Chapter 168
ISIDORA
“We’re almost there. We’ll make it before dawn,” Mikaela whispered, her voice bright with excitement.
We moved quickly through the forest as it started to wake.
Luckily, this part of the woods seemed normal. Only a thin mist rose in the cold breeze of early morning.
Our clothes were drying as we went. The descent by the waterfall had been smoother than I’d imagined.
Everything was going well… too well.
58 youcher
The wound in my side tugged with every step, hot and mean, but I kept walking, and that bad feeling started creeping back
“I sense danger,” Karla suddenly said, slowing her pace, her eyes fixed ahead through the brush.
The tall ruins were already visible between the trees, rising above the branches.
We were only a few yards from their base, but Karla was tense too.
“Girls, we’re going to have to fight our way through. There’s no other choice,” I told them, my pupils narrowing on the two women waiting in the clearing at the foot of the ruins.
They were Arlene and Morgan, of course. Their third teammate was nowhere to be seen.
Either she was waiting to ambush us… or she had been left behind along the way, probably sacrificed by those two.
I wondered where all the other Estingia teams were. Had they made it? Were they still trying to get through the forest?… Or were they dead too?
“I have to admit, you surprised me. How did you get out of the mountain caves?” Arlene’s voice rang out as she took a few steps toward us.
We stayed at the edge of the forest.
I stepped forward too. Karla and Mikaela were already looking for traps, for danger.
“You thought your path was the only one available?” I answered mockingly, and I saw anger flash in her eyes, along with a flicker of doubt.
I knew very well they had bribed someone involved in the competition to get that map.
Maybe now she thought I had done the same.
“Whatever. You made it here.” Arlene took another step forward. “I don’t care what tricks you used. You’re just a dirty servant playing at being an Estingia.”
She drew her weapon.
It was some kind of silver spear with two daggers at the ends.
Obviously, she and Morgan had awakened their Estingia seals somehow and obtained their weapons.
Morgan pulled out that gleaming golden sword of hers. I was sure it was powerful.
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Chapter 168
But not more powerful than mine.
65 Vouchers
“I only want to ask you one thing… why?” I said, slowly drawing my sword and letting her see it under her contempt-filled
stare:
Morgan’s expression, especially, was pure mockery when she saw my “ugly” sword.
“Why are you so determined to stop us when we could all pass?”
That was the question eating away at me.
Were they really cruel just because they could be?
“The entrance will only open when the sun kisses that statue.” She pointed upward, toward the high stone statue of a she wolf looking down.
“There’s a special prize for the team that enters first, and that team will be us. Unless you agree to go in after us….”/
“Hell no!” I snarled, pointing my sword forward in an attacking stance. “Enough stepping over everyone else. Fight me head-on like an Estingia!”
Before she could keep running her mouth. I poured power into my sword as my legs shot forward.
Arlene’s aura changed too, turning sharp and hostile.
Her weapon shone silver, and a dark mist moved over her body like a mantle.
My Estingia seal rushed from my belly through all my skin, climbing up my hands until it painted the black steel of my sword with red flower markings. Scarlet mist poured out of me.
With two war cries, Mikaela and Karla launched themselves at Morgan, who clearly thought she was invincible with her new little toy from the armory.
From the corner of my eye, Mika’s whip cracked through the air while Karla’s shadows clawed across the ground.
That was how the fight to reach the ruins began, with time working against us because the sun was already appearing on the

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