Chapter 31: Dauntless
"What the hell!"
People screamed at Darrel as Connor wrestled him to the ground, forcing him to drop his shield.
Lucas landed on his back and rolled aside as arrows soared into the gatehouse, striking the ground where he had fallen. He couldn’t evade them all, however. Two buried themselves in his left forearm.
Thankfully, he scrambled back behind the gatehouse walls with his head intact and life in his eyes.
Ryon reeled back his fist to punch Darrel and shouted:
"Goddammit, Darrel!"
However, Lucas stepped between them and caught his arm before he could swing.
With a light chuckle, Lucas said:
"Damn, you’re strong."
Awestruck, everyone watched Lucas as he pulled the arrows from his forearm, then methodically wrapped the wounds with the gauze strapped to his belt.
Acting as if he hadn’t almost died, Lucas continued:
"This is no time for infighting."
Lucas bent down and picked up the shield Darrel had dropped.
Darrel screamed at him, tears streaming down his face:
"I almost killed you, and that’s what you say?! Are you even human?!"
Lucas said nothing in response. Instead, he extended his free hand toward Darrel, who stared blankly at it.
"I... I can’t. Please don’t make me go."
Darrel began to cry, but Lucas did not lower his hand.
Slowly, Darrel raised his head, only to lower it again.
He tried a second time, holding Lucas’s gaze a little longer before looking away.
On the third attempt, he tentatively grabbed Lucas’s hand and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. Lucas handed him the shield but did not release him.
Gazing out into the courtyard, Lucas spoke quietly:
"Listen, I’m not asking you to die... If I were, I wouldn’t be sending you out there with valuable shields. I’m asking you to live and help the rest of us live. This path, the one where you feel cast aside, is the one where you have a chance of surviving this situation."
He let go of Darrel’s hand and turned toward the other three people holding shields — Didier, Aleksandr, and Kakeru — then added:
"That goes for you three as well."
The other three looked every bit as reluctant as Darrel, but they turned to face the courtyard. Lucas’s gaze hardened as he placed his hand on Darrel’s back.
His voice became deathly serious.
"Shielders! Three, two, one— go!"
He gave Darrel a light shove, barely putting any force behind it. Still, Darrel stumbled through the gatehouse and into the open as if Lucas had thrown him, with the other three emerging beside him.
They rushed to lock their tower shields together and form a wall.
A second later, absolute hell rained down upon them.
A storm of arrows, burning oil, and small boulders hammered their shields from above.
Axel couldn’t watch.
He lowered his gaze to his hands, which were trembling violently. He forced himself to look around, searching the faces beside him for any sign that he wasn’t the only one terrified.
Zayn looked tense but was forcing himself to remain calm, while Lucas looked like he could kill with a single glance.
Almost everyone else was shaking with fear, but a few, like Shin Hae-Ryung, Amaya, and Maks, kept their composure — outwardly, at least.
"Everyone, charge!"
Axel glanced at the four shielders ahead, still clinging to life beneath the relentless barrage.
’More ghosts...’
He turned toward the courtyard and pulled Aether from his core, channeling it down into his legs. Then he burst into the open and began to run.
The goblins hadn’t thought to alternate their volleys, so after unleashing everything upon the initial four, only a few arrows were left to fire at the charging Summoned. Another full volley, however, would come at any moment.
Unwilling to wait for it, Axel slid through the watchtower’s entrance.
Of course, that was just the beginning.
Axel looked up the tower’s spiral staircase. Goblins crowded nearly every step, their beady eyes fixed upon him.
Still, he ran.
He charged upward with all his might, slashing through every goblin that blocked his path.
[You have slain a Nascent Aberrant, Goblin]
"Die!"
[You have slain a Nascent Aberrant, Goblin]
[You have...]
[You have...]
[You have...]
[You have slain a Nascent Aberrant, Goblin]
By the time he reached the landing connecting the tower to the battlements, he had killed more goblins in succession than ever before. With his newfound strength, it was almost easy.
Axel was not one to get complacent.
The landing opened onto both stretches of battlement, while another staircase continued through a hatch toward the top of the watchtower. When Axel glanced upward, he found goblins leaning over the tower’s edge, aiming down at him with bows.
Axel surged up the staircase, ignoring the goblins pouring in from both battlements as he kept his eyes fixed on the archers overhead.
Their arrows were nearly impossible to dodge from below. His only chance was to move faster than they could track him.
For the most part, it worked.
Only one arrow grazed him before he reached the hatch.
Axel exploded through the opening and instantly cut down the two nearest goblins.
[You have slain a Nascent Aberrant, Goblin]
[You have...]
Without slowing, he grabbed one corpse and swung it around, slamming it into the remaining four and knocking them off balance.
He released the body, seized the nearest living goblin by the ankle, and hurled it over the edge.
Axel pivoted and brought his sword down upon the two goblins scrambling to their feet.
[You have...]
[You have...]
...
[You have slain a Nascent Aberrant, Goblin]
This left Axel alone with a single goblin, which looked ready to cry. Axel steadied himself and waited for the terrified creature to regain its footing.
Once it did, Axel leaned back and drove his heel into its chest, sending it tumbling backward over the edge.
...
[You have slain a Nascent Aberrant, Goblin]
With the watchtower roof secured, Axel raced back through the hatch and descended to the landing to help hold off the goblins advancing along the battlements.
Zayn, Lucas, Maks, and several others had reached the landing, while the rest of the Summoned remained below.
Surprisingly, the goblins began to retreat, allowing the Summoned to catch their breath.
When the last goblin vanished from both the battlements and the courtyard, nobody moved.
Heavy footsteps then climbed the spiral staircase behind them.
"You monster!"
Cynthia yelled at Lucas as she ascended the last few steps.