Chapter 61 - Variable (6)

I drew an arch through the air and embedded myself in the stands. With a little bit of effort, I was able to free myself from the pieces of wood and metal weighing on my back. I stood up and looked around. My gaze was intercepted by a pair of compound eyes looking straight at me. The eyes were positioned on the sides of the large triangular head of a giant praying mantis.

The huge insect was placidly munching with its mandibles on the head of a member of the audience. Horror spread as quick as lightning and the crowd began to disorderly flee the area, running around and jumping off from the stands.

It was sheer pandemonium. The wind was howling and mana density was rising with each passing second. Clouds of dust and debris covered the sun and occasional bolts of lightning of variable tonality fell from the sky and split the ground.

Dirt and stones floated in mid-air and crystalline strings of mana connected them. Formless agglomerates pulled surrounding mana and materials and drew them towards themselves, increasing their mass. They rapidly changed shape, consistency and colour. The browns and greys of absorbed stones and pieces of soil turned to the red of flesh and blood or the white of bones and fangs. Pelt and chitin covered the forming entities, which quickly took on definite shapes.

I quickly realised I was in the middle of a peculiar type of mana storm, the type which brought about stampedes. Beasts were forming in front of my eyes and they were hunting people. Even the occasional herbivore attacked everything in sight, destroying the stands and quickly disposing of the weakest archs present.

The kill count was rapidly increasing. It could easily be described as a massacre. The ones who were able to retaliate and defend themselves from the attacks suffered injuries which didn't heal, due to mana poisoning.

The mantis finished chewing its prey and let go of the remains. It raised its forelegs and lunged at me trying to capture me with its appendages. I emulated it and lunged at it, avoiding its grasping appendages by ducking down and reaching its main body. I punched its abdomen. My fist was barely able to penetrate the hard exoskeleton and my entire body vibrated due to the recoil. The mantis emitted a loud hissing sound and distanced itself from me.

Hemolymph fell from its wound but it dissipated into a cerulean mist before touching the ground. The hole on its abdomen was wrapped in a mist of the same colour, crystallised into a solid substance covering the wound; and then it quickly turned back into the corresponding damaged body section. This process lasted mere seconds and at the end of it the damage had been completely recovered.

I sighed. This was the problem with beasts. Not only could they recreate the entirety of their body from nothing but pure mana, making them virtually immortal; they also didn't even know the concept of fatigue or exhaustion and were much more resistant than normal archs to aura-infused attacks. Normal aura couldn't interfere with their regenerative abilities for long, one needed to have a heavier aura or appropriate training.

The mantis lunged at me once again. I ducked and jumped over the insect. While I was in midair, I bit my finger and sucked a good amount of blood. The beast followed me with its head and opened its mandibles, ready to bite off one of my arms. I turned my body like a cat, avoiding its mandibles, and spat my viscous blood in its mouth.

I landed on the ground just in time to see the mantis writhe in pain. Its numerous legs flailed around aimlessly and not after long every movement stopped and its body started to dissolve in a cloud of fine dust.

What had happened is that I had punched the mantis' abdomen with the arm I had used to block Caleb's sword. Some of my blood had trickled down on my hand and part of it had remained on the mantis' body after the contact. The areas covered by my blood had not regenerated: as speculated, my abnormal blood with its high aura content proved to be poisonous to beasts.

Freed myself from the predator, I looked around myself, trying to evaluate the situation. Numerous bodies were laying around on the ground. Some were badly wounded, some were completely unrecognisable and some were simply torn apart, with legs and arms missing. People had started to retaliate and the ground was covered by a thin layer of cerulean dust, the characteristic sign of a beast's death.

I left the arena and looked at the situation outside. I located the Aleph class. Half of its members had been mauled by a strange monstrosity: a bear with crab legs and a snake-like mouth. It was a chimaera, an abomination which sometimes was born when different beast's forming bodies intersected and fused together. The results could be quite peculiar.

The strange crab-bear hybrid moved unusually fast. It approached one of the fighting students, unhinged its jaw and gobbled it in a single bite. Isaac and Lily intervened while he was still in its mouth. They cut its muscles with their weapons, forced its jaw open and recovered the student. He was unharmed but visually traumatised by the ordeal.

The students fought harshly against the beast, continuously wounding it, but it quickly recovered from every single damage. Only Isaac's attacks and the blows of the people surrounding him were able to actually harm the beast and incapacitate it. This was due to Isaac's ability to share his aura with his allies, enhancing them and distributing fatigue and suffered damage among the group. The ability to cast such a spell was a testament to his selflessness and sense of sacrifice, as he was redirecting all the harm inflicted by the beast to himself.

Within the group of students there were also the two mystery people who had attracted my curiosity: Caleb and the red-haired girl. Caleb was lying on the ground, still in pain, while the girl was nursing him back to health. A strange show was happening right in front of my eyes.

In the middle of the howling winds, the high-pitched ringing of a bell could be clearly heard. The soundwaves had a calming effect and seemed to tint the air with the colour of the sunset. Caleb's face was enraptured by the ringing sounds and a suffused light reminiscent of a fireplace wrapped his body in a warm-looking embrace.

His skin regained colour and he immediately stood up, completely recovered. That girl had just employed her aura to heal someone other than herself. There were just too many unexpected things I was witnessing today.

Caleb took Lily's greatsword and raised it in front of his eyes. His transparent aura rose from its body. After a second, it started to change hue. It turned from transparent to opaque, from opaque to pale and from pale to a bright candid colour, purer than that of snow.

He walked towards the chimaera and with a single swing of his sword, he felled the beast by decapitating it. It immediately turned to dust.

The situation now was perfectly clear to me. Not only Caleb was stronger than Isaac, but he had also taken his place in the story. The pure aura he had manifested was the inheritance he should have received from his master, the aura which enabled him to cast the spell to defeat "evil". Now Isaac was only an incredibly talented archuman, while Caleb was the hero. The problem was that the snow-white aura was slowly dirtying and becoming greyer.

The new hero hadn't the qualification or conviction to be one. This meant that there was now a good possibility the future could go awry. The adversary now had a chance to win the final battle. There was now more work to do.