They ran through the carcases, leaving each as ravaged as the one before.
Dancing with the monsters, pushed back at every step.
Gydil dug her blade deep in the bones of the monster. Aiming at the joints, followed by Arduo finishing it off. Gydil was careful to leave the big strong monsters intact for her partner to use. Arduo made sure to move in just fast enough to stop Gydil from being flanked on both sides - switching between monsters.
It was strange, they fought like their lives were on the line. They had no real obligation to the Knight's mission, neither to the life they were diligently protecting – the priestess. But each wanted what they wanted even more – the other to save, and the other sought retribution – but it was enough for both of them to risk their lives so furiously – all the reason they ever needed – even against a horde as large as this one.
Soon they began to slip. The monsters began using their special skills. Arduo was losing bodies faster than Gydil could provide, coming just an inch closer to actually dying. All she had to do was get out of the body before it suffered egregious wounds whilst inside it.
The tango worsened. And it came at a breaking point, ushered by the noise both never wanted to hear. It seems their small squeamish and bickering with the monsters had attracted the real hitters, monsters with powers. Just a few, but that was enough to overthrow off all their efforts.
The news came in the form of the noise made as Gydil's blade shattered on the bones of the monster she faced – which meant that that monster was way above them, and by a simple look around more of those that strong were clambering up. She then made a few more blades, these ones sturdier – not enough to cut, but just enough to block.
'A real class B horde – now of all times.'
Arduo managed to look at the situation, thinking through the madness of the bodies she took. Even if the bodies had not been destroyed, staying too long inside a monsters body was bound to drive her mad.
This is getting really bad – my last resorts are even useless, at best it would buy time by just wiping out just a few of them – an exercise in futility. And by the looks of those clouds, even though a few monsters here can use powers, more and more of those who can will fill this area soon. And we've lost too much ground. What can we do…?
In a blinding flash of light, the first monsters on the front line vanished. The ones after those stumbled back. Both Arduo and Gydil looked back. The priestess walked to them, passing them. She cracked her bones, reeling from immense anguish.
"I wasn't planning on interfering, but that stupid thing in my soul took more work to get it out of me. You said your friend made it for you, you'll have to tell me more about them."
"I wouldn't say friend…"
"Interesting…"
Now that they took a good look at her, she shone with an unimaginable brilliance. The deep shadows that once bathed the area just a moment ago, were all gone. Not even half faded shadows remained. Her light somehow pierced right through their bodies. Some faint glowing patterns shone and floated above her. Her face grew slightly horrid, contrasting with the brightness of her light, and the softness of her voice.
"I'm sorry, but that thing of yours really did a number on me, this is as far as I can push myself."
She can get more distorted than this – I think I'll keep that out of my thoughts.
Then they attacked. From the get-go, she made easy work of the monsters Arduo and Gydil were having a problem dealing with. It evened out the forces, but that quickly changed, as the monsters got more powerful. Eventually Gydil and Arduo lost all the monsters they could handle and went on to support the priestess.
"we can't hold this line for very long." – said the priestess with heavy paintings.
"I know that" replied Arduo.
They were slowly getting outdone on every front. Then Gydil screamed something as another set of her blades shattered, and she was sent flying, soon, landing with a spring jump, sending her, right back to her line, cutting through the beasts skin, and skin alone.
"I have a plan…" said Gydil.
"About that plan…"
"Oh right… Priestess, is it safe to assume that your light can shine right through the wall?"
"If I was extremely close to it."
"Okay, there might still be hope for us yet."
With a sprint on all fours, Arduo dashed out of the line, using a monsters body. To stop a sudden surge, a massive cleaver appeared on the most right side of the priest, cutting through the monsters before getting stuck on the forearm of a truly big and strong one. She dismissed the cleaver, pulling out a heavy sword, as big and bright as the light she emanated as she pounced onto the monster – she had stopped the surge.
At her speeds Arduo made it to the city wall a whole half hour later. She could not make it through the gate, but she didn't need to. She ditched the body, and phased through the walls, which only kept monsters out. To accommodate forest folk, walls had been adapted to allow tame spirits to pass, and she was tame-ish. Inside she quickly found the body she left earlier, being inspected. Unceremoniously she entered it once more.
She rose up, like a living corpse – the living corpse that she was. The people gasped. She wanted to notify the city of the monster horde, but it could not make it through the walls. It was a problem the city didn't need solved. What she needed was to get a party to go help her friends escape. But even then, the guild and available adventures were all the way on the other side of the city.
They had chosen it to be this way to avoid any manner of help that the guild could provide to come to the priestess' rescue – but now it was they who needed it.
Things didn't just go wrong; they went bad in the most horrible of ways possible. I don't think they can hold out for much longer – getting the adventures or any help is going to take too long. I better get Gydil's plan going then.
