Jareth shrank back into the building, arching back and twisting his body.
The golden arrow brushed past his shoulder, the force sending him tumbling across the floor.
It struck the door and exploded into a deafening bang. The world dissolved into a searing, blinding gold that suffused Jareth's vision.
He blinked rapidly, but it was useless; his sight was gone, replaced by a persistent, painful amber burn seared onto his retina.
Tears rolled down.
Jareth shut his eyes and remained still. About a minute later, he opened his eyes and the room returned to normal.
He crawled to the hole and cautiously peered out from his crouched position. As he'd suspected, they were gone.
His hopeful eyes turned vacant.
Jareth's vacant gaze swept over the landscape below, taking in the ground swarming with beasts and entirely bereft of any humans. He watched for a few seconds before a hollow chuckle escaped his lips.
"Well, I can't blame them. Who would risk their life for a total stranger? I wouldn't." He shrugged and his expression returned to normal.
He stood up, pacing back and forth in the room.
'I'm on my own now. I've to think of a way to escape. Nobody is coming to save anybody. First, I need to make my spell instinctual. Also, since I can't use my fire spears, I need a close combat method, which is my claws. My claws are sharper than my sword.'
Jareth walked to the hole and peered below.
"Let's get started…"
Jareth activated [Grieving Echo].
A green aura flared around his body.
But it didn't end there as his vision transformed—now he could see faint green auras of different volume and thickness surrounding the beasts below.
He arched his brows at the sight.
'Every living thing is grieving? Sad? Or should I say sorrowful? Or is every living thing born with a hidden, innate grief?' Jareth massaged his jaws as he ruminated.
He shook his head after a moment when he couldn't get the answer.
'I will just be happy that when this spell is active, everybody's attack will drop based on the level of sorrow. And… it doesn't use too much mana!' He smirked.
"Who knew grief was green?" He mumbled and chuckled.
Jareth deactivated the spell and went to the next.
"Quagmire… What can I do with it? Yeah," whispering, he stretched his palm and let the violet fog surge from it, rolling in his palm.
Jareth tried shaping it into a spear with his thought but it merely swirled about but retained its amoebic form.
"Why is it resisting? Well, I shouldn't think of that now. My thoughts should be… 'what can I do with this?' " Jareth squinted at it as he spoke his thoughts aloud.
'Those beasts didn't see me in the fog, except that devilish horned beast. I can conclude that while its major function is restriction, it can be used for smoke effect.
'There are two problems here: If it is expanded widely, it will blind the weak ones but will alert the strong ones of my presence, and they could see through the fog. Secondly, my mana wouldn't be enough to sustain it for long if I cover a large area…'
His thoughts trailed off as he peered deeply at the violet fog.
'What if I cloak only myself? They'll only see a moving fog, which will be strange, but they should ignore it. Anyone that is curious and comes close will be "swallowed" by the fog—expand the fog, quickly kill it, and store it in my arcanist badge.'
Jareth tapped his jaw with a finger.
'This should create a scary but bizarre sight for beasts, making them avoid me, right? From my observation, most aren't smart. I just have to avoid the terrifying ones.'
Jareth dispersed the fog.
"The next, Infernal Torrent. This spell shouldn't have been mine. Fortunately, that Duke is a good person for delivering a welcome gift to Arkados."
An evil smirk crept onto his lips.
'I can't use fire spears in this situation, because of the loud noise, but if I use infernal torrent without any compression, the damage will drop drastically. The fire spear came with penetrating power. But the fire spear also wastes mana—wait… what if I create a fire needle?'
Raising his palm in his face, his five fingers pointing at the ceiling in a clawed shape, he focused.
'Blaze.'
Crimson flames surged from his fingers, but quickly halted, twisting and swirling as they transformed into five sleek crimson needles.
'It didn't consume as much mana as a single fire spear.'
Jareth looked down and caught sight of a wandering big white feline beast wandering beneath the tower. He thrust his clawed hands forward, launching them at the beast.
With an almost inaudible whistle, five crimson needles streaked down, painting the air with thin, crimson trails.
The fire needles were about to strike the beast but it sharply darted aside.
Missing the beast, the fire needles shot at its position.
Just as they almost hit the ground, Jareth swept his hand sideways, pivoting the fire needles toward it.
The beast reeled back and swerved aside, but the fire needles followed it and struck its chest, releasing a soft explosion.
The beast raised its head and roared at Jareth.
Jareth stuck his tongue out at it and mimicked its roar in a comic way before smiling.
The beast, as if it could understand Jareth, released a more thunderous roar, clearly infuriated by Jareth's attacks—or his expression.
Jareth winked but was inwardly satisfied at the tiny charred holes in its chest he could barely see from his position.
'Good penetrating power. This beast should be a Rank 2 monster.'
He ignored the rampaging roars and looked at the setting sun, to ponder on his last spell, but caught sight of a team of four arcanists covered in complete armor without revealing anything.
Jareth hesitated but still decided to call their attention.
Thrusting his hand, fire surged up, swirled, and formed two big words just above the hole: HELP ME!
Jareth was about to disperse it when the team suddenly paused, with one pointing at him.
To Jareth's surprise, they started making their way towards him, killing everything in their path.
Two used swords, with one covered in silver hue and the other in fire. One of the boys formed a thin blue barrier to their side, while the last was launching black eerie orbs at beasts.
Despite that, they were swift and silent.
He was stunned at first before happiness blossomed in his chest.
He was about to begin crawling down to meet up with them when three of the arcanists were abruptly lifted from the ground, dangling in the air, except the boy with the silver aura sword, who dodged in time.
Jareth squinted at the sight of brown twigs wrapped around them.
'Tree octopus!'
They attacked the roots but were held, dangling above.
Jareth's heart hitched at the sight of the many roots swimming through the air and bursting from the ground, attacking the last standing arcanist. He deflected, slashing off some, and running about but the roots just kept coming from everywhere.
The others' retaliation was slowing.
'They are blacking out...'
Jareth clenched his fist.