Chương 81: Snap!
Ear piercing screams echoed in the forest. Priest Dharma looked around at his brothers covered in blood. They were barely holding on to their lives as they lay in a pools of their own blood. If this continued any longer, they'll never make it to the summoning grounds. What he couldn't understand was the reason behind all this. It had been just a few hours since they entered the forest when they heard the loud rumbling sounds and tried to escape it. While moving away from its path, they accidentally ran into a pack of Shunis. The priests knew that the beasts of this forest hated human intervention and hence politely offered their prayers and started to move away again. But even before the prayers had ended, the pack attacked them out of nowhere. As dangerous and vicious as these beasts were, they had never attacked the higher priests before. And on top of that those blank white eyes, were too horrifying. What had gotten into them? The priests had tried to build up shields, but the Shunis were too fast. Two of them had already lost consciousness from the several bite wounds on their bodies while the others were heavily injured. Right now, the High Priest and Priest Dharma had successfully managed to build a shield around them. But with the constant attacks from the pack they had no idea how long they'd be able to hold on. It had been a good few hours since the shield came up, but the pack showed no sign of retreat.
"The sun is about to go down, they'll be more powerful then." High Priest said as he looked at the reddish sky.
"I'll open the shield from the back, you all must go on." Priest Dharma offered. He had been carrying the guilt of his mistake for a while now. If he could save their lives in exchange of his, he'd be more than happy to do so.
"We won't leave you behind." Priest Shravan said. He was very well aware of the reason why Priest Dharma offered himself.
"Priest Shravan is right. If we leave behind a man every time we face an obstacle, no one will make it to the summoning grounds then." High Priest said. He could never let anyone be used as a scapegoat for their escape. Being the High Priest, he was the only one who could commence the summoning. He knew that if this starts to happen, the priests will definitely do this over and over just so he could make it. He wasn't going to use his brothers as a shield.
"If the summoning doesn't happen, we will lose a lot more lives. And hadn't we already decided to die if we had to?" Priest Dharma yelled. He knew this was difficult for them, but this was not a time to be emotional. They had to think rationally, one life was just a tiny speck when compared to thousands. He could see the other priests struggling as their previous determination seemed to have wavered in front of his logic.
"Don't worry, you all just have to make it to the summoning grounds. Once it happens, the forest would return to its peaceful state. I just have to keep this up till then. The more time you waste here, the lesser the chances of my survival. Hurry up and do it before I burn out." he said with a reassuring smile. All of them knew that he won't make it, but still nodded and hoped for the best. They had to make it there faster than they had originally planned, since Priest Dharma's life depended on it. The priests bid farewell to their brother and hurried up on their journey with tears in their eyes. They had known from the start that the priesthood won't make it out without harm yet it still made their hearts bleed to see it happen. Regardless of how much they had prepared themselves, and how they had hardened their hearts, but loosing one of them like that made it worse. He wasn't lost in battle or summoning like they had thought, he was sacrificing himself so they could make it out. Priest Dharma was more than a comrade, he was their brother they had studied with, ate with, lived with since they were ten.
As they left Priest Dharma too had teared up, he won't be seeing his brothers ever again. He was sad but not regretful of the choice he made. Once again, he took a deep breath and put all his attention to the shield he was now holding up all by himself. He had to buy them as much time as he could. He kept calming himself and took deep breaths as he maintained the defenses. The shunis were growing more and more restless by the second, as their attacks on the shield grew more vicious and aggressive.
Four more hours passed, Priest Dharma was running on fumes. He was at the verge of loosing consciousness but shook his head again and again to keep the shield up. His breathing was getting irregular as beads of cold sweat broke out all over his body. It is said that one can sense their end coming, Priest Dharma sensed the same as he saw the mad shunis attacking the shield. It had started to crack, its demise was just mere minutes away. Priest Dharma saw the saliva dripping from Shunis' large canines. They looked like rabid dogs who had seen the last piece of meat. Suddenly, he heard a loud snap and the mighty shield came crashing down.
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