Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1028 - 143: Guests

Chapter 1028: Chapter 143: Guests

"Guest?" Catherine echoed in puzzlement, but her actions were without the slightest hesitation. Standing at the entrance to the makeshift shelter, with her face to the interior and back to the exterior, the girl had already surged forward three steps upon hearing Pannis’s words. She quickly spun around, and as she did, the huge Magicsteel Shield had already covered most of her body. The sharp lower edge of the shield skewered into the ground, making a firm triangle with her body, ready to absorb any impact.

The next instant, the knightly girl saw a bolt of lightning descend from the sky, striking a few meters away from where she had originally been standing. The grass, hit by the lightning, quickly turned black, and electricity crackled over the puddles on the ground, sending out a snapping and popping noise. Upon witnessing this scene, Catherine slowly emerged from behind the Magicsteel Shield. Regardless of why the lightning was cast, the strike’s location revealed a measure of goodwill from the other party. Even if the ultimate intent was hostility, it was an open and honorable challenge. As such, it would be unbecoming of a knight to hide behind a shield and accept a challenge. That was not something a knight should do.

However, Catherine soon realized she might have misunderstood. It seemed that the lightning was not a prelude to war, for it did not vanish after striking the ground. Instead, it maintained the shape of the bolt as it first appeared, standing upright on the ground for a few seconds. Then, the originally linear lightning began to twist and turn, outlining a human form with its electrified lines.

"This is... a Thunder Element, right?" Although Catherine had never seen the physical form of a Thunder Element, this distinctive scene allowed her to guess the identity of the other party.

Once the lines had formed a complete human figure, the Thunder Element did not stop transforming. In a flow of electrical light, the lightning suddenly contracted inward before bursting outward with a sharp crack. The Elemental Creature transformed from simple lines into a three-dimensional human figure composed of lightning luminescence, nearly indistinguishable from a regular person if one considered only the outline. However, the figure’s outer contour continued to flicker like ordinary sparks. As a young girl, Catherine remembered seeing some kind of circular lightning during thunderstorms in the City of Knowledge; it would roll along walls, roofs, or grounds. The teachers at the time had explained that such spherical lightning, which occasionally appeared in nature, could easily incinerate a person to ash. But now, the girl was skeptical; perhaps what was referred to as "spherical lightning" was just a misunderstanding, and its true identity lay in Elemental Creatures, because aside from the shape, other characteristics were strikingly similar.

Standing beside the figure made of lines, Catherine’s nose was filled with a strange scent, as if something had been scorched, and her body tingled with numbness. Upon closer inspection, even the hairs on her skin had stood on end. She knew these were characteristics of Thunder magic; such phenomena always occurred when Thunder magic was released. This clearly showed that these peculiar Elemental Creatures were fundamentally not much different from Element magic.

"Crackle and pop." The lightning figure stepped toward Catherine, emitting a high-frequency crackling sound. It appeared as though it was trying to communicate with Catherine, who no longer concerned herself with whether it was speaking. The mere approach of the Thunder Element intensified the tingling sensation on her skin. A flash of light enveloped Catherine as her Aggression Shield unfolded, excluding the elemental damage, finally granting her a sense of relief from the discomfort. She could hardly imagine the severity of injury if they were to make actual contact.

"Pan... No, never mind." Unable to understand the sounds emitted by the other party, the knightly girl’s first instinct was to turn back and inquire, but before she could finish calling the name, she realized that Pannis likely wouldn’t understand the language of the Thunder Element either. Although she hadn’t voiced her question, she noticed when turning back that Pannis had somehow already positioned himself behind her. A warm current surged through her heart. No matter what happened or who she was about to face, Pannis remained the same dear friend she knew, perhaps changed in many ways, but his heart unwavering toward his friends. He was still the protector always standing behind them, silently offering his support without asking for anything in return—the dependable Pannis with whom they could share the battlefield.

No words of thanks were spoken; Catherine just gave Pannis a brilliant smile, turned back to face the Thunder Element, but covertly stretched her hand backward, grasping Pannis’s hand. Pannis was startled, looking down at their joined hands with a perplexed gaze, yet in the end, he did not pull away.

The frequency of the "crackle and pop" sounds began to fluctuate, the pitch rising and falling unevenly, but Catherine didn’t ask any questions. She had realized that the other was seemingly trying hard to modulate the sound created by the electric currents in its body. Although still incomprehensible, the sounds were not as grating as they had been initially.

"Humans..." Finally, the crackling sound of electricity was adjusted by the Thunder Element into human speech, and although the pronunciation was still laced with piercing, sharp static, at least it was understandable what he was saying, "Are you humans?"

"Uh, we are humans." Catherine looked down at her own body, which should not have any features that did not belong to humans, but these Elemental Creatures had such bizarre appearances and were quite different from humanoid creatures, so it was understandable that they could not differentiate between several types of humanoid creatures, "May I ask, are you one of the Thunder Elements that was devouring lightning in the sky just now, and did you come here to find us for a reason?"

"Crackle, crackle," after another burst of booming sounds, the Thunder Element said intermittently, "I am looking for an Elf, have you seen her?"

"Er, well, I don’t know either." Catherine couldn’t help but scratch her head, speaking with difficulty, "You’d better describe the characteristics of that Elf first, so I can know whether I’ve seen her or not."

"Elf... it’s just an Elf." The Thunder Element seemed to become somewhat agitated, as the lightning making up his body began to flicker unstably, "Characteristics... it’s an Elf."

"Oh, my God." Catherine pressed her forehead, feeling another headache coming on, "These past few days I’ve seen a few hundred Elves, I really don’t know which one you are looking for."

"Mr. Thunder Element," Pannis patted Catherine’s hand to let her loosen her grip, stepped forward two paces to confront the Thunder Element, and asked, "The Elf you are looking for, is it a female Elf you have known before, someone you’ve met and communicated with?"

"Yes, a female Elf." The lightning of the Thunder Element’s body finally stabilized again, "I just saw one who looked a bit like her, but I don’t know if it was her, have you seen her?"

"Flare, someone’s looking for you." Pannis shrugged at the knight girl, making a face that caused the girl to glare at him, then turned back and lifted the tent flap, saying, "Come in first, Mr. Thunder Element, I guess she is the Elf you’re looking for."

"Undead! Crackle, crackle, crackle." The Thunder Element didn’t enter the temporary shelter, and as soon as Pannis lifted the tent flap, the lightning on his body began to dance violently, readying an aggressive posture at any moment.