"!" – As soon as the red eye appeared, everyone in the hall felt their consciousness leaving them as if something had been taken out of their bodies.
'WHAT IS THAT!?' – Melody yelled in her mind, the thing before her, that eye was giving her deep fear like she never felt before, however, what made her fear deepen even more was the fact that there wasn't something like that in the game.
"…" – Elizabeth watched the scene in front of her with a tense expression. All her instincts were blaring alarms in her head.
The glow in her eyes intensified as the rest of her mana started to move inside her body.
'Don't.' – A woman's voice echoed in her head, opposing what she was about to do.
'The situation is too dangerous. We don't know for how long those monsters will stay still.' – Elizabeth rebated.
'You're assuming needless risks.' – The voice countered, and Elizabeth couldn't fully deny it.
"…" – Meanwhile, the monster faced the floating red eye.
It remained silent but seeing that it wouldn't back down, the monster conceded – "I will follow the instructions this time. The next time you get in my business, I won't let it go." – It said as the sword in its hands dematerialized – "Do your thing."
A flash of light shot from the eye and hit the ground before a portal appeared.
The monster looked back at the still-frozen people and grinned – "Consider this your lucky day, sinners." – All the tentacles on its back abruptly shot in random directions at high speed – "Farewe-"
Before it could finish its words, it managed to see a flash of pale blue light before its body suddenly felt lighter, and it was pushed inside the portal, which then closed.
Akihiko turned his face toward the floating eye.
The eye looked straight at him without any other reaction. It only observed the young man with a missing leg standing with all the tentacles previously shot, cut on the ground behind him, along with the legs of the monster.
"Shit." – Elizabeth cursed before forcing herself to move.
The others were still frozen, so they were rather dull to their surroundings and whatever was happening.
Elizabeth has been with Akihiko for more than two decades, however, even she wouldn't say she knows everything about him, especially when it comes to his clan, which was already very secretive to being with.
However, there is one technique in particular from his clan that she made sure to memorize.
'That inconsequential bastard!' – She changed the magic she was preparing and boosted her body.
The technique that Akihiko was using was especially dangerous to its user.
"…" – Meanwhile, Akihiko stood still, his body immovable, not even the slightest twitch could be perceived from him.
Beneath his armor, however, the situation was a stark contrast.
His veins bulged and moved, like a snake slithering on a branch. His blood got hotter to an abnormal degree and his heart resembled an automatic gun due to how fast it was beating.
His cat ears and tails became stiff, not moving as if they weren't even real.
The air around him also changed, it felt eerie.
If one was sensible enough to pick on people's emotions, they would be able to feel an abnormal cold coming from Akihiko.
Unlike his usual emotionless self, right now, he was seething with cold fury.
The eye kept looking at him when Akihiko finally made his move.
The armor on both of his arms suddenly exploded and blood started to gush out like a fountain before his arms fell limply on his side.
*Boom*
*Clang*
*Ting*
*Boom*
*Shatter*
*Swoosh*
A barrier appeared before the eye as a tide of weapons crashed on it.
Swords, axes, spears, daggers, shurikens, kunais, needles, and many other weapons clashed against the barrier with terrifying speed. More impressive than their speed was their numbers, it looked like a whole arsenal.
"…" – Akihiko showed no reaction even with both of his arms having their flesh exposed and blood constantly flowing out and forming a puddle on the ground.
3 seconds later, all the weapons had clashed against the barrier and were repelled, falling to the ground.
The eye kept looking at him before shortly glancing to the side and starting to fade away.
Akihiko crouched down to jump but the moment he bent his knee, his remaining leg was shredded from the inside out, making another explosion of flesh and blood.
*Thud*
He fell violently to the ground, however, his eyes under the blindfold remained wide open, staring straight into the red eye, even when his body barely responded anymore.
His left leg started to bleed again, his muscles weren't responding anymore.
"Aki!" – Akihiko heard Elizabeth's voice but his senses started to dull.
A strong headache suddenly hit him, the weight of his arts was starting to take a toll on him.
Gradually, the red eye vanished and the people in the hall seemingly came back to life as they all gasped and coughed.
"Aki, answer me!" – While everyone was trying to recover, Elizabeth took Akihiko in her arms and checked his condition.
'Damaged muscles and tendons, intense bleeding.' – She quickly assessed – 'His body isn't answering stimuli.' – The worry on her face became more and more evident as she assessed his condition.
'Get him to be treated by the people from the Cathedral.' – The voice in her head spoke – 'Basic treatment isn't going to be enough.' – Right after, the voice fell silent again.
Elizabeth quickly snapped out of her daze and picked up Akihiko before running toward where the acolytes and servants were.
