Kapitel 9: Chapter 2 - Alluring Nightmare
Part 3
Laum
Estate of the Auryls – Underground Throne Room
The heavy kicked threw me afar and it happened in an instant. I hardly perceived his flashing movement as he dashed toward me. In the blink of an eye, a knockdown high-kick sent me flying back to the double doors in the entrance of the hall.
'Merely 40 spans, huh.'
An impromptu estimation of the distance from where I stood seconds ago and where I landed.
I turned my head with a stealth look to the gray light glowing dimly at my back.
'Must be a barrier'
No doubt, it was. A transparent wall protected the brown double doors shined with gray light upon the impact. I suddenly remembered the butler who was standing behind me earlier but then the moment I looked for him, he was nowhere to be found from his previous spot. By any means, he was already standing next to Johan with his golden eyes glowing. He must be the caster of the barrier, I assumed.
Johan, on the butler's right side, was clenching her hands. She had an uneasy face, which made her temporarily forget her mannerism.
No need to worry though.
"Laum, are you fine?" The pixie asked me, whispering.
"Un. I'm fine. Thanks for the barrier."
"No probs. But..."
Marikit, who was still in invisible mode and had copied some of my skills, was attentive enough to cast a bubble barrier already at the moment His Highness sprinted forward to me. But -
But, what the heck happened? Why did he attack me suddenly?
He must be in his foul mood and found me displeasingly disgusting when I approached with such an unsightly manner. Maybe that. Maybe he was deeply disappointed by seeing my humble self. Maybe he was angry by my inattentiveness and found it impolite when I was before him. Perhaps all of that.
'Maybe because I come from the eastern seas. He's looking at me the same way as her daughter does.'
I checked at the throne to find His Highness who was sitting there earlier - none – I knew I would found none of him on the throne. But where was he? He must be covered within the cloud of dust hiding where I previously stood.
"Laum, watch out!" Marikit warned quickly.
However, flashes of the man's image in ready-to-kick position instantly ambushed in front of me.
"That skill again!"
Another loud sound echoed inside the hall. Quickly I cast another bubble barrier aided by Marikit's mana right before his right foot landed my barrier.
Once more, His Highness kicked me like a ball. I could hear the sharp sound when his foot hit hard my barrier. The sound was as if two steals clashed each other.
This time, he kicked me towards the left corner of the hall and I hit hard the gray barrier. The transparent barrier was evidently doing its job as it shined dim gray light again from the impact. One knee on the cold floor, I made a checking glance at the butler even though I did not have the leisure in spite of the current situation. I had confirmed that the barrier was his skill as his golden eyes had shined again.
Dust flew from where I had been kicked and to where I had landed.
"Oh! Not bad for a Moro. You have fended twice my Flash Strike."
His highness exclaimed. He was slightly grinning. He was slightly surprised at the fact I barely managed to fend off his sudden heavy attacks. Well, if not for the help of Marikit, I could not withstand his heavy attacks with a speed of a blink of an eye. His solid kick was to be compared with the Kraken's tentacles.
"Don't worry. I am always here to protect you, Laum. This time, I will protect you." She smiled.
Marikit patted my shoulders in one-two rhythm to remind me that I was not alone, that she was in my shoulders. Even in my toughest fights, she was always there on my shoulder.
"Okay…"
I breathed to calm myself. I tried to grasp the situation we were in. I had to come out with a plan that will make us escape from this situation. The problem was the barrier that Gil cast. He entrapped me inside his barrier along with a furious beast, His Highness. I had to knock down its caster but first I needed to beat His Highness up.
"I'm ready, Laum"
I nodded at Marikit.
Chances of winning were low, next to nil, I could tell. However, I had to win if I planned to not to die here. I promised not to die, not until we come back home, safe and sound.
'But wait… Perhaps they just catechizing my abilities. I hope that is the case…I have no other option but to give my best shot either way.'
We had to give our best shot.
I slowly stood up leaning one hand on my right knee while His Highness had gone off to simulate another quick dash toward me. Marikit patted my shoulders again, and I responded a quick nod, getting her.
Leaving the defense to the pixie, I readily clutched the pair of Arnis sticks from my back and tightly gripped each stick in my hands. I had to do a counter attack to His Highness this time after I fend off his incoming attack. Even though his blows were obviously destructive, this showed His Highness' superiority in strength, it left me no other way but to fight back and to face him head-on.
"Here we go, Marikit"
I made the pair of arnis sticks a crispy beat. I took a deep breath again.
Tick!
