"Nooo!"
I heard Elliot shout.
"Patrick!"
Arman was screaming, as well as Cat.
Someone took hold of my left arm and yanked it up.
I heard my bone snap.
I couldn't register the pain, since my eyes were still glued to the image of Daruis, reaching out to touch my chest.
"Run."
I read from his lips as he tried to push me with dying breath.
"Stand up, you goblin!" It was Will, dragging me away from my fallen Darius.
"Let go!" I scratched at his face. "I need to revert him!"
"The hell!"
I tasted blood as his backhand hit my jaw.
I fell on the ground and crawled back to Darius' side.
"The undead goblin has gone crazy!" another smack, on the crown of my head this time.
"Stop or this goblin dies with his knight!" Wein shouted.
I tried to focus my sight at the people in front of us.
At Lycan and Cat fighting back to back with Arman between them.
At Elliot locking arms with Grand Knight Lucifer.
"Get rid of the pig first while he's weak!" I heard someone shout and saw Grand Knight Nero rush towards Elliot with a halberd in hand.
"Elliot!"
I cried out too late.
Brawling with Grand Knight Lucifer, Elliot was unable to fend off the sharp blade that rushed at his neck.
"Elliot!" Cried Cat.
Blood gushed out of Elliot's thick neck, but it wasn't enough to sever it completely.
Turin came up from behind him to do the finishing blow.
Screams filled the air as my friend's head rolled on the ground towards me.
I stared at the surprised look in his eyes as it rocked to a stop.
"How dare you!" Cried Cat, who was able to wrestle a sword from one of the seniors.
"Cat!" Lycan was instantly by his side, brandishing twin daggers from who knows where.
He parried while Cat attacked and slashed Turin's arms in a spiraling jump which ended with the senior's face being torn into pieces. An inhuman wail came from his tattered lips.
"Stop them!" Nigellus ordered. "Kill them all!"
And so the two Grand Knights stepped forward once more, and with swords imbued with aura, faced both Cat and Lycan who fought like a four armed tiger.
Cat moved with lightning speed and incredible precision, aiming for the grand knights' vital parts, but their opponents were bigger, older, and more experienced than the two combined. They had armor and better weapons as well.
I watched as Cat's training blade broke in two after clashing with Grand Knight Nire's halberd.
Blood gushed from a long wound on his chest.
"Cat!" yelled Lycan.
He fended him off, sending sparks all around as his blades collided with the grand knight's armor. Grand Knight's Nero was pushed back by his sheer strength.
"Everyone attack them together!" yelled Nigellus.
I saw a dozen seniors bearing swords, running towards Lycan who stooped over to cover his best friend.
"Stop it!" Arman cried. "No more! Please, just stop it!"
He tried to run to them, but a senior pulled at his arm and slammed his body to the ground.
I looked down at the hand in my grasp.
The cold hand that had stopped gripping mine four minutes ago.
What seemed to happen for an eternity, only lasted a few moments.
That was all it took to lose my friends.
A slap brought me back to reality.
"Are you back with us now, Lord Siccus?"
Seeing Norbert's sneering face stopped me from hyperventilating.
"Would you like to join your friends?" he mocked me.
"Be glad that you are closely related to his majesty the emperor," Will said beside him, "Prince Nigellus have shown you some pity. I can't say the same about your friends though."
They laughed and looked at Arman who continued cursing. Two seniors were looking lustfully at him.
"He'll be a nice treat before we throw him to the gallows," they said, their tongues hanging out.
"I'll kill you all before I end myself!" Arman was shouting in rage. "I'll kill you all you bastards!"
A hit to the head silenced him as he fell to the ground.
"So, cousin," now Nigellus confronts me. "What can your laws and your rules do now?" he asked with a mocking grin in his gaunt face.
And suddenly I realized something of little worth.
"You forced a core to manifest."
The grin on his face flickered a little.
"You forced the high priest to awaken your core before, and then forced another one to manifest."
"And so what if I did?" he looked down at me. "Will that knowledge bring back your dead friends?"
I looked at the fallen body of my lover.
At the headless lump that was Elliot.
At the silent heap of Lycan's body, with several swords still sticking out of his punctured body.
"I am royalty," Nigellus gazed up, eyes close, sweeping his arms to his sides. The dirty red flames burned in his open palms. "It is no question that the Goddess' blessing should manifest in me. I am the future emperor of this continent, after all."
He looked down on me once more.
"And you," he sneered, "you and your pathetic friends think you could go against me?" He pulled his head back to laugh at me. "This is what you get for undermining my authority, Patric. This is how you lose to me."
"Prince Nigellus," Grand Knight Lucifer interrupted him. "I shall take Lord Siccus with me for interrogation."
"No. He is mine!" Nigellus snapped at the grand knight. "Besides, what is there to interrogate him for? I have already killed my brother's killer."
He faced Darius upon saying that, aiming to kick my beloved's body, but I won't let him touch his body anymore.
'Disarm'
I chanted in a singsong manner.
His leg flew high in the air as he kicked yet he wondered why he didn't feel the impact with his feet. Until he noticed that he no longer had his lower leg.
"Gaaaahhh!" the crown prince's scream pierced the air. "My leg!" he pointed at the bloody piece of meat flying in the air. "My leg! What happened to my leg!"
"Protect his highness!" His vassals surrounded him.
"What did you do, you goblin!" Norbert lunged at me.
'Sprint'
Another chant after holding on to Darius, and I was next to Arman. The two seniors by his side were surprised as I raised an arm.
"Duck."
Arman quickly bowed his head.
'Puncture'
It was one of the new spells I learned when I decided to try the defensive spells from my old tome. High pressured air blasted from the palm of my hand, blowing a hole through one of the seniors' face.
"What the he – "
'Slice'
I slashed my arm towards the remaining senior and watch hishead fall to the ground.
"He's a magician!"
Someone screamed from behind me.
"Incapacitate him before he could chant another spell!"
Ah, That's right.
'Slick'
A thick band of black oil manifested around us. The seniors who tried to comenear slipped and couldn't even stand upright.
Magicians are a valuable resource in the empire.
'Incinerate'
The oil caught fire, burning all the seniors who were caught in it's slippery ring. More screams filled the air, accompanied by the stench of roasting flesh. Their companions tried to put the fire out with their cloaks while the two grand knights looked angrily at me as they shouted commands.
"You can't hurt me, can you?" I looked back at them while cradling Darius' body. "You can't kill a magician."
"Think again you bastard!" Nigellus shouted at me. "Kill him! End him this instant!" he commanded his vassals.
But not one of them came close to where I sat with my Darius and Arman moaning by our side.
"I said kill him!" Nigellus shrieked, foam forming on his lips. "Call the rest of the guards! Get the professors! Bring me that bastard's head!"
The grand knights moved then. Lucifer raised his sword, Nero, his halberd.
'Magnetize'
Their arms shot right back as their weapons got stuck to the armor they wore. Nero gave a grunt as the spikes on his halberd struck him through the back. I chanted another sprinting spell and went to Lycan's side this time.
"Lycan... Cathan..." Arman fell on his knees, sobbing.
It was then that the heap stirred.
"Lycan!" Arman gasped. "How's Cat?"
We were answered by a low, mournful moan.
Suddenly, the world around me lost its color.
"Nooo!" Arman wailed as crimson flames enveloped his body.