Throne of Magical Arcana - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Sudden Changes

Facing such a horrifying circumstance, Lucien couldn’t stop his arms and legs from trembling, and his head swelled, the thought to “do this” and “don’t do that” was twisted in a mess. Therefore what others saw was that Lucien just froze here and didn’t move.

Badge, I still have the Holy Badge of Truth!

Lucien, in a rattled state, thought of the thing he most relies on. Subconsciously, he attempted to activate the Mono-ring divine spell “Divine Shield”, no matter what, the first priority was to protect himself.

“Heh!” Suddenly, a thunder-like roar exploded by Lucien’s ear, raising the hair his arms and back, the chaotic thoughts suddenly halted.

“Light.” Gary’s deep voice came into Lucien’s ear, he was the one who just made the roar, and woke Lucien, Howson, and Correa up from bewilderment.

Lucien was influenced by Gary’s calmness, very soon he retook the control of his body, without thinking much, he rubbed the Badge, and made another strange syllable, “Gáya.”

A sphere-shoed white light, appeared in front of Lucien, repealing the darkness around them.

Then, Lucien saw a “cluster” of black mice on the ground, they were of normal sizes, but with scarlet eyes. Inside the secret room, the mice massed on the floor, walls, and strange human-shaped plants, they were so thickly dotted,  Lucien’s blood froze.

The mice reacted maliciously toward the sudden emergence of the white light , they squeaked, and rushed toward the group of four like a flood.

When the mice spread out, Lucien could now see the secret room. A desk was placed at the corner, with three books shining with a faint but mysterious light. A big, flat desk was in the middle, engraved with odd graphics in red blue and green, showing an oddly similar shape with the Holy Badge of Truth. Small stoves, crucibles and glass bottles were placed on those graphics.

Neither Lucien nor Gary was able to observe the room carefully, because of those frantic mice, bringing the miserable smell, already flooded to their front.

Howson and Correa, after waking up by Gary, held their shield and sword expertly, stood next to Gary, and formed a simple array.

Since they were going against mice, instead of something more supernatural, Lucien soothed the tension under influence from Gary. However, the mice were excessively numerous and weird, which still made Lucien terrified.

The first red-eyes mouse leaped toward Lucien, opening its mouth wide and baring its long, shape teeth.

Gripping the sword of light with one hand, Lucien hurriedly swung and struck the blade toward the mouse.

A light sword summoned by divine spells was much sharper than normal knight swords, but Lucien swung the sword in a flurry and misjudged the speed of the mouse’s leap, and only skimmed through the side of it.

Light sword quickly charred the mouse’s skin, damaging its flesh; but at the same time, the mouse already leaped toward Lucien’s face. Lucien could clearly see the cold lights beaming out of the scarlet eye, and smelled the decaying stink from its mouth.

Missing the strike and having the mouse right in front of him, Lucien began panicking, he wanted to strike back, but at the same time, he tried to block with his left arm. Under such contradiction, he almost dropped the light sword.

Lucien could see the mouse is almost going to bite his chest, but he had already lost his head and could do nothing.

All at once, the cold light reached from behind, struck right on the neck of the mouse, cut it into half.

“Don’t panic, if you can block it, dodge the deadly attacks, you have the healing divine spells” He heard Gary’s calm low voice from behind

Correa’s pungent voice also sounded from behind, “Noob, Stand back, next to us! Are you standing there to kill yourself?”

Under such circumstance, no matter what bad impressions Gary, Correa or Howson had on Lucien, they knew that with the Holy Badge he was a crucial help and even the turning point if something else happened. No one knew what other monsters or traps were there behind the red-eye mice.

Dodging another mouse’s bite, Lucien regained some calmness the well-trained and experienced High-order Squires like Gary,

‘I’m still too immature and too unprepared when facing dangerous situations and sudden changes. Not everyone is a born fighter or a gifted person that can remain self-possessed against danger.’

‘It’s my fortune, that there are the help and advice from adepts like Gary in the first actual fight in my life, these are all precious experiences when facing other situations later.’

This time Lucien was more steady while swinging his sword, he slowly stepped back next to Gary.

There were now not one or two mice, but tens of them, and more following.

The light sword was sharp and bright, leaving a trace of white light every time he swung. This time Lucien followed Gary’s guidance, prioritizing defense, exerting the characteristic of a light sword, and avoiding the defect that Lucien hadn’t learned any swordsmanship.

The blaze of that swing seemingly created a white shield of protection in front of Lucien, the mice who leaped onto the blade were cut into half like dust, charred skins and fleshes dropped heavily, without any blood dripping out.

“Hey! Good job kid, you at least killed a dozen of them with that one.” Correa whistled. Lucien didn’t know if he was being sarcastic or was actually praising him.

Lucien didn’t feel anything special, killing that much mice was totally due to the power of the light sword, and Gary’s directions, “I think the power of the sword is draining away!”

