Chereads / Arcanum / Chapter 25 - Black Clouds

Chapter 25 - Black Clouds

Exiting the bank, we were instantaneously met with large packs of panic crowds with a cacophony of bells ringing in the distance. "What's going on I yelled at Daisy and Jay in a panic trying to shout over the panicking civilians.

"This isn't good.... "I heard Jay say.

"The city is under attack!" Daisy yelled at us.

"SHIT, let's get back to the market and meet up with the rest of the school." Jay said grabbing my hand and began running, Daisy following closely.

"We ran for about a straight 5 mins till we arrived back at the meeting point, leaving me immensely out of breathe, the Deputy Head mistress standing on a table keeping an eye out for students of Arcadia.

"Don't panic Children!" I can hear her shout in the distance.

Arriving at the school group, just about all the students are confused why the city is in panic and why the bells are suddenly ringing.

"Prefect take the children to the portal! And guard them at all costs!... I'll wait for some stragglers." The Deputy Head shouted her orders.

The prefects quickly formed up around us, "Follow me quickly!" The unarmed girl ordered, and everyone began briskly walking towards the location we first arrived from.

In the distance I see soldiers also mobilizing moving the same direction we was. Looking into the sky there was a dense black cloud in the distance, our group walking directly towards them.

"Get the Balistas ready! Archers Mobilize on the walls" I heard the captain shout orders while running with a group of soldiers.

Everything seem to has descended to chaos, looking up the dense black cloud was getting larger and larger in a very quickly.

"We better get ready for a battle...." One of the prefects shouted.

"Yup they are getting closer at an alarming rate." The lead one yelled back..... "Be ready if anything comes to close" The lead prefect ordered..... "Contact Arcadia get the portal opened it's gonna get HOT" She yelled, beginning to walk faster.

I slowly fell further and further behind already being out of breath, looking into the sky the dense black cloud now looked like an unfathomable number of winged creatures.

The sounds of inaudible shouting could be heard in the distance, as a Hail of arrows and large bolts flew into the cloud of flying creatures, sending several plummeting into the ground, but not making a visual difference to the black swarm of creatures.

"We aren't gonna make it....." A prefect shouted from behind me.

"FUCK we aren't, we just gonna have to fight." She yelled, "Every one stop and stay behind us!" She ordered us as the prefects took a formation around us in a circle.

"You think it's too many?" One of the yelled.

"Nah we've handled worse situations" another screamed.

The black creatures now close enough to see, were a dense cloud of dragon. A portion splitting off from the group dive bombing into the distance, followed by loud screams and shouting.

Several came screaming down towards us a large number still flying over us deeper into the city. "INCOMING!!!!!" a prefect yelled, all the students began crouching down in fear.

Eight dragons began plummeting down towards us their giant claws coming down directly towards us. Several beams of lights and arrows began screaming towards the dragons trying to connect with them. Two were shot down mid-air causing a loud deafening scream before plummeting and crashing into nearby buildings.

The other six stopped their dive and swerved off landing near us with several huge earth shaking thuds.

"Finally I can get some action." The leader screamed as she dove into one with immense speed, pummeling it with a flurry of kicks and punches while dodging its claws, tail swipes and bites.

I felt almost sick in fear, the overwhelming number of dragons swarming the city, the sounds of screaming and crying in directions. "GET DOWN!" I heard a faint voice from my side. My brain unable to comprehend the order, as I see one dragon begin to dive straight towards me claws first.

I felt something pull me from behind forcing me to fall backwards, and some inaudible shouting as a tornado manifested from beside me causing the dragon to back off. "If you don't want to be Wvyren food you better stay down!" A familiar voice shouted as Calista came into view and started firing small bolts of fire at the hovering dragon.

Looking around the Prefects were all engaged in combats with the six over Wyverns, one of them collapsing after being nailed with several beams of lights and a rain of arrows, letting out a deafening scream in the process.

Several additional dragons began breaking off from the swarm and began dive bombing towards all of us. The students began to scream in horror not knowing what to do, large balls of fire came screaming from a distance behind me directly hitting the dragons making them let out a large scream before plummeting towards the ground in the distance.

Turning around it was the Deputy Head and a few more students running towards us. "I told you to get to the portal" she screamed letting out more large balls of fire from her wand.

"We wasn't going to make it!" the prefects yelled back slaying some of their dragons and began moving onto the next.

The Deputy Head took a look at all of us, shaking in fear and crying in terror, "WE GONNA START MOVING TO THE PORTAL!" STAY CLOSE!" as she began leading the way to the portal location still letting off spells from her wand.

Recuperating myself, I looked at Jay and daisy..... "Should we try to help?" I shouted to them. Also seeing Calista helping fight the dragons.

"Fk it let's go!" I heard Jay shout back. Breaking off from the group pulling out his wand and throwing the box to the side letting out small bolts of fire from his wand hitting a nearby dragon.

Daisy began focusing as her two large spiritual weapons manifested themselves in the air this time a bow and a shield, and began shooting at another nearby Wyverns and help blocking incoming attacks.

Pulling out my treant wand. I began feeling immense amounts of energy course through me. "How do I cast I yelled to Jay?"

"TRY ICIO-IGNA!" He yelled back at me.

"ICIO-IGNA!" I yelled pointing my wand at the dragon, but nothing happened. "ICIO-IGNA!" I yelled again nothing happened again. 'Fk I am so useless!....'

"One more time" I heard a familiar voice behind me as a hand gripped my wrist, "This time imagine a Fireball and FOCUS!" He yelled.

