…
Marco and Aily rushes to market place, the place where Scias and Sara went to. But their journey isn't as easy as they expect it would be.
"Marco! Watch out!" Aily warned quickly. Marco drew his pistol and instantly aimed at a big creature.
"Gun Skill - Triple Shot!" *BANG-BANG-BANG*
Three perfect hits on the monster that resembled a beetle. Blue-colored blood came out from the bullet holes heavily as the beetle monster fell and died. "Phew, good thing you warned me," Marco showed a thumb up thanking Aily.
"You okay, there?" Marco asked, "Y-Yeah!" Aily replied. In her heart felt a slight disappointment, she did nothing to help her friend. Not wanting to be useless, she rushingly raises her scepter to cast a magic, "I'll cast Ironclad—
—No, don't!" Marco cuts her word and grabbed her scepter, preventing Aily from casting. Aily got surprised at his sudden action, she only stared him.
"Ironclad is a level 4 support magic, right?" Marco said seriously. Shortly, she snaps out of her surprise, "I… I know that… it's better if I cast it right?" Aily asked again but with a bit upset tone.
"It is a good idea to cast it, though. Getting all the defense up and ready will make us secure. But… it's better you save it when we found the Entomancer," Marco explained,
"O-Okay..." Aily reluctantly agrees to him. She showed an even greater disappointment for Marco's action.
High level magic requires extra mana energy to use and dispose. The process will cause great tiredness should the user has low stamina, although support magic doesn't ate as much as elemental magic. The problem is, even with Aily's harsh training back at Areda, her stamina doesn't match up to either Scias or Marco.
The explorer and his female friend are getting closer to the market place. Marco has his gun and blade ready, Aily has her pincer-scepter ready. Anything that stands in their way will be vanquished right away, so, as what Marco thought he'd be.
Swarms of flying insects begin to tear the kingdom apart. Soldiers are sent to secure the area, but they're strongly outnumbered.
"Oh, goody two shoes! This is just great!" Marco states as he shifts his pistol to shoot a hornet monster. *BANG!* "Yeahaha! Yeah, great!"
"What do you mean great, huh?!" Aily nagged. "Aily, look out!" Marco changes his target to an incoming eight hornets, Aily had her scepter forth and she had begun casting,
"Go forth! Windblade Cutters!"
Five cutters in the shape of visible wind discharged from her green magic circle in a fast speed. One of them tears through a hornet horizontally, cutting it in half. Two cutters sliced through them, one diagonally-sliced a rushing hornet, while the other decapitated two of them at once. Two cutters missed their target.
"Oh, no! I m-messed up!" Aily shouts, she didn't expect some of them managed to evade her magic attack.
"Nah, you're doing well, Aily!" Marco jumps in to her aid, he aims his gun quicker than a blink of an eye.
"Gun Skill – Grapeshot!" *BRRRBANG*
One bullet leaves Marco's pistol muzzle port. It exploded immediately in midair, bursting out lead shards into the remaining hornets.
*SPRAT* Blue-colored blood splashes out from the bugs, their body exploded after receiving too much cluster of lead shards. The blood splatter rains down on the pistol-expert and the support mage.
"E-Ew... now my armor's all soaked!" Aily squawked. "You should've shot earlier, Marco!" she added. "Hah? So your armor is much more important than your life?" Marco stated funnily as he reloaded another bullet quickly.
"Harrumph, these blue stains... yuck!" Aily tried to wash her dress off the blood. "Yucky-tucky, IGNORE IT! We'll get it cleaned up later, come on!" Marco yelled.
Aily felt a bit unhappy. She actually wouldn't mind if her armor gets stained because it's simpler to clean, but her dress? It'll take some time. Not to mention that her dress is still new, and it's red. But she tried to maintain composure and followed Marco who's just ran off to the market place.
In the market place, only chaos reigns. Marco and Aily tried to look for their tall mercenary friend, but it's a living bloodshed out there.
"H-Hyaaaaa!" Aily gets terrified to see five human dissected upper bodies lying on the bushes beside them. Her brown eyes shudder in horror. "M-Marco... Marco..." she thumped.
"Oh, 'fridges'… Geez, these monsters' attack must've been too much for them. Poor guys..." Marco quickly dismisses the corpse, "It's gonna be OK, Aily. Just like in Areda, everything'll be fine. Come on." Marco encourages his friend, although he was scared as well.
