Chapter 76. A Victory Too Easy
A group of roughly twenty students had now surrounded Xath’rael, including Lloyd, Nix, and, most importantly, Dominic. A golden aura radiated off Dominic’s entire body, and fierce fire burned in his eyes. Seeing that his attack had actually worked filled him with even greater confidence. He began to believe he could actually beat this thing—that it was possible, so long as Sarliya’s power still coursed through him. As long as that strength remained, he wouldn’t lose to it. He could end this thing for good.
Xath’rael pressed one hand against its wound, scanning the students surrounding it. In the eyes of every one of them, it saw the same fierce, murderous intent aimed straight at itself. Feeling genuinely threatened for the first time, it readied its remaining blade-arms and its claw, preparing to strike them down before they could land another blow.
The instant Dominic saw Xath’rael readying its attack, he tightened his grip on his sword and shouted a warning to everyone around him.
"Everyone, it’s about to attack! Stay ready, and don’t let your guard down! We’re going to finish this together. We’re going to avenge our fallen brothers and sisters. And we’re going to prove to the Death Order that the students of Silvercrest Academy are not the kind to be trifled with."
Hearing his words, the students raised their weapons in a roar of defiance, and together they surged toward the abomination. Dominic moved fastest of all, crossing the distance in the blink of an eye, leaping nearly fifteen feet into the air to bring a horizontal slash down toward its head.
Startled by the move, Xath’rael raised three of its remaining blade-arms to block the strike but the force behind it was so great that it was pushed back nearly a full step. In that same instant, the rest of the students closed in. Lloyd swung his greatsword directly into the back of one of its goat-like legs. Though the strike didn’t cut particularly deep, it opened a wound serious enough to expose the muscle beneath.
Nix, gripping a lance, drove a straight thrust into the underside of its belly. The result was much the same the creature’s hide was too thick, its muscle too dense, for the blow to penetrate deeply. But it still left a visible, meaningful wound.
One after another, the twenty students began landing strike after strike across its body, and every blow now found its mark. Small wounds began accumulating across its form, growing more numerous with each passing second. When Xath’rael finally registered the severity of the situation, it spun its entire body in a sweeping arc, its tail scattering every student around it in one motion. But it didn’t stop them for long the moment they hit the ground, they scrambled back up and charged again as one. Seeing the wave of students bearing down on it once more, Xath’rael swung one of its blade-arms in a wide horizontal slash toward them.
The strike met resistance something had blocked it. When it turned to see what, it found a blond-haired boy, a strange golden aura pouring off his body, gripping his sword reversed with both hands, using the flat of the blade to absorb the blow.
Dominic held his sword firm, but even blocking the strike sent him skidding back nearly three steps from the force of the impact. Despite the power now coursing through his body, far beyond what it had been, the pain that shot through him after absorbing that hit was staggering as though someone had beaten his entire body with a hundred-kilogram hammer.
In that moment, he thought of Elizabeth, who had endured an attack just like this one without any special boost to her strength at all. If he’d taken that same blow in his normal state, his internal organs and bones would have been shattered to pieces. He understood then, truly, just how vast the gap was between himself and Elizabeth. But he refused to let that thought weigh him down. Even if she was stronger than him, that didn’t make him weak. He would prove himself now not for anyone else’s sake, but for his own.
As Dominic held the block against Xath’rael’s strike, he subtly tilted his blade. The angle caused Xath’rael’s massive weapon to slide off the edge, throwing it slightly off balance and in that instant, a weak point opened up in its stance. That was exactly the opening Xath’rael had feared.
The moment Dominic saw the weakness exposed, he didn’t hesitate. As the creature’s blade slid free from his own, he gripped his sword tightly and drove a forward slash straight into the lower portion of its arm.
"Aslan Style, Fifth Sword: Songs of the Dandelion."