The people from the Cathedral were the first to recover and as soon as they confirmed that they were fine, they started to use their power and heal those around them.
"Ms. Acolyte, please help my friend!" – Elizabeth exclaimed as soon as she arrived near a woman dressed in white priestly garment.
"Eh?" – The woman was startled by the suddenness of Elizabeth's approach but when she saw the state Akihiko was in, she quickly calmed down and started using her power.
Her hands shone in a pale green light and a green aura started to cover Akihiko's body.
*Gasp*
As soon as the aura covered his body, the acolyte gasped in horror.
"I need help here!" – She hurriedly shouted toward the other acolytes.
Hearing her shout, four more acolytes and one servant came closer before also using their powers on Akihiko.
As soon as they used it, their reaction was similar to the first acolyte, they all gasped in horror, with the face of some even paling upon discovering the state of Akihiko's body.
"…" – Elizabeth watched nervously as they took Akihiko and put him on top of one of the many tables. The faces they were making and the number of people healing a single person were enough to tell any onlooker how bad was the case.
It took a few more minutes before most of the examinees and students could be in a condition to move normally. As soon as they digested the fact that they almost died and their daze passed, they were all alarmed and belatedly started to stand guard and also search through the hall, seeing if there was any survivor or any signs of the monster.
"T-This is hard…" – One acolyte who was healing Akihiko murmured, his face dripping with sweat and the green light on his hands becoming fainter.
The others didn't say anything, they were too focused on their task.
'Elizabeth, get some treatment too.' – The voice in her head stated – 'Your condition is far from ideal.' – She added.
Elizabeth's insides were currently a mess. Her mana was taking too long to replenish and her muscles were spasming from time to time.
'Later, master.' – Elizabeth's eyes didn't leave her childhood friend for even a second, the light in them gradually fading as time passed but he still kept bleeding.
'…' – Elizabeth's master fell silent seeing her stubborn response – 'I would get treatment if I were you, if you faint without seeing him recover, you might get a heart attack from anxiety.' – She persuaded.
'…' – Elizabeth grumbled but under such persuasion, she complied with her master's suggestion.
Meanwhile, Lathz and the others were standing guard along with other examinees near the makeshift medic area.
Nyza looked at Akihiko and turned her gaze away, unable to look anymore.
Olivia gritted her teeth and her wolf ears dropped.
The group descended into silence, their thoughts different yet the same.
"I never thought I would be this useless…" – Eventually, Roxanne broke the silence that hung in between them.
"…" – The others nodded, depression evident in their faces.
Truth be told when they heard Akihiko say to them to focus on protecting the mages, they were a bit upset.
They hadn't spent much time together yet but it had been almost a month already.
They were a team, and after all their ridiculous training, they thought they had become stronger than before.
However, midway through the fight, they started to realize how far apart they were from Akihiko.
They could barely see the afterimages of the attacks, and when the monster formed the sword, they were unable to even see that it attacked.
Nyza herself who is heavily focused on speed and dexterity, couldn't see anything at that point, and this made her fists clench.
The others were no different, they all felt useless, especially when that eye appeared. At that time, they became unable to move or even react, had Akihiko not intercepted the tentacles, they would have died pathetically.
Back in the nest and even now, again and again, they kept facing situations they couldn't handle just to be saved by Akihiko.
They knew that he was skilled but each time they fought, they were hit with the fact that he was too far apart from them.
They felt like they were holding him back.
And this coupled with the previous battle just made things worse.
Silence settled in again.
"Is everyone okay?" – A sudden voice startled everyone in the hall as they turned toward the source of the voice while pointing their weapons.
However, when they saw that it was Evelyn, an instructor from the Academy, they relaxed again, with some almost falling to the ground with relief.
"Yes, Ms. Evelyn." – Lathz managed to recover and answered.
"…" – Evelyn looked at her and saw the group's state, then she looked around the hall and saw the bodies lying around, the blood soaking the previously white floor, and traces of battles present through the hall.
Her gaze then scanned the survivors before pausing on Akihiko – 'He did something crazy again.' – Seeing that the people who were healing him were only tired, she assumed that his situation wasn't the worst.
"The battle outside is ending, there's only a few losses on our side…" – Her eyes glanced at the corpses again before landing on the monster's legs – "The Conference is hereby canceled. You will all be moved to a temporary settlement to rest and recover. We need to make sure you aren't affected by the monster's malice." – She closed her eyes, barely holding in a sigh.
This scenery was all too familiar to her.
She used her magic and the monster's legs vanished.
"Those from the Cathedral, continue focusing on healing. I will prepare the teleportation circle." – Evelyn looked at the few, tired small crowd that managed to survive a slaughter and smiled softly.
"Good job, kids."
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