by Weiqi Wang
‘YOU. BLOODY. THIEF!’ Aertiuno was trying to spell something, but Naclad had disappeared again. Amid bolts of lightning and the sparks of firestone, Aertiuno knew that he would be the next victim. However, the very next instant a sharp bellow sounded, just before Naclad’s attack landed —
‘NAWWW!!’ The bellow came with a sharp wave of disturbance that made everyone dizzy, so that all lost their mind for a brief moment. The next moment, Naclad appeared in front of Aertiuno, with a trident on its way to the blonde man’s chest. Naclad looked startled — obviously he hadn’t expected that his attack could be hindered. He looked over to the source of the strange bellow, and saw a hysterical Soarame with his mouth still open!
Aertiuno woke up at the same time as Naclad. Although he didn’t know what happened exactly, he made a wise choice to spurn all the questions and started his illusion attack right away!
‘WENG —’ In Soarame’s vision, Aertiuno’s eyes suddenly shone with a dazzling golden colour, just like the last time when he’d performed persuasive whisper on Soarame. But back then Soarame was absorbed in his illusions and didn’t see it happen, so this was the first time the boy was able to work out the meaning behind the golden colour —
Illusion attack? Soarame’s eyes widened. He saw the two men both transfixed on the spot — they must be having an illusional battle.
‘Crack.’ Something fell off in Soarame’s gown. Soarame was distraught after realizing what happened — Scankeen’s token was broken! It must have sacrificed itself to help the hysterical boy spell the super piercing wave.
Thanks to its sacrifice, the super piercing actually managed to affect everyone, including the Masters; but the only one who was really hindered was Naclad. It was great to see Aertiuno take the opportunity to create an illusion attack, but what worried Soarame was that Naclad seemed to be capable of illusion attack too — he had just shone gold colour to Chelonad minutes ago!
‘Soar!’ The invisible constraint from the Godrealm disappeared as soon as the illusion attack was launched. Halgon hastened forward to hold his tottering friend — the piercing wave had weakened Soarame. At the same time, Halgon darted his Jankide badge at Naclad’s throat with his maximum power, but the badge was stopped right before reaching the target and floated in the air — the Godrealm didn’t vanish; it just shrank in area.
In the next moment, Sandoray’s icearrows arrived too; but they also got stopped, floating around Naclad.
‘No! Let me out!’ Halgon tried to break out of the cell so that he could attack Naclad physically, but the annoying thing was that the cell was too tough and there was no door. So, after a few seconds, the last thing they wanted to see came true —
Naclad’s fingers moved slightly. He seemed to be waking up.
MAGNEER?
Thud! Aertiuno felt over, unconscious.
‘Hooo…’ Naclad exhaled a deep breath, looking exhausted. ‘That was close… this damn elf is actually not bad!’
After that, a series of cracks sounded — the jankide badge and icearrows fell to the ground one after another. It seemed that the Godmade from the scroll had expired; but it didn’t matter now, since Naclad no longer needed any of that.
Everyone looked deadly pale. Chelonad, Gazbell, Kastico and Aertiuno had all crashed and were dying, leaving only Sandoray and the boys in the cell. What on earth can they do now?
‘Finally. It’s over.’ Naclad stepped forward and picked up Halgon’s badge. ‘Thanks for the gift.’
‘LONLONG —’
Right then, the earth suddenly started to shake, accompanied by a terrifying sound from the horizon. The sound was deep and sonorous, and gradually became louder and louder, as if something was marching towards them.
‘What this time?’ Naclad instantly felt that something was wrong. Although he couldn’t tell what exactly, his instinct told him that a terrible threat was approaching and he’d better leave now!
‘Soarame!’ Naclad spelled a series of vancoblades at the cell, trying to cut it open. But he was largely exhausted, so the vancoblades were not powerful enough anymore. Naclad hurriedly made several more attempts, but all failed, so he finally had to float the entire cell up and take it with him — his instinct was telling his mind that he really couldn’t stay any longer!
‘What the hell!’ However, when Naclad arrived at the exit of the campus, he was startled to find that the magic array didn’t work anymore — it was supposed to have transported him out of the campus, but now it seemed to have been frozen by the broadsword!
