THE AURELIAN CHRONICLES SHARDS OF DAWN

Chapter 7 The Iron Army in the Dead of Night

The sound of the war horn was still echoing, tearing through his eardrums. Arthur did not waste a single second thinking about Headmaster Alaric's threat. He turned around and ran as fast as he could down the main tower's spiral staircase. His bare feet pounded against the cold stone steps.

Through the cracks of the tower windows, he could see the lower floor dorms where the human students lived were already burning fiercely. Flames roared, licking the wooden roofs. Thick black smoke billowed high, blocking out the

moonlight.

The blue system screen exploded in front of his eyes. Its color had returned to normal, but it was blinking with a bright red warning.

[Emergency Warning. Iron Army Invasion Detected.]

[Survival Quest Updated.]

[Objective: Escape the dormitory area alive.]

[Reward: None. Death is the absolute penalty.]

"Useless fucking screen," Arthur cursed, swatting the text away from his vision.

He arrived at the main hallway on the ground floor of the human dorms. The air here felt incredibly hot and suffocating. The smell of burning flesh and fresh blood immediately stung his nose. The thick smoke made his eyes sting. Arthur ducked as a wooden door in front of him shattered to pieces from a powerful kick from the inside.

A giant creature stepped out of the room. The creature was not just an ordinary Orc. Its body was over six feet tall, wearing thick, pitch black iron plate armor. Its face was a disgusting mix between rough Orcish features and pointy Elf ears. An elite mercenary born from crossbreeding. Its right hand held a

serrated axe dripping with fresh blood. Its left hand was dragging the corpse of a human student whose neck was half severed.

Arthur held his breath. His heart was beating like crazy. The creature tossed the corpse in its hand like throwing away a dirty sack of rice, then walked casually down the hallway looking for other prey.

Arthur sneaked into the smoke. He saw the body of a dead dorm guard leaning against the wall. The guard's stomach had a massive hole in it. Arthur snatched a short sword from the guard's weapon sheath. The hilt was slippery with blood,

but this was much better than fighting empty handed.

He ran while crouching toward room one hundred and twelve. His and Finn's room. The door to his room was already half destroyed. Arthur kicked the rest of the door open and went inside. The room was a mess. The beds were flipped over, and

the wooden wardrobe was smashed.

"Finn," Arthur called out in a hushed voice. "Where are you, wtf. Do not play hide and seek right now."

There was no answer. Arthur walked closer to a pile of wooden wardrobe debris. He moved a thick plank aside. Behind it, Finn was curling up, hugging his own knees. The chubby boy's body was shaking so badly that his teeth were chattering. His face was drenched in tears and sweat.

"Get up, damn it," Arthur pulled Finn's arm by force. "We have to get out of here."

"I do not want to go out, Arthur," Finn cried hysterically, hitting Arthur's hand. "They sliced the dorm head's neck right in front of my eyes. Those iron creatures are everywhere. We are going to die if we go out."

Arthur slapped Finn's cheek hard. The sound of the slap was incredibly loud amidst the roaring flames. Finn fell silent instantly, his eyes bulging in shock.

"Listen to me closely," Arthur's voice was cold and sharp. "If you stay here, you will either burn to death or get chopped to pieces. If you come with me, you have a chance to live. Get up right now, wtf. Hold onto my shoulder and never let go."

Finn wiped his snot and nodded weakly. He stood up with trembling legs, then grabbed the back of Arthur's shirt.

The two of them walked out of the room into the smoke filled hallway. Arthur walked in the very front with his short sword raised. His eyes kept sweeping every dark corner. The screams of other students could be heard echoing from the

end of the hallway, followed by the terrifying, raspy laughter of the mercenaries.

"Use the emergency stairs at the end of the hall," Finn whispered in fear. "It leads straight to the backyard of the canteen."

Arthur nodded slowly. He stepped forward carefully. But right as they passed an intersection in the hallway, two large figures in black armor emerged from the billowing smoke. Their yellow eyes glowed brightly, staring at Arthur and Finn.

The two Iron Assassins were blocking the only path to the emergency stairs.

"Human boys," one of the creatures growled with a heavy voice like grinding rocks. He raised a giant sledgehammer covered in iron spikes. "Fresh meat."

"Arthur, what do we do," Finn's voice squeaked in a panic. The kid pulled on Arthur's shirt even harder.

"Step back slowly," Arthur whispered. His brain spun fast, looking for another way out.

But the creatures did not give them any time. The Assassin holding the sledgehammer dashed forward toward them. His footsteps made the stone floor of the dorm shake. He swung his sledgehammer horizontally to crush both Arthur and Finn's heads at once.

"Duck, wtf," Arthur yelled.

He pushed Finn, making him fall face down on the floor. The iron sledgehammer whizzed just a few inches above Arthur's head. The wind from the weapon's swing alone was enough to make Arthur's ears ring. Arthur retaliated by stabbing his

short sword toward the creature's stomach.

Clang.

