Clara opened her eyes and found herself in an empty field. The air smelled of smoke and burned her lungs, while the ground was scorched and cracked. A dark flame was leaking out of the cracks as if trying to drag Clara into the dark abyss below. She tried to take a step back, but her foot got caught on a piece of debris.
"H-hello?! A-anyone!?" Clara called out into the darkness. A loud crunch was heard behind her. She turned her head to see a large figure towering above her. A fiery scythe in one hand, and a body burned beyond recognition in the other. It glared at her with bright red eyes and cracks of burning flames spread around its body. Clara's heart raced as she tried to back away, but the flames from the ground wrapped around her body and began to burn her.
She tried to scream out in pain, but the smoke burned her mouth and silenced her.
"YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN SUMMONED!" the voice boomed over her head. Clara glanced up with tears in her eyes as the giant scythe descended onto her body.
"I'LL SUMMON A NEW HERO MYSELF!"
*Gasp*
Clara shot up from her bed and looked around. Her breathing was ragged and her body was covered in sweat. She grabbed her hand as a searing pain rampaged through her arms and grit her teeth.
Clara took several deep breaths until the pain disappeared. She collapsed back onto the bed and looked around the room. The sun was already beginning to leak into the window, making her grumble.
This is gonna be a long day.
==}—
[New Hourglass Registered]
[0:00:17:23]
Clara looked at the time left on the timer and sighed.
So little time. I wanted to raise my skill mastery a bit more.
"Ah, Cooking Hero!" a voice called out from behind her. She turned around to see a young man with a shiny robe approach her. Golden glasses covered his eyes and gave off a weird shine similar to the ones Laura had when Clara first met her.
"How nice of you to come by our island!"
"Um… hello. Nice to meet you sir…?"
"Orion. Orion Emberwind. I am the representative of the Enchanted Lands," he explained, gesturing his arms to the rest of the island.
"Enchanted Lands?" Clara inquired. She never heard that name being mentioned.
"Well, Boomerang Island is what everyone else calls it, but we call it the Enchanted Lands since any half decent enchantment is found here. I do recommend you visiting our shops, as you won't find enchanted items quite like our own anywhere else," he said, gesturing outside.
"Right. I suppose I'll check it out later. I came here to register for the wave. One might down on your island today, so—"
"Worry not. We have already led the citizens to the safe houses enchanted with Shadow Veil, as well as their robes. With it, they shouldn't even notice us standing right in front of it!" the man bragged, his robe seemingly shining with pride.
"Does everyone have these robes?" she asked, a bit unnerved by his energy.
"Every self-respecting citizen! I recommend you buy one for yourself to help you deal with the waves! We can even throw in a discount for you as a hero, since the destruction of the world would be bad for business."
"Back off, Orion. No one wants to buy your shiny underwear," Hol grumbled, dragging Clara out of the building.
"Hey! Ow! Careful!" Clara whined as Hol's tight grip dug into the burns on her arms.
"If you change your mind, you're always welcome at our island, hero of the cooking tool!" Orion called out to Clara before Hol shut the door behind him.
"You could have been a bit more gentle," Clara grumbled, rubbing her hand.
"Sorry I dragged you out like that. I just really hate that guy," Hol groaned out and crossed his arms.
"Why so?"
"He sold me a stupidly long cloak one time and I almost fell down a ravine and died," he explained. "Plus the material sucked. Rough as hell and restricted my movement. It's why I just stick to Iron Fangs armor, cause at least I know it won't rip on day 3 when I move my arm too fast."
"Oh. I guess," Clara sighed, glancing at the timer.
"Nervous?"
"Yeah."
"Don't worry so much. It should still only be a tier 1 wave like the other two. A tier two wave isn't for another 2 weeks," Hol assured her. "So you don't need to panic."
"I know. But it's still scary. What if Midas shows up? Or another vassal hero? I just wish I had more time to get ready," Clara replied.
"Don't worry. You're as ready as I was when I went to war. And I lived, somehow," Hol tried to reassure her. "Now, let's go back to the ship for the final preparations. Also, Laura wanted to see you."
"Laura? What for?" Clara asked as Hol portaled them back.
"I don't know, you'll have to ask her yourself. Oh hey, speak of the devil!"
Clara turned around to see Laura walking towards her.
"There you are! I've searched the whole ship for you!" she said, pushing a small bag into Clara's arms.
"What's this?" Clara asked, opening the bag. Inside she saw a uniform similar to the one Laura gave her the first time, except the material seemed a bit softer and had a weird shine to it. "Why is it shining?"
"I got the robes enchanted at Boomerang Island while you were registering at the wave timer," Laura replied. "It was a last minute add-on, but I figured it would help you out a bit."
"I hope Orion had nothing to do with this?" Hol asked and Laura shook her hand.