…
Meanwhile, in the park…
Scias managed to kill roughly 28 medium bugs with his swords. "Kh, just how many are these creatures…" Scias thought in his mind.
He suddenly remembers Sara, the inn owner. It's been a couple minutes since they're apart, now that Scias had soften the area from monsters, he decided to catch up with her, leaving the remaining creatures behind. "Hopefully, they won't chase after me…" said Scias to himself.
"Hmp!" *SLASH!* Scias sliced a charging hornet in half. A portion of his face got covered by the splatter of blood.
"…heh, how foolish of me to think that. Obviously, they'll go after me, not after some bloody show I gave them!" said Scias slightly smiling. "If that's the case…" he picked something from behind his robe.
"Take this!" *KA-POOF!*
He threw a smoke bomb to cover his escape. He wonders whether those bugs got affected by the smoke or not. Scias sheathed his sword and runs off with full speed.
"…gah, it seems they're not chasing me… heh, how odd. How come a bug monster, which could've chased me with their smelling capability, stopped by a simple smoke?" said Scias as he kept on running fast.
Scias then saw the Naprean Castle Fort. He halted his movements for a moment to take a breather, "…gah… hah… ain't that this kingdom's castle?" he wondered. "Huh, with those cannons firing from the towers, that castle is filled with quite some defenses… wait, if there's any place for Sara to run for safety… that could be the castle, right?" Scias wondered as he stared the castle's towers and walls firing guns and cannons into the north.
"The Imperial Army… huh…? I doubt the Sacranopolis Empire had the urge to command an army of demonic insects."
"Either that emperor had gone utterly mad… or even worse, a third party consisting of an entomancer." He thought.
Entomancers are very rare in both worlds. Even if there is one, they wouldn't be able to hoard large swarms like what happened here at Napre. But in this case, the kingdom is faced with a seemingly overpowered insect-controller.
"S-Sara… kh?!" Scias suddenly remembered something, some… parts of what happened long time ago.
…
s--S…Scias…! R-RUN!
…
That's what appeared in his mind. An echoing voice in his head… he harshly tried to forget.
"…tsk!" Scias takes his step forth towards the opposite direction. He goes back to the market place instead of going to the castle. He tried to believe that Sara is still alive.
…
..
.
Granny's Inn…
"How are you feeling, granny?" Nina soothingly asked. "A-Ah... I'm terribly sorry for troubling you, dearie... *sob*..." granny's tears begun to fall.
"Hush-shush... don't bother talk now, granny. Just rest, okay?" Nina kindly stated.
Nina and the old lady barricaded themselves inside a bedroom on second floor. Windows were broken by the charge of hornet monsters, doors were nearly breached by ant-like monsters. Gladly, Nina managed to muster all the power she had to barricade herself and the old lady using whatever tool and materials available. They didn't have any idea that everyone's running for shelter at the castle. Until Marco, Aily and Scias returns… she must wait…
…and survive.
"Aily... Marco... Scias... please be safe... and Miss Sara, too..." Nina prays in her heart for their safety.
Suddenly, many hardly audible screams can be heard through the crevice of the barricades in the room. Nina feared something might've happened.
"…granny, stay here."
She stood up and slowly walked into the crevice. Her eyes shuddered in shock. She could see the walls are getting blown up.
"LOOK OUT! THEY'VE BREACHED THROU— OH GOD! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"
A soldier's scream was heard. It's loud enough for her to hear. She witnessed the chaos in the distance. Smoke puffs coming from guns and cannons were seen, but with the walls breached, the cannons on the walls are rendered useless.
"Huaah?! W-What is… what is that thing?!" Nina got startled to see a big monstrosity treading in from the distance. "T-This is bad, g-granny... granny, can you walk? W-We need to get out of here."
Granny forcefully walks off her bed, but she fails to sustain herself.
"I'm sorry... dear... just leave without me. I... I don't want to burden you,"
"Tch…" Nina stresses out, she's not powerful enough to move granny with her, now a large siege weapon is moving in. She couldn't use her wind magic or else the monsters will swarm the inn and turn it into dust.
