The Inner Odyssey

"Let's see if you can survive this."

A disembodied voice streamed into Alden's ears, coming from all directions - up, down, left, right. He struggled to shrug off his confused senses, the voice ringing in his ears, taunting him.

A ghostly figure suddenly appeared in his mind's eye, a sharp sword slicing through his neck, severing it cleanly from his shoulders.

In the next second, Alden jerked, evading the blow by a hair's breadth.

"Impressive."

The cloaked figure clicked her tongue.

Still reeling from the abruptness of her actions, the Keeper's Apprentice was slow to draw his blade. Another ghostly figure materialised in his mind, prophesying his end, before a weapon suddenly whistled past his face, cutting some of his hair.

Alden inhaled sharply, a shiver crawling down his spine at the close call.

He gritted his teeth.

As the crimson in his good eye deepened, heralding a state of battle clarity, Alden's figure also disappeared. Instead of turning invisible, however, his frame flickered, appearing right behind the Guildmaster. The masked woman made no move to block, slowly turning her head, a calm light in her riveting gaze.

The hair on Alden's arm suddenly stood on end.

A thick, translucent, blue barrier blocked his strike, brimming with mana.

In the corner of his gaze, Alden noticed the gem on the staff-wielder's staff light up, shining with a bright light. He cursed, immediately phasing away and reappearing a fair distance out. The cloaked figure also shed her invisibility, returning to stand beside her sisters.

"So… do you still believe you can win?"

He sensed her displaying a grin, her ethereal eyes shimmering with amusement and mischief like little pin pricks beneath the hood of her cloak.

Alden inhaled, his features turning very grim.

Of course, he wasn't expecting the combat assessment to be easy. Certainly not like a peaceful walk through a meadow. But this… wasn't this a bit extreme?

The staff-wielder could effectively prevent any of his strikes from landing, while the cloaked figure could attack from anywhere, her presence completely concealed - only Morrigan's Art had saved him from the embarrassing fate of failing within the first second.

That would have been extremely mortifying. Not to mention also causing a massive dent to his pride.

Alden gritted his teeth with more force.

The eldest of the Noble Sisters had not yet made a move, and that alarmed the Keeper's Apprentice greatly. His gut told him she was the one he had to be wary of the most. So far, he had not received any indication of why that was, though.

The self-assured air of a warrior swirled around her figure.

…Perhaps it was that that frightened him the most.

The most deadly fighters weren't those who were the most flashy, or the most crafty - although, the latter did go a long way in ensuring one's victory. No, it was warriors like her, who had absolute confidence in their ability that chilled him the most.

She took no pleasure in killing - reaping the lives of her enemy like corn -, and no pleasure in having to dirty her blade. However, the Guildmaster struck him as the type who knew what she had to do, and the type who would carry out her task without any hesitation in mind.

Her calm, almost insurmountable confidence infected his spirit, dulling its edge.

Alden sucked in a deep breath. The clear air slightly rejuvenated his scrambled mind, but he still questioned if fighting the three stellar Experts was worth it.

'Of course it is! Don't forget what is on the line.'

Narrowing his good eye, Alden bared his teeth in an annoyed snarl and shot off. A small cloud of dust shot up in his wake as his figure flickered, seemingly phasing through thin air.

At the same time, the cloaked figure also disappeared, and Alden welcomed her advance.

He materialised briefly on the edge of the barren field, before he sensed the invisible, wraith-like warrior lock onto him. Almost instantly, he sensed his Art alert him of her intent and he focused, tuning out her voice to zero in on her precise location.

There.

He twisted and took a diagonal half-step back, parrying the long blade. Sparks flew upon impact, and in their shadow, an abyssal dagger quietly formed, striking at the cloaked figure's half-emerged form.

She paused, surprised for a split-second, before a sturdy barrier blocked the tenebrous construct, her sister preventing the abyssal weapon from causing her any harm.

Alden felt the wraith-like warrior grin.

Then, she and Alden swiftly disappeared at the same time.

Frustration coursed through the white-haired young like a flood.

'That blasted shield.'

Changing direction, he aimed for the staff-wielder, stepping out behind her, his world a blur, and releasing a vicious swing of his blade.

The weapon gleamed in the light of the sun, its polished surface shining like the fangs of a snake. The youngest of the Noble Sisters promptly turned around, her magical staff flying out to meet his sword. A cloud of dust and dirt kicked up as the two weapons clashed, flying about in all directions, as if a giant had just upturned on the land.

Alden dug his heels into the ground, suppressing the cry that threatened to escape his lips.

The force of the collision whipped his hair into a frenzy, and his bones creaked from the aftershock. After all, his opponents were still Experts - physically, they were no doubt stronger than him.

The Keeper's Apprentice gritted his teeth and shifted, a dark shield forming over his left arm. At the same time, the dust cleared, heralding the sight of the staff-fielder trapping his sword with her staff.

A pristine barrier surrounded her weapon and figure.

Annoyed, spikes burst from his pitch-black shield as he rammed into the obstruction. He let go of his sword, freeing up his sword arm, and stowed it back in his Dimensional Bracelet. In the next moment, an abyssal dirk crashed into the mage's barrier, the tenebrous decay it was composed of flickering hungrily, as if it had not been sated for quite some time.

The staff-wielder's expression changed subtly - a small crack running through her blue, translucent shield at the same time, growing wider by the second. Just then, the cloaked figure reappeared, her playful demeanour gone, replaced with a strange, but urgent… intensity?

The Guildmaster of the Noble Guild also twitched, her stance shifting ever so slightly.

That single movement was enough to make every instinct Alden had scream.

It was at that moment, Alden realised there was more than what met the eye to these sisters, and that to have any hope of succeeding, he had to find out what that was.