The blindingly sharp aura blade descended onto Xarion, who braced himself with crossed scimitars. His aura burned fiercely against the opposing force, but cracks in his defense began to show. The light aura sliced through him like butter, opening wound after wound across his scaled body.

  He gritted his teeth, pushing his aura to its absolute limit, merging every ounce of fire mana he could muster into it. He begged it, melt the light, destroy the enemy, consume everything in front of me.

  The Voiceless poured more power into his blade, pressing down with relentless force, driving Xarion to his knees.

  Kai and Nerva, locked in combat with the remaining Voiceless, watched in horror, but they couldn’t break free. They were bound by their own battles.

  Zara and Umbra fought fiercely against the mercenaries, but their enemies were more resilient than expected, holding their ground.

  Xarion smiled through the pain. He hadn’t expected help. He didn’t want it. This was his fight.

  The light aura carved into his left shoulder, inching toward his heart. Xarion screamed as the sharp aura ravaged his insides.

  “I won’t let it end here. Not with everything waiting for me.” White Dragon, my ancestor, bless this foolish son of yours. Grant me power in this moment of desperation.

  He prayed, unleashing every drop of aura and fire mana he had. His core spun violently, and six magic circles flared behind him, each one deeper crimson than the last. A white, burning fire aura surged from his body, clashing violently with the invading light.

  “Destroy it. Consume it. I ORDER YOU, BY THE DECREE OF THE FIRE DRAGON, MELT MY ENEMIES!” he roared.

  His aura twitched, then erupted. His scimitars turned pure white, engulfed in an ever-growing fire aura. The aura evolved, absorbing the aspect of melting from his fire mana.

  With a roar, he slammed his tail into the ground and pushed back. His crossed blades slowly forced the aura blade out of his shoulder.

  “Haste! Blessing of the Wind God!” he cast dual enchantments, rising to his feet.

  His aura devoured the enemy’s weapon. The more he pushed, the more the blade melted, until it cracked in two.

  The Voiceless shivered, preparing to escape atop his flying daggers. But before he could move, a draconic roar echoed behind him.

  Xarion was upon him.

  The air and mana around him melted as he closed the distance. His twin scimitars stabbed into the assassin’s back, unleashing excruciating, blood-boiling pain. The Voiceless melted into a puddle of flesh and aura, unable to even scream.

  The aura weapons disintegrated.

  Xarion collapsed to the ground, his body broken and bleeding. His blood painted the sky and soaked the earth as he fell.

  ***

  Meanwhile, Liliya soared through the air, beams of condensed fire streaking from her burning sun toward the Voiceless Grand Magus.

  “Stay put and let me hit you, damn you!” she cursed, frustration mounting as she gave chase.

  The Voiceless mage, clearly adept at aerial combat, used silent casting to unleash wind blades mid-flight. He weaved through the sky with practiced ease, dodging and retaliating with precision.

  Liliya dodged what she could, though her flying skills were far from graceful. Fortunately, her Perfect Diamond Barrier deflected anything that struck her directly. Still, she was growing impatient. She glanced down at the battlefield; her allies were locked in brutal combat, and she wanted to help.

  “Fine! Frigid winds, slow everything before me, Icy Storm!”

  She cast a Sixth Circle spell. A massive gust of freezing wind surged forward, forming jagged icicles that fused with razor-sharp currents. The spell caught up with the Voiceless, slicing into his body and slowing his movements.

  “Serves you right,” she muttered with a smirk.

  The mage struggled against the freezing winds, his cloak torn and blood trailing behind him. Then, unexpectedly, he curled into a ball mid-air, hugging his knees. A strange, grey wind mana enveloped him, and he was suddenly propelled out of the storm in a bizarre, spiraling trajectory, flying around Liliya like a headless fly.

  Then he stopped abruptly, hovering just meters in front of Liliya.

  “That was weird… but you finally want to fight, huh?” she said, rolling up her sleeves, ready to unleash more magic.

  But then, something unexpected happened.

  A massive magic circle glowed around them, forming a prison of razor-sharp wind walls that slowly began to close in.

  “What? You actually drew an enhanced magic circle while flying? Well, this is worth researching,” she said, unfazed and smiling fearlessly.

  The Voiceless’s cold eyes glinted beneath his mask. He summoned three magic circles in front of him, each producing swirling wind drills. Then, with a second cast, an ethereal hawk made of pure wind mana burst forth, diving toward Liliya.

  “A wind golem and an Eighth Circle Wind Destruction spell? Going all out, huh?” she muttered, her gaze flicking downward. Xarion was bleeding badly.

  She clenched her fists. “Time to stop fooling around.”

