CH. 18

"EEARRUUUGHHH!"

"FUCK!"

"WAAAHHHH!"

Shooting from the earth came an untold number of stakes, forged and hardened from the very same dirt. Erupting all around us, they criss-crossed one another and shot skyward, extending approximately a meter or so in length.

Spreading out all around, they filled the clearing, forming a veritable cage that pierced anything, or anyone, unlucky enough to be caught in its web.

"AH DAMNIT!"

Julius reacted almost instantly the moment they sprouted. Continuing to curse, he jumped backwards, swinging his spear in large arcs all around him, cutting through the stream of constantly sprouting stakes that threatened to skewer him alive.

"Shit shit shit shitshitshit!"

One after another he broke through their relentless assault, fighting backwards as he attempted to evade the area of effect.

But he wasn't entirely fortunate.

At least a couple of them had pierced through his armor and body. Breaking free from them, he fell to the ground, slumping over and coughing up blood. A wound in his side steadily released the red, vibrant oxygenated blood his body required to survive, still holding a broken shard within it.

Atard on the other hand, never stood a hope in hell. Without a chance to avoid the coming storm, he had been penetrated an innumerable number of times, skewered relentlessly as he stood above.

Thankfully, from where I was lying with Arabella beside me, the ground had remained in its usual state. Flat, covered with sticks, twigs, leaves and the other loamy top of the forest floor, the spikes surrounding us forming a veritable cage.

"Ack… Ughhh…"

His groaning and breathing grew labored as he fought to survive. Blood from the penetrations ran down the stakes and dripped from them, as well as his body, spattering onto Arabella and I.

"Ugh… Ugh… Ugh…"

"…"

We stared at each other, as I listened to an odd rattle in his chest with each breath that I had never heard before.

It didn't take long until the light faded from his eyes and his twitching, jerking body ceased moving completely altogether. All that remained now was a bloodied, messy pulp of a mutilated mess, no longer resembling the human body.

Of course, no love towards Atard was held by me. I thought he was a disgusting, despicable human piece of trash that deserved to die. The world would be a vastly better place without a predator like him around.

It was still a confronting thing to witness. I had never seen another person die before today, much less in the manner that he did.

No doubt it would have been immeasurably painful in those final moments. I was glad he was dead, it filled me with a mixture of wave of relief.

But was still a horrible death.

"Are you ok?"

"U-um yeah… I think so…"

Still a little worse for wear with what had occurred up to this point, Arabella looked just as mystified as I felt about the sudden appearance of these stakes.

"Damnit brat, you're a magic user? I should've expected that… Ugh!"

Julius spat a bloody mess onto the ground and tried to straighten up. Wrapping a hand over the protruding shard from his body, he grunted in pain as it was sharply jerked free from his body.

"I'm not a magic user… I've never used magic once in my entire life."

Was it really magic? Now that I thought about it, the pressure and heat I had felt moments before the stakes came firing from the ground, had disappeared.

Now I just felt extremely lethargic and tired, like I was days long into a gaming bender without a wink of sleep and my body was about to shut down whether I wanted it to or not.

"That's rubbish. That was definitely a dispersal of mana. Lucky for me my arte picked up what was about to happen just before it actually did. A second longer and I'd have ended up like Atard there."

"I'm being serious! I wouldn't be able to tell you the first thing in managing to cast a spell, much less accumulate mana."

"Don't take me for a fool! I've fought plenty of mages before, I know the difference between magic and a skill."

Julius vehemently dismissed my argument. He wasn't interested in hearing what I had to say, not that it was important anyway. I was still in a bad spot and looking for an escape.

"You look pretty tired kid… Doesn't look like you're much of a threat now. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. You won't catch me out a second time."

Now that he mentioned it, I could feel what little amount of stamina I had left slipping away the more time passed. It was seriously strange, I'd never experienced anything like it before.

"BOSS!"

"You alright boss? What the hell's happened here?"

"Is that Atard?! How did he end up like that?"

