Chapter Text
"We need a plan. The queen taratect's defenses are too strong, and it's deadly fast to boot", Hawkin tells us, keeping an eye on the monster.
"I agree. It's too tough to beat through sheer strength alone and too fast to outspeed." Jeskan adds, "We need to do something about its mobility."
"I have a plan," I say.
"Taratects rely on their eyesight, so we take advantage of that. But it's risky. Hawkin and Jeskan will need to distract it long enough for me to take out its eyes while Hyrince and Yaana provide support."
"Yaana," I address her, "Try to hit its joints with Holy Light Magic and Fire Magic. It's weak to it."
She nods firmly, accepting her task with utmost seriousness.
I smile a little at that, her cheeks reddening under my gaze.
"Okay, lovebirds. Let's flirt after we kill the giant spider, yes?" Hyrince wastes no time in teasing.
Yaana's face goes cherry red.
It's endearing.
"Maybe be careful when you're mocking the healer, Hyrince." She huffs at him.
"Please forgive this humble knight, O holy Saint." Hyrince only continues his sly teasing.
Yaana looks like she would like to cuff him over the head but is holding back due to his already injured state.
"Maybe I shouldn't have healed you after all. You were less mouthy with a broken arm," she mutters.
"That's enough, Hyrince." I stop him from digging his grave further as he opens his mouth to retort.
"It's time," Hawkin says as the queen taratect, gone strangely still for some time, resumes its rampage.
It was odd how the creature seemed to almost be searching for us through the crowd.
This time, instead of rushing into battle, we silently aim for its blind spot.
Yaana and I fire Holy Light Beams at the back of its head, alerting it to our presence. But the explosives that Hawkin hurls at it quickly recaptures its attention.
It swipes and strikes at them with its many legs. Jeskan and Hawkin barely manage to dodge the attacks, escaping by a hair's breadth each time.
Not wasting the opening, I use Dimensional Maneuvering to reach one of its lower eyes, stabbing it with my Holy Light-charged sword. It sinks in with little resistance.
The creature lets out a screech of pain and fires a Dark Beam in response, wiping out a sizeable chunk of the battlefield-
Including the area where Jeskan and Hawkin had been hiding.
"NO!" the words spill out of my throat, laced with grief and rage.
Jeskan, who would spar with me to teach me to counter multiple weapons, and Hawkin, who used to use the money he earned from our jobs to buy treats for orphaned children-
They were gone, murdered without a second thought by this monster. I couldn't forgive that.
I furiously stab another of its eyes, dodging with Dimensional Maneuvering as it swipes at me with its legs.
As soon as I touch the ground, I make a beeline for Yaana.
"About Jeskan and Hawkin- can you do anything?" I asked.
My fingers shaking where I held her shoulders.
Yaana looks at me with her hazel eyes full of sadness and sympathy, "Julius... they're gone," She says softly.
I hang my head, feeling despair rake its claws through my body.
Hyrince, who had been watching solemnly, finally speaks, "Julius, we have to focus. We have to avenge them." His voice is thick with suppressed grief.
"Yeah." I slowly pick myself up, forcing myself to stand straight. To be the Hero everyone counts on me to be.
When I speak, my words are full of conviction, "We'll win this fight."
Yaana gives me a watery smile, and Hyrince nods tersely.
We enter the fray once more to find the queen taratect assailed by an assortment of spells from every direction.
The mages were offering a distraction in place of my dead companions.
I slash at the joint I had scratched earlier before, seeking to take it down a leg.
The monster is now attacking erratically, swiping its legs every which way.
Hyrince, without his shield, focuses on evacuating the wounded while Yaana heals them.
I was preparing a spell when I saw the queen taratect preparing another Dark Beam. I needed a way to deflect it. I remember something my Master had taught me, 'magic bends to your willpower.'
I quickly dissipate my current spell and, using all my focus, will my magic to form an inclined shield big enough to cover my allies.
A barrier shimmers into existence before me. It widens to cover the wounded behind me and my two companions.
The Dark Beam hits the barrier squarely in the center and, to my relief, deflects back into the monster.
My allies cheer in celebration as the monster stumbles back, wounded by its own attack.
But it was too easy.
A lightning-fast blur of white hits me just as my barrier breaks.
I can only hear a dull ringing in my ears as I find myself in a small crater, several feet from where I was.
"Julius!" I hear a woman scream. For a second, I can't recognize the voice, until I see the sage green Saint robes, "Yaana..." I croak out.
Her eyes are determined as she starts to heal me, pouring all of her mana into it, "you'll be fine, I promise-"
She's cut off by the swipe of a white claw. Her head, neatly separated from her body.
No...no, no, no.
The ringing in my head seems to intensify.