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The pink blob burst, and a hand began extracting coins formed upon the poring's death. Maraulea laughed to herself again when she held up the zeny she earned.
"There's no reason that I'm not a money bringer!"
The rogue had been interfering with monsters novices were trying to kill, plundering the coins that formed when the zeny knife stabbed into a monster. The agitated novices began ranting at her, some chasing her to demand their items back. But all of them ended up baffled when she hid herself underground, leaving Manald to handle them.
They had intended to travel by foot, the rogue saying that they could earn extra zeny this way. But the priestess did not expect to turn out as she thought, when she had to take the rap for her rogue companion. To prevent future confrontations from the novices, she wanted to open a portal, then decided to change her mind. Skull might not be inside Geffen, probably somewhere in these fields. Along the way Maraulea got bored, casually sticking her zeny knife out to cut porings to death.
Both of them were the first to make their leave when they were in the alehouse. Cerberus and Piffy stayed behind, telling them that they would watch the construction, keeping a lookout for dangers lurking near Prontera at the same time. The priestess knew that was not the case. The knight leader did not want them lecturing him again, because of his intension to visit Izlude. When Cerberus made trips there to pay visits to his parents' grave, he would undoubtedly cause an uproar from the people, branding him an outcast of Izlude. His brother Cranius, would then drive him out personally.
She knew he might try to ask for reinforcements from Izlude, to help in the defense of Prontera and future invasions from the four. The result was obvious, maybe either thrown out of the city by force, or jeered at. Right now, finding Skull was more important. She only prayed that he did not encounter any of the high officials, otherwise, the consequences would be dire. These merciless officials were capable of everything to hunt a target down, even if they had to kill, they would oblige.
The priestess did not feel at ease the least bit. If he was spotted by even one of them, he was in no condition to fight. The last she saw him, he was thoroughly injured, not to mention, heavy loss of blood. She was not allowed to go near the assassin, though she only wanted to treat his wounds. The officials roughly pushed her away, then dragged the motionless body into prison harshly.
Night was approaching. They had been traveling in the Geffen plains since they left the alehouse, never stopping once to rest. Maraulea was already complaining of sore legs and thirst, but Manald made her walk on. The rogue suggested that she open a portal to Geffen, so they could at least rest for the night and retrace their steps the next day. Little did they know, Lord of Death and the other three had reduced it to nothing except carcasses of dead sorcerers.
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Tien roared again when he bashed two sohees in the face, knocking them into oblivion. Moonlight had to be somewhere near the cave, he thought. He saw no signs of the feline superior in the battlements, so that left the cave the only possible place.
He abandoned the huntress, bashing his way through the thick mobs of cave demons, leaving a line of them in his wake. The monk glimmered with hope when he a faint tinkling of a bell, the telltale sign that Moonlight was nearby. Another mob of freshly produced demons was beat down, and Moonlight caught sight of a monk, the mastermind of her demons' death.
Tien came face to face with the feline superior. The streaks of lightning sizzling around him became more active when deaths of his guild mates and his father drove him into a frenzy. His fist lashed out, jabbing Moonlight in the face. That, however, had little effect on her. She swiped her bell weapon at the side of Tien's head, but he nimbly ducked it. Then, Moonlight kept her bell weapon aside. The monk knew that she was switching her tactic to spell-casting. He had to distract her somehow.
He faked an uppercut, which made Moonlight did a back flip. The distraction in the middle of her spell-casting was a success, and there was his chance to pull it off. He grabbed her by the leg during her back flip, and flung her onto the floor. The bell weapon fell off her hands, but she was yet to be defeated. Tien smashed a fist at her head, ending up hammering the grassy ground. She had evaded his hit, her lips moving to chant a spell.
Bolts of flame rained onto Tien, stunning him for a moment. The feline superior took the opportunity to recover her bell weapon. Although the bell looked small and harmless, it was in fact made stronger than an emporium. It went flying at Tien's head, but met his right fist instead. Tien raised his right fist to counter hit the bell, the force sending both staggering backwards. Moonlight's lips moved again as she readied another spell, bolts of jagged ice raining onto the monk.
Tien expected another magic attack, and he already had it planned out. He made a short teleportation move to evade the spell, using his body relocation ability. The streaks of lightning surrounding his body crackled violently, indicating his readiness. The green glow of his pupils gleamed brighter when he started teleporting around Moonlight, appearing around the cat demon randomly.
Moonlight raised her bell weapon, and bolts of lightning shot down the area around her, hoping to stop whatever was up his sleeve. After the lightning bolts stopped striking, all was silent. She was positive that her magic, which rarely failed, had struck the monk to death. Smirking at his impudence, she started leaving for the cavern to employ more demons from the foul labyrinth.
"I see overconfidence is your Achilles Heels," a deep voice croaked. It was too late when she identified the voice. Tien struck the feline superior in a combo of body thrusts and uppercuts, then finally chaining up the hazardous, formidable art in the book, named the Asura Strike. The final stage of the martial arts, this killing blow was believed to eradicate anything upon it.
And so it became, that Moonlight was a victim of the Asura Strike. The mighty fist broke through the bell weapon, and went right through her heart. Her body began to shrivel, the dying feline superior letting out a mournful scream as the last of her body vanished.
The aftermath of the Asura Strike began to take effect. Tien reverted back to the appearance of a normal monk, the lightnight vanished, and his skin turned back to his tanned complexion again. He sat down involuntarily, totally exhausted from the completion of the combo. Erupting into fits of coughing, he closed his eyes, taking deep breaths to soothe his aching body. But the battle still raged on, the conflagration tearing down house after house.