Fate Alchemist - A Regression Academy LitRPG

So far, the three sword-wielding Oroniths at the center of the lake had kept their fiends busy, and the damage was minimal. As Wulf sprinted toward them, moving Wraith along, he assessed the situation.

One fiend dead, three remaining. They'd lost one Oronith doing it.

But even if they won this fight, if they lost too many Oroniths in the process…well, there were many, many more fiends than Oroniths out in the sky, wherever they came from. It wasn't practical to take this many losses already.

Not going to let them destroy another one today, Wulf vowed.

The three remaining fiends looked mostly same as each other, except one carried a long spear, one had elongated, glowing claws, and the third had two whipping black tentacles instead of arms.

The Silent Wraith thundered down Clegghold's main thoroughfare, sending vibrations through the streets and crushing swathes of smaller demons beneath him. He leapt over the lakeside promenade and landed in the lake, cushioning his impact in a crouch. A tidal wave splashed up onto the streets, and droplets washed up into the visor, turning his stone armour slick and shiny.

Besides from the three sword-wielding Oroniths' mana-lights, fires blazed around the city, and the fiends own glowing eyes, horns, and flaming core were bright enough for Wulf to see what he was doing.

He waded through the waves, pushing toward the fight. The lake water didn't buoy him as much as it would help hold a human, and it didn't resist the Oronith as much as it probably would've resisted a human.

Aside from his speed enhancements transferring to the Wraith, which the Field manipulated reality in order to let him simply move faster (and that meant manipulating and parting the water), the Oronith was just much bigger and stronger than a human.

To cross the lake, Wulf maintained his sprint. The Fiends were distracted with the two other Oroniths.

"Stab them first this time," Kalee said. "No punching."

"I'll do my best," Wulf replied, lifting his arms up.

When he was within ten steps of the nearest fiend, he leapt forward, holding the short swords forward and targeting the nearest fiend. It was the fiend with the spear. He slashed across its back with one blade, shattering its wings and slicing their base, before plunging his other blade down in the exact same location.

The fiend screeched and stumbled forward, right into the waiting longsword of a different Oronith. It jabbed its blade into the beast's gut, and a spell skill triggered, forming a blue runic circle around the blade's hilt. Blue flames sprang up along the blade and seared the fiend. It bellowed again in its deep, phlegmy voice.

But that meant it wasn't dead yet.

The other fiends turned toward him—he was the new, strongest threat, and whether it was wise or not, they charged toward him.

"Kalee, can you hold them back?" he called.

"I'll slow them!" she said. "Hold out your arm!"

He pointed his right arm at the charging fiends, and Kalee triggered her spell Skill, forming an enormous circle beneath the fiends. It lit up the bottom of the lake and shone orange through the water, like a rift in the earth had just appeared beneath them.

They buckled and crouched down under the added force, but they were much stronger than Kalee, and even with the Oronith's amplification, she wouldn't hold them for long.

With his free arm, Wulf rammed his short sword into the back of the first fiend. It pierced the carapace in the lower back, but he dragged upward, shattering its shell and slicing its muscles. Halfway up, the old, damaged blade's top quarter shattered, sending shards of obsidian slicing throughout the fiend's body.

The fiend let out one last screech before falling to the lake with a splash.

"One down," Wulf said. He gave the longsword-wielding Oronith who'd helped him a nod, then turned to face the others.

The fiend with tentacle arms pushed to the edge of Kalee's slowing field, and it whipped an arm out toward Wulf. A tentacle of black muscle and glowing orange veins shot toward him and struck him in the chest. He flew backward with the impact, tumbling head over heels, before righting himself and skidding back to the shore.

In the time it took to right himself, the two remaining sword Oroniths converged on the clawed fiend and impaled it. It still writhed and shuddered, until the Left Spear charged across the lake from the other direction and put its spearhead through the fiend's neck.

The clawed fiend stopped moving entirely. Its head tilted back, its mouth slipped open, and it fell limp.

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One more fiend to go. They were going to win!

As the others converged on the tentacle arm fiend, Wulf sprinted back across the lake, splashing tidal waves in his wake.

A bolt of darkness descended from the sky, and a screeching, shattering sound roared with it. It beamed down and struck the Left Spear in the back of the neck. Already weakened, and already damaged, the Oronith's head slumped to the side. Its neck shattered in a puff of dust and stone, and it fell still.

Caught by surprise, the two sword wielding Oroniths looked around for their new assailant, giving the fiend enough time to strike them both in the chest and push them down underwater.

They thrashed, but the fiend was strong, and it had leverage. The crews were going to die.

"What was that?" Seith exclaimed.

"It looked like Umoch's magic," Wulf breathed.

"Above us!" Irmond shouted. "In the clouds! A Thrustwing was dipping in and out, and now it's gone in the smoke."

