Before us stood a giant door, it was glowing a radiant warm yellow. After we passed through this door we couldn't go back. I looked around at my allies' faces, they seemed to understand this. That was good.
'Octavia, buff us before we go into the room. Having buffs the moment we enter the room is important so we can fight at full power when we get in.' I grimaced, this wasn't going to be an easy fight.
'A-Ah right, I'll do that.' She stuttered, 'May the Goddess of Light bless our victory and give strength to my allies.' I felt power seeping through my body, it wasn't much but it was better than nothing.
'Now I don't think I need to say this, but prioritise our lives over anything else. Don't do anything rash that could put yourself or someone else in danger. We will keep the same positions as before.' Everyone looked down, the atmosphere was grim and the tension was high.
'Let's go.' I pushed open the door, and the first thing that I saw was something that looked like a bird's nest. There was a bird inside the nest, it was massive. It had the head, claws and wings of an eagle, but it had the body and tail of a lion. No, it couldn't be, it was a griffin. By this time the others entered the room and the doors of the room closed.
The creature was feeding on a large heart, it was the Minotaur's heart. When the griffin noticed us it had finished the heart.
'Stay back, it's eating the Minotaur's heart.' Riley and Akari jumped in surprise at my statement.
Then suddenly, a red aura enveloped the griffin and it grew bigger, a lot bigger. Its eyes glowed a crimson red and it screeched an ear-piercing scream, it hurt my ears just listening to it.
It seemed that the griffin had gotten more powerful because of eating the Minotaur's heart, it turned its head toward us and I felt a pang of fear just from that. I looked at my allies, their situations were worse than mine.
Edwina had a distinct look of despair on her face and Edgar was trembling, this wouldn't help us, fear would only drag us down.
'Everyone, do not fear. If we fear we die, so do not fear so we can live!' I needed to take the initiative or our morale would be completely shattered.
'That's true, do not fear!' Riley replied in earnest. Everyone straightened their posture and their expressions hardened.
Their expressions were hard but determined. I looked toward the griffin, it had started scratching itself and glanced at us. It was giving us the first move, it was looking down on us. Well, I needed to make it regret giving us the first move.
The griffin was only weak against dark attribute magic, it was moderately resistant to all other types of magic.
'Dark Chain, extended!' I modified dark chain to last longer, it drained almost double the amount of mana dark chain usually took from me. The griffin screeched as it was caught by the chains I couldn't waste time, I transitioned immediately into the next spell.
'Ice Storm, explosive, piercing, destructive!' I yelled this and the swords pierced the griffin and exploded, enveloping it in a prison of ice. 'Shatter!' The ice prison shattered and kicked up dust.
'Keuk.' I coughed up blood, I guess modifying a spell that much would take such a toll on my body. 'Riley, heal me.' I coughed more, my nose had started bleeding as well. Riley came up to me and touched my back and injected healing power into it, my body was back to normal, it seemed like it was only a minor injury.
'Is it done?' Akari started walking towards me, and then I heard a shriek. The griffin had not died it seemed even angrier than before.
Shit, a griffin shouldn't be this powerful. How unfair.
'Akari don't come it isn't dead. Shoot some spells at it, Edgar take its aggro, for now, Edwina switch with me and become the main damage dealer, I'll be sub-damage dealer for now.' They nodded their heads and Edgar charged forward with his shield, they hadn't provided him with a sword so all he could do was block with his shield. The griffin took flight.
Edwina coated her sword in flame, it wouldn't help much. She went straight for the griffin and tried thrusting into its fur. Her sword bounced right off the griffin, and the griffin changed its target from Edgar to Edwina and swiped her away.
Edwina was shot straight into the ground. Riley rushed over to her and Akari was left isolated, the griffin started to run towards her. I ran over to her and shot fireballs at the griffin. I was able to stagger it momentarily, I pushed her away and retreated.
There were no spells I could use as a 5th circle mage that had a dark attribute and were sufficiently powerful to take care of her. I needed a solution, but I couldn't think of anything. The griffin, also known as the king of beasts was a holy creature, thus it was immune to holy damage in addition to all of the natural elements. The only other element that would deal sufficient damage to it was earth.
'Celestial Boulder!' I shot the boulder straight at the griffin but it swiftly dodged out of the way. The boulder hit the wall and broke into little pieces and they flew straight at the griffin. This would certainly deal some damage and buy me time to think of a strategy.
Contrary to my expectations the griffin flew up and flapped its wings in the direction of the little rocks and blew them in the opposite direction. I was shocked, but I had come up with a plan. 'Dark Chain, pierce, sharp!' It was such a simple plan, I just needed to modify a utility spell like dark chain to become an offensive spell.
The chains emerged from the ground and chased the griffin relentlessly, the griffin attempted to dodge but due to its large size, it wouldn't be able to dodge the chains. The others had briefly stopped fighting to witness my genius.
The chains pierced the griffin and bloodied it, the griffin finally fell to the ground and the chains kept piercing the griffin and it screeched in pain.
'It's working! Dark Chain, pierce, sharp!' I had run out of mana after that, but it would be enough. I saw each and every chain pierce the griffin as its blood stained the floor with red. It struggled and struggled but it couldn't get up because of the countless chains inside of it. It seemed that when it was used as an offensive skill and was inside the opponent's body, dark chain stayed on the field indefinitely.
Soon enough, the griffin stopped struggling and lay there dead.
'Yes! We did it! We did it Mordred!' I smiled and sighed in relief, then.
Notification: Griffin's second heart has started beating.
My eyes widened in fear, I couldn't help it. This was unfair on every level, we already had such a tough time with the griffin but now it was back. The griffin stood up and expelled all the chains inside of its body, its wounds had started healing too.
We all looked upon the griffin in despair, at an unfathomable speed, it started attacking everyone. First, it swiped Edgar and pushed him into a wall, blood started dripping from his head and he passed out.
The others soon followed, and soon I looked at everyone lying on the ground, the distinctive metallic scent of blood permeated my nose. I looked around in horror.
I saw Edwina holding her hand out towards me. Large stripes of blood covered her face, she looked like a t-shirt with red stripes.
'Mordred…' I went straight to her and held her hand. She started crying, I couldn't pay attention any longer though, the griffin was now coming for me.
I needed to draw its attention away from my allies so it wouldn't hurt them anymore, in hopes of them somehow being alive. I jumped away and attempted to dodge the griffin's fast attacks.
It raised one of its claws and it brought its claw down on me, I swiftly dodged and tried getting under the griffin so I may have had a chance to pierce it with Clarent.
But my plan was soon destroyed as it struck me with its other claw while I was in midair. I was shot across the room and all my bones were broken. My vision was clouded with the crimson-red colour of blood.
With each passing breath, it got harder to take the next one, I was going to die here.
'You bastard! I'll kill you bastard!' I looked across the room at my dying comrades and saw that there was nothing I could do, I couldn't even stand up.
'Hakai.' I saw a man with blonde hair wearing formal clothes jump at the griffin. In one of his hands was a translucent blue sword, in his other was an actual sword that seemed like it was coated with mana. Mana sword was an advanced technique so no student could perform it.
I drew on all my willpower to stay awake and observe the man. The man cut the griffin in 5 different places at a blinding speed. The griffin screeched and the man jumped onto the griffin's head, then shoved both of his swords in there and ripped it apart with his swords. The griffin fell, it was incredible.
The man then jumped down from the griffin's head and turned towards me, and my eyes widened.
'Professor Altaca?'