“Why? Why must you do so? Such tragedy, why did you cause it to Dua?”

  [Slayer of Dua the Undead Lantern Mistress] – You have slain Dua the Undead Lantern Mistress. The strength you showed to face such adversities was worthy of much praise. The Lantern Mistress terrorized so many souls, and finally, with your arrow, you brought her down. Vitality + 200

  Name: Suna Amor

  Level: 38 → 41

  Class: [Flintwind Archer]

  Rune: 126

  Feat: 20 → 21

  Mana: 6225/19750 → 6225/20000

  Pyre Flame: 100200

  Class Skill (12/35)

  - Archer Instinct [Uncommon]

  - Gale Backstep [Uncommon]

  - Moving Shot [Uncommon]

  - Flint Draw [Uncommon]

  - Arcane String [Uncommon]

  - Gale Bow [Rare]

  - Spell String Mastery [Rare]

  - Hissing Volley [Rare]

  - Drill Arrow [Uncommon]

  - Still Form [Uncommon]

  - Saproot Arrow [Rare]

  - Emberwind Arrow [Rare]

  General Skill (12/35)

  - Swift Draw [Uncommon]

  - Drowfication [Rare]

  - Rune Seeker [Uncommon]

  - Gale Step [Uncommon]

  - Wind Veil [Uncommon]

  - Thermal instinct [Uncommon]

  - Enchanced Sense [Uncommon]

  - Enduring Body [Uncommon]

  - Battle Focus [Common]

  - Eagle Eyes [Uncommon]

  - Pyre Shield [Rare]

  - Pyre Flame Starter [Uncommon]

  Strength: 1187 → 2005

  Dexterity: 1355 → 1382

  Vitality: 989 → 1203

  Arcanery: 1975 →2000

  Sense: 845 → 860

  Bandages… No, perhaps burial cloth was more accurate; it wrapped around her—covering her head messily, letting a lock of white hair tumble down, caressing her smooth white cheek. The bandages also covered her hand and slipped inside her silver, torn dress. Finally, one of her eyes was not covered by the cloth; instead, Suna could see cold lifeless red eyes, yet it was set with a bristling anger—blood trailed down her face, pooling around her chin, and it dropped.

  “Oh, Dua,” she rasped and clenched her eyes shut. Blood slithered down her smooth face. Unlike Dua, Uzu's voice was unbelievably smooth along her ashen complexion.

  [Uzu. Undead Reaper Mistress. Lvl 55]

  “She was injured,” Jack whispered. “Those bandages usually aren’t there. I think those were Dua’s doing, somehow keeping Uzu's body together; it's not a complete healing. She rushed it.”

  Suna wondered whether that was good news or not. For now, it seemed Uzu had an extra layer of defense.

  Jack recalled his spear brutally from the corpses and hurled it again, letting it streak at the Undead, followed shortly by Suna, who released the Emberwind Arrow. Both projectiles flew toward her quickly. Uzu's eyes widened, and she let out a gasp—swaying back with her veil fluttering away. Uzu stood over her sister's corpse, and a black shadow gathered in her palm.

  But it was too late.

  Suna’s arrows were about to hit first.

  However, the bandage around Uzu’s body suddenly lurched up like it was responding to Suna’s arrow.

  The bandages caught the Emberwind Arrow and contained its flame, quickly wrapping it with surprising speed and precision. The spell arrow stopped—the bandage threw it down before smacking off Jack’s spear and wrapping itself around Uzu again.

  Now, in her hand, Uzu wielded a long, cruel sickle that caught the dark cave’s crystal-blue gleam high above. It was a wonder how she could casually lift that thing.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Even in death, you protect me,” Uzu gasped. She shuddered in a choked breath.

  The undead eyes set on Jack and Suna.

  Jack recalled his spear while Suna kept firing at Uzu, releasing two Emberwind arrows in a fast streak of flame.

  Uzu deflected them both with her scythe, breaking them apart in a fast slice that should be impossible with a weapon that long. She did not stay still. Uzu's white hair rose, as if it were held up by an invisible hand.

  And a lurch of dread rose inside Suna; something was wrong.

