Transcendent Gene-Chapter 291: Treasure [3]

Boom!

The fight began immediately. The three young Sequencers did everything they could to keep the advantage they gained through the element of surprise.

Neriah was their main attacker. She stood in the front and actually confronted all six at once. Her swordplay could only keep two of them occupied at a time, but she retained the ability to summon ranged weapons when she needed to strike the others.

Shiro wasn’t too far behind her. Now that she was in the mix, he couldn’t use large sweeping waves of flame to his benefit anymore. He instead created projectiles of golden flame that shot through the air and protected Neriah.

Every time a pack of golden spears or arrows cut through the air, they were joined by Serene’s bubbles. She helped with the offensive only when she needed to, but the majority of those bubbles targeted none other than Neriah.

Shing! Shing! Shing!

’Do they all have the same Sequence?’

The six guards looked similar and they all seemed to use the exact same moves. Their Sequences were used to enhance their physical strength and form barriers, but that was the extent of their capabilities.

For a moment, Neriah wondered if they were all clones of a single person, but the truth didn’t matter in the first place.

’My job is just to kill them.’

Whoosh!

She dodged and weaved through the six enemies and accumulated wounds on their bodies. She couldn’t avoid being hit either, but Serene did her best to share some of the damage with her.

Healing was complicated and couldn’t be used easily. The best alternative was to "split" damage by absorbing some of it into her own body. Serene had her teeth gritted and her eyes squinted, but she pushed through the pain and continued providing support.

Voom!

The moment he saw an opportunity, Shiro would push forward and take a more direct role in combat. Since Gio wasn’t present, he filled the gap.

Really, if the two of them didn’t move so confidently and allow themselves to sustain injuries to help her, Neriah didn’t think she’d be able to do much damage.

However, they were acting as the best teammates she could ask for.

[Bladestorm]

Whooooosh!

She broke past one of the guards’ defenses and cut his chest open. Without allowing him to get away, she stabbed two swords into the gash and ripped open his chest.

Blood spurted onto her body and blinded her eyes, but she didn’t need her vision to know where the man’s neck was. Even as the wound on his chest was opened further, she swung one sword and separated his head from his shoulders.

’There’s one.’

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sound of exploding bubbles caught her attention. A cloud of purple mist filled the air, letting her know that more immobilized targets would appear soon enough.

Bang!

She ducked down, avoiding a fist that came her way before kicking out and pushing the guard back. Her swords disappeared from her hands and were replaced by two guns that were emptied of their ammunition in an instant.

The guard had no choice but to stand against the barrage and deploy a shield.

And Neriha had no desire to chase him.

The moment he disengaged, she turned around and charged into the dispersing poison mist. There were two guards who got stuck in the cloud, but Neriah specifically had one in mind.

She was aware of their positions. She knew that at least one of those two guards had already been wounded several times by her blades. The poison had many more openings to enter his body through.

’As I thought.’

He couldn’t even sense her as she approached from behind.

’That’s another.’

She grabbed the man who was holding his throat and gasping for air. The purple veins climbing his face said that he would die on his own soon enough, but she decided to give him a quicker death.

Crunch!

The sound of his bones breaking was disgusting, but it only took a moment for his body to drop to the ground.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Shiro’s golden flames filled her vision as she found the remaining four.

’It’s been even until now, but not anymore.’

They were forced to take damage to deal damage, but they finally had the advantage. They were facing six people and fighting equally. Now that there were only four remaining, their victory would come much more easily.

’Those two...’

She had no choice but to be impressed by their performance not only here, but throughout their raid on the mansion. Even she didn’t adapt at the rate they did.

’It’s his influence. If it weren’t for the brutal training he put us through before we came, they would have crumbled by now.’

They truly had to thank Gio for his help. However, before they could think about something like that, they had to get what they came for.

Boom!

Neriah pushed off the invisible ground and charged at one of the four guards. She raised her sword in the air and willed her energy when, all of a sudden, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up.

Her eyes widened.

"Watch out!"

Her gaze went to the room’s only entrance, but it was too late.

Voooom!

A beam of blue starlight charged past Serene and Shiro and cut the entire invisible room in half. It didn’t manage to hit anyone or anything, but the whole battle froze for a moment as its participants looked at the doorway to see who had decided to join them.

