The chamber was in pandemonium.
The party attendants scrambled around, trying to gather their attendants and leave. But, most of them were calm despite the intensity of the situation.
Brutus spoke to the crowd.
"This is the Royal Palace the most fortified building in this kingdom, straying outside will only do more harm than good."
The Silver Queen still seated above her pavillion silently nodded, she had already arranged for the messenger who barged in to inform her of the situation properly.
The messenger looked panicked and afraid, while the Queen listened calmly. After he was finished, the Queen studied him for a moment and then gestured towards a guard.
The messenger paled.
"NO, PLEAAASE!! I haven't been corrupted. Please, don't leave me to die." He grovelled.
The Queen looked on coldly as she watched him being dragged away, begging for his life.
Adonis looked mortified and stepped forward.
"He's far gone, child." The Queen interrupted.
He paused and looked questioningly towards the Queen.
The Queen looked slightly irritated. "Messengers like him have been trained from birth. He should have known better than to panic like that in a room full of nobles."
"That isn't reason enough to kill him." Adonis said.
A member of the royal harem clicked their tongue in disapproval as the rest watched on with indifference. They had stared at him with curiosity at first, but now it seems that he had offended them.
"By his own words, he has met with the demon. He is compromised and this is not a decision you can overturn" The Queen said harshly.
Her back was straight, her naked visage visible to all. But, despite it Adonis felt that it only made her more unpredictable. He couldn't read her expression at all, hidden behind that eerie silver mask.
Adonis placed a hand on the pommel of his blade.
"And if I refuse?" He asked.
The Queen's eyes glinted.
"You are now my knight. And you have already accepted your oaths, hero."
Adonis hesitated for a moment. He now represented every one of his classmates. If he openly defied the Queen, it would signify a rebellion of the continents last hopes…
He kneeled again. Thrice in the span of a month, when he never had to in his life.
It hurt his pride. But, what worth was pride in this world. Acela was proof that his way was right.
"I apologize for my transgressions, my Queen." He said through gritted teeth.
"All is forgiven." She said curtly.
"Now go to your friends. You and Lucille will personally escort them back to the safehouse."
"What about the demon?" Adonis asked.
"He has escaped the underground prison. And his last known location was the Royal Garden. He will be dealt with personally by the Demon Hunter."
**********************
Lucielle guided us back through the forest. Lush trees passing by us as we ran.
*BOOOOM*
An explosion sounded in the distance.
Lucielle turned back, her eyes worried. There didn't seem to be any outright damage to the palace, but smoke could be seen rising in the distance.
They had already reached the forest and the students already knew the rest of the way back, the could go safely from here.
"Adonis guide them back. I'll personally check it out." Lucielle the
Archmage said.
"Alright" He replied.
Lucielle took off with inhuman speed, flying off into the distance.
Rey watched silently as Adonis ushered them to run towards the Safehouse. They were was still quite a bit before they reached the protective sphere of the boundary.
The forests were dangerous, swarming with monsters below B-Tier. It would require a full party with a scout - Levi - to make it across. He was one of cornerstones of the party that headed intoforests and…
Shit
"Wait. We forgot Billy." Rey shouted to Adonis, as he was discussing with Levi.
"What!?, I thought he went back to the Safehouse." Adonis asked.
"He left half-way through the party. Did anyone see where he went?" Rey asked.
Half of them shook their heads.
Rey cursed.
"We need to go back for -"
"No way, we're heading back there to risk our lives for just one person." Belle said, interrupting Rey.
"We have to at least inform Lucielle." Rey argued.
Adonis raised his palm and Belle stopped whatever she was about to say.
"Its best we split up." Adonis said, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
"We need Levi to head back to the Safehouse." Belle said, her curly blonde hair swaying in the cold wind.
"Agreed, I'll take Noah and Jade. Since, their assassin classes will help to sneak us in." Adonis said.
Ever since he became the de-facto leader of our group. Adonis had heavily leaned towards learning leadership skills from Brutus and from his class itself.
