Chapter 389: 389 - Running out of time

"Look at those guys go," the rogue told the archers, as they drew their arrows aiming at the enemy mage who was running away from Noah and the warrior.

"Is anyone streaming this?" pne of the archers asked with a smile, as he let go of the arrow, letting it arch above the heads of their colleagues,

"Sure as fricking hell I am," the other responded with a grin, as they watched the two vanguards slaughter the rest of the enemy team.

[An enemy has been slain]

[Double Kill]

[Victory]

"Come on, how long have you guys played together?!" the rogue was the first to ask, having done absolutely nothing in this first round.

Noah and the warrior stared at each other with a grin, before joking about with the rest of the team as they all advanced. "We've known each other since forever. Right, Rob?"

"Only if you were born 2h ago, ain't it, Bob?" After answering Noah's jist, he fell into laughter, Noah responding in kind, also laughing.

"What's so funny about this?" the rogue asked, his brows furrowed, as he hid under his hood leaning forward, as he looked for the enemies.

"We met each other minutes ago. This is our first fight together," the warrior said, smiling heartly with an occasional laughter.

"Wha--then how did you guys learn to work together like that?" one of the archers asked, as he stopped walking and pulled his bowstring, making Noah raise his shield, and everyone hid behind it.

"We fought each other last game," Noah said, the surprise making the archer look his way as he heard it. However, he had just let go of the arrow, which low shot a little crooked.

"Fuck, I missed," he cried out, realziing what he just did, the rest of the group laughing heartily. He pulled another arrow as a clank sounded, the opponent's arrow hitting Noah's shield. "Gotcha!" he cheered, as soon as he let go of the arrow, following it into the distance.

"Bob, Rob, it's you guy's turn," the other archer said, trusting the man's commemoration entirely. Despite Noah and the warrior not trusting them blindly, there was no harm in believing them, and Noah raised his shield from the ground, rushing forward together with the warrior.

The two dashed forward, seeing the enemies also advance. Noah stared attentively at the enemy group, as he saw the arrow go down, the enemies not even reacting to the arrow as it flew directly in front of them. 'So that's his blessing,' Noah realized, as he saw the arrow down upon their archer, who was still aiming at them, killing him on the spot as it hit his forehead.

[An enemy has been slain]

Noah smiled inwardly, as he readied his blade to cut down on the people in front of him. As soon as the enemies realized their archer had died, the four remaining became more spread out, trying to become harder targets for the archers. Their second archer stood behind to shoot, as the rogue joined the two vanguards on the close-quarters.

"You joining us now?" the warrior asked, as the rogue ran alongside them.

"Since I don't need to protect those two, I might as well help you guys," he responded, the three of them rushing towards the enemies. Noah and the warrior did the same as last time, working together to block and defeat. The enemy warriors apparently had only the Basic set of blessing, not being actual Blessed. Or, their blessing was less preferred... Either way, they were not well versed.

'These guys are way worse than Carlos was with the stuff included in the non-Blessed set. Guess they just started in the game too,' the thought, as he and the warrior each killed one. Noah looked to the side, to see the rogue stuck in a 1x2 against their rogues. "Fall back!" he exclaimed, but it was too late to save him. Noah and the warrior quickly acted, throwing their spears, each aiming for one of the enemy Blessed.

[An ally has been slain]

but he'd fallen to their trap before the spears reached their target, hit by the blade of one of them.

'Damn it!' Noah cursed, as he saw the enemy rogue suddenly sidestep in a blur, avoiding his dagger, while the warrior's hit its target.

[Enemy has been slain]

Noah pulled a throwing dagger, as he pushed his shield forward, ready to run to grab his spear, and the warrior grabbed his axe, changing his fighting style back to the usual, from before fighting alongside Noah.

"I'll kill him before you get that thing back," the warrior said, his legs enveloped in red particles, as she used his blessing to charge forward towards the enemy rogue.

Noah stopped right there and then, as he saw the rogue's surprised reaction, since they had yet to see him use his blessing the proper way in the first round.]

