CHAPTER 89: BURN? EXPLODE

Anna’s eyes trembled slightly as she opened them after visiting so many visions.

Anna opened her indifferent eyes and looked at the malamare; she stepped forward. Her body wavered as her star core was nearly out of the star essence.

"Miss Aeliana," Neo called out in a worried tone as he moved forward to support her again.

Anna turned and looked at him with her indifferent eyes. She spoke in a soul-chilling tone.

"Stay."

Neo shuddered at her cold tone and looked at her with a dark expression.

Anna turned and looked at the malamare, which was making its way towards the islanders.

"Hanna..." A hint of worry glinted in her eyes, but indifference soon took its place.

Anna unwrapped her threads from Neo and looked at them with a questioning gaze.

’How can I still command and retain these threads even though I have nearly no star essence? Weird.’

Anna shook her head and forced herself to focus on the matters at hand.

She wrapped the threads around her daggers and plunged them into the malamare’s thick skin; however, it was too shallow to even make it bleed.

Neo, who was looking at her with a dark expression, walked beside her and plunged his sword into the malamare, and as he took it out, dark green blood dripped out of it.

Anna looked at Neo and regarded him with a nod as she took some of the flowing blood in her hand and flowed her remaining star essence into it, and began to refine it.

The dark green blood started to swirl as it turned brighter, and soon it became bright green like that of fresh grass.

Anna took a few deep breaths as she looked at the bright green blood.

’It’s not pure enough.’

’But... that’s all I can do.’

She drew the rune she had learned from the white haired woman on the malamare’s skin and covered it with her threads.

’If I am right then...’

Anna said the same word that the white haired woman had spoken, and... her threads started to glow brighter as they entered the rune and...

Fire appeared just as she wanted... There was just a tiny problem: Anna had used her golden threads to reinforce and augment the impurity of the blood, but... she never considered the rank of the beast that blood belonged to because the white woman didn’t say anything about it and because of that... the flame which was produced by the rune was too big, so big that it exploded and threw her away.

The malamare cried loudly in pain as Anna blew away about one fourth of its body, and flames were still slithering on its skin. It frantically shook its body, throwing Anna away, but Neo held tightly to his sword.

Anna had gone unconscious after the explosion and had fallen from the malamare. Neo looked at her falling body with a grave expression and used the malamare’s movement to propel himself towards Anna. He sliced through the air and pulled her into a hug as he protected her from landing hard on the ground.

Michael also commanded Anzu to move towards them with a whistle, but the malamare kept attacking them with its tentacles and stopped them from reaching the duo.

Neo grabbed Anna tightly as they flew towards the nearby trees.

The trees creaked and broke under their weight, sending splinters all around. A few moments later, they came to a stop. Neo opened his arms and looked at Anna, making sure that she wasn’t injured.

After checking her for a few moments, he heaved a relieved sigh.

"By the banished... what was that?" He exclaimed in disbelief as he forced his limp leg and wounded body to stand up.

He helped Anna sit under a tree, and suddenly, he felt his mind get clear as something heavy which was pressing down on it was removed; it was like shackles were removed from it.

But it didn’t make him happy... after all, he knew what it was.

"The hex... It’s gone."

He sharply turned his head towards the place they had left Hanna.

"Damn it," he cursed under his breath and looked at Anna for a moment before making his way to Hanna with his battered and injured body.

Hanna had a fatigued expression as she used every shred of her star essence to keep the islanders trapped and stop them from reaching the malamare. But it was proving difficult with each second, and some of the merkin had even escaped from it, but those didn’t matter to her.

Right then, the sounds of a heavy explosion and a loud cry tore through the island.

’What was that sound? An explosion?’ She thought as

Suddenly, her bracelet, which had been glowing dimly until now, stopped glowing, and Hanna looked at it with a deep frown.

She turned to look at the southern end, thinking that maybe others had managed to kill the Pseudo Adept rank beast. But, she frowned after seeing the malamare stand tall, smoke was coming out from its side, but it was still more than capable of killing them.

"Did it stop the hex?" Hanna mumbled gravely.

After all, if it did stop the hex, then it would focus on others instead of the hexed beings.

*Thud* *Thud* *Thud*

Hanna heard the sound of something hitting the ground and turned around to check it. There she saw the islanders fall unconsciously.

She heaved a sigh of relief. She didn’t want to fight the merkins with a dilapidated star core after all.

She looked at the unconscious merkin and turned towards the southern end.

The merkins who had bypassed her fortification stood up with trembling bodies and sharply turned towards her with hunger-filled eyes.

Hanna stepped back out of fright after seeing their eyes. Her expressions hardened when they made their way towards her.

Her body began to tremble as the fatigue assaulted her, causing her to fall on her knee. She slowly lifted her head and huffed a few times.

She opened her heavy eyes and looked at the merkin, which was about to reach her, its jaw wide open.

It reached her and closed its jaw as Hanna’s vision darkened.