Chapter 21: Chapter 21 – Crash Course

• 3^rd Person POV

*GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*

That terrifying sound coming from the far distance as Cecilia running as quickly as she can. She heard the rumbling & thunderous roar echoing from the skies throughout Vogun, her mind run miles per minute deciphering who and what made that type of sound.

Remembering what Francis’ have told her and reading Francis’ research. It clicked when her mind have connected the dots.

(“It is a Wyvern… but how? From the far west…? That’s too far from them to reach here!”)

*GRAAAAAAAAAAAA!!*

She looked up after arriving to the central area of Vogun, seeing civilians human and half-giants alike running & hide in their tents. Commotions & chaos enveloped Vogun with them knocking down tents and stalls. Cecilia looked above and her eyes wide in astonishment.

What she’s seeing, is a large flying creature on top of the bright sky. The shadow of the figure looming over Vogun covering some areas. It is larger than normal wyvern that’s for sure, she thought while calmly assessing humanoids surrounding her if they have been injured.

Fortunately, she didn’t see any one requiring emergency aid. As all of them are mostly in a panicked state and hurt themselves running away from that loud roar.

*THUD *THUD *THUD

“Cecilia!!”

A voice she knows personally & affectionately echoes from behind although it is faint, she can hear him as clear as day. Turning her head towards the direction, Francis appears to be catching up to her as well whilst looking up to the figure that still looms on top of Vogun.

Until it abruptly stops and slowly descends.

Cecilia & Francis widened their eyes, it is much bigger than what they thought. Its wing flaps managed to move the tents underneath it by several centimetres. Some have been lifted, showing what’s attached to those tents. A white and extremely long serrated bone-like nails, so it is incredibly sturdy & firmly place the tent to the ground.

Seeing it moves just by the wind force alone is something remarkable and also terrifying in both of the scholars eyes.

*Tap *Tap *Tap

(“Its around here? Ah! I see them now”)

Astra finally arrives to the scene with stupor. He can feel strong winds and hearing the loud roars from everywhere. Through his ‘pulse’ he can sense a large creature from above, he couldn’t see its colour rather just an outline.

It is shaped like a bird with strange lizard-like body, two legs, and diamond shaped tipped tail. It’s head though, resemble what Astra known as dragons in fictional tale. Seeing that, his eyes widened like saucers as the calming sensation spread within him and intensifies.

“What… is… that….!?”

Astra said with pauses in between processing the information.

*GRAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!*

The creature’s neck expand as it inhale large amount of air whilst descending. Astra can feel something changing in the flow of mana as that creature did it. Almost immediately so, surrounding him and the scholars. The heat suddenly rises making the pair of scholars sweat whilst scrunching their face.

“ITS GOING TO BREATHE!”

Cecilia screamed as she quickly raise her hands & gather the surrounding mana. She realizes something dire. Her heart beats quicker than she ever did living in Vogun.

(“No! Its not enough time!”)

The wyvern’s mouth are covered by flames at this point as it’s going to exhale all of it to the front.

*HAAAAAA-*

*WHOOOSH*

*GRAAAA!!-“

Just in nick of time, a single arrow. No… it is much larger than an arrow, one could say it is a harpoon has been unleashed and pierced the neck of that wyvern although not deep enough to kill it. Blood splatter out from the impact, staining the ground scarlet and tents in red. It wobblily moves in the air trying to adjust its flight.

Once it stabilised, the creature retract its head again before going for its breath. But due to the momentary process it took to stabilize its flight. Cecilia have enough mana gathered.

[Wind, follow my lead and be my shield!]

Upon saying those ‘Words’ while raising her hands, the winds become much more intense than usual. Her clothes billow underneath the intense gusts with Francis covering his face & held his glasses.

“GRA!!!”

The wyvern unleashes a burst of flame as Astra can feel the heat coming from it approaching closely... Although he only feels slightly warmer than the usual day of Vogun even when the flames are almost reached him.

Cecilia’s slender hands swirls against one another and in doing so, the billowing wind began to coalescence taking in the burst of flame before she raises her hands to the top in great effort as if lifting a heavy object. Her forehead drenched by the sweltering heat and getting harder to breathe with the intense hot air from those flames.

