One Hundred And Ninety-Four
“So, do we know where the enemy actually is?” I asked as the musicians left through the Ring Gate, the last of our forces to retreat. While it might have been useful to have them for their supporting buffs and debuffs, they really needed to be protected by an allied force to be effective, which we simply didn’t have, yet. They would request reinforcents, but due to the unpredictable ti dilation between the Boundary and lower Astral, it was impossible to say if we would receive any in ti.
“Over there!” Shaeula’s eyes blazed amber, and through the trees she could see unpleasant traces of spiritual energy. “They are not-not far distant.”
“Right, then let’s see if we can’t drive them off.” I declared, my spear already in hand. “I’ll take them from the front, Shaeula, you support with your pinwheels and ranged attacks. Hyacinth, can you use your vines to snare them and prevent them from moving? Then the kamaitachi can hang back and pick them off.”
“I shall dooo it for you, master!” Hyacinth said, her expression fierce, her silvery-violet eyes glittering darkly. “None may threaten the masters’ ho!”
“Fine then. We are damn lucky we have your eyes, Shaeula. It makes finding them easier. Maybe you should join the Way-Wardens?” I grinned as we ran through the forest, brilliant fireflies and small animals scattering before us. Once more, why can’t I get that skill to work? It’d be way more useful than my Examination skills…
She sniffed in response, not deigning to answer my jest as she was concentrating to use her Mystic Sight at a distance. Still, she guided us well, and soon the trees were starting to thin out. It was then that I could hear barking growls and sinister, heavy breathing, the sounds damp and nacing.
“Watch out-out!” Shaeula declared as a flight of arrows arced in towards us through the trees, followed by a pack of massive black hounds, their eyes burning red and yellow, their open maws leaking acidic drool from between curved fangs as long as kitchen-knives. Wind billowed, the trailing Kamaitachi calling it forth in an erald tide, and so arrows went off course, the hounds staggering. The remainder… The arrows are fast, but not at a speed I can’t perceive. Bullets fly faster, after all. The arrowheads were made of what looked like obsidian, and they were sared with so disgusting brown liquid, which I really hoped wasn’t what I thought it was.
Dodging those I could and sweeping the remainder aside, I plunged my spear into the open mouth of the first hound. The impact of its charge staggered , but with my high stats I was able to hold. A second hound fell, head exploding as Shaeula swung her pink jade bells to amplify a drill of compressed wind. This was followed by a tide of her wind-weasels, and several more tumbled to the ground, dead or dying. As I wrenched my spear free, turning to face another, the ground erupted, tree-roots twisting and growing, the ends turning into sharp spears that pierced the tough hides of the hounds, squirming through flesh and seeking their vitals.
“Die, die, DIE, DIE, DIE!” Hyacinth was giggling like a madwoman, hounds howling in tornt as she tortured them. More arrows flew in, but this ti we were more than ready, so Shaeula conjured a wind wall which stopped them dead. I’m glad that she’s strong but… yeah, she’s still scary. Maids are supposed to be quiet and soothing. She’d never make it in Akihabara!
Wrenching my spear free from the dying hound, I switched to my two swords and started slashing through throats, finishing the hounds off. Shaeula then cried out, warning of danger.
“Akio, behind you!” she scread, and I spun round, bloody swords raised, only to see and hear nothing. “It is a Silent Hound!” she cried, as a heavy weight slamd off-balance, and sudden pain flared in my arm as jagged teeth bit into , piercing my defensive clothing, the force of the jaws nearly snapping my strengthened bones. “They can not-not be seen or heard when they stalk their prey! There are two-two more coming…” she cried, before her face set, resolute. “The trees are in the way…” her pinwheels, which were constrained by the edge of the forest we were in, suddenly spun to life, and trees toppled, sheared clean through, before a hound beca visible, sliding into two halves, stinking guts spilling out as it died. Blood splashed from a second, and a leg fell to the ground.
“Ooover there I see!” Hyacinth chortled, and she gestured. Inky blue darkness rippled out, and suddenly the hound was visible, limping on three legs, eyes vacant. Then it died as spears of wood pierced it like a hedgehog.
