Chapter 4 – Exhibition Attack, Widow's Nest

It was hungry …

The monster was within the darkness, moving within the dark cavern, the cave just barely supporting its massive form.

It now had to hunt, but that would not be all it did …

The sounds of gnawing teeth, scuttling steps, and quick hisses and rather non-intimidating shrieks reverberated through the cavern, and it stopped by to see.

A quick line of growling and it left, had its growl been in words, it would have been along the lines of …

… "Do not worry, I shall return with a meal shortly."

It was finally the day, it was the Familiar Exhibition, and many people were pumped for it.

Louise herself was extra ready for it to happen, she and Sakuya had planned out their routine, and Louise was happy to know that Henrietta was going to be watching the event, and was waiting for it to happen.

However, as they thought of the event, another was also thinking of their plans for or should it be said 'during' the event, and prepared for her plan.

Soon the event started and soon mages and their familiars were on stage, performing tricks and techniques along with their master's magic sometimes.

Kirche and her familiar, Flame did a dazzling amount of fire techniques, Montmorency had her frog do a dance while she played a nice tune on a violin, a student named Malicorne did tricks with his owl and some flags, Guiche and his mole posed with some Roses' (Louise and Sakuya both agreed that it was the saddest thing they had ever seen, and quite a number of people silently agreed with them), and Tabitha was in the skies with her dragon, Sylphid performing many aerial acrobatics tricks.

Then it was Sakuya's turn …

Louise told the crowd to back-up and then went to the viewing stand where the princess and two other nobles were and then put a plate before them, a wood rack with a board on it behind each of them, and an apple at the end of each board.

She whispered to Henrietta who got a worried look but then calmed a bit, and then Louise went back to stage.

"I would like to present my familiar, Sakuya Tarrel," Louise spoke to the crowd, and Sakuya stepped onto the stage, dressed in her usual dark blue attire, and the shield on her arm fully active.

Then from the crowd came Guiche and six Earth mages, and Sakuya walked off the stage and onto the field, and many students realized that it was Vestri field, where the duel between Guiche and Sakuya occurred, but also, of more importance, it was where the more recent 'Vestri Massacre' had occurred, battle-scars and craters still on the field, the grass still having yet to grow in to the damaged areas.

Many of the crowd got some very worried looks on their face, and then Sakuya looked at them and said, "Anyone who has a weak constitution and is queasy may wish to turn away or leave, but if you want to watch no one is stopping you."

Then she looked at the mages and nodded.

In the span of a minute, Guiche summoned up ten of his Valkerie's, armed with swords and spears, and then the other six summoned up their own golems, either shoddy and made of dirt, or metallic and looked close to Guiche's golems in make and design.

The crowd became worried, looking at the golems, though seeing that there were only 46 of them, showing that a few of the seven mages were not of a high caliber and could not make many golems, not yet anyway.

However, they saw Sakuya, a cold and focused stare in her eyes, not a hint of fear at the golems n her eyes, though in retrospect, the monsters from the Massacre were many times scarier and deadlier than any of the golems could ever be.

Either way, Sakuya just looked at them, and the Mages looked at her in return …

… then, the mages pointed their wands at Sakuya, and the golems charged.

Everyone watched with almost abject horror as the golems charged, weapons out, believing they were going to run the silver/grey/white haired girl through.

Then Sakuya grabbed Derflinger from her back with her left hand, while from the shield materialized her shield blade, and in a literal blur of motion, she cut down five golems in the span of two seconds, two of Guiches Valkyrie's and three dirt golems, and she held Derflinger in her right while her arm-blade was on her left, and she charged at a metal golem and it tried to block, but even when it blocked the arm-blade, it was sliced in twain by Derflinger.

Then the other golems rushed forth, this time in a direct charge, weapons forward and ready to skewer her, and Sakuya's response …

… she sheathed her blades, the arm-blade going back into the shield gauntlet.

Everyone had a look on their face, all of them thinking the same thing, 'has she gone mad!'

Louise herself was worried as well, for though she knew her familiars routine, she felt that it could go wrong at any point, but still held a firm look in her eyes, one Henrietta noticed and somehow calmed her down.

Sakuya simply touched a spot on her shield …

… and the Reaper pistols were instantly in her hands in a pulse of light.