“HAP!”

She grunts as the wind blows upward deflecting the flames into the skies and snuffles them simultaneously. Right at that instant, a familiar voice coming from the back of the scholarly duo.

“HUNTERS! WATCHERS! ATTACK!!!”

It’s a female voice which Astra recognizes as Maleah’s voice. She holding her Warhammer with her leg muscles pulled taut. She jumped in an incredible speed making a dent to the ground as she did that. Arrows were shot towards the Wyvern but each of them deflected by its hard scaled hide.

Not for Maleah, as she dunked her Warhammer right on top of the Wyvern’s head. Eliciting it’s cries and cracking sounds from the impact.

*BAM!!!* *GRAAAAA!*

Astra can hear a crack & a roar as he tries to made the ‘pulse’ more frequent. Her movements are too quick for his usual intervals to keep up, she spins her Warhammer using the momentum gained to hit the Wyvern again but deflected by its claws as she dodges the incoming swipe.

“FRANCIS, WITH ME!”

Cecilia turn her head towards Francis in which the other scholar immediately understood what she’s going to do. Knowing the wyvern is occupied with Maleah and her group of hunters & watchers, the scholarly pair moves away taking Astra with them to a safer spot.

(“Eh...? Where are we going…? It’s too quick for me to see!”)

His world changes so fast, from the familiar rows of tents into an empty spot like a backyard.

Understanding that they are now in a safe spot, Francis put his hands on Cecilia’s back as he concentrates and began to gather his surrounding mana.

Astra sees all of this happening & understood it as he did this before but instead of gathering towards him, Francis directing the flow of mana to her. Cecilia too follow suit accelerating the mana gathering process.

Astra can ‘feel’ it, the immense amount of mana surrounding the scholarly duo. Dr. Cecilia took a deep breath as she enter deep concentration. She began to vibrate the entirety of Francis’ gathered mana and her own with her core. Sweat begin to bead from her forehead and Francis too. Her hand trembles, tingles, and sparks emerge from her finger tips. She then began to write in air...

--

The wyvern who’s injured by the harpoon & unbalanced from the intense impact from Maleah descends and land to the ground.

Immediately, it is approached by several hunters & watchers carrying blades or heavy weaponry. Realizing that, it twists its body & spin around utilising the diamond shaped tail. Making a dust cloud and simultaneously trying to hit anyone with its tail.

Spikes emerges from the tail like cat whose paw have been squeezed.

“GAH-!!!”

Several hunters and watchers got hit by the spiky tail, they knocked away far, hitting other tents making them crumble but not move. Some fainted from it’s direct hit while the rest still stood. Although... spikes have broken off and still lodged inside them as the ones standing felt something strange.

Their body turn sluggish and becoming harder & harder to move. Their eyes widened after realising what’s happening. One of the Watcher screamed.

“ITS VENOMOUS, THE TAIL!!”

One manage to alert the others before passing out. Appearing nearby with haggard face & messy hair are Katie & Sally, their experience as a battle medic does help in this scenario as the healers begun to administer normal antidote that they usually have in hand but realizing soon after, its delaying the effects not completely curing it. In a hurry, with the help of other watchers who still conscious and other civilians who aren’t in a panic they haul the paralysed victims away to a safe area.

Clouds in the skies begin to gather as the sun slowly being enveloped by clouds making the area grew darker than before.

Meanwhile from faraway right on top of the walls that surround Vogun. Another figure appeared with red hair and scars on his face. Beside him is a larger figure with the same characteristics although that larger figure have a missing eye & arm. That larger figure already stayed in place wearing incredibly large bow that’s implanted to the ground.

“Well… well… well… what do we have here~. That’s a big one! What say ya pops?”

 “*GRUNT*”

“Hmm~ True… they needed more training. Welp, I guess its time for this handsome strapping young man to shine, eh? Wouldn’t want to let my pops get all the glory.”

“Hmph!”

Itgul doesn’t seem annoyed but has a look of saying ‘hurry up’ to his son in which Orion just shrugged before taking out his own weapon.

