Glass shards flew everywhere.
I threw myself to the side, activating my Elemental Shield as I fell.
Llewellyn immediately activated his evacuation skill, but… it didn't seem to do anything.
Fuck. Was it because this place blocked all teleportation?!
The silver bull ornament hovered in the air for a split second, then expanded, its eyes flashing red.
People screamed.
"Everybody out! Now!" Phelan's voice rang out from the back.
I saw Jihoon rush toward a bleeding Yuè Zhōu who'd been blasted off the stage in the initial explosion, but Yuè Zhōu was back on his feet in a second.
Roan and Ejay were trying to corral people out, but many seemed too stunned to move.
"Out! Out! You need to leave!" Phelan yelled again—but people were frozen in place, watching.
Llewellyn and I had jumped out of our seats at once, rushing forward.
The bull grew. And grew.
Its hooves hit the stage floor with a thunderous noise.
Then it charged toward the crowd.
Panic erupted. Chairs were being knocked by people fleeing or being flung away by the bull. Some people were sent flying.
In the ensuing chaos, I heard a child scream.
Fuck!
Where was she?! Why was a child even here?!
Llewellyn's eyes met mine in horror before he leapt up in the air in a split second and jumped in front of the little girl, blocking the bull's horns with his sword just in time.
She was still in her seat, her eyes wide.
"Get her out of here!" Llewellyn yelled at what seemed to be her parents, both frozen at her sides. "Now!"
He deflected the next attack with his sword, twice, thrice, but the bull kept attacking.
Sparks flew.
How were they still frozen in place?!! I rushed toward them and grabbed them by their collars, dragging them back.
"Do you want to die?!" I yelled in their faces. "Get out of here! Now!"
They scrambled back, eyes full of terror. The child, who wasn't older than seven or eight, was crying her eyes out.
People screamed, all rushing toward the exits now. More chairs went flying.
The bull charged again, this time toward me. I barely rolled out of the way.
"Fuck," Shea said in our ears. "I'm— Where's Jihoon?!"
"Over here!" Jihoon yelled. "Helping with the evacuation!"
Shea cursed in relief.
The center of the room had been mostly cleared out now, leaving Llewellyn fighting against the bull at incredible speed, parrying and parrying, the impact sending shockwaves through the floor.
The bull reared back, charging again, this time toward the crowd still evacuating.
People screamed.
Llewellyn leapt up again in an instant and landed in front of the bull, stopping it again, bracing. His feet skidded on the marble, but he held.
Fuck, fuck.
I activated Exploratory Analysis.
-
[System Notification: Exploratory Analysis activated!
Analyzing: Destabilized Artifact – Silver Bull Ornament
Classification: Legendary
Current threat level: Critical
Properties detected: Explosive generation, Elemental reflection, Adaptive growth
Core weakness: Unknown
WARNING: Direct Elemental attacks will be reflected at the caster.]
-
"Don't use Elements!" I shouted. "It reflects them!"
"Yeah, I'd sensed something like that!" Llewellyn yelled back.
Then someone from the crowd jumped in, and a bolt of Fire was suddenly hurled into the fight.
What!!!
Wait… Had he aimed that at the bull or… at Llewellyn?!
Whatever the case, Llewellyn dodged it easily, but the Fire attack hit the bull's flank.
The bull's metal hide rippled.
Then the Fire shot back.
Fuck!
The man didn't even have time to scream before he was engulfed in his own flames.
Roan quickly ran toward him, doused him in Water, then hit him hard before dragging him out.
He must also have thought the same—that he'd tried to attack Llewellyn.
We were right.
A moment later, Alliance members were rushing toward us, pulling weapons out, others trying to cast.
They were turned toward us instead of the bull.
"Take them out while they're distracted!" someone yelled.
Fucking hell. Were they insane?! Who did they think was going to stop the bull if they took Llewellyn out?!
Unless they had a way to stop it themselves?
"Oh no, you don't!" Ejay yelled. Then at me, "Get down!"
One of the Alliance people had launched at me. I ducked, but he grabbed my coat.
Jihoon appeared out of nowhere, tackled him off me, and kicked him in the stomach.
"Go!" Jihoon shouted at me. "Help Llewellyn!"
He was right. Llewellyn was holding the bull back alone—while defending himself against Alliance attacks!
I rushed in, tripping one guy, twisting his arm against his back, and kicking another, hard. They were good, but I was holding my own.
The problem was that they kept hurling Elemental Magic around!
Did they have a death wish?!
I had to make sure I was never in the bull's path, but even so, a few attacks hit it and were reflected back. I was almost taken out once; the second time, I got out of the way.
It hit whoever had cast it, and he crumpled on the floor, his head blasted off. Dead.
Fuck. No time to dwell on this.
I could feel Penguin vibrate against my wrist.
I didn't want him to come out. It was too dangerous and he couldn't use Elemental Magic against the bull at all.
I kept fighting.
"I'm doing my best with the sound equipment!" Shea said in our ears, sounding frantic. I sliced at one guy's arm and hit another in the face with the hilt of my sword. "But they scrambled something—I'm having to rewrite part of the code. Try to stall it for a couple of minutes!"
Easier said than done.
I kicked and sliced at more Alliance people.
Damn it, how many of them were here?!
The bull had grown again. It was massive now, horns scraping the chandelier.
Llewellyn was still holding it back, attacking and parrying, locking his sword against its horns, but he was drenched in sweat. His muscles strained.
