The Beginning After The End (Beckoning Fates Book 3) (26 page)

“Ahem!
 
My name is Roland Alderman and I am a
water attribute Augmenter!
 
My
hobbies are relaxing, shopping, going on dates with pretty girls and…”

“No one asked for your
hobbies.”
 
Clive interrupts while
massaging the bridge of his nose in irritation.
 

“Well
someone’s
a little grumpy.
 
Anywho… My strength is in mid range fighting, using a water whip skill
that is passed down from my family. My weakness is in close range.
 
Next!”
 
He finishes, tossing the imaginary baton
to me, who was sitting to his left.

“Arthur Leywin.
 
I’m a Wind and Earth attribute
Augmenter.
 
I’m capable at all
ranges but prefer mid to close.”
 
I
state simply, looking directly at Lucas who was across from me.

“Clive Graves.
 
Wind attribute Augmenter specializing in
long distance fighting with a bow.
 
I don’t really have a weakness.”
 
He harrumphs.

“Lucas Wykes.
 
I am a
Conjurer
with a single specialization in fire.
 
As for strengths and weaknesses, let’s
not bother going over that.”
 
Rolling his eyes, he just leans back as he sat cross-legged.

Sensing the hostility in the air, I
notice Tessia looking a little uncomfortable.
 
“Tessia Eralith.
 
I am a conjurer with a dual
specialization in wood and wind.
 
My
strong suits are middle to close range fighting…” Letting her voice trail off,
our group becomes silent, as we all know what the next topic will be.
 

“I elect myself to be the
leader.”
 
Lucas is the first one to
speak.

“Oh?
 
By what standards do you see yourself as
the leader of this group?”
 
I tilt
my head, giving him an innocent look.

“By strength of course.
 
Let’s be real… I can beat any of you
guys in a fight.
 
Isn’t it natural
for the strongest one to be the leader?”
 
Lucas gives me this face as if I asked the dumbest question he could
think of, baffling me even further.
 

“I vote for Tessia!
 
She’s the only girl and is pretty so I
like that.
 
We can even name our team
the Queen and Knights!”
 
Roland has
this sparkle in his eyes as his mind wanders off into his own little
fantasy land
.

“I also think that Princess Tessia
should be the leader, ahem… not for the same reason of course, not saying that
she isn’t pretty but I mean…
 
Since
she is the Student Council President.”
 
Clive ends up looking down as he mumbles, his cheeks a bit flushed.

“Wait I don’t want to be the
leader!
 
How about Art…thur?
 
Arthur Leywin.”
 
Shaking her hands in defense, Tess
almost calls me by my nickname.

“I also think that Tessia should be
the leader.”
 
I raise my hand up,
everyone ignoring Tessia’s comment.
 
I don’t mind just as long as Lucas isn’t the one leading.
 

“Tch.
 
Idiots.”
 
Lucas just rolls his eyes once more
before we all get up.

“All right, since it seems like
everyone is done, let’s head in.
 
Brace yourselves once we get inside, it’s going to be chilly!” Professor
Glory says before stepping inside the entrance, which appeared to be a narrow
stairway going down into the darkness.

In a single file line, we all
started making our way down the stairs and I swear the temperature dropped
noticeably for each step we took down the stairs.

“W-w-w-what the hell?
 
W-w-w-w-why is it s-s-s-so c-cold?”
 
Roland mutters in between his teeth
chattering.

“Augment yourself, you dolt.”
 
I hear Clive’s voice from behind.
 
It was really dark so I couldn’t really
see anything more than the vague outline of each person.

As we walked down the stairs, I
felt something on my hand but before I pulled away, I realized what it
was.
 
Looking back, just a step
behind me, I could see the vague outline of Tess’ head.
 
Even without seeing, I could tell she
was already blushing by how warm her hand was.
 
Accepting her hand and holding it
tightly, we silently walked down the seemingly endless flight of stairs.
 

