44: Star Child: Dunes of Tolapo X

Elder Luna looked to everyone then stood. A determined look on her face.

"Geryo, rally the warriors and anyone old enough to fight. We need to eradicate every Dr'idi'saiyo in the village. Find out where they are trying to nest and form a perimeter around that section and cut them down wave by wave." Elder Luna said.

"Yes Elder Luna!" Geryo replied then ran out of the barracks. Elder Luna turned to me and the girls.

"I have a request for you four." She said. I translated in universal standard for the girls and Jane and Iris both looked toward her seriously. "Normally I'd have one of the warriors do this but with so many of them dead or injured I need to rely on you. We have school on the western side of the village. There is nothing but smart children there and maybe two or three adults. I need someone to go and check on them and defend the school if need be."

"Of course!" Jane exclaimed. I translated to Torapos for Elder Luna, she smiled appreciatively and did a slight bow.

"Thank you. Now please hurry." She said. "You can head out the back door and take that street the entire way."

I grabbed her hand and looked Elder Luna in the eyes, a slight panic coming over me.

"Are you going to be okay here by yourself?" I asked. Elder Luna smirked and held her other hand other hand up a small fireball ignited in the palm if her hand without a spell sigil.

"I'm not a elder of the tribe for nothing. I'll be fine. Go! Please make sure those children are safe!"

"Of course!" I replied in Torapos. I turned to the girls and started towards the back od the barracks tjen switched to universal standard. "Lets go girls!"

Iris, Jane, and Astrid all followed me as we raced put the back door of the Barracks into the alleyway that Elder Luna mentioned. The skies above us were swarming with the Dr'idi'saiyo. As we ran down the alley a couple of the evos broke off from the swarm and dove down to attack us.

I popped my claws and slashed the first one's head off and narrowly dodged the second's fangs. Iris and Jane did a dodge roll out of the way while Astrid side stepped it. Both Iris and Jane started casting offensive sigils as the Dr'idi'saiyo glided to the ground and coiled to a defensive position.

"Don't waste the mana!" I exclaimed as I ran past them. The Dr'idi'saiyo lunged to bite me as I jabbed my claws straight down piercing it's skull with one of my claws.

"I want one…" Iris said eyeing my claws jealously. I shook the Evo corpse off my claws then wiped the blood on my shirt and retracted them.

"Lets go!" I said then started down the alley again. When I looked over my shoulder I only saw Iris and Jane following me. Astrid was staring up at the swarm above us.

"Astrid come on!" Iris hissed. This broke Astrid out of her daze and she hurried to catch up with us.

We kept one eye to the sky and another to the alley before us as we ran. We soon reached the mouth of the alley which lead to a main road through the village. There was a massive battle talking place there. A good two dozen of the warriors were taking cover behind stone walls jutting out randomly through the street while the swarms above attacked in waves.

The warriors were fighting back bravely and effectively. The two dozen were broke off into pairs of two; one slinging offensive sigils while the other sat back casting a defensive or utility sigil. The offensive slingers were casting small fireballs the flew high into the air before exploding and taking out enemies in the area or wide arching nets of lightning that struck many enemies at once.

Even though the streets were overflowing with the corpses of the evos it didn't look like they were making a dent in the swarms numbers.

"We have to make a run for it!" Iris yelled. She started to run out into the street but I grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Hold on!" I exclaimed then fished my sigils out of my pocket. "No, no, no…yes!"

I looked at each one and smiled deviously when I found the one I was looking for. Iris and Jane shared a look.

"He's got that look again…" Jane said looking slightly concerned.

"I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote this spell but I'm glad I did!" I exclaimed as I cycled mana into my hand. My mana flew into the sigil as the paper ignited and burned away leaving only the activated sigil.

'Shape mana into a mass of shadows and fire at target, detonate before impact and implode in on itself!' I thought as I reread the sigil.

