When you're about to die, do you really see your life flashing before your eyes, every scene from every memory, every choice, regrets, fulfillment and happy moment you've ever experienced. I didn't see mine, I wanted to, but I couldn't, my entire mind was blank, and all I could see was a massive pair of jaws, covered with rows upon rows of sparkling metal fangs, closing down on me. It was death indeed, and it was coming in a rather painful way. But I couldn't muster up even a thought, much less a complete HD flashback of the entirety of my two lives, everything was just blank as the darkness crept closer.
And then just before my funeral bells would begin ringing, a transparent ball of darkness surrounded my frame, and the rat brought its jaws together.
"BANG!"
The sound of the mother rats teeth's smashing against the surface of this barrier was deafening, the entire surface of the barrier ripples as cracks appeared on it. I turned my head left and saw Teluna with his hands raised up, and a serious amount of blood dripping from his nose, he was standing not more than twenty meters away. Whatever this technique was, it wouldn't last long, and I know it was causing a massive strain on Teluna.
The rat was still falling from the open entrance at the side of the tower, it was falling head first, but the problem with that was that my black transparent barrier was sticking halfway out of her mouth. I needed to find a way to get out of here, but with the amount of cracks that appeared on the surface of the barrier each time the rat chewed, I doubted it would still be intact before we hit the ground.
As soon as I had jumped, my soul energy had dispersed back into it's uncluttered and gaseous form, however it was still close by, and using the same method in which I had turned it into a pair of fists, I condensed and packed the soul energy around the barrier, condensing layer upon layer of the gas upon each other.
It was causing me quite a bit of strain as this was beyond and unlike anything I have ever tried before. The barrier stopped receiving cracks, as the soul energy coating now served as a deterrence to the rat's teeth. However my soul energy was now blocking my sight, and I couldn't see but could only feel as our fall began to speed up, until....
"BOOOOM!"
The fall was like a meteor falling towards the earth, and the impact was just as hard. I had to recalculate how high that entrance was from the ground, as it seems to be above two hundred feet, and more like three hundred or four.
The impact dislodged Teluna's barrier from the jaws of the rat, as she was stunned enough from the fall that her attention was displaced. And that was just as good, because as soon as the barrier bounced twice after exiting the giant rat's jaws, it burst like a bubble and I was left exposed. About two dozen meters away, I could see Teluna cough out blood as he passed out from the strain of creating the barrier.
Since he came out first, he would have had enough time to prepare for the rat's arrival, which was why Magellan, Gus and Kodak were not out yet. But therein lays the danger, Teluna has passed out, and it seems the stupid rat behind me was coming around. I had no time to think or wonder what would happen, I shot towards Teluna. I could feel the wind whoosh past my face as it took me just 3 seconds to cross the 20 plus meter distance that separated the two of us. I picked him up as gently as I could, hoping his injuries whatever they were, would not be aggravated any more than necessary, and also afraid that he was not dead,....well deader than usual, and hopefully his healing kicks in on time to prevent him from truly being dead.
I was about to make a beeline for the blue district barrier, when I heard a sound that sounded like two metal pans, rubbing against each other. I knew I should have just kept running, but it would have been stupid to not have paid attention to a sound like that, especially when it represented danger.
I turned around just in time to see the giant rat opening its jaws as all of the metal spikes on it's body began to quiver and vibrate intensely. The grating sound I just heard was cause by their movements, and then a massive rune circle?, no wait that's different. It was a massive silver spell circle, and it sprung up into existence over the open jaws of the metal rat, glowing and pulsing more intensely by the second. I couldn't help but say.
"Well that can't be good". And then
"KRIRIRIRIRIRIRIRIRIR BOOOOOOM!"
The grating sound turned into a ringing sound that quickly rose up in volume, then what followed was a breath attack. It was unlike anything I had ever seen, as a thousands shards of metal, shaped like a rat's tail, and covered with silver lights was coming straight for me and the defenseless boy in my arms.
