Abium's face became solemn as he saw his black robe was utterly drenched in blood. There was a little figure lying motionless in his arm, seemingly unconscious. As he stared at her in confusion, Fennelis arrived in front of him, took Umi with both hands, and examined her body.
At that moment, Nicolaus also uttered a painful moan, gripped his hand, and wore a terrified look.
Upon seeing this, Abium shook his head and sighed deeply. He knew they were panicking inside and decided to take matters into his own hands.
He first scanned the surroundings, shifted his gaze towards Fennelis, and spoke calmly.
"Please calm down, Lady Fennelis. First, check why Umi is coughing up blood."
Meanwhile, Fennelis nodded before checking Umi's pulse and soon widened her eyes.
"Her body is entering the Mortal phase. She is growing through her first Beast transformation!" As she spoke, a trace of confusion appeared on her face.
"But how? She hadn't passed through any Awakening Ritual yet, though."
"Let's think about it later." Abium waved his hand and shifted his attention towards Nicolaus.
After touching the Ice Cocoon, he clenched his fist tightly and punched it hard.
There was a small crack in the punched area. Abium quietly moved his sword, imbued it with an intermediate sword aura, and made a small cut.
The whole ice cocoon cracked a second later and broke into several pieces.
Then, Abium bent down, picked up the severed wrist, and stored it in his space ring.
Afterward, he took out a water pouch and rinsed the severed area with water before wrapping it in a white cloth. When the white cloth soaked in blood, he took another cloth, covered it above the soaked one, and spoke.
"Raise your wounded hand above your head and keep applying pressure. Do not panic."
Before Nicolaus could nod, Abium dragged him and Fennelis towards the campfire.
"Stay closer." He said calmly, gripped his weapon tighter, and locked his gaze on the Keep's opened gate.
He knew that facing a hidden enemy was scarier than fighting against a mighty warrior and got serious.
'I can't sense the enemy's presence.'
No enemy appeared on the remote map even though he was constantly scanning, which surprised him.
'Is the enemy using a teleportation skill?' Just as he mumbled inwardly, he felt a spatial-elemental fluctuation behind Nicolaus and squinted.
Without any delay, he turned around and soon saw a shadowy humanoid figure standing behind Nicolaus and raising its weapon to attack him. It seemed to be about 180 cm tall, covered its body with a dark cloak, and held an eerie scimitar in its bony hand!
'It's an undead skeleton!'
As it raised its pitch-black scimitar to attack Nicolaus, Abium cast the [Blink] spell in a hurry, disappeared from there, reappeared right next to Nicolaus, and blocked the dark shadow's attack.
Clang!
As the clanging sound reverberated in the air, Abium felt numb due to the strong force and felt like he was blocking an iron wall!
As soon as the shadow humanoid figure noticed the failure, it turned into a cloud of smoke and vanished without a trace.
But at this point, Abium managed to scan that shadow figure and smiled.
A second later, a row of details appeared before his vision.
[Name: Unknown
Age: Unknown
Race: Undead
Class: Phantom Killer
Affiliation: Chaotic Neutral
Attributes
Strength: 5.8
Agility: 6.4
Spirit: 5.5
Skills: Shadow Teleport, ??????.]
'Chaotic Neutral? Moreover, its physical attributes are too abnormal.'
"Be careful of the shadows. It's an undead creature called Phantom killer and can teleport through shadows." Abium hurriedly warned Nicolaus and Fennelis.
'I'm more worried about the other unknown skill.' He quietly released his spirit power and scanned the surroundings slowly.
At that moment, Nicolaus almost lost his cool and started to curse at Abium.
"What the hell are you blabbering about!? I am in this condition because of you! Bastard!"
He also continuously put more pressure on his severed wrist and looked anxious.
He got scared by the last attack and started to lose his calm.
On the other hand, Fennelis placed Umi in the grassy yard, transformed into her beast form, and spoke solemnly.
"Calm down, kid! I don't know what happened between you two, but don't start a fight in this situation. Moreover, Abium seems to know more about these skeletons."
Her words made Nicolaus relax a bit.
"Don't worry. I won't let you die." Abium reassured him and focused his full attention on the surroundings.
A few seconds later, he saw a red dot in his scan and looked at the entrance.
At that moment, a humanoid black shadow stood near the entrance door and looked at them with its reddish fire-like eyes.
An immense amount of bloodlust oozed from the figure, giving Abium a strange, chilling feeling.
Even his breathing grew chill.
No!