  “Let this aunty show you some real magic. Wind magic specialist, my ass.”

  She began triple casting, her voice splitting into three distinct chants, echoing like a chorus of spirits.

  “Reality bound to my will, trap what I design, Space Lock!”

  “All mana returns to the source, by the command of the authority of spirits, Mana Wave!”

  “Caelora, goddess of all wind, lend me your strength, breathe your first breath, Silent Wind!”

  Blood streamed from her eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. Eight full magic circles appeared behind her, each glowing a different color. A ninth, barely visible, flickered ominously.

  Space Lock activated first, freezing the entire Wind Prison in place. The drills, the hawk, even the Voiceless himself, everything was suspended in frozen space.

  Then came Mana Wave, a spell of pure, unaffiliated mana. It surged forward, erasing all active spells in its path. The Voiceless’s barriers were shattered, and his Fly spell was stripped away.

  Once the Space Lock faded, the mage would plummet, but before he could, the final spell descended.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  An ethereal figure appeared, shaped like a goddess of wind, formed from pure grey mana. She smiled gently and exhaled.

  A pale breeze touched the Voiceless, and in that instant, his body crumpled as if struck by a mountain. No scream. No resistance. Just silence.

  Liliya showed it what it was to use the true power of the wind.

  The Wind Prison collapsed. Liliya released her Space Lock, panting, drained. Her body trembled, her core nearly dry, but she had no time to rest.

  Xarion was dying.

  She forced her mana core to spin faster, pushing herself beyond safe limits. She flew downward, already casting the strongest healing spell she could muster.

  “Heal!” she cried, descending like a comet toward her fallen comrade. Behind her, what remained of her enemy fell to the ground with a splash of gore and blood.

  ***

  Umbra slashed through the Master-level mercenaries with her aura-covered claws, each strike laced with Abyssal Thunderfire. Beside her, Zara darted from the shadows, slicing weak points and slowly poisoning their bodies with every cut.

  “We need to hurry!” Zara landed next to Umbra, glancing toward Xarion, who lay bleeding in a pool of blood. Liliya had just landed, desperately trying to heal him.

  “Agreed. I’ve had enough of these laughing pests,” Umbra growled.

  One of the mercenaries sneered. “What’s wrong, kitty? Can’t touch us, huh?”

  Umbra’s eyes narrowed. “Zara, remember our sparring match? Let’s do that again.”

  Zara nodded, drawing her short sword, Wasp, and summoned its spirit. It merged into her back, granting her high-speed flight. She shot into the air, casting Shadow Clones, producing dozens of deadly, airborne copies.

  Umbra roared, her abyssal mana exploding outward. Her form shrank as she dipped into the shadows, leaving behind a clone.

  The mercenaries laughed again. “We’re not stupid!” one shouted, smashing Umbra’s clone with a massive hammer.

  “Oh, but you are,” Umbra whispered from his shadow.

  Shadow tendrils erupted, impaling him through the heart. Abyssal Thunderfire surged through his body, devouring his lifeforce and burning him from the inside out. He collapsed, dead before he could scream.

  The others stopped laughing.

  Umbra moved through their shadows, leaving a clone in each one. Then she leapt into the sky, her majestic wings unfurling.

  Zara’s clones swarmed the battlefield, exploding into clouds of poison upon death. The mist paralyzed and corrupted the mercenaries’ bodies, weakening them further.

  Umbra activated her shadow clones. Tendrils lashed out from the enemies’ own shadows, binding them tightly. These weren’t mere whips anymore; they were soul-draining conduits of dark mana, invading their channels and feeding on their lifeforce.

  The mercenaries screamed, struggling to break free, but Zara’s poison, crafted from dozens of rare toxins, was too potent.

  “Let’s end them,” Umbra commanded.

  Zara focused her green aura into Wasp, activating her deadliest poison skill. With a single slash, the aura morphed into an emerald ethereal serpent of pure venom, which dove toward the bound enemies, jaws wide open.

  Umbra smirked. She wanted to test something new, a bloodline ability of her newly evolved race. Her mana condensed into a black sun-like orb, burning with shadow flame and crackling with black lightning.

  “Life Eater, come to me,” she whispered.

  The orb twisted and transformed into a massive scythe made of Abyssal Thunderfire, but she wasn’t done; she enveloped the weapon in her black aura, strengthening it further. It shimmered with an eerie light, like death incarnate.

  Zara stared. That power… It’s at least an Early Master level. How the hell?

  Umbra shifted into her human form and grasped the scythe, laughing as she swung it. Crescent arcs of deadly energy flew toward the mercenaries.

