Blood Curse Academia - Orientation

Chapter XXIX (29)- Flight of the Bloodspawn

Kizu hurled the second vial at the monster, but the creature’s arm erupted from the mound of loose dirt and lobbed a rock the size of Kizu’s fist. The stone slammed into the vial midair.

A flash of blinding light lit up the dark. Flames erupted from the broken vial and spread, creating a burning wall of flames between himself and the bloodspawn. Kizu heard Ione yelp behind him as she retreated back, but his attention was focused solely on the creature. It broke free of its dirt cocoon and shook itself off.

It looked almost like a human being, if completely deranged. It wore rags, having either lost or abandoned the heavy cloak it had worn beneath the academy. Now its matted white hair was in plain view, along with its ragged face. It looked even more disheveled now than when he’d first encountered it. It would be a depressing sight, if not for those monstrous scarlet eyes and those knife-like teeth it was baring.

Instead of engaging in a fight, though, the bloodspawn fled. It used the flames as a buffer between them and hastily crawled away, but Kizu already had a third vial in hand. He threw it with all his strength at the retreating monster.

This time he hit his mark. The third vial erupted on impact just like the second, and the monster howled in pain as its leg lit up like a bonfire. The bloodspawn clawed at the fire searing its leg, but that only resulted in the flames spreading to its palms. Its red eyes gleamed with terror in the fire light. It glanced frantically from Kizu to the flames, as if unable to comprehend the source of its new pain.

When Kizu reached into his uniform for a fourth vial, the monster hissed at him, like a snake warning off a predator. It grabbed another rock with its burning hand, this one the size of Kizu’s head, and hurled it straight at him.

Kizu pressed himself flat against the dirt and felt the rush of air as the rock passed centimeters above his head and smashed through a support beam. He felt the splinters pelt his scalp and get tangled in his hair.

He tried to scurry around the flames and reposition himself to attack the monster. He raised the vial, ready to throw, but another rock was already hurtling towards him. Kizu sprang to the side, toppling over the dirt mound that the bloodspawn had been sleeping under.

Kizu tried to control his tumble and failed utterly, falling flat on his face and dropping the vial in his hand. He looked up just in time to see it roll into the blazing ring of fire. It erupted.

Kizu raised an arm to protect his face from the blast of heat. He felt his uniform catch fire in several places. He rolled away from the fight and back towards the entrance. The roll thankfully managed to smother the flames on his clothing, leaving several scorch marks behind.

Kizu just barely caught a glimpse of the monster as it dragged itself away from them and dropped into a hole in the ground. It disappeared silently into the darkness beyond the fire’s reach.

He needed to pursue it, but the flames now blocked his path. He hadn’t thought it would use the fire against him. He cursed himself for being such an idiot. Why would he prepare explosive fire brews, but not a potion that made him immune to fire? It made so much sense in hindsight. And why wasn’t the academy uniform enchanted to resist flames, for that matter? That seemed like a simple enough enchantment, and a logical next step from the cooling enchantment the uniform already possessed.

“Kizu, what was that?” Ione didn’t sound frightened, or even upset. Just curious.

He glanced back at her. She’d perched herself on a small cleft while watching the fight with interest. Her skin tone warm in the fire’s light. He realized there was a small blue creature crouching by her side. It had four legs and a pair of stubby wings sticking out of its back. It looked amphibious, with smooth skin and large black eyes that pointed in two different directions. It smiled at him, its tongue lolling out.

“Better question,” he said. “What is that?”

It scampered past him and into the fire. Wherever it went, the flames were extinguished. It gurgled happily and swallowed, as if it was devouring them whole. Its wings beat and it leapt up, bumbling through the air like a bee.

“No, that’s not a better question. It’s just something I summoned. Burning down this garbage dump of a house might be satisfying, I’ll admit, but burning that lady and her cat down with it? Less so. Now, about that demon you were playing catch with.”

“Bloodspawn,” he admitted. Roba would be furious if she found out he’d told her, but at this point the cat was out of the bag. “It’s supposed to be weak to fire and crave cold environments.”

“So you decided to kill us all at once? Just firebomb the whole place and be done with it?”

“I told you it’d be a dangerous job.”

“Dangerous and suicidal are two very different things.”

“Well, you don’t have to risk it on my account. Stay here or go back the way we came. I’ll handle the rest.”

“No way. You said that was a monster, right? Well, if I can study a magical creature for long enough, I gain the ability to summon others of its kind. And I like adding to my collection.”

Kizu felt slightly better knowing Ione had her own personal motivations, and that she wasn’t risking everything for his sake. Still, knowing she was all in made him slightly more cautious as he peered into the hole the bloodspawn had fled down.

There was no sign of light. Either the hole was in fact a tunnel that twisted out of view, or the bloodspawn had managed to put out the fire on its leg and hand. Both possibilities were bad news. From what he understood, bloodspawn were too hardy to die from a simple fall, and any broken limbs would knit together again within an hour or two. He relayed the information to Ione, who was starting to look excited. He had never seen her so alert before.

She leaned in closer to the pit, placing a hand on his back to steady herself.

A violent wail drifted up from down below. It was deafening, louder than any sound a human being could produce. Loud enough that it shook the ground around them. Before Kizu realized what was happening, a chunk of earth gave way beneath Ione’s foot and she slipped forward. She tried to steady herself by gripping the hem of his uniform, and for a moment that felt like it stretched out to hours, they teetered on the edge of the pit. In that moment, they both knew what was coming next. And for all their magical prowess, they couldn’t do a single thing about it. They shared a panicked look.

And then they fell.