The Gamer's POV-Chapter 195: Home of the Hollow Ones [11]

In the far end of the vast underground chamber, a hollow one could be seen sitting on a throne, resting its elbow on the armrest and leaning its face against its hand. This one was quite different from the others both in size and presence.

It was dressed in a white robe that draped elegantly over the stone seat, contrasting sharply with the cold, dark atmosphere. Embedded in its forehead was a red crystal that pulsed with a faint glow, and as it sat there in total silence, it seemed more like a statue than a living thing.

The creature kept observing the chaos unfolding below with a strange, detached curiosity. Beside it on the left and right were ten hollow ones. Some had slender bodies like females, while the others were bulky, like hulking male warriors. And each of them had a different kind of weapon in hand. They too were watching the chaos with blank expressions, as if they were spectators at a grim performance.

As the battle raged on, it seemed that the cadets were slowly winning and taking the lead in the chaos. However, none of the figures by the throne moved and just kept watching.

Meanwhile, by now, the vanguards had also arrived at the vast second floor. Without hesitation, they quickly leapt from the entrance with their weapons already drawn as they plunged into the fray to support the cadets, followed by eight ravens who flew around the top of the chamber before perching on different stone pillars that lined the walls.

Both Leon and Uriel lunged into the thick of the mob to fight as a separate unit, and so did Cedric and Aika.

***

A few hours later...

____

Things seemed to be going... well, not too great for the cadets, but at the same time, there was a bit of hope that they could actually survive the night. In fact, at this point, it looked like they might just be able to completely clear out the entire chamber.

That was the conclusion Cedric reached as he observed the battleground through the eyes of his ravens.

Of course, many of the cadets were now dead, and the roughly twenty-seven who were still alive and fighting had their own share of gruesome injuries.

But then, the number of hollow ones had also reduced to just above fifty.

The cadets just needed to wipe them out and then, they could attack the red bridge monster.

They just needed to push through their exhaustion and hold their ground for a final, desperate offensive.

However, for some reason, Cedric was not at ease.

The entire time he fought, he kept having a really bad premonition. Especially after seeing those creatures beside the red bridge monster.

Something about them just screamed trouble.

After studying them for a moment, Cedric clicked his tongue, then shifted his perspective to a different raven to check on his teammates. Luckily, none of his party members had died... yet.

However, they all looked severely drained and exhausted.

’Hold on guys...’ Cedric thought as he disengaged from the deadlock he was currently in, before lunging and clashing again with the hollow one’s spear.

***

Audrey, who was the most dynamic among them, looked quite haggard and wasted. Her face was covered in sweat and her hair clung to her cheeks in matted, damp clumps. The surprising speed and precision she had shown earlier to the team was also beginning to falter.

At any slight break she had, she would reach into her haversack and take out loads of bread, after which she would stuff her mouth with them.

Once, she even choked and began coughing so hard she had to fly to the underside of the chamber for safety. Then, with trembling hands, she took out some water and began chugging it down. After that, she continued stuffing her mouth with food while looking around with bloodshot eyes.

’God... I can’t take this anymore,’ she thought in a mix of desperation and fear. ’I can’t even feel my legs.’

That was true... and part of the reason she didn’t land was because she knew that she would not be able to stand and would collapse the moment her feet touched the ground.

She swallowed, then took a few heavy, ragged breaths, and as her eyes wandered around the chaos, she blinked in exhaustion. ’I’m so tired, I can’t even see properly anymore...’

She took out some jerky this time and began gnawing on it like a starved animal.

’...and I’m so hungry.’

Despite the fact that she kept eating, her stomach kept rumbling. And it kept hurting.

Without even finishing the piece in her mouth, she took out more jerky and forced it in.

’...should I just rest up here?’

She looked around. There was no archer among the hollow ones that she could see.

So...

’I can just rest here. I’m too tired. I’m going to rest here...’

However, right at that moment, her gaze fell on Cedric, who was currently battling intensely against a hollow one.

She bit her lip, then shook her head.

’No, I can’t rest here. He is tired too, but he is not vanishing off somewhere to rest. So I can’t rest here.’

She took out her bow, nocked an arrow, and aimed at a hollow one that Evelyn was struggling with.

’I can’t rest... not yet.’

Then she let go of the string.

***

The arrow flew through the air, straight into the chest of the hollow one, causing it to stagger backwards before collapsing to the ground.

Evelyn, who was caught off guard, turned to look up at where the shot had come from. After seeing it was Audrey, rather than smile in relief, she quickly looked away from her to scan the battleground.

"Blood. I need blood," she muttered frantically under her breath.

All around her were the bodies of cadets and the ground was covered in their blood. Yet, she couldn’t just drink from a dead body as that would be poisonous to her.

There were strict rules regarding how she consumed her life force.

If she drank from a dead body, she would be consuming nothing but cold, stagnant rot.

Besides that, she could drink drawn out blood as long as the donor was alive. However, drinking already drawn blood, like the time Dion gave her his blood in a bottle, only offered half the strength she required.

To her, it was like drinking watered-down, lukewarm tea when she needed a shot of pure adrenaline.

If she wanted to get the full nutritional value and power, she had to drink directly from the vein of a living host.

"Blood... blood, blood." She muttered again as she looked around through her tired, hazy vision.

At this point, the spear in her hand had grown heavier than she could carry, and so, she let it fall to the ground.

Then she bent down and clutched her knee in exhaustion. The voices around her became muffled as if she were underwater. The frantic shouts of the battle and the clashing of steel drifted away, replaced by the loud, rhythmic thumping of her own heart.

Only a few seconds later, she could hear the voice of her bond in her head.

’My lady...’

But she couldn’t focus on his voice. When she found herself starting to black out, she quickly shook her head to drive away the darkness. Then she summoned her bond into his weapon form.

She was determined to keep fighting until she dropped dead. Her grip on a handle of the chained kama tightened as she turned to face a hollow one that had begun approaching.

To be honest, she knew she did not have any strength left in her to fight it.

’This is probably the one that is going to kill me.’ She thought as a sad grin began to form on her face.

’Ah... it’s been a while since I felt this kind of fear.’

Suddenly, Evelyn was reminded of her time in the Aziz Beautiful Garden. She was not one to easily succumb to fear, but then, she had felt what it meant to be truly afraid of death.

And now, it felt as though that same chilling dread was finally catching up to her.

She exhaled, and not determined to back down, she forced her leaden legs to widen into a combat stance. Her vision swam and the weight of the kama felt like it might pull her arm right out of their sockets, but she refused to let her knees hit the ground. If this was the end, she would meet it standing up, with her fingers locked tight around Julius and her eyes fixed on the monster in front of her.

She let out a battle cry... but just as she was about to lunge at the creature, a raven descended from above then it immediately shifted into Aika with her katana raised high.

The creature quickly raised its spear and their weapons collided with a deafening clang.

Evelyn blinked, stunned, as she watched Aika suddenly dissolve into an intense melee against the creature in front of her.

Then at that moment, a hand grabbed her shoulder causing her to flinch violently, but before she could do anything, Cedric pulled her firmly into his chest. He wrapped one arm around her waist to keep her from collapsing and used the other to guide her head toward his shoulder.

Then he pressed her face against the side of his neck and muttered, "Drink."