A black mass of shadows formed in my right hand as I took aim at a evo in the center of the swarm. As I fired it the recoil was strong enough to send me flying several feet. The black mass soared towards it target and detonated, erupting in a giant black cloud the blotted out the sun and eclipsing us all in total darkness. In the next moment the black cloud was pulled back to its point of origin with such force that it created a vacuum and condensed into a black hole in the sky that sucked all the Dr'idi'saiyo around it into its horizon.

The Dr'idi'saiyo swarm let out thunderous round of screeching as they were sucked into the black hole and crushed. The vacuum created by the black hole was stronger than I expected and started to suck up everything below the swarm. Parts of buildings, steeds, and carts were all taken in my the black hole. Iris, Jane, Astrid, and I all grabbed onto the closest thing we could grab onto in the ally as we were nearly sucked off the ground, the warriors in the street did the same thing.

The doorframe that I was holding onto snapped and I was sucked into the air. I flailed helplessly trying to grab onto something when a hand snaked out and grabbed mine. It was Iris' and she was just barely hanging onto a wooden railing on a small staircase.

"I got you!" she screamed.

"PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE! DON'T LET GO!!!" I cried.

"NO SHIT!" She retorted. The wooden railing buckled then snapped and the two of us were sucked towards the black hole. We spun around the black hole, caught in its gravity until were mean yards away from the black holes event horizon when it suddenly warbler, distorting gravity and suspending us and everything else that was sucked up around in mid-air. The center of the hole started to crack then shattered with a loud boom that sent both Iris and I hurtling through the sky.

"Chase I'm going to fucking kill you!!!" Iris screamed.

"This fall might do it for you!" I screamed back.

We were both headed toward a large three story building, with our current trajectory we would land right through the second story window. I pulled Iris close and maneuvered myself so I would take the brunt of the impact. As we crashed through the window pane I felt shards of wood and glass dig into my back. We tumbled and rolled through the room crashing into various desks and chairs until we slammed into the far wall.

"Fuck…" I wheezed as we slid to the floor. I looked down at Iris, she looked no worse for wear with barely a scratch on her. Iris groaned and shook her head then looked up at me.

"Star Child!" She exclaimed then jumped up and looked me over. "Shit you're hurt really bad!"

"Yeah I think the searing pain radiating up and down my back was a pretty good indicator of that Tri-clops…" I wheezed. Iris moved me carefully so I was laying on my stomach then winced.

"Chase…I need you to not panic. Okay?!" Iris said.

"Please don't tell me I have a giant shard of glass in my back…" I muttered.

"Okay I won't…" Iris replied.

"Shit!" I groaned. I closed my eyes and started cycling mana into my back while using it to sense out the damage. My back lit up like a billboard. I had at least dozen small cuts and gashes along my shoulders as well as my lower back and that didn't count the massive shard of glass sticking through my shoulder blades.

"Chase you need a healer. A really good one…" Iris said sounding concerned. I shook my head and instantly regretted it.

"Given time and mana I could heal all of this but we don't have time. I'll need to at least close the wounds to prevent bleeding out. Plus healing spells fall under utility, they won't work on me." I said "I need you to pull our the shards so I can close the wounds."

"Chase!"

"Tri-clops we don't have time to argue just please do it!" I snapped. Iris sighed and reached for the first shard.

"You better not bleed out…" She muttered then carefully pulled it out. It wasn't the largest shard but if was good sized. I ignored the pain and cycled mana towards the injury interning it into skin and muscle attribute mana. I heard Iris audibly gasp as my wound started to close. When I was gully closed she pulled the next piece and the next piece until only the largest piece remained.

I was lucky there, a few centimeters to the left and it would gave him a nerve. Irks hesitantly placed her hands on the shard.

"You got this Tri-clops, just yank it up and out." I said. Iris took a deep breath then yanked with all her mighty I but down onto my hand to keep myself from screaming as the shard slowly slid out of the wound. When it slid out completely I quickly closed up the wound before I blacked out from the pain.

With my wounds closed at least my pain wasn't unbearable. Still it took me a moment to sit up.

