Disclaimer – ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo
Delun and I watched with intense focus, nearly holding our breath as the doctor carefully sawed through my arm's thick cast, all the way from nearly my shoulder down to my hand. I was filled with excitement and anticipation at finally getting to use my arm again. It was like I was being reunited with a dear old friend I hadn't seen in over a month.
The doctor set the saw to one side, then slowly slipped the cast off my arm. I stared blankly down at it, feeling like I'd just been cheated out of something. Delun abruptly began to roar with laughter.
"Be quiet!" I ordered in embarrassment, attempting to roll down the left sleeve of my sweater as fast as I could, though it didn't really help the situation, since he'd already seen. The thick, blue cloth flapped loosely around my arm, unlike my right sleeve, which fit just fine.
Delun continued laughing, his face turning red as he shook his head and pointed at my now-covered arm. "It's so skinny! You twig!"
I refrained from glaring up at the doctor, as if it was all his fault my arm was so pale and scrawny, and angrily stared at the creamy-colored wall instead, silently seething at Delun's reaction. This must have been why he'd insisted on coming into the examination room with me, rather than waiting in the lobby with Chen and Shuang.
He was going to pay for this later.
"It's normal for a newly-healed broken limb to be a bit thin," the doctor loudly explained over Delun's gasps for air. The doctor, looking confused over how hilarious Delun thought this all was, cleared his throat and continued, "Since you haven't used it for so long, the muscles have atrophied. With exercise, it'll be back to how it was soon enough."
"STOP DOING THAT!" Wei Bo screamed in terror at me over the team channel. I watched for a moment as he raced across the dusty land far underneath my perch, lifting his red shield above his head to block the enormous sword, which was flying down upon him. A loud metallic clang echoed through the air, joining in with all of the yelling coming from below.
"Doing what?" I replied with serene innocence as if I had no idea what he was talking about, carefully aiming my longbow at yet another giant. The arrow I let loose deeply buried itself in the giant's shoulder and the monster howled in pain as it tromped in our direction.
Wei Bo bellowed something out loud I couldn't understand because of how far away he was—probably some swear word or another—while he ran across the rocky ground, attempting to escape from the giants following relentlessly after him.
"You're the one who told me to pull some for you, surely you can take on that small number with Dib and Avila-mèi as backup? Or shall I come swooping to your rescue?"
"Shut up, Twig! You don't have any right to call this huge crowd a 'small number' when you're hiding up there where they can't reach!" he huffed and twirled around, stabbing his long sword into one of the giant's knees.
"There's only twelve," I observed in amusement, watching leisurely while Avila sliced her nan dao across the back of the giant's shins. Dib leapt onto the giant's back as it fell to the ground, bloody legs unable to support its weight anymore, and began chopping at both sides of its thick neck.
Wei Bo threw a very dirty look upward in my direction after the game informed us that one of the giants had been defeated. "Don't make me come up there, you moron! I'd like to see you take on twelve giants at once, with backup or not!"
"Good luck climbing up the cliff while the giants are trying to dismember you," I replied airily, giving him a wave before pulling out another arrow and engaging another giant in the fight.
"I SAID STOP DOING THAT!"
Xiu Chen rolled her green eyes and flipped open her priest's book. I glanced down at her as she read off a sentence, and the three warriors' speed immediately increased as they ran about on the ground, surrounding the next giant in a triangular arrangement.
"I know he laughed at your arm, but don't get him killed with all of these giants," Xiu Chen commanded sternly once she closed her book and went back to watching the battle.
"Laughed" was an understatement. He hadn't calmed down until we'd already arrived home again, nearly half an hour after my cast had been removed. Who knew why he thought it was so humorous, but it made me very irritated. I was now determined to annoy him as much as possible, for as long as possible, and in as many ways as possible. I may not have been the sort of person who held grudges, but I certainly was one for spur-of-the-moment pestering.
