The Amber Sword

Chapter 147 – Wither

Elman pulled out his sword; a metallic scraping sound against the scabbard was released, with the blade glinting slightly in the darkness.

“Who’s there?” He furrowed his brows and asked with a wary expression.

“Hehehe.”

A light giggle came in response. The laughter was not far away, and Elman saw the air in front of an ancient tree shimmer before a woman walked out with sauntering footsteps.

She had a pair of long pointed ears and her long purple hair flowed sleekly behind them like a waterfall. Her upper body swayed lightly while she walked, and her fingers combed through the top of her hair. The long eyelashes cast a darker shadow over her light purple irises, and combined with a beautiful almond-shape face with purple lips, made one feel that she was captivating.

However, it was the features of her lower body that captured the group’s eyes. Vines and thorny brambles completely formed her ‘legs’, and they extended to cover her ample chest with the stray vines reaching to her neck and cheeks.

[What is with this appearance? A naked woman covered in vines? Someone crazy? Or perhaps some kind of legendary creature in bardic tales like a Dryad?]

She was crying inside her heart, but she thought of that horrible youth first.

The woman who watched the chain of events glanced at Dia and said: “Hmm? A Water Elementalist. But how does a Water Elementalist possess such a potent telepathic power?”

Dia’s expression changed: “It’s you, you’re the one who disrupted brother Brendel’s communication with me!”

“Oh? Is he called Brendel? I watched that interesting boy lead those young men quite well against the wolves. Thank you very much, little girl!”

Dia was furious. She stretched out her hand and Ice Arrows were fired at the woman. But they were turned back into water after a short distance, and the woman smiled faintly: “The Laws of Magic last only but for a moment. Indeed, the original form of Mana looks best.”

She raised her hand. Countless vines answered in response and reached for Dia. The young Wild Elf tried to resist by casting several spells at them, but she was bound tightly in the end.

“You haven’t answered me,” Elman watched Dia get bound up with emotionless eyes and said.

“Your question?” The woman turned around and sneered: “You think your little tricks can fool me?”

“You really think I don’t dare to kill her?”

“Try it.”

Elman forced his sword deeper into Faena’s pale neck, and a visible wound appeared. He stared at the woman: “What about now?”

“Are you crazy?” Rono roared, but he stood where he was, afraid that he would trigger that madman into doing something truly insane.

The woman narrowed her eyes. She thought Elman was pretending to take her hostage, but it seemed like he really was a mass of cruelty.

“Interesting. You want to live?” She said.

Elman nodded.

“Very well, I’ll give you a chance. Kill that boy, and then follow me.” She ordered lightly as she gazed pleasantly at Rono.

Rono stared back in surprise, but he cried out in pain a second later. He looked at the crossbow bolt sticking out from his chest in disbelief before he looked up at Elman.

The projectile had poison on it, which was even mixed with his own hands. The goal was to deal with the monsters in the Dark Forest, but he could not have imagined that he would be the first experiment. He did not think that Elman would be so decisive and looked at him with incomprehension.

His body fell backward.

“Rono! Have you gone mad? What have you done, Elman!” Faena could not believe her eyes. Tears gathered in her eyes as memories of the shy boy came flooding in her mind.

But Elman did not look at her and continued to hold his sword against her neck. He threw away the crossbow in his left hand and looked at the woman.

The latter looked at this scene with interest and clapped her hands: “You’re just like I expected. Clean and decisive. You do have the potential to join us.”

She tilted her head with a smile: “Do you want to?”

Elman did not doubt that a refusal would end up in his death. He hesitated for a moment before he nodded. When he did so, his nerves that were fraught with anxiety was flushed with relief. As a rising talent amongst the high nobles in the Kirrlutz Empire, he believed that he still had value in her eyes.

[She won’t harm a new initiate.]

But this thought was ended in an instant. The vine that was slithering behind him moved in a blur and pierced through his neck and emerged out from his throat.

The blood that spurt out drenched Faena’s neck.

She felt the man he had known for years fell heavily onto the ground with a thud. Her thoughts were blank and she fell down on both her knees, unable to utter a single word.

The woman stretched out a hand. Vines emerged in front of her, carrying a coiled thorny whip. She took and swung it at where she was standing. A violent shockwave streaked past Faena and cleaved Elman’s body into two, causing the air to rain with blood as the two parts flew away.

She swung the whip again, coiling it around Elman’s short sword and hurled it at Dia. The blade penetrated her heart, and she struggled for a while before her head drooped down.

“How foolish. Does he think that I am similar to the weak fools in the Unifying Guild who are obsessed with authority?” She smiled with satisfaction.

“Power is nothing more than an illusion. One day, the throne will turn into dust.” She glanced at Faena, her lips raising upwards: “As for you, little girl, you are indeed of a little use to me. Come, I’ll bring you to make a transaction— I really do love how the humans put it, a transaction.”