The glowing arrow streaked from my bow and toward the advancing Lycanthrope Alpha.
Boom!
The entire clearing vanished in a golden flash of light. A roaring fireball consumed not just the dying Alpha, but the whole clearing, incinerating the surrounding trees and carving a crater into the earth. A blazing cloud swept upward, almost resembling a mushroom cloud from a thermonuclear explosion, letting out a deafening roar of destruction.
"Big Brother! Are you all right?!" Adrian called from Cygnus, who was still hovering above. He might have been shouting since the explosion, but I couldn't hear him because of the incredible noise. Either way, it didn't matter.
"Yeah."
"You're severely hurt!" Alicia rushed over and helped me up when I faltered. I tried to shake her off, only to realize that I no longer had any strength left. My consciousness was rapidly fading away.
"So this is the strength of a rank D monster, huh?" I muttered quietly. It seemed like I was a long way from being a top mage like Dad.
"Thank you for saving us." Alicia was clutching me tightly. I couldn't tell if she was weeping, and frankly, I was in too much pain to care. I just wanted to roll over and lose consciousness. It was getting increasingly difficult to breathe.
"Sorry, Adrian, I'll have to set you down for a bit."
If I lost consciousness, my Constellation spirits would disappear. And poor Adrian would be sent crashing back down. He wouldn't survive a fall from that height.
"That's fine." Adrian shook his head even as Cygnus descended to let him disembark. He hurried toward me. "I'm more worried about you, Big Brother!"
"Eh? You have a younger brother, Richard?" Alicia looked surprised.
"Ha ha, no, I'm not his real brother. It's just that, he saved me as well." Adrian laughed sheepishly. "If it wasn't for Big Brother, I would have been killed by monsters."
"You've been busy, haven't you?" Nicholas commented dryly. He glanced at Alicia. "I see now why you wanted to recruit this guy, President."
"I always thought highly of him," Alicia replied with a gentle smile. "It's just that most people were unable to see his strengths."
"And thanks to that, we ended up creating a formidable rival." Nicholas sighed. "If only Vice-President Miranda thought the same as you…"
"What about the others?" Elliot asked as he came up, surveying the scene wearily. He looked haunted, especially as his gaze lingered over the remains of his party members. I didn't blame him. Out of the twelve who had originally set out on this mission, only four of them had survived. It was a great loss for their society, not to mention the school and the deceased's families.
"I found Tao Zhou's body," Jin Hao reported as he emerged from the trees. Apparently, at some point after I had slaughtered all of the Lycanthropes, he had broken off from the group to track down their runaway comrade. He shook his head. "She didn't survive. Looks like she had been eviscerated by the Alpha."
"Serves her right," Elliot growled. "Abandoning us and running away by herself. That coward deserves whatever she got."
Says the guy who was reluctant to serve as the vanguard despite bearing a shield, because he wasn't able to withstand an attack from the Alpha. On the other hand, he did deserve a bit of credit for not fleeing and leaving his comrades behind, so he was at least better than the late Tao Zhou in that aspect.
But I understood how he felt. I myself was pissed off at the betrayal of my original party members, what with Bei Pan Zhe and the rest deserting me and leaving me to fight hundreds of monsters on my own. Good thing they were only rank F and rank E monsters, or I would have been torn apart a long time ago.
"Allison told me that the teachers and a military team from the Federation would be arriving soon," I informed them as I wheezed, my injuries hampering my ability to speak. "We just need to sit tight and hang in there until they come." I consulted the chronometer in my glasses. "They should be here in another thirty minutes."
I wondered if I would be able to survive until then. My injuries were not light. I tried not to think if they were fatal, and if I would die before help arrived.
"You've done a lot." Alicia set me down. "Leave the rest to us. You should just rest for now."
"Yeah, there shouldn't be anything more dangerous than that damned Lycanthrope Alpha," Elliot agreed.
The guy just had to tempt fate, didn't he?
"On second thought, we should leave the area," I suggested, trying to get back to my feet. Alicia hurriedly helped me. "Our fierce battle earlier might have drawn the attention of other monsters…"
An earth-shattering roar drowned out the rest of my sentence.
"…too late," I muttered as I turned to glance at the owner of the roar with trepidation. I raised my left hand and gathered magical energy into my right hand, readying Lyra for another shot.
A massive winged serpent slammed down on the crater I had just created, just a few dozen meters away from us. Unfurling its long body upon a scorched, battered boulder, the wyvern reared back and let out another deafening roar. Its glittering azure scales gave off a beautiful shine, and its ornately shaped claws crushed the rock it was gripping into powder.
"What the hell is that?" Adrian gaped at it, horrified. "Is that…a Frost Wyvern?"
"A Rank C monster…" Jin Hao murmured, fear gripping his voice. "We're doomed."
"Just our fucking luck!" Elliot swore furiously. "Just thirty minutes more and we'll be out of here! These bloody bastards just keep coming!"
"What do we do now?" Nicholas asked, shivering from fright as he turned toward his trembling President.