  Zara’s serpent struck first, piercing their bodies and leaving festering, decaying wounds. Then Umbra’s crescent arcs landed, igniting the poison mist and slicing the mercenaries apart. They died screaming, their bodies torn apart by Umbra’s crescent slashes and rotting from Zara’s acidic poison. Their lifeforce was absorbed into the scythe, feeding Umbra.

  “Oooh… this is new,” Umbra murmured. “Something inside me is absorbing their life force through this weapon. Interesting.”

  She felt herself growing stronger, but couldn’t yet identify what within her was feeding on the energy.

  “Good job. Let’s check on Xarion, fast!” Zara shouted, already flying toward him.

  Umbra followed, her curiosity burning, but now wasn’t the time. Kai and Nerva were still fighting, and the battle was far from over.

  ***

  Nerva and Kai fought side by side against the final two Voiceless.

  One wielded twin greatswords as if they were weightless, yet each swing carried the crushing force of the earth itself. Nerva parried the blows, his silver aura flaring with each impact, but even he struggled to deflect the sheer blunt force behind the strikes.

  The other Voiceless was more insidious; he drew on the souls of the nearby dead, empowering his body with spectral energy. He moved like a phantom, punching and kicking with unnatural speed and strength. Kai’s aura-covered Noxblade barely left a mark.

  “It’s like I’m hitting cotton,” Kai muttered, dodging a flurry of strikes. “There’s a weird resistance. Even my aura is being reflected.”

  “He’s using the souls of the dead to negate your attacks,” Scry whispered into his mind. “If you can find a way to remove those souls from the equation, he’ll weaken significantly.”

  Kai gritted his teeth. “Great. Just what I needed.”

  Nearby, Nerva landed beside him, breathing heavily. “The other one’s freakishly strong… but I think he’s exactly what I need to push my aura to the next level. Don’t assist me. You hear me?”

  Kai nodded. “I’ve got problems of my own.”

  “I’ve got an idea,” Scry mused. “But you might hate it.”

  Kai parried another barrage of punches. “What is it now?”

  “You could use one of the spells you stole from Florian. It might turn the tide.”

  Kai growled at the name. “You know how much I hate that bastard.”

  Before Scry could respond, a punch slipped through Kai’s defenses, slamming into his gut and sending him flying. He crashed through the charred remains of a half-burnt house.

  Groaning, Kai knelt, clutching his side. The blow had bypassed his defenses and rattled his insides and his inner world. Not good…

  Then he saw them, beneath the broken planks, a mother and her young son, huddled together, eyes wide with fear. The woman clutched her child tightly, trembling as she locked eyes with Kai’s draconic form.

  His heart clenched.

  “It’s fine. Stay here. I’ll defeat the ones who did this,” he whispered, tossing them two Spirit Fruits before rising to his feet.

  He dusted off his tattered martial clothes and stepped into the open, his eyes glowing a cold, steely grey. All around him, souls began to stir, drawn to him like moths to flame.

  Inside his inner world, an ethereal page appeared, shimmering ominously.

  “Fine,” he muttered. “They say fight fire with fire… I’ll fight evil with an even greater evil.”

  His voice twisted, his aura darkened, and his personality shifted into something colder, more ruthless.

  “Kai?” Scry asked, uneasy.

  “Don’t worry. It’s still me,” Kai replied, chuckling eerily. “But there’s a hint of someone else in here, too.”

  Scry shivered. “That’s… unsettling. Please don’t develop multiple personalities.”

  Kai began chanting in ancient Soultek, his voice resonating with the cries of the dead. Souls twisted and screamed around him, forming a vortex of spectral energy.

  main page and hit follow and favorite, or leave me a rating! Your reviews and feedback mean the world to me and help spread the word, especially for a small author. Thanks for your support!

  My Patreon which is at 35+ advanced chapters at the moment.

  CAN A HEALER SURVIVE THE APOCALYPSE... ALONE?

  ?

  Fantasy LitRPG Adventure Psychological Progression

  The system took everyone from Earth. Except for Matt.

  Earth's integration into the system has started, plunging it into a multiverse where conflict is law. To prepare, humanity was sent to distant planets to participate in a 'tutorial'. All except one.

  Rejected and abandoned on a new Earth where mana has turned beasts into monsters, Matt must find a way out of the harsh Egyptian desert, all while being a class that has long been deemed redundant: Healer.

  A mysterious interim leader, a strange dungeon placed in the middle of nowhere, and a class ridiculed by everyone. Will Matt be able to overcome these difficulties and reunite with his friends, or will the hardships of the system break him first?

  Alone, under-equipped, and written off, he will either reinvent the rules of the system... or become Earth's first casualty.

  * A Tale of Survival & Revenge *