BXBX NOVEL Chapter 169: The things you do for family.
But even if that was the case, she wasn\'t disheartened, she knew this was probably going to happen from the start, but she still had hope. There had to be some sort of drawback to such a strong ability, if there wasn\'t, then they were probably screwed, but she wasn\'t going to give up hope anytime soon. She wasn\'t alone either, and there were people to help and support her in her fight.
Thufrat and Atar were out of the picture, but the twin guards and their young lady could still put up a fight. The young lady was protecting the rest of the adventurers, but her twin guards could surely help out. Before she could ask for any assistance, the angel seemed to have had enough.
It never expected to have to fight these humans for so long, and it seemed like it had finally ran out of patience.
Much like Ark, this fallen angel had his own trump card, and since this fight wasn\'t ending any time soon, it decided that it was time to show its true colours. Almost like a seal had been broken, the angel was covered in an enormous amount of dark mana, which condensed into a black set of eerie armour upon its body.
Once the armour had manifested itself, a large wave of dark mana was sent out, shaking the air wherever it travelled.
Naturally this wave of dark mana was dangerous, and even though the young lady was busy with protecting the other adventurers, she wasn\'t sure if she could interfere with this attack without getting herself gravely injured in the process.
She was a little hesitant to put herself in harm\'s way, but as she glanced behind herself, and saw the horror and fear on everyone\'s faces, there was no way she could step down and let them get hurt.
The dark and looming wave of dark mana was slowly inching closer and closer, and the young lady had already strengthened her resolve. Even though the twin guards wanted to respect their young lady\'s decision, they still couldn\'t let her get hurt in a place like this. Before they could try and protect her, Ephine had already appeared in front of them.
It wasn\'t like she cared that much about the human adventurers that she was protecting, but amongst them, Ark was being healed, and there was no way she would entrust his protection to these humans.
Before the wave could get too close, Ephine swung her right arm, and released an enormous amount of wind mana. As the two forms of mana clashed, an obvious winner soon emerged, and to no one\'s surprise, Ephine\'s attack had decimated the wave of dark mana. This was mainly because the wave of dark mana wasn\'t an actual attack from the angel, if it was, then stopping it would naturally be much harder.
After the dark mana had dispersed, all eyes landed on the fallen angel\'s figure. Suspended in mid-air, the angel looked quite awe-inspiring, if it wasn\'t for the fact that its armour was pitch-black and that they already knew its true colour, no one would believe this angel to be evil.
In Ephine\'s eyes, this angel was suddenly even scarier than it was before, and the reason as quite simple, she couldn\'t estimate its strength, not at all. It felt as if the angel was really ordinary, almost like it didn\'t have any strength at all.
This didn\'t mean that the angel was actually weak, it only meant that Ephine wasn\'t able to figure out how strong it was, which usually indicated a clear difference in strength. Since the strength of the angel was beyond her understanding, she realised that this might really be her end.
As she cast a glance behind her, she could clearly see the healer trying desperately to heal Ark, and the hole in his chest was actually gone, but his eyes were still completely closed, and it didn\'t look like he was going to open them any time soon.
"Leave!"
A clear voice broke the heavy silence, and all the adventurers looked at Ephine, a little puzzled.
"There\'s no way I can beat this angel by myself, but I can definitely buy some time, so take my son and leave this place, before it\'s too late."
Ephine\'s expression was resolute, she had already made her mind up. She had no intention of dying yet, but if they could get Ark and Atar out of here, then she could put her mind at ease, and she could try and escape herself later.
Even though most of the adventurers were shocked, no one disagreed with her request. They were only in the way if they stayed here anyways, so helping her out by getting her son to safety seemed like the least they could do. The young lady nodded gravely, and she immediately started moving with the rest of the adventurers.
Atar was struggling a lot, as he didn\'t want to leave his mother behind, but he was quickly put to sleep with the help of some magic. It was for his own good. The angel was already furious to begin with, but seeing these humans actually trying to leave, his anger had reached a boiling point.
As he threw a punch directed at them, the darkness that came with it seemed to warp space itself as the energy arrived almost immediately in front of them.
Thufrat reacted before the motion of the punch was even completed, and he smashed the ground with his warhammer. A wall created out of earth erupted from the ground, which the dark energy promptly smashed into. Though it wasn\'t enough to completely stop the attack, the remaining dark energy could be dissipated by the young lady\'s mana barrier.
Even though the attack rattled their spirits a little, no one dared to walk slowly at all, and they all hurried along. Thufrat had already resolved himself to stay, as he couldn\'t just leave Ephine behind and leave by himself. Though she wasn\'t exactly sure why he had decided to stay, Ephine was very thankful, as the pressure on her shoulders naturally lessened a lot as a result.
The adventurers quickly arrived at the opening of the settlement once more, but when they did, two people suddenly stopped. The twin guards naturally knew that if they didn\'t get rid of the angel, it would only chase after them once Thufrat and Ephine died, so if they could buy time for their young lady to get away, then they would gladly lay down their lives.
After quickly thanking their lady for everything she had done for them, they both departed without looking back, leaving their young lady standing there in a daze.
The sounds of battle echoed throughout the large cave as the adventurers walked with sullen faces out of the dungeon, and back into the forest. After they had walked for another 5 minutes, Ark suddenly opened his eyes!