The pair of sticks were made from rattan, which made it light and at the same time sturdy. One of my great ancestors originally owned the Arnis sticks. After his death, the sticks were passed through generation to generation. One will only acquire these mementos from special ceremonial rites of handing the pair of sticks, and I was not an exception. I went through hell just get the valuable pair of sticks. In addition, charms and enchantments wrapped the arnis sticks, which contributed to the sturdiness of the pair of sticks. However, there were no other special powers of the pair. It only had its durability and stubbornness to bend or break.
I had repeated the beat again. Tick!
I looked carefully on His Highness as he dashed towards me.
'I know he's quite strong but I have to do it!'
"Bubble attribute: Seven Stars of Ulfsaar"
Seven head-sized red bubbles arose on the floor's surface.
I raised the sticks commanding the red bubbles to intercept His Highness who was currently flying toward me.
'I must keep an eye on him.'
He was indeed fast.
My eyes hardly followed his movements, but I do not like the idea of him slipping away from my sight or else my barrier would be smashed again with his disruptive kick. Like a bird dancing from the shower of arrows, His Highness swiftly evaded each of the bubbles.
Beating the pair of sticks again, I simultaneously cast another set of red bubbles.
The new set of red bubbles persistently followed his highness and I was somewhat successful. He was still approaching me fast. Since I had decided to fight head on, I dashed towards him too.
He raised his right foot to kick me again but I fended it off using my sticks. I was unharmed but the force of his kick pushed me backward.
I grinned.
I had calculated it already. I dashed on His Highness earlier with an extra red bubble hidden on my right side. I had cast the extra red bubble invisible and with more explosive power. When His Highness threw his kick on me and sent me backward, I left the red bubble close to him.
Boom! It was a hit. The red bubble exploded with His Highness near.
Dust covered the explosion site but one swing of his highness' arm drove the dust off.
"Not bad"
He said, emerging from the cloud of dust and nearly unscathed. Then, he had a tenuously grin seeing me in the corner of his flaming red eyes. His elegant garment had a little dirt and his not-so-pretty-nor-handsome face had smudged somehow. However, he was unhurt.
"I'm not done yet!"
However, that was not the end of it. I still had many tricks left on my sleeves. Well, assuming I was wearing sleeves.
His Highness reflexively looked down noticing his left foot had stepped on something. Another red bubble had sneakily emerged on the floor near on his foot quickly glowed a deep red. I cast another set of red bubbles earlier when the explosion occurred.
Another loud Boom exploded again inside the hall. His Highness was the one sent flying this time. In the mid-air, he turned his head at the floor noticing something was glowing red in where he was going to land. Another deep red bubble hugged him with another huge explosion. Boom! He bounced repeatedly together with his little shining crown until the seventh red bubble had exploded.
"All done…"
It just made me wonder why it was too easy for His Highness to fall into my dim-witted trap. It was too anticlimactic but regardlessly, a win is a win. Next, I had to deal with the barrier's caster.
The dust had almost covered half of the hall this time, and it was silent after the consecutive explosion until I had spoken.
"How's that? I called that combo 'Bubble bonanza!'" I paused. I imprudently scanned the whitish – brown dust cloud "I guess you could not answer me now"
Relaxing my posture by shrugging my shoulders somehow, my face gave a little victorious grin yet the pixie was a killjoy as she -
"No, he is not done yet. Look"
She was pointing to a silhouette walking through the cloud of dust, which stopped to pick his little crown. The silhouette then appeared to be swiping his white clothes from the dirt.
"Excellent!"
'No, you are!'
It should sound like he was praising me but when I heard him chuckled, his voice tingled in my ears as if mocking me.
Seriously, the man was utterly tough. He stood confidently still wiping his white clothes. I guess that proved His Highness was not the Leader of this Kingdom for nothing.
Or more likely, It was just me being too naïve.
His glowing red eyes were looking at my very position, piercing through the brown dust clouds.
"No time to dally-dally" The pixie's soft whisper rang through my ear with a scent of advising me to brace myself again.
Magic attacks had no effect on His Highness or perhaps my magic attacks were far too weak for him. However, I could not back down now. I had no choice, to begin with. Then let us try something. What about physical attacks then?
I rotated both of the arnis stick into my arms like I was playing a trick. I was preparing for my next attack.
"Defense…" I told my companion softly.
"Got it."
I floated smoothly, dashing like a sparrow, still inside the bubble barrier's protection. I was going forward to His Highness to have close combat this time.
When I was close enough, with a forceful swing, I aimed his very head. His Highness docked. I slashed diagonally. He evaded swiftly by shifting his body. I slashed both sticks at the same time and he jumped backward. That was in a cycle: the slashes and the dodging. I rained down swings and slashes to his highness but he just evaded it all. Physical attacks definitely would work, only if I could land a hit on His Highness with these sticks of mine.
It felt like he was just playing at me, teasing me, trying not to touch my stick's end, to the point he was neither blocking my sticks nor making a counterattack when I was full of openings.
