The arrow went through the man's chest, and he collapsed into the snow screaming. But two others were already taking his place, and Kylian understood that he would not be able to stop them all at a distance.
It was then that he caught a strange movement out of the corner of his eye.
Lyra had drawn her dagger from her belt. Her silhouette seemed to dissolve into the shadow, as if she were becoming an integral part of the darkness itself.
The next instant, she reappeared in the shadow cast by one of the attackers, just behind him. Before the man could react, she slit his throat with a dry and precise motion. The body collapsed into the snow.
'She possessed this type of ability?'
Kylian did not have the leisure to dwell on what he had just seen. A bandit armed with a short sword rushed at him shouting.
He dropped his bow, drew his sword and parried the attack just in time. The clash of blades echoed through the mountain. Kylian pushed his opponent back with a shoulder blow, then followed with a horizontal strike that the bandit dodged by stepping back.
A second assailant arrived from the right. Kylian had to step back to avoid an axe that would have split his skull, then he kicked snow to blind the first bandit and took advantage of his discomfort to plant his sword in his belly.
Meanwhile, Lyra continued her macabre work. She moved from shadow to shadow with a disturbing fluidity, as if the darkness itself obeyed her.
She emerged behind an archer who was aiming at Kylian, her dagger traced a precise arc in the frozen air, and the man collapsed before he had even understood what was happening to him.
"Fuck! Where is that whore!?"
Two bandits turned toward her, but she had already disappeared. They exchanged a panicked look, and one of them barely had time to raise his weapon before she emerged from his shadow and planted her dagger in his side.
Kylian, for his part, chained his attacks. He parried a blade, counterattacked, and hit his opponent in the arm. Another bandit tried to take him from behind, but Kylian pivoted on himself and gave him a kick to the knee that made him fall.
He finished him with a quick sword strike, then turned to face the last man who was charging.
"It's much more doable than what I thought..."
He made a parry to the side, showing that he was going to strike on the side but at the last moment it was a thrust that went through the bandit's chest.
Lyra, for her part, eliminated the last fleeing men. She appeared behind one of them, silent as a shadow, and stabbed him before he could scream.
One of the remaining bandits in the back hesitated to take part in this slaughter.
Kylian picked up his bow, nocked an arrow and shot. The projectile went through the mist and lodged between the shoulder blades of the fleeing man, who collapsed face down in the snow.
Silence returned to the mountain. Only the breath of the horses and the persistent wind disturbed the regained quiet. The snow was starting to fall again, already covering the bodies with their white shroud.
'It seems this body is not totally useless...'
He who had feared that in the end in a fight he would lose his footing, but in this life or death situation, he handled it well. Kylian surprised himself killing easily without flinching.
'It seems I have adapted to this world... A little too fast even...'
Kylian lowered his bow and looked around him. Not a scratch.
He approached her, still out of breath, and said with undisguised surprise:
"I am quite surprised... You were that strong?"
Lyra smiled while wiping the blade of her dagger against the snow, then put it back in her belt:
"Well, you are not doing too badly either... Weren't you supposed to be a mortal without stigmata?"
Kylian nodded, still impressed by the way she had moved through the shadows. He put his bow back on his back while recovering a few intact arrows.
"My father taught me a few tricks to reach the top of the Hunter level, but I still need a stigmata."
Kylian approached his horse and answered simply:
"I see..."
Kylian looked away, lost in his thoughts.
'She uses darkness techniques. How can the heritage of Erebus be in there? From what I know, this dungeon did not house a god with this type of power at all. I hope everything will go well for us.'
He shook his head to chase away his doubts, then got back in the saddle:
"Well... Let's get back on the road."
Lyra imitated him in silence, and the two silhouettes set off again at a gallop in the snow, leaving behind them the bodies of the bandits that were gradually disappearing under the flakes.
...
Kylian frankly wanted to go solo. He had spent quite a lot of time preparing this expedition, studying the maps, gathering the necessary equipment and training to face this dungeon.
However, despite all his preparations, he felt that he did not have the required level. Lyra's presence at his side was a necessity, even if he had difficulty admitting it. Even if it was she who managed to obtain the stigmata, he could nevertheless find an excellent weapon in this dungeon, and that justified his presence.
After about thirty minutes of riding in the snow, they finally arrived in front of a cave. The entrance was small, barely wide enough to let a man on horseback pass, and the dark rock that surrounded it seemed to absorb the daylight.
"I think this is it."
As they advanced, the environment became larger and larger. The walls spread apart, the ceiling rose, and soon they emerged into a verdant expanse under a black sky dotted with stars. The grass was soft and dense, and a cold but constant light bathed the landscape, as if an invisible moon illuminated this underground world.
"There!" Lyra exclaimed, pointing to a spot in the distance.
Kylian followed her gaze and saw a mountain whose summit shone under the stars. The light emanating from it was strange, almost unreal, and it seemed to pulse to the rhythm of an invisible heart.
"It seems we have to reach the summit as quickly as possible, Kylian said while observing the surroundings. But... it is strangely calm."