Chapter E1: Hope Amidst Despair

(Effinshia's POV)

 

*Kapow!

A thunderous snap was heard as I lay the final blow against the weird troll with the crown. I then faced the multiple of monsters that were currently being blocked by the wall of cobalt. 

Cobalt Izuna as they dub it, is a skill that creates crystalline cobalt that protrudes from the ground. Originally, it was supposed to be used to make a makeshift wall, but I modified my version to have sharp spikes at the top to pierce through enemies as it rises from the ground. It could be called the advanced form of ice pillars and stone wall I guess, it is one of my favourites. 

Although such a short wall couldn't possibly prevent this many monsters from moving forward, it was enough to buy what little time the folks behind me needed to escape the city.

I looked at the now smashed face of the troll and let out a breath that I didn't realise I was holding. 

How many monsters have I killed today? 

I would like to think I killed a couple dozen of them, but deep inside I know the number was probably closer to a hundred. I didn't know where the monsters came from, nor did I know how they managed to appear all of a sudden in large numbers such as these, but there were enough in the city to destroy armies. 

Those same monsters that were circling the pillars right now. They looked wary of my figure. Understandable as I just neutralised large chunk of monsters including the weird troll. Instinct probably telling them that facing me would mean death.

It's weird.

The monsters are way too coordinated despite the multitude of types that are present. Is there something or someone controlling them? Giving directions or directives? Or is this merely a swarm being controlled by a collective? Questions kept popping up in my mind, but no certain answers could be found unless I get deeper into the matter.

Knowing the monsters won't attack me, I turned my back to them to assess the situation at the north gate. Thousands of people huddled near to each other, cowering in fear next to the large gate, their path blocked by monsters outside of the city.

Luckily the situation seemed to be well on that side, it won't be long before the combat group on that side clear a path, and the people inside could exit the city. The people on this side of the gate, however, weren't so lucky.

I looked to the fallen bodies of brave warriors who gave their lives to protect the people of the city — my sympathies. The remaining surviving ones weren't looking that great either, but they will live another day. 

My eyes then fall upon a black hair male looking at me with his mouth agape; it was as if he saw a ghost or something. He was wearing what seemed to be a tunic covered in leather pieces that covered his vitals. His black eyes stared right at me. 

It was the same kid I ran into earlier today, the lucky one with the spark in his eyes. Looks like he is giving it all as well. What was his name again?

Suddenly, I felt a presence from above. I faced upwards only to see a large black dragon flying past my location. The strong winds from his wings blew upon the gate and messed up my already messy hair. My coat, the shapeshifting shield Armageddon, flutters with the wind.

"Tsk" I let out an annoyed tone as I fixed my hair and adjusted my cap, the shapeshifting weapon Torarias, before proceeding to scale up the building nearby me. My feet skipped across the rooftop, giving chase after the dragon.

 

* * * * *

 

There won't be any success in evacuating the citizens unless that thing is taken down. No matter how far they run, the dragon would always catch up after all. 

I looked around the city and spotted a sizeably tall building with a large tower. A tower high enough to give me a good view of the city. It was still in good condition despite the chaos. 

Keeping my pace, I ran across the rooftops of the burning houses, killing any monsters on my path before reaching the large building. With haste, I climbed the walls of the tower, jumping across the platforms and parkouring upwards to the highest point. 

Once I reached the tallest part of the tower I stabbed my sword, my partner Kirin, onto it and used it to hang out from the tower, pebbles of rock falls to the ground below. I looked towards the flying black dragon only to see it was flying farther than expected near the middle of the city.

I need some sort of way to bring it down, but I can't possibly chase down a dragon on foot. I thought to myself as I reached my hand to my waist to undraw the weapon behind my back, Justicar.

...

Do I want to use Justicar? It is not a weapon that I like to use willy nilly, there are dire consequences (to me at least). Not to mention how I'll immediately get exposed to the powers of this country. On the other hand, with Justicar, all I need is one shot.

The other option was to turn my shapeshifting hat into a large bird so that I may engage the dragon in the air... but to engage a dragon in its home field advantage is a bit too much even for me.

"Any ideas guys?" I asked out loud to no one in particular.

No response. Looks like the weapons I'm carrying around doesn't have much of an idea either. What a bunch of useless mutes, all of them.

Hmm?

*bzzzt *zap *phew!

A loud green bolt of lightning could be seen flying towards the dragon, but the dragon was expecting it. With a flap of its wings, it beautifully dodged the attack.

The lightning bolt looked like grade six magic attack, almost reaching grade seven territory. Strong enough to bring a dragon to the ground for sure. 

Soon after, another bolt of lightning appeared to strike the dragon. Again, it was as if the dragon knew the attacks were coming. It proceeded to dodge the attack without too much trouble before swooping down to breathe fire at the spell's point of origination. A large translucent bubble blocked the fire. The bubble surrounded the entirety of the middle part of the city.

There seemed to be some sort of inner castle there. Lightning zaps could be seen originating from the castle periodically trying to strike the dragon, but it didn't seem like it had any luck hitting it at all.

