Chapter 41 — The Second Arrival
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Kael Grenfort:
Now... let's see who hunts whom.
She took a few steps forward. A cold smirk appeared on her face. The moonlight illuminated half her figure, leaving the other half in shadow.
"Well, I don't know what you're thinking, but you won't leave this place alive. I guarantee that. Especially now that you've taken that beastly form!" she said, and suddenly lunged at me.
She moved so fast that my eyes couldn't track her motion. Only a faint blur remained in the air. Where is she?! — my heart pounded as I frantically scanned in every direction. She circled around me in seconds, then pushed off against the massive tree trunk that reached up to the rooftop and vaulted straight toward me with terrifying speed.
I barely managed to counter the attack. I raised my leg and delivered a devastating strike to the airborne body. The impact shook the entire building. One by one, the floors of three stories cracked and collapsed, and she crashed straight down into the first-floor hall.
She rose slowly from the dust and debris.
"Ohhh, not bad," she whispered, spitting a thick, blood-mixed fluid onto the ground. The droplets splattered across the stone floor, leaving dark red stains.
At that moment, the shockwave from our clash spread throughout the entire school. Nearly every person of power within the building woke in terror. Breaking the silence of the night, the massive bell in the tower began to ring in alarm:
Ding... Dong... Ding... Dong...
The sound echoed across the entire city, rousing its inhabitants.
The woman below had no intention of surrendering. She prepared for a powerful leap, taking a deep breath. The air currents in the room seemed to rush into her lungs with a roar. In the next moment, she shot toward me like a rocket in a straight line. Piercing through all obstacles and floors in her path, she burst out right from under my feet and kicked me high into the air.
I flew upward at great speed, but suddenly, the school's ancient magical barrier activated. I crashed with full force into a shimmering blue energy dome that appeared in the air. The barrier cracked loudly, and from the impact, my body convulsed and began to fall backward — down toward the ground.
Below, she was already preparing to leap again. She drew in a massive volume of surrounding air like a storm vortex, then launched upward like a projectile.
In a split second, she appeared midair right in front of my falling body. With a savage grin, she delivered a brutal strike straight at my head. The collision of such immense power sent a terrifying burst of light across the sky — a flash that lit up the entire area like a massive, bloody firework launched across the night city.
I managed to block the devastating blow at the last moment with my hands, but her force was so overwhelming that I lost balance and plummeted downward at bullet speed. I struck the school's wide training ground like a meteorite. With a thunderous boom, fragments of stone and earth flew in all directions, and a deep crater formed where I landed.
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Huge clouds of dust and dirt covered the training ground. At that moment, panic erupted inside the building — teachers were shouting, evacuating the children to safety.
"Hey, Hans! Where did this disaster come from? Who is that?!" Hanna turned to her colleague in panic, emerging from the dust.
"I don't know!" Hans's face had also lost its color. "This is serious. Go get Sabrine quickly!"
"She's not here right now!" Hanna waved her hands in despair.
"What do you mean? Where is she?!"
"She went out of the city."
"Send her a message immediately! Master Dzao is also not at school. Sabrine is the strongest one here until she arrives! I can't just wait around while she returns — I have to help that woman destroy this creature. Go!" Hanna shouted, and she herself flew swiftly toward the training ground.
At that moment, inside the crater, I barely managed to stand up. My head was spinning, my body convulsing from the horrific pain.
"Axxx, damn it... Is it still impossible?" I whispered through gritted teeth. "Is the gap between ranks really that terrifying?"
I looked at my hands to steady my balance — and froze.
Damn it... She cut off my arms! From the elbows down, they were completely gone. As I stared at the gruesome wounds, the bloody stumps began to twitch. Bones cracked as they regrew, followed by veins and flesh rapidly weaving over them.
— Axxxxxx!!!
It felt as if my veins were on fire. The pill's effect was terrifyingly strong, but this magical regeneration was excruciating enough to drive one mad. Unable to endure the pain, I let out a bestial roar, no longer human:
— ROOOAAARRRR!!!
The force of that dreadful cry scattered every dust cloud across the field in seconds.
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On the other side of the city, silence reigned.
Sabrine was sitting at her desk, calmly filling out ledgers. After a sound of footsteps on the stairs, the door knocked.
"Yes, come in," Sabrine said without looking up.