‘N—A—C—L—A—D—!!!!’
Right then, an ear-deafening roar echoed long and heavy, as if it was pushing the clouds down to the ground. Seconds later, all were thunderstruck to see something that they couldn’t understand, ever —
In the high sky, a gigantic face of some sort was emerging bit by bit. In the beginning it was just a vague outline of an enormous spheroid, but after a few seconds it became clearer and clearer — the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the jaw, and finally, there seemed to be a neck bridging the head to somewhere too far away to be seen. Not until another few seconds later did everyone start to accept that it was some unimaginably gigantic head that was approaching from afar — so that it had to cover a distance of many miles, breaking through all the clouds and air before it finally arrived above the amazed crowd.
The gigantic head was blocking the entire sky over them. The area thus became dark due to the boundless shadow of the head, as if the night had been brought in ahead of schedule.
Everyone was dumbstruck, looking at the head, with a pair of dark-golden eyeballs full of red veins; each eyeball was as big as an arena. The overwhelming size of the head itself had already caused an irresistible gasp, then the mad eyes full of murderous will made people convulse and fall over, out of control.
‘Who… are… you?’ Naclad was shaking badly, in sharp contrast to his previous complacency. Although he was suspected to be a Legendary Master, he still couldn’t conquer the intrinsic fear in front of this incomprehensible creature. But that wasn’t too embarrassing, because he was the only one who was even able to talk right then!
‘DIE!’ The head didn’t bother to offer an answer; it just opened its sky-blocking mouth —
“NO!!” In a desperate bid for survival, Naclad pounced at Sandoray and moved the terrified lady to block the forthcoming attack. However, no attack was launched, but instead an irresistible force drew them towards the head. In the next second, the two were lifted up to the sky towards the enormous open mouth. Barely conscious, everyone on the ground watched the two disappearing into the dark red cavity.
‘SANDORAY!’ They screamed in madness. It seemed that the inconceivable creature, although seemingly on their side, didn’t mind engulfing Sandoray as well as Naclad. The next second, a dazzling light flashed as Naclad screeched, and the two figures disappeared before the light dimmed and went out.
‘HUMPH?!’ A thunderous voice broke out from the enormous head, as it gradually closed its mouth. ‘A TELEPORT SCROLL?’
‘Teleport?’ Barely keeping their sanity from being destroyed by fear, everyone tried to make their brains function. It seemed that Naclad and Sandoray were being teleported away — most likely to somewhere far out of the campus.
‘GAZBELL, ARE YOU OK?’ Having looked completely mad for a few seconds, the big head managed to calm down. ‘HOW ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE?’
‘Who… are you?’ Gazbell was still suffering from the pain on his right shoulder, but he was relieved to confirm that the horrible creature was indeed on his side.
‘HMM…’ Even the breath of the gigantic head sounded like thunder. ‘WE WERE JUST FIGHTING SHOULDER BY SHOULDER, BUT YOU HAVE ALREADY FORGOTTEN ME?’
‘CHE… CHELONAD?!’
****
‘What’s going on?’
‘What are we here for?’
‘What’s the big noise?’
A few minutes earlier, all the students had gathered in the Challenger
s’ Palace, upon the order of the dean. They had no idea what had happened, but thanks to the beastide, the gathering was fast and smooth.
‘Calm down, everyone.’ Dean Romboton, the dean of Stanfaul College, stepped on to the stage. ‘It’s probably a big earthquake, so the Principal wants everyone to be safe.’ That said, he was in fact madly anxious. He had just been informed about a deadly battle out there — so had all other deans — but they had also received an order to protect the students, and get ready to trigger a secret function of the building if bad news came.
‘Do you take us for idiots? Shouldn’t we gather in the open air for an earthquake?’ Casavin had never been an easy student to control. However, his question was certainly a legitimate one, and everyone started to whisper.
Dean Romboton looked sullen at this. He glanced at Dean O’Heven — for making such a great student. ‘This building is different. It doesn’t collapse, even after the scariest earthquake or explosion. But if you are not convinced, I give you my permission to get out. Good luck.’
