Even so, Sylas unhurriedly took out a third javelin and sent it flying out.
Mark frowned and was about to say something when Bloom blocked him with a hand.
When he gave her a questioning look, she gave him a glare in return.
The gnolls were ready to use the same tactic again, focusing their attention on the javelin. But just as they were about to deal with it, it fell from the skies limply.
They were caught off by this change when suddenly, the second javelin they had left behind whirred to life, shooting forward before Grimgor could even react and piercing the back of his skull.
Grimgor's eyes dimmed.
The gnolls looked back in shock, only for the third javelin to suddenly burst to life and reap another.
Before they even managed to make it to the walls, only four gnolls remained.
"I'll deal with the rest," Bloom spoke a few rare words. "Sylas, support me, please."
She leapt down from the walls after this, her spear flashing like streaks of silver stars through the night sky.
With the support of Sylas' kunai, Bloom made quick work of them. In fact, they were the first to finish.
There were other teams tasked to deal with this section of the wall with them, but none of them got the chance to act at all.
They could only stand by and conserve their strength.
Mark pulled Bloom up from below with a rope, grinning ear to ear.
"What are you grinning for? You almost ruined everything! Do you think being an idiot is a personality trait?"
Mark rubbed the back of his head and chuckled.
'She's sharp,' Sylas thought to himself. He watched Bloom lambasting her younger brother for the hundredth time today, but he didn't see the comedy in it this time. He was instead focused on something entirely different.
Bloom understood what he was doing even though she shouldn't have. In fact, he originally planned on stopping Mark from moving himself and would have had she not intervened.
The only way she could have known was that she had already deduced that he could pick up objects within 20 meters and "losing" control of his telekinesis didn't mean that he did so permanently.
The question was… did she gain this knowledge because she had observed other telekinesis users…? Or because she had seen through him?
The difference seemed meaningless. And yet, to Sylas, they were worlds apart.
The ground rumbled and a flash of light formed in the distance.
A gnoll, two and a half meters tall appeared. Its arms seemed to be much longer than normal, the twin bone axes it held barely hovering above the snowy ground. A foul, green liquid dripped from its bared teeth. In fact, this same green liquid seemed to coat its blades.
Sylas looked over and found that the other two waves of gnolls had yet to be cleared… but the BOSS had already appeared?
'It's time-based,' Sylas realized. 'Does this mean that if we don't clear this wave fast enough, the second wave will start and combine with this one?'
Sylas realized that this could get very bad, very quickly, but there was no sign of Lucius taking action at all.
Sylas frowned. This situation could get out of hand quite quickly, and he felt that there was a reason Lucius was doing things this way.
In a pressure-cooker-like situation, it would slowly force them to reveal more and more of themselves until they had nothing left to give. It was likely that it would only be at that point that Lucius would finally take action.
Even if it didn't work out that way now, Lucius would likely keep putting them in situations one until he had a full scope of understanding of them all.
It was smart, but it put Sylas in a bind. Now he had to find a way to both leave this place and access a computer as quickly as possible, while also defeating this wave without displaying too much of his strength.
He didn't believe for a moment that if he pretended as though he was going to die that someone would sweep out and save him. It was more likely that Bloom and Mark would be put in danger in his stead, and though he didn't blink while killing those he had to, he wouldn't risk the lives of those that had done no wrong to him either.
That was the piece of his humanity he chose to keep. Unless he had no other choice in the matter, he wouldn't take such a step. However, if push came to shove, he would always pick his own family over this brother-sister duo. He just hoped that it wouldn't come to that.
And if he wanted to avoid that future, he would have to find a way to pre-emptively deal with this.
Sylas scanned the battlefield as the BOSS, Nazgul, rushed toward the wall. With its speed, it was only a matter of a few seconds at most.
'How do I do this… the steel alloy javelins are sharp, but they can't withstand Aether. Even if they could, using Basic Aetherflow would be a step too far. If the battle lasts too long, though, it will cause more problems than not as the subsequent waves start making their way in. Do I have to reveal that I can wield multiple heavy javelins at once? But then what?'
The space was enclosed, the city was mostly empty, the only weapons they were given were the alloy javelins and—
Sylas' gaze sharpened.
He lifted up a hand and the chainsaw whip that he had tucked away suddenly flew into the air. In fact, Mark's and Bloom's flew up as well.
Who said that he could only use his telekinesis to attack?
"Get ready to throw, Mark," Sylas called out, his gaze sharpening to an unprecedented extent.