Chapter 210: Stone Book
*BOOM!*
Just before Greg could have warned the others, the books from the sky opened, and with a blinding light several explosions broke out.
"Damn it!"
Not having a choice at all, Greg grabbed Emma and Laura on his side, and by using his darkness element, he vanished into his own shadow and appeared somewhere safe again.
"What about the others?", asked Emma a bit worriedly as she looked toward the explosions in the distance.
Naturally, she was not stupid at all, and she knew also that those books were extremely abnormal.
Each of those had the presence of top God-ranked fighters, so trying to defend against them with their current strength would have been a foolish act.
Knowing this fact also, Greg wanted to activate his darkness element again, but as he did, something terrifying happened.
Instantly as he was about to activate his Final Flow and use its ability to rescue Joe and the others, he felt as he was targeted. Even his Silver Wolf's Sixth Sense ability has been activated, showing Greg that his instinct was right.
However, the moment he looked around that feeling instantly vanished. It was like something wanted to kill him, but the next second it decided not to.
"Don't use your darkness element here."
Suddenly in his head, Greg heard Alice's voice, making his expression turn to shock.
"Why?"
"I don't know either, but I can feel that this place has its own will. And what is more, it is extremely hostile towards those who use the element of darkness."
"So that's why I felt targeted.", thought Greg and started to think for other solutions with which he could help the others.
However, he didn't need to do so, because after a few seconds, just as the dust created by the explosion dissipated, he could see that everyone was perfectly fine.
Not so far away from them, he could see as Morgan was calmly standing before the Clanwing members, Joe, Mila, Jonathan, and Bex, while around them a barrier could be seen.
The half-transparent barrier had a dim yellow light, while on its surface, dragon-like scales could be found moving gently here and there.
"So his Guardian has a solid defensive ability? Interesting.", thought Greg as he examined Hogan's power with a curious gaze.
However, he didn't have too much time to do so, because the book, which was above the statue and had the key in its middle, suddenly started to move.
*Crack!*
*Crack!*
One small crack after another, the stone book in the statue's hold broke free, and with a gentle motion, it floated in the middle of the air right above the group's head.
"?"
While watching as the book just floated above their heads, suddenly several books around the place lit up, and just like the last moment they burst toward Hogan and the others.
"I won't stay still twice in a row!", shouted Bex angrily and suddenly a bow appeared in his hand.
The bow was gold in color with a bit of black shade, while the string was made out of a silver thread which was thinner than hair.
Yet, the moment Bex grabbed the fragile-looking thread, nothing that Greg has expected happened. Instead of tearing it apart, the thread turned insanely durable.
While Greg watched this, knowing that it was probably Bex's Guardian's power and not an artifact, suddenly another shocking sight happened.
On the thread, a thin arrow, made out of some strange silvery substance appeared, giving Greg a somewhat weird feeling.
"Is that... Mercury? But wasn't his ability the arrow, so how is he able to create mercury from out of nowhere?", asked Greg with confusion, not understanding how was Bex able to create mercury.
Laura on the side smiled and said, "Bex has a strange Guardian, which lets him to form different affinity of arrows. He can create fire, ice, toxic, mercury, wind, and lightning type of arrows. However, out of all these, his mercury arrows are the most lethal."
"Most lethal? In what way?", asked Greg with confusion.
Naturally, he knew that mercury had a poisonous effect after getting into the human body or after getting evaporated, but it wasn't killed instantly.
If it were Greg, he would rather say that lightning arrows would have a bigger chance to kill because of their speed, so hearing that mercury was the most lethal, was a bit surprising.
Also, mercury against books was completely useless, so the best choice would have been fire or lightning and definitely not mercury.
Laura knew what Greg was thinking smiled gently and said, "Just watch. You will know soon enough what I meant."
And just as she said that, inside Hogan's barrier, Bex has let go the bow's string.
*Swish!*
With a speed that was surprisingly fast, the arrow flew out from the bow's hold and reached the first attacking book in the air.
Greg seeing this concentrated enough to see what will happen, but suddenly an unexpected sight happened.
Just before the arrow could have hit the book, suddenly the arrow changed direction, and instead of slamming into the first book, it flew toward the book, which held the key in the air.
Because the speed was fast, it didn't need a long time to reach it.
"I see. So his mercury arrows are not only poisonous and fast, but they can change direction at will. Frightening!"
Greg found Bex's power quite frightening because it was able to change directions at any given moment.
Just imagine, you were anticipating the arrow from the front to hit your shoulder, but because it's the ability to change direction at any given instant, it hit your head killing you.
And what was even worse, Greg knew that Bex could fire not only one or two, but several arrows at the same time, which was quite scary.
"Plus, he can freely use different kinds of attributes of arrows, turning any fighting to his side if he wants to."
While Greg thought about this, everyone watched as the mercury arrow finally reached the stone book and was about to pierce right through it.
However, unexpectedly a shocking spectacle broke out.
Above the air, the key inside the stone book lit up, and in an instant, it covered up the stone book.
Immediately as this happened, the book's speed got accelerated and with a speed that was extremely hard to see, it avoided the arrow.
Bed seeing this smiled gently and said, "Not so fast!"
Instantly, the arrow which was far in the distance changed path, and with a speed faster than before it arrived inches away from the back of the book.
As this happened, the other books finally arrived before the group, and like bombs, they got detonated after one another on Hogan's barrier.
*BAM!
**BAM!*
*BAM*
Even though they were bombarded with explosions that had the destructive power of a God-rank fighter, Hogan's barrier was unshakable.
"No matter what happens, nothing can come through Sir Hogan's power. Not even if God fo-."
*Swish!*
*Paff!*
"!"
Everyone inside the barrier looked toward the man who started to talk, only to see that with a tiny gap in the middle of his forehead, his body suddenly fell to the ground, while below his head, dark red blood started to flow out.
*Crack!*
And to make things even worse, slowly small cracks could be seen forming on Hogan's barrier, making everyone to realize instabtly that it was on the verge of collapsing.
"What happened?!", asked Laura with shock, not believing that one of her family members just got killed like that even though he was right inside his father's barrier.
Greg seeing this was just as shocked as everyone else too, so he turned his gaze toward the stone book in the air, only to see a bizarre sight.
"This... Don't tell me."
Greg could certainly see as on the book's page, a small arrow-like picture could be seen clearly. The shape, the color, and the size, everything was just perfectly identical.
"Could it be that it is able t-.", started to say Greg, but just before he could have finished his sentence, a silvery substance started to form before the book.
Slowly, it took up a shape of an arrow and after a gentle white light covered its surface, it burst forward.
*Swish!*
"It's fast!", thought Greg with shock as he watched the arrow to appear from the book before Hogan's barrier under a single second.
"!"
Hogan, still shocked by the fact that something was able to pierce right through his barrier, could only watch as the arrow appeared inches away from his face, ready to pierce his head too.
"DAD!!"
The fastest who was able to react was Joe, so without any hesitation, he swung his Jade Sword at the arrow with a crazy speed in the hope to slash the arrow in two.
However, just as it seemed that the sword was about to save Hogan's life, another stunning scene occurred.
Just like how Bex arrow did, this arrow too changed direction and with an unpredictable trajectory, it appeared before another Clanwing member's face.
"Hu-."
*Swish!*
*Paff!*