A searing pain similar to getting torn apart conversed through his body. The legs on which he stood trembled, unable to support his weight. The hand that held the spear started to fall apart. The body that was full of energy a moment ago, was on the verge of collapse.
The senses were overwhelmed by darkness and the heart started to sink in despair.
Screams of agony erupting from behind were the only things that saved him from succumbing to the darkness. The eyelashes for some reason weighed heavier than ever and wished to close the line of sight.
His consciousness wanted to sink into darkness and his mind screamed for him to run away and let go of struggling.
"Noo," Frederick screamed and bit his tongue to stop himself from falling unconscious.
'You can't fall.'
'You can't lose.'
'If you lose here, you will lose everything.'
'If I fall, they will be hurt. I have to stand up. I have to fight and protect them from harm.'
Through the everlasting darkness, his mind echoed with the events of the past playing back over and over like some movie as his consciousness sank.
....
The sky was red, and the battlefield was torn and littered with broken limbs, arms, and armour. Horses, beasts, and monsters were screaming at the top of their lungs. The wind that blew, filled the air with a sickly pungent smell of blood.
A tense confrontation prevailed among the people standing there. Sworn brothers who preached the promise of staying together until death, and fought shoulder to shoulder now lay on the ground like rotten flesh.
Not far away from the sea of corpses kneeled the body of a tall handsome blue-haired human, stained with blood from a massive fight.
Injured seriously, he knelt on the ground with his bloody spear keeping him upright as he leaned on it. Blood was pouring from his chest and from his back which had been riddled with holes from countless stabs.
The blood oozing out from his wounds trickled down on the dampened earth and dyed it.
With a shallow breath, the man opened his lips"We won!"
There was a hint of ecstasy in his voice.
"We.w..won.."
Words stuttered and crystal dew drops started to slide down from his cheeks.
Following his speech, loud voices reverberated again.
"We won!"
"We defeated that fiend!"
"Everything is over."
"We can finally live in peace."
Loud cheers and cries of happiness erupted from everyone.
The blue-haired man whose face was filled with wrinkles glanced up towards the sky thinking about the countless sacrifices of loved ones without which, all this wouldn't be possible.
There was no joy in his teary eyes. All it had was a feeling of sadness and agony. The gentle breeze that blew over him carrying the smell of his deceased comrade for some reason felt fresh.
Reminiscing, he opened his lips.
"Finally...Final.."
CRACK!
His words were cut short by a loud deafening roar bellowing across the whole world.
The sound of cheers stopped and everyone stared up toward the sky wondering what was happening now. As they looked up, their body trembled and an unspeakable fear gripped their heart. All of their bodies froze as an excruciating pressure descended upon them.
The bloody sky above them split apart, and a burst of blood rained down from the sky. A huge crack as large as the endless horizon appeared and from that crack, a black hand emanating an unfathomable energy descended upon them.
The blue-haired man tried to react. He was completely exhausted but he moved. Gripping his spear, he shot forward with a battle cry trying to destroy the hand.
Alas!
Before the mighty palm, everyone's efforts were for naught and soon everything in the world descended into darkness.
.....
[Blessing Of Thunder God]
BOOM!
CRACKLE!CRACKLE!CRACKLE
Lightning burst out from his body and a bluish haze erupted with a blast. The barrier was broken apart and his strength started to increase astonishingly.
The mana inside Frederick's body ran amok. From peak 3-Star to early 4-Star then to mid-4-Star.He broke through in one go however the energy pulsating through his body didn't diminish.
"Not enough...Not enough.."Frederick roared with bloodshot eyes.
The vessels pulsated and his heartbeat started to increase rapidly creating the sound of the beating of drums. The veins all over his body bulged and gritting his teeth, he finally gave another push.
CRACK!
A cracking sound exploded in his body once again.
Frederick pulled another spear with a sharp reddish spear tip and pointed at them.
"Don't you dare touch them?"
With a loud declaration, Frederick took a step.
Lightning sparkled wildly. Covered in lightning, with a single step Frederick appeared right before them.
[Evil Piercing Stab]
Under the Black Mage's astonishing gaze, a man covered with lightning made a move. Screaming in panic they tried to cast a shield however as soon as the spear struck the shield, it shattered like glass and the destructive magical energy ran wild and loud explosions occurred that blinded their vision.
