novelzi Ch 1.45: Instinct
Ch 1.45: Instinct
Ch 1.45: Instinct
“Starhounds?” Elaina asked. She knew it was a stupid question. Nothing from their world could ever make a sound like that.
“Correct. They are on school grounds. And they are not alone; numerous members of the Red Order are with them.”
Elaina locked eyes with Carline, both of them realizing just how monumentally they had fucked up by waiting. “We have to tell someone,” Carline said, “Calivahn, Ranlit, anyone!”
“Right,” Elaina said, putting on her boots and lacing them up before grabbing a shoulder bag to carry the crystal in. “I’ll take the System and find someone.”
“Very well,” the System said. “I will do my best to mask the presence of my main core, however—”
The crash of breaking glass. Elaina turned, seeing a grotesque, pale white face hanging right where their window used to be, a gnarled hand with red, crystal nails reaching in. She watched, almost in slow motion as the creature grabbed the System, the System started screaming, and then both creature and crystal fell out of the window, falling backward into the grounds.
The next thing Elaina felt was pain, pain mixed with the arousal her skills provided, both [Pain Response] and [Fear Response] as she was flying out of the window, shards of broken glass cutting into her arms and legs. She was falling to the ground before she realized she had even jumped, eyes wide as the grass below was racing up towards her. She reached for [Restraint], creating a rope in between her hands as she fell and attaching it to the frame of the window with a simple knot. She gripped the rope hard, hands burning from the friction as she slowed down.
She still hit the ground, hard, legs buckling as she landed. Bells were ringing now. Is it lunchtime? Her entire head was dizziness now, pain, fear, and that damned horniness addling her brain in tandem. The arousal took away some of the sting, some of the dread, but the burning in her loins was still distracting in its own right. The rain was lighter now, still going, but not quite the downpour as before.
Elaina pushed herself up, seeing the creature holding the System darting off towards the forest, towards the System’s main core. The orb itself wasn’t glowing blue anymore, but instead that haunting red that the Red Order crystals glowed. “No you don’t,” she said, conjuring a shackle around the thing’s leg and attaching it to a spike she created in the ground. It lurched forward as it reached the end of the slack, falling on its face as Elaina ran towards it.
She got a better look as she got closer. It was vaguely human shaped, more masculine this time, but also far more grotesque with misshapen muscles and unevenly sized limbs. It was naked, and the only crystals it had on it were the claw ones on its fingers. Myriala had had a sense of unnatural beauty around her, elegant features and the myriad of crystal adornments, but this thing was pure monstrosity. It writhed on the ground as she approached, wriggling and trying to crawl towards the forest once more.
“Righto, now get inside!”
“I can’t,” Elaina said. She stumbled over to the fallen orb on her hands and knees, the System covered in blood as its soft blue glow lit up the ground. It wasn’t silent with its dull moaning, but it wasn’t screaming at least as Elaina scooped it into the shoulder bag she’d grabbed. “There’s someone else in the forest.”
“Yeah, more of these things!” Flora’s fist smacked into the first creature’s chest, toppling it over. “We have to go, now.”
Elaina looked down at the System. “Can you hear me?” she whispered.
“Yes.” The reply was hoarse, faint through the moans it somehow put out simultaneously.
“Can you teleport me to the forest?”
“No, corruption spreading, drained.”
“Elaina, move!” Flora shouted.
“No, I have to—”
The second creature was up again, mangled jaw hanging open as it ran at her, and Elaina’s world went dark as its foot crashed into her head.