Fall of an Elder

Fall of an Elder

(Chapter 24)

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[<<]

One of the bluish gems lights up. The luminous intensity keeps on escalating so Eris taps on it. It's a LOT of Spectres. The Probability Count(Estimated Number) keeps on increasing till it just says 'Horde.' A lot of Spectres are Emerging and it might not be pretty for any I.M.U out there. Eris looks Erin very sincerely in the eyes. He can feel what she's feeling.

"Elmus is in danger."

"…"

"YOU KNOW that he's an I.M.U."

"And Valentina is too…"

[>]

[Laura]

She's sitting restless on her bed. She fluffs the covers up over and over again. Must be really nervous. Thing is, mom's hands are shaky. Ms. Laura's the one who tends to Elmus' wounds every time he returns from battle. She witnessed the wounds he sustained in fighting an Epic Emerged, sojourning with Arthur's Unit. (It shouldn't be possible to get hurt in that match up.) Now he's out alone with Tina.

"Elmus… Did I mess everything up? What if he does come back—yes, I'd like to believe in his promise… He's gonna come back… He has to or"—she covers her face with the covers—"it's not gonna happen. He will definitely come back to me."

[Boundless]

"{Elmus.Run,}" Amitha tells him so softly. It's not like he's in trouble. It exceeds trouble. It takes its lance with all four arms again. Elmus tackles Valentina to the ground as the blade of the lance comes whooshing by. It COMPLETELY SEVERS the 70cm wide trunk of the tree behind them, clean off! It reverses the direction so it can cut Elmus clean in half. Tina rockets him up 2 meters high with a thrust of her legs and arms, then lies flat. "WHOOSH!" A centimeter closer and it would've taken her ear off.

It initiates the overwhelming assault again. Gathering all its focus in its hind legs, it leaps at Elmus who's still airborne, kicks and follows up with a heavy slash. The kick connects but he's able to guard in time for the lance. It sends him packing.

Tina tries to capitalize on its tunnel vision. She draws her blade and goes for it as well. It doesn't intend on giving Elmus a chance to recover. It pounces on him, into the trunk of a tree, then starts to pummel him. Valentina slashes the tendons in its hind ankles. It doesn't even bother to turn around. It blasts a flame at her from its rear, almost singeing her exposed face.

It takes Elmus by the throat and holds his arms in place while the last arm pummels his gut. This is the most efficient way to choke somebody to death if you have an extra pair of arms. He's knocked out cold in two seconds. Tina sweeps it off its feet and slashes off the arm that's choking Elmus. As usual, it shrieks very loud, but this one quiets down quite early.

It retaliates, i.e. sweeps her off her feet and kicks her away. "{Ouch! If I save him it'll be even.}" She flares up to her feet. "You may have twice as many limbs as me but you're still gonna die like your friends!" It tries to get up but it can't. It gives an expression like "oh well," then hurls Elmus at her. She catches him and it also picks its lance up. This thing hasn't given up.

It sticks it's lance in the ground and pulls, using this as a means to compensate for the failure of its rear legs. It can't get a solid hit in on her so it strains and breaks its lance in two. The daze from being yanked around by the hair is still in effect. How is she gonna defeat an enemy that adapts to every situation?

[The Twins]

They're currently at the mini carriage station. It only has room for six. The driver that brought them over isn't there, so they have to take another carriage. Jedidiah is negotiating the price with the hackney carriage driver.

"You want a round trip? That's really gonna cost ya. You see, I've heard that the way to the Banana Plantation is still waterlogged. It's gonna be a hell of a time for me horses and I."

"So what're you thinking?"

"I'm gonna go for twenty grand."

"Fair enough."

"Aren't you gonna bargain?"

"I feel like it's good enough; no need to cheat you of your earnings."

"If you say so—hop on in."

Tamar and Paz pull him aside and yell at him in a low tone. "What the hell are you doing?"

"My money is yours but isn't this too much brother? You DO remember the last time we went bankrupt, right?"

"And whose fault was that?"

"That's why I'm warning you so you don't make the same mistake."

"That was no mistake. Anyway, I believe it's a fair price, covering the load of a truck load of bananas. Let me remind you that he never got to know about that so we should be getting on before he starts to question us."

"… Alright."

[Bigfoot]

A young maiden comes wandering into the woods, slugging a sled along. She's looking for something, or should I say SOMEONE? Just like how he surprised The Twins, he waits for her to approach the log pile then crashes down on the ground behind her. She's really startled and drops what she's holding onto. After all, all you CAN see in that darkness is a colossal shadow in the dust.

