Chapter 16: Chapter XVI - The Ambushed Pt. II
A shudder travels down my spine, the humanoid's eerie aura giving me the chills.
"Mizuku! You-"
Both Minuet and I turn to the voice-
"Ari?"Minuet asked.
"Ari!"Another voice called out from behind her, and two figures ski up, one female, one male, both bearing the academy crest on their chests. Their figures heaving for breath, anxiously glancing over their shoulder every few seconds as if waiting for somebody, something- to pop up behind them out of nowhere.
The male starts to say, "We found them, but-!"
"-What is the new student doing here, Mizuku?" Ari cuts in, whirling on the president, "This is no mission for...for her to be in! Especially someone who just joined." She glances at me, lips turning in a frown, with such distaste I would've thought I did something to severely wrong her.
"No other way to learn to fight in a battle, than being on the battlefield itself," Minuet replies coolly. "...You of all people should understand, no one knows it better than you, Moon."
Ari seemed to be unable to come up with a good retort, glancing dagger towards me. "Don't do anything idiotic, Half-blood," She said, her voice filled to the brim with pure hostility, "The enemy ahead is a dangerous one, don't get killed too easily now."
My eyebrow twitches at the mention of my heritage. She starts to turn away before I lunge at her without thinking, gripping her shoulder and making her look me in the face.
"What is the problem with you?!" I demanded, my temper getting the best of me as I angrily push her backward, "What did I, my brother, and my background have ever done to you? You treat us like your enemies-!"
"Because you are an enemy to humanity." She said just under her breath, almost mouthing the words to me. Her gaze unflinching, she says, "You're just proving you are as destructive as your blood, Demon."
My eyes widen in shock, my anger rising again, I throw my fist towards her face, any chance at a peaceful compromise flying out the window.
"You little-!"
"Stop!"
I stop mid-lunge, my punch just inches away from its target.
"This is not the time and place you two," Minuet said calmly, her voice strained but commanding, "Get a hold of yourself Uishi. Moon, please be mindful of our new students. We have a mission to complete."
Both of us reach a silent reluctant agreement, neither of us happy about the circumstances.
The other two students behind Ari look at each other uneasily, as the exchange edges into a tense silence.
"Uh...Ari?" The guy started to say again.
"What is it, James? Have you found them?" Ari said, rubbing one of her temples, clearly irritated.
James nods, his tone careful "I was going to say two minutes ago- We found them- but fallen in a ditch, and badly injured."
"Let's hurry then, lead us there," returned Ari.
But before we can move more than just a few feet, the snow in front of us explodes upward- A crab-like monster snaps its fangs, hissing in menace.
More monsters burrow out of the ground, surrounding us.
Ari curses, "Damn it...Evelyn!"
The female arrival brandishes two battle axes, grinning, "Charmed. You monsters really know how to make yourself such a nuisance. I will take care of your pitiful lives as quickly and painless as possible."
In a flash, she throws one of her axes, which plants itself into one of the monster's heads, instantly disintegrating it. Evelyn uses the other ax, and in the blink of an eye, beheading all of the other monsters, laying them wasted in the snow, falling to dust.
James lifts a hand to his chest, mocking surprise, "Seriously Evelyn? You didn't even leave one for me?"
The metal grinding noise screeches in the air from the humanoid, and the darkness seems to thicken, choking the sky. The presence of the monsters seems to grow more restless by the minute.
"Hurry! Let's get to the rest of the team first- their safety is our priority!" Ari said urgently, glancing briefly towards the trees.
James and Evelyn nod, quickly taking on their skis and taking off down the shallow slope.
The rest of us follow along on foot, glancing at our backs every few seconds at the monsters visibly lurking in the trees.
The two skid to stop next to a large boulder, leading us to a large ditch behind it.
James leans over, shouting "Hey! You guys still alive in there?"
"James? Evelyn?"
"Hunter, Julian!" Ari glances down the ditch, where two badly battered guys were trapped inside neither tall enough nor in a state to climb out of the hole by themselves.
One of them a blond guy, his green eyes narrowing in pain, held his arm gingerly, wincing as he stood up onto his feet, "Ari! Goodness, things went downhill as soon as you left."
"Julian- You should rest," A young man, equally battered as his companion, with eyes of a stormy gray and framed by dark windswept hair, catches him by the shoulders as he stumbled, surprisingly to seem to be no worse for wear compared to Julian despite his state.
