Small warning about depictions of cruelty/ some gore.
It's not much and not given much emphasis on it, but it's there.
Having said this, have a good read!
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Barriers appeared in the air and blades hit them, blasting the barriers to pieces as new ones appeared in their place.
*Shriek*
*Click*
*Tssss*
The insects below were skewed alive by the blades that weren't stopped by the barriers, and a sea of corpses started to form beneath the platform.
"I CAN'T HOLD IT FOR MUCH LONGER!" – Eric shouted while his face became drenched in sweat.
Melissa was even worse since she was doing most of the defense. Her face was pale and her lips started to turn purple, clear signs of her mana nearing dangerously low levels.
'There are at least still 15 seconds before it finishes.' – Akihiko could feel most of the blades and a quick calculation gave him a rough estimative of how long they needed to hold up.
However, although the time was relatively short, the amount of blades and the force behind their momentum made the task harder on the mages.
"I…. can't…" – Melissa softly spoke before her knees gave in and she fainted.
Lathz quickly caught her.
"GODDMANIT!" – Eric yelled as the task of defending now fell completely on him.
"…" – Akihiko noticed Eric wasn't going to hold on for longer and made a decision.
Raising his left arm, he made a strange gesture with his fingers.
Beneath his armor, his tattoo started to glow.
The two snakes covering his whole arm and intertwining themselves, one black and the other blurred, moved, further coiling around his arm as their eyes shone.
Then, Akihiko closed his fist and swung it, as if throwing something.
"Sh…it…" – Eric eventually gave in and stopped maintaining the barrier, falling to his knees, breathless and with hazy eyes, he was on the verge of passing out.
The blades pierced through the flimsy remains of his barrier and approached the group.
However, almost right after Eric's barrier gave in, another barrier appeared, this one familiar to everyone.
A solid-looking earth barrier appeared before the group, shielding them from the remaining blades.
Nyza and the others immediately recognized this magic, it was Evelyn's barrier, the same they had seen in their training.
"Oh my, would you look at this~?" – Meanwhile, Evelyn was still observing the situation from afar, showing no signs of helping the group. Her smile, however, had widened to the point that it was starting to look terrifying – "He stole my technique." – She looked at Akihiko.
Anna and Kali were eye-widened at her words and watched the scene in front of them without blinking.
"…" – Leonard remained silent but his eyes contained a mild surprise, something rare for the always-stoic man.
"He's really a box of surprises…" – Evelyn commented, her smile still not fading.
A few seconds later, the rain of blades eventually ended.
The earth barrier was filled with countless blades embedded into it, looking like a porcupine.
The barriers then crumbled, letting the blades fall to the ground.
"Akihiko, are you okay?" – Amidst the metallic clangs, Nyza's question attracted the group's attention.
Akihiko nodded nonchalantly at her.
The others looked at him and when they saw his state, they didn't believe in him.
His left arm was limply hanging, not even a minimal move from it. Blood flowed through the small gaps in his combat suit and fell on the platform.
Beneath his armor the situation looked even worse, the skin on his arm was peeling off and making the flesh and blood vessels visible. However, there were also some small spots where newer skin was present.
Just like a snake, his arm was seemingly shedding off the old skin.
Akihiko's face beneath his mask showed no particular reaction, almost as if he wasn't feeling pain from it.
"They are coming!" – It wasn't until Beatrix's shout that the others noticed the insects started to move again, as did the brood mother.
"…" – Lathz observed the situation on the ground and looked at Darlan who was still growling in pain as his combat suit gave him basic medical treatment. Then, her gaze shifted to the fainted Melissa and then to Eric who was still having difficulty breathing before turning to look at Akihiko, whose arm was still hanging limply and showed no signs of stopping bleeding.
Gritting her teeth, she turned to Beatrix – "Beatrix, take us down." – The others widened their eyes and looked at her with surprise – "We don't have any other option."
"…" – Beatrix didn't answer but she lowered the platform until it touched the floor and disappeared.
"Olivia, you and me will be the frontline." – Lathz's hand briefly trembled as she observed the wave-like monster swarm coming toward them – "Roxanne, Diana, you're the backline, so take a high ground. Beatrix, check on Melissa and Eric. Nyza, take care of any insects that get too close to the backlines." – She tightened her grip on her axe – "Akihiko, Darlan, can you two fight?"
"O-Of course." – Darlan answered while forcing himself up and taking out one sword with his remaining arm – "I'm still not dead." – He narrowed his eyes and forcefully stabilized his breathing.
"…" – Akihiko, however, didn't answer and checked his condition.
'I won't last much longer…' – Using the tattoo on his left arm requires too much from him, beside having his left arm rendered useless, he was also reaching the end of his stamina and his mana was low.
'She said they will rescue us when we arrive at death's door…' – He made hand signals with his right hand – 'I guess I can try that then.'