There was no time to run, and even if I decided to run, this attack would have still met me as it was spread out like a fan, and even though we were more than twenty meters apart, the attack had taken less than a two seconds to cross half that distance. I raised my hands up, turning to my side so that my body covered Teluna's as I pointed my hand towards the incoming attack.
Then I gathered all of my soul energy into a circular shield that covered me and Teluna. Then I poured whatever was left of my reserve into the shield, placing layer upon layer of protection, packing and condensing the gaseous soul energy with all of my strength. The strain was almost unbearable as I even started bleeding from my ears. And that was when the attack arrived.
My barrier of soul energy held under the barrage of the rats metal bullets attack, at least it held for the first five seconds, but as more and more of those metals impacted the smoky surface of the shield, it's structural integrity began to fail as every layer that I had made began to gain holes in different parts. When the first of those metal bullets went through my body, I barely registered it, I had to keep my focus, and even though I was now bleeding from my eyes too, and my chest hurt, I still held on to as I tried to patch the holes in my barrier.
But it was futile, the holes were appearing faster than I could fix them and my head was pounding so hard I couldn't focus. Another bullet went through my barrier and passed by the side of my head, digging a trench on my skin so deep that the white of my skull was exposed to the world. That hit shook my concentration as more than half my barrier disappeared and a significant number of those bullets went into my back and arms. When I thought that this was it for me, the attack stopped, as the rat snapped it's jaw shut.
Looking behind me, I could see that the rats breath attack had carved a furrow in the ground, it was standing twenty meters away from me, but from where I was hunched over with Teluna in my embrace, the range of the attack still stretched for another thirty meters in distance, and almost a hundred meters wide. This power was terrifying, and if I had to hazard a guess I would say this rat was as powerful as a Shadower who had full control and mastery over their abilities and class. I couldn't beat it, a least not in this state.
But my relief only lasted for a minute as the Rat opened her mouth again after exactly sixty seconds. The spell circle appeared again as the ringing and glowing began all over again. I could feel my heart sink into deepest parts of hellish despair. What could I do to stop this damn monster, I was not strong enough. I didn't even want to fight it, I just wanted to be able to protect Teluna and myself until we could get out of here.
There was no cover around, we were quite exposed and at the mercy of this monster, and I knew that even if Magellan, Gus and Kodak found their way here, there was nothing they could do against the sheer power of the monster in front of us.
I just wanted to protect the people in my life, that was the only reason I was here, I had come here to gain the strength to be the covering they needed me to be. To be not just their leader, or the man capable of giving them their freedom, but to be their protector, their covering....Their shield.
"KRIRIRIRIRIRIRIRIRIR BOOOOOOM!"
"KREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
"...…"
"..."
I was still alive, still breathing. For a moment I could not understand why I was nothing more than Swiss cheese right now, but I was still alive. That's when I felt it, that small tug in my soul whenever I weaved a rune into existence, then almost immediately came the subsequent pounding of my skull as nature's backlash came calling.
With my injuries I almost succumbed to it's fury, but I was now at the third circle of the open mind realm, my mental energy was twice if not three times as stronger than it previously was. There was a new screeching sound, and it was incredibly close to me, and that was when I looked up and saw it, and along with the sight in front of me, came a system message.
[CONGRATULATIONS ON DISCOVERING YOUR SOUL RUNE FOR THE SACRUM REALM. YOU HAVE BEEN AWARDED 40 ESSENCE POINTS]
And that's when I saw it. Two concentric circles within each other spinning with a fury as they deflected the breath attack from the rat. The inner circle was actually a pure silver like soul energy, it's luster was quite eye catching, and the outer circle was the same dark blue light of my soul energy.
And right in their middle, spinning along with the circles and glowing with all power and splendor as if it existed in a world of its own was a rune word. A brand new rune word that I felt was as close to me as my soul, just like the rune word [BREAK]. It pulsed in the darkened gloom as I looked at the rune word that just saved my life and would probably keep on saving it in the future.
It was the rune word for...[SHIELD].