Chapter 42 - Distraction

Alyx went back to sleep, as did I. This time, it seems the crying exhausted me as sleep came almost immediately.

...

There was a knock on my door. With great effort, one of my eyelids opened up. It then slowly closed.

There was another knock. This time both of my eyelids opened and with a groan, my body pulled itself up off the bed.

After opening the door, my eyes met with Alyx's. Alyx coughed.

"The rest of us had prepared some food, would you like some?"

Shaking off the grogginess, my eyes regained focus.

"Oh yeah, thanks."

Alyx and I went to the dining room where Ned and Erin were waiting for us. Erin would not look at me.

Alyx waved towards them.

"Hey Ned and Erin, this is Jay. Jay the man over here is Ned, while the little girl there is Erin."

Ned waved.

"Hey Jay, heavy sleeper huh?"

My head tilted back as a laugh escaped me.

"Yeah, nice to meet you, Ned."

My eyes looked towards Erin. Erin peeked at me curiously but proceeded to avoid eye contact after. Alyx whispered into my ear.

"Erin is a little shy, she will open up to you soon enough."

I nodded with a smile.

Although the first few moments were a bit awkward, with the help of Alyx, Ned and Erin were no longer so reserved. A few jokes were said here and there.

Once most of us were finished eating, I brought up my concern.

"Um, do you guys know where Ela and Mildred went?"

Ned shrugged his shoulders.

"Honestly... I am not sure, they were gone by the time I woke up."

My brows furrowed.

"Huh... that is weird"

Ned scratched the back of his head.

"I guess we just go to magic school?"

The incident with the eagles popped into my head.

"Uh, no I don't think we should go."

Alyx raised an eyebrow.

"Why not?"

My fingers began fidgeting as my mouth dried up.

"I... have a bad feeling."

Erin had a finger on her chin.

"I think we should stay here too!"

Ned smiled.

"Ah well, there is plenty of time to learn magic later."

My index finger raised in the air.

"Actually, I can teach you guys some of the elementary spells."

Ned raised both eyebrows.

"Oh really? How do you know the elementary spells?"

The corner of my lip twitched.

"Uh... well at night I sneaked into a library they had here and was able to read them."

My mind recalled what the spell parchments looked like.

"They had the spell name, the diagram, and even a label on it that indicated it was an elementary spell."

Erin was staring at me but did not say anything. Trying to avoid eye contact with Erin, my hand motioned for the rest to follow me.

"Let us go somewhere more appropriate to learn these spells."

The reason why I wanted to teach them these spells was because of how influential Erin's encase spell was when the eagles attacked, and not to mention the continuous support Ned provided with his firebolts.

The four of us were seated in the room right next to the palace entrance. Snow was blowing around, just outside.

Ned laughed.

"I guess it's not so bad we didn't go to school seeing that big snowstorm out there. Seems the weather in this world shifts drastically to start snowing all of a sudden."

I laughed as well, then proceeded to explain the spells as best I could.

The first priority was the firebolt spell. There wasn't too much time spent on explaining this as Ned would probably pick it up fast, not needing extra explanation.

The second spell was the encase spell. When explained, I made sure to do it methodically and very clearly explained the extra annotations. After Erin seemed like she got it, I was done.

My eyes drifted over to Alyx, who had her spellbook out and was reading in it.

I stood up, walked over to Alyx, and looked over her shoulder to see her spellbook.

Alyx turned to face me with a bitter smile.

"Hi, I'm just trying to learn the spell that uses my mana."

An awkward smile was on my face as my mind tried to come up with an idea to help her out.

"Uh, maybe I can help you, I will look at it from over your shoulder."

Alyx raised an eyebrow but then turned back to read her book.

Taking a closer look at the spell name, it read out to be 'Evil Null'. The description of the spell was not included here, which made me want to ask Alyx about it, but my tongue held back.

After a few moments, my finger pointed towards a sentence.

'This magic is quite different from others, as the mana required requires a person to go into a special "empty" state'

"Uh... do you ever remember the feeling of giving up? I think that is what this line means."

