Chapter 9: Arc I – Chapter VIII – First Battle

 

 

“Why do you keep calling me…?” Kenneth asked, holding his staff before him crosswise. There was a skittering noise echoing up the passageway between the buildings as the Victim crept closer.

 

“You spoke the name yourself. It’s your true name,” Purple said simply. “Will you try to deny what you know in your heart?”

 

…

 

Taking a deep breath, Aurora shook his head. The purple fuzzball god’s words were a truth that he couldn’t deny. While he might have argued, he knew deep down that to do so would be futile. Lying to others is bad enough, but lying to yourself is far worse.

 

A clawed limb extended around the corner and the monster’s misshapen head peeked around, seeming faintly… human. Chills crept up and down his back as he couldn’t help looking down at Glacia’s prone form. Her clothes were in an awful state, almost melted, and her skin looked strange. Remembering his friend Nichols’ face just after he’d emerged from his cocoon, Aurora winced. Tommy’s eyes truly were alien. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, unable to call them evil. The only thing he could settle on was that they weren’t the eyes of a human being. Aurora hoped desperately that his friend would return to his normal self once the dust settled.

 

Rushing around the corner with a strangely fluid but lurching pace, the monster charged at Aurora. He lifted his staff, knowing that his friend and savior’s life were at stake. He was prepared to meet its charge. However, as though a string pulled him into the air, he leapt, his draw dropping as the monster ran into the brick wall, narrowly missing trampling the magical girl and Beppu. Bricks shifted, and dust-like grout settled down on their bodies as smaller chunks spilled.

 

The monster shrieked loudly, looking directly at Aurora, its maw gaped open wide. It slammed its limbs into the wall and started skittering upwards in a gravity-defying display of its strength. It climbed with no apparent effort.

 

Aurora’s wings fluttered as he gained elevation, keeping pace with the monster. The creature climbed up over the rim of the rooftop to stare up into the sky at its natural enemy. Its mandibles on its face snapped viciously and its limbs flailed. Aurora laughed wry, watching as it had a tantrum fit after it realized that it was unable to reach her. Having wings was extremely useful.

 

“Don’t pause. It will attack you,” Purple admonished Aurora, snapping into his ear. Turning his face to glare at his unwanted hitchhiker, Aurora’s now long silver-blue hair blew about across his face as he turned away from the direction that the prevailing wind was headed. The strands of hair momentarily obscured his vision. Thus, his glare lost some impact.

 

In the corner of his eyes, there was a burst of non-light energy that surged into the air, dwarfing the beam that it had used to disable Glacia. Aurora drew back, flinching, but again his wings beat seemingly on their own and jerked him to the side.

 

“Override protocol,” Purple snarled. “We shouldn't have expected too much from a fresh recruit such as yourself. Focus on your fight, Aurora. Never take your eyes off of the enemy! Raise your staff!”

 

Another bolt targeted her. Aurora folded her wings, somersaulting mid air. Falling, he pointed his face right at the monster with his hair streaming behind him, while flying directly at the monster on the rooftop below. Raising his staff, he slammed the tip in the creature’s too human-looking face. The monster hissed, and one of its limbs took an involuntary step back.

 

Flinching, Aurora landed on the rooftop and ran to the side, his wings catching the wind as he moved. They folded as the monster pursued him, trailing him.

 

“Obviously… super strength… is not my… thing,” Aurora muttered.

You are reading story Radiant Lodestar Aurora at novel35.com

 

“... Of course not, fool,” Purple grumbled. “You have a staff. You’re not like Glacia. You’re not supposed to bludgeon the Victim to death with the pretty bauble on the tip of your staff.”

 

Grumbling under breath at Purple’s snarky comment, Aurora dodged another bolt of energy that made the air feel frozen. Neither Aurora or her unwanted hitchhiker was able to sense this one coming. Aurora’s new senses were a little laggy since he hadn’t mastered his new senses yet. But neither Purple’s well-developed skills had detected it either. Aurora’s feet hadn’t moved semi-automatically to nudge him out of the way. It was out of good fortune that he’d zig-zagged the right way to avoid being lanced just like Glacia.

 

He dodged and weaved as he skipped back and forth across the school’s roof in search of cover, but nothing solid enough presented itself. There was little beside air conditioner units bolted to the rooftop. He tried hiding behind one to catch his breath as the beams non-light beams volleyed from the monster. The AC unit took a full on strike, surprisingly sustaining no damage. Considering how much force Aurora sensed the monster put into its attack, he was stunned that it didn’t visibly change. He expected the thing to disintegrate. What kind of an attack does no damage to infrastructure?

 

The monster crept slowly around the large air conditioner unit, peeking over it directly at Aurora. Gasping, Aurora threw himself away, beating his wings to get started faster. He could fly, but he knew that the monster would just fire into the air at him. He could run, but doing so would just be cowardly. Not to mention, the ‘god’ on his shoulder would never allow it. Rushing to stay ahead of the monster in their game of tag, he wracked his mind for some kind of solution. His situation truly stumped him.

 

Purple spoke softly as the monster stalked closer, “Do you think yourself powerless, Lodestar Aurora?” Purple asked. “Don’t waste my time. Face the monster and I’ll take control in order to show you what you’re capable of.”

 

Aurora gritted his teeth, already hating Purple. “Fuck you! It’s not your life on the line, right? You’ll just jump ship and watch as I get eaten, right?” Coming to a skidding stop at the edge of the large rooftop, Aurora turned with his staff extended, his eyes fierce. 

 

“Certainly not,” Purple said. “I’ll go down with the ship this time, but I have faith in your power. Remember that I will just borrow your power. Whatever you’re about to witness comes entirely from you, not me. Do you understand?”

 

The creature skidded to a halt, sizing Aurora up. “Override protocol.” Perkons glowed purple and his essence plumbed into Aurora. His body jerked, and his eyes glazed faintly as she extended her staff, spinning it as though she had trained to use it for her whole life. 

 

As Aurora moved, the tip of her staff came to life and glowed. Energy from everywhere around streamed inwards, concentrating there, turning the gem on its tip to ignite, shining nearly as bright as she had while transforming. Energy rippled in waves around her. The melody from back when she changed now whispered again in her ears. The staff glowed brighter and brighter.

 

Unwilling to wait and see what Aurora would do, the Victim charged ahead and as it leapt, mandibles spread wide, its maw enormous, all limbs reaching to wrap around her. Aurora fell backwards off the rooftop, feeling the wind’s rush around. The air she fell through sent her hair flying in a fevered mass like a comet’s tail.

 

Aurora had little time to pull this off. As she fell, her staff’s tip burst and wings spread from it, motes of light showering around. As the motes touched the monster’s flesh, it screamed. Its carapace smoked.

 

The energy sharpened and became difficult to behold for anyone watching. Aurora felt it had finally reached the tipping point. It all finally made sense. She wasn’t a warrior. That kind of power wasn’t meant for her. No matter what her old instincts demanded, the ability to attack her enemies with brute force, wasn’t hers. She was, in reality, a mage, nothing more or less. She could use her own light energy to attack her enemy. That was her weapon.

 

“Light…. Wave…. BURST!” Aurora screamed and the power she’d gathered erupted. Light burst upwards, consuming the Victim in a massive beam. Blasted downwards all the faster, she struck the ground and everything went dark as grass went flying in all directions along with the soil it had been planted in. A nasty smelling substance showered Aurora as she regained consciousness. The monster’s lifeblood, or whatever passed for it, sprinkled across the field as the monster disintegrated into motes of light.