Arcane Divine Throne

Facing with this horror situation, Lucien felt that his limbs were trembling and his brain was exploding inside his head. His thoughts were entangled with each others; he didn’t know what should he do and what shouldn’t. As a result, Lucien was stunned.

“Holy Emblem, right, I still had the Holy Emblem!”

Panicking, Lucien was only able to think about his greatest dependence. Subconsciously, he concentrated and tried to read the incantation of level 1 Divine – type spell “Holy Light Shield”. No matter how bad the situation was, protecting himself was the most important thing to him.

“Ha!” Suddenly, a roar like thunder sounded in Lucien’s ear. It made Lucien’s back tightened, his body hair bristled, and also caused  a lag in his chaotic mind.

“Use “Light”.” Gary’s steady voice came to Lucien’s ear. The person who just roared before and awake Lucien, Keleiya, Hausen from the confusion, was Gary.

Gary’s calm att.i.tude affected Lucien, helped him restore basic reaction. Just a moment after that, Lucien slightly rubbed his hand on the holy emblem and whispered a strange, one syllable word: “Gaya.”

A ball of white light appeared in front of Lucien and others, dispersed the darkness around.

Behind the ball, Lucien saw a huge pack of black rats. Their sizes were normal, but their eyes were red as blood. They gathered on a ground in a secret room which had dense human – sized strange plants on the wall. It made Lucien’s scalp tightened.

When the white light just appeared, It looked like the rats saw their natural enemy. They roared and charged to Lucien, Gary and others, like a tidal wave.

As the red-eyed rats spreading out, Lucien and other could see something in this secret room. There was a table in the corner, and there were three books which were emitting mysterious faint light. In the middle, there was also a flat table. On its surface, there were various strange patterns. These patterns were red, blue, dark, and they looked very similar to the patterns on “Emblem of Truth”. Some items were placed on these patterns, for instance, a small stove, pots, gla.s.s bottles, et cetera.

Neither Lucien or Gary didn’t have enough time to observe them carefully, because those stench and scary, strange rats were rushing in front of them.

After the roar of Gary, reticent Hausen and acerbic Keleiya skillfully held their swords and shields, then stood by the right and left of Gary respectively, formed a basic formation.

Facing the rats instead of mysterious and terror monsters, it eased Lucien’s tension a little. However, the strange point was the enormous number of the rats, which gave Lucien a little gooseb.u.mp.

The red-eyed rat at the front line rushed to Lucien, jumped out and opened its mouth, showed its sharp teeth. Lucien held “Sword of Glory” tightly by one hand, then slashed that rat by the this light – condensed blade.

This sword, which was summoned by Divine – type spell, was much sharper than normal knight’s sword. However, this hurried swing of Lucien missed completely both the strange trajectory and velocity of that mouse, so the blade only slided past it.

At the place where the blade made contact with the rat, its fur and muscle was quickly burned, however, that red-eyed rat had jumped to Lucien’s face. Inside its eyes;  the cold, red pupils were flashing, peerless clearly; its stench smell could be smelled plainly.

Seeing a dangerous rat very closely, while the previous slash was missed, Lucien immediately felt into chaotic. Not only did he want to slash it again, but he also wanted to raise his left hand up to cover; these confused thoughts made him almost drop the “Sword of Glory”.

While Lucien was seeing that rat was going to bite his chest,  he was helpless and couldn’t give out any solution. Suddenly, a sword which was flashing the coldness came from the side, slashed exactly on this rat’s neck, cut it into two pieces.

“Don’t be panic. If you couldn’t block it, try to avoid the vital part of your body; anyway, we still have Divine – type recover spells.” The calm and low voice of Gary came to Lucien’s ears.

The sharp voice of Keleiya also sounded: “Get closer to our back, rookie! A newbie standing alone on the front line, hah, you want to suicide, right?”

In this dangerous situation, despite any bad impression of Gary, Hausen or Keleiya to Lucien, they both knew that Lucien, who was holding the holy emblem, had a lot of combat power. Even when some unexpected changes occurred, he would be the key to a turnaround. After clearing these red-eyed rats, h.e.l.l knows what kind of monsters or magic traps would appear.