Even without augmenting myself, the
once cold dungeon felt a lot warmer just for a bit as our class made our way
down.
 
I admit I was a bit
disappointed that it started getting brighter as we kept making our way down
because Tess pulled her hand back but once we reached the first floor of the
dungeon, my inner warrior became excited at the scene in front of me.

The cavern stretched out for
hundreds and hundreds of meters, making me wonder how it supported itself.
 
The stone that made up the large cavern
sparkled with a dim blue light as a thin layer of ice covered the floor and
even formed icicles on the ceiling. Looking next to me, I realized that the
reason that the almost transparent moss that covered the cavern let off a soft
glow, illuminating the entire area.
 

“That’s odd, usually, we’d see a
fair amount of Snarlers already.
 
Why don’t I…”

“KRRRRRR”

“GRRAWWWL”

“SNNNNNRRRR”

“GRAHK! GRAHK!”

All of a sudden, hideous noises
started echoing all around us.
 
Peeking out from behind the numerous boulders and from small caverns
spotted around the walls of the cave were an uncountable amount of beady red
eyes.
 

“Th-that’s a lot of Snarlers…” I
could hear Roland gulp as his eyes widened.
 
It wasn’t just him but everyone in the
class, even Curtis and Claire looked hesitant at what they were seeing.
 
I looked at Professor Glory and from her
expression; I don’t think she anticipated on seeing this many Snarlers either.

Even amongst mana beasts, Snarlers
were hideous creatures.
 
With a
thick grey fur coat, their 140cm bodies looked like muscular, mini
gorillas.
 
Their face, though, was a
mix of a boar’s snout and tusks with beady red eyes and long ears.
 
With their thick powerful-looking lower
jaw protruding outwards, you wouldn’t think that they’d only be E stage mana
beasts.

“GRRRRRRRR”

“SSNNNNRRRKKK”

“GRAAHHK!
 
GRAAHHK!”

As dozens and dozens revealed
themselves from hiding, the Snarlers started snapping their jaw while letting
out low growls.

“P-Professor…
are
there supposed to be this many S-S-S-Snarlers?”
 
One of upperclassman females in the
other group stammered out.

“This is so odd.
 
Even in the lower floors, there are
never this many Snarlers bunched together.”
 
Professor Glory braced herself and
stayed firm.
 
Because of the low
moral in our class, if even our professor took a step back in hesitation,
everyone would panic.

“There are a lot of them but they
aren’t impossible to handle.
 
However, since this is just a class excursion, I think it’s best to go
back up, just in case.
 
Safety is
priority right now.”
 
Just as
Professor Glory started slowly ushering everyone back towards the stairs, a
fireball flew past her and exploded in a crowd of Snarlers.

“BOOOM!”
 
As the fireball exploded, six Snarlers
all shot out in different directions and lay motionless.

“See?
 
These nasty little beasts are weak.
 
Professor, don’t tell me you brought us
all here just to go back?
 
Even a
small fire spell was enough to kill six of them.”
 
Lucas scoffed as he lowered his staff.

I could tell Professor Glory was
hesitant because of the unusual amount of Snarlers suddenly appearing in the
first floor.
 

“I-I
think
we should try and train here, Professor.”
 
Curtis has a determined look on his face as several other students,
because of Lucas’ display, gained confidence as well.
 

The Snarlers that have all come out
seemed a bit frightened now, as they warily keep their distance, studying us
with their unintelligent eyes.

“Okay, but if I feel that something
isn’t right, we’re immediately out of here, understood?”
 
With a stern voice, she waits for the
class to agree to her condition.

“Good.
 
Split into your two teams and take
different parts of the floor.
 
We
don’t want any friendly fire happening in here.
 
And Lucas, if you do something like that
again, there will be consequences.”
 
Professor Glory shot a menacing look towards the cocky blond, making him
reluctantly comply.

“Prince Curtis, take your team and
make your way towards the left side of the cave.
 
Princess Tessia, take your team to the
right of the cave and hold your ground.
 
