As the noxious methrower was halted, I saw the giant shadow of Sylrin behind the soldiers!


    I was ecstatic with relief and would''ve rushed out towards him, but I was too shocked with what was happening below me.


    The mes were so hot the soldiers lit up in mes instantly and they had no choice but to thrash around on the floor to diffuse their sticky burns – not that it helped.


    The air was filled with screams of anguish but I did not withdraw my shadows, leaving them to struggle on blindly.


    How dare they shoot arrows at him? Sylrin was alive, but hurt, so my anger refused to subside.


    I remained indifferent and only felt they got what they deserved. But the foul stench of burnt flesh made mee to my senses.


    I shook my head and slithered down towards the field of fire enveloped by my shadow shroud, to check if any survived.


    And to my surprise, amongst the burnt and melted soldier remains, there was one that was noticeably unharmed.


    The blondemander stood within the mes, his shiny armour ckened and marred with sticky mes, but unharmed nheless. He was blindly waving his sword around to attack the flying Sylrin, although he was nowhere near him.


    Why was he not injured?


    Perhaps his armour had some kind of shielding effect?


    I recalled he had been chanting something right before Sylrin attacked.


    If it was a protection spell, why didn''t it include the other soldiers?


    Regardless, this one was interesting.


    I heard a roar and looked over to see Sylrin fast approaching him.


    He sounded infuriated and rightfully so, as there were several arrows lodged in his shoulder area, narrowly missing his heart.


    Although his flight was unaffected he roared in fury at the sight of themander still standing. I quickly rushed out to check on him but the dumb lizard was so infuriated, he swerved around me and made his way towards themander who was wildly swinging his sword.


    The longsword in his grip did nothing to deter Sylrin and he was soon tackled to the ground, ws drawing blood from his ckened armour before Sylrin savagely took a bite out of his neck guard.


    It was a disaster.


    He was extremely furious and themander grabbed his shield to fend off against his attacks, as he lodged his sword between Sylrin''s teeth to stop his neck from being ripped apart.


    I rushed down to intervene, pushing Sylrin off themander and holding him back before he aggravated his injuries.


    And with Sylrin off him, themander got up and staggered back in the other direction, his neck and shoulder raw and bleeding profusely.


    I tried to restrain Sylrin, forcing him to stay put so I could attempt to remove the arrows in his shoulder before his regeneration could take over.


    But the enraged lizard kept trying to go after the fleeing mortal.


    To my annoyance, instead of falling to the mes or excessive blood loss, the savagedmander somehow managed to run out of my shadow zone.


    And just as he got his vision back he was also able to hear the dying screams of his soldiers, but instead of trying to find a way to save them he readied his sword, on the lookout for danger, as he cautiously backed away from my shadow zone.


    "Selfish coward" I sneered at him from the darkness.


    While I was distracted by themander, Sylrin managed to break free of my grip and he rose out of my shadows, every bit as angry as before. I set out moving as well, willing my shadows to envelop themander once more.


    But he was notpletely witless.


    He noticed the fast moving shadow spreading towards his feet and ran in the opposite direction as he began another chant. Suddenly, his sword exploded with crackling lightning as he took a stance facing the fast approaching Sylrin.


    A pir of me poured down from the air, and in the absence of his brilliant shield, themander jumped aside to dodge it.


    But instead of attacking Sylrin, he chose to dispense his lightning towards my shadows, tearing a straight line through them in a long range attack.


    I tried to retract my shadows closer to me but the attack cut through them faster than I could pull them back. The shadows in my immediate surroundings was able to survive, but the rest dispersed like smoke, revealing his shield and one of the thrashing soldiers.


    But before themander could appreciate his work, Sylrin bore down behind him with another pir of me, forcing themander to roll forward and grab his shield to deflect the me.


    Soon enough, Sylrin grew frustrated with his mes being deflected and flew in closer to attack him directly with his ws. But he didn''t notice that behind the glistening shield, themander''s sword was charged and ready to let off another lightning strike.


