Cara collapsed onto the ground as blood spread out beneath her.
Doulong saw her fall from the distance and screamed, "Cara...!" He ran as fast as he could toward her with panic in his voice.
Nikola, frozen for a moment, looked at her in shock. But then something caught his eye the second horseman was gone. The fallen head was gone too.
His eyes widened.
"No... it's behind me."sensing its presence.
Nikola spun around just as the horseman's spear came swinging at him. He teleported out of the way, appearing behind it just in time.
The horseman turned, now holding only one spear, and hurled it at Nikola. At the same time, with one of its other hands, it placed its head back onto its neck. The flesh fused instantly, as if it had never been cut off.
Nikola quickly summoned a white mana orb in one hand and a black one in the other. He smashed them together gray energy sparked into one orb.
He directed the gray energy beam toward the incoming spear, and the moment it touched, the spear began to break apart, turning to dust in midair.
But the horseman had already moved. It dodged around the fading spear and came in with a spear that was on the ground , swinging it like a sword toward Nikola.
Before it could strike...
Doulong jumped in with water swirling around his hand like a drill.
He slammed it toward the horseman, forcing it to cancel the attack and leap back.
Doulong stepped between Nikola and the horseman, face full of rage. "You're going to pay for what you did!"
He formed a drill in both hands and rushed in, swinging wildly. The horseman dodged with ease, but Doulong kept pressing the same attack as the horseman dodged constantly , not giving it space to counterattack.
Meanwhile, Diana ran toward Cara, trying to reach her in time to heal her. But just as she got close...
The first horseman blocked her path.
It picked up Cara's fallen sword and struck at Diana.
But in a blur, Selay appeared and pulled her out of the way. The sword slammed into the ground, splitting it open.
The horseman turned its attention to Selay and swung the sword again. Selay rolled to dodge, kicked off the ground, and leapt back.
Diana then raised her arms, summoning branch-like vines from the earth. They wrapped around the horseman's legs, trying to hold it in place.
Selay spotted a spear nearby and grabbed it. As the horseman struggled against the branches, Selay dashed in and struck it across the face, leaving a deep scar.
The horseman roared and raised the sword to counter, but before it could hit Selay....
A wall of ice appeared between them.
The sword hit the ice, sending frost shards flying.
Selay landed, breathing hard. But the ground beneath him felt wet. He looked down and saw water spreading all around them that felt cold.
He turned toward the source.
Cara was standing up slowly from where he lay .
She touched the water with one shaky hand, and in an instant, the water froze solid.
Everyone nearby...Selay, Diana, the horseman had their legs trapped in ice.
Cara stood fully upright now, her eyes locked on the battlefield.
She turned toward where Doulong and Nikola were still facing the second horseman. The water from before had reached that part of the ground too.
The second horseman noticed and turned to look and saw cara was alive.
Relief flashed across Nikola's face. "I thought she was…" Before he could finish the thought, the horseman attacked again.
Nikola appeared between them, blocking the blow with telekinesis. An ice wall rose in front of him to shield the next attack and just like that, the second horseman's legs were frozen too.
The first horseman in furious, pulled one leg out of the ice and charged toward Cara, running across the frozen surface.
But the ice turned back into water beneath his feet and he slipped.
Before he could move again, the water froze once more, only this time it wasn't normal ice.
It turned into something clearer, which looked brighter and harder.
Ice turned into crystal and horseman two fallen on the ground breaking his legs with sudden hard crystal and Caras sword that he was holding falled on the ground.
It locked all their legs in place in unbreakable state.
None of the horsemen could move as they tried hard to do so.
Cara, standing in the middle of it all was bleeding but the wound healed in an instant. The second horseman, still near Doulong and Nikola, hurled its spear straight at Cara's back.
Sensing it, she shattered the crystal around her legs and dodged to the side. The spear zipped past her and hurtled toward Selay...but Cara raised her hand and summoned a crystal wall. The spear smashed into it, splintering into pieces.
She took a deep breath, steadying herself. "Even after losing its heads, it was still alive..." she thought.
She turned to the others and said, "I'm fine, by the way. I didn't die or anything. There was poison in the blade that hit me so I stayed down to let the poison bleed out. I pushed poison out from my body... It worked but significant nothing really happened to me"
Then she raised her hands again. Thick crystal walls shot up around both horsemen, boxing them in completely. The creatures struggled, trying to break free, but the walls held firm.
She even sealed the ceiling above them in crystal, locking them in like living statues.
Then, with a wave of her hand, all the surrounding ice and crystal melted away freeing the others. Selay, Diana, Doulong, and Nikola pulled their feet free, panting and looking around warily.
Inside their walls, the horsemen thrashed and punched at the walls with mana-charged fists, trying different attacks... but nothing worked. Instead the crystal was taking their mana. The crystal didn't even crack.
Diana ran straight to Cara and hugged her tightly. "I thought you have died…"
Cara smiled faintly and patted her back with her good hand. "You really think a pair of cursed, human headed horse could take out an A-rank knight that easily?"
Selay crossed his arms, looking at the trapped horsemen. "So what now? We just leave these... man-headed horses here?"
Doulong stepped forward. "I say we kill them. Smash 'em now and take the bodies back."
