Chapter 44. Wings of the Sworn Queen

Chapter 44: 44. Wings of the Sworn Queen

The beetle bitch stopped and finally acknowledged our presence, although she didn’t look our way right away.

"You again? You’ve come to die by my hands? How thoughtful of you. Too bad, you fell right into my trap."

An uncontrollable laugh escaped her, she held her stomach and leaned back with power, stretching her body. Her mouth drooled white, her compound pupils overstimulated.

"I commanded them to stop attacking, not because you’re stronger than us, but because I wanted them to move up to the surface and evolve, just like me."

The beetle bitch continued laughing as the realization hit us. Of course, they wanted to preserve their numbers and move on to the next phase.

There were still many Sylvbeetles surrounding us, she hadn’t sent them all off yet. Even so, whatever she had sent could be dangerous to the students of The Greyclock Conservatory.

"I should probably go after–"

"No, Rhiannon. Think, this bitch can bring more Sylvbeetles back, and you alone can’t handle a pack of them anyway. First we kill this bitch, then we deal with the rest."

Seraphine commanded without shifting her eyes off the enemy, and Dr. Rhiannon, who’d been ready to rush off out of concern, stopped.

"But what about the students?"

"You forgot Maren’s still in charge. She’s definitely made precautions, I’m sure of it."

Dr. Rhiannon’s higher EQ was an acknowledgeable thing, and Seraphine, being tactical and on point about it, was a nice touch.

This felt like a death trap, if we didn’t win, or took too long defeating her, things could go very wrong. But even if we’d taken an alternative route, stopping to kill Sylvbeetles first, it would’ve taken hours to clear them, not to mention the risk of losing control to them was another challenge entirely.

If we’d stopped, Wendel would be dead for sure.

"Debating is useless, the faster we finish this, the better."

I said, and that seemed to calm Dr. Rhiannon a little. The beetle bitch’s face went straight, then a downward smile appeared.

"What’s wrong, did your plan to plant despair in us fail, huh, bitch?"

Seraphine provoked her at the right time. The only reason Seraphine hadn’t acted yet, and we were having this conversation at all, was because Wendel was right by the beetle bitch’s feet, she could kill him any second if she wanted to.

The beetle bitch opened her claw, pointing it toward us with a slow, tired motion.

"Haaa, you humans have no manners at all. Refer to me as the Queen of Sylvbeetles, Mandrisska."

With the name drop, Mandrisska charged at me and Seraphine with full speed, using her heavy claw like a hammer, trying to smash us like insects. Seraphine, using her polearm, had no trouble blocking it. The clash between the heavy claw and the polearm was enough to send chills down my spine, twice.

I reached into my belt pouch to grab an instant damage potion and waited for the perfect moment. Except that perfect moment never came. Mandrisska’s repeated strikes kept Seraphine busy and moving.

My instinct told me she was doing it on purpose, she knew I had potions. Because of Mandrisska, Seraphine’s speed had become a problem for me. Staying on her back was still the safest option, or Mandrisska would kill me for easy pickings. That’s exactly what an enemy should do, but it was still annoying.

Although I didn’t notice at the time, Dr. Rhiannon took advantage of the moment and cast a small mana shield around Wendel.

"I’ve secured the boy!!"

Dr. Rhiannon shouted, and we both noticed, meaning we could now go all out without worrying about Wendel. Her shout also worked as a distraction, Mandrisska turned for a split second, and left an opening for Seraphine to extend her polearm.

Surprisingly, Mandrisska dodged it, but Seraphine had fought many battles, she predicted the dodge and punched her stomach hard. Leaving Mandrisska stunned, I saw my moment to throw the potion at her.

But suddenly Mandrisska used her signature attack, vibration void, as I’d started calling it.

The moment became distorted, sending our bodies into an overload state. I couldn’t feel a thing, like I was caught in some kind of numbing sleep. Then my eyes showed me reality again, Mandrisska was at a distance from us, a crazed curl on her lips. Her claw seemed stiff, though.

Not all my senses came back at once, which is why I didn’t feel my hand burning where the potion had splashed.

