Diosia, Part Thirteen

Caitlyn grabbed a rifle as well.

"Anyone outside will have absolutely heard this fighting," the elf stated. "You... You should take the lead."

"Right," Liri replied with a nod. "Let's go."

She placed her hands on the manor's front doors as Caitlyn and Arisa followed behind her, and the ven pushed them open.

The instant the three of them appeared outside the Duchess's manor, they were greeted by a short line of four more guards holding rifles.

Liri's eyes widened.

"Get behind me!"

She dropped the rifle she'd picked up earlier and turned around, pulling Caitlyn and Arisa in and wrapping herself around them to shield them with her body.

Gunfire rang out.

"MM!" Liri gritted her teeth, ducking her head further as bullets rained on her back. They didn't penetrate her armor, but it still hurt like hell.

"Agh!" Arisa cried out as her right foot was hit by a stray shot. Her right thigh was hurt as well. Caitlyn was left unharmed, but with Arisa being so much larger than Liri, it was all she could do to protect her torso.

"Liz ner marin," Liri muttered, trying to heal the drasen through the pain.

Then came the moment Liri was waiting for.

The guards needed to reload.

As the gunshots were briefly interrupted, Liri dropped to the ground to pick up the rifle she'd tossed aside.

Caitlyn turned as well, her own rifle aimed at the humans behind them.

It was clear from the way their eyes widened and their hands froze in the middle of reloading that they hadn't expected the three girls up ahead to make it through the burst.

Both Liri and Caitlyn returned fire. One of the guards managed to run away, but the other three were not as lucky.

Soul Rating Gained: 100

Soul Rating: 3700

"Uh, Cait, what's the way out?" Liri asked.

"This way!"

The elf took the lead then, running behind the nearby houses and moving through alleys. Liri and Arisa followed closely behind, as guards in the streets began shouting, moving toward them.

"You still can't use your abilities?" Liri asked Cait between short breaths.

"Not yet, not yet..." As they went past one more building, however, Caitlyn's answer finally changed. "Now! I'll lead you from above, follow me!"

She then threw her rifle away and made some sort of hand signs.

"Frantera!"

Suddenly, the woman transformed into an eagle.

She flew high up in the air as Liri watched, stunned.

[That puts her in a safer position, too. She's kind of putting herself in a position to leave us behind too if she chooses, but I can't blame her for that.]

Liri did as she asked and kept her eyes up on Caitlyn's bird form as she and Arisa continued sprinting behind buildings. A massive wall kept them from simply running into the wilderness from here.

If it was just Liri, she may have bet on her ability to clear this jump with how much of a boost in power this armor gave her. However, she had Arisa with her.

Footsteps rumbled along the street and Liri snuck a glance to her left, finding that officers were running along with them, making their way to the same exit Caitlyn was probably leading them to.

[We're going to end up getting into another fight no matter what, huh? And they don't want to throw officers at us one at a time. They know where we're most likely headed, so they're trying to clump up together in time to contest us.]

The worst part was that Liri hadn't seen any of those Inquisitors Caitlyn had mentioned. They might have already gotten to the gates.

[As we are right now, even with how strong I am, we're not gonna be able to fight our way through. So, what else could we do?]

She tried to search for an option. The last thing that these enemies would expect from them.

"Cait!" Liri called out. She saw the eagle glance down. "Change of plans, follow me!"

Liri grabbed Arisa by her wrist and turned around.

Caitlyn hesitated for a moment, but soon descended and went back into her elvish form, running beside Liri.

"What are you doing!?" The elf asked.

"We're heading straight into a trap if we move that way. We need to try something else."

"What else could we do, though? The other exit-"

"Is heavily guarded?" Liri asked with a smirk. "Clearly not if they're sending everyone where we were going!"

Caitlyn's eyes widened.

"I... Maybe we could move through there, but they have a machine that lets them track elves. They'll know I turned around."

"Then, we'll just have to escape before they adjust!"

Pushing ahead further, Liri came out into the street.

As she'd predicted, she immediately found a massive group of guards frantically making their way to the gate the three of them had been headed for.

Caitlyn led them once again, moving ahead of Liri so that she and Arisa could follow her to the other gate.

A few guards spotted them, instantly opening fire on them.

All Liri could do was get between them and Arisa, but Caitlyn was on her own, and Liri couldn't stop running to block every single shot.

"Agh!" Arisa cried out, as her left calf was hit.

"Push through it, please," Liri pleaded. "Liz ner marin!"

She kept a hand on Arisa to heal her. The drasen tried her best to will herself forward.

Then, Liri spotted a problem.

A bulky vehicle with a machine gun mounted onto it spotted them.

As its gun began moving to aim at them, Liri felt like the whole world slowed down.

There was no hope of them dodging shots from something like that.

[...] She paused for only a moment before realizing what she needed to try.

What she needed to do if they were going to make it out.

Using every ounce of strength and speed she had, she dashed toward the car.

"Liri!" Arisa yelled out, seeing her.

With both her hands balled up into fists, Liri closed the distance between herself and the car in an instant.

"Huh!?" She heard the driver cry out as Liri reached it.

And then, she jumped on top of the vehicle.

The car went to a screeching halt that nearly caused Liri to slip, but she held on and raised her right hand.

She punched twice. The first, her left, went through the driver's window and knocked him out. The second went to the gunner.

Her right fist went straight through the officer behind the mounted gun, as Liri punched a hole into his chest.

Soul Rating Gained: 50

Soul Rating: 3750

Throwing his body off the car, Liri took the gun herself.

As Arisa and Caitlyn were running from guards, Liri moved to make that a little easier for them.

"Come on!" Liri yelled out as she aimed the gun at the humans around them and pulled the trigger on this thing.

Soul Rating Gained: 50

Soul Rating: 3800

Soul Rating Gained: 50

Soul Rating: 3850

Soul Rating Gained: 50

Soul Rating: 3900

Soul Rating Gained: 50

Soul Rating: 3950

The carnage was... gruesome. The shots this weapon fired off reduced any of the humans caught to a red mist and scattered body parts.

Liri heard more shouting behind her and turned to gun down the guards arriving from the gate.

A shot grazed past Liri's cheek. She looked up and found a sniper aiming down at her from the rooftops.

[There are still so many of them!]

As Liri attempted to shoot down the snipers, someone opened the door to the car and Liri thought it was another human but, no. Caitlyn went into the vehicle after pulling the driver's body out of it and pushing Arisa into the other seat.

"Liri, keep it up!"

She tried to do that, ducking to avoid the sniper fire as the car spun around and Caitlyn began driving them to the gate.

[We can do this,] Liri thought. [We can-]

But, suddenly, a small group of humans walked out from behind the open gate.

Three of them, dressed in black armor, with swords behind their backs. One of them, a girl with curly blonde hair, Liri recognized, which let her know who they were.

[The Inquisitors!]

They did not look scared at all by the approaching vehicle. A fact that made Liri yell out:

"Stop!"

Caitlyn did just that. They barely moved from where they'd started when Caitlyn took possession of the car.

But, Liri could feel it in the air.

This was a completely different situation now.

Scanning their Soul Ratings confirmed that fact.

SR: 2980

SR: 3030

SR: 3200

Even though they were each individually weaker than Liri was, the ven worried that their combined strength would make this a losing fight.

[Okay,] she stopped. [What should I do?]