The trip to Liberta would take around a week of travel with the caravan.
After putting my things in one of the carriages, I sat down, closing my eyes and entering meditation.
I had nothing else to do.
The first day went by very peacefully and quickly.
Nothing attacked the caravan, and night came quickly. We stopped and made multiple fires to have a meal and some well-needed rest.
The caravan has four carriages, two for goods obviously, and the last two are for the merchants' group and our mage group.
Each carriage is led by a rank one twilight mana beast; they're called Terrain Lizards.
They aren't hostile creatures by nature, so they're quite easily tamed.
They are an expensive luxury, but the amount of saved time merchants make is well worth the cost.
"So why'd you take this job, Sylas?"
Asked the cute girl with blonde hair, Gloria Randoff, I believe. She said her name was.
The fire gave her skin a glowing orange glare. She looked breathtaking.
I shrugged my shoulders.
"I want to attend an academy at Liberta."
Gloria's mouth made a circular shape in surprise, and she asked excitedly.
"Do you want to attend one of the tyrants?"
I had an idea what she meant, but I checked just to be sure.
"You mean Ashborn or Nagravar?"
She shot back instantly without missing a breath.
"Yes, dummy, what other academies would be known as tyrants?"
I guess it was a stupid question. I should listen to my gut sometimes. It still hurts to be scolded for it, though.
"Yes, I intend to join Ashborn Academy."
She smiled and patted my shoulder.
"Wow, I wish I had that opportunity. Most of the graduates from those two become somebody special."
Her eyebrows suddenly shot up in surprise.
"Wait a minute, that means you're fucking sixteen?"
I nodded at her, wondering why she was confused.
"Yes, I recently turned sixteen. I just became a Twilight magus last month."
Her eyes twitched in annoyance.
"One month ago, huh."
I knew I shouldn't ask a lady for their age, but I was curious.
"How old are you, Gloria?"
She put her hand on her mouth and leaned away.
"How forward, young man."
I instantly tried to apologize, but was stopped when she put her hand up to shush me.
"I'm joking, it's not an outrageous question from what we were talking about, but I might surprise you with my age."
She had a mischievous smile.
"How old do you think I am? Guess."
I gave my honest guess.
"Twenty-four?"
She laughed out loud, a genuine laugh.
"No, no, not even close. I will be thirty-five this year."
I couldn't help but let my jaw drop a little bit, thirty-five?
This woman looked to be in her early twenties at the oldest.
Mana is a strange thing.
"You look my age, maybe a tad older."
That's what I managed to sputter out.
"I wish, I'm old enough to be your mother, cutie."
I laughed a little and continued to talk with her for a bit.
I thought about what having a mom would be like.
I couldn't imagine it.
We continued to have a conversation for a little while before she headed off to get some rest.
Tonight was my turn to have night shift. Since I was the lowest-ranked mage, I went first.
We were still in docile land the first couple of days, so today is the safest day for me to hold down the fort.
They slowly went off to bed, one by one.
Everyone went to sleep fairly quickly, and then it was just me and the darkness.
Weirdly, I kind of enjoyed it.
It was just the night and I to practice my new techniques.
With the fire still burning, it was a peaceful night.
To satiate my boredom, I practiced some basic elemental manipulation along with some mana circulation, but nothing too large.
I needed to have enough mana if we suddenly got attacked after all.
But I did manage to put some good progress in my fire manipulation.
And then morning came, and the second and third morning came just as peacefully and quickly.
I hadn't been on watch those days, so I enjoyed my sleep peacefully.
I got a little closer to the healer named Randy Mackentov in the past couple of days. We exchanged some knowledge on our ideals of healing, and got along pretty well.
He was a strong man who was very proud of his advances in the light element. Although he didn't compare to Alaric, he was still well above me.
The fourth and fifth day went just as peacefully, then the fifth night came.
I was looking forward to it quite a bit, because it was Randy and I who were given the night shift, and I was hoping to exchange some more pointers tonight.
The magus group decided to go in groups of two for the last couple of days, due to the dangerous environment, but other than a couple of wolves and other rank 1 twilight beasts like boars, nothing of particular interest happened.
"Are you excited to join an Academy?"
Randy asked when the night seemed particularly dull.
I thought about his question for a second.
"I guess so? I'm excited about gaining power, and since the academy is where I'll gain that power, I'd say I'm pretty excited."
Randy just nodded his head. He stood there with his hands in his pockets for a moment, then, with a smile, said.
"There are some good-looking girls that go there, you know."
Randy started to die laughing, like it was the funniest thing he's ever said.
But then he got all serious out of nowhere.
"How powerful do you want to be, Sylas?"
I had to think about his question for a minute before deciding to question.
How strong do I want to be?
Well, I guess I've always known the answer since childhood.
I want the power of freedom, to do whatever I want when I want, with nobody to take away what's mine.
"Paramount."
He seemed satisfied by that answer, but asked another question.
"Why do you need so much power?"
I smiled at him and then looked at the sky. The stars up there seemed so free, so full of life.
I want to be that free someday.
"Freedom."
Randy didn't speak for the next hour. After all, we had already been talking for the majority of the night.
We came to a silent agreement to just sit there in our thoughts.
Well, that was until we heard a noise.
At first, it was a low grumble, then it got a little louder, turning into a hum, and then it started to sound a little fierce.
It was getting louder, and whatever it was, it was close.
And soon it was so loud it sounded like an earthquake was upon us.
Randy got up the second he heard the low grumble and instantly screamed at the top of his lungs.
"WAKE UP! WAKE UP! BEAST WAVE!!!"
