[Lifespan Remaining: ???]
By the time the three of them reached the center of camp, Noct understood why Celine had come looking for them. The northern gate had been ripped entirely apart.
Broken planks lay scattered across the ground, with undead stepping over them faster than the remaining candidates could cut them down. One of the wooden platforms had collapsed onto a tent, while another burned unattended.
Nobody was trying to defend the walls anymore. Instead, everyone had gathered around the transportation mirror.
Nolan stood at the front with his battered shield, trying to hold the "line" as much as possible. While Lucy fought behind him, occasionally attacking any that tried to jump.
Behind them, a party of backliners consisting of Mira, Violet, and a few others, fired whatever they could manage with their dwindling supply. As for the frontliners, every time someone fell back, another candidate hurried to take their place.
But the circle kept shrinking, and the timing between switches lagged behind with every round. Surprisingly, no one was dead yet.
The strategy was undoubtedly thought of by Robin, who was standing inside the circle, commanding the others with a stern voice.
’Such is the protagonist’s role...’
Through the moving bodies, Noct caught a glimpse of Finn kneeling beside the exposed reservoir. Both hands were pressed against it, and his face was completely pale as colorless mana continuously flowed from his hand and into the conduits.
Annie crouched beside him, tightening a bolt here and welding a crack there. But no matter how much she worked, it didn’t seem fast enough.
’Still not finished.’
Which was bad, as skeletal soldiers were beginning to pile up, overrunning the circle. So much so that even Academy staff, who were non-combatants, had taken up whatever weapon they could and had to help out.
A skeletal soldier forced its way through, and before it could reach one of the scouts, Robin flashed in front and drove his sword through its ribs, turning it into a pile of harmless bones.
"Close the gap!"
Noct tightened his grip around the blue core. They finally had what they needed to leave. Unfortunately, there was an entire horde standing between them and the people who could use it.
"How did you even get out?" Alice asked.
Celine pointed toward the western side, where there were relatively less undead than the other two. "Robin cleared a path for me, he told me to come get you two."
Alice looked at the horde before slowly removing her arm from Noct’s shoulders and drew her sword again. Her fingers struggled to close around the hilt, and the raw skin across her hand began opening as she did so.
Noct glanced at the mark still on her hand. "Don’t even think about using it again. This situation is already volatile as is."
"Then how are you expecting us to blow through that undead horde?" Alice asked.
Luckily for him, the amount of undead falling on the battlefield kept replenishing him. Even while casting all those 3 and 4-Star spells, he actually had more lifespan than he started out with.
[Lifespan Remaining: 14 days, 19 hours, 37 minutes.]
’I might have to brute force this...’
Noct raised his hand, only to notice that his fingers were trembling. Blood started running down his nose as he tried forcing another spell.
However, chain-casting had taken too much of a toll on his body. Along with the damage he acquired from the lich, safe to say that wasn’t happening for now.
Sensing a vague bit of mana, an undead warrior had turned toward them. But just before the three of them could do anything, a black shadow appeared from above, and down came Instructor Klein, plunging his sword into the monster.
"Arcadia!"
The man was wrapped in bandages, with fresh blood already beginning to soak through the cloth. But even so, he was on the frontline, helping the others out.
"Instructor, your wound—!"
"Will get worse if we stay here!" he responded before managing to catch a glimpse at the monster core in Noct’s hand.
"You actually..."
"No." The man shook his head. "There’s no time. Come on! I’ll cover you!"
There were still too many undead between them. And even if Klein could clear the ones directly ahead, the monsters on either side would surround them before they made it even halfway.
Noct looked down at the core before pressing it against his chest.
’Better be safe than sorry,’ he thought in his head. ’Sylph. Can you help me with this?’
’How wide?’
’Enough for three.’
Wind began picking up, dragging loose dirt and fragments of bone with them before...
WHOOOSH—!
Two walls of wind tore through the camp. The undead along their edges were hurled sideways, crashing into those behind them. And between the currents, a narrow passage opened all the way to the center where the others were.
"Huh..." Klein scratched his head. "Maybe you didn’t need me after all?"
"Instructor, now’s not the time!"
"Right..."
The three of them rushed into the passage. Alice stayed close enough that her shoulder brushed Noct’s whenever she stumbled, and Celine followed on his other side, running like her life depended on it.
A few skeletons tried to brute force their way through, only for Klein to drive his sword into them to push them away.
Every time an undead struck the wind, he felt the disturbance tug against his concentration. Blood began pouring freely from his nose, and even with Sylph’s help, his power was beginning to dwindle slowly but surely.
’Just a little longer Noct!’ Sylph said in his mind.
By the time they reached the center, Noct could feel his vision blurring by the second. But just before he could keel over, Robin stepped in to catch him.
"I’ve got you."
The protagonist barely managed to drag him in, before the other three entered the camp right after.
"How did you manage to get the core...?" Annie’s amazement was all over her face. But she quickly reported her progress. "Noct! Everything is fixed, but the mirror needs to be powered up!"
"How long will that take...?" Noct asked through heavy breaths.
"Fifteen minutes. The system has to accumulate enough charge to create the initial jump!"
’So just like a car engine with a new battery installed...’
Noct turned toward the rest of the students who were still in the frontlines. Some were bruised and battered while others looked like they could barely walk.
"Tell everyone to get inside," Noct said. "Set the barrier’s range to just a few meters from the mirror itself."
Instructor Klein hesitated. "Are you planning to—"
"Hold out," Noct replied with a deadpan face, cutting the man off. "The barrier needs to hold out for us to survive."
"And likely—"
"This’ll be the longest fifteen minutes of our lives..."