"Nah, I got a friend at Boomerang. We go way back. Anyhow, please try this on," Laura said, turning to Clara.
"Oh, and before I forget," Hol stopped Clara and looked at something in the air. He raised his weapon and an orb of light popped out of the gem. As the glow dissipated, Clara saw a set of armor made out of what looked to be scales.
"Armor from the last boss. I got it in the monster drops, which I recommend you to check out later. Maybe you'll get good stuff from this wave boss," Hol said, handing her the armor.
"Thank you. I'll be right back," Clara replied, walking to her room. Laura and Hol looked at each other and sighed. Laura decided to break the silence first.
"How is she adjusting to everything?"
"A lot better than I expected. Her stats are rising decently high and she seems to be getting the hang of h—"
"That's not what I meant," Laura interrupted him. He let out a sigh and leaned against the wall.
"Yeah, she's slowly recovering. She doesn't seem to fear me, but I can tell my presence doesn't help. We should be able to work on the battlefield together, but this wave will tell us for sure," Hol responded, his voice a bit lower than before.
"I sure hope so. It wouldn't do anyone any good if the hero becomes too traumatized to fight the waves," Laura mumbled. "And she's still young. She has her entire life ahead of her."
"Don't worry, I'll make sure that doesn't happen," Hol replied. They stopped talking as they heard footsteps of Clara walking back to them, now covered in scaly armor with an enchanted cloak underneath.
"Ready?" Hol asked one last time.
"Ready." Clara replied with flames of determination in her eyes.
The two of them looked at the timer that was signifying the start of the wave.
[0:00:00:30]
"Alright. If you feel like the battle is too hard, just call my name and I'll help," Hol assured the younger hero.
"Alright. I'll do my best and hopefully it won't come to that."
[0:00:00:00]
A loud noise similar to the breaking of glass rang out throughout the world, signaling the start of the wave. Clara braced herself as the light of the portal disappeared and looked around. This time, the wave was on an island and the crack appeared in front of the deserted village. They were back on Boomerang Island, having only moved from one side of the island to another.
"I'll stay at the village and guard it. Knights, set up a perimeter against the monsters at the edge of town while the cooking hero deals with the boss!" Hol commanded, rushing to the village. The knights ran towards him, unsheathed their weapons and raised their shields. Clara looked ahead at the wave and swapped to her knife's strongest form.
Armored Lizard Tooth Knife
abilities unlocked equip bonus: +5 agility
special effect: poison fang (weak)
mastery level: 100
Other than good stats, it also has a poison effect. Let's hope this is enough.
The first monster dropped down onto the island. It was a mummy, just like the ones Clara saw in a museum, except two burning red embers were lodged inside its eye sockets, glaring at her. Several more piled out of the crack and began slowly limping over to Clara.
She raised her knife, took a deep breath, and prepared for the first wave of monsters to approach her.
"Erst Slast!" Clara mumbled, sending a green slash of energy cleaving through the mob. To her surprise, the attack cut through the monsters with ease and hit several more behind them. A wave of exp notifications flooded her vision, so she quickly turned those off and raised her knife again.
One of the mummies began to unravel the bandages on their arms and launched them at Clara in an attempt to tie her down. She ducked under the bandages and grabbed them with one hand before cutting them with her knife. The monster growled out in pain and tried to bite her, but a glowing arrow hit it in the face, blowing its skull away.
Several more glowing arrows began to hit the monsters around her and the ones that ran to the village instead of attacking her.
She slashed down the monsters the arrows missed, and the knights cut down whatever ran past her. Several minutes passed as this pattern continued. Just as Clara began to wonder as to why the boss wasn't showing up, loud, heavy footsteps were heard throughout the battlefield. Clara looked at the crack, only to see a 3 story golem towering over her and the soldiers. It was dragging a huge, bloody butcher knife behind it as it walked out of the dimensional crack.
[Interdimensional Butcher Golem]
So that's the boss. Why does he have to be so huge?
Clara took a few deep breaths to calm herself down and sent another energy slash at the monsters trying to grab her before she turned her attention to the boss. The two of them locked gazes and grabbed their knives tightly.
Clara didn't give it time to react and lunged forward first. The golem let out a noise that sounded like mechanical static mixed with a dragon roar and raised his cleaver.
"Chain Bind!" Clara summoned her chains from the ground that wrapped around the golem's arm.
A loud hissing noise and smoke erupted from the trapped golem's arm, causing the beast to roar out in pain.
I guess it still counts as an undead? I don't know how that works, but I'll take it!
Clara raised her knife and activated her only offensive skill.
"Erst Slash!"
The energy attack burst forth and slammed into the leg of the giant. The impact was heard all across the battlefield as the foot crumbled and the giant collapsed onto one knee. He ripped the chains off of his other hand and raised his weapon over his head.