It's probably this country's military units. Pretty impressive considering the middle of the city was jammed pack with monsters, and they still have the resources to spare to battle against the dragon.

I didn't think they would be able to keep it up forever. They were going to run out of magic to shoot at the flying lizard eventually. Highly possible that the dragon would tire itself out before the people in the castle though. 

But it's not enough, the people in the area surrounding the inner castle might be safe, but the people outside were not. On the off chance the dragon decides to ignore the castle, thousands were going to die.

Hmmm...

The bolt of lightning was strong enough to take down the dragon. I know that for a fact. The other dragon got shot down by the same bolt of lightning earlier as well. The only problem it seems was that the folks in the castle are to have trouble aiming at the dragon.

I reckoned it is probably because the spell they use has some sort of drawbacks, reduced accuracy in exchange for more power perhaps? Makes sense I guess when you want to shoot down a flying fortress. But against a dragon, it won't matter how strong the attack is if you can't hit it.

I held out my other free hand, a ball of energy appeared on it. If the spell is made with power in mind, I just need to reverse back the magic. To make it more accurate in exchange of power, but I also need it to be powerful enough not to bounce off the dragon. With that in mind, I made a couple of alterations to the ball of energy. Once completed, I lie in wait for another lightning bolt.

*bzzzt *zap

As expected, another bolt of lightning flew out of the castle, only this time it completely misses its mark. I held out my hand that was holding the ball of energy and just like how lightning strikes the path of least resistance, the lightning flew straight to the ball in my hand. The feeling of electrical currents courses through my left hand, numbing it.

I would be lying if I said it didn't sting, but it was not something I couldn't handle. I then pushed out my hand, redirecting the current of the lightning towards the flying dragon.

The loud thundering sound of lightning could be heard as it travelled right at the dragon. The Dragon tried its best to dodge it with its aerial manoeuvres, but the lightning bolt simply followed the direction of the dragon. 

*Pow!

Being hit with the lightning bolt, the dragon roared out in pain. It wasn't fatal, but as long as I keep repeating the same attack, it would eventually go down.

As I was getting ready to prepare another ball of energy, the dragon that I was keeping my eye on started to appear bigger and bigger. It wasn't long before I finally noticed the dragon was diving at my location at full speed.

"Shit!" I cursed out loud as I braced myself for the dragon's descent on me.

If I can't get to the dragon, then I simply have to get the dragon to come to me, I guess.

"Kirin! Ready up!" I shouted out loud.

The sword in my right hand responded with a lovely blue glow as I jumped off the tower onto the path of the angry dragon. I adjusted my body in the air and held the extension of myself, my partner, the sword Kirin with both hands and just like with the troll earlier, with a spark, I landed on the dragon's head full force and swung my sword down onto its head.

*Kapow!

The sword tip penetrated through and stuck itself into its right eye.

The dragon let out a scream of pain as it crashed into the tower that I was previously on. The dragon then started to shake its head vigorously, trying to get me off its head. I held on, my hands not letting go of Kirin which was stuck firmly into its bleeding eyes.

As this was happening my shapeshifting shield(coat) Armageddon siphoned off a bunch of magic from me. 

Oi! I needed that!

Armageddon then transformed itself into multiple tendrils which stabbbed the dragons from multiple locations to give me more stability. Seeing the chance that Armageddon gave me, I transferred a chunk of magic power to Kirin. My partner started to vibrate and glow brighter. Soon after, an eerie screeching sound could be heard from the blade and then-.

*Boom!

A small explosion happened and shattered the dragon's right eyes into a splatter of blood. Disgusting lizard blood now all over me, urghh. 

The dragon let out a scream of pain and rapidly makes it's decent. But at this angle? It's going to crash directly onto the city! The city might be evacuated, but on the off chance that there may still be some people down there...

"Torarias!" I shouted towards the sleeping tiger(cap) which was currently resting on top of my head.

Hearing my voice, it then turned into a parachute of sorts, Armageddon with its free tendrils then grabbed hold of the now turned into parachute Torarias before expanding it. Immense pressure was exerted on me as the dragon trajectory change from a sharp nosedive to flat angle towards the nearby forest. 

Just as the dragon was about to crash, Armageddon and Torarias changed back into their original forms, and I quickly ran up the dragon's body and stabbed the back of the dragon. 

The scales, although hard, were no match for us. I stabbed it deeply. Then I continued to run further, dragging the now lodged Kirin on the back of the dragon before pulling it forwards in a slashing motion.

*Shing

A lovely metallic sound could be heard as I disembarked the dragon into a perfect landing. The ground shook as the dragon crashed to the ground, its body slamming down into the trees of the forest before finally coming to rest after quite the distance, a bit away from where I landed.

I gave chase after it, of course. A dragon is not so quickly gotten rid off after all.

*grumble

The ground trembles as the dragon slowly stood up as I predicted, it seemed to be in a daze before the other eye of the dragon snaps its sight onto me. A gargle could be heard as the dragon faces upwards, a red glow could be seen from its neck.

