Cashel barely had time to react or read the entire thing before his senses got overloaded. His vision shook as he turned clumsily toward the sound, but he lost his balance and dropped to his knees.
"Finally. Good job!" one of the soldiers yelled from the other end of the room to the shriveled old man standing in the corner with a small green bell.
The old man was trembling and bleeding from his ears, but his gaze remained locked on Cashel, who stared at him with unfocused eyes.
"H...h...he’s not a bad person. D..don’t hurt him." The man stammered, pointing at Cashel, but one of the soldiers collected the bell from him and shoved him to the ground.
"We asked you if he was capable of fighting and you said he wasn’t, and that he was a nice and polite younger man!" another soldier, the one whose hand was cut off, started with a strained, pained voice. "Does this look like something a polite young man would do?!"
"Charlie, let him be," the soldier holding Cashel’s knife said. He turned to face Cashel while his colleague knocked the old man unconscious.
He then pushed Cashel to the ground with much effort, got on top of him quickly, and wrapped his hands around his throat. "Bring the syringe."
Cashel’s eyes widened the second the words reached his ears. He bucked underneath the man, struggling to free himself, but whatever that bell did not only messed up his senses but also made him weak.
’S...shit, shit, shit.’ He managed to gather his thoughts, his eyes darting around rapidly to find some sort of solution. He couldn’t possibly stay still and hope Andeen arrived fast, but at the same time he couldn’t keep relying on her, especially now.
But what could he do?
Before he could gather his strength to push the man off, the rest of the soldiers pinned him to the floor by his arms, legs, and torso.
Then another came in through the window holding a very shiny briefcase.
"Argh... what the fuck do you bastards want?!" he blurted out once he got his senses back enough to speak. "I did nothing wrong. What the hell is this?!"
The man on top of Cashel snickered, still not moving his hands from around his throat. "Why not ask your wife why she was warned not to marry an awakened individual?"
Cashel’s eyes widened.
As he opened his mouth to say something, the man’s other hand moved to his mouth and clamped it shut.
Without thinking twice, he tried to bite the hand covering his mouth, but the man only pressed harder.
Spots signaling an incoming migraine danced at the edge of his vision. He heard the sound of the briefcase clicking open beside him. Then the syringe appeared at the corner of his eyes, filled with an iridescent black liquid in an insanely large needle.
The man with it tapped the side, checking for air bubbles, then smiled.
"Hold him still," the man said. He kicked the briefcase away and bent down. "If he moves too much, the dosage won’t take properly."
Cashel’s body tensed. The sharp scent of what smelled like tobacco and something spicy hit his nose. His body still wasn’t responding properly. Even if it was, the combined strength of these men was no joke.
He gathered whatever strength he had left and tried to slam his head upward. But the soldier simply leaned more of his weight onto Cashel’s chest.
Then...
Bam!
A car door slammed outside.
The sound of heavy footsteps echoed through the house, which was odd, but what was even more odd was the resentment and anger that flooded the house like a wave.
Cashel’s brow furrowed. ’Another one?’ he wondered, his heart racing at the thought of what else they possibly came for and what it would do to him.
He could already guess this was it, but somehow he still had hope.
The heavy footsteps approached at a speed no ordinary person could match.
And the door to the basement flew open, breaking off halfway. He released the heaviest sigh he never thought he could release.
’Thank God.’ Cashel thought and relaxed, his chest dropping in relief, while the men were somehow frozen in place.
Andeen stood there, her hair disheveled and messy. The energy surrounding her like a cocoon fluctuated so violently that the entire house’s temperature dropped.
The moment her echolocation mapped the room and found Cashel pinned on the ground, she grimaced.
She ripped off her coat, crossed the distance in a flash step, and grabbed the nearest man by the throat before any of them could react. Then she squeezed.
"Give me the syringe!" the man on Cashel yelled at his frozen colleagues. "And snap out of it! She’s just one person...fight her off!"
"B...but she’s Andeen Altar...."
Cashel almost smiled, noting their foolishness. They were clearly scared of her, and yet they had boldly tried to harm him.
The man whose poor throat had been made an example of went limp instantly from the amount of energy radiating off her and the fact that he couldn’t breathe.
She cracked his neck for safety and tossed his body aside carelessly before turning to the rest.
However, there was another gentle chime in Cashel’s ears, and the system screen suddenly materialized before his eyes.
[Kill Registered: Identifying Life Force....]
[Human life force detected: Rank A ×1]
[Rewards Obtained: Low Grade Vitality fragments ×1]
[Converting..... Returning]
[10,000× Return applied]
[Credits +10,000]
[Would you like to convert and transfer or store?]
Cashel’s eyes widened.
Andeen stretched out her free hand. Almost immediately, pale blue vines made entirely of ice erupted from the floor around her feet and shot toward the remaining men.
The moment the ice touched their skin, their bodies froze almost instantly. The vines wrapped around them firmly as their skin turned a ghastly blue.
She tapped her staff on the floor, spreading vibrations through the entire house, then raised her head.
There was someone upstairs.
Cashel guessed easily, but he was still locked in place between the frozen men. He remained on the floor, breathing hard, staring at the system notifications still appearing one after another.
[Multiple kills registered]
[Human rewards detected — quality: Poor]
[Options available]
[1. Initiate Gacha Pull]
[2. Transfer all converted rewards to Primary Target: Andeen Altar as stat points]
Before he could pick, Andeen shoved the frozen man off him, completely unbothered when he hit the floor and shattered like glass. Then she helped him up and supported his weight.
"What did they do to you?" she asked softly, but he could still sense the resentment leaking off her so strongly that it made him nauseous. "Are you hurt?"
Cashel looked at the glowing options floating in front of him, then at his wife’s blood-streaked hands.
"...I’m fine," he said quietly.
He was not.
But he didn’t care. What he cared about was what was on the system screen. He looked back at Andeen, whose gaze had moved to the ceiling again as though something was there, and then smiled.
’Initiate Gacha Pull.’