The door opened and a burly man entered, carrying a stack of documents.
"Sabrine, here are last month's reports."
Sabrine stared briefly at the pile of papers, then let out a weary sigh:
"Fine, just leave them on the table."
The man had barely set the papers down when, suddenly, an intense, blinding dark red light burst through the window, illuminating the entire room and the city. The strange flash lasted a few seconds, then vanished abruptly.
Sabrine quickly rose and walked to the window. Her eyes fixed on the dark sky in the distance.
"What was that light?" she whispered to herself.
"I don't know, ma'am..." the servant also looked out the window, puzzled. "But that direction... it's toward the school, isn't it?"
At that moment, another man came running up from below. Out of breath, pale with terror, he burst into Sabrine's room.
"M-ma'am... huff... huuu..." he struggled to speak, unable to catch his breath.
"Speak quickly! What happened?!" Sabrine's voice grew sharp.
"T-the school... the school is under attack! You need to go there now!"
At that very second, from the same direction as the earlier flash, a savage roar shook the entire city:
— ROOOAAARRRR!!!
Sabrine stared into the darkness beyond the window, her expression turning cold and serious.
"Yes... I think I really do need to go," she said, and with her usual calm and dignified demeanor, she headed downstairs.
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At the school grounds
"Slow down, boy. You're disturbing everyone's sleep," said the woman as she approached the crater with measured steps.
"Hello, Lady Izabella!" Hanna descended from the air and greeted her.
"Oh, good evening... Oh, pardon me, good night, Hanna," Izabella replied, not hiding the cunning smile on her face.
Lying at the bottom of the crater, I gritted my teeth.
"So your name is Izabella... What a beautiful name. But you're not worthy of it in the slightest," I said slowly, in a hoarse voice.
She looked at me strangely, frowning slightly:
"Calling you a young boy is already a mistake. You don't resemble a child in the least. Talented predators show themselves from the very beginning..."
Hanna hesitated briefly, then turned to Izabella:
"Lady Izabella, who is this creature? May I know its identity?"
No! What does this woman want? Izabella thought nervously. If I reveal his real identity, it'll raise questions about my own motives. Especially since I really don't want to deal with that mad old man at the school!
"No, you don't need to know," Izabella answered curtly. "Either way, he is our common enemy. Just help me destroy him..."
Before she could finish, I gathered all my strength and lunged at her with explosive speed. She didn't even register how I closed the distance. With my sharp claws, I aimed a devastating blow at her chest. At the last moment, Izabella crossed her two swords into an X shape and managed to block my strike.
"Ohhh, getting a bit stronger, are you?" she said, barely holding against the immense pressure of my full body. She then glanced back: "Alright, go ahead, Hanna!"
"I'm going to use divine magic to weaken him! That'll make it easier for us!" Hanna shouted.
"Yes, do it!" Izabella yelled.
At that moment, Izabella shoved me back with pure physical force, throwing me to the ground. As I fell, she leaped into the air and mercilessly hurled her two swords downward. The blades shot like arrows and pierced both of my newly regenerated arms, pinning them to the ground!
I writhed in pain and fury, but the swords wouldn't budge:
"No... it can't be! No!"
At that precise moment, a strange echo began to sound from above. Someone was outside the school's ancient barrier, striking it hard, trying to break through.
Thud... thud... thud... — the cracking noise resonated throughout the grounds.
"Hey, which lunatic is it now?!" Hanna said, continuing to prepare her spell chain.
"I don't know. We'll find out when they get in. If it's an enemy — we kill them!" Izabella said coldly.
Hanna began activating her spell. She knelt on the ground, closed her eyes, and started whispering an ancient, incomprehensible incantation:
— Hakegiwnshs... Svdcusksnsh...
Her voice grew louder:
— Oh, Goddess of Light, Glinda! Do not withhold your radiance from me! Aid your humble servants and grant me the power to destroy this destructive abomination! — she pleaded.
At that moment, pale golden magical spirals appeared around me. They swirled like a raging storm, forming a large circle. When the spinning stopped, the light intensified terrifyingly. It illuminated the night sky, pierced through the dark clouds, and struck directly into my body as a massive pillar of light.
My entire body burned as if on fire, the spell's power ready to tear me apart.
Izabella looked down at me with cold, mocking eyes and smirked:
— Give up now…
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