While the enemies looked confused at the unrecognizable energy, Shiro, Neriah, and Serene all had varying expressions of joy on their faces.

The figure at the door was still shadowed in smoke, but the virtual blue energy that announced his presence gave away enough about his identity.

Gio had arrived.

Their party was finally whole once more.

***

The entrance was certainly grand, but it wasn’t because Gio wanted to put on a show.

Frankly, it was more a result of annoyance than anything else.

When he arrived at the mansion, he saw a burning hellstorm that was expanding rapidly across the grass and into the hedges protecting the house. Naturally, his first reaction was concern for his party members.

He hoped that they’d escaped the blaze, but when he pulled the first guard he saw to the ground and forced the information out of his mouth, he learned that the three intruders who entered the mansion never left.

He had no choice but to charge in.

He skipped the first floor because he immediately saw the broken staircase, but without a clue as to where the vault was, he had to explore the second and third floors in some detail to get an idea of where they went.

It was really thanks to Shiro that he found them relatively quickly. His golden flames left the most obvious path, and they ended right in front of the room with the invisible staircase. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

After climbing it, he arrived in the first invisible room. He saw the sparks of battle beyond the broken doorway and sighed.

His annoyance was easy to understand.

They weren’t in danger, but his party members were in the most absurd location he could imagine. Until only a few moments ago, he had been forced to assume the worst.

Nevertheless, all of that was in the past, and he certainly wasn’t going to bring it up. Gio didn’t waste a single second before charging into the action and becoming a part of it.

There were four guards remaining, but none of them were in great shape. Shiro, Serene, and Neriah all had varying degrees of injuries on their bodies as well, but none of them were at a level worth noting.

’That’s enough.’

He looked at the three for a moment and formed a tacit understanding with them.

They had done their jobs splendidly.

Now that he had arrived, they could take it slow and support him to the best of their capabilities without exhausting themselves.

Their safety net was back.

’But...’

[Chain Lightning]

It started as five balls of virtual lightning that surrounded the four enemies in a star pattern; however, the moment they took their positions, they sparked with huge bolts of lightning that chained between them and created a web of death.

’...I don’t think they need my help as much as they used to.’

Gio grinned. He wasn’t even able to use his chain lightning properly. The web forced the four of them still for just a moment, but that was long enough for the other three to make their moves.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Explosive bubbles forced them back into the lightning chains and electrocuted them. As their skin burned in virtual heat, toxins were sent into their lungs to prevent them from breathing.

By the time Serene finished doing her part, Shiro had finished his preparations as well.

[Archery of the Sun]

Xiu! Xiu! Xiu!

Flaming arrows cut through the air and slammed into the enemies’ hastily created defenses. Two of the four tried to send attacks back, but their chance to do so never came.

After all, as the fire arrows struck, danger approached from behind as well.

Neriah’s body was like a shadow as she crept to the edge of the lightning chains and summoned several throwing knives and needles from empty space.

Whoosh!

There was a slight sound as the air was cut by projectiles, but it was barely noticeable.

Shik!

A knife impaled itself into the back of a guard’s neck. When the man next to him turned to look at his falling body, a needle stabbed into his temple and instantly dropped him as well.

"Dammit!" One of the remaining two roared.

It was simply unfair. While all of them had expended large amounts of their energy, only Gio still had the stamina to fight at full power.

Every time they tried to move or defend themselves, the lightning web became stronger and more forceful.

They had to choose between fighting against it or the other three.

They chose to fight the immediate danger of the web, but they were soon made to regret that decision. They had no choice but to move their defenses if they wanted to negate the damage Serene and Shiro were causing, and when that abruptly shifted energy was broken, Neriah had a perfect window to land killing blows.

The last two seemed to understand in their final moments that there was nothing they could do.

After all, in their eyes, Gio entered the battle with a full reservoir of energy. They were fated to run out of stamina first.

And whether or not that was true, their morale dropped to nothing in an instant. As the last of the six, they accepted that they had no choice but to join the rest.

It didn’t matter who killed them. In the end, two more bodies dropped to the ground, leaving only Gio’s party standing in the invisible space.

Their reunion was bound to be celebrated by unimaginable riches.