her teasing?

She was just too shocked to even scream.

This content is taken from freёnovelkiss.com.

Then, the wind blew real fast as she saw a fist wider than her shoulders coming at her.

Death.

It was her end. She knew it was.

And yet, she was saved again.

Before she knew, she fell down a floor, missing death by a few inches.

Falling down a floor, it hurt a little but her body wasn’t injured nor was it chained and yet it refused to move. For red painted her vision while the smell of iron assaulted her senses.

-Drip

-Drip

Blood dripped down a motionless string, on her muddy apron as she blankly watched the scene which was straight out of a splatter film.

(A/N: Yes, I am a fan of gore.)

A room full of blood, full of dead bodies haphazardly cut. Some dead, some barely alive with their guts spilling out.

At this moment, Elista was glad that she had been starved, or she would have spilled her guts now.

Her mind was simply overwhelmed at what she saw, while her body was overtaken by fear.

She shuddered, her heart felt cold, she couldn’t feel anything…she deluded herself that she couldn’t, for she didn’t want her heart to be broken.

The building vibrated, the stationary strings moved, but all she could think was, ’These deaths…because of me…all because of me, he had to kill…’

Just then, when she was about to break, a voice that she longed to hear echoed in her head.

-ELISTA!! GET OUT OF THE BUILDING!!

-GO! GET OUT! FAST!! I CAN’T HOLD HIM BACK MUCH LONGER!

And that, snapped her out of it.

’I…I need to get out of here…yes, I need to get out of here first…’, she closed her shaky eyes and took a deep breath.

The ceiling vibrated again, she could hear some muffled explosions from above too, so she didn’t waste time.

She stood up, with her shaky legs, and walked out.

Everywhere she went, she saw the same scene. Dead bodies, dead bodies, and more dead bodies. But she didn’t look, rather she didn’t want to look, as she chanted , ’I want to get out here. I have to get out of here.’, repeatedly in her mind and walked away. Thanks to her tenacity, she quickly descended two floors, and reached the ground floor.

The exit was within her sight.

The building vibrated again, but as she did before she ignored everything and walked forward, ’Just a little more! Just a little more! Just a few steps!!’, she chanted crazily.

Something exploded in the upper floors another thing she ignored, but alas, she couldn’t ignore this one.

The ceiling above her exploded, as a creature, 2.5 meters tall, covered in shiny black bone armor from head to toe, jumped down from the hole in the ceiling.

Chasing the giant was a veritable sea of strings and Mark who was controlling them.

"Since you disobeyed you need to pay the price!!", the creature declared as he moved towards her with dizzying speed.

The strings also moved, rather they never stopped moving, as they tried to bind the creature.

Yes, bind, not cut. For Mark had already found out during the fight that cutting the bone armor of Gellian was a very inefficient and mana consuming task, specially using his strings.

But even binding him wasn’t so easy.

The strings combined, weaved forming a powerful whip that lashed out at Gellian.

-Smash…!

-Smack…!

His armor blocked the whip easily, only a slight scratch forming on his shins, but even then it was impossible to not feel the impact of the attack that sent him flying.

Meanwhile, a few strings grabbed Elista, and took her out of the building, moving her hundreds of meter away from the fight, as far as Mark could take her.

-HIDE! HE IS TARGETING YOU!!

Mark warned her, before he focused on Gellain.

But the person in question had already recovered and took off the streets moving towards Elista. There was no need to act discreetly now.

Mark’s strings moved, binding one of the creature’s legs but a sharp bone blade grew out of the creature’s forearm, which he swung to cut the strings.

Then the creature turned, brandishing the same bone blade to parry and twist the stings coming for his torso. He dodged blocked and swung, with mechanical precision appearing to Elista as a whirlwind of swords.

But he couldn’t do it for long, he was going to be overwhelmed sooner or later, even Elista knew that as she backed away from the fight.

And soon, the moment came. Facing the wave of strings that resembled a tsunami, Gellain was overwhelmed. Disappearing under layers upon layers of strings, that wrapped him up in a spherical shape.

But as Mark expected he wasn’t done.

-Arghhhh!!!

With a shout, bone shards exploded out from the sphere the next second, freeing Gellain from Mark’s clutches.

Then again, without caring about Mark or the panicking crowd that was running away, Gellain ran towards Elista like a raging bull.

Of course, Mark followed.

First the strings bound his fists, but again he swung the bone blade. Then, the strings attacked both his legs and arms. He rolled barely avoiding the strings going for his legs, but the strings binding his hand slowed him down.

He turned and cut the strings attached to his arm, but other strings had already caught up.

First his left leg, then his right, followed by the torso, his right hand and finally his left hand that was punching at Elista, with each limb he struggled, with each limb he screamed as he forced himself forward.

All this while, he never stopped moving, and even now he was just few steps away.

But in the end, he failed.

Or so Mark thought, cause the next moment a bone spike came out of the hard ground, right under Elista who was about to be impale.

"YOU HAVE TO PAY THE PRICE!!", Gellian grunted.

"NOOOO!!!", Mark screamed as he tried to intercept the attack, but everyone including Elista knew he wasn’t going to make it.

As such, Elista simply gave up, and waited. Waited for the painful sensation of death that was about to envelope her.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

But the said sensation never came, causing her to open her eyes.

There, she saw it.

The pendant that she was scammed into wearing, the pendant that she couldn’t take off no matter what, was glowing with a beautiful golden light. And that same golden light had formed a barrier around her.

’The pendant protected me?’, she blankly started at it, not sure what to feel.