"Dib's been a bad influence on you." Ugly Wolf's comment from the other day outside X University's infirmary rang in my ears while I attempted to think up some new way to bother Wei Bo.
Perhaps he had been.
Oh, well.
"It is rather funny-looking, you know," Jiū teased as she paused in her wand-waving, playfully smiling up at me. "You're all lop-sided."
Great. Wei Bo had gotten her in on it, too. Good thing most of my tops were long-sleeved.
"That doesn't mean he has to make fun of it so much," I mumbled as I drew back my arrow and let it fly toward one of the giants already chasing the warriors around, rather than shooting a new one into the fight. Just because Xiu Chen asked me to be nicer, not because I was finished picking on Wei Bo. Also because I didn't want Dib and Avila to die because I'd gathered too many mobs. Anyway, there weren't any more wandering around nearby I could pull.
Jiū curiously stared at me for a long moment as I shot another arrow, causing one of the giants to stumble to the ground as I hit its leg, nearly squishing Wei Bo underneath. Not that I was trying to squish him… Maybe.
"What if I made fun of it?" Jiū asked, her gray eyes narrowed in a tiny smirk.
"You can all you want," I answered, flashing her an amused look while I lowered my bow and settled into a more relaxed stance. "But please, go easy on me, or else I might be forced to retaliate."
She made a disbelieving noise at my threat and crossed her arms as she strode up to stand in front of me, eyebrows drawn together in a challenging smile, body lifted up on her tip-toes. Her white wings stretched themselves out to their full span of nearly ten feet as if she wanted to look more impressive. "What'll you do, get a giant to chase me around? You'll have to come up with something pretty clever to stop me."
Leaning forward, I stared her in the eye and grinned in return as I ran one finger along the soft feathers on top of her right wing. "Oh, I have my ways of getting revenge for any teasing that may take place."
"You two!" Xiu Chen whined, giving us both a flustered glance. "Go flirt somewhere else! I don't want to hear or see it!"
Rolling my eyes and feeling disappointed that we'd been interrupted yet again, I straightened myself and pulled out an arrow. Giving her embarrassed frown a nod, I fell backward off the rocky outcropping we were gathered on. Extending my wings, I leveled out and directed myself toward where the other three were still battling. I only had a few more arrows left, and I wanted to get in a bit more Annoying Time before I used up the remainder.
"Go away! We don't need you down here!" Wei Bo growled when he saw me approaching. I ignored his sharp dismissal, and continued to zoom toward him through the shadows of the gully. Raising my bow, I steadied my hand while gliding through the air, and aimed.
"CHE-E-EN! HE'S TRYING TO KILL ME!" Wei Bo screamed when he finally noticed where my bow was pointing.
Tattle tale.
"I'm not." I quickly readjusted my aim as he continued to dart about in a panicky manner. Since when did he have such high agility?
"Stop moving for a moment, I can't get a clear shot."
"Be nice," Jiū ordered.
"Aeolus-gē! What did I just tell you about not killing him?"
I refrained from reminding her that she'd only said not to kill him with an overload of giants.
"STOP AIMING AT MY FACE, DAMN IT!" Wei Bo yelled, attempting to run away from me as he lifted his shield in front of himself, though the real threat was coming from behind. Not that he noticed.
"I said I'm not!" I denied, trying not to laugh as I let my arrow go. It stabbed itself into the stomach of a giant which had been following after Wei Bo while he raced around, not even bothering to pay attention to the monsters. I quickly peppered the monster's stomach with the rest of my arrows, and then sipped on a stamina potion as Wei Bo finished it off. He didn't spare me a glance before he hurried into the next fight.
"You're welcome, Huffy-dì," I finally sulked while he continued to ignore the fact that I'd just helped him. Then again, it was my fault he'd been in danger in the first place.
"Don't call me dì! That sounds gross!" he fumed.
"Okay, Huffy."
"Don't call me that, either!"
"Would you both shut up? I'm trying to concentrate!" Avila snapped, glaring up at me as I flew overhead. She hurriedly returned her focus to parrying the blade of one of the giants, and dashed forward to slice at its leg.
