Humanity's Hero Of Despair

Imagine a sharp spear.

Now imagine fifty spears.

Now imagine double that.

Think about the sun.

Think about how bright and hot it is.

Combine all of this and you get one hundred levitating spears of light with the power of the sun. This is not something you want hurtling towards you. Unfortunately for me, I get to experience it firsthand.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Times that by fifty.

The Keeper Principal flicks his glowing yellow wand and directs all the spears in my direction.

Clang! Cling! Cling! Clang!

Times that by fifty.

The result of the attack is we are no longer in the hallway.

We are fighting outside because the spears completely obliterated the walls, including the ceiling. I have to concentrate fully on my defensive dark magic to prevent those light spears from killing me. My clothes are slightly smoking as some spears graze me. Some rogue spears hurt students around me, leaving them crippled on the ground.

If it wasn't for my scythes of darkness deflecting the spears of light or consuming them in the darkness, I would be dead meat.

"I am genuinely impressed, Nico. I did not expect you to block that attack. That is quite unfortunate, as I wanted to finish our fight quickly so I could end that traitor named Justus," the Keeper Principal says with discontent while fixing his cufflinks.

This guy wants to fight Justus and end him?

It's all because he betrayed the Eradicators to side with the non-light mages? My fists tighten around my scythes. I am not about to let the Keeper Principal touch that man at all. I will end him right here and now so he can't hurt anybody else.

"Well, before you can do that, you have to go through me first," I say in a sarcastic tone, to provoke him more. Even if I somehow lose this fight, at least I will have pissed him off enough to not make me forgettable. To remind him there will always be humans waiting to get their revenge.

My plan works ever so slightly. The Keeper Principal's face twitches with impatience.

"It is because of rule-breaking lower class humans like you we have to destroy humanity. You humans are almost all weak, besides a couple of exceptions. Even then, it's your attitude and lack of ability to use light magic which makes you so inferior to us," he says while straightening his tie.

I feel something incoming. That something is not good. My gut tugs at me in an instant.

"Get back everyone!" I yell instinctively as I cross both scythes together in a defensive position, forming a shield of shadows. The moment the daggers of light hit the shield, a shockwave ripples throughout the ruins of the hallway.

If my gut didn't force me to get into a defensive position, I would be dead right now. I underestimated the Keeper Principal by a lot. If I'm not careful, one mistake means me dying by the light. My breathing is getting heavier and heavier by the minute. The only good news is that most of the students who were in the hall retreated somewhere else.

Now I can fight to my full potential without risking others in danger.

The rapid daggers of light continue to attack my shield. Every hit dents my shield more and more. Every hit is closer to damaging me. Being on the defensive for too long means death. His light is overwhelmingly powerful.

Wait, a second. Why am I on the defensive?

The Keeper Principal stops his barrage for a second. That is all I need to uncross my scythes and walk towards the Keeper Principal slowly. Why am I slow? No idea. To this day, I think it would have been faster if I had sprinted at him.

He raises his eyebrows at me. He seems impressed enough that I have the confidence to confront him even closer. The Keeper Principal keeps the barrage of magical daggers of light going because it is effective. His appearance becomes more noticeable as I inch closer and closer.

My scythes move in a whirlwind, blocking dagger after dagger. The Keeper Principal eventually had to switch from summoning daggers to transforming his wand into two huge twin axes of lightning because I am now within close combat range.

He immediately jumps into the air, slamming his axes of lightning onto my scythes. The impact causes the ground underneath us to be pushed down and cracked.

The axes themselves may not hurt my body, but the lightning on them does.

My body does its best to resist the shocking pain all over my body. My nerve endings are screaming out loud to be put out of their misery. If I give up any of my strength right now, it will give the Keeper more leverage to push me down further. It takes both of my scythes to prevent him from harming me any further.

Other students are around me noticing me falling under the strength of the Keeper Principal. The battle is still raging on but it seems like all hope is about to be lost. The faces of the dead HRC members flash into my mind as if somebody is punching it into my soul.

I can't let it end here. Their deaths must not be meaningless. I can't let down my family or myself anymore. What was all of this for if it ends now? The people who believed in me as their leader would lose all hope.

Humanity losing hope because of me? I won't allow that to happen.

My mana is running very low, but I can't give up yet. My last resort is using a ninth affinity level technique, which lets me turn into darkness for an entire minute and transport myself elsewhere. However, I don't have enough mana for it and the Keeper Principal knows it.

He smirks at me as the light from his axes glows more brilliantly. The amount of mana these Eradicators have is off the charts because they are superhuman beings, after all. The only way to defeat them is by catching them off guard with the right techniques, which mainly involve dark magic.

"Any last words, Nico? Anything you want to say before everyone realizes you are dead?" the Keeper Principal says to me as he raises his arm up to land the final lightning blow of a strike.

I have no words to speak. One more hit is all it will take to defeat me.

It isn't all over now, is it?