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Felicia looked at Arthur like she had just found their savior, which in reality was no far away from the truth. If there wasn't a battle raging, she would have run forward to give the man a hug or a kiss to express how thankful she was. Instead, Felicia grabbed the bow she dropped earlier and rolled to stand beside Arthur. She leaned her body against his and said, "Arthur, I'm going to need to depend on you to be my eyes. Use your finger to point at the location of the phantasm and I'll use my arrow to bring them down. No pressure but you're our only hope!"
Arthur knew Felicia was going for a joking attempt to lighten the burden on his shoulders but he still couldn't shake off the weight of responsibility. If they were going to live to see another day, he would have to pull through. Arthur cleared his mind of thoughts and focused on his sense of hearing.
He tried to pick up the vibrations in the air and filter out those caused by natural movements like falling of the rocks, and Billy's wailing. He tuned into the environment to zone in on the irregular oscillation in the stratosphere that signified the presence of these phantasms.
After he was sure, Arthur raised his finger to point at a particular direction in the air, "That way." At the same time, Arthur heard the sound of the bowstring being drawn and the arrow being shot out propelled by the potential force. Seconds later, Arthur's eardrum was drowned out by the sound of the phantasm's shrill wail of pains.
"Yes, you did it, Arthur! Nice job! Now, let's finish this!" Felicia cheered beside him. After the cries of vengeance died out, Arthur focused on the other phantasms in the room. He pointed them out one by one for Felicia.
The thing that made elite phantasm more difficult to handle than normal phantasm was their invisibility. If they were stripped of that protection, they were not much different from their normal counterpart. This meant that Felicia was able to pick them out like low-hanging fruits with Arthur's aid.
After about five minutes, the collective wails of the phantasms stopped and everything died down to a heavy silence. Felicia gasped for air while she whispered to Arthur, "Is that the last of them?"
Arthur focused his attention and after several seconds, he opened his eyes and told Felicia, "Yes, you got them all."
"No." Felicia turned to the man and smiled, "We got them all."
Then she walked away from Arthur to check up on Billy. Looking at the man who was kneeling on the ground, Felicia asked with concern, "Billy, are you alright? Is the injury serious?"
Billy sighed a great relief as he collapsed to the ground, his shield and sword clattering noisily. After he caught his breath, he turned his face up to tell Felicia, "Felicia, thank you."
Felicia tutted and said, "You shouldn't thank me, I merely did the footwork. You should be thanking someone else." She then raised her hand to wave Arthur over to join them.
Billy heard and saw everything when he was down on his knee earlier, he knew without Arthur, all three of them would have died to the horde of elite phantasms and it would have been all his fault.
When Arthur got closer, Billy turned to man and said with utmost sincerity, "Hey, thank you, little..." Billy stopped himself and corrected, "Thank you, Arthur. Thank you for saving my life, I mean it."
Arthur smiled and accepted the thank graciously. "You're welcome, Billy."
Glad to see the conflict between the boys got patched up, Felicia focused on the cut on Billy's knee. "Let me see the injury. Is it serious or not?"
As a ranger, Felicia had rudimentary training in first aid. She straightened Billy's knee and applied some poultice on it before bandaging it up. "That will stop the blood flow for now but we gotta get you back to the village for immediate medical attention before the wound festers. I don't think you want to lose a leg over this... despite the fact that I think it'll be a good reminder for you to use your head first in the future."
"Ha ha, very funny." Billy said flatly. "But thanks."
"You're welcome." Felicia stood up and looked around the room. "But how are we supposed to get out of this place?"
The opening that they used were shut in and there was only another crack in the area that seemed to lead deeper into the cave. Felicia walked to the stone door that blocked the opening and called for Arthur to come help her. "Let's try and see whether we can move this block or not."
The block barely even budged. Billy was injured so he couldn't commit to heavy labor because it might put weight on his knee and worsen the injury. Both Felicia and Arthur couldn't be considered as the powerful type. "Looks like we're shut in," Felicia concluded before she turned to look at the other crack, "Unless we decide to move further into the caves."
This time it was Billy who said, "In our conditions? We'll just be walking into the maw of death."
"What other choices do we have? Sit here and wait for people to come find us? Who do you think will do that?" Felicia argued. "It's certain death versus possible death. I don't know about you but I prefer our chances with the latter option."
Billy turned to Arthur and asked, "Arthur, what do you think? Do you think we should move forward or stay here?"
Arthur weighed the pros and cons in his mind and he agreed with Felicia. "As you've said before taking this quest, there are no other available level D adventurers back at the village so the chance of us getting rescued is extremely low. In that case, I suggest we move forward."
"Alright, majority rules." Billy tried to stand up and grimaced before he started to fall again. Arthur who stood beside the man reached over to help steady him. "Thanks, man." Billy said.
The three of them moved towards the crack and none of them noticed the stone slab had started to inch open after their footsteps moved away.