The remaining enemy combatants that were still standing must have heard what had transpired and came to investigate. No doubt concerned for their leader who, as they now saw, was not in a good way.

"I'm fine! Just kill that kid over there and get the girl we came for! Quickly fools!"

""Right!""

They began to hack at the stakes gathered between us, situated as we were in the middle of it all. What had potentially saved me, was now a prison I couldn't escape from. Having formed a spiky, broken, thick wall around us, now blocked any route to break free of.

"Come on, come on…"

I willed myself to gather the same feeling I had before that lead to the explosion of magic, if that's what it really was. I had to try something, even if I didn't even know what I was trying to do.

"You have to do something! Do what you just did again!"

Arabella desperately begged me.

"It's no use kid. I can see it in your face. You're exhausted. That's what happens when you overexert your magic capacity. There's no way you have anything left in the tank. You're as good as dead."

Julius taunted me from where he was, blood trickling from the corners of the masks mouth. I had to admit, I was a bit impressed though. The licking he had taken from the stakes had been significant, yet he was still standing.

Like a dense, tangled bunch of thickets, their work was slow. Steadily they were making their way through and it wouldn't be long before they reached us.

"Hurry! Do something!"

"I'm trying! I have no idea what I'm even trying to do you know!"

I snapped at Arabella who shrunk back from me. I didn't have time to play nice, the situation was getting grimmer by the moment. Hell, it was even starting to wear thin on me at how useless she was herself!

Seriously, why did she have to be such a useless, weak little lamb surrounded by a pack of wolves!

And I was sooooo tired…

I was forcing myself to stay awake, the tight grip of impending darkness was firm on my shoulder. Any moment I would succumb to the unconsciousness threatening to overwhelm me.

"I'm gonna gut you like you gutted the boss kid."

One was just about to reach me, only a couple of feet were left of the wall of stakes screening us from them. They were tough staves of earth, that was for sure, but they weren't completely impenetrable. With each hack of a weapon, they were broken and cleared away.

Damn it… I'm running on fumes here…

I was losing out to the blackness and I fell flat to the ground. The strength to support my own body weight had ebbed away far more quickly than I had anticipated.

"Looks like he's just about to go nighty-night there boys. Don't capture him, just cut his throat and be done with it."

Helpless as I was, I could only watch and wait for the inevitable murderising I was about to be subjected to.

"Master Seth! Just hold on! Help is coming!"

I know that voice! Finally, Lilly must have roused Keiran and they're nearly here.

"Looks like their help has arrived… As unfortunate as it is, we're the one outnumbered now, tsk!"

Grumbling to himself and clicking his tongue in annoyance, Julius observed the incoming support from the town.

A group of guards, running at full speed towards them with a very capable fighter at their head, was bearing down on them. The same leader who had already saved my life once before, charged ahead of the pack, faster than I thought any human possibly could run.

"Shit! You guys hold them back. You and you! Help me get out of here. This job is a bust, time to fall back and regroup."

""Aight boss!""

Forming a defensive line to enable the retreat of Julius, they prepared themselves to face their new enemy.

I had to give them credit, for a group that behaved like some sort of evil bandit trope, they were well disciplined and stoic when it came to fighting. Listening to orders and resolutely facing Stoldt and the other guards.

Were they really just some bad group of petty criminals?

"Just you wait daughter of the Duke, I will get you eventually. And you…"

Julius stopped where he was being assisted by one of his masked men and whirled around to me.

"This isn't over. I'll be sure to get you back in blood for getting in my way."

Then he turned back around and disappeared amongst the forest foliage, disappearing from sight. All that was left that remained of him were the fresh bloodied marks left on the greenery from where his bloodied clothing rubbing against them.

"Take this!"

With a clash, Stoldt clean cleaved through one enemy, spraying his blood everywhere as he was cut in half. The fiends upper torso fell one way while the lower half of his body fell where it stood, entrails and the like spilling everywhere.

Steam rose from the heat of his guts as they lay in the dirt.

Not that I saw much after that. Finally, too exhausted to keep my eyes open, I passed out.