Alyx turned to me and tilted her head.

"Hmm... I will try that."

Alyx closed her eyes and winds were being stirred up around her. She held out her finger and nothing seemed to happen for a while.

Suddenly Alyx flicked her finger down and the surroundings were immediately void of any mana. A chuckle came out of my mouth.

"You did it!"

Alyx's eyelids fluttered open and she let out a long sigh.

"Yeah..."

At this moment there was a shrill cry from outside the palace.

The eagles were here.

My feet took off, towards the palace entrance. After a few moments of hesitation, the rest of them followed.

Ned furrowed his eyebrows.

"What the..."

A giant eagle was searching for someone to attack. My eyes turned back to Alyx.

"Alyx! The spell!"

Alyx blinked a few times but immediately went to casting the spell. My eyes then met with Ned.

"I guess you gotta put your newly learned firebolt to use. After Alyx uses her spell it should be weak."

Ned smiled.

"Yeah, let me call for help first."

Ned took out a messenger stone and crushed it. Then he immediately went to casting.

Once Ned's firebolt was nearly formed, Alyx had cast her null magic spell.

The eagle was caught unprepared, suddenly shrinking and falling to the ground. Ned followed up by blasting it with a fireball.

Before anybody could let out a sigh of relief, many more shrieks filled the sky. Eagles filled the sky.

Ned frowned.

"...How many more times are we going to have to do that?"

Beads of sweat formed on Alyx's forehead.

"...Well, I suppose it is time to start casting."

The eagles descended onto us. Alyx was able to quickly cast Evil Null, then sent it out to the nearest eagle. Ned quickly followed up, right on the mark with his firebolt.

The eagles began to attack the villagers. Alyx prioritized the eagles that were diving the villagers and Ned's firebolt came right after each time.

My muscles relaxed a little. The situation seemed to be under control.

Ned and Alyx continued to cast spell after spell, taking down many eagles.

As the eagle's movements were analyzed by me, my brows furrowed. The eagles were no longer scattered, they were making their way in our direction.

My head turned to Erin, who was still only halfway through casting the encase spell.

...Ela was not here to distract them.

A frown appeared on my face. There was a wild wind around me as my skin tore open.

Without much thought, my feet took me outside. Alyx furrowed her brows.

"Ned!"

Through gritted teeth, my mind prepared the healing spell and Evil Null.

"Don't worry about me! I can heal myself."

The eagles were all looking at me menacingly.

Their eyes seemed to pierce my soul.

The pressure on my heart was huge.

Was this what Ela dealt with before?

One eagle dived at me. Before it reached, Alyx had already cast the Evil Null spell and Ned hit it with a firebolt.

My steps hurriedly went backward, and the eagle's body landed where I just was and slid towards me. An eagle from behind dived at me. Alyx and Ned were able to cast in time for this one too, but another eagle also came at me while the other dead eagle was being blasted with a firebolt.

There was no time for Alyx and Ned to do another combo. The eagle dived at me.

My finger pointed towards the eagle and Evil Null was thrown at it. As it shrunk, my intention was to dodge it, but it seemed fate had other ideas.

The body of the previous eagle, that Ned and Alyx killed, rammed into my back.

The wind was knocked out of me, but my arms were still able to be crossed in front of my heart.

The other eagle was in a daze but still collided with me.

Its beak pierced through both my arms and scratched my chest.

Quickly my body pulled away and cast the healing spell to mend the holes in my arms.

Suddenly the mana around me disappeared.

"JAY DODGE."

Ned's voice rang out.

A vision flashed in my mind, it was when 'I' was fighting the two-horned demon, barely dodging the attacks. Instinctively, my foot raised, then my body somehow shifted towards the side.

The eagle's feathers brushed past my body. The eagle crashed into the ground, damaging its beak. A firebolt blasted the eagle, killing it.

Before I could let out a sigh of relief, my eyes locked on Erin's anxious face.

An eagle was diving towards her.