Chương 51: Excursion at Home

Viren had a hard time stopping himself from rushing into the fray. Although, it helped that everything stank to high heaven, so he had a natural inclination to run the complete other way balancing his urge to join the fighting.

"Calm yourself," Acrypha said.

"We need to stick to the formation." Viren sniffed in the same haughty way he always saw Acrypha doing. She threw him a brief scowl.

"I'm sticking to the formation just fine, thank you very much."

"You almost rushed after those Mage Knights back there."

"I wasn't! I just knew one of them. Didn't you see the lady wave at me?"

"Why would a Heartshield Knight wave at you of all people?" Acrypha shook her head.

"I'm sure she was merely signalling to one of her comrades. Focus, Viren." Sometimes, Viren really felt like grabbing Acrypha and shaking her like a jar of salt. Sadly, it would be inappropriate even at the best of times, so he mastered himself. The battle was a helpful ongoing distraction. Even if the Excursion Club had been consigned to the edges of the battle where they'd supposedly be the safest. They still had to remain alert. At any moment, they might need to act.

Viren's nose wrinkled as a small group of shambling horrors turned his favourite lane with all the ice cream shops into a nightmare zone. A part of him was constantly recoiling at the Living Mana's horrifically monstrous form. Creatures made of warped flesh and bone, corrupted blood vessels knitting them together into horrid shapes. Had he been facing them alone, his spirit would have quailed. It still was quailing. But Viren hadn't been lying to Ryland. He could not fail here.

With how useless he had been on the train, he needed to prove his capability in an actual battle. That was how old heroes were forged. They went through the crucible of death and devastation, faced down their traumas over and over, until their souls were annealed into a mighty hero's. And they had done so because their world had been consumed by battle. By bloodshed. The Realmbreaker Wars had spared no one. Stories of those times didn't shy away from the stark reality.

Young academy student or old crone in her twilight years, the Realmbreaker Wars had mired everyone in hardship. Viren knew the circumstance of his birth was far, far luckier than those who had lived centuries ago in the midst of terrible war and slaughter. Had he been born then, there was a fifty-fifty chance he'd have ended up as a corpse in a gutter after his parents had perished instead of being taken in by the academy. That was why he was here. It was why he pushed himself to make the most of this excursion.

He couldn't take his circumstances for granted. There was so much he had to be grateful for, he couldn't not give every bit of his being to fight and protect everyone. So, where the rest of his clubmates saw this as merely an intense version of their trips, Viren was ready to give it his all. He just had to figure out a reasonable way of doing so. Viren trusted the process, though. Acrypha might not have noted it, but he was sticking to formation. He knew they'd be embroiled in a proper engagement soon enough.

Especially after how the Living Mana Incursion had broken through the city's barriers. Viren had lived in Arcoryx City for as long as he could remember. It was a constantly drilled fact that the city had the most powerful barrier Inscriptions in all of Androvia. During the Realmbreaker Wars, Arcoryx boasted the least number of successful sieges against its walls, the least amount of infiltrations by enemy forces. To see all that torn apart like wet paper had set alarm bells gonging in Viren's heart.

His mind kept reiterating the fact that had he been alone, he really would have quailed against the threat of the Living Mana. Which was a terrible admission because a hero should never back down.

"Stay in line," their formation leader, Alendra, said. The back of the half-elvhenan woman's armour gleamed with a powerful Inscribed spell.

"An engagement is coming." Her words sent a small jolt through Viren. This wouldn't be like their last two encounters with the Incursion, where other mages had taken care of the threat rather easily. Something told Viren that his time had come. It was nearly time to fight. Thery rushed through the streets, the Excursion Club members sticking in a close group behind the couple of Mage Knights ranging farther ahead. Three Enforcers were out and about too.

Viren's heightening concentration was shot when one of the other students nearby sneered at him.

"You'd be much better off with us, Lady Acrypha," Rhames said.

"It's honestly impressive you haven't fallen behind yet, considering you're dragging a corpse behind you." A vein pulsed in Viren's temple.

"Rhames, I'm going to shove my fist down your throat and pull out that little excuse of a heart you've got." Rhames was one of Haylen Kohn's sycophants. He had his own gaggle of bastards nearby, all of whom were daring Viren to back up his words with actions. Bunch of absolute pricks.

"What a violent notion," Rhames said.

"See what I mean, Lady Acrypha? You've unfortunately associated with a far lesser being than us. But it's alright." His voice lowered conspiratorially, still reaching them despite the clamour all around.