  Bursts of darkness launched from Uzu, and they crept forward like dark smoke.

  “Jack!” Suna shouted.

  “Go!” The Tiefling hurled his spear to the sky, away from the smoke, and launched himself up with it.

  With Gale Step, Suna also took the sky. Below, the forming smoke—the mist was so thick that his Eagle eyes could not even pierce it.

  Jack and Suna landed meters away from the still encroaching smoke. Suna watched, wondering what the [Undead Reaper] intended to do. Dua's corpses were still there, maybe…

  “Can she revive others, too?”

  “No,” Jack shook his head. The Tiefling’s face twisted, “But, you never know what she might do.”

  There’s no point in waiting to find out. Suna drew an Emberwind Arrow, and he poured more mana into it than usual, intending to blast away this smoke.

  “Suna, we could go—”

  The mist approached fast, overtaking the cave’s natural mist. They lurched like a thin shadowed hand toward Jack and Suna, hundreds of them.

  Suna stepped back, along with Jack. Unsure where to release his arrow.

  Five shadowed hands tried to go after Suna’s throat, but the heat of Emberwind kept them away. Suna let out a huff of breath as he calmed down and kept watching for any outline of Uzu.

  One thick shadow approached, and a scythe reaped down on him. It was just a mere thick shadow at first, but by the time he noticed… Uzu was in front of him, one red eye shone, wide open.

  Suna released his arrow, but her scythe cleaved through it and hacked straight down at his chest. Pain sheared through his upper chest, and Suna bit out a scream. Luckily, Uzu's scythe momentum has been stopped by his arrow. The golden chainmail under his mage cloak held—just when he thought so—there was a clink as it broke apart, letting Uzu finish her slash down, drawing a streak of blood from Suna.

  Pain clouded his brain, and his instinct screamed for him to run.

  Wind built up in Suna's feet, and he was about to skid back, until Uzu grasped his tunic. She let go of her scythe and, with her freed right hand, Uzu manifested a dark dagger in it, about to ram it into Suna's neck. But when a spear was thrown toward her right shoulder, Uzu pushed Suna away and stepped back to dodge the spear.

  Suna managed to skid back with Gale's Backstep; somehow, the Emberwind and his arrow did not appear; instead, Suna could sense that Gale tried to keep his wound steady.

  Suna fell to his knee, and a Potion suddenly appeared in front of him. He looked up to see Jack in front of him, holding his spear low, aiming at Uzu. Suna quickly uncorked and drank it.

  Bursts of darkness started again, and Jack spun his spear in his hand, trying to banish it away.

  Suna bit his cheek as the shadow engulfed them; they were only saved by the small space Jack had created.

  Looking left and right, trying to find a way out, Suna did not spot any. Should they jump up? But, Uzu might be able to appear anywhere from the shadows, like she did earlier.

  Suna drew Umbralline, and his hand trembled. He couldn’t see a way to find her first.

  Thick shadow moved, and it was fast. Way too fast for Suna to follow it. Uzu once again appeared, this time beside him. Dark-coated scythe went down on him, and Suna did not have his weapon raised.

  His senses screamed at him that her enhanced strike would kill him, would slice him in two. And he did not want to die.

  Then bluish flame blossomed around him, and they held back Uzu’s scythe in a ripple of darkness and blue, grinding against each other. Sparks flew, and a magical enchantment that he had no word for rumbled through, even pushing the darkness away. The Pyre flame kept strong, not letting the Reaper’s scythe take Suna’s life.

  Uzu screeched in frustration. She raised her scythe up again and brought it down only for Suna’s Pyreflame to burst again, killing the scythe's momentum.

  Suna lashed up, Umbralline dug into Uzu’s neck. It drove deep, and the Reaper gasped an unsteady breath. She growled and, in a burst of strength, swung her scythe at Umbralline, knocking it away and forcing Suna to spray her green blood.

  Uzu’s head lolled, Suna had sheared some of her clothes, and the wound he had created should’ve already killed anyone. He needed to continue the attack. Uzu started to stagger back, her body losing control. Behind her was Jack, now not bothering to hold back the darkness. The Runebearer let out an instant jab at the reaper.