"I second that," Dib concurred in annoyance as he looped around behind the enormous monster and hacked away at the back of its left ankle—the only part he could reach.
I'd been surprised that he'd agreed to train on giants. For fear of the tiny boy getting stepped on, I'd tried to find something else, but he'd stopped me. Unlike so many months ago when he'd been so excited over fights and then nearly died from fright every single time, it seemed his confidence was genuine at last. But that may have simply been because I wasn't there for him to run to anymore.
Giving him a small, worried glance—one he didn't seem to notice, or perhaps he ignored—I circled back around and sighed slightly, attempting to keep my spirits up. My eyes landed on Wei Bo again. "He's the one jumping to conclusions," I replied at last, "just because I happened to be pointing my bow in his general direction! He shouldn't have been–"
"Sorry to interrupt your extremely important argument," a seventh, unexpected, and very worried voice suddenly cut in over the channel, "but we need you guys to come back to the city as fast as you can."
My eyes widened with a swirling mixture of surprise and anger as I realized who it was. How in the world had Lolidragon gotten into our team chat? I'd thought only team members could enter. Was there some way to force her out of it?
After my conversation with Jiū, Lolidragon was one of the last people I ever wanted to speak to again, if ever. It had taken all of my self control to keep myself from murdering her the last time I'd seen her several days ago before my team and I had left to train together at the giant-filled cliffs several miles east of the city.
"Why do we have to come back?" Dib asked, pausing in his ankle-chopping and looking a bit confused. "I thought we'd finished all our work. Or did Yu Lian give Al more things to do?"
"Just come back here!" she snarled. "We'll explain once you arrive!"
"Geeze, it was just a question. No need to be so grumpy."
"We'll be back in an hour or so," Xiu Chen said, and Lolidragon disappeared from the chat.
Though I was extremely reluctant to leave the gully, even with my arrows all gone, I obediently walked with the others back to the city, wondering why Lolidragon had sounded so worried. Then again, maybe she was just trying to be tricky, as usual. I doubted I'd trust her again for some time yet.
Slightly less than an hour later, we were filing into one of the largest meeting halls of the central tower, and the members of the Odd Squad—still sans Prince, it seemed—Dark Phantom, and that one tattoo-faced, pokey-haired warrior Gui had introduced to us whose name I couldn't remember all turned in our direction, anxiety smothering their faces.
"What's wrong? Why have you called us?" I asked, looking at each person in turn as we came to a stop. Apparently Lolidragon's worried tone hadn't been pretend.
"Fan is leading an army to attack Infinite City," the unknown warrior informed quietly. "They'll be here in around six or seven hours."
I stared at him for a moment, wondering if that announcement was supposed to make sense. It didn't, in several ways.
"Who's Fan?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"He was one of the three leaders during the Grand Melee," Dib explained, tilting his head back to look up at me. "Remember how the teams were all clumped into three big groups? Nan Gong Zui here was one leader, and that tiger guy another, and Fan was the third."
"Oh," I said, feeling relieved that Dib had unintentionally answered two of my questions. I gave them an apologetic shrug. "No, I can't remember what happened during the competition. I'm sorry."
"How could you forget something huge like that?" Lolidragon asked with a tiny frown.
"Why's he attacking the city?" Wei Bo cut in, thankfully saving me the trouble of having to explain myself all over again like I had with so many people already.
"He doesn't like Zui," Doll answered, sighing slightly from her chair. "They're rivals."
"The city… is being attacked by an army because of something as trivial as a rivalry…?" I stared at Nan Gong Zui in utter disbelief. What in the world was the matter with these people? This was just a game. How ridiculous could they get, starting an entire war with one another for some reason like that?
When Nan Gong Zui's face fell into one of extreme offense at the word "trivial", Doll added, "Fan doesn't like Prince-gēge very much, either. Since he's the city lord and all, it adds to Fan's motive for stealing the city."
