[LD-1] 45. First Blood (Patreon)

XLV

First Blood

The ground floor of the temple was a great, domed chamber. Stained glass covered the walls and ceiling. Lightning streaks coursed through the iconography. Great beasts arched through the painted skies, their hides flashing in the wake of the raw elemental power.

On another day, I would’ve appreciated the artistry.

We had gathered in front of the staircase at the other end of the room. It was wide enough for all of us to walk side-by-side and have space left over. It was also covered in a transparent film that kept us from climbing.

09:34

Kiba and I sat against the wall beside the stairs. Well, I was sitting. He’d chosen to lie down.

Shaking my head, I looked out over our party. Some sat with their faces between their legs. Others cried. Everyone prayed.

Rhaast lounged near us with his hands behind his back. He stared at one of the crying girls.

“O’ merciful goddess, please…” she chanted. Her patron was a deity of luck.

“Your gods won’t save you down here, lady,” Rhaast said. His chin was a little askew, giving his face an angle. “Down in the bowels of hell, it’s only your own claws that can heave you out.”

It was not a reprimand. He whispered these words to himself. But his tone made his utterances sound like a law—a universal truth that’d been proven time and time again. There was also…a tinge of sadness to them. He didn’t want to believe in them. But he must. Because even a wretched goblin like him must believe in something.

My fingers dug into my thighs. Would—

“We’ll be alright.”

I turned to the side. Kiba was peeking at me.

“Why are you pretending to be asleep,” I pouted.

“Because you keep worrying,” he snorted.

I sucked on my lips and glanced up the staircase into the shadows waiting to eat us.

How could I possibly?

Kiba stared at me for some heartbeats longer before he rolled back the other way. “You really don’t need to worry. Worst case…”

I waited, but he didn’t continue.

My head tilted. “Worst case?”

“Never mind,” he grunted. “Just stop worrying. We’ll make it through this. There’s no way we’ll fail after coming this far.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” I said.

Which only made him shrug. He didn’t speak up again, so we sat in relative silence until Alexa called us into formation a few minutes before the timer passed.

“I hope you two are ready to do the heavy lifting,” the president said. She rubbed the back of her neck and gave Kiba and I an apologetic look.

That’s when I noticed the other students sneaking us worried and hopeful glances.

Unbeknownst, the others had come to see the two of us as the cornerstone of our force. Something that was understandable. Kiba may not be as flashy as I was, but he was always the one keeping the big monsters busy long enough for me to finish them.

I puffed up my chest with confidence I didn’t have.

The president tapped the two of us on the shoulder. She leaned in, then whispered: “Sorry to put this much burden on you.”

Kiba chuckled. “Don’t mind.”

“It’s only fair,” I said.

She’d taken all the responsibility for leading us without complaining a single time—even when others doubted her or tried to make her out to be the villain. Sharing a little in that expectation was the least we could do.

03:22

“Let’s get in formation,” Alexa said.

After we did, the remainder of the chatter died, and nervous silence took its place. The quiet had no room to exist. Mana poured from its holster in the bellies of the damned and pooled beneath the skin. The humming reminded me of a warm summer, the buzzing of a hundred flies trying to get their sustenance before their lives ended within days.

02:48

Far up the staircase, the shadows moved.

“I see something,” someone said.

“Pull back,” Alexa ordered. “Leave some space around the steps.”

We formed a wide circle around the first step. Meanwhile, the figure became increasingly clear as they neared the bottom.

[Imperator - lvl. 28]

‘It’s only one guardian.’

Aila had made it sound as if we’d be fighting a pack of them. But the single guardian, a being of metallic skin and humongous proportions, stared us down all by its lonesome.

“What is that thing?” Emily whispered.

Kil stirred.

“That’s an ogre,” Rhaast said before my summon could.

We turned to him, Kil glaring at the goblin.

“Ogre?” I said.

Rhaast nodded. “Though he also seems to have some Qirin blood in him. The colour of the skin is a giveaway.”

By now, I’d let the others in on what kind of entity Aila was, so the reveal of the ogre being part Qirin didn’t surprise anyone.

Still, our posture slumped.

“Do you know what’s up with that stump?” Kiba whispered.

He gripped his biceps as he stared the beast down.

Rhaast peered at the bandages. “Ogres can have a second head. It’s a rare condition. One their kind considers an omen of good fortune as it gives them intelligence on par with the other races.”