Closing my eyes to focus "ICIO-IGNA!" I yelled, a strong heat manifested near my hand as a force pushed me back a little, opening my eyes I saw the charred impact of a fireball on a nearby wall.

"Next time keep your eyes open, how you are meant to aim with your eyes closed." He chuckled releasing my wrists and walking in front of me.

Suddenly the sky went dark as a humongous dark clouds manifested blanketing the city, the figure in front of me letting off sparks of electricity like Tesla Coil. With out stretched arms I felt a large release of energy, suddenly the large black cloud began unleashing an unnatural number of lightning bolts in quick succession the crackling sounds of over a hundred thunderous blasts echoing throughout the city from all directions. The nearby lightning strikes almost blinding me forced me to look away shielding myself from the light. The spectacle both awe-inspiring and terrifying, I screamed out in panic crouching down hoping nothing hits me.

As the sounds of lightning subsided and light began piercing through the black cloud, I was brave enough to open my eyes, there stood Paul holding his hand to help me up. "Sorry I got here a little late, it took some time for word to get to me." He smiled.

Happy to see him I accepted his help pulling me up, looking into the sky I can see the Wyvern flying away. "What in the world was that?" I asked him still a little shocked.

"That was called Thunderstorm, it's a very high level spell so it will take you some time before you can even begin to think about casting it." He answered me smiling.

He began pulling books out from within his trench coat allowing them to fly away, one heading to nearby prefects and began opening itself releasing a golden spell seemingly healing them of their cuts and wounds. "Are you hurt?" He said quietly looking directly into my eyes.

"I think I'm okay...." I said mesmerized by his smile.

"Thank you for the assist." The Deputy Head thanked him walking towards us.

"No problems, sorry it took me so long, I wasn't nearby so it took some time for word to get to me." He turned around still smiling.

"At least you got here to help." She said, before going back to the other students making sure everyone was accounted for.

"Make sure you keep your eyes open next time, how do you expect to hit your target with your eyes slammed shut." he joked flicking my head in the process.

"Are you gonna stay for a little?...." I asked quietly?

"Huh?..... Ohhh yeah I should be staying for a little longer, I need my books to come back once they have tended to the critically injured." He replied.

"Hey Emilia! Did you just see what....-" Jay shouted but stopped when he recognized it was Paul in front of me.

I looked at Jay gesturing him to come, and started to look for daisy.

"Why did those dragons come and attack the city?" I asked him still slightly worried it could happen again.

"Hmm.... It's a little odd... especially with these sort of numbers, wild Wyverns don't normally hunt in numbers that large....." He said looking at them curiously.

"Whats a Wyvern?" I asked curiously finally finding Daisy, who was too afraid or shy to come and talk to Paul.

"Ohhh Wyverns are like lesser dragons except they are a lot weaker, Dragons are almost immune to most forms of magic and their scales are as hard as diamonds, drakes have similar properties but not as durable, Wyverns on the other hand are just dragons but considerably weaker." He answered me.

I began gesturing Daisy to come over. "Hello Mr Paul." I heard Jay nervously greet Paul.

"Hey..... I'm sorry I don't know your name....." He turned looking at Jay.

"Ummmm..... My name is Jay, Sir...." He answered him.

"No need for the sir, just call me Paul" He smiled holding his hand out for a hand shake.

Jay quickly shook his hand, "It's such an honour to finally meet you" Jay said shaking his hand full of excitement.

"No need to be honoured, I'm just a student and sorcerer just like you, by the way thank you for helping defend the other students" He smiled.

"Ummm.... Hi Paul..." Daisy said extremely quietly behind him.

Turning around looking slightly confused, "Ohhhh hey Daisy! long-time no see!" he said surprised to see her.

Daisy lit up with a huge smile, "You remember me?!" she said loudly.

"Of course! I see you've been doing well!" He said giving her a big hug.

"Yeah I have! I really wanted to meet you... when I arrived" she said hugging him back.

"It's good to see you again after so long! So what have you chosen to pursue?" He said letting her go.

"I've chosen to become a Cleric! That way I can help people like the way you helped me." She replied to him.

"That's so awesome! It really is great to see you doing well! Remember to always keep training, there's no shortcuts to become strong!" He said to her.

"Hey! Paul!" I heard a familiar voice call out to him.

Turning around recognizing her, it was Calista walking slowly towards us, "Hey Calista you doing well?!" He replied to her.

"Yeah..... I'm good! Did you see me in action?!" she said reaching him.

"Yeah I did, it was very brave of you joining a fight as a first year well done!" He smiled.

"It was nothing...." She said but stopped as suddenly began to collapse towards him.

He quickly dove to catch before he hit the floor, "Silly girl you over extended yourself....." He said, as one of his hands began to glow golden and placed it on the top of her chest.

After a few seconds she slowly began waking up...."Huh? What happened?" she said groggily.

"You over extended yourself... you need to rest." He answered her.

He looked up at a nearby prefect to come assist him, while that happened she turned to me sticking her tongue out at me, 'OMG did she really just fake that?! How petty...' She quickly returned to acting as Paul explain to the prefect to take her back to the infirmary, as he carefully helped her stand up passing her to the prefect took and began slowly walking to the portal back to school.

Slowly his spell books began returning to him one by one, putting them back into his coat. "Well that's me done... I need to return to what I was doing before." He said giving me a wink before exiting a red portal he made in front of him. "Ohhhh and it was nice to see and meet you all" He said sticking his head back through and quickly returning back into the portal closing behind him.

Daisy still smiling finally meeting Paul, and Jay waving in awe after getting the chance to meet and talk to Paul. "You guys okay?" I asked them....