Chapter 16: A Battle Between Best Friends
Chapter 16: A Battle Between Best Friends
“HOLY summon monster! What the hell happened here?!” Leo was rooted to the spot by the horrifying spectacle before him.
He had heard the roaring avalanche of crumbling rock in the distance while exploring the subterranean flower field with Mina and Louis. He exchanged looks with them before they dashed toward the sound.
They had rushed into a dead end surrounded by sky-high rock walls in the deepest part of the flower garden where a massive underground lake stretched as far as the eye could see.
What should’ve been a beautiful picture of serenity looked more like a horror painting with monster guts and heads scattered about the blue flowers surrounding the lake, crushing their dainty petals and smearing the area in black blood.
Standing perfectly still in the middle of that disaster with his back to the lake and a stone-hard face was Elias, clasping a bloodied, unconscious Aki to his chest.
Faced with such an alarming scene, Leo found his feet sewn to the ground, unable to take a step closer toward his best friend and the girl he loved.
Oi, gimme a break. What went down here? Trying to get a grasp on the situation, he looked to Elias and saw a peculiar, inexplicable crest glowing brighter than the sun on his forehead. What the heck is that creepy crest? It’s shaped like the sun?
The crest wasn’t the only strange thing—Elias’s normally gentle emerald eyes gleamed a burning shade of golden yellow. The aura about him felt like it belonged to another person. He was looking straight at them with zero reaction. Something was clearly wrong with him.
Leo glanced back at Mina and Louis running several feet behind him and signaled that something was wrong. Immediately catching on to the oddity surrounding Elias and Aki, they quieted their approach.
Leo held out his right hand, telling them to stay behind him, and took a step forward, the flowers crunching under his boots.
Elias didn’t blink, try to talk to them, or attack.
Is he gaugin’ what we’re gonna do first?
Leo slowly approached Elias one small step at a time, when Aki’s eyelids quivered open in his arms.
“Leo…?” she rasped in a hoarse voice.
“Aki…!”
What a relief! She’s okay…!
Filled with hope, Leo dropped his slow approach and broke into a run. “Aki, you okay?! We’ve come to help—”
Aki weakly threw up her blood-covered hand and shouted as loud as she could with her hoarse, pain-rattled voice. “Leo! Don’t…come…any closer!”
“…Huh?”
“Elias…isn’t…!”
Before Leo could make out what she said, Elias pulled Aki tight against his chest and lifted the Holy Sword dangling from his right hand. Elias’s placid gaze locked on Leo and Mina and Louis behind him.
Elias, what’s wrong with you? Leo stared back in shock. Is he about to attack us? You’ve gotta be freakin’ kidding me!
Unable to accept what was happening right before his eyes, Leo froze midrun. Aki’s shaky scream pierced the air as if to kick some sense back into him.
“Elias, don’t…!” She frantically grabbed Elias’s raised arm, trying to stop him from swinging his sword down. By the way she was acting, she was still in her right mind, but the same couldn’t be said for Elias.
The catapulting beat of his heart acting as a warning, Leo loudly asked, “Aki, what’s goin’ on?! What’s wrong with Elias?!”
“I don’t know! I don’t know why, but Elias isn’t in his right mind! He doesn’t respond to me no matter how much I talk to him!”
Her voice isn’t reaching him? Can he not hear us?
“What’s that supposed to mean?! Does it have somethin’ to do with that funky crest on his forehead?!” he bellowed. Aki vehemently shook her head.
No point in drowning Aki in questions when she didn’t understand what was going on after witnessing the whole sequence of events from beginning to end.
The only thing any of them knew for sure was that Elias wasn’t in his right mind. Had he lost his sense of self? Was it best to assume he couldn’t tell the difference between friend and foe?
If he doesn’t know who we are…is he about to attack us for real right now?! Leo studied Elias, ice dripping from his unreadable eyes as he raised his sword despite Aki yanking on his arm. I’m screwed!
Leo tried to run toward Mina and Louis—but he was too late. Elias knocked Aki’s hand aside and mightily swung down the Holy Sword as if he were trying to crack the earth in half with it. Platinum wind blades burst forth, slicing through the flowers like a lawnmower as they raced across the field.
Oi, oi, oi! Is this for real?!
Throughout their years of adventuring together, Elias hadn’t once unleashed a long-distance attack. Did the crest give him access to magic?
I’d better make sure he doesn’t land a direct hit!
Leo thrust his hands out and chanted an incantation so fast it was nearly incomprehensible, summoning thick gusts of wind to create a barrier between him and the incoming attack.
Lunar Magic didn’t have any skill trees for barrier creation like Solar Magic did, so Leo was stuck creatively making use of offensive spells as defense. He blocked the slashing blade attack with his wind magic.