"No," Cara said firmly. "These things aren't normal. Killing them might not even work..and if it doesn't, we'd just be wasting energy also I think keeping them alive would help understand their source better, they look like possessed and abnormal "
Nikola frowned. "Then what? We just leave them like this? What if they break out?"
Cara turned toward him. "They won't. The crystal I used doesn't just trap their bodies... it drains mana too. It's harder than diamond, and the longer they stay inside, the weaker they'll get."
Doulong wasn't convinced. "Still seems risky. Why not just send one of us to the village to call for help while the rest stay here and keep watch?"
"No," Cara said, shaking her head. "We don't split up this close to nightfall. Too dangerous. We all head to the Walls Village together. Once you're safe, I'll come back with reinforcements or some knights who can study these things and figure out what they are."
As she spoke, she walked to the first horseman's crystal prisons and pressed a glowing shard into the wall and picked up her sword placing the sword on her back.
The shard pulsed slightly, sticking like it belonged there. She repeated the process with the second prison.
"If they break out," she said, "I'll know immediately."
Diana pointed, eyes wide. "Wait...your hand...!"
Cara glanced down at her severed arm. "Oh. Right."
She bent down and picked it up like it was no big deal. "A good healer can fix it...not a big deal. "
"I can fix it," Diana said, stepping forward.
Cara blinked, a bit surprised. "Oh? So you've learned some expert-level healing skill now?"
Diana smiled. "I've been practicing."
"Well, I'm glad someone's been studying," Cara said, finally relaxing a little. "Let's get out of here. We've to go to the village as soon as possible ."
.
.
.
.
Beneath the sea, inside a grand, glowing palace of coral and crystal, Queen Maya the Mermaid sat gracefully on her throne. Before her stood Douzen, arms crossed and expression tense.
"I don't know what to do," Maya said, her tone weary. "I don't really want to leave our territory. But if something dangerous from outside has reached the island, then we're under threat too. What's your next step based on your speculation?"
Douzen exhaled. "Honestly... I'm not good with strategic decisions. But I have this feeling....like something bad is coming."
The Queen tilted her head thoughtfully. " Sigh...whatever... How are your children? And the son of Shanglui?"
"Doulong is still angry with me...for what happened to his mother. The others are doing fine. They're on their way to the Walls Village. The evaluation test is in two days."
The Queen raised an eyebrow. "And speaking of danger... don't you think the road there is risky? Especially with all the strange occurrences you mentioned."
"They should be safe," Douzen replied. "I sent Cara with them. She's capable enough to protect them."
"Cara?" The Queen bit into a glowing blue fruit. "Alisa and Cornel's daughter, right? As the child of a Niobane member, she should be more than capable."
"She's strong," Douzen nodded. "But I never added her to the main troop. I didn't want her risking her life like that. I made a promise to her mother to protect her. I thought keeping her away from missions would keep her safe."
Queen Maya looked at him carefully. "And what about your own children? Will you try to limit their growth too, just to keep them safe?"
"I don't know…" Douzen hesitated. "But today I found out that Selay has a divine wing mark on his back."
The Queen's eyes widened in shock.
.
.
.
Elsewhere, inside a wooden and stone palace training room filled with target boards and weapon racks, a purple-haired girl stood with a bow in hand.
She loosed an arrow glowing with purple mana, it struck dead center and shattered the target completely.
The girl, only fifteen, had short, violet hair and matching glowing eyes. As she reached for another arrow, a voice called from behind her.
"Are you seriously wasting your mana like that?" the voice said. "You know it could affect your performance in the evaluation test."
She turned to see Lio, now sixteen, lounging lazily on a nearby sofa.
She narrowed her eyes. "Why are you even here? The sun's already set...you should be home. Answer me first."
"Why not?" Lio grinned. "I'm your friend, aren't I?"
She wasn't amused. "That's not the reason I asked."
"To see my beautiful girl....friend," he said with a smirk. "Is that such a crime?"
The girl's hand ignited in purple fire, and she pointed it at his face. "Want to try again before I burn your eyebrows off?"
"Okay, okay! Don't hit me!" Lio yelped. "I came to meet Selay, Diana, and Doulong. I heard they're arriving at the palace."
"Oh." She lowered her fire, arms crossing. "They were supposed to be here by now, but... they are not here yet."
Lio leaned back, smirking. "Maybe that idiot Selay lost his diaper on the way or got eaten by some random bear."
Wham!
Before he could finish, the girl's punch landed straight in his face, sending him crashing to the floor.
"What the hell was that for?!" Lio shouted. "Just because you like the guy doesn't mean you have to punch me!"
The girl glared down at him. "Say one more thing like that, and I'll rip your jaw off."
Just then, the door opened. A woman in a maid uniform entered and bowed.
"Princess Lisa," she said, "Prince Selay, Diana, and Doulong have arrived at the palace."
Lisa's expression lit up with a smile...and the faintest blush. "Oh, really?"
Lio groaned, rubbing his cheek. "That idiot finally made it. And honestly, I don't even get why people still call him 'Prince.' he is not son of a king and not even royalty anymore."
Lisa turned, expression dropping cold.
Whack!
She kicked Lio square in the face again.
"Shut up, Asshole."