A Hero With/Out Time

Chapter 28: My Hero (Part 5)

I arrived several minutes after Caius. The golden cage that trapped Lara within was barely holding on. Earnest and Ronalt stood firm beside Ardent. Both of them had definitely faced their fair share of hardship. Though their wounds had been healed somewhat, the damage to their clothes and armour remained clear.

"Rain it's good to see you alive," Ronalt smiled relieved.

"It was close," I replied wryly and faced the sphere of light. "Ardent you've held on longer than I expected."

He let out a painful laugh, "She's been raging for real now. I see you couldn't steal the artefact."

"We're going with plan B," I nodded. "Caius are you ready?"

"I am prepared," a wave of energy spread from his feet, brushing past us as if releasing a sigh on to the world. The first denizens began to rise from the forest floor. The shadowed creatures gazed at us with curious glowing yellow dots for eyes. Earnest and Ronalt looked at them unnerved but for Caius and I, we were used to their appearance.

Ardent scowled, "I can't hold her any longer, get back!"

Ronalt covered Ardent and Earnest as Caius and I retreated to a safe distance. The cage collapsed with a burst of fury. Heat expanded from her, causing the leaves and foliage to curl dry. Even breathing was hard.

"Arghhhhhhhhhhhh!" Lara screamed openly. Her cold exterior had faded, replaced by an almost animalistic wrath. Despite her beauty there wouldn't be many who could even stand to look at her without running away. That was the type of pressure she was exerting.

"Lara!" I called out to her hopefully.

The way her eyes looked into mine... it was clear she wasn't all there. She huffed and drew her sword swinging it wildly. It actually reminded of that one time I really annoyed her in high school. She had come at me with a metal bat and broken my arm... now it looked like she wanted my life. I couldn't decide if this was better than her cold emotionless gaze from before.

"Caius do it," with my words the denizens launched towards her. They burst apart into dark puffs before they could even near her. The thing about denizens however weren't there strength but their numbers. With each one slain more woke to Caius' call. Bigger ones, smaller ones, they rushed Lara continuously as if her maddened rage were their own. The combat escalated as Lara began to instinctively cast magic. The ground tore apart as groups of the shadowed creatures burst away only to be replaced by more. Still Lara moved as if unfazed.

"Rain!" Ronalt came to a halt next to us. Ardent was slung around his arm. He was conscious but barely, the seal had taken a huge toll on him.

"Now what?" Earnest asked simply as Lara continued to bat and blow away the denizens.

"We wait," I replied simply. Like she was now Lara didn't have her keen thinking. Her only desire was to break and destroy, a beautiful berserker. If left to her own devices she might really destroy the world. Like this however the denizens were the perfect decoy and way to ware her down. We barely registered in her mind.

Our plan had been simple. If we couldn't steal the artefact and release her, we'd ware her down after the sun set. Even for her, after an entire night she'd struggle to keep going. Only then at her weakest could we try save her. Before that it was suicide. The one who'd be taking that burden was Caius. The denizens were a part of him after all. Unlike normal magic it didn't use mana, it was more like we bent the will of the world. I stretched out my hand and beneath it a small hunched shadow lifted itself from the earth.