He then made strange gestures with his hand before closing his fist.
"He said that he won't last long in a fight, so he is going to try to buy us some tim-." – Beatrix translated but her jaw almost fell when she looked at Akihiko.
Akihiko's figure blurred before 10 of him appeared.
All of them worldlessly took out a tanto and entered battle positions.
The group looked at it astonished but Lathz quickly snapped out of it – "Here they come!"
Right on time, the monster wave arrived close enough to them for escape to become inviable.
Roxanne and Diana swiftly climbed a building and started to shoot at the monsters. Their shooting speed had considerably diminished compared to earlier.
Olivia bumped her gauntlets together and they gained a faint golden hue.
"We're screwed." – Darlan commented as he observed the flood coming toward them.
Nyza took Beatrix, Melissa, and Eric up to the building where Roxanne was.
Akihiko and his clones crouched down.
And then, the monsters clashed with them.
Lathz heavily swung her axe down, slashing one bug and causing a small explosion when it collided with the ground.
Olivia's arms blurred as she started to punch the monsters at a machine gun's speed.
The 10 Akihikos vanished and several monsters started to fall down, paralyzed through the battlefield.
Darlan's sword ignited in flames and he started to tear and slash whatever monsters came in sight. The ones that didn't die from his attacks, died from the fire. He was letting out the anger he was feeling for losing his arm.
However, no matter what they did, it was still a hopeless battle. It was just the 10 of them, against more than 20.000 monsters, not counting the brood mother.
And what happened was as expected.
Lathz was blown away by the force behind the tide's force.
Olivia's gauntlets got caught by two beetles' pincers before insects swarmed over her, drowning her before starting to tear her skin and eat her flesh.
Darlan's swing was stopped by a praying mantis before his other arm was cut off and he was surrounded.
Roxanne and Diana were quickly rendered useless when several spiders caught them with their webs, transforming the two girls into cocoons that started to melt their skins.
Beatrix, Nyza, Melissa, and Eric were also swarmed by ants, beetles, and scorpions.
Nyza tried to fight but she was swiftly neutralized and her tentacles were torn apart.
Beatrix was at the end of her mana reserves and the little magic she could summon didn't do much.
Eric tried to do something but his mana had already run out, so he could only watch helplessly as the others were eaten before he eventually joined in.
Melissa was out cold, she was jolted awake only when the insects started to eat her, just for her to faint again, due to pain.
Akihiko eventually started to lose his other selves one by one.
Having his head cut off, all of his limbs torn off, being eaten alive, his clones died of several forms until only he himself remained.
Summoning his remaining stamina and mana, he hopped from monster to monster and sprinted through the wave, going straight for the brood mother.
Taking out one bladeless kunai, he activated it and switched to jump from building to building.
*SHRIEK*
The brood mother shrieked and prepared to launch her blades once again.
Akihiko hastened his pace and when arrived close enough to the brood mother, he jumped on her carapace and climbed it up by running.
*SHRIEK*
The brood mother sensed danger and abruptly turned her body slamming it into a close building.
*Boom*
The thing was blown to pieces but the monster didn't stop and continued to throw itself at more buildings, slithering through the ruins and blowing a large part of the neighborhood away.
Eventually, Akihiko couldn't hold on anymore and was blown away.
'Not enough...' – He crashed into the insect swarm as his body barely responded.
The insects were quick to swarm toward him and start to eat his suit before arriving at his flesh.
As his consciousness faded away, Akihiko felt a humungous wave of mana wash over the place.
However, before he could even think about it, he fainted.
And along with his consciousness, the monsters also vanished.
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Curiosity: Akihiko's tattoos all have their own meanings.
The one on his right arm, the sky with birds flying over the clouds, and a sun on the horizon, represents "freedom".
The one on his left arm, the two snakes have a deeper meaning.
The black snake has the concept of darkness, standing for what is inside darkness, what is unknown. The snake meaning is "mystery" or "enigma".
The blurred snake is made in an abstract form purposely, it has the concept of "inspiration" or "envy", as if wanting to be something or someone else. The snake meaning is "what can be" or "what aspires to be".
Akihiko has tattoos all over his body, all of them have their own meanings that are linked to his past.
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A/N: Hello there, I hope you're having a wonderful day!
Sorry for not posting on Wednesday as I did last week. I got caught up playing Overwatch 2, and a few other things happened, so the chapter was delayed.
So, what are your thoughts on the chapters so far? What about the curiosities? Please tell me in the comments or through a review.
Give me your feedback so I can try to entertain you more (⌐■_■)
And add this novel to your library if you like it, it already helps me.
Also, I have changed the previous curiosity a little. It is just a detail I forgot to add.
Well, that's it from me, until next week, folks.
Peace out~🍷😎