073 SUMMON THE NIGHTPROWLER

073 SUMMON THE NIGHTPROWLER

After a short while, they reached a clearing where the wheat had been trampled down, creating a wide circle. In the center lay the relic stones, massive and ancient, etched with symbols—the foundation stones of the Sword Mountain Sect of the Eastern Kun Empire.

"We're in the right place," Ma-san announced quietly.

"But why would they leave the relics here, unguarded?" Ma-ke wondered aloud, scanning the eerily quiet clearing.

"Does it matter?" Ma-san replied, stepping forward. "Let's secure the stones and leave before anyone notices."

The mages approached the relics, when suddenly the air was filled with a strange fog. It smelled like some kind of concoction.

"A curse—there's a poisonous mist guarding the stones! We've triggered a trap," Ma-ke said, his voice tight with alarm.

"That's unlikely. I don't think it's actually poison," Ma-san replied, examining the air around them.

"Are you certain?"

"Yes. The mist has some strange properties—medicinal or toxic, perhaps—but it won't affect us. We're high-tier Cakra Svad mages," another mage assured him.

Reassured, they stepped closer to the relic stones, carefully inspecting the ancient carvings.

"So, how do we plan to move these stones?" Ma-ke asked, eyeing the relics warily.

"We don't have a choice," Ma-san replied, sighing. "We'll have to haul them back to the jetty and load them onto our ship. We don't have a magic storage space."

The mages cast powerful summoning spells, conjuring large, ethereal hands to lift the heavy stones. Slowly, they began the long, grueling trek back to the coast, straining as they went.

Despite their powerful magic, the task was physically draining on the mages.

"This feels like hard labor work," one mage complained, wiping sweat from his brow.

"It makes no sense to leave these relics in the open like that," Ma-ke said. "Why abandon them in the middle of nowhere?"

"They set a fog trap, sure, but that's for small-time thieves, not high-level mages like us," Ma-san muttered.

Finally, they arrived at the jetty.

Exhausted, they set the stones down and took a moment to catch their breath. But before they could recover, chains of shimmering magic appeared around them, binding their limbs and lifting them off the ground, suspending them mid-air.

"What now?" Ma-ke shouted as figures emerged from the shadows.

Amara clan women appeared, led by a young man with a knowing smirk and a woman in Eastern Kun attire.

"Who are you?" Ma-san demanded.

"We're bounty hunters," the young man, Leo, replied calmly. "And we're here to collect on all five of you."

"This trap… it makes no sense. If you set this spell here, why didn't you activate it when we first arrived?" Ma-ke asked, suspicion flaring in his eyes.

Leo chuckled. "We wanted you to walk the stones back for us. Consider it a bit of… sport. If we cast the spells back then, you wouldn't be in this position as now, hahaha."

Ma-san examined the magic chains binding them. "These are Eastern Kun magic chains," he scoffed. "They shouldn't be strong enough to hold us."

"Go ahead, then," Leo said, gesturing. "Try to break free from them."

The mages struggled, calling upon their powers, but the chains resisted, unyielding.

"Impossible. These chains should be nothing to us, why are they unbreakable?" Ma-san muttered, incredulous.

"These aren't ordinary chains," the Kun woman, Yun-Yun, explained. "The Amara women cast them together, channeling their strong bond into a much stronger spell."

"No matter how skilled they are, this shouldn't be enough to hold us," Ma-ke protested, straining against the chains.

"It normally wouldn't," Leo agreed. "But the journey back from the fields exhausted you."

Ma-san scoffed, though his confidence was beginning to waver. "Even so, a bit of fatigue wouldn't stop us from breaking these damn chains."

"You're right. It's not just fatigue," Leo replied with a smile. "That walk wasn't just to wear down your magic. It was to speed up your blood flow and the spread of the poison in you."

Ma-ke's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean? Poison?"

"Remember the dim sum you ate at the inn?" Leo asked, watching their faces shift from suspicion to dread. "Those high-quality, expensive delicacies? They were poisoned."

"Impossible," one of the mages spat. "We tested that food thoroughly."

"You're right," Leo continued. "On its own, the poison was harmless. But under the right conditions… that's another fucking story. The fog you inhaled in the wheat field was the activator. And the strain of carrying the stones accelerated the poison's effect. By the time you returned here, most of your magic had been fucked. Now, even these chains are more than enough to hold you."

The mages exchanged desperate glances, weakened by the poison coursing through their veins, their magic nearly spent.

Yet, Ma-san's eyes narrowed in determination.

"There's still one thing we can try," he said.

Leo scoffed. "What could you possibly fucking do now?"

Yun-Yun's face went pale. "This is bad. They're using forbidden magic."

"Forbidden magic?" Leo echoed.

"Yes, it's outlawed in Eastern Kun. It demands the mage's own life force to summon a demon, it doesn't require their magic, only their blood, much like your Mirror of Gullee," she explained.

Although the mages' magic was weakened by poison, they sacrificed their blood, severely weakening their health, to cast a greater spell- the summoning of a demon.

A massive shadow began to coalesce behind the mages, taking the form of a monstrous cat. The shadow cat was a sleek, pitch-black creature that seemed to absorb light, with a slightly translucent form that shimmers as if it could vanish at any moment.

Its glowing red or green eyes pierce through darkness, and its long, smoky tail blends into shadows. Rippling like liquid darkness, it moves silently with shadowy talon-like claws, often slipping from sight and reappearing elsewhere.

Its presence evokes primal fear, and its low, growling purr sends chills down the spine.

In a swift motion, it slashed through the air, sending a wave of dark energy, sharp as a blade, that felled several Amara women instantly.

"What the hell is that?" Leo shouted.