A few moments after Marco and Aily went off, Nina witnessed the insect monsters get attracted to big sources of mana energy—a trait that only belongs to the monsters controlled by the entomancer. She tried to hold herself from using any magic for now.
Nina actually had a spell known as Contact spell. It requires a tiny amount of mana energy. But still, she had a slight fear that it may attract the monsters to come, but there's no other choice! She thought. The terror is rising quickly and she must do something in order to survive.
She… then decided to contact Marco… with all the risks available.
"Contact!"
"…please answer, please answer, please answer… please….!"
*ZRRRtrrtTR*
"DAMMIT!" Her spell disconnected. She failed to contact Marco. "What should I do? Those creatures are easily attracted by any source of thick mana energy…"
Suddenly, she heard a cannon fire. Within milliseconds, she had no chance to react. An explosion broke off and shattered the rooftops of the inn. "HIIYAAAH!"
…
"Grrgh… I'm alive…? Huh? G-Granny!" She quickly checked on granny.
"Rejuvenation!" she casted out a medium healing spell, healing both her and the old lady from injuries. "I'm so sorry, dear…"
"It's okay! Gah… this place is no longer safe, we must get out, granny…"
*THUD*
She heard something hit the building's walls. Nina's eyes quickly shuddered in terror, "Dammit… I… I just realized I used magic spell in here…" she said tremblingly. Her healing spell did a good job recovering her and the old lady from damages, but also attracting monsters to come to them. The two have been compromised.
*Zzziiing!*
Many buzzing noises were heard. Nina turned around slowly into the broke-opened part of the building.
"H-Hrrgh?!" she nearly screamed. Tens, if not hundreds, swarmed directly in front of the building, ready to kill. Nina stepped back slowly. Her feet could trip over anytime due to severe fear of being munched by the thicket of monsters.
Shortly, she gashed her teeth. She knew that this has to be the end for her, but she believed that she WILL not go down without a fight. Even with fear shrouding her body, she grabs her cane on the floor and stands near the old lady.
"…fine, then…" she breathes out. "I'll give my best against all of you. I will not let you kill her!"
The hornets zing and rocket towards her, but in the same time Nina chanted out a wind magic. She managed to cast in time: "Take this, you vile creatures…"
"Wind Blast!" *WHOOOOSH!*
Within seconds, the wind blows away the hornets. But that isn't enough. Nina gashes her teeth again in disappointment and casts again and again.
"Wind Blast!"
"Wind Blast!"
"Wind Blast! Wind Blast! Wind Blast!"
Nina got tired after the series of magic casted within seconds. Her relentless discharge of winds killed some of them and threw off all of the hornet monsters. Her arms can be seen drenching out blood. She forced herself to cast unstably. Therefore, she learned a new skill: "Fast Caster"
But… it is only a matter of time before they return. The building is no longer safe for them both. Nina walks slowly to the edges of an opening gap within the inn's walls while healing herself. Soon, her eyes uncover everything on the roadway to the east that leads to the breached wall.
Her feet trembled heavily. She cannot sustain herself thus dropped down on her knees. She saw the Imperial Army coming through the walls. They didn't come simply by forces… they brought something along with them. It must be the thing that blew off the walls.
"What is… that monstrous thing…?" her voice sounded hoarse. She's about to give up somehow. Their place has been shattered. They're exposed to the attacking bug monsters. Not only that, they're also faced with the incoming Imperial Army. Covered within hopelessness, Nina clenched her fist and smacked her head onto a wooden shelf. Blood comes out from her forehead as a result. "Miss Nina…!" said the old lady in concern.
"N-NO! Nina… you mustn't lose hope! I… won't die here, no… not today!" she said. Nina then heals herself with her magic. "Come on, granny…!" said Nina surely. "Let's get out of here while we can!"
The old lady got thrilled by her resolve. "Miss Nina… very well, then,"
Nina managed to hatch a plan. The plan came out to her thinking as she smacked her head to the shelf.
*DUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!*
Just when the light gleams in her mind…
…the darkness suddenly swallowed it.
Something restrained her to the ground with insane force…
----------------------------------------------------
Character RPG-ed Stats
Name : Aily Meridia
Class : Human Explorer
Magic : Offensive & Defensive
Element : Wind
Element Level : Level 3
Proficiency : Supportive Magic (Level 4)
Thanks for reading :)