Similar to his father, Orion carries a large bow that has been modified in the crafting district.

“HAPPP!”

He impales the bottom of the bow to the ground & embed it inside. *CLICK* a mechanism has been triggered due to that as several metallic claw-like protrusion held it in place.

The bows that this father and son are using is unique to Vogun and only to be held by half-giants. It requires incredible strength and dexterity far from human capabilities. A particularly favourite weapon of Crimson Sky clans.

“GRRR!!!”

Orion usually goofy expression changed into a more serious tone as he began to nock the arrow or in this case, the size is more similar to a harpoon. Sweat begun to bead and veins appeared on his forehead as he drew the arrow back. His back muscles pulled taut. One can see his scarred hands due to the cut from arrowhead or string slapped to his skin.

“HNGHHH!!!!”

He continues to pull and pull. With the bow made a creaking noise. Itgul too began to nock his bow drawing the arrow back, his bow too have been modified allowing one to operate it with a single hand.

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*WHOOSH*

Both father and son unleashed their harpoons. It made a screeching sound from this side and travel at an incredible distance & speed. Carrying heavy power in their wake.

The wyvern as if having sixth sense understood where the arrow is coming as it raises its winged-hand.

*BAM* *BAM*

The two arrows hit but impaled the wyvern’s scaled hand instead of their original target which is its heart. Strangely, there’s no blood even if the arrows are lodged in that deep & the wyvern doesn’t seem to be in pain, just annoyed.

“*WHISTLE* It’s a tough one, eh?”

“Hm.”

The father and son pair rested once more, each time they need to operate their bow. They needed time to recharge with Orion bringing in another type of arrow & giving one to Itgul. It’s larger than the rest, with menacing arrowhead designed to tear and rip flesh.

“Hope this works! My human friends told me to cross my fingers.”

Orion crosses his fingers and winked at his dad, which ellicit a simple grunt. Before sighing and taking the arrow.

They began to reload the bow as the wyvern inhale large amount of breath again. The arrows that they are using is incredibly thick. Needing more strength to operate and of course a bow that can handle it.

The wyvern faced the direction of where those harpoons come from and tries to expel it’s searing breath to that direction. The father and son doesn’t seem to be worried rather they trusted the chief fully.

“OH NO YOU DON’T!”

Maleah jumped trying to dunk her Warhammer on top of the wyvern’s head to shut its mouth. Right before that, another figure already leaped ahead and does what she’s intending to do.

“Too slow, you old hag!”

*BAM*

The wyvern’s head swamp to the ground creating a large hole.

“Heh…”

Maleah smirked.

*GRAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!*

It raises its head abruptly and unleash breath of flames whilst twisting its body around. Creating a vortex of flames that act as a wall and dust storm that covered their view.

Some of the tent catches on fire of which the non-poisoned watchers have begun evacuating the other hiding civilians in the tents.

Maleah and Leo dashed back away from the intense flames and got burned but they didn’t seem to be fazed from the scorching pain rather they just patted the fire away from their armours.

“Is it burning, little boy?”

“Heh… just a sting”

*GRAAAAAA!!!*

The roar comes again as the wyvern takes off to the air. Wanting to retreat seeing so many figures have appeared. Unbeknownst to it, the clouds have darkened & spiralling like a vortex as glimpses of thunder can be heard throughout Vogun.

--

Back in that safe spot, Francis forehead is drenched with sweat & Cecilia too as she heavily pants.

*BZZTT BZZZTT*

Blitzes of lightning can be heard as her left hand & right hand writes something in air, each stroke created sparks which hit the ground leaving small scorch marks behind.

The tip of her finger glows in bright blue with sparks surrounding it. She can feel the tingles, as Astra ‘senses’ the writings through his pulse, since its inherently magical he can decipher the meaning of those words.

Its remarkable, she’s writing different passage with left hand and other with right hand whilst speaking completely different ‘Words’ simultaneously.

Astra can feel a powerful weight for each word she wrote and spoke as mana gathered by Francis and her thrums.

Her left hand wrote.

