“NATURE SPIRIT: DRYAD!” Aura summoned her nature spirit, who emerged from a dark green magic circle on the ground.

  The spirit was a woman wearing a crown made of various flowers, her attire was leaves covering up the bare essentials. She had pearly white skin that shimmered underneath the pink sun.

  It roared at the woman in front of her and Rose.

  “Aw, cuteeee~,” Her face straightened as she bolted forward, gripping the spirit’s face. She slammed her onto the ground before swinging her in the direction of Aura and Rose.

  The Dryad flipped and caught herself in the nick of time. She motioned her hand forward, vines rooting from the ground. Like tendrils, they moved forward for the woman across from her. They wrapped onto her wrists and legs.

  “That was easy,” Rose chuckled.

  “Now why did you have to say—” Aura was cut off as the woman burst out of the grip of the vines and flipped a knife into her hands. She dashed at Rose first.

  “COMPANION MAGIC: DANGEROUS SCREAMER!” A magic circle appeared, a man with beige robes in awful condition, like he had been in them for a long time. His robes were tied off at the waist by a cloth belt. His head was covered by a cloth mask. No room for the eyes, nothing. Just a cloth mask.

  “Who the hell is that?” Aura nodded her head towards the Dangerous Screamer.

  Rose sighed, “I’ve never had to use him since he’s super unstable but our opponent here is also super unstable so I thought, “why not?”

  “I can hear you, you know,” the woman ran forward.

  The Dangerous Screamer cocked his head towards her. He moved his hand to his mask and lifted it up.

  “Cover your ears, Aura,” Rose whispered.

  “RAHHHHHHHHHHHH!” A sonic boom erupted out of his mouth, sending her reeling. She hissed, holding her ears.

  “Why have you never used him before?” Aura asked.

  “I’ve only gotten him tamed recently. Before, he would’ve been attacking every single person in this room.”

  “Ah, that would be pretty bad,” Aura clicked her teeth, “but I’m pretty sure she’s getting back up.”

  “What is she made of?” Rose muttered to Aura.

  “I’m,” she grunted, pushing the debris off of her, “the last person you will ever see. I didn’t finish the job once, I will do it this time.”

  “Yeah, not today buddy,” Aura walked over and punched her in her face.

  Her entire body turned to mist as it whisked away.

  Aura looked at Rose, eyes wide as she realized what was happening, “ROSE, MOVE! NOW!”

  The woman appeared behind Rose as Rose dived out of the way.

  The Dryad sent more vines to capture the woman but she disappeared. More and more of her appeared throughout the room, even pouring into Aaron’s battle. No matter what they did, all that happened was them turning into mist and coming back.

  “Blossom Arrow,” the spirit said, her voice echoing throughout the room despite being soft spoken.

  A single flower bloomed at her fingertips—delicate and radiant. But as the petals unfurled, an arrow of intertwined vines and razor sharp thorns took its place. The spirit drew her finger back as if she were nocking an arrow. She pulled it back and released it. The floral arrow shot forward, glowing a soft green light. The scent of wildflowers followed the trajectory of the arrow, masking its deadly intentions. It pierced through the illusions in its way, reaching the last one at the end. It exploded with a golden cloud of pollen, vines wrapping around the impact point like roots seeking soil.

  “AUGH!” The version of the woman fell down to her knees with a thud, grasping onto her chest where the arrow had impaled her. A shaky breath escaped her lips as Rose and Aura kneeled down next to her.

  “It isn’t so fun, is it?” Rose said.

  The woman reached up for Rose, but Rose caught her hand, “It’s over. Stop.”

  “But it isn’t over,” a whisper crept into her ears followed by the steel impaling into Rose’s stomach despite moving away.

  “ROSE!” Aura looked over to Dryad and motioned for her to cover.

  Dryad glided across the floor, blocking Aura and Rose.

  “Rose, are you okay?” Aura’s tears landed on Rose’s cheeks. They rolled down with Rose’s tears.

  “Ugh,” she squirmed, “I—don’t think s-so…” she lifted her hand from her torso, which was covered in her own blood.

  “I’ll get you some help. You’ll be okay, Rose. I can’t lose you. PLEASE!” Aura wailed, her cries carrying throughout the entire building. Aura put her hands onto Rose’s wound. Her companion disappeared into dust as Rose’s breathing hitched.

  “I’ll stop the bleeding,” she sniffled, her tears streaming down, landing on the ground.

  The Dryad hovered and bent down next to Aura and placed her hands onto Aura’s.

  “Elderwood’s Blessing.”

  Aura’s hands emitted a beautiful emerald light, the wounds slowly closing on Rose’s body.

  Rose’s eyes shot open. She looked around, patting the area where her wound was previously.