"We can just let the Incursion take him. Believe me, no one will be bothered. They weren't when he missed the train." Viren was really, really tempted to simply pick up Rhames and throw him bodily at one of the multitudes of shambling, fleshy abominations all around the city. He'd probably get into heaps of trouble, but the heavenly satisfaction would surely be worth it. Sadly, Viren was supposed to be too heroic to do anything of the sort.

"Apologies, Lord Rhames," Acrypha said.

"I've already got my hands full trying to make sure Viren doesn't get ripped to bloody smithereens. I unfortunately don't have the time to babysit you and your lot of sparkle-arsed mongrels. I recommend that you save your blathering for after you're no longer in danger of being eaten alive by a fleshy horror." Viren was rocked by so many emotions at her statement that he was momentarily stupefied into silence. Sparkle-arsed mongrels?

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Also, had she just insulted him even after taking his side in the matter? What was wrong with her? Viren wasn't the only one. Rhames gaped, unable to cough up a reply to the most blatantly naked insult he had probably ever unexpectedly faced in his life. He was lucky that he was spared the need to answer her. Their next engagement arrived. Viren's heart went aflame.

It was like his Soul Glyph of Burning really was embodying his soul, just as Ryland's training kept implying it would. The time had come. The Mage Knights were the first to engage the flood of flesh and blood storming towards them. They were in one of Arcoryx City's brightest districts, where the reflective sheen of the glass appeared to duplicate and triplicate their foes. Not that it mattered in the face of the Knights' overwhelming might. But the Incursion matched their ferocity. Viren actually frowned.

The sheer sudden burgeoning strength of the Living Mana was a little harrowing. It formed a monstrous mass floating over their district too quickly for anyone to target and destroy it, a small facsimile of the larger cloud blanketing out the sky. There were too many fleshy horrors on the ground that needed their attention. That was what consumed the Mage Knights' focus at first.

Then gargantuan tendrils burst out of the cloudy mass of flesh and bone, a welter of blood adding to the endless crimson rain pouring down on them since the beginning.

"Hold the line," Alendra shouted at the Excursion Club. Her command was echoed by the rest of the graduate students leading the Club. Barriers covered them all. They were powered by the senior club members at first, but as the first of the tendrils dropped on them, an Enforcer arrived to supplement their defence. Even then, Viren's heart stopped for a few moments as the first tendrils fell like lighting from a storm cloud. Loud thumps and cracks made his ears shiver. Fractures slithered all across their barricades.

Around them, the whole district got demolished, buildings turning into a storm of glassy, jagged shrapnel. Viren was trembling where he stood. He might have mastered his own fear, but that couldn't stop the way the tendrils were slamming the streets to shake everything.

"Is it me," Acrypha said, her words sounding like she was shivering. Which she technically was, just like Viren.

"But did the Incursion just get a lot more powerful?" Viren would desperately have liked to tell her it was her. But he couldn't. Not when he had seen something of this sort happening before. The battle was devolving into chaos. Whatever order they had tried sticking to was now giving way to whatever desperate decision they needed to take to survive. And the worst part was that Viren hadn't even gotten to cast a single spell yet. The Excursion Club still hadn't technically engaged the enemy.

"Excursionists," the masked Enforcer said.

"Retreat. Quickly. This is becoming overwhelmingly dangerous." They didn't move, of course. Not immediately after that command. Because it wasn't a command. The Enforcers didn't have authority over the Excursion Club.

"Right, we need to get back." It was one of the graduate students. Viren frowned. Why was Kleador giving his input like he was a leader or something? Because he wasn't.

"The Enforcer is right. We can't take risks here." Viren was proud to hear Alendra take the opposite stand.

"We're not a bunch of glorified cheerleaders," she said.

"We're here as backup. And this is the exact sort of situation where we need to back up our allies."

"Listen, junior," Kleador said with the same kind of arrogant bent that Rhames the prick had used.

"You've got no clue how to handle this situation. You're overstepping your authority here." Viren was about to step forward and lend his voice to the matter, but a vice grip latched onto his wrist. Acrypha shook her head, her grey eyes flinty in the rainy gloom.

"Are you really going to endanger a bunch of children?" Kleador was saying. The other graduate students had come over, lending their voices to the debate, but he kept speaking over them all.

"We respect the words of authority—" Alendra finally cut through his crap.

"Then let's ask real authority." She turned away from the Excursionists.