Sakuya aimed and fired with inhuman accuracy, the runes on the back of her left hand glowed a blazing dark blue as she fired the weapon into the golem, and moved with the speed and agility that would put a cheetah to shame, and soon, twenty-five golems had fallen in the span of a minute.

The mages immediately set their golems to surround Sakuya, but their overall coordination was not all that good, and as they struggled to organize the golems, seven more had fallen …

… only ten remained.

Sakuya then de-materialized one pistol, the one in her left hand, and grabbed Derflinger, and in that moment, she charged with a sudden and powerful burst of speed.

It all happened in a very brief amount of time, she sliced the heads off of two golems, shot three more down, blocked one while shooting down two others before she kicked the one she blocked into the last two, and using Derflinger, cut them all down.

Everyone was left totally speechless at the display, and then Sakuya aimed the pistol behind her …

… right at the judges box.

ZAZAZA

Three blasts of energy, three shots of light …

… three 'clunks.'

However, it was not the judges who had been hit, though they were a bit speechless, seeing the two slightly singed apple halves on the table in front of each one of them.

At first, there was no sound, no sound whatsoever, then some clapping, then it picked up more, and then became louder, until finally it became full on cheering at the spectacle, especially since Sakuya had leapt of the last golem, landed at the center of the stage, and fired the shots, and she turned and bowed to the crowd, the princess clapping quite a lot, though the other two judges had more worried and awestruck looks than the princesses look of awe and amazement at the feat.

Either way, no matter how Louise saw it, her familiar h-NO, Sakuya had proven how strong she was, and had proven that Louise was someone, and seeing the applause for her familiar filled her with not only a sense of pride but admiration to the one she had summoned, but with another more deeper emotion …

… and though she kept it bottled away within herself, she knew it would have to bubble up soon, hopefully it would be a while.

"That was excellent," Louise said, beaming with pride as Sakuya walked right behind.

"I have to agree, I really got in a good workout, and I still have plenty of ammunition, luckily Chimera tend to carry ammunition for their weapons in bulk," Sakuya said as she held the Reaper pistols, then de-materialized them, "well, we've done our routine, what will be nex-!"

BOOM

A loud boom comes from very close by, just behind the building but covered up by the sounds of the familiar exhibition as it went on.

"Maybe we should find out what that noise is," Sakuya says.

"I was going to say we should run away and tell somebody, but I doubt anyone will listen at the moment," Louise pointed out.

With that they both made their way to the source of the noise.

It was waiting now, waiting for the right moment.

It could have just rushed out, run the whole length of the plain to reach the structure and gain its meal, but it knows that its large size makes it very easy to spot, and that the large aerial reptile could have easily spotted it, plus it would have been upwind which would have alerted the lesser but more aware creatures to its presence.

However, it was now downwind and the reptile was now on the ground, and after going through the forest to a point where the forest was closest to the structure (and snacking on some other, yet not as appetizing, lesser beasts), it made its way over, doing so in a way so stealthy that it would have shocked anybody who saw how something so big could move with such silence and stealth.

Either way, it made its way to the wall, now moving faster as the noise within could now cover any loud noise that it may have made as it went.

Louise and Sakuya rounded the building, and were met with the sight of a large dirt golem, which looked to be more or less 8-10 meters in height, and it was pounding away at the wall of the Academy Vault with its large fist, trying to bash the wall in, and on its left shoulder was a person wearing a cloak and hood, obscuring most of the persons features …

… from those with regular human vision.

Sakuya's enhanced eyes showed her that the person was a woman, early to mid 20's if her figure was anything to go by, and she could see the locks of green hair beneath the hood.

"Sakuya, that golem's trying to break into the vault, we have to stop it," Louise says as she sees the golem continuously pounding at the wall of the vault.

"Will do," and with that Sakuya gets her Bulls-Eye out, the weapon materializing in her hand, and aimed at the golem and unleashed a flurry of super-heated energy bolts at the golem, the bolts pelted into the construct, melting several parts of its form, but that easily regenerated itself.

"No good, the only way I could properly damage it is if it was not on the dirt ground, and that obviously is not going to happen, since it's a dirt ground everywhere you look," said Sakuya, pointing out the disadvantage they had, "as long as it is on the ground the mage can simply reconstruct the thing as much as she wants."