Was that continuation supposed to make me see all of this as less idiotic? If anything, that made me think this Fan person and his battle was even more pointless than I had initially.
"It was several days ago when we received the news that Fan was coming," Yu Lian said, "so the city as a whole is fairly prepared, and you don't have to concern yourselves over those matters. Since the time for Fan's army to arrive is nearing, we called you back for the battle, so spend the remaining hours getting ready."
She looked over the five of my teammates, but then surprised me by suddenly staring at me as well. "Aeolus, I know you're not in the military, but…" She paused when I began to shake my head in refusal for what she was going to say next. There was no way I wanted to take part in a war, much less one being fought for such stupid reasons.
"I don't want to fight. That was the reason I declined joining the military department in the first place," I said, giving her a stubborn glance.
An icy glower settled on her face and she stepped forward with deliberate forcefulness. The sight was absolutely terrifying, but I stood my ground, determined to win against her. "Aeolus, you are not in a position to decline our request for help when the city is in the danger it's in. As a member of the Odd Squad and as one of the city owners, I have the authority to command you in any way I so choose. As one of Infinite City's citizens and a subordinate to the Odd Squad, you can hardly refuse. However, since you are Gui's younger brother, I would prefer not to use drastic measures to change your mind, for his sake, not for yours."
"I've already done what you asked of me and made you a great deal of weapons, armor, and potions," I answered as steadily as I could manage, attempting not to wonder what she meant by "drastic measures".
"And what happened to your declaration of 'we'll help wherever we can'? Are you saying you were lying?" she pressed, narrowing her eyes even further until I was wondering if she could even see me anymore.
Damn, these people were persistent. This was why I hadn't wanted to help manage their city. It was causing me nothing but trouble.
"That was in regard to management positions," I replied firmly, "it wasn't a loophole for you to use when—OUCH!"
Whirling around to look for the source of the sharp, stinging pain in my shoulder blade, I glared furiously down at Lolidragon. She waved a fistful of tiny black feathers at me, then threw them at my face. Reaching a hand around behind myself, I rubbed my feathered skin through the holes in my leather top. There was a large bald spot interrupting the thin lines of plumage running across my back. "Why are you ripping out my feathers?" I demanded angrily, hoping they would grow back soon. Since when had she been behind me, anyway?
"Cooperate, or else I'll pluck every single one of your precious little feathers!" she threatened, stabbing her finger at my nose. "There's no time to stand around here and argue until you agree, stupid! We don't have enough archers for the city defense, so you're gonna help us whether you want to or not!"
"Why should I involve myself in Nan Gong Zui's battle for superiority over this Fan person?"
"Because, it isn't just Zui's battle anymore!" she yelled, grabbing a lock of my hair and roughly tugging on it until I slapped her hand away. "All the rest of Infinity City has been pulled into it, and we've got to fight, or we'll lose the city, and there's no way I'm gonna let that prissy man get his mits on the Odd Squad's property! If you don't wanna fight for Zui's sake, do it for Gui or something!"
"Why are you so reluctant to help us?" Ugly Wolf asked quietly in the silence following Lolidragon's words. I clamped my mouth shut in a refusal to explain myself. As if I would blurt out such personal things in front of a large crowd of complete strangers. Regardless of how I was on companionable terms with several of the people, I was nowhere near comfortable enough to tell even them. Jiū, Dib, and possibly Gui—fine. But definitely not the rest.
Lolidragon lobbed one last glare at me, stomped over to her team, grabbed Gui by his shirt front, and dragged him back to my team and I. "Convince him!" she ordered, pushing us both toward a nearby doorway.
"Let's get the rest of you organized," Yu Lian suggested to the others, and they were promptly herded outside. I stared after them, and then glanced at Gui, not feeling at all prepared to suddenly speak to him. We'd been plenty friendly with one another as of late, if one could call it that, but that didn't mean I was okay with having a spontaneous heart-to-heart talk. He didn't look very enthusiastic over the idea, either.