BOOM!
At the back, Lucas wiped out the blood trickling from his nose. Breathing in relief, he took out a vial of Holy water and emptied it.
The curse inflicted upon him subsided immediately and he looked ahead with a hint of admiration.
"Is this what plot armour looked like?"
Lucas knew exactly what might have happened. Being pushed into such a situation, Frederick must have broken through and used the blessing of the Thunder of God.
For a moment, Lucas even saw a blurry manifestation of a human with a horse head, the guardian spirit Thunder Loch. It was within his expectations but what surprised him was that Frederick broke through to the peak of 4-Star one go.
As the loud blast settled, a man dressed in his blue armour holding a spear appeared. The black mage that was nearby tried to cast a spell but with a flick, his wrist was cut apart from his arms making him scream in panic.
Turning his gaze around, Lucas pulled out water balloons containing holy water and threw them onto a team that was rolling on the pain.
POP! POP!POP!POP!POP!
On hitting them, the balloon burst and drenched them in holy water. Black smoke that was a remnant of the curses rose and disappeared.
"Are you all alright?"
Cough...Cough...
"Lucas, what's this?"Charles asked while coughing violently to catch his breath.
"This is holy water."
"Why do you have holy water? You also stored them in a balloon pouch."Humphrey asked.
"I have a weak physique so I drink holy water," Lucas answered with a straight expression that made everyone choke.
Drink holy water.
If the Priest were here, then they would beat the shit out of him.
"Stop gawking here. The situation is quite tense here. Frederick is taking on them by himself. We need to leave so that we don't become deadweight and pull him down."Lucas spoke.
Everyone nodded at his words.
Rose hesitated a bit and looked at Frederick fending off against the black mage. From a glance, she could tell that he was at a disadvantage. If it was a warrior, he could have won easily but Black Mages are quite tricky to deal with.
"All of you take these vials of holy water. We may be attacked with another curse."Lucas handed them vials of holy water and they prepared to leave.
Frederick looked back and gave Lucas a brief nod giving him the signal to get away.
"Let's go. I am sure nothing will happen to Frederic, "Lucas assured others and also himself.
If he was that easy to fall apart, he wouldn't be the protagonist.
Without wasting any more time, all of them left and ran.
They were quite close to the parking area. Seeing no ghouls or any other black mages appearing on the way, Lucas finally sighed in relief.
"I think we will be safe now," Monica muttered with a dry tone.
However, just as her words fell, a loud blast echoed with a screen of dust clouds from afar.
After which loud wails emerged along with dark bodies.
Everyone stared at Monica for a moment who just averted her case with a flustered expression.
'Thank god, this time I am not the one who put the death flag.'
Halting for a moment, Rose said"What should we do now?"
"I think we should retreat," Tiffany suggested with a pale expression seeing many ghouls blocking them.
It appears they didn't encounter any trouble because all trouble was present here waiting for them.
When falling into deep thoughts, a horizontal line was drawn over the space, and the ghouls were cut into two.
"Kids!"
A loud voice drew their attention.
"Coachman Smith!"
They gasped in surprise seeing them.
"Kids, quickly run towards the carriage. I will cover for you. The paladins have fallen. My two teammates are engaging with the Black Magician, I ran here sensing your presence."Smith muttered while dealing with the ghouls.
"I will take on the stronger one and leave the weaker for you to fend off."
Behind him, 7 black magicians were fighting with the two 6-Star who came here as their coachmen.Behind them two Priest were trying to act as support.
Curses and spells were flying around them. They might get injured if even one of these spells hit them.
"We have to take this final leap. All of you are noble children so I am sure you have the Vestige Vestigw armour."Charles's cold voice reverberated.
"De Facto!"
Walking forward he raised his hand and clenched his fist. The ring in his hand glowed and encased him. Mana swirled around him and platinum armour started to surround him.
Leaving Lucas, everyone pulled on their noble Vestige armour while Lucas just stood gawking at them while admiring their transformation.
Seeing them posing like heroes and heroines, Lucas screamed inwardly.
'Are you rubbing salt on me? Why don't you start your own power ranger show?'
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