After several strikes, Lucien felt that he was more or less getting used to the circumstance.

Following Lucien’s strike, Gary kept swinging and lunging his sword, killing those mice that were not dead yet, “Don’t panic, the remaining power is enough for those monsters.”

Although lot were killed, more red-eye mice rushed over this time, more than hundreds of them.

Lucien was getting used to the swings, although he was still slightly scared, worrying that he was unable to stop all those mice, but he still believed in Gary and Correa and believed that they could stop the mice from both sides。

The light sword struck a sideline swing from top to bottom and created a beautiful arc-shaped light trace, pitter-patter, numerous mice knock onto the sword, pressuring Lucien’s arm. As an untrained ordinary person, he almost couldn’t hold the sword.

There were just too much mice, even if their corpses rained down infant of the light sword, dozens of them still penetrated Lucien’s defense, a wall of light and shadow drawn by the light sword.

“Unless Gary and Correa can stab five or six times in a second, we can’t stop that many mouse!” With no time to take another swing, Lucien could only hope that the Squires from the church knew some divine arts.

While Lucien daydreamed, what come to block the attacks, instead of two knight swords, was two silver, round shield.

Both shields gave a fierce blow, dozens of hitting sounds combined to form a thump, all the mice were knocked out and dropped onto the ground with their body twitching, and soon became dead corpses.

Correa laughed, “A good knight should master not only his sword but also his shield.”

Lucien let out a sigh of relief, he continued to wield the light sword, defending the attacks.

Suffering multiple failures, the red-eye mice also realized something. Instead of just leaping forward, they now rushed from the ground; some of the also climbing the wall, attempting to attack the group from above.

The situation suddenly became hanged by a thread.

“I’ll take the top.” Howson, a tall, able-bodied man, who kept silent until now.

Lucien took a big swing, blocking the mice infant of him, and asked, “You need the Divine shield?”

Gary shook his head, “Hold on to it!”

The four people were like a small boat in the perfect storm, staggering amongst the mice assaulting from everywhere, and seemed the boats was going to break at any time.

All of the sudden, a gap presented in Howson’s defense, a mouse falls straight on Correa’s shoulder, without being able to react, he was directly bitten on his neck; he groaned painfully, and immediately shook the mice away with his shoulder.

Correa cursed bitterly, “Damnit! The wounds are numbing, they are poisonous!”

“Let me activate the healing!” Lucien said, and starts rubbing the Holy Badge.

Gary stopped him again, “Hold on, Correa can take it. Seems like we can’t stop the all, heal until there are too many wounds!” There were too many mice, Lucien needed to save the healing.

Gary groaned too, he was bitten by a mouse between his boots and kneepad while he was talking.

Experiencing that, the three Squires all changed their style when fighting, even though the mouse bit, their teeth were not sharp enough to penetrate the armor, thus they now focused less on places that were protected the hauberks and kneepads, and paid more attention to defending other areas. That improved the situation.

However, Lucien, who only wore a cloth tunic and a pair of pants trousers, with no other protection, soon gets bitten on his ankle.

A numb and itching feeling rose from the ankle, and spread to his leg, Lucien almost fell, and felt extremely thirsty.

“You are less resistant to the poison than we do, activate the shield and then heal yourself!” Gary decided when he saw that more than half of the mice were dead.

Having the issue himself, Lucien didn’t wait, he concentrated his mind, and chanted the incantation:

“Sémen.”

Along with the mysterious syllable, a holy shield appeared around Lucien.

Cannot concentrate his spiritual power after casting the divine spell, Lucien stepped forward and stops all the mice in front with his divine shield and light sword.

Those mice who dodged the light sword continuously attacked the divine shield, but while the white light glinted, the shield kept steady, allowing Gary and Correa to take their time and kill the mice.

Several seconds later, Lucien restored his concentration, and rubbed the Badge again, “Guardï.”

White light beamed out from the Badge cross, shined over Lucien’s ankle, the itching feeling disappeared at once.

With Lucien blocking with the divine shield in front, although Correa dungaree got bitten for several times, the condition was gradually reversed, danger soon faded away

Lucien now managed to find the time and heal Gary and Correa’s wounds.

Not for a long time, Correa killed the last mice, making its blood splashed on the wall, and sighed, “Ah, finally.”

The ground was already filled with the mice’s corpses, and ponds of dark red blood.

Lucien was sort of dazed by all these corpses, not believing that he was able to make that, Gary nodded his head, “Not bad, Lucien.”

He took a deep breath, “Howson, you and Lucien go check the backroom.”

Lucien had the divine shield, Howson was standing at his back, without getting bit by the mice, at this time, Gary was exerting everyone’s use.

But no response, the silent Howson didn’t respond.

Correa turned back with a weird glance, but then Lucien and Gary heard his horror stroked voice, “Howson, Howson is not there!”

Howson, the one who knocked back things from the ceiling, and backs the three of them up, disappeared?!

The hair-curling feeling of fear returned