He recently received the D-Tier skill [Party Leader]. That allowed him to add people to his own party and share exp.
"I can provide ranged support and you should also take Belle for crowd control." Eric added.
Adonis nodded in agreement.
Eric often gave sound advice when it came to the system and skill choices, he often said it was because of him being a pro-gamer - it was one of his usual boasts.
"Shouldn't I come as well? Its Billy we're talking about here." Rey said.
Adonis grimaced and opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Adam.
"You'll just get in the way. Don' try to act like a fucking hero." Adam said smirking.
Rey wished he could just wack that smug bastard in the face. A classmate of ours could literally be dying and he still found the time to be a fucking prick.
He never really got why Adam liked to pick on him. It happened once, then another time and before he knew it; it became a routine. Rey didn't like the Bastard from day one and apparently the feeling was mutual.
Rey ignored him like he usually did, but it still hurt to see Adonis agreeing with him.
He had repeatedly told himself that being powerful didn't matter as long as he enjoyed himself and took it slow. But, at times like these he wished he could whip out an S-Tier skill like Billy and Trisha.
"Fine" Rey said.
Billy would probably be alright…
***********************
Brutus had drilled them the importance of having a chain of order and orderly conduct. So, Levi had taken the front naturally as a pathfinder and scout, while Alicia took charge.
Vivienne knew the time to strike was now.
May still tried to persuade her to open up about her class and request help to awaken her class and explain her condition. She didn't understand the class like I did.
It didn't want orderly sacrifices given to it for free. The class demanded a price for what I wanted from it. To save a life I must take a life.
And that life has to be something I consider to be worth this trade, not death-row prisoners the Royals could probably offer up. Their lives were already spent.
While Rey had potential for life and power both. Potential that he would waste and would be better off on her.
He still clung behind Alicia like the vermin that parasite that he was.
May didn't agree with her still. It showed in the eyes. But, she would turn a blind eye to it. And despite how the sadness in those eyes pained me, it wouldn't change what I had to do.
Rey would die.
My frequent ventures into the forest were fruitful. I would have died multiple times over, if not for May's assistance. Hiding in shadow and healing me whenever it was necessary.
It was a necessary thing for my body that wouldn't listen to me.
And it showed progress.
My old status that was comparable to a child - as was told by Brutus - had undergone drastic changes.
[STATUS WINDOW]
- Name: Vivienne Flint
- Race: Human (Otherworlder)
- Class: Genius (E-Tier)
- Level: 9 (50% EXP)
- HP: 10
- Strength: 13
- Agility: 20
- Defense: 17
- Stamina: 11
- Mana: 15
- Skills: [Vigor], [Healing Factor], [Sword and Shield Proficiency], [Adaptability], [Sprint], [Birth Control]
-Status Effects: [Frail], [Sickness], [Tiredness], [Breast Cancer], [Dying]
[Additional Information]
She only had a week to live.
While her stats and skills where much greater than Rey's, who had refrained from leveling up after tagging along a few times with Adonis's group in the forest. He still remained a Level 4 and instead only leveled up his skills.
Even though it had been a month since they came into this world.
But it was her Status Effects that would cause her the most problems. They effectively made her actual stats less than a third of what they should be. She was basically fragile as glass without May to support her.
Though her continued healing and pushing her body to improve had helped her gain the C-Tier Skill [Healing Factor].
She would need May to continuously heal her to perform any sort of combat. So, it stinged even more that she wouldn't help her with this.
Vivienne had told her all her reasons, how she could feel death trying to claw her into his grasp and that she only had less than a week to live. But, while she couldn't sway me otherwise, she wouldn't help me achieve something when the process went against her beliefs.
The argument had left them hesitant to approach each other for the past week or so.
So, she would need to strike fast and true. The saving grace of all this was that Rey would be unable to kill her even if he wanted to. Rey had revealed what he had chosen as a skill to Jade - big mistake - and everyone had known of it by the end of the day.
