Chapter 37
Niobe walks with slow steps toward the invaders, her aura rising more and more. Then white waves start to expand from her, and where these waves pass, all that remains are just hollow eyes. The souls inside are destroyed, and everywhere around Niobe, the monsters just fall like flies. Immediately, an area as big as a football field clears around her.
The people behind look with wide eyes at the powerful Soul Master, really glad that she is on their side.
Then Elliot starts to fire arrows from the last line of defense. Having already finished with the healing, he gave the wounded some Elves Healing Elixir in bottles, and now their wounds are healing with a speed visible to the naked eye.
When Elliot's arrows fly into the middle of the horde, they create another free space the size of a football field. These weak monsters cannot stop a Universe Level 1 Fighter and an Ancestral Weapon, even for one second. They fall like leaves blown by a strong wind in autumn.
If the two of them continue with the killing at the same pace, in about half an hour, all the monsters would be dead.
The people at the back look at the two Fighters, and they can't believe their destructive powers. The two of them are killing more monsters in a few moments than they were able to in the entire time since the war started.
But then something changes. Niobe and Elliot start to feel something wrong. They feel like some invisible eyes are watching them, but they look around and don't find anything.
Then Elliot asks Ray:
"Where is your City Ruler? Why is he not fighting with you all here on the front lines?"
Ray turns to Elliot, his eyes looking guilty and hopeless. He answers with a trembling voice:
"Our City Ruler lured the Devil Royalty's and the Dark Beings Royalty away from our city. He was alone against three of them: two Devil Royalty's and one Dark Being Royalty. The last time we saw him, he managed to kill one of the Devil Royalty's and lured the other two away. We don't know what happened to him, if he needs help or if he managed to kill another Royalty. But we can only trust him because he is, after all, the strongest Ruler of them all."
Elliot puts some clues together after hearing Ray, so he goes to Niobe and tells her:
"The City Ruler managed to kill some Royalty, but I think he gave his life to make that happen, and one of the three Royalty's managed to come back and he's watching us. I think he is alone now, he is the only one left. We need to be careful about attacks from the dark. Seeing how he is so good at hiding in plain sight, I think he is an Assassin type."
Niobe looks at him and says:
"Yeah, I think you're right. Even I can't find him. I can't see any stronger soul than these weak minions. I think he has an artifact strong enough to hide even his powerful Royal Soul. And I can't believe that 'Arthur', he is the City Ruler. I can't believe he managed to kill two Royalty's, all alone. He really was the most powerful one of all the City Rulers."
Elliot nods and starts to fire arrows again, but now with more attention to the surroundings.
But all of a sudden, screams are heard from the people behind. They look back and see a black blur killing the people like weeds.
Niobe flies immediately toward the back line, and Elliot fires his arrows.
The arrows reach first, and then they explode in the air, but only create a white, warm light that illuminates all around. Then they see a black Dark Being that has knives in each hand. He is only the size of a normal man, with a lean, muscled body. He wears only a full-body leather armor, but this leather armor is his strongest artifact. That armor blocks everything around it, so much so that even Niobe cannot see his soul.
The only difference between humans and the Dark Being Royal is that he has a scorpion-like tail behind him, mandibles like an ant on his face, and his eyes are like a spider's. He looks toward Elliot for a moment, then just turns to black smoke and disappears.
Niobe reaches the back line, but the Royal is already gone.
She looks around, but she doesn't find anything. Then she says to Elliot:
"Elliot, you need to come here and protect the people. I will go to the front lines. We'll see who manages to kill more from the opposite camp—he or I."
So they change places. Niobe starts to kill monsters even quicker than before, but then she sees that even more are taking their place. She feels like their numbers are growing instead of shrinking, so she tries to find the problem while summoning even more of her monsters.
Elliot also sees the growing numbers of the monsters. He fires even more arrows, but the monsters are appearing faster than they are killing them. They need to find the Assassin Royal quickly because it's clear that he is also a summoner.
He is the one who is making their numbers grow faster and faster. He plans to overwhelm them with a tide of unending monsters.
Niobe and her monsters are starting to be pushed back toward the last line of defense. The monsters are too many; if one dies, ten take its place. If ten die, then one hundred take their place.
When Elliot sees that, he starts to fire some sun-exploding arrows. That helps Niobe a little bit, even though the destruction around them is ten times more because of the arrows. But they can't worry about that now.
Then Niobe starts to raise her aura more and more. She raises her hands toward the sky, and above them, about 50 meters in the air, a white ball of light appears. It grows more and more with each passing second. Then, when the ball is the size of a weather balloon, Niobe starts to send it down into the middle of the monsters.
When the white ball of concentrated soul aura lands, it makes an explosion so great that it reaches even outside the city. Then, when the explosion subsides, it looks like it didn't do any damage to the surroundings. Even the monsters are still standing, with no damage to their bodies.
But slowly, every single one starts to fall, their souls destroyed. For a moment, there is complete silence—no monster screaming, no one dying, no one talking. Just absolute silence.
Then the sound of falling bodies begins to be heard louder and louder, and it feels like is the only sound in the world. Everyone can hear it: 'Bom, Bom, Bom, Bom.'
Everyone just looks at the Soul Master, her aura making a barrier around them all. Not even one human or ally is hurt.
Niobe, The White Nightmare, she alone destroyed thousands and thousands of 'Invaders' with one move, while keeping everyone safe. She really is a 'Nightmare' for her enemies. All are thinking, 'A really fitting nickname she has.'
Even Elliot looks at her with changed eyes. But all of a sudden, he sees black smoke appearing behind her, and Niobe doesn't seem to react to him. Elliot, in a tenth of a second with a lifelong trained move, has the bow raised and an arrow on his string. He lets it go as soon as he takes aim. The arrow flies with the speed of light, even making its own light, and it reaches the Assassin even before he manages to form completely. The arrow explodes with a blinding light right next to him. Then Niobe doesn't even turn toward him. She only screams like a banshee, and immediately the Assassin moves like he is drunk.
Niobe let herself appear weak so that the Assassin would come and try to kill her. The moment Elliot sent his arrow, she knew where the Assassin was. So, she made him regret coming near her.
The Assassin tries to regain his bearings as soon as possible, but he can only see blurry shadows and hear only muffled sounds. And he feels a pain like never before coming from the deepest parts of his soul. If he didn't have his powerful, all-protecting artifact, including soul protection, then he would already be on his last leg. So dangerous and scary are the Soul Masters.
Niobe covers her hand with her milky white aura, and tires to stab him in the heart. But she only hits Smoke.
He is also a Royal. He is not a weakling. He bites his tongue and regains enough clarity to turn to smoke and hide, he knows that he was closer to death than ever before. He needs to be even more careful near her.
Niobe also didn't expect that the Assassin would regain his bearings so soon. It seems that she underestimated the power of his 'Artifact.'
But then she sees the Assassin appear in front of them all, and he says:
"I am Krolok Zirath, and you will have a slow death."