The Sixth School

Author's note.

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All Characters in the story are 18 years of age and above...

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Chapter Seventy Five: Saved...

Greg's body slammed into the ground before bouncing for a distance like a rock bounced across the surface of a lake. When he finally came to a stop, almost twenty meters away from where he first landed, Greg could only count himself lucky for the fact that he was still breathing. His whole body was in agony, not to mention the fact that he could barely breathe after having the wind knocked out of him several times over. Even as he opened and closed his mouth, uselessly trying to draw in air like a fish out of water, Greg could only thank his lucky stars that he even felt anything at all, especially from his extremities. He wasn't a doctor, but in his layman's opinion, that at least meant that he hadn't suffered any serious injuries to his spine. He might not feel like moving anything at the moment, but at least the option remained open.

Part of how Greg had armed himself in preparation for the convergence was by buying several protective charms and items from the Magic shop. The reality of combat was such that it was impossible to be certain that his teacher could always get to him in time. To leave his safety up in the air just because the healer wasn't close by or otherwise occupied, wasn't something anyone of them was interested in doing. Greg had bought a number of tier-one, tier-two, and tier-three shields that he could use based on the level of threat he was facing. After an hour of flying at the maximum speed he could manage, the blue mana crystal that had been powering the wings had dimmed significantly. Greg had been checking on it regularly to ensure he didn't run out of mana in midair, and by his estimate, it would have lasted him another twenty or so minutes of flying. The mana crystal, however, turned clear before crumbling into dust after being completely drained, along with all of Olivia's mana and half of his own as his familiar activated every last shield that Greg had.

That's the only reason Greg was still drawing breath.

The curse that the being had cast at Greg broke through thirty-plus shields before it was finally stopped, two shields away from coming in contact with Greg. Tier-one shields were little more than soap bubbles before the abyssal creature's curse. As soon as the curse touched them, they'd pop without offering that much resistance. The tier-two shields would shatter like glass panes after only offering a token resistance to the overwhelming force that was the curse. It's only the tier-three shields that did a respectable job of halting the curse and keeping it from hitting Greg. And even then, about ten were shattered before the eleventh one managed to stop the thing in its tracks. Of the two remaining shields, the outermost one that had already been compromised by the curse it stopped, immediately shattered when Greg hit the ground at speeds that racecars would be proud of. The final shield kept Greg from turning into an unrecognizable lump of flesh after all was said and done.

Greg had already been suffering through a nasty headache as a result of overuse of the flying weapons. Being caught twice in the abyssal creature's airs hadn't helped matters. And now slamming into the ground repeatedly left his body in just as much agony, if not more. The last shields might have taken the lion's share of the impact, but not even a tier three shield could fully dissipate the force with which he'd landed. Despite the very real danger he was still in, his body was urging him, no, begging that he stay still and not move. Besides, the mana crystal on his chest had been completely drained, and he didn't have anywhere near the amount of mana he would need to operate the wings. What was he going to do, run away on his feet? Even if one didn't consider the fact that he'd probably be aggravating all his injuries, he probably wouldn't make ten steps before he was blasted with another curse.

It was a bit galling to admit but, perhaps he'd been a bit too arrogant in thinking it would be easy to escape fate. After all, up until a little over a month ago, Greg had been a mundane human. Right now, he was just a tier one mage and if fate was at the same level as Olivia's true self, then it was above the nine tiers. Thinking that a few trinkets would be enough to thwart fate was just plain hubris. All that being said, however, Greg was still unresigned. It wasn't like he'd sat on his ass ever since coming to this world. Learning under the healer, training his willpower in the evening before diving into the dungeons to train in a real-life setting, he'd done it all. Greg had even recently been training his body in preparation to learn physical combat. And yet, what did all that matter if all fate had to do was find an even bigger and badder monster to send his way? It was unfair! Sending this creature after him was like using a stick of dynamite to crack an egg, and yet, that's exactly what fate had done.

Having lost all of her mana, it was almost half a minute before Olivia could once again materialize in corporeal form, and even then, Greg could feel her drawing on his mana to sustain herself. It had never occurred to him, but as a mana construct, Olivia probably needed mana to maintain a physical form. Greg had always just thought of it as a natural form she could assume whenever she wished to without a cost to herself. This, however, was clearly proven wrong by his rapidly declining mana. The draw was nowhere near the same as the horizon chaser wings had been. Still, Olivia was the equivalent of a second-tier mage. The wings would have completely drained him in a little under a minute, Olivia would take around five to do the same. With half of his mana already used up when they deployed the shields, Greg would only be able to sustain his familiar for about two minutes before she once again turned into a mote of light and sunk into his glabella.

Drawing on his mana, Olivia took out a vial full of a milky-white potion. Pulling off the stopper, Greg didn't resist when she pressed it up against his lips. A few drops made it into his mouth before Olivia pulled the vial away and stoppered it once more. Recognizing the taste of the weeping flower tincture, Greg realized that he hadn't really paid attention to what the potion looked like the last time his familiar used it on him. Also, the last time she used it on him, she'd only allowed one drop to make it past his lips before pulling it away. This time, about five drops had gone in before she pulled away. While it was still a tier-three potion, unlike the last time, he was currently a first-tier mage and not a mundane human, so a little more would be needed to be effective without harming him.

