Realm of Monsters - Chapter 716: Where the F*ck Have You Been?

Chapter 716: Where the Fuck Have You Been?

  The sounds of thundering footsteps resounded down the hallway. The group of friends held their ground and refused to run away. They needed to buy time for their injured to escape.

  Freya fiddled with Oginum to try and forget about her worries. She hoped that Tauri and the others had found a way out of this damned maze. If anyone could find an escape route, it had to be Beatrix, or so she hoped.

  “Why am I even thinking about them?” Freya sighed. She probably wouldn’t make it out of this place alive. Perhaps Lord Morrigan would be considerate enough to send Oginum back to her family, but she doubted it.

  “They’re coming.” Gilgard drew his sword. “Search for the one with glowing eyes. He is the true purple mage. Without him, they won’t be able to find our friends.”

  Kegrog notched an arrow and aimed at the corridor. “Understood.”

  “For Gale,” Callum said with a grim expression. He held a potion in each hand.

  “If anything happens, stay behind me,” Kithina whispered to Callum, the outline of yellow scales glowing across her skin. He gave her a nod, but kept his eyes on the corridor.

  Belle licked her lips and practically hummed in place from excitement. 

  “Hey, are you okay, Sylvie?” Freya asked.

  “I’m great,” Belle replied. Though their prospects looked bleak, there was something about the incoming battle that made Belle eager to taste the blood of her enemies on her lips and to feel their bones cracking underneath her grip.

  The first couple of hounds turned the corner, followed by a soldier. Kegrog loosed his bowstring and the arrow flew true. The soldier was flung back, the arrow shaft sticking out of his throat. Callum threw a potion at the ground. The glass shattered, orange fumes billowing into the air. The two hounds cried out and rolled on the ground, coughing.

  An orc yellow mage cast a wind spell and dissipated the cloud just as a hundred soldiers and battlemages rushed into the hall. Kegrog fired off another shot. An orc screamed in pain and fell, but it did nothing to stop the rush of bodies.

  Gilgard drew his sword. “Hold your ground—!”

  “Finally!” Belle leaped into the mass of enemies. The vanguard soldiers stumbled back as the over two-meter tall vampire made of brawn and sinew fell upon them. She crushed the orc she landed on and was already tearing into another with her claws.

  “You crazy bitch!” Freya ran in after her.

  Belle carved a path through the soldiers. Most of them tried not to attack her, having been given explicit orders not to attack, only to restrain. It did little to stop Belle from doing the opposite. Her claws found the soft spot between their armor plates and ripped into their flesh.

  The huntmaster, eyes aglow with purple light, stood towards the back. He held a spear in one hand and a shield in the other. Yet as Belle drew closer, the fear in his eyes grew, and he began to look for a way out. Finally, he turned and bolted.

  “Get back here!” Belle barrelled through the last of the soldiers in her way and snatched the huntmaster by his shoulder, only for his facade to break apart in a cloud of purple dust, revealing a cowering soldier in his wake.

  “What?” Belle frowned. Her eyes widened in sudden realization and she turned around too late. 

  A soldier had sneaked in from behind. He slapped his hand on the back of her head, purple tendrils of light spreading out from his fingers and into her scalp. Belle seized up and dropped to her knees as her eyes rolled up. The soldier’s visage transformed into the huntmaster. 

  “You’re a tough one,” he furrowed his brow and grinned. He had never met someone resistant to his magic before. “Why don’t you just take a long, nice nap, hm?”

  Belle groaned and clenched her fists, her whole body trembling in pain.

~~~

  “Father!” Gilgard called out as he fought off a battlemage.

  Corvus gave a hand signal and his soldiers spread out in a loose circle between father and son. “How you disappoint, Gilgard. You had talent and the conviction to do what was necessary. Moreso than any of your siblings. I’d have made you my heir.”

  “You’d have made me kill my siblings first,” Gilgard circled him, searching for an opening.

  “Of course. How else could you become my true heir? Imagine my surprise when you sided with the bastard instead,” Corvus shook his head and sighed.

  And that was the moment Gilgard had been looking for. He swung forward in a wide arc as his father’s eyes turned away in a sigh. The sword fell down on Corvus’ neck in a clean cut. A golden sheen of light flared over his skin and turned the blade away, leaving Gilgard wide open.

  His father swung Feather without hesitation. The sword of bone slashed into Gilgard’s legs, the sharp teeth ripping through his flesh. He cried out in pain and collapsed backwards. 

  “The impatience of youth,” Corvus clicked his tongue.

  “H-How? Your aegis was depleted…” Gilgard grimaced.

  “And it takes a tremendous amount of mana to replenish it, yes. Fortunately, I have battalions of mages at my disposal.”

  “You told me no one could hold the aegis but you.”

  “I lied. Now, where is your traitor of a sister and the rest of your ‘friends’? Tell me and I’ll spare your life.”

  “Why should I believe you now?” Gilgard scoffed.

  Corvus shrugged. “Because your alternative is an agonizing death.” He stabbed Feather into his son’s calf.

  Gilgard screamed and tried to move to no avail.

  “Believe me now?”