My gaze narrowed, too. The bandaging had been shoddily done. Pus leaked through the gaps in the cloth. Focusing harder, I could almost see the death radiating from his wound like a disgusting smell.

“It’s dying,” I said.

The infection had spread too far.

“So we can run until the timer runs out?” Riri asked.

A crazy thought—we’d have to horse him around for three hours. But I didn’t blame our plant mage. All kinds of ideas entered the minds of the desperate.

“It’ll take a few days before he dies a natural death,” I said. “Also, if we’re not fast enough…”

Though I wasn’t aware of how Ogram compared to Aila, there must be a realm where he beat her. If he destroyed the core while we hadn’t made it to the safe zone, we’d all die.

Riri’s lips puckered.

“It may not die soon,” Roland said. “But it’s severely weakened.”

Seeing the truth of that statement, some students straightened their backs.

“We’ll use the standard battle plan versus mages,” Alexa cut through any further comments. “Don’t take any chances or underestimate it.”

“Are you sure?” Shota asked. Evans had his hands on his back. “It’s not a regular mage. Its physical stats will be much greater.”

“I’m certain,” Alexa said.

Shota blinked slowly. “I suppose it’s better than nothing.” Then he looked over his shoulder. “Evans, I hope you’re ready. This is what you wanted, right? To be a hero.”

Watching Evans push beyond level fifteen had been…an experience. Blood had leaked from his tear ducts. He was in so much pain he couldn’t cultivate for over ten minutes without catching his breath.

Alexa and Shota had tried to stop him, the latter even using violence, but they could not.

The lanky boy tipped his glasses. In a shaky voice, he said: “Yes.”

Perhaps it was the tremor in his tone, but his words calmed me. From the soft smiles lighting on the others’s faces, I wasn’t the only one.

“Ten seconds,” Alexa warned. “Barriers at the ready!”

I let the wistful and joyous thoughts exit my head.

We’d separated into three rows. One for the frontline and close-range fighters, First and Second Line in the middle, sensitive casters like Emily in the back. It was the best formation against a mage. We’d even made sure not to stand too close together, as there was no telling what type of magic the Imperator used—though lightning was a good bet.

I briefly glanced at Kiba in the front line. His hands sharpened into talons. His back muscles creaked as the power coiled inside his frame.

”We’ll be alright,” his voice repeated in my mind.

The timer reached zero, and the transparent film covering the staircase disintegrated.

Light wove into a network of shields. Our First Line waited with firing until Alexa gave the command.

Except for the barriers, no one cast anything. Not even the ogre.

“Why is it standing still?” a student beside me asked.

The beast wasn’t even looking at us. Was it not planning on fighting? I searched for Rhaast, but the goblin was nowhere to be seen.

Alexa hesitated…for but a second. “First Line, advance. Kiba, charge when you’re in range. Joy, shield him if he needs it.”

Out of all the students, I was the only one who could shape my barrier at a significant distance away from me.

Fur sprouted from Kiba’s arms and covered every inch of skin.

I held onto the energy building in my hands as we closed the distance. If I so much as saw a flash firing at Kiba, I’d block it.

So I believed.

The ogre finally turned towards us once we came within throwing range.

Kiba crouched.

“Second Line,” Alexa yelled. “Fire—”

Two things happened in quick succession.

First, tiles beneath Kiba burst as he took off. The debris assaulted our fire mage. The spell forming atop his staff flickered. However, to the mage‘s’ credit, he didn’t cancel his spell and still fired.

Second, there was a flash in front of me. I ducked at an angle behind Douglas and Char and shaped the bone shield. It’d kill Kiba’s momentum, but that was better than getting hit by whatever was coming.

These sequences of events occurred in a single breath.

Then the explosion hit.

My ears shattered, and an ionised smell shot into my nostrils. Then I soared for a second before slamming into the ground.

‘What the fuck?’

I rolled to a stop and pushed myself up. It was more reflex than anything, for my mind was still in shock.

A sticky sensation made me study my hands.

Something…something was stuck to my skin. Something pink. My gaze turned beside me, where an entirely black silhouette lay in the sand. Their head had exploded. Smoke rose from the neck stump.

The bow in their arms clattered to the floor.

“…rriers!” the end of a voice reached me through the whistling in my ears.

I turned back in front. Crackling blue energy sparked around the tip of the ogre’s staff.

Then another flash lit up the world.