"Was that the mana manipulation spell?" Iris asked.

"Yeah. I used skin and muscle attribute mana to close up my wounds. They're not completely healed but at least they aren't bleeding."

"You Have to be running low on mana about now. Between that spell you cast earlier and using your mana to heal."

"I'm at about thirty percent. Though casting that spell only used about one percent of my total mana, healing sapped out the rest. Seems that casting spells from paper sigils cost less mana."

"Shit…" Iris gasped. I grabbed the collar of my short and ripped it off me. It was basically just shreds at this point. I looked around the room and then frowned.

'Are those school desks?' I thought.

"HELP! SOMBODY!" a voice screamed is Torapos.

Iris and I shared a look then clambered to our feet. Iris might not have understood Torapos but she recognized the urgency in that voice. We rushed out of the room into a long wooden hallway filled doors.

"Fuck, did we land in the school?" Iris asked.

"SOMEBODY HELP!" the voice screamed again this time the scream was accompanied by a loud boom that shook the building.

"This way!" I exclaimed and ran down the hallway. Iris was close behind.

We came to a large stair case and followed the screaming down the first floor and into the lobby. We continued to follow the screaming until we exited a door and into the courtyard. At the back end of the courtyard stood a medium sized stone building that was surrounded by a swarm of Dr'idi'saiyo. They circled above screaming loudly and bombarding the building with sonic blasts. Screams and crying could be heard from inside the building.

"Oh fuck you!" I screamed as u pulled out another spell sigil paper and cycled mana into the sigil. A offensive sigil activated and a large frigid gust blew towards the swarm freezing everything the wind touched. The frozen evos bodies fell helplessly to the ground and shattered.

"Come on!" Iris ordered and ran towards the building. I followed after her. Iris reached the door first, she grabbed the doorknob and yanked it open. I saw a flicker of a spell sigil from inside the dimly lit building and grabbed Iris by the shirt and pulled her back. A lightning bolt just barely missed her and crashed into the main building behind us.

"YOU WILL NOT HAVE THESE CHILDREN YOU FLYING RATS!" A woman roared in Torapos. The woman charged out of the buildings another sigil already being cast.

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" I screamed in Torapos, holding my hands up. This time Iris pushed me out of the way as the woman shot another lightning bolt. "Elder Luna sent us!"

The woman stopped mid cast for a third spell and looked at both Iris and I. Her eyes widened when she saw my farm crystal.

"A star keeper!" She gasped. I nodded.

"I'm part of the group that Warden Geryo asked to come from the putside and help with the Dr'idi'saiyo problem. We were meeting with Elder Luna when the attack started. She asked us to come here and protect the school." I said.

"Oh thank the Stars!" She gasped then motioned for us to come inside. "Quickly before more come!"

We were quickly ushered inside. There were about fifty to seventy kids between the ages of six and ten huddled in the building. They looked at Iris and I with mixed expressions of fear and intrigue. There wasn't much room but despite that kids did their best to keep away from us.

"This all the kids?" I asked. The woman nodded.

"A lot of the parents started keeping their kids at home once the trouble with the Dr'idi'saiyo started. We normally have about two hundred students." She replied. I translated what she said into universal standard for Iris.

"Can't tell if that was smart or not considering the whole village is getting attacked." Iris said.

"Madam Idra'a are we going to be okay?" One of the boys in the group asked. Indra'a turned and smiled at the boy.

"Of course Relik, The warriors are going to push back the Dr'idi'saiyo then come and save us. Until then these outsiders were ordered from Elder Luna herself to protect us."

"Is that true?" a little girl asked me .I smiled at her and nodded.

"Yep! You got nothing to worry about. The two of us we'll protect you, there are even two more on the way!" I replied.

"Yay! Maybe the four of them can beat the ascended Dr'idi'saiyo!" One of the youngest children exclaimed. I froze and turned to look at the child as a wave of panic started too take over me.

"Ascended what?"