▌│█║▌║▌║Chapter 24║▌║▌║█│▌

The sound of the ongoing battle got louder and louder, a headache started to form inside of me. Is it because of the stress and fear of the battle, or is it because of just the sheer noise of it? The screaming and clanging of metal from everyone are one of the loudest and most terrifying things I have heard in my life.

I covered my ears to try and reduce the noise, and I looked to my side to see Giselle cowering in fear next to an unconscious John. It was a stark contrast to Sasha, Garen, and the others laying their lives on the line to save us, or even Conor standing off on the side laughing hysterically and eating some snacks.

Deep down, I wish I could do more to help out the effort to save us. I feel completely hopeless right now. Tsar, Khar, and Jerry were slashing away at the waves of Golems flooding in our direction, trying to stave off the inevitable, and the others were fighting Nessy and her family member in a heated battle.

Nessy and her familiar fought back by swinging their necks and tails and just blocking the way. They weren’t doing that much damage, but they weren’t being budged either. They are basically a glorified wall. Try to go around them, and they will whip you back in with their tail. Try to go through them, and they won’t budge or feel a thing because of their scales. The minotaur brothers and centaur were finally being beaten back a little by the overwhelming numbers of Golems and Nessy’s relatives now entering the battle, and I noticed a reawakened intensity among those fighting Nessy.

They seemed to attack with a newfound strength and intensity. Jimmy, the werewolf, went to help Tsar, Khar, and Jerry hold off the Golems and creatures for a little while longer, and Garen seemed to back off the fight against Nessy for a little bit while the rest of the party intensified their attack. Garen just sat there, legs crossed and eyes closed, as the battle waged on even harder.

After about one minute, Garen opened his eyes. His eyes were different than usual. His pupils were slits instead of the normal circles. His aura around him changed from a cheerful welcoming person to chilling, cold, murderous feeling. He pulled his sword back out and stared daggers at Nessy. Nessy, who was confident and calm earlier, is now more frantic in her motions as her eyes grew wider when she saw Garen.

“What happened?” I found myself saying in awe of Garen’s transformation.

I felt a huge build-up of pressure as Garen squatted down, in a ready-to-launch stance, and gripped his sword tightly. Then with a loud boom, he launched himself at Nessy, shaking the ground when he jumped.

He launched at Nessy with amazing speed, and my eyes could barely keep up with him. When he launched, everyone who was attacking Nessy’s group at the time backed their attack off and watched Garen.

When Garen got near to Nessy, he swung his sword so hard that it created a great backwind coming off of the scales of Nessy. The swing caused me to fall on my ass it was so powerful, and it created a loud KABOOM when it struck.

Before I knew it Garen landed back on the ground before me, ready for another strike, but his strike didn’t seem to do anything to Nessy, only make her angry. No, I caught a glimpse of a shiny red liquid dripping from the part of the neck he slashed at. He cut her! It wasn’t large, but this is the first damage that has actually been dealt to one of the dinosaur-like creatures.

Garen then went on an onslaught of attacks against Nessy causing the ground to start to shake from the power of the attacks. “Where the hell did this amount of power come from?” I wondered.

Nessy did her best to defend herself by swinging her tail, but she was way too slow compared to Garen’s current state. Eventually, the onslaught of attacks began to work. Nessy began to wade backwards a bit in the water, but the victory was short lived.

Nessy’s familiar beside her moved behind her and stopped her retreat. He then lifted his head into the sky and let out another cry just like the ones at the beginning of the battle. Before we could take advantage of the open space to travel, another creature rose out of the water and blocked the way. Just how many of these things are there?!

Garen focused his attacks on the lone creature now instead of Nessy, and the rest of the group started to attack Nessy again. I looked behind me at the Golem battle, and things looked bleak.

Every single one of the people defending our flank seemed to be struggling and steadily moving back. All of them had cuts on their body from the dagger-like fingers of the golems, and they were exhausted from constantly having to dodge the massive swings and feet from the cousins of Nessy. Something drastically needs to change if we are going to survive the night.

I took my eyes away from the battlefield for a second, and closed them in pain. The headache that started when the battle started has gotten a lot worse now. I put my hands up to my head to try and comfort it, but it continued to pound and pound. It was a constant throbbing and eventually the pain brought me to a breaking point. I felt fluid come up into my throat, and I ended up throwing up in the center of the safety circle that was created from both sides.

I looked back up wearily at the Golem line, and it has gotten a lot worse in the minute I had my head down and eyes closed. I could now touch the line they were so close to me, and I came to the somber realization that this is where I’m probably going to die. I was about to bow my head and resign myself to my fate, but I looked to my side and saw John sitting there. I thought to myself, “He would get up and fight. He would do anything to help out and protect me.”

I looked behind me and saw Garen and Sasha fighting viciously too, and it motivated me too how they were fighting so vehemently to survive. I want to survive too. I want to be the one protecting the things I care about now. I need to protect. I looked back up at the Golem line with a new resolve. I still had that sword on my back, so I can do something. I grabbed the sword and pulled it out of its sheath. My headache instantly went away, and I moved into a ready stance. “Let’s do this.” I said in a determined voice.

▌│█║▌║▌║To be Continued║▌║▌║█│▌