[Clouds gather like moth drawn to light, obscure the sun let no one see the day!]

Her right hand wrote.

[Enraging storms, let your voice be known, bring terror to the seas and sailors alike!]

Whilst she’s speaking in her dialect a different ‘words’

[I call upon, the wrath of the skies, judgement of the heavens, and unmake thy victim!!}

She remembered riding across a boat in her younger days, seeing the magnitude of merciless storms and thunders raining down from the skies. In her mind, if she can tapped it’s power, she will be able to bring this dangerous creature down from hurting her home.

As she said those ‘Words’ out of her mouth, the rumbling storms grow near and in fact, it is echoing through Vogun with other half-giants including the ones in combat noticed.

The wyvern that tries to flies away look above and sees a cluster of clouds merges together with blue sparks adorning it. It realizes too late what’s going to happen as a flash of bright blue light obscure everyone’s view.

*BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRR*

A massive bolt of lightning struck the wyvern body from above with sparks of lightning spreading from the wyvern’s body and hitting around the point of impact. The sand beneath that got hit by lightning turned into glass instantaneously as the half-giants made sure to stay as far away as they can. Understanding that being caught in the magic would mean grievous injuries or worse.

*GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!*

The wyvern muscles twitched crazily, dazed, and paralysed as it falls down to the ground. its scales are burned off, some have flaked away revealing the vulnerable flesh that Itgul & Orion sees clearly. They immediately put the plan into motion as they begun to nock their modified arrows.

Maleah and Leo leaped displaying incredible strength and speed each carrying their Warhammer & war axe as they hit its hardy head with considerable force. It forces the wyvern to stick its head to the ground again momentarily.

Taking that chance, two heavy arrows are unleashed. It is moving so fast that one can see it breaks sound barrier towards the vulnerable flesh of the wyvern.

*STAB*

*ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!*

The wyvern roar ear-splittingly loud with deluge of blood washes over the central area of Vogun. It’s death wails made everyone in Vogun hears it.

It uses its claws to grabbed into the lodged arrow trying to pull itself out but to no avail as it is impaled to the ground by the massive arrows. For few seconds after, its body lies limp, Maleah & Leo moves forward to check, confirming that it is definitely dead.

She slam the pommel of her Warhammer down and said…

“Remind me to never make Cil angry.”

“Yeah…”

Leo rubbed the back of his head remembering how often he get injured and Cecilia heals him back whilst nagging him all over.

--

After the spell ended, the clouds disperses like nothing has happened with the daylight shone down to Vogun. Cecilia slumped down and Francis helped her to take a breather. Her throat is incredibly parched to the point of hurting her with a coughing fit and her arms are heavy as she leaned on Francis for support.

Astra in a hurry brought out his silver flask as he opens the topper and give it for her to drink. He remembers how refreshing it is to drink from that fountain so, he hopes it will helped her with her cough.

“Thanks…”

She took it nonchalantly and drank the content of that silver flask. Her eyes twitched for a second, the water taste incredibly crisp and fresh there’s a hint of iron as well which bore a highly familiar taste in her mouth.

It immediately removes the thirst on her throat and its pain as well. The aftereffects of mana exhaustion begun to be lifted as she look at Astra who has the look of genuine concern.

She look closely to the silver flask, her keen eyes notices that it is indeed magical & the water it contains have restorative properties similar to what she knows in Vogun. Flipping it to the side without Astra noticing, she read the miniscule handwritings. Her eyes widened like saucers; she recognizes the handwriting!!

Its so similar to the Archmagi of Etude and it says.

[To whom who have touched this sacred item, this will be bound unto you. May you be free of thirst for all eternity!]

Although the flask is small, it contain much more water than it looks. As Cecilia deduced that this flask is able to held incalculable amount of water and attuned itself to what ‘type’ of water it contains. In addition, bounded to the one who first have it which is Astra.

She didn’t say anything further but ask Astra about something.

“Astra… *Ehem… *Ehem”

She clears her throat.

“Yes, Ms. Cecilia?”

Astra tilts his head wondering about why Cecilia is calling him.

“Where did you get this Flask?”

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