Successfully avoided the pounce of that red-eyed rat, Lucien quietly exhaled and calmed himself down. Comparison with Gary, a knight apprentice who was trained skillfully and had a lot of combat experience, Lucien was too immature, sentimental and helpless, especially when he was facing to dangerous situations or unexpected changes. There were only a few number of people, who were born with fighting talent, or were born with gifted talent that allow them to maintain the calm when encounter dangerous situation.

Lucien felt very lucky that he got supervised and helped by Gary, a veteran, in his first fight of his life. This would be his treasury experience in the future. This time, he wasn’t clumsy like the previous time. He was slashing his sword forwardly while he was moving closer Gary’s group.

There were not only one or two, but dozens of rats, pouncing to them, which were followed by the endless flow of rats.

“Sword of glory” was not only bright but also terribly sharp. When Lucien wielded it, it left some remained fainted shadows. Based on some advices of Gary, Lucien used this sword mostly for defense, so he could exert the whole power of “Sword of Glory”. It was also used to cover the flaws that Lucien didn’t study any kind of swordsmanship.

It looked like the blade create a white light barrier in front of Lucien. Every rats, which pounced to the blade were immediately split into two pieces. Their internal organs and skins were charred. They fell down like rain and the blood didn’t spill out, even the slightest. Other rats, who wasn’t hit by the blade, their fur was also burned. Their speed also slowed down, and Gary and Keleiya finished them effortlessly.

“Hey, brat, nice job. You killed about ten rats with just one slash.” Keleiya whistled and said to Lucien. No one knew that he was praising or mocking.

Lucien wasn’t proud of himself. His result was based on the sharpness of “Sword of Glory” and the advices of Gary. After killing some red-eyed rats, he felt used to this situation. Nevertheless, he said: “I feel that the power of “Sword of Glory” is reduced.”

Gary, who was slashing and stabbing out his sword to kill the rats who had slipped through the Lucien’s slashes, said: “Don’t worry, the remaining power is enough to kill all these monsters.”

After a group of rats were killed, those red-eyed rats continued rushing to them. This time, their number increased dramatically, probable more than one hundred.

Lucien’s slashes became more skilled, however, he still had a little fear inside his heart. While he feared that he couldn’t repel all these rats, he still believed that Gary and Keleiya can cover his sides.

“Sword of Glory” moved from top to bottom in a slant, drew an alluring line of light in the air. A significant number of rats were hit by this sword, which returned a huge pressure to Lucien’s hand. As an ordinary person who hadn’t been trained properly, Lucien almost couldn’t hold this sword.

The number of rats was too much. Even in front of the “Sword of Glory”, there was a rain of rats’ bodies which were cut in half, there were still dozens rats avoided Lucien’s slashes, went through the wall of light which was drawn by “Sword of Glory”.

“There are so many rats! Unless Gary and Keleiya can slash five or six hits per second,we can’t block all of them!” Lucien’s “Sword of Glory” was too late to slash another hit, so he was only able to keep his worry in his heart. “They are high – rank knight apprentices of the Church, may be they have some power similar to Divine – type spells.”

While Lucien was guessing, instead of two sharp knight swords, two round shields made from grey metal came from the sides. These two shields were wielded ferociously, and dozens of impact sounds were merged into a huge bang sound. Those red-eyed rats were hit flew out and failed on the ground, then died immediately.

Keleiya laughed: “A good knight must be skilled with not only the sword, but also the shield!”

Lucien exhaled and rea.s.sured, then continue wielding “Sword of Glory” to stymie the rats’ attack.

After failed many times, the rats also seemed that something was wrong. They stopped pouncing, then shifted to rush on the ground. Some rats even climbed to the roof, tried to ambush Lucien’s group from there.

The situation immediately became dangerous.

“Leave the top for me.” Hausen, the muscular knight who had been quiet since the beginning,  suddenly spoke.