  “It’s gone?”

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  Aura looked at her then at Dryad. Her eyes reflected the sage color that surrounded her spirit and smiled.

  “Turns out she can do a lot more than I thought,” Aura reassured her.

  Rose stood up next to Aura.

  “Let’s kick her ass,” Rose said.

  “Thank you, I’ve been waiting for you to say that,” Aura responded.

  Dryad floated as Aura ran, next to each other, as Rose stayed behind, chanting.

  “COME FORTH, USE THE VERY ESSENCE OF MY BEING, THE VERY BLOOD THAT PUMPS THROUGH MY VEINS, ALLOW ME TO BORROW YOUR STRENGTH! COME FORWARD, CRIMORO!”

  Rose sucked her teeth as a stream of blood exited through the wound or where the wound used to be. The blood left her body like a thread, which slowly built up. Firstly, the blood started to make the feet. A jet black mixed with the pumping of her sanguine blood.

  “What is that?” Aura wondered as she landed a blow due to the woman being distracted by Dryad’s spell barrage.

  “LIKE I’D LET YOU FINISH THAT!” She turned her attention onto Rose. Aura bolted across the room to intercept the woman who moved at terrifying speed.

  “DRYAD!”

  She swung her hand forward, vines emerging from them, attempting to halt the woman. Even for a brief moment.

  The next part of the body to take shape was the legs. Flesh and scarlet light pulsed, glowing like blood-red rubies catching the sun. Strands of sinew wove together, threading themselves like an unseen hand sewing a masterpiece, like a spider spinning its intricate web. Blood clotted to the outside of the already made body parts, looking as if it were pouring off of the creature being constructed. The blood stretched out, leaving parts of the leg missing—you could see through these parts.

  “NEVER!” The woman charged through the vines, snapping them like twigs.

  “NOT IF I SAY SO! DON’T STOP, ROSE!” Aura stood in front of the woman, who charged at her, her knife in hand.

  Aura prepared her stance, the one her grandpa taught her before he passed. The woman swung the knife, Aura’s eyes were barely able to see its trajectory. If not for her grandpa’s training, then she’d never have been able to survive. To fight on even ground with a trained assassin, one who’s trying to take her life. Aura slipped under the wide swing of hers and grabbed her arm. She flipped the woman onto the ground. It halted her for a moment, before she hopped right back up.

  “Not bad, but it’s not enough,” she turned around and sprinted towards Rose once again.

  The torso was made, its body wasn’t connected. Or at least not fully. You could see through the torso, the blood was stretched out—just like the legs.

  Aura ran behind the woman who just seemed to be too fast for her to catch up to. She grew closer and closer to stopping Rose, which they couldn’t allow.

  “Rise, my children,” Dryad lifted her hands up. The ground rumbled as vines covered in beautiful opascent flowers burst from the ground, ensnaring her legs. Aura caught up to the woman and landed a series of punches and kicks as she started to burst free from the movement. The woman finally escaped the Dryad’s vines but Aura wasn’t giving up. Aura jumped in the air, attempting to land a spinning kick. The woman weaved out of the way and kicked Aura in the back—sending her flying backwards. Aura smacked against the ground, flipping until she caught herself—stopping herself before she hit the wall once again.

  “Decay,” The Dryad whispered in her ear, as she placed her hand on her back. Suddenly, the woman began to wither. Her skin turned pale, as the Dryad began to try and siphon the energy from the assassin.

  “GET. OFF.” she turned onto the Dryad and grabbed her head. She smashed the spirit’s skull into the ground, then proceeded to pummel against the back of its skull, “OF. ME.”

  She panted, she took her hand and wiped the sweat off her forehead before crushing Dryad's skull with her heel. She disappeared into thin air, her mana bursting into the air—a

  radiant emerald glow, rich with nature’s energy. A gust of wind gently brushed against Aura’s hair as she got up slowly.

  “Now,” The woman stood upright, “where was I?”

  A ruby spear pierced through her shoulder as she barely managed to avoid the blow to her heart. The smell of blood lingered in the air as everyone in the room looked over to the newest addition to the battlefield.

  Rose laid against the wall, her skin pale as a ghost. Her eyes were closed as she slowly gasped for air.

  Suddenly, the companion walked forward. His body flowed like an ocean of blood as he emitted a dangerous aura. The metallic smell followed in suit. His face was one of nightmares. His eyes glared at us, his crimson eyes glowing in the darkness of the eyes in the mask. He wore a helmet created by the blood of Rose, one made of steel that left his eyes and grin for us to see. The helmet’s roses blossomed from the top, the crimson flowers flowing with blood. The blood dripped from the roses on his helmet onto the ground, where you could hear it drop onto the floor. Everyone was watching, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

  His smile was… wrong. It was like something your brain wanted to reject, like a dream breaking underneath the weight of a scream. His eyes blazed with a crimson luminescence—as if fear had lived inside them.