I’ll be keeping an eye on you guys at all times but stay vigilant and
don’t underestimate the Snarlers, especially in these numbers.”
 
With that, Professor Glory motioned for
the two teams to rush forward.
 

“Arthur, I want you to be the
vanguard since you’re the best in close range.
 
Clive and Roland, you guys take
positions to his left and right behind him and make sure he’s covered.
 
Lucas stay in the center between Arthur,
Clive and Roland; I’ll cover your back.
 
We’re going in the diamond position we learned in class!”
 
As soon as we headed towards the miniature
army of Snarlers, Tessia’s shy self all but disappeared as her Student
President side took over.
 

“GRRRAHHKK!!”

“KHHRRAAA! KRRAAH!”

“Oh fuck, fuck, fuck.”
 
Roland, obviously intimidated by the
fifty-odd Snarlers all snapping their jaws at us, took out his weapon, which
just looked like a handle of a sword.

Clive also took out his metal short
bow from his dimension ring and he drew it back.
 
Where the arrow should have been was a
long metal needle wrapped in gusts of wind.

I take out Dawn’s Ballad as well,
which was still wrapped in white cloth.
 
I left it sheathed and lowered myself, getting ready for a quick draw in
case any of them suddenly jumped.

“Spread and destroy!
 
Ember wisp!”
 
As we approached the horde of Snarlers,
Lucas released one of his favorite spells and soon started floating around us.

“CRRAAHK!!”
 
Reaching just 5 meters from the horde, I
tucked my sword in tightly to my waist and prepared to draw as more than ten of
them jumped towards us.

Dashing even faster, I leaned
forward even lower and augmented the sword still inside its sheathe.
 
Augmenting a wind to accumulate inside,
I had to use all of my strength to keep my blade from coming out of its sheathe
until the last minute.
 
With the
same theory as a loaded spring, I waited until I was just in front of the
airborne Snarlers before I released the pressurized blade.

“FWWAAAHH!
 
BOOM!”
 
As the speed of my blade broke the sound
barrier, I winced in pain as I felt my shoulder dislocating.
 
That skill worked a lot better than I
thought it would…I really shouldn’t experiment with skills in actual
battles.
 

The front line of the Snarlers both
in the air and on the ground was either knocked back or cut in half but I
couldn’t follow up with anything as my right arm dangled, dropping my sword.

“GRHHAAK!”
 
Several more Snarlers took the place of
the fallen and galloped towards me, using all four limbs now.
 

“Fweeee~” Several arrows whizzed by
me and promptly impaled some of the Snarlers almost on me.
 

I look back and give Clive a nod
before picking up my sword with my left hand.
 
As I look to my left, Roland was wielding
a whip made of water as he gripped the handle he brought out in the
beginning.
 
The water whip whirled
erratically as some attacks missed the target by a large margin, making me
think that Roland was still learning his family’s art.
 

The cave glowed in red and blue as
different fire spells went off from both our side and the other team’s
side.
 
The Snarlers were trying to
surround us as they began spreading out and keeping their distance.
 
The ember wisps that Lucas summoned were
still shooting off small streams of fire but the Snarlers were getting crafty,
throwing chunks of ice from the ground at the wisps in hopes of extinguishing
them.
 

“Arthur, are you okay?”
 
Tess sees me clutching my arm as she’s
fighting off two Snarlers.
 

“Um… I think I’ll be fine.”
 
I grit my teeth and position my right
arm between my legs as I prepare to pop the shoulder back in.

“Gah!”
 
I couldn’t help let out a cry as I
forcibly reposition my arm back into its place.

The skill I haven’t even named yet
worked a lot better than I thought, managing to kill over fifteen Snarlers at
once.
 
Too bad my body wasn’t able
to withstand the force just now.

The Snarlers weren’t very strong,
but after about thirty minutes the seemingly endless numbers that didn’t
dwindle were taking its toll on us.
 
