Chương 13: [BL] 13. Will to Fight [3]

Name: Willow [Wind Mage Outfit] [+100% Runes, +50% Arcanic, -50% Rune Cost] Class: [Wind Mage—Level 5] Rune: [Dark Wind 10/12] Spell: Scythe (1) [1] Dismember [2] Ravenous Spear [2] Enhancer: [Ravenous Wind] [Devour] [Ravenous Eyes] The squads took down five wyverns. Willow did not pay attention to how the other squads brought down their targets. She examined the corpses from afar; all four had bashed-in heads and snapped-back necks.

Willow's wyvern had completely different wounds, with its scales sheared apart and bleeding from its throat and stomach. Mine is far more gruesome, she thought smugly to herself. Just after another guard arrived to replace Dio, Raven received a call-up. She ran toward the back-line, where four other squad leaders gathered. Everyone's eyes followed them. One of the squad leaders stood with plate armour—a feather stuck from the back of his helmet. He stood alone, commanding the other four.

[Vanguard—Level 23] After he finished talking, the squad leaders quickly ran toward their squads. Raven's lips frowned to the point that Willow thought the redhead was about to run over her until she stopped, still mumbling something under her breath.

"Raven? Everything good here?" Josha asked.

"Change of plan, we're going on the offensive. Instead of waiting for the ballista, we will attack them."

"How?" Shera complained.

"Following the captain's order is a must," the new guard said, a gruff-looking man with a scarred face.

"And we shall do so," Raven said, meeting the man's gaze.

"Shera, you will be on the front. Now, quick, before they finish their swoop on us again." Donned in her [Witch] outfit, Shera obeyed Raven with hesitant steps. She alone walked ahead of the group. Behind her, two meters away, the guards converged into a single unit. Willow found herself being herded forward beside four others who wore mage outfits like hers, with different cloak styles and colors. Some of the guards also walked forward; they had their Sylph Swords unsheathed.

"Don't hold anything; use it all," Raven said as she stepped beside Willow, readying her spear. She knelt on one knee and propped her spear up.

"Use it all? All five runes?" Willow asked, getting a nod.

"Shera! Give us mist!" the Vanguard ordered, to Shera's small flinch. The girl gave a hesitant yes and thrust her arms up. Thick, cold blue mist exuded from her body and settled across the ledge. Freezing mist hit Willow's face, and she made sure to draw a deep breath so as not to torture herself with the sharp air. Inside, they could see the outlines of the wyverns as the sunset shone on their gleaming scales. She watched as the red lights on each wyvern's throat began to gather.

Raising her Sylph Sword, Willow closed her eyes, letting the sword tell her all about Cleave. A part of her reacted to the spell; it was a lesser version of Scythe and was cast with normal wind. An almost invisible force stirred inside Willow. She furrowed her brows and opened her eyes to see a white, translucent dark hand rose from her own hand and reach toward the Sylph Sword. The sword brimmed with verdant green in jubilation, and the hand disappeared, leaving Willow with the confidence to wield this sword.

"Now!" Willow slashed down. A blade of wind streaked through Shera's mist, letting sunlight pierce Willow's right eye. She winced, closing it. Then Willow let out another four wind blades to follow the first, lashing them upward in a swift streak, banishing the surrounding mist. The wyverns' flock did not expect the attack. Willow's blade of wind caught two wyverns. One across its wings, causing it to veer downward. A slight tremor shook the ground as the wyvern hit the bottom of the ledge.

Her other attack landed straight at a wyvern's stomach. The monster tried to rise at the last second, only for the wyvern behind it to ram into it, earning a nasty gash, but that was not enough to make the wyvern fall. Three other Wyverns were shot down by others with their own spells.

"Watch out! Shera!" Raven shouted. Shera looked behind her, and a wyvern's body plunged toward her. Josha was already moving; he grabbed Shera's outfit and threw her up onto his shoulder, causing her to yelp as Josha carried her to safety. They barely made it as the wyvern crashed down with an impaled throat, its body scattering pebbles toward the guards. Willow coughed up some that made it to her mouth and faced up again.

When she was about to build Scythe, the Wyverns had already retreated, resuming their strategy to flock together so they could let out fireballs and flamethrowers upon them. Amid the flock, the red wyvern Willow had seen earlier hovered, flapping its wings in the middle of their formation. Its scaly eyes were too far for Willow to make out, but she could tell it was frustrated from the wyvern's body language, like how it tightened its talons.

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"Do you think they'll retreat?" Josha whispered to Willow as the captain barked orders, splitting them into four defensive formations. They called it the Turtle—one Guard at the front, wielding a guardian Rune, ready to bear the brunt of the attack. Willow was about to answer Josha until she realised the question was obviously not for her.

"If they're smart, they will," Raven said. She picked Willow's back cloak and led her to her formation behind the guard. An orange flag waved beside them from the middle group. Raven smiled.

"The ballista is ready; now all we need to do is wait," she said, crouching beside Willow, forming the shield roof again.

"Are they going to?" Willow asked.

"I mean, why aren't they going for the guys below on the Rift Farm's wall?"

"Most of our strongest are there to handle the Treant and in case anything is needed inside the Rift," Raven said.

"If it ignores us, then it won't have an easy time delivering an airborne attack. It's probably smart enough to realise that." Willow nodded along.

"I want to use a new spell; this one has more range than my last two." The Ravenous Spear. A spell into which she could charge more runes. The ravenous wind was hungry, so its hunger could be shaped into a spear that feeds on intent to kill, requiring an exact target for Willow to focus on. In exchange, if she charged the spear enough, it would even possess a seeking capability.

"New spell?" Shera asked with doubt in her voice.

