As the sun fell below the horizon, the horde of mutated Trocks seemed to meld into the shadow-casted sands. The rumble of hundreds of bloodthirsty monsters only grew louder and the king, having just barely survived the Trock swarm with the Caluso's help, knew their chances of survival were slim to none.
"Are these really the close cousins of Ponggoes?" Chung said with a somber shake of his head. "It's hard to believe these… beasts used to be the small, tribal fur people I read about in stories."
"The Trocks you remember are gone," Nerin stated.
"And there's no way we can help them?"
"If there were, we would have done so many years ago," the Caluso woman replied.
The young king sighed, "We need you to move." He hurriedly tightened the strap to his chest plate and gauntlets.
"To where?" Gerard asked.
"Away." Chung replied, pointing to the east, "Just get Nerin and Edwin out of harm's way. We'll… we'll stall them."
Seeing the four warriors make their stand amidst a ravenous tide of beasts spilling over the nearest dune, the Archmage shook his head. "I think we'll stay."
"I don't have time to argue, Gerard!" Chung said in an exasperated growl.
"They'll catch up to us. And even if we could get away, where would we run to? Nothing but desert awaits us for hundreds of kilometers in any direction. By staying we can at least combine our strength."
"But I don't want you or your family getting hurt!" Chung replied.
"All the more reason to end your disagreements with Lu and fight at your full potential, then."
The king was speechless at the suggestion and as he looked on from face to face, his eyes fell on the smug grin on the demoness's face. She looked away, feigning an attempt to hide her expression yet knowing full well she was getting under his skin.
"Well?" Gerard asked.
Chung gritted his teeth, gripping the destroyer in one hand he pulled the loading lever in a desperate attempt to make it work just this once but received no rounds in return.
The levitating slab of earth came to a stop at Caluso's lowest district where the chieftain waited.
"Why was I summoned?" Karu asked, his voice teetering between annoyance and anger.
The young assassin, having returned from his full day of observing the recent exiles, opened with a rigid Caluso salute: heel-to-heel, a palm enclosed over a tightened fist centered over his chest. Even as tall as Vegar was, his stance only reached up to Karu's broad shoulders. His keen, ocean blue eyes darted to the young priestess, who, although was ordered to remain at her grandfather's side, kept a fair distance away from the village chieftain. The young girl's eyes met with the assassin and she quickly dropped her gaze, tapping her fingers together nervously as if waiting to be scolded by her grandfather.
"You've brought the little one," Vegar commented.
"The priestess stays with me. Now: why was I summoned?"
"It's regarding our recent visitors, chieftain," Vegar announced, garnering a subtle, but nevertheless intimidating scowl from the Caluso elder.
"You waste your breath. And my time."
"The trocks are on the move. They'll be upon them in moments," Vegar explained, getting an expected look of horror from the priestess.
"The outcome is obvious. They won't survive. They are not worth my time," Karu stated, sure of his answer and unwavering inhis stance on the matter.
"And if they do survive?"
"They won't."
"But if they do…"
The chieftain's eyes narrowed, "Why do you insist they're of any merit?"
"My spies have heard rumors among the Sanderian merchants; rumors of Elrios's most powerful warriors from across the Great Sea fighting the very same corruption that has taken root in our desert. Hamel's King, the one named Chung Seiker, is among these warriors."
"And you believe them?"
"Velder still stands and Hamel has a new king when we once thought it all but fallen. What further proof would you need? If they're as powerful as the Sanderians say they are, having one on our side could prove beneficial-"
"I've seen my proof when one of these so-called 'warriors' lay bleeding at my feet," Karu turned to leave, "Sander rumors. Tch. They've forgotten the might of a single Caluso. Though I wouldn't blame them, seeing as none of their soldiers survive to tell the tale. Anduran!"
Hearing her name, the young priestess flinched.
"Come. You have much to learn of your mother's role. The other priestesses await."
Vegar noted the young girl's hesitancy. Following her gaze that fell past him towards the sandy surface below, the assassin saw hundreds of trocks mere moments away from clashing with the seven exiles.
"Anduran!" Karu shouted.
The girl whimpered, unwilling to leave her aunt and uncle at the mercy of those beasts. The chieftain took her by her arm and she resisted for only a moment before looking up at the assassin pleadingly before being forcefully dragged away.
