The Countess Lives Twice in the Apocalypse-Chapter 38: Thirty-seven

[Elemental Wall (–)

• The Player can create elemental walls from the nearest source and shape these walls into any form they want, but afterwards, the walls are often unchanging and immobile.

• Depending on what element the wall is made of, it can possess a variety of abilities and be very effective in both offensive and defensive combat. ]

She read the description of the skill and decided to try it almost immediately.

"Elemental wall." Her voice is below whisper with her eyes locked on the hard ground beneath her feet, chanting the skill aloud due to her uncertainty of the skill not working if it was said in her mind.

In an instant, the ground beneath her begins to tremble and a surge of energy crackles through the air, causing the hairs on her arms to stand on end.

Jannah held the leopard cub tightly and heard the other two cubs hissing between her legs as the mother leopard stood over them, protecting them from harm.

Suddenly, a wall of solid earth erupts from the ground, rearing them up to meet the top of the town’s wall.

The leopards hisses, not used to the rocks or anything they stand on to move. Jannah, on the other hand, felt her heart racing at how fast the wall erupted from ground.

She didn’t prepare herself mentally to be suddenly thrusted up in the air like that, but she didn’t have the time to dwell on the aftershock.

"Run to the front gates!" A man screamed, alarming Jannah and the leopards.

The four of them quickly jumped over the wooden wall of the town, stepping off from the newly-created earth wall which made her grateful because the platform is perfectly sturdy.

She was fast to cast the same skill under her breath to create another solid earth wall, catching them before they could fall on the ground below.

The wall lowered itself as soon as it catched them, making the people running towards the gate not see them.

The shadows of the houses around them played a huge part of hiding them, making her mumble a quick grateful prayer to whoever’s watching over her right now.

Seeing that she got inside the town successfully without being seen, she decided to use another skill.

"Concealment." She uttered, the burst of energy crawled all over her body like a cloak covering her from harm with a faint red glow hugging her skin.

Open skill window. She demanded from the system, glancing at it as she read the skill description.

[Concealment (–)

• A physical skill that specializes in stealth tactics, enabling you to remain undetected while running, touching anything,or delivering a devastating sneak attacks with ranged and melee weapons.

• A companion or party member(s) will be concealed the moment the player uses this skill, but will be toned down to half, making those with concealment have the ability to walk without being detected. ]

She inspected it, following its trail all over her body and noticed that it extended to the mother leopard and her babies.

She could only wonder how would the skill work on a person.

A leopard doesn’t need to be assisted by the skill because they are considered extremely quiet animals, often referred to as silent killers due to their stealthy nature.

Jannah read a book about wild life and stumbled upon several cats species.

The leopards make very little noise while hunting and moving through their environment, relying heavily on their ability to sneak up on prey without being detected, making them one of the most stealthy predators in the wild.

Casting the skill on herself is one thing, but making the leopards being more stealthy than they already are? That would be a sight to see.

Jannah’s lips twitched, a wicked and mischievous smirk creeping in her face.

Without wasting more seconds, she demanded the system to show her the map, immediately locking her eyes on the exclamation point inside the town which was near her spot.

The exclamation point kept emitting a yellow light around it, a clear text beside the map was read; Town’s hall.

She was quick to move, her boots thumping softly on the ground, barely making any sound as she blended herself in the dark— navigating her way to the location.

The leopards didn’t fail on catching up to her, their hind legs moves rapidly, proving why they were called silent killers by the world in the first place.

The cubs were struggling, but they were still able to catch up, making her heart swell with pride.

She skidded into a stop once she reached a house beside the town’s hall, a small dust appearing momentarily by her boots. She leaned on the wall, peaking her head on the corner to look if there’s anyone guarding the door.

"Meow!" A high pitched yet somehow deep mewl erupted by Jannah’s side, making her eyes go wide and look at the mother leopard.

"What was that?"

Jannah tensed up, lips parting as the mother leopard looked up at her with innocent eyes, even going as far as tilting her head like she did nothing wrong.

"Go and check it out, I’ll stay right here. We can’t leave these people unguarded or else the Baron might behead us."

The mother leopard puffed out a breath through her nostrils, her tail shaking behind her as she nudged her head against Jannah, pushing her towards the back of the house they are hiding in.

"Meow!" She let out another mewl, louder than the previous one.

"That sounds like a cat."

"I don’t care, just take a look."

Jannah listened to their conversation as the leopard kept pushing her. She didn’t have a chance to command the mother leopard to stand down before she was roughly pushed by the leopard’s paws— using her weight.

She barely had the time to lift the injured leopard cub before the paw of the mother leopard dug into her stomach.

"Oof—" Jannah gasped out, the leopard’s paw knocking the air out of her lungs.

"I don’t know what you’re planning to do, but you better come back safe and sound." She coughed out and eyed the leopard, "Your babies will be safe with me."

She reassured the leopard first before she turned around, leaving the mother behind.

"Meow!" She heard another loud mewl.

This time, she saw the second guard leave his post in front of the door just in time. She took this chance to slip inside the town’s hall, opening the door as fast as she could and ushering the cubs inside.

She saw the guards come back out of the alley they were previously in, just before she closed the door.

Her heart pounds inside her chest and ringing in her ears, praying that they didn’t see her go through the front door.

"I was so sure that it was a cat."

"We saw nothing. You better be thankful that no one tried to run inside the town’s hall or else the Baron would have our head."

"Oh, yeah, I heard that the Duke of the east was the one who demanded to get in, right?"

"Unfortunately, yeah."

Deeming the conversation useless for her, she stepped away from the door and made her way through the building.

She glanced at the map, seeing that it changed form once again. It’s the outline of the interior of the town’s hall, marking the location of her people with the exclamation point.

"It looks like they are inside the office." She murmured as she lead the leopard cubs to the staircase, "It’s on the second floor.. Damn, what a luck."

Her walk to the office is light and easy, quiet with obvious stealth, thanks to the concealment.

The office was easy to spot once she’s on the second floor because she could hear yelling, she followed the direction of the voices, finding out that it’s the location she needed to be.

As she stepped in front of the door and was about to listen, the door slammed open, startling her and making her jump out of her skin.

"I told you that we shouldn’t have let the Duke inside! What would the Baron think once he’s back?!" A seemingly middle-aged man screamed from behind the desk, "We already have the Countess’s sister and her people! We’re simply asking the royal family to kill us at this point!"

"Not my problem! I told you that it was a bad idea, didn’t I?!" A young woman rebutted, slamming the door behind her.

Jannah barely stepped aside in time before the woman could bump into her, her breath caught in her throat as she watch the young woman stomp her way towards the stairs.

Blink. Blink. Blink.

Jannah blinked rapidly, shocked and relieved that the woman can’t see her.

It took her a good minute to recollect herself, eyeing the system with furrowed eyebrows. It gave her the ability to not be seen by other people, but at what cost?

If it wasn’t the end of the world yet then she would have been labeled as a witch and get herself out in a stake in the middle of the capital.

She breathed out, putting down the cub on the floor and signaling for them to be quiet.

The cubs understood, well, barely understood because they tilted their head to show their confusion.

She slipped the bow over her head, pulling the shaft from her hip, and opened the door, aiming the arrow to the man behind the desk.

"Lobi—"

Twack.