An explosion shook the carriage, blowing debris and splinters of wood everywhere while all the volatile magic woven into the walls only exacerbated the damage. The otherwise compressed space inside the structure stayed stable due to the extensive inscriptions, however when the inscriptions got damaged…
The space within the confines of the carriage first implodes, pulling everything to the compression core as it collapses before expanding and pushing matter outwards with violent force.
One would ask ‘Why build something this dangerous?’ Well, for comfort obviously, and because nobody is stupid enough to attack an Academy-sanctioned carriage conducting official business. Almost nobody. This political deterrent is what made the current situation so unexpected, an unforeseen complication to an otherwise peaceful ride. Just time to laze off, to enjoy some time without duties.
Bennett has lowered his guard, having grown complacent throughout his years as an instructor, instead of the tension on the battlefields. He has heard of space inscription collapses before but never experienced one himself, the party trick being a bit too costly.
After hitting the ground in a practiced fall, Bennett quickly regains his footing, having been lying on his bed and reading a book no man of his position or age should ever hold. His secret passion. Neither his armor nor sword is at hand, scattered beneath the debris similar in size to that of a bigger house that was the carriage just moments ago. Yet he needs no such tools as he is the weapon.
A quick glance to assess the situation paints a bleak picture of the upcoming fight. Bellard, his mercenary comrade, is already engaged in combat against one of the academy personnel, while the other pompous bastard just blinks around like a newborn goa, surrounded by destruction.
Nobody from the available officers off duty volunteered to come along, to be the delegation for the trip so they made a bet, leaving the decision in Luxandra’s hands. Fortune was cruel towards the two of them. Bennett trusts his companion's decision as they’ve served together before and prepares to step in or stop the other mage if he so much as thinks of interfering. The bigger threat right now is the three additional cloaked figures approaching from the south, their objective unknown and their strength…
[Rogue lvl 550]
[Ranger lvl 820]
[Warrior lvl 710]
Considerable, especially that Ranger. The open terrain and numbers both favor the enemy, to not even mention the deadweight they need to protect leaving no tactic truly advantageous.
Talking about children, Bennett can see August and Hugo slowly climbing out from beneath the rubble, while Victor is already on his feet, searching for the others.
Only three? Fuck, there are potentially five enemies and three missing children. The situation is impossible.
Bennett grabs some iron from the crumpled shell of the once majestic ride which molds into a longsword and bracers under the influence of his Skill, the most he can do before the clash with the cloaked speedster approaching. The attacker doesn’t draw any weapons and just runs head-first towards him while the Ranger in the distance draws his bow with an arrow of pure darkness forming on the string.
A coordinated attack?
Out of the two opponents, he’s more wary of the archer, the almost 100 levels making a huge difference. Bennett moves forward to meet the rogue head-on and hopefully obstruct the ranger's line of sight, using its own ally as cover. Just as he's about to deliver the first slash the opponent punches his way, releasing a bolt of lightning with terrible aim.
Bennett easily dodges the attack, the motion being too obvious from the start, however, his own retaliatory slash also misses its mark. The cloaked figure fast approaching just a second ago gets sucked into his own attack and appears where the lightning strikes, near the backlines.
Fuck, a movement Skill. Bennett curses in his mind, finding himself in a tough spot.
The goal of the attackers also becomes obvious pretty fucking fast. The kids. Before any of the children can even comprehend what’s happening around them the rogue already has his hand on Victor's shoulder in an iron grip, reaching for his other targets.
The momentary lapse in attention almost costs Bennett his life, the realization about his cover just disappearing and the Ranger having a clear line of sight flashing through his mind at the last second. Bennett falls backward on instinct, using his metal sword to drag him backward and accelerate his fall, not doubting his judgment even for a second. Hesitation can cost one dearly in lethal combat.
The arrow swooshes past right in front of his eyes, the projectile silent and deadly, not even disturbing the air around it yet its presence promising destruction. It cuts through trees like hot piss through snow, proving that the shit they found themselves in is indeed deep. Using the metal under his command to regain his footing, Bennett prepares to either assault his remaining two opponents or cut the Rogue down if he were to try and escape with any of the kids.
The Warrior is holding his position between Bennett and the archer, forcing the difficult choice onto him to either close the distance and leave the kids behind or become a living shooting practice.
Thankfully the noble idiot gaping his mouth until now makes the right decision and joins the fight on the correct side. He might be a pompous idiot but the situation is clear, the sides are clear and the orders he received from his chancellor are clear. Make sure the students arrive at Sereban in one piece. Looking at the mage’s face one would also notice signs of fury raging in his eyes, aimed towards the one he believed to be his colleague, a fellow noble mage, less than a minute ago.
He and Bellard converge on the turncoat academy mage who traveled with them while Bennett focuses on defense and throws himself at the enemy Rogue trying to snatch the kids. The two-versus-one is quickly concluded after the legs of the enemy get frozen solid in a surprise attack and Bellard takes his life in one fell swoop.