"Chieftain Karu!" Vegar called, bringing pause to the elder's step. A distant boom could be heard rumbling under their feet. The faint but distinguishable sound of steel crunching against bone followed. A crowd had formed, as much of the Caluso populace peered over the edge of their floating city to witness the battle below.
Vegar continued, "They will survive. I know it. And when they do, I request you to give them an audience, once more."
The chieftain said nothing and merely tightened his grip on Anduran's arm, causing her to audibly yelp in pain before he continued on his way.
"He didn't say no…" Vegar said to himself with a soft sigh. He relaxed his stance before turning his attention fully to the exiles below. "Now… all you need to do is live."
A stream of Bullets and magical fireballs flew overhead, finding targets among the tide of monsters but doing little to quell their numbers. Chung closed his eyes, taking a long deep breath as he reminded himself that without his guardian stone, melee was his only option. The smell of charred fur and flesh burned his nostrils and only grew stronger the closer his adversaries drew.
"Back to basics, then," he said to himself before turning his gaze to the oncoming horde. The king charged forth. He needed to protect the backline. The frontmost Trock leading the charge was the first to fall. With no one to support the beast, the king was given ample time to wind up his destroyer for an upward swing, cutting cleanly from the neck up through the monster's head.
Chung exhaled, relieved his weapon was sharp enough to cut through the beast. With the weapon up in the air, he brought the blunt end of the cannon down on the next Trock to approach. He turned the cannon once more, driving his weapon diagonally and severing an arm of another clean off before spinning, doubling up the attack and cutting another trock in half at the waist.
It was textbook Hamelian close-quarters-combat. The attacks were always broad and kept the enemy at a distance. Every swing always ends as a wind-up for the next. One after another, every motion centered around a continuous flurry of sweeping attack that made it almost impossible for an enemy to close in without eating solid Hamelian steel.
He had broken through the first line. Eyes alert and searching, he knew he was pushing into increasingly dangerous territory. Fortunately, every attempt the Trocks made to surround him was thwarted by his supporting backline. Cannon rounds burst on either side of him. The bright blue flash among the darkening night was the brief snapshot Chung needed to aim his following attacks.
After the sixth shot, on cue, Zudrich ceased fire, announcing his need to reload and putting Chung on the temporary fighting retreat while his cannoneer loaded fresh rounds into his weapon.
He didn't have to retreat far, however, as Lu dove in. Her gauntlets blazed a dark, unholy flame as she plowed through an entire column of the oversized beasts, leaving a scorched trail of blood and molten glass in her wake. Surrounded but unwavering, the little demoness brandished her burning gauntlets before leaping at the next target unlucky enough to find itself in her sights.
She tore through the trocks, ripping and shredding with the unnaturally sharpened claws in a fervor that dwarfed the bloodlust of the beasts that tried to pin her down.
"Keep it coming!" Lu challenged ecstatically, her wild blue eyes visible among a dark-red painted face. El energy suddenly surged through her body, enveloping her in an aqua-colored aura. With a devilish grin she directed the power to her gauntlet and smashed her open palm onto the ground. Black spears and barbed chains erupted from the sands in her immediate surroundings, impaling all of the Trocks around her. Black miasma billowed out of the otherworldly gates the sharpened tips came from and as she lifted her hand, each spear and chain rapidly withdrew.
The bodies fell lifeless. Lu stood there, taking in the moment with a sated grin as she looked back at the stunned king.
In that brief moment, the imagery around Lu flashed to that of Ran, standing over the bodies of Hamelian and Velderian soldiers alike. The mass, cold-blooded slaughter from such a small demon shocked and appalled the Hamelian. Seeing her smile at him, provoking him, only reinforced that feeling of hatred for her kind.
"More!" she laughed, "I need more!" Again El engulfed her body, and it was only then that Chung realized she wasn't taunting the Trocks.
She was shouting orders to Ciel.
Turning his attention to the backline, the king saw the silent vessel standing with a hand extended towards his soul link. A faint current of El could be seen leaving his body as he, with much visible effort, fed more and more of his energy to the demoness.
"Loaded up!" Zudrich announced. "Look out!"
A trock wielding a bone mace had slipped through their rapidly collapsing defensive line making a beeline for the nearest target. The powerful blow struck Chung in his back, the blunt force rattling his spine through the armor. He stumbled forward, his breath stopping in shock as the pain reverberated through his entire body.