"*scream*" He's holding his axe straight at her.

"Who goes there?"

"Nepherihmet!(Nê-FAIRY-met!)" she shouts loud and clear, holding her hands up. "My hands are in the air; please don't hurt me!"

"What do you want?"

"I-I-I—"

"Cough it out before I chop you in half!"

"*scream* They-they-they-they said you were not hostile in th-th-the slightest and I thought 'you must be hungry' so I-I-I—" She runs of scared.

"…What was that about?" he asks himself scratching his head. "Don't these people have any manners? Coming to someone's—"

As he's about getting onto the log pile for bed, he steps on something. It's not so big but something in it pricked his foot. He jumps up, hopping on one foot and eventually topples over. "Ouch!" After he recovers, he gropes around for the trap that the girl must've set for him. It's something soft and warm and it seems like he squashed it. He cautiously lifts it up with the tips of his fingernails and wafts a whiff of its scent to his nose.

"Food?" It was one of the fatted cows. She went through the trouble of seasoning and cooking and garnishing it, and even delivering it to him alone. "My bad. Nevertheless, it could be poisoned…Even if it's not, nothing ever comes free from a human."

[Erin]

He's alone in there. It seems like a lot of the Zombie gems close to mainland are already lit up. "Could it be that the Zombies have already invaded the mainland? … What do you think sis…"—he lifts his head up—"Eris…I was so focused on this that I didn't even hear her open the door. I just hope that Rex accompanies her. If I hadn't promised Anika that I'd stay here…" He slams his hand down on the table and the interface blinks a few times. "Oops!"

[Succubus]

They're progressing through the woods, exercising extreme caution. As they previously arranged, Arthur and Daara are carrying the stretcher. Arthur stumbles on a rock and it creates some turbulence. Angelica moans.

"*gasp*"

"She awake?"

"… Not yet Axel, but it's only a matter of time."

"Can we pick up the pace?"

"No need to rush or we just might crash… Speaking about crashing, it's dark. Spectres emerge every day so there's a chance we might encounter a few. If that happens we'll have to switch over."

"Then your reaction time better be fast."

[Boundless]

Valentina's not at her best and it keeps slinging towards and slashing at her. It's long abdomen should've been an exploitable vulnerability but it covers up for that with its series of overwhelming attacks so there's practically no opening…

"{Wait a second. It's flames are gradually quenching. It's conserving the remnants of it's firepower. I just need to find a way to corner it.}"

She hides behind a tree and waits for it to sling towards, then pops out and surprises it. It evades and she ricochets off the tree behind it and comes back at it. It's crippled so it can't respond to threats that come at it's rear section. It has to divert the usage of it's lance to locomotion to evade some hits.

"{Even if I have a splitting migraine right now *slash*, I will muster up all the might my muscles can take *slash*. I will execute your technique better than you can, *double slash* because somebody's dying today and it's DEFINITELY *slash* NOT GONNA *double slash* BE ME!}"

This time, she shoots at it and lets out a flurry of slashes. She's in close quarters now so it can't fend off all the blows and she gets a few slices in. It's completely overwhelmed and bursts out with the full might of it's flames. She leaps back. It goes ablaze again but the fire quenches. It has used up all it's mana.

"Now you can put your head down so I can cut it clean off—OR you can fight and suffer a gruesome death."

"*SHRIEK!!!*"

"I'll just assume you chose option 2."

They're in the end game. She circles around it counter clockwise, going faster each lap. It doesn't plan on letting her initiate that attack. It swirls it's lances around in the clockwise direction. She lunges in and doesn't deflect, but skids on along it's lance with her blade. Once her blade makes contact with it's fingers, she lets go and bludgeons it in the face. She's the one doing the punching, but after she's done she feels as if she was rather beat; her knuckles are throbbing.

"Is your skull made of metal?!"—she exclaims fluttering her aching hands. Sorry to have to do this to you but I couldn't let him be better than me." She rips the mana-crystal out of it's forehead.

[>]

"Hey…Hey…Wake up," she shakes and shakes him. It doesn't work so she pulls out a tiny gourd of whiskey. "{… Come to think of it, he probably poured water in my mouth when I was unconscious…}" She tilts his head over and pours a few drops of whiskey in both of his nostrils, then puts it back in her pocket. His face twitches once, twice, then he shoots up coughing and rolling around.