Gui sighed slightly and turned in a very reluctant manner toward the door Lolidragon had shoved us at. Giving one more longing look in the direction of where everyone had left, I followed after him, closing the small meeting room's door behind myself. A very long stretch of silence took place, and I glanced awkwardly between Gui and the stone floor.
"I guess I'm supposed to be saying something convincing," he mused. Sighing again, he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. "So, why are you so reluctant?"
"I don't like violence," I muttered, resting myself on the closed door as I continued to stare downward. "It reminds me of him," I answered quietly, feeling somewhat surprised that I'd said it so easily.
"I assume you're talking about father, but he has nothing to do with this," Gui pointed out, tilting his head to one side as he looked me over.
I laughed lightly, briefly shaking my head at him. "Says the person who hasn't lived with father and his constant torment for his entire life. You have no idea what it was like, so please, don't say such things so casually as if you're completely understanding of what I've been through."
Anger flashed across Gui's eyes, and it seemed as though he was about to yell something, but he looked away, forcibly calmer than before, and nodded. "No, I don't understand," he said carefully, "but I would appreciate it if you would stop talking to me as though you're the only person who suffered while we were growing up. My childhood was nowhere near wonderful, either. All the damn pressure to be perfect every single second, I could hardly even…"
Gui paused and took a deep breath, letting his head fall back to rest on the wall. "Okay, we're getting off-topic. Not a good place to be."
His eyes darted about the ceiling for a moment, and then he stared at me with a guarded expression. "Don't think I'm calling you wimpy or anything like that, because I'm not, but you're plenty fine with killing monsters, and the pain level is only thirty percent of that in real life. So, well, um, I know getting injured still hurts and all, but–"
"If I was afraid of pain, I wouldn't have bought Second Life," I interrupted, smirking slightly at his perplexed frown.
"What's the problem, then?" he asked.
Exhaling slowly, I went back to staring at the patch of wood floor between my boots. "Monsters are just part of the Second Life program, it's not like I'm actually hurting them whenever I train. However, these are real people we're talking about killing. I don't want to hurt anyone," I whispered. "I know it may not seem like a big deal to you or other people, since it's not like I'll really be killing them, but… but that doesn't mean they don't feel pain.
"The thought of… being like him, of hurting people," I said, my breath quickening as I pressed a hand to my eyes. "I don't want to be anything like him… but sometimes I reflect on how I've behaved, and I wonder why in the world I acted like that. Whenever I lose my temper over tiny, insignificant things, and when I get angry with people when they don't do things the way I want them to be done, and how judgmental and condescending I am… I see him in me and it makes me so sick… It makes me so sick."
Pressing both hands to my eyes as hard as I could, I gritted my teeth and tried to beat down the urge to cry. But, before I knew what was happening, Gui's arms were around me and he wordlessly hugged me with all his strength. Whether out of shock at his actions or the fact that he was squeezing me so tightly, I suddenly couldn't breathe. The unexpected onslaught of brotherliness caught me completely off-guard. It had been the one and only thing I'd ever wanted so desperately from him, but now that I had it, I wasn't sure how to deal with it.
"You moron," Gui snapped. My eyes widened in surprise and I stared at the side of his head, wondering what he was so angry about all of the sudden. Without letting me go, he continued, "Eleven years may have passed since I've last been around father, but I can say without a doubt you're nothing like him at all. Everyone deals with anger issues, and annoyance with other people at some point or another."
He leaned away from me and slapped his hands on either side of my face. "You need to stop being so pessimistic," he scolded. Sighing slightly, he continued in a softer tone, "You've got plenty of prominent, positive traits that make you completely different from him."
"…Like what?" I inquired as he proceeded to squish my face. Were my cheeks really so fun to mess with? Dib always seemed to be yanking on them, and now Gui was smooshing them as well.