Clara tried to move back, but several mummies wrapped their bandages around her legs and torso, keeping her in place. She cut them off, but it seemed for every one she cut, two more took its place.
Just as the giant cleaver was about to crash onto her, Clara swapped her knife out for the Armored Lizard Scale Pan and raised it over her head.
*CLANG*
"Gah!" Clara yelled, more from surprise than pain. While her own base defense was low, she got a bit of defense from the magic robes and the lizard scale armor Hol gave her, plus the scale pan she used as a shield. All of this raised her defense enough to tank the giant monster's attack.
However, the boss wasn't discouraged. Instead, he lifted his cleaver and crashed it onto Clara again. She tried to move, but the mummies began to wrap their bandages around her once again, immobilizing her.
*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*
Damn it damn it damn it damn it! What should I do?! Do I throw in the towel and just call Hol? No! You got this far and you're the Holy Hero here! Now think! I got lots of rope monsters and a golem with a giant cleaver. I need to cut myself loose and kill the boss if I want to stop the monsters from coming, but my range is limit… wait, is he using a cleaver?
Clara looked up again and saw the giant knife descend onto her once again.
Would that work?
*CLANG*
As the knife came down, Clara raised one side of her pan, making the cleaver slide off to her side. It cut a few ropes and gave her a bit of maneuverability. Clara grabbed the side of the golem's cleaver and held on as the boss picked up his weapon.
Some of the bandages of the mummies snapped, while others were dragged with her and unraveled further, causing their bodies to fall apart.
[Weapon Copy Successful]
[Requirements for the Butcher Golem's Bloody Cleaver have been met]
As Clara was raised to the boss' eye level, she raised her knife and equipped the new cleaver.
Suddenly, the weight of the knife increased and Clara began to lose her grip on the boss' knife. The boss pulled his free hand back as he prepared to punch Clara off of his cleaver. Clara felt her knife slowly fall forwards, so she pushed it with all of her might onto the golem's head.
*Crack*
The knife went into the golem's head, but it only staggered back a bit, as if its head wasn't an essential part of his body.
"Erst Slash!" Clara yelled, and in response her blade began to glow and dug itself deeper and deeper into the monster until finally-
*BOOM*
The chest of the golem's body exploded as Clara's knife collided with something hard within its body, and it collapsed onto the ground, dropping Clara to the side and crushing the monsters below it. She swapped to her scale pan again as she crashed onto the ground. As her body finally came to a stop, she didn't move for a few seconds.
She listened to everything around her, but all she could hear was the sound of her heart beating loudly.
I… did… it…?
I DID IT!
"I DID IT! HOL I DID IT!" she yelled with excitement as she looked around. She saw that Hol was already walking up to her as the knights behind him took care of the final mummies.
"That you did, Clara. That you did. Good job," he said with a smile on his face. He put a hand on her hair and began to ruffle it around. "I didn't expect you to copy his cleaver like that. Good thinking!"
"Hey! Stop it!" Clara laughed, covering her hair. She was happy. She proved to herself and those around her that she could also fight the waves and she wasn't a burden.
Then what was this sickening feeling in her stomach?
"Uh, heroes? Is the wave supposed to remain open this long?" one of the knights asked, pointing to the crack. Clara and Hol looked at the wave and to their surprise, it was still open.
"Weird. That was definitely the boss, or the monsters wouldn't have stopped spawning. Unless…" Hol looked down at his weapon and his eyes widened.
"Unless what?" Clara asked, looking at Hol with worry. Hol's expression soured and quickly turned to one of pure rage, similar to his face during the last wave.
"MIDAS YOU MOTHER F*CKER!" he hollered as he ran towards the wave.
"Hol! Wait!" Clara yelled, running after him. She tried to grab onto his shirt, but his speed was superior to hers and he ran into the wave crack.
"HOL!" Clara screamed, trying to jump in after him, but she felt as if she just hit a brick wall and bounced back.
"Huh?"
[Holy heroes are not permitted to leave their world]
"What?! But Hol just traveled into the wave without a problem! Why didn't you stop him?!" Clara questioned, looking at the notification in her status screen.
[Cardinal heroes are not permitted to leave their world]
Before Clara could protest, the dimensional crack began to close, signaling the end of the wave. Clara panicked as she banged her hands against the barrier and tried to call out to Hol again. But whether he didn't hear her or purposely ignored her, she didn't know. With her final shout, the wave fully closed and she collapsed onto the ground.
She saw the wave timer appear as normal, showing that the next wave would be in around 3 weeks. But she couldn't see Hol.
Hol…
He's gone? I'm… I'm the only hero left…
What am I gonna do?
Clara was left alone, kneeling over the place where the wave crack used to be, the battlefield silent except for the howling wind.