Then I realized that I was shivering too. Glancing around, I saw that the surroundings were beginning to freeze. Ice was spreading all across the blasted earth and the temperature was plummeting rapidly.
"Frost Wyvern…it has the ability to manipulate ice," I muttered as my memory dredged up some detail about it from some book I had read years ago.
That was right. I suddenly recalled the categorization of monster ranks. Rank C monsters were so classified because the creatures within that group had grown powerful enough to develop the ability to control and manipulate elemental magic. That was it was ranked above the dead Lycanthrope Alpha, despite being smaller in size.
Size wasn't everything.
"What do you mean, what do we do now?" Elliot demanded. "The Frost Wyvern is a rank C monster! It's stronger than the gigantic Lycanthrope Alpha we had just fought! We're not going to survive against an enemy like that!"
"Don't panic!" Alicia ordered. "Everyone, into formation! If we can defend from its attacks, we should be able to buy enough time until the teachers and reinforcements arrive! We've survived this long until now…I don't believe we'll die here!"
"Everyone, please stand back."
I was about to step forward, but I broke into a sudden fit of coughing. Holding up my hand, I stared dumbly at the blood that was beginning to freeze over in my palm. It looked like I didn't have much time left.
Then I shouldn't be wasting it.
"Vega."
My right hand began glowing golden as I channeled magical energy into materializing another arrow. However, a soft, gentle hand clamped firmly but tenderly on my right shoulder, stopping me from lifting my arm.
"That won't be necessary," a cool, familiar voice declared. I blinked in surprise and turned around.
"Big…Big Sister?!" Adrian staggered back when he saw her. Cecilia Stuart glared at him, but didn't say anything. As for me, I gaped at her in shock.
When did she get here? I didn't even feel her presence!
"Cecilia…" Alicia began, just as astonished as I was by her sudden appearance. Cecilia pushed me toward her.
"Take care of him."
"Ah…yeah."
As Alicia helped me stay on my feet, I dropped my disappearing Lyra and canceled my spell. With Cecilia Stuart, the Invincible Goddess of War present, there was no longer any need for me to fight. I closed my eyes slightly.
"Leave the rest to me."
Cecilia then calmly approached the screeching Frost Wyvern. It lashed out at her, but its razor-sharp tail missed and struck empty ground. Cecilia reappeared in another position, drawing her sword in a single, elegant motion.
Then she completed her spell. I didn't know how I knew. Probably because I had fought against her before. But I could sense the completion of her spell somehow.
At first, nothing seemed to change. But I felt something touch my hand. Gulping involuntarily, I glanced down.
It was a Sakura petal.
No. Not just a Sakura petal.
As I stared at the soft, pink petal, I suddenly became aware that our surroundings were now filled with Sakura petals. The sky turned pink for a moment as innumerable Sakura petals filled the air, blotting out the sunlight.
Cecilia was now in front of the Frost Wyvern. Even the rank C monster was shrinking back from her.
It reminded me of Dad. The first time I encountered Dad, the monsters had been afraid of him too. Cecilia was just like Dad, having reached the pinnacle of humanity and able to intimidate these interdimensional monsters with just her aura alone.
I never saw the attack coming. One moment Cecilia was staring down the Frost Wyvern, and the next the serpentine monster was lying on the ground, blood spurting from an incredible amount of wounds all over its body. Its beautiful azure scales were beginning to turn red with blood. Letting out a final croak, the Frost Wyvern closed its eyes and breathed its last.
"Incredible…" Elliot breathed.
"That's the Invincible War Goddess for you," Nicholas added, amazed.
Alone among us, Adrian looked slightly sick from fright. He was trying to inch away, only to freeze when Cecilia turned her cold gaze toward him.
"Thank you for saving us, Cecilia!" Alicia bowed her head gratefully. "How did you get here? Are you part of the reinforcements?"
"Ah, no."
Cecilia was sheathing her sword. I caught a glimpse of the exquisitely crafted katana before it was completely hidden. The shiny, pristine blade remained free of blood. That was most definitely a top quality Divine Device – the same one she used against my Vermillion Phoenix during the duel a couple of weeks ago.
She turned to glare at Adrian, who shrank further.
"I received a report that my wayward cousin ran away while on a trip to Jing Tian City, and immediately set out to look for him." She softened her gaze as she turned to Alicia. "It was only a coincidence that I found you guys too."
"I hope you have a ride back," Elliot said dryly. He glanced at me worriedly. "Richard won't last much longer at this rate."
"Reckless as ever, I see." Cecilia studied me. "He looks like he's in pretty bad shape."
"Richard! Are you all right?" Alicia panicked when she felt me bleeding all over her. "My goodness! He's losing too much blood!"
I didn't reply. I could hear everyone talking, asking questions, but I could no longer see any of them. My vision had gone completely black and my eyes refused to open. Slowly, my hearing also began to fail me, and their voices grew softer and softer until they disappeared completely.
Then I fell into the warm, comfortable embrace of darkness, and knew nothing more.