Chapter 166 - Incident at the magic academy (8)

"You over there! Get up!"

After the pattern had repeated more times than any of the captured students or teachers could remember there was no more resistance, they all knew exactly what would happen if they resisted, as proven by the numerous hostages covered in high velocity blood spatter could attest to. 

"Get up now, or your friend will be dragging your copse! It's the same to me!"

Anna had been trying to prepare for this moment for the last few hours. The noble born child knew she had to be strong at all times, that was what her family demanded of her, that was what her pride demanded of her, but when it came to it and her name was called Anna couldn't stop shaking as the colour drained from her face.

"I-I understand, g-goodbye Mai."

With tears welling up in her eyes Anna wanted nothing more than to cry, scream and trash around, but her pride kept her from embarrassing herself, pride was all she had left now. Taking a few slow steps as the crowd of terrified students parted in her way, another elver wielding a rifle entered the classroom and whispered something to the other.

"Change of plans! You're coming too!"

"Eh?"

As the second elver pointed at Mai her mind went blank, suddenly she couldn't breathe. Struck by panic like a deer having deep, intimate eye contact with a headlight on a semi Mai looked like she was resisting, which was enough reason for one of the elvers to take aim.

"Wait!"

Seeing the elver target her friend Anna moved just before the short rang out, filling the cramped dark classroom with screams. Barely in time Anna managed to get in between the elver and her friend, as the bullet struck Anna's arm and hit the humerus bone in her upper arm where it shattered and fragmented as the bone did the same. 

"ARRRGGG!"

Getting hit in the arm Anna was thrown to the ground as it felt like her arm was on fire.

"Move!"

Before she knew what was happening, Anna was grabbed by the arm as she was dragged by a elver, apparently they were in a hurry. Being dragged out into a dark hallway Anna noticed that the elver dragging her was in fact so distracted that she could partly heal her own arm without him noticing, and by the time they reached their destination she had stopped bleeding. Being tossed into another classroom Anna felt an immense surge of mana, when she looked up she saw the source, then despaired. Truly they faced a superior being, a single one of her black wings fluttered with more mana than Anna had ever seen concentrated in a single place before, the spell she was forming was more complex than Anna ever believed that magic could be, the being's eyes radiated disinterest for Anna, as if she was looking at a bug.

"Are they on the list?"

Completely ignoring Anna and Mai that was dragged in the 3 winged angel turned to a elver that was standing near the restrained Dax.

"They are the most of the list, sorry to say."

"Okay then, find someone else."

Having been spared her life Anna's face drained of most the colour, she felt like her legs were turning to jelly as she collapsed onto her knees.

"Venessa?"

"Eh?"

Hearing the name of her friend that had been missing since the current nightmare started Mai snapped out of her daze.

"Hello Mai, and Anna too.Glad to see you both survived."

Looking as calm as ever, Vanessa remained expressionless as if she didn't even understand why her two friends were so distressed.

"A-are you helping them?"

"Yeah, I have been helping them since the start."

"Why!?"

"Because Dax killed my mom."

Stating her reason Vanessa still carried no expression, but her voice was filled with a cold rage her friends had never heard before.

"He collapsed a building on top of her, it's been almost a year and they still haven't found her body. Without a proper burial, mom and all the other innocent souls he killed can't enter the afterlife. That can not go unpunished, he has to suffer."

Seeing her friend unbottle what was certainly a unbearable amount of suffering, Mai felt helpless, hopeless and in pain.

"How could you do this?"

Anna however had a very different reaction.

"You want revenge? Then f.u.c.k.i.n.g do it without hurting innocent people! Do you have any idea how many people have died today and yesterday because of you and your petty revenge!?"

Fully outraged Anna formed a blade of pure fire in her hand as she charged her former friend, but was tackled to the ground before reaching her as the angel suppressed her magic and robbed the noble child of her consciousness.

---

"Status?"

"I've identified the hostile mana signature, it is distinctively angelic. Also it appears they're preparing some massive ritual."

"In addition to the shield formation?"

"Yeah."

"Hmm.. What about the other hostiles?"

"There shouldn't be more than 40 left, we should be able to take them in a straight fight."

"Then we'll do that. Mare with me and Lilly, We'll suppress the weaker hostiles. Victor and Terra keep the angel busy and try to disrupt the spell formation that must be trapping Dax."

Situated in a underground bunker that was completely shut off from the surface Lux held a short debrief before deciding a course of action. The bunker was part of Dax's seemingly illogical and paranoid doomsday protocol and relied entirely on magic, and was stocked with supplies that enabled up to 10 people to survive up to a year. Other than those supplies it was also filled to the brim with weapons that didn't rely on electricity, satellite uplink or anything else.

"Mare can you handle a Rex-0999 without the recoil system?"

"Not on fully automatic fire no."

"Then go for a normal rifle, that should be plenty firepower… Lilly and Victor make sure to bring backups."

""Got it.""

"Good. Then let's take this academy back!"