Damn! The slashes didn’t stop on impact?! It just keeps hittin’ my barrier as if he’s actively wailing on it with the Holy Sword!
Sinking his teeth into his lip, he poured his magic into maintaining his barrier against the relentless slashes slowly pushing him backward.
Mina and Louis are behind me! I have to block the attack or it’ll hit ‘em! Desperate to hold out, he dug his feet in, but he wasn’t strong enough. The platinum blades cut through his barrier, knocking him off balance. Recoil from his disrupted spell sent him flying until his back slammed against the blue flowers.
The slashing blades he failed to block flew over his head at torrential speeds.
Crap! Leo sprung to his feet despite his rattled bones. It’s gonna hit the others directly behind me! He whirled his bruised body toward them.
“Mina, Louis, run!”
“MINA…!”
“KYAAAAAAAAH!”
Louis’s shout and Mina’s harrowing scream sliced through the air. The air blades hit them head-on, flinging them hard against a nearby rock mountain. Not stopping there, the platinum blades slashed the rocks to pieces, hailing heavy rubble on top of the pair collapsed on the ground below.
“Mina! Louis!” Leo cried, his panic-stricken voice drowned out by the crash of tumbling rock as he helplessly reached for them.
What the…what did he just do?!
Dirt and gravel kicked up by the collapse gradually settled to the ground, revealing Mina and Louis knocked unconscious under a pile of rocks. Louis had thrown himself on top of Mina to protect her at the last minute.
Leo thought he saw Louis activate a Lunar Magic spell seconds before the blades tore into them. He sincerely hoped the spell deflected the blast enough to protect them from fatal injury.
“—Elias! You bastard!” Leo seethed and shot Elias an unforgiving glare.
The Elias I know would rather die than attack his friends. I’d better think of my opponent as someone other than Elias. I won’t hold back.
Leo reached for the dagger sheathed in a leather belt fastened to his right thigh.
I’ll just whack the gentleness back into him.
There were some things in the world that magic had no effect on, hence why he always kept a dagger on him, but he never expected to fight Elias with it.
I’ve trained fairly hard, but I seriously suck at swordsmanship compared to magic. I’m skeptical I can hold my own against Elias…
The hero possessed attack and defense stats unsurpassed by other Adventurers, and his agility outclassed most level hundred monsters. So he wasn’t going to leave any openings for Leo to chant a powerful spell capable of dealing massive damage to him. About the only strategy that stood a chance was to blast him with magic after cracking open a hole in his defenses with the dagger.
How many minutes will I last? I really want to avoid an instant KO.
Leo slid the dagger from its leather sheath with his right hand and held it in the reverse grip with his left hand positioned on top of the guard. Then he assessed the enemy before him.
Rescuing Aki from Elias comes first. Her health points might hit zero if I don’t heal her injuries soon. But how’d she even get that badly injured in the first place?
Keeping a good distance from Elias, Leo inspected Aki’s status. Even from this distance he saw blood streaming from a long slice in her cheek and her clothes soaked red from what seemed like a deep stab wound in her right shoulder.
Who the hell would do that to her? Elias is protecting her like a mad guard dog even in his psychotic state, so he’s off the suspect list.
…Did the monster turned into chop suey get her? Where’d it even come from? Was it from the Quest boss? But what’s it protecting here?
Leo gave his head a hard shake. Now wasn’t the time to speculate. He should only think about rescuing Aki and beating the sweetness back into Elias. He didn’t have the room or time to think about anything else—he was about to take on the Hero who had full bragging rights about being the strongest man in the world, comparable only to the Dark Lord.
Holding his dagger behind him in the downward position, Leo bent his knees and propelled himself off the ground. He had to fight his way into grabbing range of Elias if he wanted to rescue Aki.
Elias silently wielded the Holy Sword and waited for Leo to meet him in the middle of the flower field. Leo clenched his teeth in aggravation over Elias’s utter lack of expression.
You can’t even grimace or cringe or smile before clashing blades with me?
Leo never wanted to fight his friends. Especially not Elias who he’d fought alongside for years and was proud to call his best friend.
Damn it! I’ll put an end to this meaningless fight right now! There’s nothing sadder than friends battling each other to the death!
Leo stopped running a foot in front of Elias and used the momentum to spring into the air. Elias automatically looked up and held the Holy Sword vertically in front of his face, blocking Leo’s incoming dagger with the blade.
The shriek of steel colliding thundered through the domed clearing, and jarring vibrations from the impact coursed through Leo’s arm.
While Leo had brought down his dagger with his full strength and Elias had blocked it with just one hand, Elias remained unfazed.
S-Stupid superhuman strength! Who knew our most reliable ally could become our most dangerous enemy?
Aki squeezed her eyes shut against the sparks flying from their swords as she squirmed to escape Elias’s eagle grip on her.