His blade cut clean through in a forward arc, striking directly into its fourth arm. The attack severed two of its arms clean off from its left side, and they crashed to the ground, twitching faintly for a moment before going completely still. The students watching stared at the creature in stunned disbelief. Where it had once had eight arms on its left side, only six remained now, and one of its claws was gone entirely.
The instant its two severed arms hit the ground, Xath’rael let out a thunderous roar but this time, it wasn’t the roar of savagery or intimidation it had used before. This was a scream of pain, from watching two of its own limbs fall, severed, to the ground.
Blood poured endlessly from the wound across Xath’rael’s body. Black blood spilled from the fifteen-foot monster’s severed limb, and it looked like a waterfall cascading down some small mountain. The students watching grew more stunned by the second, and with every passing moment, their respect and trust in Dominic deepened. Many of them, who moments ago had been utterly broken by the massacre unfolding before their eyes, now saw a flicker of hope returning.
Every one of them silently prayed that Dominic could kill the beast.
Meanwhile, the students of the Divine Studies Department were still treating Sarliya, who lay unconscious on the ground. But even in her unconscious state, she had earned their respect. She had attempted something none of them could have dreamed of trying, something none of them had even been trained to do. A Divine Blessing alone was an incredibly difficult feat, one that took years of devoted practice to achieve. Layering the Haven of Tranquility on top of that was something they couldn’t even imagine attempting. Yet Sarliya, a first-year student no different from the rest of them, had made the impossible real. For that, their admiration for her had grown immeasurably.
Xath’rael, now writhing in agony, charged straight at Dominic without a shred of hesitation. Its sword-like limbs spread wide as it closed the distance with terrifying speed. Dominic watched it come. He tightened his grip on his sword, closed his eyes, and drew a long, steady breath. He set the hilt against his shoulder, the point angled toward the abomination bearing down on him.
Even with his eyes shut, he could feel it approaching. Every step, every twitch of movement registered in his mind. Every sense in his body was operating at its absolute limit. The instant the creature closed to a certain distance, his eyes snapped open. He gripped his sword with both hands, sprinted forward, and leapt.
Seeing him jump, Xath’rael lashed out with all three of its blade-like limbs. Not a single strike connected. Dominic dodged every attack mid-air, closing the distance without missing a beat. Then, in a quiet voice, he spoke.
"Aslan Style, Second Sword: Ascending Heavens."
His blade cut upward in one fluid motion, arcing straight toward the abomination’s throat. Time seemed to slow to a crawl for Xath’rael. It could see the sword coming. It could see exactly where the strike would land. But no matter how hard it tried to move, it couldn’t. It simply stood there, helpless, unable to match Dominic’s speed with anything of its own.
Dominic felt the blade meet flesh. It slid into the muscle of the creature’s throat, first through skin, then muscle, then through the veins and finally the bone, before finally breaking free on the other side. The moment it did, Xath’rael’s head separated cleanly from its body and sailed through the air, landing some distance away in the dirt. Seconds later, the massive body followed, collapsing as its legs gave out beneath it, crashing down in a heap.
Xath’rael was dead.
**
Outside the barrier, the professors stood glued to the screen, watching every second of the battle unfold. They saw Dominic’s fearless charge. They saw Sarliya’s extraordinary Blessing. And the instant they watched Dominic sever Xath’rael’s head from its body, the entire group erupted in celebration.
"Yes, they did it! They’ve won! They’ve won against the Beast of the Crimson Void! They’ve won against Xath’rael!"
The professors cheered, caught up in the moment. Nicholas stood among them, his gaze calm and unreadable as he watched the screen. But inwardly, he smiled. A mocking smile, as though he found the naivety of everyone around him amusing.
Not everyone joined the celebration, though. Two individuals stood apart, their eyes locked on the screen with unwavering focus, their expressions growing darker by the second. Those two were Professor Marcus and Chancellor Eric. They alone seemed to understand something the others either hadn’t grasped or refused to.
Xath’rael could never fall that easily.
Something here was deeply wrong. Neither of them knew what it was. But whatever it was, it was very, very wrong.
A massive storm was about to unfold.