One enemy down leaves them in an equal matchup of three against three. Then there are the kids, the actual objectives of the attackers. Bennett believed the factions might’ve given up on capturing the four Blessed under their care after years and plenty of failed attempts, but he was proven wrong. Objectively speaking, this is the perfect opportunity. All four of them together, outside the Fort, without any reinforcements.
August and Hugo managed to dig themselves out, August arming himself and observing the situation while the good-hearted Hugo immediately dives into searching for the girls alongside Victor. Some animals emerge from the nearby forest, seemingly in distress, and start assisting the boys, digging up the debris in a certain spot.
Yeah… the girls’ room was closest to the center and this must be Kayla’s doing.
Bellard appears next to Victor and the kidnapping Rogue straight after he’s finished with his previous business, jumping out of the shadows like steep water to reduce the number of enemies even further. The ensuing melee between the two rapidly moving cavalcade of blades makes the remaining academy Mage unable to interfere, deciding to help out Bennett instead.
This seems fine, if we can just drive them back and reach the next bigger city we'll be safe. We just have to take out the Ranger.
That might not be as easy as it sounds. The Warrior is of little concern but the arrows flying their way can kill in seconds.
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Hopefully, they don’t resort to their usual tactic of ‘If I can’t have it, nobody can.’’
----------------------------------------
The last thing I remember was being lifted into the air, pulled by some invisible force smooshing me into the wardrobe before tossing me away like a violent sneeze. Not just me, the walls, the furniture, the girls… everything.
Right now everything is dark with only a few rays of light reflecting on the flying dust while the sound of explosions and combat is resounding from outside. I can only move my right arm freely as something is pressing down on the rest of my body with seemingly unmovable force and my head hurts like hell with something flowing down my forehead.
Shit… Okay, okay. Let’s assess our situation, I can’t really move and there’s obviously fighting outside, duh, so getting out might not be any safer than being beneath some collapsing rubble acting as a shield or my soon-to-be coffin if I’m unlucky.
I strain a bit against the wooden planks holding me down but the only effect is further creaking and dust falling into my eyes.
So trying the warrior solution won’t be the answer… It was worth giving it a try before picking the mage route. The idea is bold yet not impossible.
I close my eyes and hold my breath to mitigate the pressure, and then… BLAST.
Using as much air as my increased yet still ant-like stats can manage I create a blast of wind that pushes the clutter around me into the air just long enough for me to crouch and erect a few pillars of earth around me like a little roof.
It holds against the returning mass, shakily but it holds. I continue to push the pillars upwards like a wedge making a path and when it reaches a height where I can stand uninhibited I tilt each pillar outwards like an opening flower, revealing my way out.
As simple as that, a bit risky but surely worth some style points.
I peek outside and the sight that welcomes me really makes me question whether coming out was a good idea or not. My immediate vicinity is filled with some more debris, which is still fine, on the other hand further out there's a pyre, a small sun, a thunderstorm and many other local natural disasters raging all at the same time making me question my capabilities as a… anything.
“Finally decided to show yourself?” Victor calls out to me.
He seems to be in pretty good condition along with August and Hugo with just a few bruises and plenty of dirt showing they were even in the same carriage when the weird stuff happened. I feel dizzy and have some blood trickling down my face but besides a few little aches, I haven’t suffered any injuries serious either.
“If you’re finished marveling at our approaching death then get your ass over here and help us get the girls out!” Victor yells and he doesn’t have to tell me twice.
I have absolutely no intentions of getting any closer to that fight, painting a picture of the apocalypse, than I am right now. I’m okay with fighting as long as I don’t get hurt and I still usually do, but not because I have any weird tendencies and I certainly don’t have a deathwish.
My genius isn’t even needed to locate Kayla, at least not with the animals frantically stomping around in a certain area, probably worsening the situation. Currently, the only one doing actual work is Hugo as the other two lack the Might to do anything while the beasts just lack thumbs in general.
“C’mon Eli, hurry we have to get Kayla out!” Victor yells again with panic in his voice.
The only reason I’m hesitant is because of the possibility of everything collapsing onto the poor girl and squashing her like it almost happened to me. I could try to stabilize everything if only I knew where she might be more accurately.
“Eli, can you locate her?” The question comes from August.
I activate Mana Vision but the parts of the carriage are still filled with mana even after being torn apart. I shake my head, there’s too much interference.
“There.” Victor points out. “That’s the most likely spot.” So a strong guess, huh? Or the best odds?
“Good enough. Eli, make a Kayla-sized hole right there in the ground around an arm deep, try to build supports around the legs and arms.”
Since when can August order me around? Even through defiance, I realize his simple yet genius plan. If she’s below ground level, then there isn’t much that can fall onto her and so we don’t have to be gentle.