  “I don’t care who you are,” The woman said, “I’M CHARLOTTE ARIAS. THE SILENT SWIFTBLADE,” she grabbed her daggers and held them, “Neither one of you is leaving here alive,” she lunged forward, her daggers aiming for the heart of the creature.

  Crimoro roared as he ran forward—meeting her head on. He lifted up his hand—which turned into a giant hammer—and smacked her down on the ground. Charlotte disappeared into smoke, and appeared behind him. She slipped the knife into where his heart was.

  Or where it should’ve been.

  The hole expanded, tendrils of blood grabbing onto her arm and her knife. Suddenly the blood closed in an instant—tearing off her arm.

  “DAMN IT! AUGH!” She fell to the ground, grabbing the area where the blood spewed outwards like a sprinkler.

  Crimoro trudged over to her body. He lifted her off of the ground, his smile reaching to the deepest depths of her soul.

  “NO! NO! NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!” She smacked at him with her left arm, the one that was still attached.

  He pierced her heart with a tendril from his arm, her screaming suddenly halted.

  “Aw, you thought you had me,” she stood against the wall on the other side of the room.

  “You’ll never defeat me with that weak shit,” she smirked, “see, my magic works like this. I can create illusions of pretty much anything. From my own body, to anything you see here. I could tell you those guys over there are products of my imagination,” she pointed to Aaron kicking Dugal into the masked man, “But those guys are really there. Remember when you summoned that spirit against me in the dungeon?”

  Aura’s face turned pale as that memory came back to her.

  “No way,” she murmured to herself.

  “Yes way. You never stood a chance because your spirit never even existed in the first place. That’s why your friend tried to get your attention but you wouldn’t listen. I was never there, neither was your spirit.”

  Aura fell to her knees.

  “How? Why?”

  “Because it was funny,” Charlotte kicked her foot up, the silver dagger catching the light as it flew out of her boot.

  “You’ll never be able to beat me, because I’m too smart,” she walked over to Aura and dragged her knife against her cheek, “I’m too powerful for you to even comprehend. Any last words?”

  Aura swung at her with her right fist.

  Charlotte stood there, taking the hit and smiling. She licked her lips as she bent down, face to face with Aura.

  “Was that all you got?”’

  Crimoro’s blood shot out like missles, piercing through her shoulder again. Charlotte cursed underneath her breath as she disappeared into smoke once again.

  Aura crawled to Rose, “Rose. Rose. Come on! GET UP!” She smacked her in the face.

  Rose’s eyes slowly fluttered open.

  “What…” she grabbed her head. She looked around. Crimoro was fighting against Charlotte. Charlotte’s arm exploded in a burst of blood.

  “What is that?” Rose asked.

  “Huh? That’s Crimoro. You summoned him,” Aura looked at her, confused.

  “I summoned that?”

  “Rose, are you okay?”

  “Yeah but I don’t remember having a companion as strong as that.”

  “It must’ve come to you because of the massive trauma you’ve suffered throughout this fight.”

  “Maybe. But that companion is dangerous.”

  Crimoro lifted his hand and crushed it into a fist, causing an illusion of hers to explode. Crimoro swiveled on his heels, seeing the next illusion appear. He lifted up his fingers, pointing them like guns and shot. Sanguine bullets rang throughout, piercing the next illusions that tried to storm him.

  “ENOUGH MESSING AROUND!” Charlotte yelled as more of her appeared surrounding Crimoro.

  Crimoro looked around. He smiled his signature sinister grin as he summoned a cloud above. The scarlet cloud flowed with blood as it began to rain. The blood poured down onto each and every one of them. The room filled with Charlotte’s screams, as they disappeared one by one.

  “Rose,” Aura said to her.

  “Yeah?” Rose replied.

  “That woman, she’s not in here,” Aura stated.

  “What?” Rose said.

  “I tried to leave a trace of mana on her when she was the only one here but it turns out that one was an illusion.”

  “So we just have to find the real one?”

  “Exactly but that means she could be anywhere throughout this entire castle.”

  “Okay, I’ll stay here,” Rose said.

  “What? I can’t just leave you here. What if she attacks you?”

  “I think Crimoro can handle it. Look at him,” she pointed to him. He lifted up an illusion into the air, using his arm as a sword which was pierced through the stomach of the illusion. He

  roared an arrogant roar.

  “Dang,” Aura hesitated, “Fine, but try to keep Crimoro as close as you can until you recover enough energy to stand.”

  Rose saluted as Aura ran out of the room.

  “Good luck,” Rose whispered as she tilted her head against the wall.