Chương 28: (28) B1 C28: Recklessness

"Now, what are we supposed to do with them?" Lucia asked as she turned her gaze to the golden barrier only a few meters away. Ismena and Hamund continued to watch us from behind the safety of their Sanctuary spell, but I was beginning to see the sweat crawl down Ismena's brow as she struggled to sustain the spell's expensive cost. Ismena was visibly shaking, yet Hamund didn't look all that better. He'd begun to heal from his wounds, yet the blood coating his collar and armor still gave his face a sickly paleness.

"We kill them, obviously, but we might as well take the opportunity to recover before we go on the offensive. Until then, we might as well loot what we can," I replied as I lifted myself from the log. As my eyes glanced around at the bodies surrounding us, my gaze drifted to Roley's corpse. He was still bleeding out on the forest floor, his head having rolled a few feet from his body. What remained of his neck was torn open and spilling blood like a faucet into the growing puddle of blood beneath him.

I desperately wanted to go over to his corpse and drain him dry, yet it didn't feel appropriate to do with Lucia watching. I also felt caution toward the two remaining slavers, as I couldn't help but inwardly admit that I'd be too occupied with my feast to react to an opportunistic attack. Thus, I felt convinced to resist the urge clawing at the edges of my mind, even if it hurt me to do so.

"I assume you were trained to wear heavy armor?" I asked Lucia, hoping she'd distract me from the tempting aroma coating the atmosphere.

"We'll be taking their equipment?" Lucia asked with a nod. She turned to look at Hamund, the only slaver within sight who wore a set of plate armor.

"Unfortunately, I believe his armor is too large for me."

"You'll have to compromise," I nodded, "Why don't I help you pick out something else? Roley looked like he might've been your size?" She nodded, then turned her gaze to the dead slavers surrounding us. Then, over the next minute or so, I helped Lucia pick out a new set of armor. While she was stripping the robes from Jonathan's corpse, I went ahead and dragged Malyn and Drew from the underbrush they'd been hiding in.

Lucia nearly turned white upon seeing the bitemark carving through their necks, an action that immediately caused regret to flow through my mind, but she quickly moved on from the shock and continued to search for whatever armor fit her best. Malyn was the closest to her size, but Lucia didn't want to wear robes meant for mages. She planned to be a frontline fighter, as she was trained, and there were very few cases where robes were helpful in close-range situations.

Jonathan's robes were too large and shared that same weakness, so she eventually found herself choosing between Roley's and Drew's armor. There was hardly a difference between the two, so Lucia lazily chose Drew's outfit, considering it was less bloodsoaked, and spent the next few minutes putting it over her body. She was disappointed that the armor was so flimsy and weak, but having any sort of protection was better than having none at all.

Afterwards, she took Hamund's old sword, due to it being a more appropriate weapon for her, and handed Dave's shortsword back to me. I, myself, chose to collect the few daggers remaining on Roley and Drew's corpses. Drew only carried one on him, yet it was sharper and longer than the near dozen Roley strapped across the makeshift bandolier hanging from his shoulders.

"I'm not really much of a dagger person," I sighed as I adjusted the scabbard hanging at my side. I stared down at the pile of equipment gathered before us. The numerous daggers were left behind, as I only chose to keep the longer dagger I'd found on Drew and the Shortsword I'd taken from Dave.

"You aren't? You seemed the type," Lucia told me, "You fight like an opportunist—always going for the weak spots whenever your opponents are caught off guard. I would've thought you'd be happy with a dagger."

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm more lethal with a dagger than with a sword," I told her. Then I looked down at the dozen shards of metal beneath me before I held up my fingers to stare at the silver claws poking out of my fingers, "I don't think I'm much of a weapon person in the first place. I.. I don't know, it's hard to explain. At the very least, I'm happy only having one or two weapons. But a dozen? That's just too many."

"I understand," Lucia nodded. She turned away from the pile of loot and back toward the glowing barrier, "So we're supposed to wait until their spell goes down?

"Ordinarily, I'd say yes. Sanctuary isn't the sort of spell that mimics a physical barrier. It's more of a territory claim. An expensive one, at that," I explained, "Now, that technically means it wouldn't be able to stop you from entering, but it's safer to wait for them to run out of energy."

"It wouldn't stop me? So I'd be able to charge in and push them out?"

"Yes," I nodded. I put my hands on my hips and turned to Lucia, "But try to imagine what would happen if something went wrong. What if they were prepared for your attack—I mean, it'll be kind of obvious—and they manage to defend themselves appropriately. I wouldn't be able to do a thing while the barrier remained, so you'd be stuck in there with them. It isn't exactly a good strategy."

"But I can?"

"I mean… yeah?" I sighed. I turned back to the golden barrier.

"But that should be our last resort, and only our last resort. It won't be long until she can't maintain the spell any longer, so we might as well get comforta—Shit, Lucia!" To my horror and surprise, the blonde teenager charged forward before I had the chance to shut my mouth. There were only a few meters between where we stood and the edge of the barrier, so she'd already reached the golden territory before I was able to grab onto her.

Her shoulders passed through the golden membrane as if it wasn't there, then carried on toward the robed mage who was busy maintaining it. I moved forward as fast as I could, but the little teenager was surprisingly agile for somebody who apparently specialized in heavy armor. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Hamund moved just as I did, though the injuries sporting his shoulders and neck made him move slower than I expected.