I do as he said, not because he ordered me to but because it's the fastest way and I have enough conscience not to start an argument right now. It’s a lot harder to control the earth when I can’t even see it, much less be in contact with it, still, I think I do what I’m supposed to. After all, I can't check the results, can I?
I signal with a nod and the boys go ham, pushing kicking, and throwing everything away to rescue Kayla. The animals called to her side have cleared the way for us, letting us do our job and save the friend of nature.
We do a quick work on the pile, letting us catch a glimpse of some green hair and a lot of blood. My heart contorts at the idea of Kayla ending up like this… as we get deeper her face gets revealed, pained but still breathing. As we uncover her torso there’s still no sign of injury on her body until a third arm is revealed… the source of the pool of blood.
There’s only one more person. We dig in utter panic, realizing our mistake.
We’re late, far too late. The previous relief after seeing Kayla breathing just fine turns into crushing guilt.
“W-we… we killed her.” I mutter weakly, tears running down my face. “I fucked up, the collapsing rubble crushed her. She was left out of the ditch. I…” I get slapped hard, real hard.
When I look up I see Victor’s teary but resolute eyes. His mouth is trembling as he bites his lips so strongly that blood trickles down his mouth.
“Get yourself together! We fucked up. She died, you can have your self-pity AFTER we are safe, all of us. Nobody else dies so don’t you dare pull us down right now! Let’s get her out!”
His words wake me up from the world of sorrow for a second only for a spark of hope to light inside me.
“Wait, what if she’s still…” I start only for the System to provide the answer.
[Your group has triumphed over the enemy [Torch Carrier - Fire lvl. 59].]
I almost collapse at the cold hard truth. We killed her, our carelessness killed her, a friend of ours. I’m also somehow relieved to not have to see her mangled, crushed body anymore as there’s no need to make sure whether or not she’s alive, the desperate arm searching for a way out being the only thing visible.
My expression probably mirrors that of Victor’s, a storm of emotions, none of them positive. I don’t want the others to end up like her, there’s no more room for errors. We manage to free the unconscious Kayla, the duty of carrying her obviously falling onto Hugo and the worst is yet to come.
The sound of fighting has been getting closer and closer as we made our rescue, except even that’s somehow drowned out right now. I haven’t been that close to her, we were closer to colleagues than friends yet the guilt is still crushing. It’s not the same as it was with William, that was the outcome of my own decision, this time it was mostly bad luck and still…
“Kids, to the forest, run!” Someone shouts at us.
None of us, except for August, has the mental strength left to process the words amidst the fear and guilt swirling inside us. “Snap out of it damn it! I don’t want to die or worse so move those fucking legs or I’ll leave you all behind!”
Not the best choice of words but it gets the job done. We’ve been taught that if an officer says jump, you jump, he likely knows better even if its into a well.
I glance back, already falling behind a bit, and see why the call for a retreat was made. Bennett is slowly being pushed back by an archer shooting what seems to be rays of darkness, the kind of shadows that make even the darkest night look like noon. If the archer wasn’t enough, a warrior is following his every move closely, not giving him a moment of respite.
The old fuck is lightly wounded, with a few scrapes and cuts, but nothing too serious, he’ll be fine. Not far from him Bratty Mage 1 is playing cat and mouse with a cloaked figure, the rogue teleporting around in a shower of sparks while the mage blasts everything to his heart's content. Since Steve and the other mage dude are nowhere to be seen it’s easy to deduce that they’re both dead and the two versus three isn’t developing in our favor.
Soon we break the treeline and just continue running without any further instructions needed to get as far away from whatever is happening behind us as possible. Using the trees as cover would be foolish because they could hardly stop mom, let alone people putting Bennett on the back foot so shaking them off using the underbrush and uneven terrain must be the plan. We have to put distance between us if that’s the case.
The sound of fighting lessens the deeper we get yet the distance doesn’t seem to increase, quite the opposite.
By now, having calmed a little, my mind puts the childish puzzle of what’s happening right now together. They are here for us, the same shit just because of the Blessing repeating itself again.
The sound of something approaching grips me with fear, only for the mage to fly next to us, bleeding badly yet without his previous opponent. “Listen well plebs, we’ll circle back around through the forest to the settlement we left before the attack!” He yells between ragged breaths. “Head in that direction,” He points to the right. “straight so we can catch up once we've dealt with these bastards.” He swirls back to the not-so-distant sound of tens of trees being cut at the same time and flies away in a burst of flames.
I wanna fly too, that’s hella cool.
After running for minutes that felt like hours in the general direction we were supposed to, the sound of combat grows distant and is overtaken by something equally as loud. With a nervous heart, we reach the source of the rumbling in the form of a raging river cutting across the land before tumbling down a cliff in such quantities as if someone was throwing Karon Fort down there every second into what seems like a certain death.
I truly despise nature.