"XAVIER!" David's eyes shifted from confusion, to shock, then to rage, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. One of Xavier's revolvers was pressed into the tiny gap where Cherie's helmet met her armor, while the other was pointed straight at David.
Brogan, Callahan and David were locked on to the pair, forming a triangle.
Cherie's eyes were furious, and the rest of her face was covered by the many dull black plates of her helm, but David could see the tell tale trace of emotion, that only he would recognize, her left pinky finger shaking.
"Let's not be hasty." Xavier murmured, as he swung the revolver away from David to Callahan, who had moved toward them.
"And you too Brogan! If any of you get close, you'll get to see Cherie's pretty face explode." Xavier raised his voice, stopping Brogan in his tracks.
By now, all the other students had disappeared back toward the settlement, not even noticing Cherie being held hostage, but knowing that the best they could do right now to help was to call reinforcements for Brogan.
"What. The. Hell. Do. You. THINK. You're. DOING!" David's face was now a mask of rage, his thin eyebrows almost vertical, his teeth bared at Xavier. They had grown up together, they had trained together, they were all like siblings.
"Hahahaaha, well. I guess someone made me an offer I couldn't refuse. " While Xavier's tone had been cold and calm this whole time, his voice cracked as he gestured behind David with one of his revolvers, his cloak shifting to reveal the leather armor he wore underneath, as well as a odd white colored crystal at his waist.
David looked back in confusion, but then his eyes widened in shock. He looked down at his CoreScanner, then up again, then back behind him. The sinking feeling in his stomach now turned into a shocking dread, as the reality sunk in.
Running towards them, were a band of orcs, and leading them, standing head and shoulders above the rest, was an orange core High Orc.
"OUT! NOW! DAVID! CALLAHAN!" Brogan bellowed, running to intercept the High Orc, who was making a beeline for Xavier, David lying right in the middle of his path.
"But Brogan. Cherie." David said weakly, looking back at Xavier, noticing for the first time, the moisture leaking from under his goggles. There was no way that was sweat, David knew that Xavier was one of the few that never sweat, even after hours upon hours of training. Those had to be tears.
"Grab him!" Brogan yelled behind him, and David let out a muffled yell, as Callahan tackled him from the side, and carrying him under one arm, like a sack of potatoes, ran towards the rest of the students.
"Let. Me. Down." David hissed at him.
But Callahan, even though he had less mana than David, had focused on training his strength. His arm was like a band of iron around his arms and waist, and David knew he couldn't escape him, not without fatally injuring him.
Brogan heaved a sigh, as he watched the orcs approach, knowing that all of his students, but two, had escaped. There were six of them in total, the High Orc at their center, and five others.
The High Orc, had a pair of large fangs, jutting out almost to under it's tiny eyes, set deep under a heavy brow, a single braid rising from the top of its shaven head, with countless rings and bones woven throughout.
Only one arm was armored, with the rest of its upper body bare, and twisting red tattoos crawled all across its bare green skin, appearing alive as its muscles rippled, as it swung a heavy battleaxe free from its back, scanning Brogan up and down.
"Just need to figure out what the hell is going on here." Brogan squinted his up at the charging orcs, and took a glance at his CoreScanner. The other had surrounded Brogan, seeming to ignore Xavier and Cherie.
"A three star orange core, huh. I reckon I can take him. Now, what do about the rest?" Brogan noted the various red cores, of varying strength, who all had their lower fangs bared, and began to chant.
"All ganging up on me, this isn't really your style. Or should I say. Our style?" Brogan grinned at the orcs, revealing his own fangs, hoping that that this might throw them off, or create some type of opportunity.
"Puny, mixed blood. You must've been sired by a runt! Your mana is strong, but you are far too little." The High Orc growled at him.
"Don't like this either. But the dark lady said -" One of the other orcs muttered, scratching behind a pointed ear, his warhammer hanging loosely from one arm.
"Idiot! Silence." The High Orc growled, as he drew closer and closer to Brogan.