~~~

  “Sylvie, no!” Freya shouted as her friend fell to her knees. Orc soldiers swarmed in front of her, blocking her view. She cursed under her breath and swung Oginum. An orc held up his shield, but it crumpled on impact. Oginum flared brightly each time the golden hammer met steel, sending a powerful impact of energy out in a wave that blew back any enemy Freya met.

  Seeing the destruction left by the hammer’s wake, the soldiers backed off from her, forming a shield wall. Spears lunged out from among the shields, forcing Freya back. 

  She reached for Orange to blast them away with fire, but found nothing. Her white and orange mana were depleted. She needed to get to Belle, somehow, before it was too late.

  Taking a few steps back, Freya searched for her friends. Kegrog had run out of arrows and was fighting the orcs with a sword he had found on the ground. Despite being a Brown, he was terrible in melee combat. He was bleeding from several shallow wounds.

  Callum was on the ground, holding his side, blood pooling over his shirt. Kithina was atop him, shielding him with her own body as swords came down on them. Her protective scales were cracked and were on the verge of failing.

  The son of Lord Morrigan had gone to fight him and disappeared behind a ring of soldiers. Freya had lost sight of Gilgard, but she could hear his cries of tortured pain. 

  There was no one left. Gods, she hoped Beatrix had found a way out. She would buy them as much time as she could. Freya held Oginum up with both her hands and whispered, “Give me strength, one last time.”

  The giant hammer radiated gold at her request and a surge of warmth echoed through the hall, granting her friends and her a last bout of strength. Kithina summoned a swirl of wind and tossed the soldiers off her and Callum. Kegrog roared with vigor and pushed towards the two of them and helped Kithina to her feet.

  Freya ran towards the three and formed a small circle around Callum, who had gained a little color back in his face. “Hang in there, Cal. It’s not over yet.”

  “Trying,” he said with a pained half-grin.

  “For Gale,” Freya said.

  “For Gale,” the others nodded in agreement as the enemy soldiers began to close around them.

  A tendril of light trickled out from Oginum and touched the wall. “Huh?” Freya frowned. 

  With a groan of stone shifting, the wall suddenly opened, revealing a dark passageway and something rushing at them at frightening speeds. A blue figure barreled past them and crashed into the wall of soldiers.

  “Stryg!” Freya called out with a relieved smile.

  The blue titan turned at the sound of her voice. “Freya, is everyone alright?”

  A soldier attacked him from behind. He grabbed the orc’s wrist mid-swing. Without even glancing away from Freya, Stryg flung the man into the ceiling. The orc’s neck broke at a right angle, before he fell in a twisted heap on the floor.

  “Where the fuck have you been?” Freya glared at him, but there was no anger, only relief.

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Stryg gave a wry smile.

  “Try me,” Freya said.

  “Behind you!” Kithina pointed.

  A battlemage channeling Brown charged at Stryg with an axe. Stryg didn’t even bother moving. Tauri leaped out of the passageway and smacked the orc’s helmet in with her mace.

  “Lady Tauri! Wait, where are the others?” Kithina asked.

  “Safe,” Tauri pulled her mace out of the dead orc.

  The soldiers were all standing around uncertainly. Several of the battlemages turned to Corvus for orders.

  “Capture the blue one. Kill the rest,” Corvus said.

  “Yes, my lord,” the orcs shouted in affirmation and attacked.

  “YOU,” Stryg stared at Corvus, his eyes filled with bloodlust.

  Stryg’s hand shot out and caught the first orc in his way. He squeezed and the woman’s head burst in his hand, bits of bone, brain, and blood spraying between his fingers. Several soldiers tried to backpedal immediately, but Stryg was faster. He drew Krikolm and cut them down as he ran past, cutting his way straight towards Lord Morrigan. Ribbons of blood swirled around Krikolm with every strike of the blade and trailed behind Stryg.

  “Gelris, if you please,” Corvus said.

  The huntmaster saw Stryg and cursed, unable to take his hand off the struggling Belle. “Stop him!” His hounds heeded his call and darted at the blue titan.

  With a deft hand, Stryg drew Nameless from his belt and hurled the make-shift dagger. Like an arrow, the dagger disappeared through the air in a blur, and sank into the huntmaster’s forehead. The orc’s head jerked back and he crumpled to the floor in a heap.

  Belle’s eyes snapped open and she leaped to her feet, swinging her claws around in a wild frenzy. She blinked several times and took in her surroundings. She made eye contact with Stryg for a brief second and it all clicked. She laughed and joined in the carnage, clearing a path for her cousin.

  Waiting for an opening amidst his dying men, Corvus channeled Blue and fired a powerful stream of lightning at Stryg. The latter threw his hand out and replied with his own lightning. The two streams of magic clashed and electrocuted the nearby orcs into charred husks.

  “How?” Corvus stared at the sight in surprise. His spies had informed him that the young Ebon Aspirant could not cast storm magic, let alone with such mastery.

  The bodies of the charred dead left a clear path between the two of them. Stryg gripped Krikolm and sprinted forward.