"I can see what you me-wait a minute, she," Louise looked a lot closer and noticed mages figure and the strands of long green hair peeking out from the hood, "you have really good eyesight don't you."

"Yes, yes I do, and if I remember from one of your last classes, a mage must maintain complete focus in order to keep the spell up, or move a construct like that golem," Sakuya said, now grinning, "Let's see how she maintains her focus with a burnt hole in her a-!"

GGRRRROOOOOOAAAARRRRR! BOOOOMMMMM!

A monstrous inhuman roar ripped through the area, causing Louise to recoil in terror at the roar, followed by the tremendous boom that followed, as though something had been violently knocked over, the mage on the golem also looking around in panic for the source of the roar, which also brought a foreboding and terrifying sense of Déjà vu to her mind.

Then Louise saw the look on Sakuya's face, a look of unbridled stark terror, and as Louise was going to ask her what it was, the screams of many, many people exploded from the other side of the tower, followed by the inhuman shrieks and roars of a something out of nightmares.

Louise and Sakuya ignored the thief, who was also rushing to find out what was happening, and Louise rounded the corner …

… just as something heavy slammed into her.

She was dazed and her nostrils were assaulted by a horrible odor, but her eyes soon cleared and she looked at what it was.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!

It was the mutilated corpse of what used to be a student, a young man judging by the remains of his clothing, the body torn up in the most inhuman manner, and she pushed the dead body away, shaking horribly.

Then Louise looked up, and in that instant understood her familiars look of fear and dread, and also why she felt that the roar was so horrifyingly familiar to her.

"No …"

More screams were silenced.

"No"

Many students were mutilated and ripped apart.

"NO"

A roar of unholy fury ripped through the area, the roar accompanied by a large amount of blood from the sheer amount of victims that now rested in the stomach of the monster.

"NOOOOOOOOO"

Louise's last wail of terror accompanied the inhuman roar of a massive, terrifying and horrifyingly familiar visage of the monster that had haunted her familiar's dreams and had killed countless people her familiar knew …

… the reaper of the battlefield, the Widowmaker.

The Widowmaker tore apart countless mages as it roared and hissed, many mages casting what spells they could at the monster while many ran in terror … and it unleashed multiple spheres of a sickly yellow color that exploded, spraying out the monsters deadly acid all over the mages, many going down with screams of pure pain, and other dying in mere moments, twitching in agony until death took them.

Louise looked up and tried to locate the princess, and she saw the judges table had been smashed to pieces and the princess nowhere in sight, and Louise started to really worry and wanted to find her friend and hoped to Brimir or whoever was out there that she was okay.

Then a tornado of water, a square class spell roared forth and struck the monster, causing it to stagger back, but it soon was out of the stagger, and lunged forth, this time instead of acid spheres, it shot out a mucus like webbing and the webbing snared several people, all of which the Widowmaker dragged toward itself.

Then the small arms that were beneath it came out, and started to wrap up the bodies of five students (including Katie who had pushed Montmorency out of the way of the monsters web shot), a judge (the other had been eaten) and finally.

"Hime-sama," Louise yelled as she saw the monster drag the princess toward it, and wrapped her up along with the others into a mucus-like cocoon and then attached the cocoons to its rear underside and started to leave.

Sakuya had gotten there but could not shoot out of fear of killing the people in the cocoons, and could only watch as the monster got away, going over the wall and rushing back to the forest, faster than anyone could have thought.

Soon the monster was gone … leaving behind a trail of destruction in its wake.

No one even noticed when the golem went away, the woman onboard focusing on getting to someplace far away.

Either way, it had been a bad day, a very bad day indeed.

"This is awful"

"A tragedy, this is a tragedy"

"What are we going to do, what is going to happen now?"

It was chaos, the Widowmakers attack had left over 59 students dead, 29 injured, as well as killing and injuring much of the staff and guests.

All in all, it was travesty.

Louise could only look around as the remaining staff and the princesses own guards were in a panic.

"Everyone, calm down, we have the matter under control, we just ne-," Osmond was instantly grabbed by a worried and hysterical Agnes.

"Under Control, UNDER CONTROL," Agnes yelled, "THE PRINCESS WAS TAKEN BY A MONSTER TO BRIMIR KNOWS WHERE, AND MAY ALREADY BE A MEAL AND YOUR TELLING US IT'S UNDER CONTROL!"