  The Undead Reaper, somehow, used her scythe to block Jack’s attempt—parrying each of the [Spearbearer] thrusts. The dark mist around them thinned, and Suna made out how they were seeping into Uzu’s wound.

  She got healed? By this whole mist?

  That was so ridiculous, it almost made Suna laugh.

  He was about to join Jack, but his brain took over for a second. He needed to banish this mist first.

  Suna sheathed Umbralline, and Wind Veil built up in his palm. He did not let it out; he still poured more Mana into it. He could sense the spiraling veil of winds dancing on his palm.

  Uzu's face snapped toward him, and her dark amber eyes glared with obvious hatred.

  “You corpse seeker!” Uzu wailed. Her wound had gotten better, but the anger she held distracted her. Jack plunged his spear into Uzu's gut. The Undead cried out and tried to strike at Jack with her scythe—but the Runebearer managed to jump away-–leaving his spear lodged in the Undead.

  Suna blasted his Wind Veil out, clasping both hands together. And the darkness parted away from the wind pressure he created. Not completely enough, but sufficient to halt Uzu's regeneration. Now all three of them had a space where the darkness did not touch.

  Jack and Suna then screamed at the same time.

  “Kill her!”

  “Kill it!”

  Suna summoned Gale Bow and immediately drew an Emberwind Arrow.

  Uzu, recognizing the danger, tried to run at Suna, but Jack thrust forth his hand, and his spear lodged deeper in Uzu’s gut. The Undead Reaper mistress fell, her body crumpled, as the spear dug deep inside of her.

  “Oh, Oh!” Uzu wailed, clutching her abdomen where the spear kept piercing deep into her.

  Suna let his Emberwind Arrow fly; the air snapped in searing heat. It was about to pierce her neck.

  But then, something tore through the space. A crack in the air itself.

  His arrow stopped and suddenly cracked into a heap of dust. The air… It was fracturing.

  Suna, still taken aback by the unnatural phenomenon, froze for a moment before Uzu's wail returned him to reality. He resummoned another Emberwind Arrow and fired quickly, and this time, his arrow cracked again in mid-flight. The arrow was stopped and destroyed out of nowhere.

  “Suna? What was that?” Jack shouted, still thrusting his hand and trying to command his spear to kill Uzu, but the reaper did not seem to be dying.

  “I don’t know!” Suna shouted in frustration, his hand going into his Grave Vine Quiver as he drew an enchanted Sootroots Arrow and began firing five of them one after another. But just as they were mid-flight, they still got stopped by the unseen force, and crashed into dust.

  What is happening?

  Suna fired his normal arrow, releasing it in less than two seconds-–all five of them.

  And the same result greeted him.

  ‘You came…” Uzu rasped, “Oh, thank you… Delia”

  His heart froze, and his body suddenly felt as if it had been dipped into a cold river.

  Suna drew Umbralline and ran forward, now uncaring of what happened. He had to kill Uzu before the worst could happen.

  Beyond him, the sky broke like glass, a crack appeared, and it burst open.

  He saw a void at first, and a figure of a woman stepped out. Just like Uzu, she wore a dark veil, but she did not cover her beautiful gossamer face. She let her silver hair tumble down, her two red eyes calm. A dress of white and black fluttered in the air. She slowly descended. The moment she touched the ground, the unruly dress calmed down.

  The Undead's eyes turned golden.

  She wore a crown befitting her eyes.

  The Undead lady regarded Suna, but there was no anger there. Yet, Suna froze still. If he moved, he probably would die.

  “Excuse me,” The Undead laid a hand on Suna's chest and lightly pushed him. With the grace of a noble, she crouched, her dress rustling with her. She laid her hand upon the spear shaft, and her other hand caressed Uzu’s face.

  Uzu's mouth widened in a quivering smile, and tears of blood streaked down.

  “Oh, Delia...”

  “I’m afraid we failed Uzu… but worry not. All three of us shall be together, please… sister–– trust your soul to me.”

  [Delia. Undead Witch. Lvl. 57]

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