 Not willing to give the dragon a chance to give me a hot bath, I stepped onto the ground in front of me. Magic flowed out into the ground before appearing underneath the dragon. A magic pillar of energy appears and struck the throat of the dragon. The dragon choked before opening its mouth to release black soot.

Seeing the opening, I doubled my speed and with a quick clean strike, I cut a line on the dragon's throat. Its scales proved to be worthless against my assault as lizard blood came gushing out of the opening on its neck, the dragon then thrashed around. 

Like a rat on death's door, it struggled and trashed around the forest as more and more blood gushed out from its injuries. I backed off a reasonable distance and maintained a ready stance as I continued to watch the dragon jerked around, in case the dragon intends to do another attack or worse yet, tried to run away.

I continued to stare at the dragon, watching it die a slow, painful death. I let out a sigh of relief as I proceeded to swung my sword to get any blood sticking to Kirin out and sheathed back my weapon.  

"haaahhh, this is way more tiring than I expected," I said out loud to myself.

No one could hear me, of course. But I had hoped one day there would be a response.

...

I looked around and spotted smoke in the distance. It was probably the burning city of A'bell. 

Looks like I crash landed a distance away from the city. I won't be going back there anytime soon that's for sure.

Having taken down the dragon threat, I hoped the people there could manage themselves. It's best if I continued to stay low after all. I gave myself a nod and then prepared myself for a long walk out of the forest. If I'm not mistaken, most of the people seemed to be headed north of the city, I could probably find some survivors there. 

Now when I think about it... I don't even know what kind of dragon that was. I turned around just to confirm that it won't rise like some sort of undead before making my way out of the forest.

 

* * * * *

 

Most of the people who escaped from the city were nothing more than ordinary people. It was unlikely they be evacuated so far from the city in just half a day and lo and behold, just as I expected, a small encampment could be seen about half a day's travel from the city.

By the time I reached the encampment, the sun has already started to set. The yellow colour of the sun shined upon me as I walked into the camp, my clothes dirtied from all the fighting I've done today. But it's nothing when compared to the people around the camp. 

All around me, one could only see despair. Injured people who lost limbs, people crying over the loss of their loved ones, people looking with lifeless eyes as they just sat there waiting to die. There were probably thousands of people just lying around in this camp in despair. It was a horrible sight to look at.

The encampment, however, was not as bad as the people in it at the very least. It had shoddy barricades made of wood that surrounds it, wagons and tents could be seen scattered around the camp randomly, near the middle of the encampment there seemed to be a more massive tent set up, with actual knights guarding the entrance.

Around the big tent and the area around it in general, you could see soldiers giving out supplies to the nearby citizens who were all lined up in an orderly fashion. Considering the whole thing happened in just half a day, the response organisation time was pretty impressive. 

Too impressive.

Usually, one would chalk it up to extraordinarily great and well-executed rescue efforts, but I can't help but think something foul was at play behind the scenes. It was just simply... too fast.

"Aaah! The kind lady from jhust naow!" a cute small childish sound could be heard as it interrupts my thinking.

I looked over the side and immediately recognised the person. It was the adorable child who was crying earlier because she dropped her apple. Over to her sides was her mother and another man which I assumed was the child's father holding her hands. She then broke free from her parents and ran towards me before leaping and hugging my lower body.

I broke into a smile and patted her head.

"Eww, Lady chu smell bad!" she let go of me in a hurry and proceeded to say those words without a care in the world.

I got to say. I am a bit hurt from the rejection.

"Non non non, this you see, is the smell of victory!" I said back in dramatic fashion.

"Victowee?" she asked as she tilted her head.

"Yep, victory of the highest degree." I gave her a grin.

"So Victowee stinks! hahaha" 

Well... She isn't wrong...

*smack

"Uguu" the child pouts as she got hit in the head by her mother, her small hands holding the top of her head.

"I'm so sorry about this child. I'll be sure to teach her some manners later." 

"It's all good, what's a child without some gusto. Also, I'm glad all of you made it out there safely" I replied to the child's mother.

"You too, I was a bit worried when you suddenly ran off without a trace."

Ah right, I did do that, didn't I? At the start of the invasion, they were one of the first people I came across. I had to protect them for quite a distance. I left them as soon as I could confirm their safety and ran back into the city though. 

"Oh, right, I almost forgot," I said as I kneeled to the height of the child. I then reached out to my back pouch and pulled out a small teddy bear doll.

"Here kid, you kinda dropped this." I held it towards the girl.

"Teddy!" She squeals in excitement as she grabbed hold of the teddy bear and hugged it tightly.

"Better take care of that kid now ya hear me? I ran all over the city to find that guy." I said to her.

"Gosh! You didn't have to go that far!" The mother said worriedly.

"It's ok. I wanted to do it."

The Teddy bear, according to her, was a gift from her grandmother, so it's one of a kind.

"Oh my... come now Ringo, say thanks to the big sister...um" 

"Effinshia." I told them with a smile "It's my name."

"Thank chu big sista Affin Che ah!" The child lets out the purest smile as she screwed up my name.

Today had been quite the tiring day, all that fighting and running around.

But that smile? It's all worth it.