The shouts and panicking spiked up once again, Louise herself was in it all, and trying to comprehend the horror of what just happened, not wanting to believe that a monster had come out of nowhere and taken Henrietta away, but it had happened and now she was on the verge of panic, she could not take it anymo-!

BANG

A resounding bang went through the room, and everyone turned to see Sakuya, her Magnum pointed at the ceiling, the glowing bullet in the ceiling, and then she walked forward a bit and then hit a switch …

BTOOOM!

The ceiling is blown out a bit and pieces of the roof collapse down.

"Now that I have everyone's attention, I can finally get my own word in edge wise, more specifically, adding to why we must act immediately," Sakuya said, "yes, the princess is in danger, as well as anyone else who was taken away by the Widowmaker, but if we do not act fast, then this may very well spread to the other nations, and even beyond."

"What are you saying," said Osmond, everyone is now listening.

"Ask yourselves this, why did it take her away, why did it not just eat her right where she was, and why would it take so many people with it," Sakuya said, "I have fought Widowmaker's before, and thus I even know how to distinguish males from females, the one that attacked had red spots on its neck, making it a female, and the spots were faded."

"What do these faded spots have to do with this threat you speak of," Agnese said, indignantly.

"It is a sign of pregnancy, and with how faded the spots were, it means that it already went through it," Sakuya said, and everyone then got what she was saying, seeing in their minds more of the monsters, racing across the land, butchering slaughtering and killing everything in sight, and Sakuya continued.

"Judging by how faded the spots were, it probably gave birth at least 3 months ago, and its eggs hatch after a month, and the newborns reach maturity at least four months after birth, and have a lifespan of about 62 years, but aside from that, the children do not have the durability and raw power of the adults, but are still a threat in their own right," Sakuya paused a bit, and then continued, "right now we need to track the creature down, because if the 2 month period passes, then its children will soon leave the nest, and it tends to make its nest in caves, mostly in areas with many tunnels so its children can move around as much as they want, and if they leave then they could go anywhere, killing and eating anything and everything in their path."

The scene being painted was unpleasant in many ways, "We have to go after it, even if the princess is not saved," the old man was sweating up a storm at Louise's and Agnes's absolutely murderous glares, "we have to prevent these monsters from spreading to the lands, which means every last one of us is going, no acceptations and that is my final say in the matter."

Most of the professors tried to raise an argument, but while the Old principal was lecherous and laid back on occasion, he could be quite commanding when things got serious, and things were very serious at the moment.

"Miss Sakuya," Osmond asked the silver haired girl, "you have experience fighting these creatures; I believe it is best that you are in charge of the princess's rescue from the nest, and I believe out of everyone here you are the only one who could face the mother of these beasts.

Sakuya thought briefly, and then spoke, "Allright, but I have two conditions."

"Name it," Osmond said.

"I request Louise and Tabitha's assistance and also an item from the vault," said Sakuya.

"I believe I know which item you are referring to, and all-right, I also approve of-," then Kirche burst in, knocking over Ms. Loungueville who had been standing outside listening to what was being said.

"I volunteer," the tan woman said, a look of indignation on her face, "I refuse to let a task of importance be given to a Valliere, I will also go on this mission or whatever it is, I will not lose to a Valliere under any circumstances."

"Wait just a minute, Kirche this is not th-," then Sakuya cut Louise off, "Actually, she may be of aid, you see all Chimera are quite uncomfortable in hot places, and a fire can really make it a very bad day for this creature, and also we should be proud Kirches bravery."

As Kirche puffed her chest up with pride and Louise was about to start to berate Sakuya until she was cut off when Sakuya continued, "Why, I cannot imagine anyone like her could be so brave as to face down the monster that attacked the Exhibition with us, the same monster that tore through the bodies of over 59 students and left many more injured, most of whom are in critical condition, and left many of them horribly disfigured with its Acid attacks, and she is going to help Louise, Tabitha and I face it down."

When she said that, Kirche's mouth was hanging open and she herself had gone pale white at what she had just volunteered to do, and Louise looked she was about to have second thoughts, but then she remembered what had happened to Henrietta and hardened her resolve and wore a hard look on her face.

