Child of Destiny

Shin and the group raised their guard to the highest level while sharply looking at their surroundings. But despite their efforts, they still couldn’t find the location of their enemies.

”Luck, how about your undead monsters? They don’t find anything?” asked Shin to Chaotic Luck since he knew that he was keeping the formation of his undeads all the time.

Chaotic Luck shook his head bitterly as he was sure that his summoned undead didn’t find anything.  ”No, big brother. They didn’t see anything. I am pretty sure that no one breached the formation without us knowing.”

”Strange,” commented Cloe as she also started to knit her eyebrows deeply.

Shin thought for a moment before instructing the others. ”Ithilien, use your ’Magic Eyes’ to see if there is something that is filled with any kind of energy. Luck, try to also look for anything that has some heat waves through your ’Flame Vision.”

Magic Eyes was an ocular skill that was unique to Elven Archers. Unlike the ’Owl’s Eyes’ and ’Eagle Eyes’ that most of the marksmen used to see their target from a long distance, this particular skill was detecting the wielder’s target through their magic signature.

Within the game, any living things or special items had their magic signature, the wielder of these eyes was able to locate anything within a specific range as long as it was emitting some mana.

On the other hand, the ’Flame Vision’ skill that Chaotic Luck had was similar to the thermal imaging that most of the military used. It was a particular technique of using the heat given off by certain objects to produce an image of it or even locate it.

Walls and anything that might block one’s eyesight was useless in front of these two ocular skills. Even if their target was skilled at suppressing their Mana, the ’Flame Vision’ were able to see them through the heat that they were emitting. And if the target was able to suppress the heat of their bodies to trick their opponents, they still couldn’t hide the magic signature that they were using to change the temperature of their bodies.

On top of these two skills, Shin was also using his ’True Sight’ skill while sweeping his gaze at their surroundings. He might not be able to see through the things that were blocking his sight, but his eyes were still able to see through any kind of disguise.

With the foolproof plan that Shin had, it was impossible for their enemy to hide from them. At least, that was what he was thinking until they failed to locate anything within the vicinity.

’Still nothing? Does the attack come from a distance then?’ thought Shin as the frown that he was wearing further deepened.

As if he was able to read what was running inside Shin’s head, Akailu immediately said. ”It is impossible to be attacked from afar. I am pretty sure that I got hit by a blunt weapon or something similar.”

”Then where did it come from?” asked Shin unconsciously. He was about to say something more when he suddenly felt an ominous feeling coming from behind him.

He quickly turned around while also unsheathing his sword. But to his surprise, he found nothing but a stone statue of a knight holding a sword pointing to the ground. He frowned quite deeply as the ominous feeling that he sensed suddenly disappeared as if it never existed.

Seeing his actions, the others couldn’t help but turn their heads at him while also knitting their eyebrows.

”What’s wrong?” asked Cloe while also turning around, trying to see where Shin was looking. But just like the latter, she also didn’t see anything aside from the same statue.

”A statue? Why do I feel that I already know what is going to happen?” muttered Shin to himself after seeing the statue.

He stared intensely at it for a moment while trying to suppress the twitching of his mouth. After all, he already experienced a couple of unpleasant encounters with these things, so it was better to be ready for anything than getting caught off-guard at the most unexpected time.

To make sure that there was nothing strange on the statue, Shin swung the [Yamato] on it, planning to cut it down.

Ding!

But to his surprise, his sword couldn’t cut the statue nor leave a mark on it. ”What?”

Seeing that, Shin quickly told the others to get away from the statue before infusing his mana on the [Yamato]. And when the others finally distanced themselves, he suddenly swung the katana on the statue once again, seemingly planning to destroy it.

Bang!

A cloud of smoke was immediately created right after his attack landed on the statue. But just like what happened earlier. He didn’t even leave a scratch on the surface of that statue despite how strong his attack was.

”Hey, why are you suddenly attacking a statue? Don’t tell me you think this thing is the one that attacks Akailu earlier,” said Owen with a frown while staying vigilant to his surroundings.

”There is no magic within that statue nor any hint of mana emitting from its body,” said Ithilien from the side as she looked at the statue with her ’Magic Eyes’.

”It is also not emitting any heat. I think it is just an ordinary statue,” added Chaotic Luck while also using his ’Flame Vision’ on the said statue.

Hearing them, Shin slightly nodded his head before saying. ”Well, that is also what I thought at first since even my ’True Sight’ didn’t find anything strange from it.”

”But don’t you also find it strange that this is the only statue that has no vines wrapped around it since earlier? Moreover, it is also so sturdy to the point where it can withstand my attacks,” he added without removing his gaze from that statue.

Realizing what Shin was trying to say, the group also started looking at the statue with a serious look on their faces.

But while they were in the middle of observing the statue, Cloe suddenly felt a murderous gaze locked on her. She then quickly spun around and immediately turned to the direction where the gaze was coming from.

But just like Shin, she also didn’t find anyone behind her. Instead, she saw another statue of a knight who was holding a morning star weapon.

*(a club with a heavy spiked head that was attached to the handle by a chain)

Aside from that, she also discovered that this particular statue was unlike the rest since there were also no vines wrapped around it.

Naturally, the others also noticed her actions and quickly turned their attention towards the statue in front of her.

Seeing that, Shin quickly swept his gaze on their surroundings and saw a few more statues similar to the ones near them. They also had different types of weapons on them, not even repeating a single one.

”So, that is what is happening, huh?” muttered Shin before telling the others to gather around. ”Owen, go face towards the four-o’clock direction! Akailu, seven o’clock. The rest position ourselves behind us!”

”So, what are you planning now?” asked Owen while holding his shield in front of him while holding the glaive with his other hand and resting it on his shoulder.

”I am not sure what are the conditions to make those statues move, but I am pretty sure that we need to keep an eye on them to prevent them from moving,” answered Shin while staying vigilant to their surroundings.

”From the three instances earlier, no one is looking at the directions of those statues when they attack Akailu and show their hostility to me and Cloe. So, if my guess is right, these stupid stone people are only going to attack if we are not looking at them,” he added after making sure that everyone was facing in the right direction.

In the meantime, Ithilien knitted her eyebrows before asking. ”But how are we going to fight them?”

”Yeah, we already saw earlier that even your attacks are not effective against them,” commented Akailu while ordering his summoned monsters to circle around them.

Shin was silent for a couple of moments before answering. ”I am not sure either. But if my guess is right, then we can only damage them when they are trying to attack us.”

”They are most likely invulnerable in their current state, so if we follow the rules of the game, then they are going to be vulnerable once they are in their attack mode or something.”

Hearing this explanation, the others immediately nodded their heads as they found it reasonable. But the main problem remained the same, ’how were they going to attack those statues?’

”I’ve got a plan that I want to try but I need you to trust me in this one,” said Shin with full confidence.

For some unknown reason, the other members of the group felt an ominous feeling coming after hearing his words.

”Why do I feel that I will not like this plan of yours?” said Owen with a bitter smile.

Aside from Cloe who fully trusted Shin at everything, the other members of the group couldn’t help but nod their heads at Owen’s words.

Unfortunately, Shin ignored the remark and continued. ”I will count to three and all of you are going to close your eyes. And please unsummon your monsters, Akailu. They are considered as living beings, so I think they can’t be present in the field.”

Shin didn’t even wait for them to say anything and immediately started counting.

”One!”

”Two!”

”Three!”

Swoosh!

....…