A loud explosion followed, the force strong enough to cause the king to fall forward as Zudrich joined his king in the front line, throwing himself in the path of two more trocks before they could capitalize on the downed Hamelian.
"You alright?" Zudrich asked through gritted teeth.
Chung shook his head in an attempt to stop the ringing in his ears. "I've been hit with worse-" he coughed and sprang back to his feet to rejoin the fight.
"On your left!" Chung called. Zudrich stepped aside, allowing Chung to cleave off one of the Trocks' legs before looping around and driving the blade downward on its head, the sand muffling the crunch. Simultaneously, Zudrich wrestled the other Trock to the ground, planting the cannon's muzzle on his opponent's chest before pulling the trigger and blasting a hole into the monster's ribcage.
A scream.
Both Hamelians immediately turn to see that more Trocks had broken through. Edwin was clawing at his father's robe for safety as Nerin launched herself at a Trock. Defying her heavily pregnant state and showcasing a Caluso's physical aptitude, Nerin kneed the beast square in the jaw. The winds swirled around her and she switched her attack mid-flight, landing a spinning roundhouse that sent the monster sailing - aided by another magical gale - back into the demon-powered meat grinder.
Ciel, despite being weakened after funneling his energy to his soul link, demonstrated his uncanny precision and expertise with his gunblades as he slipped past a beast's attack and expertly sliced the monster's leg tendons. He pulled the trigger to his weapons with each strike, blowing out kneecaps and ankles for good measure before driving a blade into the base of the Trock's skull and blasting whatever nerve was still connected. Without wasting a beat, the silent vessel returned his attention to his previous task and funneled more of his energy to the demoness still locked in the middle of the horde.
"They're almost upon us!" Gerard shouted. The runes surrounding the archmage flared as pockets of slowed time appeared to their left and right.
While they did well to stop the brunt of the horde from reaching them, many more had already moved to surround them entirely. Gerard managed to momentarily slow their advance.
They needed to move.
"Tch… fall back! Down the hill!" the king ordered.
"But Lu-" Zudrich protested.
"Leave her! We need to run!"
"Leave her?!"
The archmage strained to keep the slowing fields active. More and more trocks piled on top of each other as they charged into the slowed zone. The pile grew larger, like a slow-moving iceberg ready to collapse on top of them. Gerard motioned with his head at his family. "Nerin! Edwin! Go!"
The wife took their son and hobbled as quickly as she could down the steep sandy slope and Gerard gave the all-clear for Chung and the others to follow.
"Time's running out, Zudrich! Let's move!"
The king began his retreat, passing Ciel as he moved to join Gerard and his family. His arm was still outstretched as he continuously fed his energy to the demoness who was always just moments away from being overwhelmed. Every time he lost sight of her for a brief moment, the man would send another burst of energy outward to feed the demoness. And every time she would return to view, bloodier, and that little bit more exhausted.
"Zudrich!? Chung?! You two pulling your weight… or what?!" Lu yelled in between labored gasps, "Ciel? I need… more-" she was cut off as she took a blow to the side of her head. Angered, she chomped at the Trock's arm, tearing off a large chunk of skin in the process.
"Ciel. We need to go."
"I won't… abandon her…"
Chung blinked, confused at the man's words. At the corner of his eye, he could see his fury guardian was also refusing to budge. He was still in the front lines, standing defiantly against the seemingly endless Trock horde. He was watching both of them over his shoulder, a solemn look plastered on his face.
"Zudrich-"
"Looks like that makes two of us."
"Zudrich!"
The king's call fell on deaf ears as the fury guardian charged headlong into the masses.
"Chung-" the archmage gasped as the time fields weakened, "I can't… hold this much longer."
The king glanced at Gerard then back at Zudrich who plowed his way through an ever-encroaching wave of monsters. Every second wasted on the rescue effort was a second they wouldn't get back in the escape. But Chung couldn't leave Zudrich. He was never the one to abandon his own people and he wasn't going to do that now.
Chung cursed under his breath and took up his cannon once more. "Hold on as long as you can!"