Both of their clothes in tatters, a few dozen cuts and wounds, they look like they went through a tornado and then fought a crazed bear, coming out scraped and bruised but alive.
Ari sighs in desperation, "Looks like you got yourself into quite an ordeal this time Julian."
He laughs, before it quickly turns into a cough, "Haha...but we'll make it out, like always. Our reliable leader is here now after all."
Ari shakes her head, fond exasperation in her expression.
A flock of birds flies up from the trees, their cries heard as they fly over our heads, away from here.
"The spirit-" Julian said.
"Spirit?" Ari asked.
Julian nods, face serious, "Can you see it too? The humanoid spirit."
Both James and Evelyn look towards the forest, squinting.
"All I see is some Corrupted- are you telling me there's some other creature in there?" James asked.
"Some can see them, some can't," Ari said.
"So, you can Ari?" Evelyn said.
Ari doesn't answer, instead fixing her gaze in the trees- at the humanoid.
"Vison..." Minuet mumbled quietly, also looking in the same direction.
A vision, a rare ability that high potential magic users are sometimes born with. Those that possess a vision can see past natural illusions, granting them the power to see those that many can't. Let it be apparitions, magical energy, and even a demon's true form.
In this case...it appears some of us here have the ability.
The shadows in the air seem to become even denser, almost thick enough to call a fog at this point.
"Is it just me, or is it getting harder to see?" James said, "Anyone else feels light-headed?"
Everyone glances at each other.
"Try not to breathe too deeply everyone. This smoke," Minuet said, covering her nose and mouth with her cloak, "It's not normal."
Ari's eyes flash, "It must that monster emitting all the shadow- we need to exterminate it."
"Quickly," Hunter said, "It's...preparing."
"Evelyn, take care of these two! Everyone else, come with me." Ari shouted, drawing a sword from her belt, dashing towards the trees.
James follows closely behind her, his own sword in his hand.
Minuet looks to me, expression grim, "...This is unexpectedly more than I anticipated, be careful." She too takes off, running into battle.
I shift the sheath and sword in my hand, glancing at the humanoid.
It looked back- its human feature uncanny, its strange grin macabre as it stared back at me with its chilling gaze.
As the others start to approach its figure, monsters appeared out of nowhere in their path, hissing, and growling, ready to fight.
Immediately sounds of blades against fang and claw can be heard, the roars of the monsters as they disintegrated to nothing. A new wave of monsters appears in the place of the last, seemingly even more.
Backing into a closed circle, they fight viciously, but more monsters always take another that had fallen.
I take down the few that come down here, hunting for the vulnerable targets. I leave the place for Evelyn to guard, who was more than happy to take them down.
"Is this all you got? I fought dummies that lasted longer than you guys!" And then the sound of a blade cutting flesh and crushing bone-
I would say the battlefields her spotlight.
The group made no progress moving towards the humanoid spirit, kept busy by the monsters pressing in every second.
Two erupt from the ground, showering dirt and snow as I move forward. They roar angrily, lodging at me with their wickedly pointed claws.
I duck, without thinking I draw a vaguely familiar rune in the air, before stabbing the ground with my sword.
"Ice." A voice called in my head.
Almost immediately, the snow on the ground in a small radius bursts upwards, melting before quickly freezing into ice, encasing the monsters in their tracks.
I climb onto one, leaping onto its's head and jumping to another with ease, given their big forms and numbers, making my way towards the humanoid figure.
"What are you doing?!" shouts Ari, holding back a giant bird with her sword from gouging a chunk of her flesh with its massive beak, before plunging her blade down its throat, instantly making it dissipate to a pile of dust. She charges after me as I move overhead, evading monsters and human-eating birds as she pushes her way through.
Clearing the wall of monsters, I pull out a dagger from the side of my boot, readying the blade in my hand.
A sharp blade of shadow grazes my arm, leaving an unpleasant tingling sensation as I try to move towards the humanoid.
Maybe it was a fragment of my imagination but the humanoid laughs, giggling almost like a child playing with some new toys.
With its playful smile wide, it speaks with enough dread for this mission has officially become nightmare fuel.
'Hehe, I wonder how long...you will last...before you...die?'
Then it screamed.
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