Wulf narrowed his eyes. Who else could that be but Umoch? A Mage with shadowy spell Skills?

"What's he doing?" Wulf snapped. "Siding with the demons?"

But Wulf couldn't let the other Oroniths get destroyed by the demons. That was his top priority. He could deal with Umoch later. He sprinted across the lake, holding his cracked blade out to the side. The fiend's tentacles were preoccupied.

When he was five paces away, poised to slash through the fiend's shoulder, a second beam of shadow raced down from the sky, barely visible in the night. It was more like a physical column, only visible where it blocked the lights and fires.

It smashed into his blade. The cracked, old obsidian shattered, leaving him only with a sharp hilt.

But he'd already committed to an attack. He jabbed the hilt and the sharp remains into the fiend's shoulder, but he couldn't cleave through. The fiend leaned back and hollered, trying to throw him off. He wrapped his arm around its neck, holding it tight and locking it in place, then jabbed the broken hilt into the top of the fiend's head.

It was unwrapping its limbs from around the other Oroniths. Any moment, it'd reach up and grab him, and it'd be over.

"Kalee, a little help speeding up my arm? I'm going to crack its skull."

"It won't kill it," she warned.

"I need you to hit it with a gravity wedge afterward," he replied. "Tear it in two."

"Got it."

He held his arm back, then pulled the struggling fiend closer with his other arm. Shouting with exertion, and pulling against his smaller golem, he slammed his fist down into the top of the fiend's head. Silent Wraith's forearm smashed one of the fiend's horns, and the sharp hilt of the sword pierced into the top of its skull.

Kalee increased the gravity beneath his arm, pulling it down faster. The skull cracked.

"Now!" Wulf called. "The full Skill!"

"Wulf, the Thrustwing is swooping again!" Irmond warned.

"Protect your neck!" Seith called. "He'll be going for your neck next!"

Wulf considered covering his neck with his hand, but he stopped. Umoch was still no full-fledged Mage, and if he wanted to deal a crushing blow to Silent Wraith, he'd have to swoop closer.

He had a chance to take out Umoch. After all the boy had done…

Wulf pushed the tentacle fiend away, and Kalee bludgeoned it with invisible force, shattering its skull and threatening to rip it in half. It released the pinned Oroniths and reached up, trying to protect its head, but it was too late. In an explosion of smoke, fire, and black blood, Kalee's wedge tore it in two.

Meanwhile, Wulf swept his arm backward and swivelled, panting with exertion and forcing himself to turn. A tsunami of waves washed over the Oronith's lower body, and he slapped his arm through them.

He didn't register any impact, but then again, hitting a bird, no matter how big and strong Thrustwings were, wouldn't feel like much.

"Is he still there?" Wulf asked. "Irmond, do you see him?"

"I can't—wait! In the water! You hit the bird! It's down!"

"What about him? Is it Umoch?"

"I can't tell, but he's swimming toward us…he's holding out his hand, preparing another spell Skill!"

Now, Wulf raised his hands and covered the back of his neck. A beam of darkness ripped up from the waves and blasted the top of his hand, scoring across, and, though it wasn't a good angle for attacking the Oroniths, it still scored a line across the back of Silent Wraith's neck.

He hadn't gotten Umoch just yet.

Normally, that wouldn't be enough to destroy an Oronith. A Mage alone, unless they were an Orichalcum-tier, wouldn't be that strong. But the Wraith had just fought three Fiends and had taken a beating. This was the last straw.

Wraith wasn't destroyed, but it was out of power. Deactivated. It would need repairs.

Pain surged across the back of Wulf's neck, and he imagined that would be how it felt to have his head severed. It was the pain of losing your connection to your Oronith without your conscious choice.

The runes dimmed all across Wraith's body, and its arms fell limp. The dream-link severed, but the pain remained for a few seconds. He slumped forward, and through the mental blur, pulled himself out of the harness. The harness caught on the corner of his golem, ripping the shoulder off, and tearing his shirt and skin below. His rank badge shattered.

"We're dead in the water out here!" Seith called. "Literally, this time!"

"Get back to the cockpit," Wulf replied. "I'm out of the control apparatus, and I don't think Wraith is going to move again today."

Wulf pushed himself up and looked forward. The fiends were dead, and the other Oroniths were pulling themselves out of the water. Lake water washed off them and poured out of the cockpit, and Wulf half imagined their Pilots gasping for breath.

They'd dealt with the fiends, sure. But it wasn't over yet. Hordes of smalle, human-sized demons surged across the water, half-swimming and half climbing on top of each other, and most drowning as they surged toward the biggest, most appealing targets.

And worse, when Wulf staggered forward to the cockpit glass, Umoch was getting closer.

There was no one else it could be. White shirt, academy uniform, dark hair. Shadow magic. Who else would follow them out here just to cause them trouble?

It was time to put this rivalry to an end.