It wasn't until the sounds of battle reached his ears that Greg realized that he'd probably been concussed and more out of it as a result of the crash landing than even he had realized. Greg didn't have to turn his head to figure out who was fighting. Greg couldn't help the feeling of both gratitude and worry that welled up within him. The healer was at a disadvantage both from the state of her core and mana pathways, and the fact that she'd already drained most of her mana keeping this creature on the other side of the convergence. But still, rather than run away faster and leave him behind, when Greg fell to the ground, she turned around to fight the thing and keep it off him. This was probably why Greg had been able to lie undisturbed on the ground for the half a minute it took for Olivia to come out.

The weeping flower tincture was still just as potent as before. With the shield having protected Greg from any external injuries, most of its work this time was not visible to the naked eye. Still, Greg felt the drastic change as most of the pain he was feeling faded away. The only pain that remained was the headache he got from overuse of flying weapons. According to Olivia and his teacher, that was the result of overuse of his mental energy and not from any physical injury, as such there was very little that the healing potion could do about it. The invigorating effect of the potion soon kicked in and apart from being pain-free, most of Greg's accrued fatigue melted away.

"I need you to listen to me, Master," Greg, who had been about to get up, froze at the ice in Olivia's tone of voice. "You won't like what I'm about to say, but if a single thing I am about to say is wrong, then I am open to correction," She continued, her words coming quickly as she realized that they didn't have much time. "Neither you, nor I, is capable of facing that monster and coming out on top. Not even your teacher is capable of that. Your options are as follows, face it and die, or turn and run," she laid out.

"Abandon my teacher you mean!" Greg couldn't help the anger that sparked within him at her words.

"Yes," There wasn't even a moment of hesitation before Olivia coldly answered. There was zero remorse or guilt in her eyes at the reply. "You were willing to abandon the town to save yourself and you were right. Getting yourself killed just so they can die afterward doesn't serve anyone. The same remains true even now. Getting yourself killed just so she can die afterward doesn't make you heroic, it makes you stupid. You won't save your teacher by throwing your life away!" Olivia damn near growled at him.

"The mana crystal is gone. I'd last barely ten seconds in the air with my remaining mana. And in case you haven't noticed, we already tried running, that thing still caught up to us," he replied, the look of displeasure on Olivia's face at his stubbornness not bothering him in the least.

"No, you chose to run away at half the speed you otherwise could have!" Olivia countered even as another prompt to buy a new set of horizon chaser wings appeared before Greg's eyes.

After spending five million magic points to arm his teacher and another five on himself, Greg had been left with five million magic points from the fifteen that he initially had. The first set of horizon chaser wings had cost him four hundred and ninety thousand magic points, leaving him with a little over four point five million magic points, meaning he could easily buy another set of horizon chaser wings. Still, Greg looked past the prompt and up at Olivia. "You are still skipping over one little detail. I don't have the fucking mana to operate a tier-three item," He snapped at her.

"You do!" Olivia countered. "You currently have more than four million points of it." Greg's eyes went wide as he immediately understood what Olivia meant. "Yes," Olivia confirmed his unspoken conclusion. "You can borrow mana from the system. Be warned, however, that the order of priority between you and the system when it comes to accruing mana will be reversed. Currently, the system can't gain any mana from you unless your mana pool is full. If you draw from the system, however, then any mana you gather will first be taken up by the system until your debt is paid off. Essentially, until your debt is paid, you'll be cut off from any magic," She explained.

"That's why you suggested I abandon my teacher back on the mountain!" Greg said as something clicked in his mind. After feeling how quickly the horizon chaser wings drained his mana, without the blue mana crystal from his teacher, Greg knew he wouldn't have been able to maintain even a minute of flight. That's why Olivia's suggestion that he abandon his teacher had struck Greg as so irrational when he thought about it after the fact. It wasn't like they could have borrowed the mana crystal from his teacher after they'd decided to leave her behind. Now, however, he could see why she had been confident that they could escape without her. Being able to borrow from the system was like having an extra bank of mana that he could draw from. The cost of taking this option, however, was rather steep. This, Greg suspected, was why Olivia had never mentioned it before this most dire of situations.

"Yes. You would have been left without mana for quite some time, but at least you would have been alive. Once again, there wasn't even a hint of guilt in the familiar's tone as she answered him. To her, he was all that mattered, and not even Greg's displeasure at this fact would change that. Unable to find a hole to poke in Olivia's plan, Greg was silent for a few seconds. In the end, however, he made the only choice he could. "What do you think you are doing?" Came Olivia's harsh tone of voice when Greg clicked on 'NO'.

"As you said, my teacher has no hope of beating the creature either," Greg responded, even as he finally rose off the ground. His tone was steely, wordlessly relaying that he wouldn't be moved from his chosen course of action. "Everything you are saying about me is also true of her. And yet, rather than abandon me and save her own life when I went down, she chose to turn and fight to give me a chance!" He stated.

"And so you plan to repay her by throwing your life away?" Olivia immediately shot back, not even the least bit moved by his words.