"AAAH! Tina what'd you do?!?"

She hands him a gourd of water. "I can't quite remember ogre. You're probably just throwing a fit because I defeated the Elder while you slept like a baby."

He flushes his nose over and over again with the water until the gourd's empty. It still stings a little. "Valentina you psychopath! Petty behaviour like this isn't befitting of you."

"You're right. I shouldn't have stooped to your level… are you in too much pain to retaliate this time?"

"Of course I am! That thing burns much more than the Elder-I can't even think straight! What did you pour up my nose?"

"A little whiskey. My bad, didn't know you were a minor."

"Well you just wasted one of your gourds of water," he says, rubbing his nose. He hands her the empty gourd but she just casts it aside "…We should get moving before another horde of who knows what, trails the stench of blood TO us. C'mon."

She extends her hand to him but he smacks it away and gets up on his own. "Looks like someone's pissed."

[Gates]

Eris comes scuttling along with her crutches. It's the night shift now so Alfonse is out. He almost didn't notice the crutches, but does when she passes by the torch. He refuses to let her go.

"Just let me go."

"This is the definition of madness; I'm not going to allow it. Rex!" Rex was waiting just outside the gate. He also comes in. "Just have a look at this."

"Don't tell me that she's trying to go out like this."

"Exactly."

"Did Erin allow it?"

"…Listen to me first. A large wave of Spectres has Emerged. They're moving pretty fast and every single I.M.U out there might be in grave danger."

"Can you hear yourself? Even if you DO go out there, how many will you be able to take on at a time? You're just gonna be a burden if you're lucky enough to survive through the initial onslaught."

"I won't… It's better than sitting around here doing nothing."

"…Even if I decide to let you go, Erin'd never forgive me."

"…That's why you don't have to…"

She flicks her hand and blasts both of them away with a mild flame, then hurries on along. Alfonse gets up to give chase, but Rex holds him back.

"What're you doing?"

"We have to stay here. We haven't a clue what's coming. We're the rear guard remember?"

"You want to let her go…"

"I never said anything of the sort."

[Boundless]

They're sitting against a tree: Tina on one side and Elmus on the opposite. Seems like he might still be upset. If not for the moon's glow, it'd be completely dark. They're getting some rest it seems.

"You still there?"

"Of course. You don't actually think I'm gonna sleep out here in the open, do you?"

"You're still upset, aren't you?"

"I'm still burning but nah; terrible at holding grudges."

"That's good to know because it was just a little prank. Meant no harm…"

"That's a bare-faced lie. Who pours alcohol up someone's nostrils without meaning any harm?"

"True… Where are we gonna sleep?"

"We'll have to climb the trees. My arms are still numb as hell; once they recover, I'll climb. You can go on ahead."

"Must be drunk. I'm not gonna leave a helpless little boy out in the open."

"You're delusional…Tina, do you hear something?"

She crawls around to his side. "Hear what? I can only hear the draft."

"Exactly. The mist on the ground is stagnant; there shouldn't be a draft." He draws Amitha. "Hey, you feel anything?"

"{I can feel a presence but that's all. Maybe a ghost???}"

"But ghosts don't really exist, do they?"

"…! Yes they kinda do!"—draws her blade—"It's a Spectre! Don't stand idle!"

They waltz around a bit.

"They'll probably just wait for us to exhaust all of our mana then attack. I've got a plan. Rear up behind me."

She does. "And what's the plan?"

"You strong enough to swing me around?"

"Of course."

"Good. Amitha!"—Amitha goes up in flames—"Now!"

She grabs his ankle and swings him around haphazardly. She hits 1, 2,3… She puts him down. Now that their cover's blown, they emerge from their stealth cloaks one by one. The darkness is illuminated by the endless stream of red eyes about them.

"…Tina, did we strike some enemy multiplier on our way out because this is the first time I've gotten so much attention."

"…"

"{Elmus. Her heart's pounding.}"

"{She scared?}"

"{I can't really tell.}"

"We…we're gonna have to kill all of them. We can't afford to let any of them escape."

"Then we're gonna have to move faster than their reflexes. Go!" They lunge out in opposite directions. "{Zombies and ghosts... We're in a Graveyard.}"

-------End of Chapter 24-------

Chapter 25 Teaser

Zombies, ghosts and more zombies.

To be continued…