"Well, for one, you're hopelessly compassionate," he answered, smiling slightly. "And you're kind, and selfless, and whiny, and silly, and embarrassing, and obnoxious, and childish, and–"
"Okay, okay, I get it," I grumbled, cutting off his ongoing list of "positive traits". Since when had I been whiny? He was the whiny one.
He laughed for a moment, smiling warmly as he finally let my slightly-sore face go, and grabbed my shoulders instead. After a few minutes of silent staring, a hopeful look slipped over his eyes. "So, do–"
"No," I interrupted.
Gui briefly glared at me, but quickly replaced it with another bright smile. "Please?"
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"If you don't want me to tell all of your embarrassing childhood stories to Jiū, you'll agree to fight," he threatened with a dark scowl.
I thought for a moment, wondering to which embarrassing moment he was referring. "I don't have any of those," I muttered, raising an eyebrow at him.
He made an almost inaudible "tsk" noise, and glanced away, lips pressed together in annoyance. Apparently the threat had been empty. I wouldn't have cared very much if he'd told Jiū something, anyway. As long as Wei Bo didn't get wind of it. He was already picking on me enough.
"Okay," he sighed and stared at me again. "Well, what about this; what would you do if someone was attacking Jiū?"
"Stop them," I answered at once. "Though she would probably beat me to it. She's taken self-defense lessons, and can get pretty fierce."
"What about Dib? Would you help him if he was in trouble?"
"Of course," I answered again, somewhat reluctantly. I could see where he was going with this.
"What about someone you didn't even know? A stranger on the street who you just happened to be passing by when they were getting mugged or something of that sort?"
"Yes… I would."
"If so, why are you contradicting yourself and refusing to fight alongside an entire city of people who need your help?" he finally asked.
Darn it.
Stupid perspectives.
I stood silently for several minutes and finally sighed, looking back at him, determined not to give in so easily without gaining something in return. "Get Yu Lian to hire more people into the supply production department so I actually have time for other things."
Gui blankly gazed at me and suddenly laughed at my terms, shaking his head in amusement. "Deal," he agreed, still laughing slightly as we left the meeting room to head outside. He glanced at me while we headed for the tower's main entrance. "Though, you know, there are actually several people in that department."
"Then why does it seem as though I am the only one who ever does any work?" I asked, frowning as we stepped into the bright sunlight and directed our steps toward the north gate. "Even with my teammates there to help me, the lists Yu Lian gives me are so long, it takes forever for us to work through even one of the tasks."
"Well," he muttered, shrugging slightly, "there are different sections in that department; one for people who make melee items; one for magic; one for archery—that's the one you're in, and yes, you're the only one so far—one for things like furnishings; one for supplying the city restaurant with ingredients, and so on and so forth. But, at the moment, most of Infinite City's citizens are in the military. Once the population expands more, I'm sure Yu Lian will be able to hire more people into all of those departments. They're all understaffed, really, not just the archery section.
"Our finances are pretty tight, especially with the preparations for this battle, so just be a bit understanding with Yu Lian and her decisions. Though she seems cruel for having you work alone, we don't really have any funds for hiring more people just yet."
"Well, she could take my pay and use it for a second worker," I said. "I rarely buy things, and I've been hoarding my money since I first started playing. I have quite a bit saved up, and my team's expenses aren't very large, either."
Gui laughed again. "She'll like that offer, I'm sure," he murmured.
He and I fell silent as we approached the northern gate, and the mass of people came into view. I looked about myself with rising apprehension, searching the crowds for my teammates. I couldn't see them anywhere, but the Odd Squad, Dark Phantom, and several other people from various teams turned to watch us walk toward them, and Yu Lian smiled with relief at my presence. As Gui and I stopped beside the teams, I stared down at her. "I need arrows. I used the last of mine earlier."
She gestured to a man I didn't know. "Legolas is the one in command of the archers, he'll be able to supply you with some before the battle."
I expectantly looked to him instead. "Ah, yeah," he said with a nod. "Come with me, we'll get you situated." He led me to the city wall and waved a hand toward the many wooden barrels lined up at the base. "Take as many as you think you'll need."
