“What do we do?”

The question came from Clara.

And none of them had any answer.

They had all heard about the Shadow Hounds. And Emilio had only seen them once and had not even been allowed to fight them. He had known that the Duke turned teacher was powerful but… to be able to spread his Shadow Hounds like this far away from his position? The level of mastery needed for that. No wonder people thought he would go on to become the youngest Archmaster, surpassing even Archmaster Loren.

“Is there any way we can get to the flag without fighting them?”

Clara stepped forward. “I can try.”

The only indication that she was performing elemental magic was the gust of wind that passed by him as it flew towards the flag. Strangely enough, the Hounds did not react, which he had braced himself for. The reason was clear a moment later.

A portion of a blue barrier flickered into sight as the gust of wind sent by Clara hit it, just inches away from the flag. Barriers were made by a combination of runes and spellcasting and the color blue usually indicated that the barrier was intermediate level. Which meant that they could not break it by brute force without taking a long time or triggering some kind of trap. And they neither had the time nor the knowledge and experience to undo it.

He cursed. “How are we supposed to take it with that barrier in place?”

“We can. Most probably, we will have to reach it physically.”

Emilio turned to the Princess, tilting his head in askance. He did not have to wait long for the answer. “We are supposed to be back within 2 hours, are we not? Then that means the Professor would not set up a barrier that would most definitely take us long enough to diffuse that we would not make it back in time, especially since we would have to fight those Hounds as well. Most probably, the Hounds are the obstacles in our path to get the flag and the barrier is there to prevent us from using mana to do it.”

Emilio exhaled softly. Okay, that made more sense.

“Okay, so what do we do now?”

“Well, at least one of us would have to go to get the flag while the rest of the team distracts the Hounds.”

Evan’s plan was simple but seemed the most effective.

“I’ll go-” Emilio started but was interrupted by the Princess. “I’ll do it.”

“What?” Emilio frowned. “Why would you- Princess, I am clearly the best option to get the flag. I have no mana. I cannot fight them as effectively as you can. But I can sneak behind them and get the flag!”

“Maybe. But you would be slow about it and they can easily spot you.” She crossed her arms. “I, on the other hand, am an earth core. Which means, I can easily go underground and get to the flag the fastest.”

That was true, but - “I can’t fight the Hounds, not effectively at least. They are made of mana and they are only vulnerable to mana-fuelled attacks.”

She rolled her eyes, disdain clear in them. For the first time in a long time, Emilio felt small. Ever since he came here, and even before, he had tried his best to make himself useful. He did not have a core, he did not have mana, but he had his body and his brain and, later, his strange ability and he worked himself to the bone to prove his worth.

But right now, there was nothing he could do, except step back and watch them fight.

The urge to hang his head like he once did when his mother would yell curses at him was strong and it was only his nails digging into his palm that stopped such a reaction.

“Can you be the decoy?”

It was Clara who spoke. He looked up to find her staring at him. They had stood in this position once. When her father had broken off her engagement very publicly. She had stared at him back then too. There had been anger and disgust and mocking in her eyes back then. Now… now, there was … concern. A hesitant kind of concern, but concern nonetheless.

She was giving him a way out.

He exhaled shakily. “What do you mean by decoy?”

“Try to get to the flag. Make them think it’s you who is going for the flag.”

“Alright.” he nodded, trying to suppress the sudden shakiness he had felt. “I can do that.”

Evan clapped. “Alright. That settles it. Clara and I go for the Hounds, You two go for the flag.”

Before he knew it, the two were off with only a nod of acknowledgement from Clara.

He turned to the Princess. “I’ll go first and distract any lingering Hounds.”

He did not wait for her acknowledgement. He was fast, at the very least. His legs carried him around the field, as he tried to get to the flag while the Hounds were distracted, From the corner of his eyes, he could see the crackling of fire from Evan that sometimes grew something fierce, most probably intensified by Clara’s wind.

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He tried to ignore it as he ran towards the flag. He wasn’t subtle about it. Running as fast as he could did take to make some noise. While normal humans would not hear it over the fight taking place at the centre of the plateau, the Hounds were an entirely different matter.

Sure enough, a few feet away from the dias, two Hounds materialized out of nowhere, growling at him. It was poised to attack, body hunched but not moving, clearly waiting for him to move first. He exhaled softly. They were coming at him. Good. He pulled his sword out, ready to do his job as a decoy. Though the most a sword could do was probably dissipate the Hounds for a few moments, that should be enough.