Clive and Roland were sweating profusely while Tessia was a bit pale.
Even Lucas’ spells were becoming a lot less flamboyant as he had to keep in
mind the limit of his mana pool now.

“Is it just me or are there more
Snarlers now then there were in the beginning?”
 
Roland shouts as he manages to kill
three Snarlers with the help of Clive.

“I think you’re right.
 
The numbers aren’t adding up.”
 
Clive responds as he looks at Tessia for
further instructions.

Between the corpses on the floor
and the ones still kicking, the numbers, just on our side added up to roughly
over one hundred.
 
That was more
than double from the beginning.

“I think we should head back over
to Professor Glory.
 
We’re not going
to be able to keep fighting like this for much longer.”
 
Tess announces.
 
As we make our way slowly back to where
the entrance to the dungeon was, it seemed like the other team had the same
idea.

Professor Glory noticed both our
teams coming towards her so she made her way to us, cleaving Snarlers left and
right with her sword.

“Professor, I don’t think we can
keep going like this.
 
The Snarlers
keep coming!”
 
Tess shouts over the
waves of Snarlers.

“Both teams!
 
Follow your leaders!
 
We’re going back up!”
 
Without hesitation, Professor Glory
motions for us to head back up the stairs when we hear a loud crash.

“BOOOM!”
 

The icicles and stalactites, along
with other rubble from the roof of the cave came crashing to the ground as two
figures came floating down, flapping their large wings to hold themselves
steady.

“Are you kidding me? What are the
Queen Snarlers doing on this floor?”
 
Professor Glory didn’t bother holding in her rage as she took out
another giant sword from her dimension ring.

“Class, make sure to not let any of
the Minion Snarlers get in my way.
 
I’ll handle the two Queens.
 
I don’t know what’s going on but I’m getting you guys out of here if
it’s the last thing I do.”
 
With a
click of her tongue, she pulls off something around her neck and throws it on
the ground.
 
As the necklace
shimmers and then turns grey, the mana fluctuating around Professor Glory
changes.

She was using a seal!

“Prepare to back up Professor
Glory!
 
Don’t let any of the
Snarlers get past us!”
 
Tessia
commands as she holds her bladed staff out in front of her.

“Aye!
 
Vanguards protect the Conjurers!”
 
Curtis steps up, brandishing his sword
and shield.

I take a step forward too, using
gripping my sword with both hands to support my throbbing shoulder.
 
There were 7 of us in the front as
Lucas, Tessia and another girl started chanting spells.
 
My eyes couldn’t help but focus on
Professor Glory as she wielded two giant swords, one on each hand.
 
Fire and what looked like sand were
rapidly circling around her two swords as Professor Glory was chanting inaudibly.
 

The fire and sand began
intertwining as the two Queen Snarlers, both a few times larger and nastier,
with wings, began cautiously surrounding Professor Glory.
 
The Queen Snarlers’ front two limbs had
4 long, sharp claws that glistened in a coating that I assumed might be
poison.
 

“HAAAHP!”
 
Professor Glory, her two giant swords
ablaze with fire and sand, charged towards the smaller Queen Snarler, beginning
the battle.
 

I held back on using spells,
choosing to simply hack and slash my way against the Snarlers by augmenting my
sword.
 
Their thick coat offered
them a little resistance against spells and attacks but it didn’t take much to
kill them.
 
What became more of a
problem was from the corpses of the Snarlers.
 
Their dead bodies began piling more and
more around us, getting in the way of our attacks.
 
Looking around, I was relieved to see
that the vanguards were still holding up.
 
Both Curtis and Claire had minor scratches and bruises, but they were in
a much better shape compared to the other students.
 

I take a glance back and what I saw
threw me by surprise.
 
Professor
Glory was pushing the Queens, who were estimated to be on the upper spectrum of
B-class bosses, back, by herself.
 
What surprised me more was the way she did it.
 
She was obviously a dual elemental
Augmenter in earth and fire, but she was producing projectiles that looked like
ice shards…