Kneeling down beside the nearest barrel, I pulled out an arrow and looked it over. One of the hundreds I'd made. One of the hundreds which were going to be used to kill people.
Sighing slightly, I quickly selected several dozen more and stored them in my quiver. Pulling out my longbow, I strung it and looked back to Legolas. "Where shall I go?"
"On top of the wall, all of the archers will be up there," he explained and walked away toward a large stone stairway built into the wall. I reluctantly followed after, nervously worrying my finger across my bowstring. When we reached the top of the steps, my nausea rose to a whole new level as I ran my eyes over the enormous, steaming vats of boiling tar they had lined up at regular intervals.
What a horrible way to die, thirty percent of the pain or not.
Legolas positioned me amongst the other archers and I silently stood where he'd left me, staring at the green land outside the city walls. Several hours passed in strained stillness, and a cold dread settled in my stomach when Fan's army finally appeared on the horizon, marching steadily toward Infinite City.
I pulled out an arrow ahead of time and fitted it onto my string, watching as they approached. All of those miserable, pitiable people, coming to fight for such a stupid reason as some man not liking another… I doubted I'd ever understand why they'd chosen to do such a thing. There were so many other more positive, and far more interesting ways to spend gaming time than going to war.
But they didn't care, obviously.
I smirked slightly when Prince popped into my head. With as much as he loved fighting, I wondered how disappointed he was going to be, missing out on all of this. Oh, well. Gui would always be there, ready and willing to be murdered.
It took nearly half an hour longer, but all too soon the army was arranging itself outside the wall. Their loud leering and shouting was as unsettling as the mere sight of their forces. But most unsettling of all was their facial expressions. The excited, energized smiles they were all wearing as if they were about to do something extremely fun.
I didn't have long to observe them. The battle started before I even knew it had. The air was abruptly filled with raw-throated bellows, the soft whistling of arrows, the sharp twangs of crossbows, the sizzling of magical spells, and the metallic clashes of swords. Setting my jaw, I raised my bow, leaned over the edge of the parapet, and aimed for the exposed neck of one of the people dashing about on the ground far below. Taking a deep breath, I tried to block out all of the noise and let my arrow go, eyes closed against the sight which followed. The shrieks of pain, not only from the man I'd shot, but from all of the other people being injured on the ground and there on the wall around me, made bile rise up my throat.
Before I could hesitate, I pulled out another arrow, aimed and shot, falling into rhythmic movements as I depleted my supply of arrows far more slowly than I would have liked. All of the sounds and sights slowly melted together as I focused all of my attention on simply keeping myself from throwing up when several warriors rushed forward and tipped the tar vats, pouring the thick, broiling black goop down onto the ladders the opposing army had set against the wall. A torch was then put to the dripping tar a moment later, setting the ladder and quite a few people on fire.
I was going to need a very, very long break from Second Life after this…
Some amount of time passed—I couldn't tell anymore—and suddenly my arm was being yanked on. Blinking my eyes back into focus, I stared at the anxious face of some other archer who'd been standing beside me.
"We have to retreat, didn't you hear?" he asked wildly, pulling me away from the wall and hurrying me toward the stairs. I let him drag me along, not really caring what was happening at that point, and concentrated on keeping myself from collapsing. He and I stumbled to a halt when we'd gone through the gate to the central tower where everyone had retreated, and I glanced behind myself, watching while the Odd Squad and the others blocked the entrance to the tower when the army spilled in through the destroyed city gate.
Jiū ran up to me a moment later and I smiled with relief that it seemed she was okay. She collided with me, wrapping both her arms and wings around me in a tight embrace. I shakily put my arms around her as well, but then stumbled backward, blinking as tiny dots swam in front of my eyes.
"Oh, great," I muttered as her hazy, dimming face looked up at me in concern. Falling to one side, my hands slipped off her shoulders and I fainted at last.