"I think you should just use the one that summons a ton of wind. That one is proven."

"I agree, Willow," Josha said.

"You can shred their stomach scales, leaving Raven with an easy target so she doesn't have to find their throats." Those were reasonable arguments…

"No, if the Bright Star thinks her new spell better serves us, then she should use it," the guard said. Josha and Shera complained, but Raven cut them off.

"A spell is different from an Enhancer. Our spirits know how they work. Go for it." A smile marred Willow's lips. She didn't need to be told twice. She opened her palm up, and a dark wind gathered, spiraling into a small shaft that expanded into a spear half the length of Willow's arm. It can go bigger. The dark shaft formed like a tempest with a spearpoint at one end. It was powerful, much more so than Sycthe, but its potential was much higher, and the wind cried in joy as Willow realised their hunger.

Further dark whirlwinds spun along the shaft, lengthening it. Ahead of them, the Wyvern swoop in again, this time their throats already brimming with fire.

"More Rune," Willow mumbled. Her excitement soared along with the ravenous Wind, and she fed two runes, using a total of four in this single spell. A stormlike-black gust howled with a rippling ecstacy, and Willow had to stand as the spear rose to Raven's spear length. Josha, who was beside her, lowered his shield and warily watched Willow. Her cloak rippled ferociously, and a circle of gale spun around the group. Her eyes locked onto the red Wyvern, right in the middle of the formation.

In a violent gale, Willow launched the spear, and it zipped, shredding through the sky, blasting apart the remnant of Shera's mist. One of the Wyverns tried to shield its leader, but the spear tore apart its stomach and lacerated it in a keening wail until it pierced through. The red Wyvern saw this and hovered backward, blowing a strong current of gust with its wings, and raised its talons up to block the Dark spear. Its talons glow with a blue sheen, deflecting the spear. A spell?

But regardless, the ravenous Spear punched through, impaling the wyvern's shoulder. The spear dissolved, and with it, an explosion of blood followed. The wyvern lost its altitude and went into free-fall below, to the high-pitched wail of its flock.

"Fire! Now fire, you fools!" Raven lurched up and screamed toward the ballistas. A dozen large arrows flew through the sky, arcing toward the flocks of Wyverns. One wyvern got torn across its head, blasting its brain completely. Another's wings were impaled, and it lost its flight, floating toward the Rift Farm, where it would be handled. Willow moved forward, running and stopping herself just behind the ledge. Spinning Scythe on her finger, Willow tried to find a target.

Unfortunately, All of them were out of range, including the red-scaled wyvern that had managed to regain its flight. The six wyverns flew together, forming a protective meat shield around them. A predatory gaze bore down on Willow, so she took a step back toward Josha, who caught her. He shook his head, and Willow nodded, calming herself and the estacy dancing inside her. That's enough. The surviving Wyvern flock flew away, leaving their dead brethren behind. --"Well?

Don't keep me waiting," Willow said, placing her fists on her hips. Josha and Shera dug into the wyvern's body. They had turned it upside down and were gruesomely carving into it to find its core.

"You know, you can help too," Shera groaned. She tilted her head and scrunched her nose as she reached inside the Wyvern's inner body.

"Ugh."

"Don't complain. Do this, and I will forgive the slap."

"Fine, you better not bring that up again," the other girl grumbled, with blood spurting onto her hair.

"I'm gonna cry," she sniffled.

"No luck, damn it," Josha sighed. He was knee-deep in the dragon and did not hesitate to get his hands dirty. Tapping the leftover scales of the wyvern still stuck to its body, Willow drew Josha's attention and give hima reassuring smiled.

"It's a long shot anyway. We can still check the other wyvern I killed."

"That one is probably deep in the forest!" Shera complained.

"I don't know if Josha and I will be allowed to—""All three of you," Raven's voice intoned behind them. Willow turned to see the redhead pursing her lips, with Dio beside her. Both of them were still hesitant to approach. More accurately, they probably still did not accept that Willow had taken over Mera's body, judging by their body language.

"You should stop this." Battling the need to roll her eyes, Willow reached her hand up to Josha, who gave her a bitter smile and accepted it. Josha sat down upon the charred ground and rested against the Wyvern with a heavy sigh.

"Raven, I don't know for the life of me what your obsession with us is," Shera said, gritting her teeth, forming a fist.

"I get we are stupid. But how is this your business? We're trying to get—""I have it from my kill," Raven said. Upon her palm was a small green orb that looked like held an eye inside it. [Rider Class Stone] Strength: C Dexterity: B Vitality: C Constitution: B Sense: B Arcanic: E A class that shared strength with riding bonds to unlock greater power. What? What with this information? She certainly did not get any of these when she consumed the lantern…

"Well, lucky you." Willow chewed her lips and crossed her arms in annoyance.

"I'm giving it to him," Raven said casually.

"You what?" Josha asked.

"You hear me, but on one condition. Both of you back to jail."

"Raven, are you being serious?" Shera demanded.

"Yes. Now that both of you are class holders, you will be integrated into the Guard system. But letting you do it immediately will set a precedent among many others, and we will not want that, especially when the Cycle is starting," she explained. Raven offered the class stone to Josha.

"It's your choice." Josha examined the stone. His hand twitched. To Willow, it was obvious he wanted it, but something held him back. His eyes then went to Willow, who tilted her head in confusion. Is he asking for my permission? She nodded, and Josha took the stone from Raven's hand.

"Also, you." Raven turned to Willow.

"You're coming with me. From this day on, you will practice the sword with me."

"That's two requests," Willow mumbled.

"Three with me going back to jail," Shera said.

"Fine, I will do it," Willow said. She had planned to ask for Josha's guidance anyway.

"Good, we start now."