The element of surprise was on her side and all she had to do was wait for the perfect moment…
Levi raised a hand, signaling them to stop.
"Up head is the territory of a pack of E-Tier wolves. We'll have to go around it slowly."
He guided us around stealthily, going through the bushes hiding us from the line of sight of the wolves.
Vivienne hunched over and slowly moved behind Sydney with May to her side. The leaves rustled as the slowly moved careful not to make a noise.
The only one paying attention to her was May, while the rest of them where looking ahead and paying attention to the wolves.
'Now's my chance' thought Vivienne.
Vivienne raised her leg and kicked Sydney in the back of her knee.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh" She yelled and fell over with a thud. The thorny bushes grazing her cheek.
The wolves reared their ugly heads to Sydney all eyes on her, causing Levi's skill to be ineffective and allowing for everyone to be discovered. They snarled and the closest members charged towards Sydney, while she scrambled around to get up.
Justin ran over immediately and helped Sydney to her feet, shielding her from the wolves with his bulky body.
"RUN!!!" Justin yelled to Sydney, she hesitated for a moment but shared a look with him and then ran.
Adam cursed loudly before reinforcing the front, wielding his sword with gusto. Levi and Trisha also moved in to help hol
May transformed into a shadow and hid in Adam's shadow.
"I'll heal you so don't worry about going all out." She said beside him.
"You know that's still fucking creepy that I can hear a disembodied voice in my head." Adam complained as he dodged a wolf that tried to pounce on him.
May was able to transform into a shadow due to her [Shadow Priestess] class and possess a shadow. From there she would be able to cast support and most importantly healing magic.
Though it might be a pretty creepy sight to see your shadow turn into a curvy silhouette and smile at you…
"It's fine if you bleed a lot, I can heal it all for you." May said.
"What the hell do you mean Its fine if I bleed? I'll have you know I'm perfectly okay with not getting hit at all in the first place, you rotten bitch." Adam yelled.
He slashed at the wolf's hind leg and backed away. Justin swooped in with his flying skill and hit him with a punch and flew away above reach of the canine's claws.
Trisha then roundhouse kicked the wolf in the face, causing its skull to cave in and die on the spot.
She smirked, "Hell yeah!"
"Don't steal my fucking kill, you fatass." Adam snarled.
"You guys have to leave now!!!" Levi yelled.
He threw a dagger at one of the wolves but there were too many surrounding them and some of them were already approaching the rest of the party.
Alicia grabbed Sydney's hand and yelled at the rest of them to run in the opposite direction.
Vivienne had her eye on Rey the whole time.
He was perfectly fine just hiding behind Alicia the whole time.
'What a coward." Vivienne thought scathingly.
Vivienne stuck close to Heba and Fanwa as she followed behind Alicia, Sydney and Rey.
Five wolves had separated from the pack and started chasing them. Though their combatants had already done a great deal to delay their pursuit, it wasn't enough.
Alicia gritted her teeth as she ran through the forest. Sydney struggling to keep up with her running speed. Vivienne couldn't keep up at all…
Alicia looked back at her and her eyes steeled.
"We'll have to split up."
She turned towards Rey but before she could open her mouth.
A wolf emerged from the bushes on the right and pounced on Heba, she screamed - flailing as she fell to the ground.
Alicia and Rey looked on with horrified eyes as the beasts tore her apart. Gnawing on her legs. Within a few seconds blood had already seeped to the ground behind her. Pink flesh raw and mangled could be seen visible to the rest of them.
They had all stopped, staring at the sight in front of with terror-stricken hearts.
'Another life on the balance' Vivienne thought regretfully, clenching her fists.
But she had not regretted any of it…
The sight had made Sydney retch her guts out.
Alicia flinched, as if moving towards to help her but the four other wolves spurred from a bit behind her. The wolf who was on top of the still screaming Heba looked on as if smiling with sharp teeth.
The beasts were gaining ground on them and quickly at that.
They ran without looking back, as they split up.
The wretched screams of their companion begging for their help….