“Elias, let go! Please let me go!” On the verge of tears, she shoved at his chest, trying to break free.
Oddly enough, Elias never once tried to attack Aki. If anything, he appeared to be tenaciously protecting her.
…Is Elias trying to eliminate anyone who comes near Aki? Is that why he only attacked us when we came closer?
Leo pulled back his dagger and jumped several feet away from Elias. He quickly drew the magic circle with his free hand before Elias could close the distance between them.
“Chilling current of water, cut through the silence, and seal off my prey’s escape…! Dunk your head in some water and cool off, Elias!” Leo swiped his hand through the magic circle, erasing it. Several pillars of water burst from the lake behind Elias.
Fortunately, water abounded in this cavern. Why not make full use of that advantage?
The pillars combined into a giant water dragon that flew toward Elias like a flash flood. Not expecting an attack from behind, he was swept away by the water dragon and blown into the side of the rock wall.
“…Sorry, Elias.”
He might’ve landed a hit on him, but this measly spell wouldn’t even scratch his health points. Didn’t amount to more than buying a little time.
Taking the temporary opening for what it was, Leo ran over to help Aki who had fallen free of Elias’s iron grip. She had collapsed to her knees on top of the flowers.
Gruesome injuries. She’s gasping for air, and blood’s trickling from her lips.
When Leo lifted Aki into his arms she broke into a violent coughing fit that ended in her spitting up a small puddle of blood. He watched in horror.
“Aki! You…!”
Her skin has turned gray. Has she been poisoned as well? She won’t last long without an antidote!
How did things get this bad? What the hell happened to them while I was away?!
I have to withdraw somewhere out of berserker Elias’s range first or I won’t be able to heal Aki or get a grasp on this situation. Is there anywhere I can escape to?
Leo’s eyes shot to the domed rock ceiling. Darkness covered an area that likely led to the Ancient Ruins on the surface. They had fallen into the underground flower field from there. Returning to the surface seemed like the safest bet against a non-magic user.
Not even superhuman Elias can climb flat rock that’s several dozen castles tall…I hope. Resting Aki against his left arm, Leo drew a magic circle in the air in front of him with his right hand.
“Lend me your feathers, bring me to the highest place. Send me up on falcon wings!”
A sudden gust of wind swelled under Leo’s feet when he finished chanting his flight spell. He held Aki tight against his chest.
Don’t fall, Aki!
Leo jumped on top of that powerful air current. Elias rose mechanically to his feet where the water dragon had blown him against the rock wall, and swung the Holy Sword, directing his platinum wind blades at Leo. The blades curved so that they wouldn’t hit Aki.
Well, crap. You’re damn persistent! I won’t be satisfied until I punch you in the face once you regain your sanity!
Leo leapt with the air current faster than the cutting blades arrived, his thoughts focused on how he could get back at his friend rather than the dire situation he was in. Those killer blades sliced through the rock and flowers he had been standing on a second prior.
Hurry, damn it!
Answering his impatience, the current surged and pushed him and Aki up to the hole in the ceiling with the speed of an erupting volcano. The scenery shifted from the subterranean lake to the narrow confines of the dungeon’s gutters with rock walls on all sides. They zoomed through there until they reached the straight path inside the Ancient Ruins where Leo had fallen with Mina and Louis.
Supporting Aki in one arm, Leo placed his other hand on the stone floor and pulled himself up. He immediately laid Aki down on the ground, resting her head on his lap.
Scrubbing roughly at the sweat beading his forehead, he exhaled with fleeting relief.
At least I succeeded in gettin’ us outta there… Hopefully we’ll stay outta Elias’s range for a few minutes. If I’m gonna take him on, I need a couple of seconds to regroup. Should probably call for reinforcements once I heal Aki up…
Mina and Louis were still buried under rocks. They needed help, stat. But who could he ask for help? What in the world did he have to do to stop Elias in his ballistic mode?
Johann’s face cut through the panic slowing the wheels in Leo’s brain.
Johann possessed Sanctuary knowledge Leo wasn’t privy too. He might have an idea about what was screwing with Elias. Saving Elias might be possible if they knew what caused him to lose his mind.
Leo swiped his fingers through the air and chanted the messenger’s spell, crafting a magic message seeking Johann’s aid. A sphere of light formed and disappeared following Leo’s command.
Hope it can make it from this dungeon to Johann in town…
“Le…o?” Aki cracked open her bloodshot eyes.
Leo glanced down and placed his hand gingerly on her uninjured cheek. “Aki, how are you? Can you see me?”
“Yeah,” she muttered weakly, her eyes swollen from crying.
Thank the elements. She’s okay—
Filled with relief, he instinctively reached for her and pulled her into a bear hug.