While Lucien was slashing “Sword of Glory” to defense against the rats from the air and the ground, he asked: “Do we need “Holy Light Shield”?”

Gary shook his head: “Wait a little.”

The group was like a small boat in a stormy sea. The rats came from everywhere; they fell from the top, they pounced from the mid – air, they rushed from the ground. It looked like the small ship could be broken at any time.

Suddenly, Hausen made a small mistake while defending. A rat seized that opportunity to jump on Keleiya’s shoulder. Both Keleiya’s sword and shield were used to block the front, so he couldn’t stop that rat. He was bitten on his neck. He groaned and shook his shoulder, threw that rat away.

Keleiya bitterly said: “I have numbness around the wound, these rats are poisonous!”

“Ok, let me use the Divine – type cure spell.” Lucien spoke while using his left hand to rub the holy emblem.

Gary prevented him: “Don’t rush. Look like Keleiya can still endure a little more. I think we can’t avoid to be bitten, so just endure some bites first then use the cure later. The number of the rats is too large, whereas we can only use “Cure Minor Wound” three times a day, we need to save it.”

When he just finished his word, Gary also groaned. He was bitten in the place between his boot and knee pad.

Then, Gary, Hausen, Keleiya changed their style of attack. Although the rats could bite them, their teeth weren’t sharp enough to bite through their chain mails. They had strong defense at some vital points like feet, knee, et cetera, so they ignored these points and focused on defense other weak points. Their situation immediately became better.

Only Lucien, who was wearing linen clothes, didn’t have any kind of defense.  A rat bit him on his ankle. The itchy feeling and the numbness around the wound immediately spread out. Lucien almost fell down, and he felt very thirsty. His throat was burrning.

Gary considered the situation. At this time, half of the red-eyed rats died. He said: “Your physique is much worse than us. Use “Holy Light Shield” first, then use “Cure Minor Wound”.”

Concerning his own status, Lucien didn’t delay anymore. He focused his mind, and rubbed  the holy emblem once.

“Sumen.”

Strange and mysterious incantation sounded again, and a white light shield appeared on Lucien’s body.

After activating level 1 Divine – type spell, Lucien couldn’t focus his mind, so he stepped to the front line. With “Sword of Glory” and “Holy Light Shield”, he blocked every rats came from the front. Every rats avoided “Sword of Glory” attacked “Holy Light Shield” continously. However, only flashing light appeared, and “Holy Light Shield” still didn’t show even the slightest shaking. It gave a lot of time for Gary and Keleiya killing these rats.

After a few seconds, Lucien felt that his spiritual power was recovered, he rubbed holy emblem again and read the incantation:

“Gourdi.”

A white light emanates from the cross on the emblem to Lucien’s foot, the itchy feeling immediately dissapeared.

With Lucien, who has “Holy Light Shield”, stayed in the front line, the situation gradually shifted. Sometimes Gary and Keleiya was bitten because they couldn’t dodge, however, with the decreasing in the number of the rats, the danger also faded away. Lucien also spent some time to cure the wound on Gary and Keleiya.

After a short time, when Keleiya killed the last rat, he exhaled: “Finally, we kill all of them.”

The ground was full of red-eyed rat corpses, and a puddle of dark red blood.

Lucien looked at these things with a little fear. He couldn’t believe that he helped a lot in killing these rats. Gary slightly nodded his head : “Good work, Lucien.”

Lucien recovered and prepared to appreciate Gary. But Gary gasped and said: “Hausen, you and Lucien go and search everything inside.”

Lucien had “Holy Light Shield”,  and Hausen only protected the back line, so they didn’t have any wound. At this time, Gary wanted to use everything they had. However, the backside was still quiet, and that reticent Hausen didn’t reply.

Keleiya looked back, then spoke with panic and intermittent in his voice: “Hausen, Hausen disappeared.”

Hausen, who just defended them from red-eyed rats from above, who guarded calmly behind their back, now disappeared?

Lucien suddenly had a creepy feeling.