    However, before Sylrin flew into his attack range, I condensed a dust sized de of my shadows and threw it at his shield.


    The sturdy shield couldn''t block my darkness de and was sliced cleanly in half, allowing a st of heated me to assault themander. But he quickly leapt back, avoiding the worst of it before using the additional energy flowing through his sword to deflect Sylrin''s me.


    He had seeded in diffusing the me, but the result was an enraged Sylrin who circled around him to find another opening to strike.


    Throughout their battle, the soldiers were slowly burning to death and only the one who had been freed from my shadows regained enough awareness to run for the stream.


    However, no matter how hard he tried to put out the fire, parts of his limbs and his skin were horribly melted. Butpared to the others, he was lucky to be alive.


    The mmy scent of burnt flesh continued to fill the air and I frowned at the gory sight, releasing them from my [Shadow Shroud] to allow the ones who were still alive to find water.


    I also used [Venom Rain] lightly to douse some of the soldiers'' worst burns, in hopes that the horrible stench went away.


    However, after no more than a few seconds, the system dinged.


    ?You have defeated LV17 Ailith Mortal!?


    ?You have earned 220XP?


    ?You have gained a level!?


    Hold on! They weren''t supposed to die!


    But the damage was already done.


    I just killed a mortal.


    "But." I stared at the corpse in confusion.


    It was an ident, but that seemed like a weak excuse.


    It was only a few seconds of difference since the first soldier was released


    How could they be so fragile to die that easily?


    ?Do you think your poison is water?? Sensei scoffed at me.


    I was panic stricken and horrified.


    On the other side, Sylrin was still fighting with themander in andscape of purple fire and lightning, while I was getting a bit impatient.


    He wasn''t listening to any of mymands and in my frustration, I fired off another darkness de right between them.


    But I wasn''t able to control the size this time, and it sailed past the two into the forest, colliding with several tall trees and causing them to fall across the ground between them.


    Both Sylrin and themander got away from the falling trees before they were struck, but my intervention perhaps made themander realize the threat of the second monster lurking in the shadows.


    His face filled with terror, overwhelmed by the thought of facing two or maybe more monsters and he began to back away, preparing to flee at the first chance.


    Sylrin, on the other hand, was frustrated at being interrupted and let out a low roar in my direction, seemingly telling me to stay out of it.


    Themander took that small respite to charge his attack again, as lightning crackled around his sword. He ordered thest surviving soldier to retreat and fired onest lightning attack at Sylrin before he too turned around to flee into the forest.


    And I was d to see them go.


    They were already too weak to fight against us and there was no need to push them into a corner.


    However, Sylrin was not happy letting them go and chased after themander and the soldier, probably still upset at being shot by them.


    His shoulder was still bleeding but he was too hot headed to care about his injuries.


    I had to reach out andmand him to stop, but he was so angry, it took all my focus to get him tond.


    Once on the ground, the conflict in his mind between his desire for revenge and obedience to me made him miffed and he let out a disapproving roar towards me.


    However, at this point the mortals had already run out of my sight, especially themander who wasn''t as slow as the soldier.


    Yet, Sylrin was reluctant to let them go, and I had to restrain him to stop him from rushing into the forest after them.


    [Calm down, you fool. Take deep breaths.] Imanded him, before reaching for his shoulder to yank out the arrows one at a time.


    Sylrin roared in pain, letting out arge plume of sticky me, but he stayed in ce and let me help.


    It took a while, but I was able to pull out all the arrows and his regeneration kicked in, eventually closing his wounds.


    He soon stopped struggling and I slowly released him.


    However, as soon as I took my eyes away from him, he pounced on the still alive soldier, ending his struggle with a sickening crunch to the neck.


    The lifeless body flopped to the ground before Sylrin took arge bite of the burnt flesh, as I looked on with disbelief.


    This dumb lizard!


    Had he learnt nothing from my scolding at all?