Chapter 351 The Banshee

"Wait, wait, wait–! I'm not adjusted to your freakish speed—! Emilio!" Joel called out.

The silver-haired man could barely even allow his boots to touch the ground as he was helpless to the speed at which the Dragonheart sprinted, breaking through the gateway of sound as the neighboring leaves fluttered wildly.

What was reached was a downward slope leading to a quarry, as if an entire chunk of the forest had been completely carved up, leaving a stretch of soil and exposed stone.

"A quarry?" Emilio questioned.

Coming to a stop, Joel stumbled beside Emilio after being let go, catching his breath and panting almost like a dog, "...Warn me next time you do that! Emilio?"

"What's…? Hold on–it's them!" Emilio called out.

It seemed they weren't the first ones there; as the mist parted itself, what revealed itself was a fight already taking place in the vast quarry as the familiar sight of both Asher Devilheart and Vandread were there, facing "something" haunting:

A tall, ghastly woman with pale-gray skin and long, pitch-black hair that swayed in the wind like tendrils, having sunken, absent eyes and a mouth perpetually opened as if her jaw was unhinged, screaming out.

"A banshee?!" Joel recognized.

"A banshee?" Emilio repeated.

Whatever it was, it seemed terribly strong as it pressured even Asher, who was already in [Stage Three], combatting the banshee, who repelled his sword strikes while using her supernatural hair like sentient blades.

"Vandread! He's hurt!" Emilio realized, rushing over.

As he joined the battlefield, he moved to Vandread's side, who had multiple stab wounds in his bloodied abdomen.

"Vandread!" Emilio called out.

"...Huh? Oh, you made it," Vandread said.

Emilio called out to Joel, "Help Asher! I'm going to heal Vandread."

"Right! Leave it to me!" Joel jumped in.

The tall, intimidating banshee was confronted by a duo of Joel and Asher, though there was no progress made in overturning the battle as the banshee unleashed a hellish cry which produced a sonic boom through the air, blasting both men back.

"Ngh!" Joel winced.

"Tch," Asher clicked his tongue after being repelled.

In the meantime, Emilio kept his hand close to the wounds of the scar-covered man, producing a soft, verdant light that worked to stifle his bleeding and close his wounds.

"Your magic has gotten better," Vandread commented.

"Yeah, well, don't rely on it too much! I'm not as good as healing others," Emilio said.

–

Asher was leading the initiative, flipping around and trying to close the distance while the banshee continuously extended her nefarious hair like spears from hell, stabbing down into the ground in an attempt to skewer him.

Meanwhile, Joel was kept pushed back by these attacks, having to solely focus on defense as he used his sword like a shield as the solidified hair of the supernatural fiend continued striking against his held weapon.

"Nngh…! C'mon, Asher!" Joel desperately called out.

Asher pumped up the output of his system as a cape of shadows sprouted from his shoulders, increasing the devilish energy that shrouded him, empowering his physical prowess as he mimicked the speed of lightning.

[Current Stage: 5/10 | Hell Sentinel]

The Devilheart swept his blade forward, unleashing waves of scathing darkness that razed the quarry, tearing through the banshee's steel-like hair as she screamed out again, more vile than before.

It was overwhelming; the sheer tenacity and power wielded by the Devilheart allowed him to obliterate all of the attacks the banshee unleashed with bursts of his devilish energy. He conjured a construct of his own sword, sweeping it forward as it cut through the banshee's own scream and blasted the supernatural fiend back.

Twisted and mangled by the attack, seeming defeated, the banshee's limbs suddenly began contorting, reconfiguring themselves as she seemed to rebuild her shattered vessel back into shape.

It was unseen by the others, but the silhouette of the mysterious man returned, bringing his lips close to the banshee's ear.

"It is your duty, my beautiful queen–slay my enemies and bring me the head of the Dragonheart. Should you do that much, we can rule this land together; that is an order from your king," the checkered silhouette spoke his soft, alluring words.

"--!"

To his surprise, the monstrous banshee suddenly underwent an evolution as her haunting hair bleached itself from a deep black into a ghostly, pale-white; her complexion changed from a gray to a pitch-black, reversing her coloring entirely before her body bulkened and tightened, becoming scarily muscular.

'It's like before with the beast that Vandread fought,' Asher recognized.

"What's happening over there?" Emilio asked, still tending to Vandread's wounds.

