Bleeding from the Neck

Estoria surprisingly reads the books with enough concentration to not even care about the hand that has been taken by Aluxio, their fingers intertwined when suddenly her taken hand's wrist starts glowing, interrupting both of them.

"Why is this bracelet shining? Isn't this Asher's mana?" Aluxio asks after feeling Asher's mana flow through the light.

"Asher gave me this, so maybe that's why, but I'm also not sure why it's acting up. I thought it was just a bracelet. Did it have special powers or something?" Estoria closely examines the bracelet.

Aluxio glares at the bracelet with suspicions. "This isn't because I was holding your hand, is it?"

Estoria narrows her eyes, looking at Aluxio, but before she could say anything, she hears a distant voice of a stranger, immediately turning her head in that direction and getting up from her seat.

"Why? What's wrong?" Aluxio also gets up from his seat, but as he was about to follow her, Estoria stops him.

Estoria had already noticed her heightened senses after her awakening, which was why she was able to hear that voice amidst the library.

"Stay here. I just want to check something real quick." Estoria follows the direction of the voice alone and realizes that it's coming from Eston and Tyrion's side of the library.

Estoria's steps unconsciously start getting quicker realizing that, and as soon as she arrives at the scene, she sees two small orange-colored barricades, one on the right and the other on the left.

The barricades are just enough to trap a person in them, and considering the color of the mana which did not belong to any one of them, it was clear that those two barricades were holding Eston and Tyrion in them.

Before Estoria could take another step towards the barricades, she was stopped by a long dagger placed just a breath away from her neck, which was imbued with light blue mana.

"I went to look for you, but to my surprise, you were already coming for me. We could have missed each other if not for your glowing wrist," an unknown but known voice of a woman comes from behind her.

The woman who was holding the long dagger by her neck was none other than number six, the long-forgotten one by Estoria.

"What do you want from me? Obsessed much, huh?" Estoria chuckles.

"Don't tell me you thought I wouldn't come for you again? I never let my preys go. I always finish them no matter how many takes it takes."

"Wasn't your target Asher though?" Estoria slightly turns her head trying to take a peek at the person behind her, the blade moves closer to her neck making her bleed.

Estoria closes her eyes shut from the pain, never having felt a cut on her neck it was more painful than she thought.

Six moves her blade back again after leaving a bleeding cut on her neck. "Asher was the one I was ordered to kill. For who I want to kill I decide that."

Estoria was in pain, not wanting to reply anymore when the orange barricade on her right shatters into pieces.

Eston came into view from the shattered orange pieces of the barricade, his red eyes were unusually more bright, the floor under his feet was also shattered into a million pieces.

"What are you doing? Take care of him now! You're not even useful enough for a barricade!" Six screamed in Estoria's ear.

There seemed to be another person behind Estoria which she couldn't see, likely the owner of those orange barricades.

Eston's first look was Estoria being held at by a blade at neck point which was already bleeding, causing him to lose his temper even more.

The person behind Six also came into view as he stepped towards Eston with a mana blast at him which was like a huge fire breaking out in a second and stopping in a second.

The person was wearing a black long overcoat, black boots, black pants, and one black glove, his body covered in all black completing the look with his black hair, Estoria could only see his back so his face features were undescribable.

The blast was actually quite useless to be honest. Eston had already moved away from the blast which was why Estoria wasn't worried about him also this guy seemed like the extra fish food in front of Eston.

"This is why you're still number four, behind a little fragile child," Six shouted with contempt.

"Did you even see him move yourself? I know he's the son of the head of the magic tower, but that speed is still not normal," Four replied calmly.

It seems like they don't know about Eston or Estoria's awakening at all which proves the security and loyalty of the staff at the Stallions mansion Estoria should treat them with her utmost respect once she returns.

"I obviously couldn't because of your stupid blast which didn't do anything!" Six complains.

"I did that on purpose because he moved away," Four again replied calmly scanning his surroundings for Eston.

Four definitely had a high battle IQ while Six only had her physical fighting skills.

Not even 10 seconds passed before Eston appeared again in front of Four this time lifting him into the air by his neck he seemed to want to snap his neck in half but Eston also seemed to be in a bit of pain.

Eston's hand on Four's neck was smoking and the smell of flesh burning was in the air.

"Eston remov-" Estoria couldn't finish her words before six moved the blade deeper into her cut making her cough in pain.

Eston's focus went back on Estoria and Four seized the opportunity by removing his other glove too, placing his hands on Eston's neck, his fire like mana flowing out of his hands burned Eston's neck instantly red.

Estoria couldn't sit by and watch anymore she grabbed the long dagger with her left hand pulling it out of Six's grip which left Six in a shock while Estoria's right hand held her bleeding neck.

Estoria tried to make a run for it immediately but Six was faster stabbing Estoria in the gut from behind.

Estoria winced from the stab unable to open her eyes when the dagger was pulled out from her body leaving Estoria gasping for breath.

Estoria finally pulled through the pain opening her eyes moving towards Eston but was soon left speechless before the scene before her eyes.

Eston had cut Four into multiple blocks of bloody flesh even his head was cut into four different parts Estoria was left astounded in her place by the gory details.

"Estoria!!" Eston shouted but when Estoria realized why he had shouted her name it was already too late.

When Estoria turned to see what Six was unto behind her back a splash of fresh blood painted her face red but it wasn't her blood, it was eston's who had somehow moved over to protect her in a split second.