Aethernea : Soulbound [Book 1]

Episode 121 - Farce of an Exam

The trap didn't activate!

When their comrade fell, luckily the string ended up right under his knees, so he didn't snap it.

Backs covered in cold sweat, faces scrunched up and pale, their frozen bodies snapped into action.

The sinister man stepped over the string, swiftly waving the burning branch towards Mr. Whiskers, who, finally, loosened his grip around the fourth bandit's neck and slid away.

Fortunately, a sharp intake of breath soon followed from the unconscious bandit and a collective breath of relief spread through the clearing, followed by an eruption of relieved swearing.

Elaru who had been watching the spectacle from a few meters away with a devilish smirk on her face, waiting for the right moment to secure the hostage, chose this exact moment to nonchalantly drop her dagger to the ground with a mock "whoops" expression.

The unlucky fellows didn't even have the chance to relax their taut nerves before a loud snapping sound entered their ears, followed by a giant log which came swinging from the right.

The sinister man didn't even have enough time to swear before the log hit him straight in the chest and sent him flying like a kite with its string cut, the burning branch in his hand flying in the opposite direction, towards the shrubbery.

With eyes bulging out and mouth wide open in a half gasp, half grimace of pain, the bandit lost his consciousness even before his body hit the surface of the river.

"Shiiiiiet!" The third bandit screeched shrilly before realizing that the log missed him by a hair's breath. But just as he was about to let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, he realized that their hostage was on the run while their leader got knocked into the river.

"What are ye waitin' for?!" He scolded the frozen burly baldy. "I'll save boss, ye go catch the critter!"

Not waiting for the baldy to respond, he jumped into the river.

As the baldy turned to run towards the escaping shéfur, Elaru took the opportunity while no one was looking to nonchalantly poke the previously suffocating bandit, who had yet to recover, in the neck with her acupuncture needle.

Then she darted towards the burning torch, using a Fire Evanescence to extinguish the flames before they could spread further. (Energy Transmutation spells, such as Fire and Light were complete spells that were made out of two spell fragments: Conjuration and Evanescence. Conjuration part of the Fire spell was used to turn mana into flames, while the evanescence part was used to turn flames into mana.)

Seeing the burly bandit jumping after Mr. Whiskers with gusto, Elaru smirked and flew towards him.

The man had cast a quick acceleration spell on the ground towards which Mr. Whiskers was slithering to raise it up into walls and stop his escape. Mr. Whiskers briefly paused before changing the direction of his escape, however, the only way out of the encirclement was towards the bandit.

The shéfur tried to slither between the man's feet, but the bandit had expected this outcome. He bent down to pick up the furry critter, and yelped victoriously: "Gocha!"

However, before his hands could close tightly around the critter's thin body, the bandit fell face first into the dirt with a dull thump, letting Mr. Whiskers slither away, out of his reach.

The burly bandit didn't get up again.

The only thing that moved up was a pinch of silver that flew out from the back of the man's neck before disappearing inside Elaru's invisibility barrier.