The tip of Arthur's sword only scratched the black iron armor without penetrating it at all. Arthur cursed loudly. This creature was wearing high tier protection. The Assassin laughed condescendingly, then kicked Arthur's chest with his iron boot.

Arthur was thrown backward and slammed hard into the hallway wall. The air in his lungs was completely knocked out. He coughed up blood. His short sword slipped from his grip. The system screen blinked red, displaying a warning about

broken ribs.

The creature walked casually toward Arthur. He raised his sledgehammer high, preparing to crush the boy's skull. Behind him, the second Assassin walked toward Finn, who was sobbing on the floor.

"Damn it," Arthur groaned, forcing himself to get up. His hands felt around the floor looking for his sword. He did not care if he had to block that sledgehammer with his bare hands. He was not going to let Finn die in front of him. The insane hallucinations from Malakor earlier had tortured him enough. He refused to see his friend's blood spilled in the real world.

Right as the giant sledgehammer started to swing down toward Arthur's head, a loud scream echoed from the end of the hallway behind the monsters.

"Hey, ugly. Move out of the way, asshole."

Arthur and both Assassins turned their heads at the same time.

Lyra stood in the middle of the burning hallway. Her linen clothes were soiled with soot. Her left hand held a thick magic book with a torn cover. Her right hand was stretched straight out in front of her, aiming right at the backs of the two giant Assassins. Lyra's palm radiated a blinding, wildly churning

reddish orange light.

Arthur instantly realized what the girl was about to do. Lyra was terrible at controlling magic flow. The last time she tried basic telekinesis magic in the arena, she ended up collapsing an iron torch. Now the girl was holding pure fire energy in her hand.

"Arthur, get down, wtf. Cover your ears," Lyra screamed at the top of her lungs.

Arthur immediately threw his body to cover Finn on the floor. He hid his head under the folds of his own arms.

"Ignis Maxima," Lyra roared, releasing all the magic energy from her palm without any control technique whatsoever.

It was not a fireball that came out of Lyra's hand, but an incredibly massive shockwave explosion. The sound of the blast was like a bomb being dropped right inside a closed room. The dorm hallway instantly turned into a tunnel of hell.

Fire and shockwaves swept clean everything in their path.

The two giant Iron Assassins had absolutely no time to react. Their armored bodies were hit by the explosive wave from behind, throwing them into the air and smashing them into the hallway walls until they shattered to pieces. Their steel armor was severely dented. Black blood and dust splattered everywhere.

The stone floor beneath Arthur shook to an extreme level. The walls around them cracked. The wooden roof above them collapsed onto the floor. Incredible heat roasted Arthur's back, even though he was already taking cover.

Thick dust and smoke immediately covered their entire vision. The rumbling sound of debris kept falling for dozens of seconds before the atmosphere finally fell silent again. Only the sound of fire devouring the remaining wood was left.

Arthur coughed violently. He brushed the stone fragments off his back, then got up slowly. His ears were ringing so badly that he felt half deaf. He looked down. Finn was still alive, just passed out from the shock of the loud explosion.

"Lyra," Arthur called out with a hoarse voice. He waved his hands around to fan away the thick smoke. "Where are you, damn it."

"I am over here. Cough." Lyra's voice came from a few meters away. The girl was lying on the floor, her face covered in ash, and her nose bleeding fresh blood due to the side effects of forcing magic beyond her body's capacity. "I accidentally let it all out. This book is a scam, wtf. It said it was just a small explosion to scare away rats."

"You almost killed us all, asshole," Arthur scolded, walking over to Lyra and pulling the girl up to stand straight.

"At least those ugly monsters are dead, right. You should be saying thank you." Lyra wiped the blood from her nose using her dirty sleeve.

Arthur turned to look at the explosion site. The dorm hallway was completely destroyed. The thick stone wall to their left had collapsed entirely, creating a gaping hole that directly faced the main academy courtyard down below. The night

wind blew in, carrying a bone piercing chill.

Arthur stepped forward, approaching the edge of the ruined floor. He looked down to find a safe escape route toward the canteen building.

But what he saw in the main courtyard made the blood in his entire body feel like it froze instantly. The remaining adrenaline flowing in his veins evaporated without a trace.

Hundreds of Iron Assassins stood in neat formations in the main academy courtyard, which was already soaked in blood. The corpses of academy students and guards were scattered around them. The giant, impenetrable iron gates were now wide open outward, their hinges blasted to pieces by high tier destruction magic.

Standing right in the middle of the mercenary army was a male Elf with long blonde hair. He wore pure white armor that heavily contrasted with tonight's situation. In his left hand, he held a round object that was still dripping

fresh blood.

Instructor Vane's head.

The Elf man looked up, staring straight at the hole in the wall where Arthur stood. He smiled very calmly, the smile of a winner who had planned this night for years to seize power. Arthur knew who that man was, even though Kaelen had just told him about it that afternoon.

General Valerius had arrived. Ignis Academy officially fell tonight.