"Did you see that?" – he spoke in fluent elemental.
"what?" – asked another standing over the rotting corpse.
"It moved…"
"No –"
"Is it a vengeful spirit!?" – screamed another that heard their conversation.
They all started shimmering.
That's it – I need all of you excited – but not here…
She then began running, eventually moving around like an electron through a wire of Christmas light, and each light was one of the six elementals. These were the ones closer to the gate she had led the priestess out of. They lit up, strange for a lightshow during the day. She was sure it wouldn't be so bad considering that she was only gathering the particles from the elementals closer to the wall.
She looked back, watching as the light shimmered. The reason normal people don't live in wilster Ash city is because of the elementals – when they get excited, they release a bit of their essence into the air. Naturally this does nothing. But when the essence builds up and mixes, they create a conduit/fuel source for a chaos spell.
And in places where they all live together, so clumped – this had become such a regular occurrence that the walls of the city were built to let the energy pass right through it, and the houses strong enough to withstand.
The six types of elemental essences concentrated closer to the gate.
Their excitement was so regulated that they only had one festival every ten years. And today couldn't be any better for their plan. The levels of chaos is usually high, higher on festivals like today, and even more so due to Arduo.
Arduo reached the gate, leaving the body, the crowd following the corpse stopped. Their excitement levels dropped just a little. But right then she was outside. The priestess could still see and hear her due to her immense prowess, unlike Gydil. Right then she heard her signal.
"Now‼!"
"Roger that." She lurched her blade deep into her foe to buy time, not enough to kill it. She then grabbed Gydil in one arm and ran back to the wall.
The closer she got, the more her blinding radiance penetrated through the walls of the city, instantly tuning everything it touched a pristine white. This was the trigger they had been waiting for, one that shot the excitement of the elementals through the roof.
They didn't know what kind or kinds of spells this would incur, so they chose to escape. The elementals were immune to the randomised chaotic casting.
Their essence condensed together. Their molecules concatenated, creating a steadily growing chain of high chaos. The entropy levels skyrocketed, and the natural order of Ouran wanted to spread this chaos. The light shimmered black, white, red, blue, a pale colour, and then green, all in a loop.
The priestess took both Gydil and Arduo – she could touch her, and she jumped high into the sky. Almost like watching a cold white sun rise, one so close you could touch it. She compressed the air and jumped higher into the skies. Scaling the wall, reaching up. Instinctively, the guards atop the wall tried to stop her, but they were so blinded, they didn't have enough time to focus before it immediately and suddenly begun.
It began with a shrill – and very low-pitched constant noise. It had no echo, but in resonated so clearly. Time stopped around the city, everyone frozen in place. The three of them frozen in the middle of the priestess' high jump, right before reaching the range for the guards attack.
The elementals frozen like pictures, the wind, the rubbles, and even the monster horde that followed after them, frozen in the middle of their march. Space warped ever so slightly to the air right inside the gate.
And in a magnificent spectacle, one too fast to be seen, too violent to be ignored, so clear as to not be felt until it was all over.
BOOM!
Rang through the city, almost deafening the three of them. Everyone else near them was an elemental, except of course the monsters, they were gone.
"That was a chaos 3 – no weaker?" asked one elemental to another.
"I'd give it a mid but solid 2."
The elementals all sighed. To them, a chaotic spell was like a huge reliever of their stress level. It's even therapeutic. Besides the blow of winds, the city was fine, the wall had let all that contained energy pass right through it. The only strange thing was that it came earlier than expected and was not going to be as powerful as the one on the third day of the festival.
The priestess, Gydil, and Arduo had taken some damage, but moderate considering their daring plan, and their hasty retreat.
Non-elementals should never be this close to this city during such times, or they'd rather be inside. This massive explosion had earned it one of the topmost dangerous tourist cities – a title contradicted by the peaceful status of Elleria. Usually, wilster ash is empty of tourist during the festival. Even the ones who like thrill were barred up safely in the Inn's they had checked into, the rubble was enough excitement for them.
Ashes rained – as the city had been aptly name – blew in the air. The remains of the monster horde. The closer to the singularity, the collapse, the more double phasing energies pass through them. The light from the priestess had even kept some of the energies from reaching them, still they were a little too close to the epicentre.
The explosion had thrown them off their jump. Mid fall, they came to their senses, scrambling to get back onto the walls of the city, there was no telling what kind of aftershocks were left smouldering on the searing ground beneath.
A few pieces of rubble began descending out of the sky. Even though most had been evaporated, some were just blast up that high. As she watched the drops of rubble, onto the white ashes below she noticed some shifting.
"Couldn't be…"