Chereads / Spectrum of the Soul / Chapter 6 - Chapter 1, Part 6

Chapter 6 - Chapter 1, Part 6

"Wow! I never heard of anyone eating wyvern meat before!"

"It tastes good, similar to crocodiles."

"Crocodiles?"

Celosia was dissatisfied at the scene happening before her eyes, "Cherry! Why are you getting along with this Pluvian!"

With all the wild stories she's been told, Cherry finds herself defending Prism.

"Celosia, she's fine. She knows so much about monsters and trees! She's not a spy."

"There's four of you, you can easily kill me if I was a spy."

Celosia swiftly goes toward Prism and threatens her in the neck with one of her double glaive's tips, grazing some of her skin to the point of bleeding.

"You… bleed red."

"Yeah. Seems that red is my dominant gene. But wow, that stings you know."

Cherry lightly slaps the face of Celosia and screams, "Celosia! What the hell?! Now's not the time to-"

Prism proceeds to chop Celosia's arm and punches her face before Celosia can process what's happening.

"You might not know this, but we can actually fight back for self-defense."

The downed Crimson gal calms down and rethinks her opinions.

"That speed she had right now… This sinking feeling in my heart tells me to not seriously mess with her again." In a plodding fashion, she stands up and offers a handshake to Prism.

"I'm sorry. I can at least not hurt you."

"Still no trust, eh? Whatever." She accepts her hand.

Every other person on the guild goes back to their own businesses after the fight has ended. Marcus was the next to return to the guild also wearing a white cotton shirt and black leather pants with the pouch belt. He feels a strange tension in the air as he sits in one of the two empty seats.

"Somehow I felt like I missed something."

Cherry breaks the ice by laughing at Marcus' attire, "What is that?! Are you a hunter now? Pffft! Hahahahha!"

He looks toward Prism for approval, "Look kid, you need armor. I don't. You'll get hurt fighting."

"Don't I look cool! This cotton is harvested from Luctunia and the leather from the largest cows and…"

Everyone just remained silent with a look of disappointment.

"Vulcandamnit." Marcus shuts up utterly defeated. "By the way, where is Chroma?"

"He should be here in a minute." Said Celosia 20 minutes ago.

"Did anyone here that?" Cherry wonders.

Everyone focuses on their sense of hearing. Prism says, "It's sounds like a…"

"Help!" A sweat-filled Orange maid appears before them looking frantic. "…scream."

Celosia recognizes the girl, "You're Chroma's slave… What happened to him?!"

"Cremeria is being attacked by multiple coatls! I repeat, Cremeria is being attacked by multiple coatls! We need assistance from all adventurers and hunters!"

A voice magically-enhanced by an art covers the entire capital. Shrieks from coatls can be heard from every corner as the group rushes toward where Apoy has guides them. They get bruised from the ensuing stampede caused by the panic of the masses crossing lava bridges, eventually reaching the iconic city triangle with the statue of the current emperor and the hero standing proudly with burning torches in their hands pointed towards the scorching noon sun. Chroma is fighting several small coatls and the large one they fought earlier.

"We got to help him!" cries Celosia.

Prism, as fast as the wind, charges toward the large one and commands them.

"I'll fight this one, you go get her young!"

And so it was agreed. The four teenagers fought intensely, each of them assigning each other different roles. Celosia and Chroma were the front liners, using her wheeler to channel her red arts and Chroma his large rectangular shield, slightly-cylindrical to block attacks from the sides and occasionally slashing with his Gladius sword. Cherry acts as the rear guard by chanting multiple arts ranging from enormous ballistic fireballs to rapid pebble-sized ember and enchanting the frontliners by engulfing their bodies with flames to hurt nearby enemies. Marcus is an archer, firing a barrage of arrows sharpened enough to pierce bedrock using a very tall Yumi bow… well he's supposed to be.

"Marcus, what the hell are you doing with that dagger?! Even I know how to use one!" he zigzags towards a coatl only to be almost clawed if not for Chroma.

"Vulcan! You need to be more care-" Celosia beheads some of the monsters creeping behind the boys and rushes back towards Cherry while shouting.

"Now is not the time for talking!"

"Aaaaack!" Cherry was almost overwhelmed but Celosia comes to the rescue. She pulls everyone back and they form a more sensible circular formation.

Spotting its injured leg from earlier, Prism continues her fight using her tooth dagger. Every swipe and peck from the coatl, she avoids with amazing acrobatic backflips and rolling and then she counters with spells they've never seen before. Celosia was secretly observing Prism's moveset and notices that she doesn't say a single word despite the flurry of ice and fire coming from her. After a few minutes, all the young of the coatl in the triangle was killed and the group leaves Prism behind to help others. The guards were effective using their shields and spears by doing a wall like formation and poking whenever a coatl charges, and with the help of the group meets their ends. It seems that the only one left is the one Prism is fighting and it is most likely the main culprit of the attack.

The legionnaire guards rests on the ground and the legate removes his bronze helm and talks to the group, "Thanks for your help, teens. Is that the last of them?"

"No, Mr. Vermillion. There's still a large one at the city triangle."

They rush back only to see the carcass of the coatl and Prism carving its skin, removing its claws, and collecting its gooey secretions to the disgust of the Crimson people that witnessed the scene,

"What is she doing to that corpse?",

"Isn't that the job of the Oranges?",

"Filthy Pluvian."

Those were the thoughts of the red people for only Prism knew the value of the tough skin of an adult coatl as armor and the price of its essence when appraised by an alchemist. Strangely, Celosia felt she was the only one who understood her actions.