He was about to move when he felt the earth subtly shaking beneath him, which was following by a spine-chilling shriek. He turned around to find the Princess being ripped out of the ground by a tendril of shadow wrapped around her ankle and thrown into the air… in the direction where the plateau ended. All that awaited her was a deep dive into whatever land was below… death.

His breath caught in his throat and his ears went numb. He could barely think of anything except for the fact that Clara and Evan were still fighting the Hounds and would not be able to get to her on time… and neither would he. The familiar hole of desperation grew in his gut and all he could think was he needed to move, to save, to HELP.

And move, he did. Just not himself. The vines that they had fought minutes before shot out of the forest and wrapped themselves around the Princess in the blink of an eye just before she went over the edge and gently brought her back, setting her down behind him. The vines did not move away, however, instead gently swayed in te air right beside him.

Hesitantly, he reached out, placing the tip of his finger on one of them. “Are you here to help?”

Once again, he tried to press his consciousness inside and once again, he was allowed in. This time, finding the core was easier, and once again, he got that feeling of curiosity from that core, along with … the urge to follow. Follow him? How? Why? He did not know if he could ask such questions and even if he did, would he get an answer?

Before he could even try something to that effect, he heard loud thuds and found that Evan and Clara were also thrown back onto the ground, just a few feet away from them. There was no time. He whispered a soft “thank you” to those vines and then ran towards them, the Princess following him.

“Are you guys alright?”

“We’re fine,” Evan grunted as he stood up, followed by Clara.

They paused. And then… “What do we do now?” Clara asked.

He could tell that they were out of ideas.

“They must be able to sense mana,” Emilio said, “otherwise, they would not have been able to catch the Princess.”

“So, you’re telling me we cannot get close to the flag if we use mana?”

It was indeed a hard test. For those who had been raised living and breathing mana… it was certainly a challenge. Emilio himself had a hard time thinking of strategy. He could probably sneak if he was slow and quiet enough and the other three launched massive attacks on the Hounds to distract them for that amount of time. But right now… they did not have that kind of time… and, more importantly, that kind of mana. Their whole journey here had been mana extensive. If only he had some way to quickly send one of them…

Wait….

He turned around to look at the vines still swaying in the air. “I have an idea.”

The three turned to him simultaneously, seeking an explanation.

“If you re thinking of using those vines, it is useless. They have man too so-”

He shook his head and interrupted the rant Clara was building up. “I don’t have the time to explain. Clara, are you okay with being flung into the air again?”

Clara paused in her rant and then nodded reluctantly.

“Alright. Princess, please be ready to make sure she lands softly on the dias.”

He turned to Evan. “You and I are going straight for the flag from different directions. They will come for us and we will need to keep them distracted.”

Evan frowned and stepped forward. “Are you sure about this?”

Emilio gave a small nod. Evan seemed to be reluctant but acquiesced.

He let out a shaky breath. “Alright.”

Turning around, Emilio once again placed the tip of his finger on one of the vines. Finding the core was instant this time and he immediately projected an image of what he wanted to do. A mellow feeling washed over him. Agreement. But not without a sting to his finger. Probably for what he’d had Clara and Evan do before. He accepted it graciously and projected only one thought.

“Help!”

This time, when he withdrew his finger, he kept his mind open and connected to the core. He deliberately tried to keep his mind on that core. Otherwise, he would be drowned in the cacophony of nature. The core kept him grounded, kept those noises out of his head.

He nodded at his companions. More vines appeared and wrapped around the waist of the Princess.

“Now!” He yelled at Evan.

To his credit, Evan started running immediately. Emilio ran from the other direction, the vines following him. He pulled out his sword while sending the instruction to throw Clara towards the dias. The loud gasp he heard was enough for him to know that his instructions had been followed. But he had no time to look.

He pounced on the Hounds coming at him, years of training with the taskmaster that was Captain Killian was what helped him keep up with the attacks from the different directly. Almost instinctively, he sent instruction after instruction to the core on which Hound to target, which Hound to stab through, which Hound to wrap around. It was all a blur, his single-minded determination to keep them as busy as possible was what kept him going, even as he felt himself getting dizzy and his vision getting blurry.

It was just as one of the Hounds got dangerously close to him that they seemed to go still and then dissolve into thin air.

He looked up, towards the dias, and saw Clara holding the flag, spikes raised around her.

She must have used those to fight off the Hounds, he thought absently as he felt something wet sliding down from his nose to his lips. He wreaked up and touched the place, before pulling his hand away to look at it.

Blood.

That was the last thought in his mind before his vision began darkening rapidly. His mind descended into oblivion before he hit the ground.