Casavin had to pipe down. Kardiac, on the other hand, wouldn’t let go of this chance for mocking Casavin aloud. He was letting out his temper — the friends were drugged out of nowhere, and when they woke up three were missing, plus another two kiddies! If it hadn’t been for the earthquake waking them up, they would still be lying in the dorm!
Obviously, Casavin was not good at making friends — many followed Kardiac in mocking him, and the crowd became chaotic. The professors were displeased to see this, but all of them were much more concerned about the unknown battle, so that no one was in the mood for such trivialities.
‘Professor, please tell us the truth!’ Right then, a loud voice pierced through the air and attracted everyone’s attention. ‘Is it a battle out there?’ This time it was Matt; he was excited to see everyone looking at him.
‘…’ The deans frowned. They checked with each other using eye signals. Seeing that the mess initiated by his favourite student was just growing bigger, Dean O’Heven decided to admit the truth, or at least part of it. ‘There is a battle by the gate, yes. But it shouldn’t last long and we should stay put here.’
‘Sir, didn’t the Principal say wizards are to protect the world?’ Matt wouldn’t give up this golden opportunity to impress people. ‘My friends and I just came back from the beastide; there we helped protect Cylone City. I’d like to help protect our school this time!’
‘Yes, let us try!’ Casavin was so regretful that Matt had stolen his hero status. His only choice was to instantly support the boy he’d always looked down at before now. ‘I’d like to…’
‘LONLONG —’
Right then, the entire palace suddenly started to jump up and down. Amid a lot of screaming, everyone struggled to keep their balance. Meanwhile, they saw an enormous bridge-like thing rising into the sky from miles away, where the upper end of the bridge was high above the cloud. Then the bridge was moving closer and leaning over towards them, causing another loud cry. Even the professors’ eyeballs almost popped out when they saw, through the big roof windows, that the bridge was falling on to the palace.
CLANG! The bridge smashed down to the palace, making an ear-splitting loud quake that threw everyone over. Just as they believed that the palace was about to collapse, a strong aura shone from the walls. After the wave of violent movement, the building was still intact, without even a crack — however, the scene they’d witnessed out of the windows suggested that the palace had been pushed down into the soil.
‘What… the… hell?’ Dean Romboton climbed up and muttered. Ignoring the chaotic noise, he watched the thick, deep veins underneath the gigantic bridge, trying to understand what it could be. The bridge was so wide that it shadowed the entire palace; people could barely see sunshine beyond the edge of it, far away. Lighting up the palace, Dean Romboton saw the veins under the gigantic bridge moving as if the bridge was extending; then he heard an earth-splitting roar from it —
‘N—A—C—L—A—D—!!!!’
‘WHAT IS IT?!’ Dean O’Heven challenged Dean Romboton. ‘TELL US!’
‘MIND YOUR MANNER, O’HEVEN!’ Dean Romboton was mad. ‘I know just as much as you do!’ With that, Dean Romboton tried to connect to Gazbell via the Libral Emblem, but couldn’t get through.
‘Did you hear that? Naclad?!’ The professors all headed up. ‘That’s what the battle is about?!’
‘We should go to help!’ Dean Harries was anxious. ‘We can’t just stay here!’
‘Excuse me, but how could a level-8 help in a Master-level battle?’ A professor disagreed.
‘We could go and see!’ More were on Dean Harries’ side. ‘We can’t let Gazbell fight Naclad alone!’
‘Gazbell was not alone, look at the thing above us!’ Another professor argued.
The professors and deans started arguing heatedly. But before they made much progress, they heard another voice from the bridge above — ‘DIE!’
Then, shortly after that, they noticed that the bridge was starting to move backwards. A few more seconds later, it began to lean back up so that everyone regained sight of sunshine through the roof of the palace — but the lower half of it was still under the ground.
‘What now?’ Everyone was dumbfounded. ‘It’s over?’
‘It seems so.’ Dean Romboton looked around. ‘Or is it?’ Then his emblem vibrated, and a dynamic hologram was cast into the air.
‘The alarm is over.’ Gazbell’s figure emerged. He was wearing a big black cloak that covered his shoulders. ‘All students can now go back safely. All Light and Water professors, Tropical Peak immediately!’