He took a breath and screamed even louder.
"BEAST WAVE!! EVERYBODY STAY INSIDE AND BRACE!!"
I was confused… Beast wave?!
As in a stampede of beasts?
What the flying fuck is going on?!
Almost instantly, the rest of the magus jumped out and surrounded the caravan in an arrow-shaped formation, pointing towards the sound.
I saw the merchants peek out from the edge of the caravan, but they nevertheless stayed inside as instructed.
Randy turned to me and gave me a short explanation.
"A beast wave is coming to fuck us over. I can't give you all the details. Just know we are unlucky. A seemingly endless number of beasts will charge in this direction, but they're not trying to kill us; rather, they're trying to go by you. They will attempt to get by you, but don't let any of them on the inside. They'll overrun the caravan and smash it into bits."
He fixed his boots and continued to prepare himself between breaths.
"It's our responsibility to hold the formation because our lives depend on it, because if you break formation, I don't think anyone here could save you in time. And keep in mind you don't have to kill every beast, just redirect them past you."
It was a lot of information for what seemed like an impossible task, but I got the gist of it.
Don't let anything by me unless it's away from the caravan and fight like my life depends on it.
Well, it does, but that's not the point. I'm good at close-quarters combat. I can do this.
"Ok, I'll do what I can."
That's all I could say.
I'm an inexperienced twilight mage. I am not fooling anyone, I'm no hero or saviour.
I'm a weak link.
Snapping me out of my thoughts, the treeline exposed a disgusting number of beasts tearing their way towards us at breakneck speed.
And in that moment, all I could think of was one thing.
Run.
Leave.
To get out of here this instant if I want to live.
But where could I run? If I leave my position, I'm as good as dead, and so is everybody else.
I realized in that split second that I was weak. Not just physically, I was mentally weak too.
I'm about to fight the hardest fight of my entire life, and all I can think about is running for my life.
I'm a coward.
This isn't who you are, Sylas. Focus.
Prove to them through actions who you are; prove to yourself who you think you are.
Randy, Gloria, and Wick unleashed spells at the incoming wave.
Randy cast a wave of earthen spikes that shot at the front line.
Gloria followed up with a wind spell that pushed back and stalled the animals that survived long enough for Wick to shoot a fireball that exploded right in between the leftover beasts, killing them all.
I was still frozen.
Why couldn't I cast my wind blades to help?
I looked down and saw my hands shaking. Was I scared?
Why am I so fucking useless?
I looked at everyone, amazed at the power coming out of them.
Is that the power of a dusk magus?
I snapped out of it just in time. The first wave finally reached us.
So I did what I did best, I stabbed and I sliced, I focused on redirecting the animals to the best of my ability.
I circulated my mana to the limit, augmenting my body to heights never before.
I continued to weave between claws and teeth, barely missing my body.
I pushed my mana circulation more, past the limit I set for myself.
I knew I could go faster.
I just had to will it.
I dodged a claw that was slicing towards my eye. With a side step and pivot on my right foot, I cleanly cut off the wolf's head in one strike.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion.
I could see where the claws and teeth would strike, and I responded with crisp and precise movements.
Over and over, beast after beast, I continued to fight.
15 seconds had gone by, and tens of beasts, it felt like a lifetime.
I can still do this. I'm not even close to being tired.
I can still maintain this pace, I told myself as I sliced a wolf into four pieces.
Everything was going perfectly until out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gloria about to be clawed in the back. She wasn't going to be able to dodge in time.
She's a focal point and is holding the entire right side of our formation right now.
So I made a calculated sacrifice. I shot a wind blast out of my hand.
It was weak, pitiful even, but it halted the beast for a second, and that was enough.
Gloria turned around and shot the animal with a blast of wind, finishing it in one strike.
It would've been a perfect result if not for the wild boar that stabbed me with its tusks directly through my forearm.
"AHHH FUCK."
Rippling pain shot through my forearm. It felt like I couldn't breathe. I lost the grip of my sword; it fell to the ground and was instantly smashed past me.
Clang
I pulled the tusk from my forearm and kicked the giant beast away. It continued running past me into the endless swarm.
Shit shit shit.
It hurts so fucking bad.
Trying to still keep my mind somewhat focused, I dodged another claw and punched the beast in the gut, pushing it to the side.
The adrenaline was keeping me in the fight.
My forearm was bleeding nonstop, rivers of blood flowed from my arm every time I punched and kicked, and even when I took a breath, although the pain was excruciating, it wasn't the worst part.
I lost my weapon.
And in this brawl, where everything coming at me was sharp and held enough strength to blow me away, losing my weapon was like losing my vision.
Speaking of vision, it went next.
Not in its entirety, but it certainly felt like it in this life-or-death battle.
It was flashing in and out like I hadn't slept in days.
My eyes blinking nonstop, I couldn't do anything to fix it.
Spurts of beasts continued to harass me. I retaliated out of pure instinct.
With one giant bite just shy of my neck on my shoulder, the sky went hazy, and my vision started to blur.
But I continued to fight.
My body moved on instinct, punching, kicking, and even biting. Whatever I could do to survive.
But without my weapon, I couldn't go on for long. I kept getting cuts and blunt hits that almost blew me away.
By this point, my body was covered in red, if it was my blood or the blood of the mountain of beasts I've killed, only god knows.
And then a miracle happened, the hoard dimmed, and after an untraceable amount of time, the last beast ran by.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and voices in my ear, but I couldn't tell what they were saying. All I heard were muffled voices before my vision went black and my eyes rolled to the back of my head.
End of chapter 8