“That doesn’t help though…” I muttered as I thrust my blade into where the jaws were exerting pressure. Arrows ca my way again and I spun, using the invisible hound as a shield. It cried out, the grip loosening montarily, and my blade slid up through the roof of its mouth and into the brain. It let out a pained squeal and beca visible as it died, the weight dragging down my arm. Damn, it looks like a sleek grey wolf, just… bigger and aner. Levering it free, I started the process of Ether Healing.
“So-so many!” Shaeula was horrified, seeing what was arrayed against us. Now the trees in front of us had fallen, we could see the clearing where the Fae Stone border was. Several stones had been toppled and shattered, and a pack of dozens of the large black hounds was waiting, led by a dark wolf with brilliant red eyes like dying stars, which was of a size that defied belief. Fucking hell, that wolf is the size of a large van…
There were also a mob of what looked like goblins, though not the kind so popular in Light Novels currently, thankfully, but the type from old stories. They were green-skinned, true, with yellow eyes that stared at us with cruel malice, eager to hurt or kill us, but they were not naked brutes using crude tools, but well armoured and equipped, many carrying the bows they had been harassing us with, others carrying swords and shields. All of them wore long black caps, like a droopy wizarding-hat, except for two, bigger and more intimidating, who carried lanterns that burned with a mystical violet glow, and also… whoa, they are carrying scythes! Creepy as hell…
On seeing the mob, Shaeula paled. “Red Caps! They are highly ranked within both the Wild Hunt and the Unseelie! To think we would see them here-here! This is no small harassnt but a full-full raid…” she cried, before eting my gaze, expression resolute. “And worse-worse… a Barghest leads them. This will be a tough battle, even for us.”
“A Barghest?” I asked, and before she could answer, the massive wolf spoke, his voice like the rumbling of an earthquake, his vast tongue licking at teeth that matched my swords, salivating. “What do we have here?” it laughed. “Our scouts reported that this place was ripe for the taking, with naught but a few feeble servants nearby. It would have been the prefect base to infiltrate the hated Seelie Court.” The wolf spat, a surprisingly… human-like gesture, and the massive ball of acrid saliva splattered one of the nearby black hounds, which whined pitifully as it rolled on the ground to get it off. “Oh, my mistake, I am sorry.” The wolf apologised to the shrieking hound. “My annoyance led to get carried away. Now, where was I?” the wolf grinned. “Six of you, hmm?” it sniffed the air. “One pure-blooded Fae… a noble line indeed. Very sweet. Three strange creatures, though they sll akin more to us than the Seelie. A… a mortal? No… you stink of royalty too, male, though it is faint. A bastard, born of low blood, maybe? And lastly…” as the Black Caps hollered and hooted, hurling insults at us, calling Shaeula out with a series of vile taunts, which caused my grip to tighten angrily on my sword…
Shit, we’ve grown stronger. We should be able to handle this. My fists struck out again and again as I ran, my knuckles hurting as the sounds of breaking bone and agonised whimpers filled my ears. The Silent Hound at my throat beca visible in death, jaws loosening, and I grabbed the fallen body, hurling it at the Red Cap who was nearby. The strike was true, but as it approached the back of the goblin the corpse split suddenly, ripped in half by an invisible force and tossed aside. The Red Cap turned back to , wicked face split with a hideous grin, and it flourished the lantern at . Dodging aside, not even sure if it was going to be an attack, but unwilling to take a chance, the air split behind , forced apart, before rushing back together in a deafening sonic boom.
I was right. Shit… more attacks I can’t see. My lack of ability to perceive these dangers is putting those I love at risk… still… If I couldn’t see the invisible, like the hounds, I just had to make the invisible visible. I refuse to believe these Red caps are invincible…
I used earth, exploding the ground, but not as an attack, but as a fog of fine dirt, which was grabbed by the jade energies of wind and funnelled to the goblin.