"I request a Bloodletting! For the mighty Gro'hosh'kar!" Brogan shouted, planting his feet and slamming his fists together. All the orcs stopped in their tracks, they had a set mission, but this half blood had invoked an ancient ceremony, to the very forefather of the orcs, the great deity Gro'hosh'kar.
"We must honor this!" The orcs chorused.
"He's a mixed blood." The High Orc spat back at the others. But there was a hint of doubt in its voice.
'Hah, bought me some time.' Brogan thought to himself, wishing desperately he could turn around to look at what was going on with Cherie and Xavier.
'The hell is that boy thinking.' Brogan sighed internally.
Meanwhile, only a few meters away, Xavier's eye's darted back and forth, from Cherie, watching her hands, and then back to Brogan, then to the orcs.
"Xavier. Trust me. You don't want to do this."
"I don't know what you've been told, but it isn't true. This won't be worth it for anyone."
"Move your gun, and we can both help Brogan. You can still go back from this." Cherie murmured, quiet enough so that only Xavier could hear, but her words didn't seem to budge him in the slightest.
But, even though Xavier's gun remained pressed against Cherie's neck, tears streamed out from under the goggles.
-----
Not far from the clearing, David and Callahan continued to argue back and forth. All the while, David was clutched under Callahan's arm, the outburst of emotions had died down, but his face was as pale as death.
"Callahan. I can tell you're getting tired. Let me down. I can make it to the settlement faster than anyone else." David squirmed, trying to make eye contact with Callahan, who's green eyes were watery, and gazing towards Coppervein.
"No. You're just going to run back. And then we'll lose another."
"You know this is the logical way to do things. You're the most logical out of anyone. If it's wasn't Cherie, you'd be the first out of there." Callahan tightened his grip on David, glancing down at the CoreScanner on his wrist.
"How dare you!" David yelled, increasing his attempts to escape from Callahan, one arm pulling at the buckle of his breastplate, trying to put him off balance, or trip him, or anything.
BOOM!
The very air seemed to explode, and Callahan was sent flying, knocking David lose from his grasp, both of them blinded by the flash of gold light.
"Callahan!"
"Callahan!"
"You alright!" David called out into the dust, pulling his CoreScanner right up to to his face, desperately squinting at it, looking for the coreless four star signal that would be Callahan.
"Damn. This won't be much help now." David muttered, noticing the cracked face of the CoreScanner, and let his arm fall back down. Now, he froze, listening for any sounds, the slightest hint that Callahan might still be alive.
'What the hell are these?' He watched as strange golden symbols swam through the air, shifting slightly to avoid touching any of them. You couldn't be too careful with unknown magic, and David could practically smell the mana coming off of them.
'There! But did he have a anything to signal with?'' A purple glow had appeared off in the distance, other than the symbols, it was the only sign of anything in the cloud of dust.
David made his way towards the purple glow, whispering out Callahan's name, his hair rising into the air, as all the hair on his body stood on end, the mana in the air sparking and fizzing.
'Oh. Some sort of mana explosion.' David thought back to Brogan's lectures, then shook his head, remembering the danger that Brogan was in.
'I need to find Callahan. And then get out of here.' David continued on into the dust, the purple glow growing stronger and stronger, the mana saturating the air, so much so that David began to find it hard to breathe.
As David neared the purple glow, the golden symbols grew thicker, but now, almost in a trance, David moved forward, letting them fall onto his skin.
Robotically, David stepped down into a crater, stumbling a little, and then kneeling down, looking down at the pulsing, purple mass of flash, that lay on the ground.
One dust covered, delicate hand reached out, and the symbols seemed to freeze in the air around them, the delicate boy, and the purple mass.
The two touched, and David fell back, as the mass off flesh unraveled, wrapping all around his arm, crawling up higher and higher, making its way towards his chest.
"AHHHHHH!" David yelled, snapping out of the trance, falling back away from the mass, but it came with him.
David screamed out in pain as the purple tendrils burrowed into his flesh, blood pouring out of the countless holes they made, growing as they fed, heading straight for his heart.
Amidst the pain, a cold voice sounded out in his head.
[Welcome Candidate, to the System.]