"Then, what about this?"
I suddenly made a temporary break from futile assaults and retreat two-step behind. Tapping the arnis sticks again, I quickly cast another spell. I had to since I was in a disadvantage. Several multi-colored small bubbles sprung out from my translucent bubble barrier. I knew my magic attacks were nothing to him. Therefore, I had to accompany my physical attacks with magic.
"Bubble attribute: Bubble's field!"
Frrrrruuuuhhhhh! The sound of the tiny bubbles as the bubble barrier rapidly discharged them. Each tiny bubble was just the size of small pebbles. Then, the tiny bubbles sucked the dust clouds that covered the enormous hall. After, the bubbles became invisible to the naked eye when they shrank smaller. I went invisible together with the small bubbles too.
I made a glance at Marikit. She was still focusing on defense.
Bespectacled by my newly cast skill, His Highness was rigorously inspecting around his surroundings.
"Bubble attribute, huh… Interesting"
His highness murmured praising my attribute while I went fading from his sight. With this skill, which is effective only with a limited area and limited time, I can cast any of my skills invisible in exchange for large deduction of my mana pool. In addition, the invisible tiny bubbles work as if an extension of me, which also enable me to see and to sense everything as long as it's under this Bubble's Field.
His Highness became cautious like a lioness diligently observing the slightest movements of her prey. He was concentrating and focusing on everything surrounding him.
However, it was futile and useless. I can move as silent as the snake as long as the skill was still on effect and I was confident that I could pull off something.
Therefore, I had the advantage now. I rashly flushed and dashed to His Highness. I had to end this as quickly as possible for almost three-fourths of my remaining mana had drained after casting the last skill and still, I have to deal with Gil, the barrier's caster. It also means that I could not cast my Grandio ability, Big bang, my specialty. Well, it's not an option, to begin with since the pixie strictly prohibited me casting that skill.
When I was close enough to His Highness, I gave him a good swing.
"There!" His highness yelped. He turned his head predicting where I was and caught me by grabbing my arnis stick.
"What?!"
'How could he catch my attack?! How did he know that I am here? I should be invisible to him, so how could he?'
There was no time to ponder about that. For now, I had to get out from his grip and be adapted enough to deal with the situation.
Still invisible, I pulled hard the stick but his grip was too strong and permitted me not to. I used the other stick on my left hand to strike him hard. His highness let go of the stick, allowing me to have a second chance to retreat when he jumped backward.
"?" His Highness was alarmed.
'Gotcha!'
I could not help but to grin when I saw his eyes widened while he was looking down in his footing. It was late to realize he had stepped on something that bound his left foot. I cast another set of invisible red bubbles which became invisible and swarmed His Highness. The red bubbles started to glow redder. Then – Boom! Another series of a loud explosion echoed inside the dim-lighted hall.
As expected, His Highness was unharmed. He was still in the explosion site. The huge explosion did not blow him away even an inch. I had already calculated this would also happen. His right foot stepped another bubble, a blue bubble, a pitfall. The blue bubble locked down his foot, like an anchor.
"Bubble attribute: Rattletrap Blue"
Tapping the pair of arnis sticks twice, three blue bubbles popped out and seized the hands and the remaining foot of His Highness. I cast another set of red bubbles to explode near His Highness and to create a diversion while I sprinted toward to give him a good beating of my sticks.
"Go for it, Laum"
"Now, there's no escape!"
"How naive" He faintly muttered with a grin, facing to the direction I was.
All of a sudden, the man's toned physique started emitting red sparks. His body was smoldering hot with floating sparkling kindles. The temperature of his surrounding was obviously rising to make the invisible small bubbles to pop one after another. Even the blue bubbles enlarged and burst out seconds later and as a result, His Highness was totally set free.
"Iron melt Attribute: Combustion"
His red eyes blazed with fierceness, glaring. He still had a faint grin on his face.
His Highness was already free to evade or to attack me. On the other hand, I was still dashing toward him. I knew I was wide open however I could not waste my dash. Not now, after I had dashed with such great momentum and speed. I could not simply let this go waste. I deliberately pressed on just to land a hit into him.
His highness raised his right hand to cast another skill, and then, fireball started to form and collided with my translucent barrier. No, it was not your ordinary fireball. It was a ball of molten metal. It was a ball of liquid hot molten metal!
"Iron melt Attribute: Magma bolt"
"Marikit!" I warned her to brace and to strengthen the barrier.
"Don't worry. Just push!"
The molten ball of metal splashed and smashed with the barrier and the noxious splatters dribbled.
'Tch!'
It was useless as long as the barrier was on, or so I thought.
He continued firing another two balls of molten metal, bouncing it off with my bubble barrier, and leaving stains of molten metal on the surface of the barrier.
