Ascension of the Nephilim

If Martha had the opportunity, he would have made Mardock make that attack when they were Lesser Dragons. But given the circumstance, there was no time for that.

Kyros had told her of everything that Mardock was capable of and even assumed that a suicidal attack that exploded all his energy was possible as he had seen Stoph, the Ruby Golem make a burning attack.

But now, the powerful attack that could have harmed Lesser Dragons didn't do much to these dragons.

Martha stood at the back as the dracanae ghouls rushed ahead with the knights.

"Attack them now! Entropy has weakened them!" Martha activated Haste and began to let loose her arrows.

Amazingly, more than ten arrows flew at once.

Her bows had Form Clone, and it created several shadow attacks that moved alongside her arrows.

Martha had coated the real arrows with powerful Force energy.

But suddenly...

CRASH!

The dracanae ghouls and the knights were sent crashing back as one of the Thane Dragons made a tackling move.

The speed was so fast that even the Path of Combat of the two knights and the ghouls could not react from the simple tackle.

The Thane stood over Martha, and he sent a backhand stroke.

SWISH!

The figure of Martha vanished, and the real body of Martha had ducked and rolled just in time to avoid it, with the Form Clone acting as a distraction.

She held her bow and shot several arrows.

The first struck the ground, and [Gravity Field] was activated, and the rest flew towards the body of the Thane.

CRASH!

The tail of the Thane smashed down and struck the arrow negating the Force energy that was instilled in it.

Martha suddenly sensed something and used a great amount of force energy to jump. 

Crash!

Her jump was just in time, and she managed to evade the tackle of another Thane.

"Futile." The Thane sneered as her tail whipped at Martha.

Martha saw it and shot an arrow to the ground. She knew she would die from that attack and shot Gravity Field as a last resort with hopes that the weakened wings and the heavy gravity would stop them for a time while the Hunter and the slaves made their escape.

FWIP!

A dracanae ghoul jumped towards Martha and was in front of the approaching tail of the Thane.

SMASH!

FWIP!

The powerful swipe struck the ghoul and Martha, which sent the two flying to the other end of the cave.

Gravity Field took effect as Martha was knocked out.

But as that happened, two of the dracanae ghouls suddenly jumped up. They were outside of the range of the Gravity Field. Their jumped reached such heights as aided by the other dracanae ghouls, which threw them up.

The two ghouls caught the crushed body of Martha and stabbed their claws on the side of the walls.

The previous explosion and the entropy attack of Mardock had softened the stone, slippery walls allowing the two ghouls to scale it up.

And as they reached a certain distance, a rope was there waiting.

This was all because, while Martha had explained the plan, Hunter, Hems, and Hemsey also made another secret plan.

The plan of this was rooted on their combined efforts to activate the Path of Foresight.

Hunter, Hems, and Hemsey had one simple desire that they wanted Fate to help them achieve. 

'How can they get Lady Martha up?'

The Thane saw it and frowned. 

They were about to jump when the rest of the ghouls and the two knights rushed in and made reckless attacks.

One of the ghouls held on the rope and was swiftly being pulled up by Hunter and his ghouls.

The slaves kept throwing more rocks at the group, and it fell with great speed.

The Thane was frowning and evading the falling rocks.

With the help of the jump, Martha was quickly pulled up.

"Is this their plan? To get that woman up?"

"She's dead anyway. Her bones are crushed. Unless she can devour a large amount of the dracanae blood, I doubt that she would regrow all those bones that were smashed."

"Look at her allies. They even made a death stance." Another Thane observed Hems and Hemsey.

The two had drunk all the blood in their swords. Martha focused only on two ghouls because while she absorbed enough magic points to regain energy, she was using Dorothy to stimulate the ghouls so that they would be reanimated once more. Her blood had no power to reanimate a ghoul, but it was possible with Dorothy's soul though it needed some time.

But Hems and Hemsey moved from one ghoul to another and absorbed a large amount of dark energy they immediately drank.

The ghouls were given the last order. And that was to kill the Thane Dragons.

"Let's eat these beasts here. You must have felt it. That powerful entropy is constantly hurting us. Even my wings seem to be having trouble flying because of this weakness."

All nine rushed at them, and as the darkness consumed Hems and Hemsey, they also assumed a form similar to the Shadow Familiars of Kyros.

"Careful. Hurting them will only decrease the nutrients we can eat from them." One of the Thane rushed in and reached for one of the dracanae ghouls

Meanwhile, Hunter quickly handed the blade over to Martha.

"Lady Martha! You must live!" Hunter called out.

Dorothy also used his powers to awaken Martha. She felt the blade in her hand and absorbed it. The blood was regenerating Martha's body, but her wound was just too severe.

"It's not enough," Dorothy spoke.

"She won't be able to run like this. This was your plan, correct?"

"Yes."

"Do you Coven members have the ability to transfer life? If you give her all your vitality, she might have enough strength to run away. You, vampires, are similar to us. I can eat off the flesh of creature, but I eat so much that it claims the life of what I devour, I gain much greater strength."

"Of course! I sensed that on our previous pray! Alright! I can try!"

"No. We won't allow that!" The old woman interrupted and smiled.

"Order your Ghouls to keep throwing those rocks. If you die, we lose control over your ghouls, and we die. I'll give my life." The old woman smiled.

"It's not enough. Your body is too weak."

"I'll give my life too." Another slave approached.

And then another stepped forward without saying a word.

Martha couldn't say a word as her mouth and jaw were crushed. But tears fell from her eyes.

"Thank you. I can help her devour not just your blood but use the absorbing properties to drain your very life. It will be excruciatingly painful." Dorothy answered.

"Losing my former masters was more painful than this. Now that I have another more benevolent master, I won't hesitate to use my life to lose them. Begin." The old woman smiled.

"Stab the sword to her while letting Martha hold the blade," Dorothy ordered. 

Hunter held Martha's hand as she held the sword and stabbed the old woman.

Martha looked at the eyes of the old woman as tears flooded hers.

She couldn't even say thanks or her goodbyes as Dorothy immediately began to devour the woman.

The process was extremely quick. 

"Next." Dorothy coldly ordered, and Hunter quickly took control of Martha's hand as the old woman's body turned to dust.

The sword stabbed towards the chest of another slave, and he screamed at the pain.

The healing of Martha's body was so fast that even her bones were growing back.

"Next."

Hunter tried to move Martha's hand but met resistance.

"I'll do it myself..." Martha pulled and broke free from Hunter's hand.

But as she did, she paused as she looked at the next slave. The former was a tall man. This time, it was a young and beautiful woman.

Martha trembled.

"Lady Martha... Hems is dead. You have to hurry and retreat." Hunter reported the notification that just popped up.

"....Go and delay the dragons." Martha slowly stood up, and Hunter followed.

"Let's go. We can still catch up with your sister." Dorothy spoke.

"No. Now that I'm here. I can kill them. I'm sure of this."

"How?"

The next words that Martha spoke were the hardest and most painful thing she had to say.

She turned to the remaining slaves.

"I need.... ten or so more volunteers."