Greg was about to snap back at his familiar when a new voice cut into the conversation. "Your familiar is right, Roka," His teacher's voice resounded around them as if it was being transmitted by the wind. The two of them turned to look at the aerial battle between his teacher and the monster. The strain was clear to be heard even as she never paused in her fight. Spells of all kinds were flying back and forth between her and the abyssal creature, though even at a glance it was clear that his teacher was at a disadvantage. The only reason she was managing to hold on so far was all the items that Greg had armed her with. Both Greg and his familiar had to look away only a second after they looked at the battle as the sight of the abyssal creature still wreaked havoc on their minds trying to warp their rationality and strip them of their sanity. How his teacher was resisting the corruption of the beast Greg didn't know, but from what little Greg had seen, she didn't seem as affected as both he and Olivia were "I thank you for your unwillingness to abandon me, but you can't save me either. Do what she says and run!" She urged him.

"There must be something I can do!" Greg countered. It was irrational. It was stupid. It was dangerous. Cold and callous as his familiar was, Greg knew that she was right. This was a fight that was far above anything he could participate in without immediately losing his life. And yet, to be asked to coldly turn his back on his teacher and let her die to save himself just wasn't something that Greg could bring himself to do. Olivia had argued that he had been willing to abandon the town to save himself but in his mind, the people of the town were more Roka's people than his own. Other than his mother and sister who were already safe and away from the town, his teacher was the only other person that Greg was truly close to as opposed to being a temporary fling. He was intimate with Shalia, but in the end, the girl would probably marry either Bran or Niya depending on who managed to win her over. The Town-head's wife was carrying his child but in the end, that child was always going to be raised as the Town-head's and not his. Of all the relationships he'd developed in the town, only the one with his teacher was built on more than deceit and lust for carnal pleasure. It was also the only one that was going to last even after he'd left the little town he was born in to explore the wider world.

"Don't get me wrong, Roka. I am not planning on dying today," Greg could almost hear the smile in his teacher's voice. "I may not be able to beat this creature, but that doesn't mean I can't escape. I still have some means available to me if I'm willing to suffer some pain in the short term. Now go!" she once again urged.

A bitter smile crossed Greg's lips. It was a lie. As someone who wasn't very expressive, it wouldn't be easy for one unfamiliar with the healer to tell. But after the amount of time they'd spent together over the past year, Greg had learned to pick up on some cues from her. It was by no means a hundred percent accurate but in this moment, Greg could tell without even a hint of doubt that she was lying. She was trying to ease his conscience by giving him a false hope that she could still escape. Greg couldn't help but clench his teeth tightly as an overwhelming feeling of powerlessness overcame him. Weak! He was weak! His teacher was about to die because he was too weak to help... and there was nothing he could do about it.

Despite the weeping flower tincture pumping himself full of energy, it felt like every muscle in his body had been pumped full of lead as he forced himself to turn around. It burned his insides worse than anything ever could to know that he was consciously leaving his teacher to her death. To stay, however, would be to nullify the sacrifice she had so valiantly chosen to make. Not only was he too weak to save her, but he was also probably going to get killed before she was. Rejecting her sacrifice, only to get killed while she looked on, would be no different from spitting in her face. Greg's fingers clenched into tight fists even as he burned this feeling of weakness and powerlessness into his heart and mind. He would train like a madman. He was willing to suffer, willing to bleed, willing to see his body broken before he ever felt this powerless again!

Greg who'd just pressed 'YES' on a new prompt to buy a set of horizon chaser wings, froze when he found a figure standing behind him. The smallest ember of hope sparked within him as he found himself looking at the stereotypical depiction of an Asian martial master. The reason hope sparked within Greg was that since the first day after the being had shushed him, he had completely ignored Greg. Through all the different guises that the being had taken, he'd always been doing his own thing parallel to whatever Greg was doing at the time. This time, however, the being was looking directly at Greg.

"C... can you help?" The words tumbled out of his mouth before he was even conscious of it.

'Who are you talking to?' Olivia, who'd already turned back into a mote of light and sunk into his glabella, asked him through their mental connection.

Greg, however, completely ignored her, his entire being focused on the figure before him. Never before had he felt so desperate and hopeful at the same time. It felt like his heart was balancing on the tip of a needle, just the wait for the answer itself was painful.

Seemingly in no hurry, the being turned to look up at the battle taking place in the air. Unlike Greg or his familiar, the being didn't have to look away after only a second of looking. However, Greg wished he would as the seconds felt like an eternity. Finally, he looked back down at Greg. The figure's irises, which had thus far been a dark brown, turned into a nebula of stars. "If she can hold out for a minute, this will all be over," came the calm reply from the being. If it wasn't for how serious the situation they were in was, Greg's knees would have buckled from the flood of relief that washed over him.

"Hold out for a minute!" he immediately shouted at the top of his lungs. He had no way of knowing whether his teacher was still listening to what was going on down here or not, hence the shout. Besides, even if she had been listening, Greg knew that no one else could hear the being before him other than himself. Not even Olivia who was linked to him at the level of the soul could detect the being's presence, hence his choice to verbalize their last hope.