Chapter 79: That’s Unfortunate

Chapter 79: Chapter 79: That’s Unfortunate

Fiona abandoned the other students at once and leapt toward the rubble.

"Xavier! Xavier!" she shouted in desperation.

She scrambled onto the pile of boulders and was about to start heaving them aside when a voice reached her from below.

"Fiona, I’m all right. It’s dangerous. You should get away," Xavier called.

"What about the chief?" she asked.

Xavier glanced to the side. The goblin chief’s body lay sliced cleanly in two, its skin charred black from the flames.

"The chief is dead," he answered.

"I’ll move these boulders and make a way out for you," Fiona said.

Xavier stopped her. "The cave structure is weak. If you shift the wrong stone the whole thing could collapse further. Go find Professor Freya. She might know a way to handle this."

"I’m not going anywhere until you come out," Fiona replied firmly.

The rest of Xavier’s team had gathered behind her, equally worried. Fiona ordered them to locate Professor Freya and bring her at once while she remained at the blocked entrance alone.

Guilt weighed on her. She felt responsible for her master’s situation. If she had been stronger, this would never have happened. She sank down against the rubble with a sulking expression.

"It’s not your fault," Xavier said from inside the cave, as though sensing her thoughts. "My attack was too explosive. The cave simply couldn’t handle the heat."

Her mixed-color tail gave a single, slow wag once her heart finally settled. Xavier kept talking, reassuring her that he was unhurt.

He was not idle inside. He kept Zuzu’s ability active, scanning the cave and heightening his senses in search of another exit.

Clang!

Then a metallic sound reached him from deeper within.

"Fiona, stay there. I’m going farther in. I heard something—there might be another way out," he called.

"The professor will be here any moment," Fiona answered, but received no reply. Xavier had already started forward into the absolute darkness.

With no light source, he relied entirely on his senses, sliding one hand along the wall to feel for turns. The cave felt eerie. More than a dozen times his boots crushed bones underfoot—whether human or beast, he could not tell.

He followed the metallic sounds. They grew more frequent, clearer, louder. At last, the darkness began to thin. Xavier realized he had walked the entire length of the tunnel and reached another opening.

He crouched just inside the mouth and peered out.

What he saw froze him in place.

A basilisk—more than three times the size of the one he had fought with Kaya—dominated the clearing. Its scales were deeper and longer; small horns crowned its head. Its fangs were longer as well, and even from a distance Xavier could sense that its venom was far deadlier.

Hssssssssk... SSSSSKREEE...

Clashing against the massive serpent were several figures in black cloaks. Their skin was crimson red. They were bald, with slanted empty sockets where eyes should have been and narrow holes in place of noses. Their mouths were permanent, creepy smiles of sharp fangs; in place of ears, they had inward-opening holes. Long, sharp claws served as their hands.

Demons.

Xavier had never encountered them before, yet they matched every description he had read.

More than a dozen demon corpses already littered the ground around the rampaging basilisk. Its poison continued to claim more lives. The survivors fought with no coordination, attacking at random while trying to protect one particular demon who carried a leather bag at his belt. That demon stood behind the others, chanting, hands aimed at the basilisk, waiting for the perfect moment.

SSSSKREEECH!! HSSSSAAARGH!!

The serpent seized another demon in its jaws and flung the body aside.

In that instant its reverse scale became visible. The chanting demon released a dark orb that slammed directly into the weak point, shattering the scale and knocking the basilisk backward. The enormous body crashed to the ground with a heavy shriek and went still.

Grrrk... hssss...

The demon with the bag immediately dropped to his knees. The spell had clearly drained him—or perhaps it had not been his first casting. Xavier noticed more than a dozen trees nearby already toppling from the force of earlier blasts.

In the end only five demons remained alive against the basilisk, with more than twenty of their own dead beside the serpent’s corpse. Even the survivors were heavily injured; their movements made that obvious.

"We started with more than a hundred and only five of us are left," one of them said, voice sharp and edged with teeth.

"We have come this far. Just a few more kilometers and beasts this dangerous will stop appearing out of nowhere," another answered.

"It doesn’t matter if all of us die, as long as we succeed in the mission. We must deliver the message to our allies," said the demon who carried the bag, tapping the leather pouch at his belt.

In that same moment a flash of movement passed him. When he tapped the bag again, it was gone.

"Would you mind telling me who these allies are?" a calm voice asked.

Every remaining demon snapped to alertness.

"Tharwok, where did this human come from?" one demanded. Apparently, the demon Xavier had just robbed was named Tharwok.

"I don’t know," Tharwok answered, "but we cannot leave him alive. He just snatched the message from me."

At a signal the other four demons launched themselves at Xavier.

Demons were unorthodox, evil creatures that followed neither the natural order of the world nor common sense. Even their magic was fundamentally different from anything humans had developed. Xavier had no intention of wasting time on them. He conjured Miss Incinerator into his hand and swung once. Flames erupted from the black blade and severed all four necks in a single stroke. The bodies collapsed, blood spurting from the open stumps.

"You are a strong one, human," Tharwok said. "Give me my bag back and I will let you go."

"Really? You’ll let me go?" Xavier replied sarcastically. "That’s unfortunate, because I’m not letting you go."

"You will regret this, human," Tharwok snarled. He stretched out his hands. The blood still leaking from every demon corpse on the ground began to rise and flow toward him.