He dashed to the side, hoping to intercept Lucia before she had a chance to reach Ismena, but failed when the knight-apprentice moved around him. With nobody to stop her, Lucia slammed her full weight into Ismena's crouched form, easily toppling the mage and destroying the golden barrier in the process. Sanctuary disappeared with a bright flash of light, almost like an explosion. There was no force or sound, yet I felt the pressure push against my mind like a horrible memory.

Disgust, anxiety, fear, terror, and then dread. A full course of emotions spiraled through my mind in the brief moment the holy energy passed over me, nearly pulling me to the ground as I stumbled forward. Before I had the chance to recognize the affliction, it was gone, and I pressed my heels into the ground with renewed anger as I charged to help my companion.

Hamund was lifting his arm, hoping to slam his shield into Lucia's back while she was still stuck on the ground, but I reached him before he had the chance to strike. We toppled to the forest floor in the same manner as the other two, then quickly scrambled to maintain any sort of footing as the chaos began to unfold. Hamund quickly pressed his heels away from me, hoping to widen the gap between us while I activated Crimson Instinct. To my satisfaction, every mortal within range was low enough to cull.

Although it meant Lucia was among that list, it wasn't a surprise considering how low her level was. I pounced forward, my claws extended as my fangs attempted to find purchase upon Hamund's figure. Whether it was due to our positioning or dumb luck, Hamund managed to push me off of him before I drew first blood. I felt myself growl in frustration as he used his feet to throw me to the side. Lucia and Ismena, meanwhile, were struggling with a similar battle of their own.

Ismena was already low on mana, yet to make things better for us, she'd dropped her staff soon after falling to the ground. Now, she was using basic cantrips to push Lucia away from her. Unfortunately for us, Ismena didn't seem to be the type of mage that relied entirely on her equipment. Every spell she used was just a weaker version of what she'd shown us earlier, which meant Lucia was stuck on the defensive as she focused on dodging or blocking anything thrown her direction.

I turned back to Hamund, who'd barely managed to lift himself to his feet. I did the same, pouncing once more before he had the chance to steady his posture. The man lifted his shield in response, then slammed it into my side in an impromptu bid for survival. The attack landed firmly upon my side, cracking a few of my ribs in the process, but his posture was made worse with the desperate attack. I stepped to the left, then jumped forward and pressed the entirety of my body weight upon his shoulder.

He screamed as he fell, then screamed some more as my fangs sank into his neck. He struggled against me, but even his high Might attribute couldn't do a thing against me now that I'd snapped my jaws around his jugular. As the strength left his body, I focused once more on the delicious taste flowing into my body. +2, 500 BP (Level 17 Human Vanguard) With Hamund dead, I turned my attention to our last opponent, who had pushed Lucia further away with half a dozen well timed spells.

I stood up, wiping the blood away from my chin as I did so, before quickly repositioning myself to the side. Ismena stopped, then took a quick moment to stare at Hamund's bloodless corpse behind me. Lucia stopped as well, her own attention discarded to the side as she stared at Hamund. Ismena looked up into my eyes, her own set contorted with an expression of disgust and anger.

"Monster!" She shouted as she slammed her palm in my direction. A flowing wave of golden energy shot forward before slamming into my body with the force of a powerful gust of wind. The attack didn't actually hurt, nor did it replicate the strange mental affliction I'd experienced earlier, but it did throw me upon my back. When I looked up, I found that Imena had surrounded herself with a second spell of Sanctuary, this one was smaller and flickering like a lightbulb on its last legs.

Her eyes were torn to the ground, her brow furrowed in concentration as her two hands pressed against the edges of the spell. Surely she didn't think a second attempt would work when the last had failed, right?

"Seriously?" I sighed in frustration as I slowly lifted myself to my feet. I looked up at the golden barrier, my eyes drifting toward Ismena's struggling form as a smile crossed my face.

"You know that won't work, Ismena. We could just do the same thing we did just now. You know that, right?"

"No!" Ismena spat with fury. Her hardened gaze lifted from her staff as she returned my stare with a rageful one of her own.

"I will survive you, Monster, even if it takes every ounce of willpower I have! I will survive!"

"That doesn't even… whatever," I muttered silently. I turned toward the barrier again, my attention focusing on the flicker happening every few seconds. Why had Ismena even bothered with another Sanctuary spell when the last had failed so easily? Surely she didn't think Lucia wouldn't charge in again? Even if she didn't, or by some strange miracle it suddenly prevented her from entering, surely Imena knew that she wouldn't be able to hold out until sunrise?

Not only did she have no reason to suspect that there was any sort of time limit, but there were still four or five hours until morning. Sanctuary simply wasn't the type of spell that could be maintained for that long. That was especially the case for this Sanctuary. At most, Ismena had maybe a minute left until she ran out of mana.

"Why are you so desperate?" I asked. Then I shrugged, "I mean, you don't want to die. That's obvious, but why are you so… stubborn?" What was she waiting for? Maybe she really did believe that if she held the spell for long enough, we'd just leave her alone. Maybe by some twisted stretch of her imagination, she believed that Sanctuary made her invincible, despite the very obvious weakness stretching across its frail surface.

Actually, now that I was having a closer look at it, did this even count as a fully functional Sanctuary spell? It was flickering on and off and some parts of the barrier had begun to evaporate away like a sheet of burnt paper! No—not even a desperate mind would recognize this as a decent layer of protection. This was a failure. And it wasn't going to be able to stop me at all.