My dash's speed was diminishingly reduced when colliding with the two other molten balls. His Highness prepared another skill. With his right hand glowed intensively, he was concentrating mana to created a big ball of molten metal.
"Iron melt attribute: Deep Magma core"
"T-That sound no good!" Marikit turned her eyes on me.
I gritted my teeth.
"Definitely, bad news."
Knowing the bubble barrier's efficiency depended on the user's current mana, I threw a worried look at Marikit who was still focusing in defense.
"I can still deal with it," She said, forcing her face to smile.
I nodded.
I could evade his attack but I was confident we could smash his spell. I dashed straight to the big molten metal ball.
Splash!
The big molten metal violently as it clashed with my bubble barrier produced an earsplitting sound. The collision totally canceled my momentum. No, the big molten ball had even pushed me backward. But we were still unharmed. Marikit successfully dealt with the attack.
"I see." I murmured to myself.
The main purpose of the ordinary-sized balls of molten metal was not to break my bubble barrier but solely to decrease my speed and momentum, and this big one was to stop me completely. If not for the barrier, the hot molten iron would have evaporated us already.
"Laum!"
"Un."
"Not yet!"
His highness yelled, flushing toward me. Apparently, because of the stains of molten metal stacked in outside the barrier, the bubble barrier's sphere shape took form, exposing us in the broad daylight.
In addition to that, I could not see him approaching me.
No worries, I could pinpoint him as long as I still perceived anything under the bubble's field. The small bubbles were still – GONE!
I could sense anything under the bubble's field as long as the tiny bubbles were out there but His Highness's glowing body heat made the small bubbles to burst.
At least I could fly back to miss his incoming attack.
"Fly now, Laum" The pixie grabbed my ears again and pulled it up as if it could help me to float the barrier up.
"I'm trying. We're stuck."
However – It was hopeless. I tried to lift up and fly to move away but the molten metal that coated the bubble barrier was weighing us down. I could not move, even an inch!
Ting!
A sharp sound echoed inside the hall.
The burning fist of his highness hit with the bubble barrier, clearing away the coat of molten metal. It also threw us straight into the corner. The dust immediately swallowed us.
His Highness was in haste. Flashes of his highness's image in my front sight. I saw him face to face. He was still grinning. Then he began bombing his burning fist coated on the bubble barrier.
Every time he hit the barrier, the Barrier let out a disturbing sharp sound like two metals clash.
Marikit's mana was controlling the strength of the barrier but I wondered how long it could withstand this. She was still focusing on the defense. I aided her in strengthening the barrier by adding my mana.
"Do something, Laum. Fly now!" She shouted.
I tried to lift up the barrier. However, His Highness noticed that I was planning to flee.
"You can't run from me, Moro! Iron melt Attribute: Hands of the titan – Collapse!"
Two big hands of molten iron emerged from the floor and the wall and pinched the barrier in between. We were totally locked down, unable to move.
His Highness continued smashing until a crack appeared at the surface of the bombarded barrier.
'This is …'
Finally, the barriers shattered and gave in.
"No more tricks!" He grabbed me with his left hand, and then a heavy blow landed on my upper abdomen and snatched all my air out from my lungs.
"Bwuaagh!" I lost all my strength after receiving the heavy blow.
He hit my face, blood dripped down. After that, he punched everywhere he wanted. I detestably tasted the agony of my ribs broken down to pieces; lips tattered like a battered egg, and stars circling inside my head. In this rate, 'I will die in here.'
It was the end for sure. I thought of my life back in our village. It was short but I was happy with it. Then, I saw my Father's face.
'Sorry Papang, it seems I can't keep my promise.'
My consciousness started to fade but the man continued hitting me with his heavy blows. His Highness was enjoying his triumphant. I was practically bathing with my own blood, staining my body and my ethnic clothes.
However, his fist suddenly stopped and a deep silence echoed the vast hall.
A small but brave voice rang like a bell across the hall.
"Please stop!" She stammered to recover her breath and tiny tears dropped like a small piece of clear crystal. "Don't hurt Laum anymore!"
Desperately shouting with all of her breath, she spread her glittering transparent wings with her tiny arms in the front of his Highness. She was pleading him to stop. In that very moment, I saw black curtains starting to fall off. I was losing my sight. In spite of that, I could still hear her crying and yelling for something.
'Ah, Marikit. I forgot to ask her if she had eaten the bread that I rationed for her. Surely, she had. Knowing her... Huh? ...Marikit? What are you doing? You must….hide...'
I really wanted to stay awake. I really wanted to but the urge to close my eyes was too deep and something inside my head was shutting down.
'You must...'
I heard her pleading for the last time.
"Please, don't hurt him anymore!" She cried. "Please, not my Laum!"
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein