The Final Battle (Part 3)

The ground shook from the devastating impact of Ophelia’s Meteor Volley.

Pinning him against the tile of the roof, I held onto King until he that invincible spell to phase through me and kick my head into the tiles.

All around, the creatures that were revived and alive were melting. The purple rage in their eyes and their purple fur or skin turned into goop that evaporated and rose to the air along with the smoke.

“You rotten vermin!” King yelled, louder than he ever was before. “My friends!” His voice was filled with anger and pain. “I’ll kill you!”

I rolled over and tried to kick at King’s legs, but couldn’t. I was too far.

He ran towards Ophelia and punched her with all his might.

I couldn’t do anything about it.

“Ahhhh!”

Ophelia tried raising her staff to defend herself but was launched off the roof from King’s blow.

She continued screaming during her fall until someone caught her in his arms.

“A-Arnold,” she said. “T-thank you.”

“Of course,” he said.

Then, he and everyone there turned their focus onto King, who stood on the roof with eyes that were full of bloodlust—but also fear.

The crazy injured guy grinned at King.

“You’re not so menacing now that your pets are gone.”

“You shut up! Just shut up!”

“Like hell I will!”

The injured man raised his sword.

“For my family and the people of Isle City, I will kill you and bring peace to this land!”

King stepped back.

“Kill? Me? As if!”

He turned around, ready to run, when Mia caught him off guard and smacked him right at the center of his stomach.

King groaned.

It felt as if he was losing his edge.

He yelled as he fell from the roof and crashed onto the ground.

Raising his head, he saw the many people who wanted him gone. No—they needed him gone.

King’s eyes quivered in fear.

“Get away from me!” he yelled.

He thrashed his arms in the air, and that’s when it hit me.

King didn’t have any offensive spells. Sure, with his Nightsmoke and that invincible spell of his, he used that as a way that would help his offensive attacks, but he didn’t have a spell that would straight up injure a person.

And I think the others knew that.

Without his resurrection spell, he was weak. And his mana had to be running out quickly now.

The injured man screamed King’s name and rushed him with his sword.

“No! Get away!” he screamed. “Shadow body!”

The injured man was fast, but his blade sliced through King’s body with no effect.

There was no blood, but a dark cloud of smoke that repaired the holes in his body.

“Nightsmoke!”

Creating another cloud of dark smoke, the injured man and the others coughed and gagged.

“Not this again!” the injured man screamed. “King, you coward! If that’s the way you want to play this, then fine! I’ll run after you until your stamina runs out! Then I’ll slice you to bits!”

The injured man screamed as he ran through the cloud of dark smoke.

That’s when I heard Bertram speak.

“Hey, crazy guy! Follow me! I can sense where he’s going!”

“Really?! Alright then!”

From the far right of the smoke, King jumped out and started running.

I wanted to tell the guys where he was going, but someone bumped into me.

I turned over.

“Ophelia?!”

She held onto my shirt and leaned her head against my shoulder.

I turned to help support her body.

“I-I’m sorry, Tai. I didn’t mean to do this on purpose…”

Exhaustion filled her voice.

I sighed with a tiny grin.

“It’s okay,” I said.

Ophelia grinned as she dug her head into my chest.

My face started heating up.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“I should be the one thanking you. That meteor spell was awesome.”

Mia stepped towards us.

“Tai’s right. I never saw a rock that big crash into the ground. I thought I was going to fall off the roof for a second!”

Ophelia giggled. So did Mia.

At that moment, my legs buckled.

“Uh oh. Ah!”

I yelped as Ophelia crashed onto me. And, unlucky for Mia, my leg shot out, striking her legs and catching her off guard.

She stumbled back, trying to regain her balance, but ultimately fell on her butt beside us.

“Ugh!” she groaned. Then she glared at me.

“Sorry.”

That was all I could say.

She lightly smacked the top of my head and kept her hand there, rubbing my hair like a madwoman.

“Hey, wait—I’m sorry. Please, Mia, you’re messing up my hair!”

“Because you deserve it! My butt hurts, you know!”

“But it was an accident!”

“It doesn’t matter!”

She rubbed harder.

“Pleaaaaase! Stop it!”

Ophelia chuckled, shaking my chest as her body moved mine.

At the sight, Mia stopped, and I leaned my head back on the tiles of the roof.

The three of us went quiet.

“I can’t believe we did it,” Ophelia whispered.

“You’re saying that as if King’s already been killed,” Mia said.

I watched the moon start to set. Mia was right, but with how weak and scared King looked, it felt like the battle had already been won.

That thought plagued my mind for a second. Then an image. It was of King’s desperate flailing of his arms. His once-bloodshot eyes went crazy with fear and disgust.

Back to the present, the screams of the crazy injured man and a large group of people hollered and shouted for King’s death.

“Kill him!”

“Take this!”

“Eat shit!”

The large group threw stones and ran towards King’s body—which was lying on the stone floor all alone. They kicked, punched, and

He deserved it. I guess. I can’t say he didn’t have this coming. All this violence, needless death, and bloodshed was coming right back at him.

But still, I couldn’t help but feel a bit bad for the guy.

His reason for revenge was crazy, but I get why he did it.

I’m not gonna lie here and pretend that I’ve never had the thought of wiping out people who bullied or made fun of me.

But still, acting on those urges isn’t right. Especially when innocent people are wrapped up in it.

King screamed and screamed.

Man was it painful to hear. But the group that circled around him cheered. To them, his screams were music to their ears.

They continued beating on the poor guy. King wasn’t fighting back. He definitely could’ve used Nightsmoke and ran away, but he didn’t.

At this point, Ophelia got off, and we stood by the edge of the roof to get a better look at this horrifying beat down.

It continued for quite some time. It was a vicious cycle. Violence met with violence.

But I didn’t partake in it. Nor did Ophelia nor Mia.

“You three are still up there?”

We turned our heads down to the owner of the voice.

It was August.

“Yup,” Mia replied. “The wind feels nice up here.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. Come on up. Feel it for yourself.”

August struggled to climb the market stall because of her heavy armor, but reaching my arm out for her to grab on, I managed to pull her onto the roof.

“Thank you, Tai.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

King let out a bloodcurdling scream. The people surrounding him cheered.

Were Frank and Maya there with them? No, I couldn’t see them. In fact, they walked away from the group and towards the 4 of us.

“Mom! Dad!” Mia yelled. She waved down at them. “Want to join us up here?”

Frank shrugged his shoulders.

“Sure,” he said.

Maya laughed.

“Looks like fun up there.”

Mia tilted her head and placed a finger on her chin.

“Mm, I don’t know about fun, but it’s a nice place to relax.”

Maya and Frank climbed to the roof and sat with us. The air was cool, just like Mia said.

But the noise—or rather—the screams that filled it was sour and painful.

Ophelia held onto my hand.

Her eyes met mine, and it seemed as if she was asking me through body language if this was fine. If we could hold hands like this.

I gently squeezed her hand.

That was my answer.

Ophelia smiled.

It wasn’t a romantic moment. Not at all. Not with all the violence and torture that's been going on since earlier this night.

But it was a moment of comfort. This was our big break. No more hiding, no more running, and no more fighting.

For the first time tonight, there was peace.

Maya and Frank went over to hug their daughter. Mia hugged them back.

“I’m glad you’re safe,” Maya said.

Mia nodded.

“Same to you. And to all of us. I’m glad we’re all okay. Especially you, Tai. That moment with the werewolf scared me. I thought you weren’t gonna make it.”

Everyone nodded. Ophelia squeezed hard on my hand.

“But I’m glad you’re alive.”

Mia smiled.

We all did, to be honest.

I laughed.

“I’m glad too.”

And for the last time, King let out his final shriek of pain and suffering.

He was gone. For good.

I'm glad I wasn’t there to see it. I'm glad that none of us participated in the final moments either.

Would this be a problem though?

I’m in the world of a light novel after all. And I’m pretty sure that I’m taking the role of the protagonist. So, because I wasn’t there to beat King myself at his moments, would there be consequences later down the line of the novel?

I thought about it for a second. It irked me.

“Are you alright, Tai?” Ophelia asked. She stared at me with concern and worry.

And at that moment, I smirked.

I’m tired of thinking of this place as some sort of novel. These people besides me, they’re not characters. At least, not to me.

They’re real. And so is this whole place. This city and the people in it, they’re not fake.

So, no more novel thinking from now on.

Because for the time being, this is my reality.

I looked over at Ophelia.

“Yeah. I’m fine,” I replied. “Just tired, that's all.”

“Tell me about it,” Mia said.

“It has been a long night,” August said, nodding.

The rest agreed.

As the crowd of people down by the street grew quiet after King’s demise–me and everyone else in the group hugged each other.

“Thank you guys,” I said. “If it weren’t for all of you helping me, I know for a fact that I wouldn’t be here right now.”

I’d probably be eaten or lying dead on the ground in Mia’s living room.

And even if survived the werewolves and got away from them without anyone’s help, where would I run? I didn’t know anything about my surroundings–despite being shown around the place. The city was big. I couldn’t remember anything.

So I’m grateful. Really. And I told them that.

“It was a group effort, son,” Frank said. “We all helped each other.”

The others nodded and hummed in agreement.

We kept our group hug going, embracing each other’s warmth and company.

“I’m glad we got through this,” I said.

I know it’s been said already, but there’s nothing wrong with a bit more gratitude.

Ophelia and the others said the same. And for the first time in this world and on Earth, there was a warm feeling that I couldn’t explain.

But it felt nice.

Very nice.