"Ahem," Osmond spoke, "Ms. Longueville, what is it you have to say."

"W-well, you see I had been out at the time, doing a few errands and such," she said, but Sakuya was not convinced with what she was saying, "until I saw the monster as it ran through the forest, kind of hard to miss given how big it was, and I saw it enter a cave near the Dejer Valley."

"Then that is where it and its brood will be," Sakuya stated, "if we do not act now, then it is a good chance that the princess and a majority of the people it captured will not survive to see tomorrow."

"Agreed, everyone, we go now, no excuses," he said, in a hard voice he rarely used.

With that, the teachers, Musketeer squad and Sakuya, Louise and the others soon went, with Sakuya going to the vault with Osmond to pick up one item in particular.

It was an hour later that they were set to leave, Sakuya, Louise, Kirche, Tabitha, Ms. Longueville, even Montmorency (who said she need to go on a slightly personal matter), and Guiche (who would not let Montmorency go alone, saying that he would always be by her side, which annoyed her more), all on Tabitha's dragon Sylphid (strong dragon) who soon took to the air, the others on horseback on the ground.

All heading after the Widowmaker, and hoping to rescue those it had taken.

In the Dejer Caves …

Henrietta stirred herself awake …

And her eyes shot wide in horror as she saw the monster that had taken her right in front of her, though it was busy placing the rest of its catch in other parts of the caves, and then, right next to Henrietta, it placed a girl next to her with brown hair, now messy with the unusual organic glue, and wearing an Magic academy first year uniform.

Then they heard it release a loud and terrifying roar …

… and heard scuttling.

In an instant, the people who in the pods near a small inlet that led into the cave system started to shake and panic, looking like they were trying to get away, to somehow get free of their bindings.

The two saw to their horror, as four smaller versions of the much larger monster appeared, no doubt its children.

The watched in horror as the hungry children … began their horrifying feast.

Sakuya sat in the back of the wagon as it went along the dirt road, Louise was with her while Kirche and Tabitha flew overhead on Sylphid, Longueville was driving the wagon, and in Sakuya's arms was the Staff of Destruction, otherwise known as the LAARK.

It was a silent trip, until Ms. Longueville decided to break the ice.

"So, Miss Sakuya was it, you have experience with fighting these monsters," the secretary asked.

"Yes, though I wish I didn't," Sakuya remarked.

"Hm, why might that b-," however, the nightmare from the past night had assailed Louise's memory, "actually never mind, it's nothing."

"Louise, I have been thinking, you have been acting strangely, and I mean ever since I came to this world, at first you were rather bratty and complained, but that was after our first night, then after that night you started to treat me … differently, better I guess," Makia said, looking at Louise with a rather concerned look.

Louise was quite for a bit, and wanted to speak, but instead chose to say, "wh-what are you saying, it's only right that I treat my familiar well, ad that is all there is, nothing more, nothing less," Louise stated, hoping that what she said would end the conversation.

"I don't believe you," Sakuya stated bluntly, "especially considering one rather crucial fact."

"And what might that be," Louise said, still trying to sound sure of herself.

"That was when you used the Bulls-eye that the Chimera had," Sakuya said.

Longueville noticed Louise started to sweat and was going pale, "wh-wha-wha-what m-m-mi-might you be s-s-s-s-saying Sakuya," Louise stammered out.

"Just the fact that there was no possible way that you, a young girl in a world of magic with next to no technology, could possibly use, much less know how to use, an alien energy repeater made by a technologically advanced and very violent alien species from a different world," Sakuya stated, "and more so, actually figure out and effectively use the alternate system on the weapon the first time you held it, which means you somehow gleamed the knowledge from somewhere … or someone."

Louise was sweating bolts, she felt her thoughts were a mess, she dared not open her mouth, and for fear that she might spill the beans.

Then …

SKKRRREEEEIIIIIIIII

We nearly leapt out of our skins at the shriek of what Sakuya knew was a Widowmaker, a young one.

"I hope everyone here is ready, because I think the children will soon be leaving their nest," Sakuya stated preparing the LAARK, Louise trembling in fear, and Longueville's hands tightening on the reigns.

"... and finding us an appetizing sight."

Authors note

Writing a story is NOT easy!