The itch suddenly flared in my chest.
Fuck.
"Move!" I screamed.
Llewellyn dove sideways.
The bull's mouth opened and a sphere of compressed Fire shot out of it.
Then both its horns shot explosives too.
The pillar behind where Llewellyn had been standing exploded.
What the fuck!!!
Penguin burst out of his watch form, turned into a Metal hedgehog mid-air and shot toward the bull, rolling under its belly.
"Penguin!" I yelled, but I was still having to fight these idiots too!
Looked like Penguin was going for his signature move of hitting the artifact in the balls.
I heard the impact.
The bull bellowed and stumbled, but it recovered faster than the cat had, bellowing at the air.
One massive hoof came down where Penguin had been. He barely dodged.
"Shea!" I yelled, kicking one Alliance guy away.
"Almost… Got it!" Shea yelled.
Tiernan rushed into the room from wherever he'd been, joining the fight. He beelined for Llewellyn but Llewellyn just yelled, "No! It reflects Elemental Magic back at the caster! Help with the rest of the fight!"
"Shit," Tiernan said, joining me instead. "Got it. Shea! How long!"
A low hum filled the air. The sound waves hit the bull full force, and it shook its head, disoriented.
A moment later, it seemed fine again, its eyes glowing brighter.
"It's not working as well as last time!" Shea answered. "This thing's more stable somehow! I'll keep tweaking the code!"
Fuck, fuck.
I couldn't see what anyone else was doing, but I could hear the sound of fighting around me. Why were there so many Alliance people here!!!
The bull charged at me.
There was no way I was going to be able to parry that.
…I rolled.
Another explosive Fire sphere flew past my head. It hit a table and the entire thing vaporized.
My heart was thumping madly.
Llewellyn was still fighting with insane speed and strength, trying to keep the bull's attention on him, but that was an impossible rhythm—he wasn't going to last much longer.
Ejay seemed to have realized. He sprinted past me, jumped onto the bull's back, and flipped off the other side.
The bull spun, confused.
Llewellyn attacked from behind with Geometric Casting.
Geometric figures rushed into the bull's flank, barely containing Llewellyn's power.
That actually did damage this time!
The bull kicked backward. Llewellyn blocked with his sword but the force sent him flying into a wall.
"Llewellyn!"
He was already getting up. There was blood on his forehead, probably from falling debris. He wiped it away.
"I'm fine!" he yelled back.
Two more Alliance members tried to rush to me. Yuè Zhōu appeared and took them both down with what looked like an insane level of martial arts skill, while Tiernan engaged the rest.
"Focus on the artifact!" he said to me. "We'll handle these!"
I activated Elemental Insight.
The bull fired another explosive sphere. Llewellyn dodged. It hit the wall behind him and blasted a hole straight through.
Penguin attacked again, this time as a fire fox. He didn't use Fire, but even the Fire emanating from him was too much. It was absorbed by the bull and reflected back.
Penguin yelped, barely dodging his own attack.
"Penguin! It's too dangerous!"
He chirped angrily and transformed back into a hedgehog, going for the bull's balls again.
Almost all guests had been evacuated by now, except for some idiots who tried to stay behind to record Llewellyn and who were now being harangued by Tiernan.
Roan, Ejay, Yuè Zhōu, and Tiernan had taken out most of the Alliance members, whom Phelan and Jihoon were now dragging out.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Phelan hit Baugh, making him crumple, then dumping him on Jihoon before rushing back to keep the doors clear, shoving back anyone who tried to linger in the hallway with their phones in hand.
Shea cranked up the sound device again. The bull staggered.
Llewellyn fired more Geometric Casting at it at insane speed and rushed in again.
Another explosive was charging in the bull's throat.
"Down!" I yelled, tackling Llewellyn sideways.
The blast missed us by inches. The heat singed my hair.
We hit the ground. Llewellyn's arms wrapped around me, shielding my head as debris rained down.
"This isn't working," he said into my ear.
No shit.
The bull was already turning toward us again.
What the hell could we do to stop it?!
Penguin, still in his hedgehog form, suddenly slammed into the bull's eye.
Fuck!!!
It bellowed and shook its head wildly.
That bought us maybe three seconds.
I grabbed Llewellyn and we scrambled behind an overturned table.
"Shea," I said. "Status on evacuation?"
"Almost done. Tiernan's got the last group. You have maybe five minutes before this thing brings down the whole building."
Five minutes.
The bull charged at our table. We split. The table exploded into splinters.
Llewellyn engaged it again, sword flashing. He was keeping it focused on him, using as much Geometric Casting as he could.
The bull fired again. Llewellyn deflected it with his sword—and the sphere ricocheted into the ceiling.
More debris fell.
A chunk of stone headed straight for me.
I dove and dodged while Ejay tried to draw off the bull's attention with another parkour run across its back just as Penguin attacked its legs.
The bull thrashed.
But we weren't even remotely winning.
I watched Llewellyn. Blood dripped down his face. His movements were still precise, but even he couldn't keep this up forever.
I tried to expand out of my body and into the Magic Field but that didn't help either.
The bull's horns scraped the remaining chandelier and sent it crashing down, then it shot another explosive in my direction. I rolled away just in time.
I had no choice.
I could do nothing else here—I had to use Blood Magic.
I'd been trying to leave it as a last resort, but not even Llewellyn's power and Shea's sound equipment combined were achieving anything here.
I raised my Moonlight Sword and sliced my palm.