Chapter 304: Battlefield

The beam of destruction hit and barriers erupted across the Reach. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Reach...

The Demis stood in shock. None knew where their protective barrier had come from. It was a miracle that they had survived the sudden, blinding flash. The goddess finally responded to their prayers. Olpi however, knew otherwise. She looked over at Cerlius's unconscious figure with mixed emotions. He had saved them, and he paid a heavy cost for it. 'I always knew that he was cut from a different cloth,' she thought. 'But to think he would be capable of a barrier spell. That's just...' She cast her thoughts aside. While the Demis tried to process what happened, she ran towards Cerlius.

Olpi was just as shocked as anyone else, maybe even more so, yet she moved. It was as if she had been through something similar before, in her worst nightmares.

Back then, in a forgotten past of ash and greenery, she hadn't moved. He had gotten caught because of her, that familiar Elf. He bled like the rest under their whips while she hid and cried and ran. She never saw that face again. She never wanted to go back to that nightmare, and she never wanted to remember it.

Instructor Lance invoked the wind's fury and tore down the cloud above. Demons crashed into the ground, showering Olpi's suit with their muddied blood. Thanks to the busy healers, every Demi had medical supplies on hand. She went through option after option, searching through her spatial ring while she ran. Unlike the last time Olpi treated Cerlius, bandages and stitching wouldn't be enough. That assumed he could be saved in the first place.

With each step closer, a growing weight pulled at her heart. A pool of blood flowed from a gaping hole where Cerlius's leg should have been. As luck would have it, the spell had slightly cauterized the wound, slightly. She knelt down and placed a hand over Cerlius's heart.

A moment passed where neither heart beat.

Olpi swallowed her saliva. 'Please goddess, I know I always pray for the Demis but save this one too.'

Bud dum.

The heartbeat was faint. Olpi didn't sigh in relief. Her job wasn't over yet. Her hands flew into motion. First she made a quick, sturdy icicle out of magic then wrapped a few layers of bandages just above Cerlius's wound. By sliding the icicle in between her bandage and his skin and twisting it, the tourniquet slowed the gushing blood down to a trickle. Two more bandage wraps secured the restrictive tension.

Finally came the cauterization. Even that trickle of blood could kill him. Her specialty may have been ice but even the least skilled mage could manage a small burst of flame. Cerlius unconsciously let out a pained screech as his flesh singed shut. The flow of blood stopped, and she finally let herself relax. Her heart continued to beat. He was safe, for now at least.

"What do you mean we aren't allowed to go down?" A voice drew her attention. A few stray Demis stood before a stairway that was congested with students.

"Students go first," the stonefaced Watchmen repeated. The instructors, who were focused on slaughtering every demon in the sky, had left managing the students to those emotionless puppets. "Demis go last." Slowly, the rest of the Demis came out of their fugue.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Olpi muttered as she wondered if she should join them. She paused. 'Where did that come from?' she thought. That's not like me. It's like something else made me say-' She never finished the thought. Something heavy crashed into her.

Pain erupted all over her body, snapping her back to reality. She was on a battlefield, not the academy. The dirt knocked the wind out of her lungs as she bounced and grinded to a stinging halt. Dazed, she craned her head to look at her attacker.

It had been a demon. It stood no more than a dozen feet away. Its pair of torn wings seemed to consume the light in Olpi's blurred world. Blue blood dripped from gashes along its body yet its eyes were alive, wide like a cornered animal. It pointed a claw at Cerlius, who had landed behind Olpi, and screeched in its foul, incomprehensible tongue.

"You can't have him." Olpi yelled back. It all happened so fast that she forgot about magic. She forgot about the Demis. She forgot about running. It didn't matter. The demon lept before she could react. One clawed hand wrapped around her throat while another reached to its side. A short, metallic ring and a fanged grin; that's how she knew she would die. It flourished its crystallin dagger high above her heart.

Cerlius lay a few feet away, motionless. The demon didn't move either. For a moment, Olpi thought she had died. The dagger never descended. The demon stiffened as it succumbed to the sudden, stabbing pain through its heart. It slumped to the ground, eyes still wide, staring at the spear tip protruding from its chest.

Behind it stood a familiar dwarven girl with blood on her shaking hands. "Olpi!" Menla cried. She pulled the corpse aside and dove forward in a half-tackle half-hug. "Are you ok? I didn't want to risk hitting you with magic so I...I stabbed it."

"It's ok." Olpi replied out of habit. "It's ok. You saved me." She hugged the girl back for a while, comforting her. A corpse slammed into the ground, reminding them of where they stood. Olpi pulled back. "We need to keep moving Menla, do you understand?"

"Yeah," Menla sniffed and slowly got up. They gave the corpse a wide berth as they approached Cerlius. The wound hadn't opened but she was worried about moving him. "Why did you run after this guy without us?" Menla asked, not knowing what Cerlius had done for her nor for the rest of the Demis.

"He's the one who saved us," Olpi glanced back at Menla's spear. Unlike the demon's dagger, the spear was far more intricate in its design. A strange red aura pulsed at the purple tip. "Where did you get that?"

Menla shrugged. "I found it lying next to Cerlius. I just picked it up without thinking. Was that bad?"

"It doesn't matter." Olpi pat the girl on the head. "Thank you for saving me. Can you carry him? We're getting out of this place, all of us."