"Damn, boy! This matchup was made in heaven!" the warrior exclaimed as they returned to the main lobby, shaking Noah's hand before they bumped shoulders.

"It really was fun destroying them," Noah boasted with a broad grin, seeing the man also grin. "It sure was a great way to end the day," he completed, the warrior nodding.

"Yeah, we should play again sometime soon," he said, before thinking a little. "Wanna exchange phone numbers so we can tell each other when we log in?" he asked, Noah hiding his trouble before his poker face.

"Actually, my phone isn't working. I'm planning another one when I wake up tomorrow," Noah said, giving up an excuse. "But since we added each other, I can check on the online status and message you if I'm free," Noah told him, and waited for the answer.

"You're a rich bastard, aren't cha," the warrior teased him while laughing, leaving Noah a little confused. "If your phone is broken it means you're using one of those dedicated setups, Richie Rich," he explained, making Noah realize his blunder.

"Hehehe... actually, I'm just using a borrowed phone to play, but I don't have my number assigned to it yet," Noah gave a plausible excuse, since he didn't actually have a dedicated system.

"I see," the warrior said, smiling, as he raised his eyebrows jokingly. "See you next time, man. It was a pleasure playing with you," the warrior told Noah, waving.

"See ya." Noah raised his hand, before both logged out simultaneously.

Noah opened his eyes in his room, removing the tiara, and felt his legs pinned in place. 'Lilith...' he thought, as he looked down, to see a massive black snake over them, her head resting on his stomach. He shook his head, stretching his arm to put the tiara and his phone as far as possible from the two, yawning. "Damn... it's almost morning," he muttered, seeing the faintly blue shadow on the underside of his window's blinds. Taking a deep breath before sighing, and closing his eyes up. 'I hope I have no weird dreams this time around,' he told himself in his thoughts, before falling deep into sleep, finally.

Noah took a deep breath, frustrated, as he found himself in a dark room, rolling his eyes at being unable to sleep properly. This time, though, it did not feel like a nightmare, but rather like he was just alone.

Suddenly, a man appeared in front of him. At first, it was just a black outline, like a shadow, without face or clothes. But slowly, the darkness started to disperse, as if it were just a mist. A tuxedo just like the one he used started appearing under the thick black fog, and the silhouette of hairs, in the same style as his. The black slowly turned gray, casting less of a shadow, as he started seeing a familiar face appear under the whole thing, his.

And words started appearing in front of him, as he stared at himself, his brows furrowed.

[This is you,] the words read, making Noah deeply confused, as to why only this sentence would appear. The fog started to completely dissipate, leaving a person that looked just like him in front of his eyes, Noah's confusion deepening.

[This is also, Lucifer,] the words wrote, as the clothes dispersed into mist, and an armor started to appear in its stead. It was a dark metal armor, almost pitch black, but it had a strange feeling to it, almost as if it emanated a dark feeling. This was the armor of the devil. And a pitchfork appeared in his hand, as he pointed it towards Noah without any change in his expression.

Noah felt his arm do the same, and he trembled, as the pitchfork was thrown in his direction, his arm doing the same.

But it never hit him, instead, disappearing as his hit an invisible barrier between the two, and vanished into it, as the mirror-barrier rippled as if it were made of water.

[Your real power still lies deep within, buried into the quicksilver seal. To defeat it, recover the power the underworld once had, and free the snake of sin from her shackles]

The words told him what he wanted them to tell him, making him wonder whether he was the cause of these strange dreams. Regardless, they were not yet done, and one more sentence appeared, making Noah swallow dry, as he remembered his last dream.

[The heavens began to move, your time is slowly depleting.]

Noah stared at the words without making a sound, as he remembered what happened at the arena, and the pain Lilith suddenly went through, a feeling of anguish growing inside him, as the flash of her hand appeared in his mind, and he opened his eyes, short of breath, to her sleeping on his stomach.

And he looked at the window, to see almost no time had passed... and he went back to sleep, this time actually falling asleep.