Vandread responded, "I saw something like this earlier. It's some sort of desperate evolution creatures in this forest undergo…It's just a hunch, but it has the King of Spades written all over it."

There was no doubt that what they faced was not a simple "banshee" but a unique existence entirely; the vile woman of a ghastly presence extended her snow-white hair as it swayed hauntingly, sprouting like a wicked forest around the figure.

Emilio finished closing the wounds on his companion's abdomen, helping Vandread back to his feet as they stood shoulder-to-shoulder.

"Bring out that draconic strength, if you can," Vandread suggested.

The young man already reinforced his armor, honing the third stage of his system again as he nodded, "Don't worry, I am."

Together, the four men rushed across the quarry, coming in far-and-wide as they attempted to close in on the banshee, only for the ghastly women to unleash a cry unlike any other; it emitted like thunder, tearing through the soil in its path like unseen blades.

"--!"

Emilio pushed his hand forward, conjuring a massive wall of mud in front of everyone just as the ruthless scream tore forth, slamming against the wall with thunderous force, but ultimately being stopped.

"Nice save!" Joel called out.

There was no time to exchange words as platinum spikes pierced upward through the ground, seeming unexpected at first but quickly deduced.

"It's her hair?!" Joel realized.

"Careful!"

Rushing by with his enhanced speed, Emilio used a soft nudge of wind to knock Joel out of the way as more colossal spikes of hair pierced up from the ground, nearly skewering the man.

As the mud wall fell, the banshee was revealed to be using her forest of hair to dig beneath the soil, launching dozens of spikes upward.

It wasn't just that; the banshee unleashed a storm of her terrible tufts around her and forward, creating both an ultimate defense and offense that jabbed forward and weaved around like cutting blades.

"Fire!" Emilio blasted azure flames forth.

Unfortunately, it seemed the banshee's hair wasn't flammable, dissipating the fire just as it made contact.

"Doesn't this remind you of how we first met?!" Joel asked.

Standing his ground and infusing his sword with the essence of wind, the silver-haired man rapidly swung his sword like a machete used to cut through grass, repelling the swarm of ghastly hair.

"Back when I was a pile of skin and bones?! Yeah, I recall!" Emilio shouted in response, having to unleash colossal quakes of stone to combat the storm of hair, "--Actually, that gives me an idea! Nice thinking, Joel!"

"Huh?!" Joel was shocked his random remark had any weight.

A large bulk of the banshee's overwhelming flurry of hair was dealt with by the Dragonheart as he used his grand magical capabilities to conjure mixtures of rock and water magic to reel in the hair, ensnaring it with walls of mud.

"Oh, yeah! That's how we beat that hair monster!" Joel recognized.

Even still, engulfing the banshee's seemingly endless storm of hair in mud didn't seem to be as easy as thought, as before Emilio could solidify the mud, the banshee unleashed a scream that tore the entire battlefield apart.

The scream forced Emilio to build walls around the banshee to contain the destructive scream, only for the multiple layers of reinforced walls of stone to be shattered.

"Damn!" Emilio reacted.

"Just how strong is this bitch?!" Joel called out.

A single scream was equal to some of the greatest wind spells Emilio was aware of, emitting like the scream of thunderbolts; the hair of the witch was hardly any less potent as it vibrated violently before whipping around at speed invisible to a normal eye, slicing up the stone around the banshee.

"She's a Cataclysm level threat," Vandread noted.

"Cataclysm?! Are you sure about that?!" Joel asked, looking over at the dark-skinned man.

Asher added in, hopping beside the others, "I have to agree. This entity is incredibly powerful–it's not just her vast attack range and power, but she's incredibly tough. The slash I hit her with earlier could butcher a hydra, but she survived it."

"Damn…Guess you're right," Joel nervously agreed.

The tall, haunting banshee hovered there across the quarry, surrounded by miniature craters in the soil from her own creation like a spirit straight out of the depths of Hell, though it wasn't exactly far from the truth.

Screams as strong as the most potent wind magic; hair tougher than steel, sharper than refined blades, faster than a master swordsman, yet as plentiful as grains of sand on a beach; a body as tough as a grand beast.

It was none more apparent than witnessing just how vast and lethal that swarm of hair was; like vines overgrown from a wild forest, whipping around and humming with a sharpness able to rend steel.

"Yeah, this is one nasty witch," Emilio remarked under his breath, "A real monster."