"Ahhhhhhh, fuck–"

I took a moment to hold my hand, the pain was tolerable, but it kept hitting with every heartbeat. The vibration void must have broken the potion bottle in my hand.

"You filthy human brat, your cheap tricks won’t work twice. I severely underestimated you at first, that’s the only reason you won a few rounds. I’m not holding back this time."

Mandrisska said, pride and power clashing together. Seeing my hand burnt red, skin peeling slightly, sparked another wave of fury within Seraphine.

"Elias, I know we should work as a team, but this bitch is getting on my nerves. How about you and Rhiannon back me up instead."

"That’s what I was going to say. Go wild."

A vein popped on Seraphine’s forehead, her canine teeth doing something strange with her smile. Understanding her body language, I climbed down off her back.

And the moment my feet hit stable ground, Seraphine sprinted forward with heavy steps, pulling her arm back to throw her polearm with full force at Mandrisska’s head.

The throw was powerful enough to cut the air, but Mandrisska managed to deflect it. Unfortunately for her, Seraphine was close enough to throw hands. Her muscle strength was incredible, strong enough to hold the claw open by force. Mandrisska used vibration void again, but this time Seraphine read it and moved out of range just in time.

"Elias, is your hand alright? I’m not a healer, but I can try to ease the pain a little."

Dr. Rhiannon reached for my hand, holding it with care, and began casting a basic ghostly healing spell right away.

Doing the math now, using Crimson Vigor to help Seraphine was the obvious move, but I only had one, and just 20 minutes of effect. I had to use it at the right escalating moment of the fight, or it would go to waste.

But wait, what if I used Crimson Vigor on Seraphine instead? I’m just human, the potion would enhance human strength, but she’s a valkyrie.

My brain just had to come up with this after I’d already climbed down off her back! What a troll.

Suddenly my ears caught something, Seraphine was chanting. I turned around, only to be blinded by light.

"Valkyrie queen, sovereign of the sky-bound dead — lend your wings, bless this spear with flight. I shape thee: Wings of the Sworn Queen, rise."

When the casting finished and the light cleared, there were several polearms made of white feathers and bone, flying around Seraphine, at least eight of them, like a storm.

Seraphine threw them at Mandrisska one by one, within seconds, grabbing another as soon as the previous polearm had launched. Aiming at Mandrisska’s stomach, leg, arm, head, and ear.

Mandrisska was able to deflect most of them, but when Seraphine aimed for her ear, she put extra force into that one. And it landed. My eyes widened at Seraphine’s display of power and calculation.

All the other throws had been feints, and the real one landed. It cracked the shell covering Mandrisska’s ear, her weak point. But Mandrisska, on instinct, used vibration void and her panicked claws to counter it.

Then she flew back, all four claws on the ground, breathing hard, healing her ear shell while giving Seraphine a death glare.

"What happened? You’re acting like the insect you are."

Seraphine provoked Mandrisska again, lifting her hand to call back her thrown polearms. They flew back to her, spinning, forming a storm around her once more.

Seraphine didn’t give Mandrisska time to heal. She threw her polearms with the same force but a different pattern and speed. Mandrisska, caught on the defensive for the first time, didn’t like it one bit, and just used vibration void to deflect them all.

Mandrisska’s main priority now was buying enough time to heal. That told me she wasn’t going to let that ear-strike repeat. She was spamming vibration void way too much, and much more intensely than needed.

This was bad. I had to think of something, me and Dr. Rhiannon were wide open, she could attack us any moment if she noticed. Obviously Seraphine wouldn’t let us get hurt, but still.

Crimson Vigor would only let me get close enough to land a few punches before I’d be dead. Using Seraphine’s polearms wasn’t an option, since I didn’t know how to throw them.

But wait, I was thinking of using Crimson Vigor on Seraphine, right? What do I do? What do I do? I want to help too. I want to shine in my last moments, like I planned.

My thoughts circled back and forth, nothing coming to mind, until I looked at Dr. Rhiannon’s ghostly book. Sure, her spells weren’t exactly combat-focused, but maybe I could find something that would work.

"Yes, that’s it!"