'Something is wrong! The whole surroundings started to appear colder than normal.'
He also perceived an attack coming in their direction at that moment and turned grim.
Even though it was complete darkness, Abium managed to see a crystal-like needle flying towards them at a fast speed, instantly cast the [Red Orb] spell, and sent it in that direction.
But to his shock, the crystalline needle tore through his [Red Orb] spell, vanquished the reddish orb, and continued to move towards Fennelis at an incredible rate!
'It's a Tier-1 spell!!' Abium's face turned grim.
Without any delay, he disappeared from where he was standing, reappeared before Fennelis, and took an offensive sword stance.
Simultaneously, he imbued more mana into his sword, covered it with a reddish aura, and made a slash.
As the ice needle approached him, Abium's sword made a rippling sound and collided with the ice needle.
A loud bang sound echoed, followed by a release of dense ice elemental energy in all directions!
The snowy mist soon formed from the dense ice elemental energy and spread in every direction.
The snowy mist covered most of the fortress within two seconds and obstructed everyone's sight!
But Abium wasn't anxious at all. He calmly used the [Spiritual Scan] and realized that the enemy was running toward them at an incredible speed.
'As I thought, it's going to target the other two.' At that crucial moment, an idea appeared in his mind.
He instantly lowered his weapon and even loosened his guard! The Phantom Killer noticed his action and immediately rushed in his direction.
In two seconds, it arrived much closer to Abium and raised its scimitar to attack him!
But just as the scimitar was about to land on his head, dense fire-elemental energy appeared out of his body, formed a forcefield-like defensive structure around him, and blocked the scimitar!
At the same time, Abium took a step forward, moved his sword, and thrust his sword at the shadowy figure's chest.
A cracking sound echoed the next instant, followed by a strange screeching noise!
Abium didn't waste a moment as he pulled his sword and was about to attack the Phantom Killer again but noticed that it had already disappeared!
But at that moment, he strangely knew where the Phantom Killer would appear next and shifted his gaze towards his left side.
That's where Nicolaus was standing!
'I got you now.'
He calmly raised his hand, conjured a ball of fire, and sent it in that direction without any delay.
As he had expected, the shadowy Phantom Killer reappeared before Nicolaus the next instant and raised its scimitar to attack him.
But before it could even move its bony hand, the Red Orb appeared right next to the Phantom Killer and exploded before enveloping its body in a crimson flame.
As the cloak burned in crimson flame, everyone saw its appearance and got startled.
The skeleton was black, with weird symbols and letters engraved on its bones, and it looked eerie.
Abium didn't hesitate before he dashed towards the burning skeleton, arrived near it in a blink, and swiftly decapitated its skull.
Eventually, its head fell to the ground, and soon all the bones turned into ashes, leaving only a black scimitar behind. A second later, a whitish humanoid form appeared from that ash and soon disappeared.
'Soul form?' He was baffled at first, but soon he shook his head and walked toward the scimitar.
He quickly picked it up and scanned it.
'It's a low-tier scimitar.'
A row of information appeared before his eyes as he looked deeply at it. After pondering for a moment, he quickly gave it to Fennelis.
Then, he looked up at the dark sky and smiled brightly.
[Mission: completed]
"That's it?" Just as Nicolaus asked in confusion, everyone felt that the space around them started to twist and was soon replaced with a completely new environment.
Instead of walls and a courtyard, Abium and others found themselves standing in the middle of a 16x16 large chamber. Many magical lamps appeared in each chamber corner and illuminated the surroundings in bright yellow light. The walls and ceilings were decorated with paintings of different creatures and birds.
Abium also saw weapons, shields, clothes, wands, rings, books, and potion vials placed all over and sealed in glass cubes like a showcase.
"W-Where are we?" Nicolaus asked with a pale face and stood unsteadily.
Just as Abium was about to open his mouth, an illusionary figure of a 50-year-old man suddenly appeared in front of them and stared at them quietly.
He was a blonde-haired man with amber eyes, a round face, elongated thick eyebrows, and a muscular body. He also wore a golden robe with dragon symbols engraved on it and held a strange blue-gem embedded necklace in his hand.
Although he looked just like an ordinary middle-aged man, Abium knew that this man wasn't an ordinary foe.
Noticing everyone's gaze, he let out a fake cough and spoke.
"Welcome to the Demi-Plane of Rebirth, young mortals. I'm Runeth, a Tri-Elemental Ancient Mage."
A booming ancient voice echoed in everyone's ears.