"Mage Knight! Are you in need of support?" Her shouted words managed to pierce through the noise of battle to reach Ophelia. She was the lone Knight still present on the ground. Of her two companions, one was just above them, smashing apart the storm of tendrils with a gigantic glowing mace. The other was shooting straight for the floating mass, livid strings trailing from his spear.

"Excursionists!" Ophelia shouted in reply. Her golden power was shooting at the monsters trying to surround them.

"We must occupy the Living Mana's attention here while the others deal with its source above us. Stand with me! Stand against the vile threat to our lives." She was immediately approached by one of the Enforcers. Viren tensed, but whatever words they exchanged, harsh though they were, the Mage Knight's rousing order stood. They could fight. Alendra flashed a triumphant look at Kleador before raising her hand, a Glyph glowing to life over it.

"You heard her, Excursionists! Battle formations!"

"Now?" Viren glanced at Acrypha. He wasn't really asking for permission, and she knew it, as evidenced by the sardonic arch of her eyebrows that matched his own. Alendra was shouting at the rest of the Excursionists to get into position. The other graduate students were quickly partitioning everyone into squads, taking charge of their little teams. Acrypha released her death grip on his arm just as Alendra pulled them into her team.

"Now." Viren was vindictively satisfied that he was one of the first to lead the charge against the Incursion. He shot a grin at Rhames, that bastard, before quickly following hot on Alendra's heels. His Soul Glyph was ready and his manasoul felt like it was setting his blood on fire. The sensation was heightened thanks to Acrypha's Glyph of Amplification shading everything with a dim blue light. It made Viren's mana spike within his spirit.

They collided against the Incursion with their magic exploding out of them." [Thunderstorm]," Alendra shouted just as a cloud manifested over her head, livid thunderbolts crackling against the fleshy horrors rushing at them. Viren's ears rang at the thunderclaps as he tasted the metallic scent of the storm. Acrypha, despite not using any spells directly, was even flashier. Two Glyphs glared on the back of her hands. Glyphs of Summoning, just as Viren remembered from orientation.

The first brought that strange, short, metallic-looking cloak of hers. The other provided a longsword with a transparent blade. That was new. Her cloak whirled around her as she flew into the Living Mana. The lightning from Alendra's spell alighted along her blade, and she slashed across the face of the fleshy monsters. Viren held nothing back either." [Immolation]!"

His Soul Glyph of Burning was joined by the Subglyphs of Intensity and Target, the spell circle alighting on the monsters and immediately setting them ablaze. The horrific screams might have hit Viren hard at any other point in time, but the adrenaline of the battle, the furious storm of noise and energy and pure, unrestrained magic was easily washing away such concerns. Viren wished he had time to take in everything. The incredible variety of magic on display made his spirit soar with inspiration.

But there was no time to spectate. When he wasn't busy casting [Immolation], he was moving into a different position, trying not to block the other mages from acting. Besides, whatever else anyone did, it was Acrypha who stole the show. She flashed in with her metallic cloak. If the monsters attacked, she was there to repel them with that impressive cloak of hers. And then she swung her blade. It was now wrapped with drilling air and dust, slicing through the Living Mana with no trouble.

Viren had little time to gawk. Blood sprayed everywhere, fleshy and bony bits and pieces fell all over the area. Viren and his [Immolation] were in charge of burning away the monsters' leavings to ash, allowing nothing of the Living Mana to remain in their vicinity. Alendra was still destroying as much as she could with her storm magic, while several Warden Mages were keeping the growing tide of monsters at bay farther off.

Far above them, the spear-wielding Mage Knight had finally managed to wrap the flesh cloud in his glowing threads, constricting the life out of it. They were winning. They could do this. The Living Mana picked that moment when hope seemed highest to surge. The ruddy light around turned almost crystalline in intensity, glaring so bright that Viren was instantly fighting off a terrible headache. Everything trembled hard enough to make him stumble.

"What's happening?" Alendra asked.

"This—" The Living Mana assaulted them with incredible fury. The whole world turned crimson as the blood-rain lashed down, turning everything slick and sticky at the same time. Monsters amalgamated into greater variants with piercing bones and writhing meat, blood shooting everywhere. The stench made Viren's heart stutter. That's when the Mage Knight fell. She cried out as she struck the ground. Viren didn't catch what happened to her, but in the next second, she was fully swamped by the Incursion's crimson tide.

It was only then that Viren realized just how much her golden magic had been stemming back the monstrous flood. With its faltering, and with the Living Mana growing even more powerful, they were immediately swarmed by the rising wave of rotting, bloody horrors.