‘Were those Soar and Halg?!’ Jemario was always so detail-orientated that she’d caught the brief image of a square cell. From the barred windows, she seemed to see the two boys in it.
‘Let’s go!’ Several professors instantly broke out from the palace on the Principal’s order, leaving the rest to take care of the perplexed students. The professors were all wearing flight cloaks, so that it didn’t take them very long to see a huge tree in front. They used to marvel at the size of the tree, until a few minutes earlier — the unknown bridge over-sized it by far.
The professors landed on the top of the tree, and got down into its trunk through a staircase. Soon enough they entered a big room and saw Gazbell by two big wooden beds, each with a man lying on it. ‘Mr. Principal!’
‘Come, quick! See if you can wake up Aertiuno and Kastico.’ Gazbell stood up and walked aside to leave room for them. The professors devoted themselves to the treatment and, after a while, Kastico opened his eyes. ‘Water…’
‘Great!’ Gazbell hurriedly offered water. Then he held Kastico up, and carefully fed him something from a small potion bottle. A few minutes later, Kastico sat up in great shock. ‘What is this?!’
‘Dragon blood.’ Gazbell’s words surprised everyone. ‘We all owe Soarame — Scankeen gave him this potion and he offered it to us.’ With that, Gazbell couldn’t help recalling the joyous moment when Soarame had showed him the potion. Thanks to it, he had already reconnected his detached right arm.
‘Soarame, from Scankeen?’ Kastico was puzzled. ‘That’s strange… Sunrise Alliance has been short of dragon blood for decades. If Scankeen had some, surely he would have donated it to the Alliance — you know he’s that kind of a person.’
‘Maybe, but he has every right to keep a few drips for himself, just in case.’ Gazbell thought for a while. He tried to recall the behaviour of the only suspicious other — Halgon. That boy had looked as dull as a goose when Soarame claimed the potion to be dragon blood — No, it can’t be him. No way.
‘Mr. Principal, we can’t wake him up!’ A Light professor was sweating. ‘Aertiuno’s mind ocean looks fine, but it seems to have reached an odd equilibrium outside of wakefulness — so he’s steady, but just won’t wake up.’
‘Keep trying!’ Gazbell urged. ‘Helpers from Sunrise Alliance are on their way.’
‘Where’s Sandor
ay?’ The professor asked. ‘She could be of help here.’
‘Sandoray…’ Gazbell felt his heart ache all of a sudden. ‘She… she’s gone!’
‘Gone?!’ Everyone was astonished to hear this. ‘What do you mean “gone”?!’
‘It’s complicated. I need to talk to Chelonad first.’ Gazbell stood up and walked towards the door. ‘Everyone, keep everything to yourself!’
‘Mr. Principal, wait for me!’ Kastico was pretty much recovered, so he jumped up from the bed and followed Gazbell to another room. There, they saw the two boys waiting anxiously.
‘Soarame, Halgon. Thanks so much for everything.’ Gazbell and Kastico walked to the boys. ‘Especially Soarame for your dragon blood, and…’ Gazbell peeked at the sleeping kitten in Soarame’s arms — Kastico didn’t know that the reason he was able to be brought back to life was Snower. If her Life spell hadn’t neutralized the Death spell in Kastico’s chest, it would have been really hard to predict the man’s fate. And after the Life spell, Snower had fallen into sleep due to over-exhaustion.
‘Much appreciated, Soar!’ Kastico grabbed Soarame’s hands firmly. ‘Dragon blood is unbelievable!’
‘You are most welcome.’ Soarame tried not to look at Halgon, as the boy had repeatedly exhorted him.
‘Now, I think we are all here.’ Gazbell closed the door. ‘Let’s start, Chelonad.’
‘What about Aertiuno?’ Chelonad didn’t speak until a few seconds later, as if he was reluctant to start the meeting without Aertiuno. ‘He’s not becoming a plant man, is he?’
‘Don’t make random guesses.’ Gazbell hurriedly said. ‘Sunrise Alliance’s support should be arriving any minute. Let’s be patient for now.’
‘PATIENT? HA!’ Chelonad sounded angry. ‘I’m not patient enough? Not even to another troublemaker that Scankeen brought here?’
‘Chelonad, watch it!’ Kastico instantly spoke up. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’