Kadyn lifted his face, dripping with blood, and found a shadow standing not far away from him. Though his head was dizzy, and his vision was blurry. After blinking and focusing, the shadow became clear. It was Elora. He frowned, confused. 

Elora looked somewhat different. Her body emitted green light and her eyes shone with the same light. She depicted the picture of a holy and ethereal goddess as she wore the crown made of leaves and vines and flowers.

Kadyn opened his mouth but only blood came out. His body was covered in wounds of lances, punctured in many places, but far from death. It seemed the Lich King had no intention to kill him yet. He wanted to enjoy Kadyn being tortured. He wanted to see him beg for his life, beg for mercy, and in the end, beg for a painless death.

“Wh—what are you doing here?” After struggling sometimes Kadyn blurted out a sentence in his hoarse voice. “Get out of here!”

Elora eyed and her body trembled when she saw him in such a miserable condition. The light that was emitting from her body intensified even further. Her fist clenched into a fist.

“Such a powerful life energy. Wonderful!” Lich King said from his throne. “I never thought that someone would be able to enter the cave without my permission. Only someone like you can enter.” Elora lifted her gaze and glared at the skeleton hatefully. Lich King’s eye-sockets burned with fire and he said, “Defeat them if you want to live.”

“Get out of ptfff!!” Kadyn shouted, but halfway through, he vomited a mouthful of blood and tumbled down once more.

“Brother!” Elora exclaimed, but before she could reach Kadyn, she was already under attack. Her fury clouded her reasoning and punched towards one of the skeletons. A mysterious energy burst out of her punch, reaching the skull of the skeleton. The lich was shocked at her speed. Even Kadyn didn’t move this fast. 

“Boom!!”

Although the skeleton tried to dodge, Elora was faster, and what was even more frightening was that the entire skeleton disintegrated at her contact with it. Kadyn looked at his sister with bulging eyes. He could not believe what had just happened. Elora killed the skeleton! Furthermore, her single touch made it completely vanish, not even a single trace of moving-bone’s left behind.

Lich King also straightened his back as he narrowed his glowing sockets. 

The place was filled with death, and dark energy, but it could not approach her. She was like a glowing spark in the dark and eerie night. Contending against her enemies without any fear. She bolted towards another skeleton and the same thing happened with this one, too. No matter how it tried to dodge, it could not. Turning into dust and vanishing like his companion.

After the two skeletons were defeated, all the skeletons attacked together, not willing to approach her one at a time. Though they were nothing but skeletons, they were beings capable of thinking, intelligent, maybe not equally intelligent as humans, but intelligent nonetheless.

Kadyn looked worried and felt deeply helpless. He never felt so useless in his life as much as this moment. He wanted to fight and protect his sister, but now, his sister was protecting him, instead. He felt self-loathing. He tried to stand, but his cramped legs couldn’t support him—he could only look and curse and shout.

Lich King, who was laying languidly on his throne previously, was also eyeing the ongoing battle with interest. His eyes didn’t stray from Elora, all this time, he was peering only at her, as if he had found something incredible.

“Boom!”

Elora moved with eye-popping speed and her hand landed on the bony-head of another skeleton, turning it into dust. Then came an attack from behind her, but she dodged it. However, then came another attack, and this time she failed and the lance penetrated her left chest. The skeletons snickered and one by one they pinned their lances into her body, dying her clothes red in blood.

“Elora!” Kadyn screamed. Tears covered his face. He stood, but then crumbled, so he crawled towards his sister, leaving a trail of blood behind. However, when his gaze met with Elora, he found her smiling, looking at him with her sorrowful eyes, that gave him a pause. But then he saw seven lances penetrating her body. He felt as if the world was about to crumble. “Leave her!” he shouted and flailed his limbs around helplessly.

All the skeletons, including the Lich King snickered, feeling pleasant.

However, when Elora continued to stand they looked at each other and started to pull out the lances. “All of you have my blood on your bodies, don’t you?” Elora grinned. The skeletons looked down and found that all of them were covered in her blood.

“You let us attack you so you could place your blood on us?” one of the skeletons said with his shocked voice.

“Bingo!” Elora chuckled and then the blood on their bloodies started to glow with green light. The skeletons tumbled back and tried to wipe away the stain, but as their bony-hands touched the blood they also started to glow with the same light.

In the blink of an eye all the remaining seven skeletons started to turn into powder. They struggled and shouted and flailed all around but nothing helped them. All of them turned into dust in just a short period of time.

Then Kadyn spotted Elora’s wounds healing on their own. 

“Undying Body?” Kadyn looked confused.

“Clap! Clap!”

Elora looked towards Lich King who was clapping and frowned. “Bravo!” said the lich.

Then Elora stiffened as the tremendous pressure fell upon her. 

“You said you would let us go if I defeat them!” she said.

“And you believed me?” Lich King chuckled. “Aren’t you too naïve?” he stood from his throne and descended slowly from the stairs. His sockets gleaming. “I have never seen Life Element so powerful. Never.. If I could devour you, I might be able to come back to life again, gaining my body; my eyes; my hand. Would I let go of such a chance?”