Wasted Sacrifice

Elyse ran in the cave towards the Griffin with a determined look in her eyes. It was still occupied in toying with its prey and hadn't noticed her yet.

All the better for her.

Gathering Holy Magic in her body and channeling it onto her sword, Elyse strengthened her body as well preparing for a surprise attack. Glowing white light wrapped around her greatsword as she swung it downwards.

"Purging Descent!"

BOOM! A ring of golden thorns appeared over the griffin and crashed down on it before erupting into a burst of light. It was a dazzling sight but the griffin seemed to be unfazed by the blast with only a few scorch marks on its back.

The griffin roared in anger, pissed off that someone had disrupted its amusement. It turned to look at Elyse with its giant eyes, searching for a fun way to kill its new prey.

Elyse once again collected Holy Magic, flowing it through her sword as she slashed towards the Griffin, closing in at the same time.

"Luminescent Blades!"

Two intertwining blades of light sped towards the Griffin, embedding into its right side and she slashed one of its legs, making it roar in pain.

Seeing her success, she pressed on her attack. But she was too close in the range of the Griffin, giving it a chance to strike. It swiped with its claws at Elyse, hoping to tear her apart.

Elyse saw the oncoming attack, but it was too late to try and dodge and she was also too near it. Pushing herself with her feet to get a starting momentum, she raised her large shield in front of her, strengthening it with Holy Magic, and prayed for the best.

The force of the impact blew her backward and she crashed into and through a small boulder before stopping in a cloud of dust. "Agh... This beast is strong..."

Her shield had taken most of the brunt of the impact so she hadn't suffered much damage, but it had almost been rent by the claws, just barely not falling apart because of the Holy Magic she had strengthened it with. However, she was not one to hesitate just because her equipment was damaged.

Charging back towards the Griffin, she cast Luminescent Blades once more to get its attention before following up with another one from its other side while getting nearer.

Her plan was simple and just like before; Divert the griffin's attention with a skill and the other skill making him lose concentration before she attacked from below.

However, she had overlooked one important fact. Griffins were intelligent creatures, one of the few magic beasts that were capable of thought but she had taken it to be just like any other monster. Now, after seeing her first attempt, it had already learned her tactics and anticipated what she was doing.

Seeing blades on all sides, the Griffin flapped its four wings and let out a deafening roar. The wings kicked up a large gust of wind that beat back the blades, changing its course and directing them towards the cavern roof and away from the Griffin. At the same time, the roar startled Elyse and blew her back.

Elyse dug her heels into the ground to prevent herself from crashing into a boulder again. This was one of the most formidable opponents she had ever faced yet and doubts were already starting to set in.

What if she couldn't defeat it? What if she failed? No normal person could possibly defeat this, it was probably going to take a high-ranking magician or warrior to kill it. Compared to that, she was just a Holy Knight, a front-line infantry of the Caelan Knights.

That damned adventurer was right, she was not going to survive this. But she had to delay and weaken it as much as she could before reinforcements could arrive. Her squad was said to arrive at the small town, Sefrath, by noon and they might be able to kill this magic beast with the help of the town guards. If she could at least save the town from destruction, then at least her death wouldn't be in vain.

A sudden Wooosh snapped her out of her thoughts. The Griffin was already preparing its next attack while she was lost in hesitation!

It sucked in large amounts of air through its beak, imbuing it with more Air Magic before blasting it at Elyse. A high-speed jet stream of concentrated air sped towards Elyse like a deadly siege arrow, capable of making a large hole in her body.

Instincts kicked in and Elyse planted her shield firmly in front of her, imbuing it with Holy Magic again. She formed two more layers of Holy Magic over it, not trusting the strength of her damaged shield.

The first layer shattered almost immediately the moment it made an impact. The second layer managed to withstand it for a few seconds but it still broke apart from the relentless force.

As the stream of wind hit her last layer of defense, she strengthened her shield with more magic. It cracked from the power and shards chipped off as she was slowly pushed back, but her magic had made it able to hold out, at least until the attack stopped and the air died down. Her former tower shield was now more or less, just a handle with a piece of iron hanging off of it.

Crap. That costed her a lot of gol, a hundred times more than a normal buckler. If she survived, her captain was not going to be happy.

From just a single magic attack, Elyse could see she was not even strong enough to compare with its powers. The ground around her had been worn away so much from the wind that only the area that the shield had protected and she was standing on hadn't been flattened down a whole meter. If she was a spark of flame, then the Griffin might as well be a mountain of ice. That was how strong it was.

'If normal attacks don't work, let's see how you survive with a sword through your chest!'

Thinking that and discarding what was left of her shield, she planted her sword into the ground and circulated a huge amount of Holy Magic through her body once more. This time, with the sword acting as a pathway, she sent it flowing through the sword and to the ground under the Griffin.

"Colossal Devastation!"

The ground rumbled and a massive blade, nearly the size of the Griffin and glowing with a tint of red erupted out of the earth under the magic beast. However, to Elyse's dismay, the Griffin extended its enormous wings and took flight, the sword barely missing its underside by inches.

Elyse felt distressed at this sight, she had just wasted the only trump card she had. Now the Griffin would be wary of it if she tried it again. What was worse, she had used up over a third of the limited amount of magic power she had regained after the fight with the boars in casting that spell. If she tried it again, she would probably faint from magic essence depletion.

The only good thing she found out was that since the Griffin dodged the attack, it probably wouldn't survive a large piercing strike through its body. If only she could pass this crucial information on to someone... But there was no one around and she was sure the adventurer guy had already gone off.

This information would not be of any use to her now anyways. The Griffin was flying towards her through the air, intending to smash right through her. Elyse, distracted by her thoughts, had noticed it too late to bring her shield up and took the full brunt of a claw directly through her body.

BAM!

Elyse was flung away so far that she hit the rocky walls of the cave and cracked them. Pain shot through her back like electricity, spreading throughout her veins. She slid to the ground and spat out blood, hoping she hadn't broken any bones. It was a miracle she was still alive.

Half of her front armor and her chest plate area had been absolutely destroyed in the clash though a large piece still covered her upper area, maintaining a decent amount of her dignity. She had no doubts that if it had destroyed everything, she would've died from embarrassment first before the wounds got to her.

Keeling over to lessen the pain, she felt around her trying to find her sword until, to her despair, she realized her weapon had skidded out her hand and was lying a couple of feet away from her.

Too late. The pain was too much for her to run over and get her sword, and the Griffin was closing in rapidly with a triumphant look in its eye.

WRRAAAOOOOOOARR!!!

She struggled to stand, using the bloodied stone wall for support but an ear-splitting roar broke her concentration and froze her in place. It was a hundred times more powerful and more fear-inducing than its first roar, perhaps because it was a whole lot closer, or because she was about to die.

Her legs refused to move and she stood trembling and rooted to the spot as the monster came ever nearer.

'Forgive me... I have failed my duties as Holy Paladin of the Caelumio Knights...'

Elyse turned to look at the child she had been unable to save but he was nowhere in sight. Had he escaped while she was fighting the Griffin? If so, then she had been able to save at least one person from their demise. The town would be not so lucky. She could only pray that her squad could somehow get there earlier in time to stop the Griffin.

Perhaps it had been her fate for her life to end here. She had worked so hard to receive recognition as a Holy Knight just for all of it to go to waste. Now, she was going to die here alone with no one to see.

Her legs failed her as she shut her eyes tightly, awaiting the impending doom.