“Trying to blind , huh?” the Red cap chortled. “Foolish. I’ll skin those weasels yet and wear their fur…”
I was right… but I’ll only have one chance, I think… the lantern was indeed behind the defences, I could see the unnatural warping of space around the foe, centred on it. But it was almost like a field, magnetic or electric, which was affecting space itself. But like a field, there are points of convergence… my muscles and bones were screaming, my crude attempts at Body Enhancent paying dividends in power and equally harsh costs in damage. One chance… eat this you smug fucker… ti seed to slow even more as my brain worked, heat bubbling within my skull. The Red Cap was waiting for to get torn apart by his defence, but as I thrust my sword, it wasn’t at him, but at the lantern. The blade started deforming, tal screaming, moulded as though it was clay, and I let it go, wind channelled into a hefty push.
The Red Cap blinked at , surprised, scythe heading for my neck as the lantern was sent flying from his hands, the distorted field taking his arm along with it in a welter of gore, but my other sword was faster, and the pointed cap fell to the ground, quickly followed by a severed head, still looking as if it didn’t understand what had happened…
You have gained in strength. Your level has increased from Forty-Nine to Fifty.
All your Material statistics have increased greatly. All of your Intangible statistics have increased.
Pain flared within my right wrist, a shining glow of silver radiating outwards in a brilliant ring. I felt sothing, a large globule of silver, break… and it was sucked from my wrist into my body, shattering apart and coating my chakra network with shining intangible tal. My whole body shuddered with a strange sensation, and then… ti stopped…
********
The woman, wearing a sheer white dress with pretty silver accessories, suddenly sat bolt upright from the richly appointed couch she was sitting on, her golden eyes going wide, her red hair cascading behind her. Reflexively, she grabbed for her long golden spear, before closing her fist, realising there was no danger here.
“Akio, you fool-fool, when your eye burst I thought my heart would stop! Still, your new eye… I rather like it! It is still-still the moonstone shade I adore, but now faint flecks of my amber dance within.” She grinned wearily. “Eri will be so-so jealous.”
“But what about you?” I brushed aside her bloody hair, taking a closer look at her own wounds. “Your… is your eye okay? I got a ssage that you had freely given an eye! Tell that was bullshit!” I begged, and she only arched an eyebrow at .
“Would that be so wrong? I felt pain at seeing you in such-such a state. We are connected, are we not-not? I would rather be blind than see you suffer!”
“But… I’d rather go blind than cost you your sight!” I growled, my anger rising.
“Well, it is fortunate then…” suddenly her blood-gumd eyelid slowly opened, revealing her still healthy eye beneath, and I sagged with relief, and nearly dropped her. Tears started to flow, and soon we were both crying.
“Thank the gods…” I whispered. “I was terrified you’d done sothing foolish…”
“Well, perhaps I did. I consented to have my eyes taken, both if need-need be.” She shook her head. “And do not-not scowl at so. If you could do the sa for , why can I not-not for you? In any case… I tried to offer-offer my sight, but instead I was sohow able to rebuild your eye using my essence, the remains of so strange glowing fragnts and Ether Healing. Such a feat, at such a distance separated… I could have done it to none-none other but you.” she grinned, puffing out her chest proudly. “Though I had made-made an Oath to trade my sight, I can not-not be held at fault if your eye recovered, making the oath invalid. You hardly need-need three eyes, do you?”
I had to kiss her then. We were bloody and battered, and despite my earlier injuries, I was probably in the best shape out of all of us after the strange vision or dream I had, since my body was flooded with incredibly pure aether at that ti. As we entwined, I could hear the Kamaitachi snickering, while Hyacinth pouted, crying sad tears, claiming our flirting was “annoooying, as a servant who fought so hard deserved praise.”. Shaeula shrugged, and I turned, opening my free arm to her.
“All right then. You did do well. Co Hyacinth, let master give you a hug!”
“I am sooo happy!” she declared, rushing into my embrace, and for a long while I held the two girls tight, revelling in the fact that we made it through the battle still alive, if not unscathed, only for my Eye to see distant figures approaching, who suddenly resolved into a motley assortnt of Fae, beast-types, faerie types, what looked like elves, and more, all riding white steeds that had rainbow manes and hooves. On seeing us and the ss around, the corpse of the Barghest still slowly evaporating to ether, the leader, an elven woman by the looks of it, raised her lance threateningly.
“I am Caeladaera of the Way-Wardens. Just… just what happened here?”
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