He rushed in after his guardian, recarving the same path Zudrich disappeared in. He sliced and hewed his way into the thick of it, moving forward as fast as he could to avoid being caught from behind. Using the confusion of being deep within enemy ranks, Chung ducked and dodged his way between claw and club, each missed blow finding another Trock instead. The sounds of cannon blasts and rattling chains grew louder through the mass of bodies and the king slid to a stop at the sound of a furious cry that seemed to explode outward from where Lu and Zudrich should be. With one last push, the king broke through the wall. He spun around, swatting away at the Trocks biting at his heels before raising his weapon to hold back the resurging counter-attack.
"Chung?!" Zudrich exclaimed.
In the darkness of the early evening, the odd glow of his Fury Guardian's stone illuminated their surroundings. Lu was alive. Her cloak, or what was left of it, hung in tatters around her shoulders, hiding very little of her pale yet bloodied skin. Her face was bruised, an eye was forced shut as a deep cut ran down the length of the right side of her face. One of her arms swung unnaturally at her side and her tail, normally tightly coiled around her leg, hung limp. The ground around her was a muddy slush of blood and sand that sloshed as Chung readjusted his hold at his side of the circle.
Like a mountain, Zudrich stood over the little demoness, bloody destroyer in one hand and a Trock gripped by the throat in another. His cannon thrummed with energy as El emanated from either end of the barrel. At his feet were the gibbed remains of an unknown number of enemies.
"You came for me, too?" Lu chuckled weakly, "You must like me, afterall."
"I ain't here to help you!" Chung declared loudly, pushing back with all his might to give himself some space before using the moment to score himself another kill, "I'm here to save my guardian!"
"We have her," Zudrich said, turning to the demoness. His eyes burned the same light as his stone "Come on. Gerard and the others are waiting." He offered to carry the demoness but she stubbornly slapped his hand away with her surviving good arm before raising it in the air once more, summoning more black chains from the ground that lashed out around her.
"I'm down an arm! Not a leg! I can walk on my own!"
Zudrich sighed, "Suit yourself." He then turned to Chung, "Stand aside! Now!"
Chung's eyes widened as he turned to the Fury Guardian. The thrumming energy within Zudrich's stone cast his armor in a white light. The outline of the armor's headpiece began to manifest. It was a white mask with a long blue mane that flowed down the guardian's back. This appeared only briefly before vanishing as the coalescing energies pooled into his weapon.
And then he swung.
The cannon exploded in a bluish-green flash. The single Trock that was unlucky enough to absorb the blow was simply gone. Obliterated. The wave of energy that burst outward leveled the area in front of him, liquifying the ground under the feet of those caught in the blast and trapping many more shoulder-deep in the blood-soaked sand, revealing a stunned Ciel and Gerard standing at the opposite end of the destruction.
"What… the… f-" Lu was cut off when Zudrich turned to her, motioning for Lu to make a run for it. The light that had surrounded him had all but faded and he wasn't going to waste this opportunity answering questions that he didn't quite understand himself.
"We'll hold off the rest! Just go!"
Biting her tongue, the demoness stumbled over the bodies, moving as quickly as she could. But it wasn't fast. Each step she took, her small legs sunk into the mud-like ground.
Chung and Zudrich followed in a fighting retreat. The Trocks fortunate enough to be standing outside of the blast zone were beginning to reconverge on them, and although there were only a fraction of mutated Trocks left, the exiles were practically running on fumes.
Chung slogged through the mud, gasping for breath from exhaustion as he slowly but surely caught up to Lu. Fighting off stragglers who caught up to him as he waded was hard enough, but the feeling of twitching and squirming monsters buried alive beneath them was the icing on the cake. To make things worse, several of the beasts had their heads above the ground, making the trek back to the others a literal minefield except the mines were capable of biting your limbs off.
But trek they did, crushing every head that threatened to bite and every loose hand that tried to claw at them under the weight of their cannons. And, just as the king couldn't imagine the situation growing any worse, he saw Nerin and her son return, out of breath, as she pointed frantically down the other end of the dune.
"What is she doing?!" Chung cried, out of breath as he turned to help Zudrich push off a Trock trying to pull him into the sand with him. "I told her to run!"
She said something to Gerard who then turned to the three and waved just in an equal amount of panic.
This didn't make sense. Just moments ago, he had seen Nerin unshakingly take down a Trock by herself. What could possibly be scaring her-
Suddenly one of the buried Trocks burst from the sand near the king. Lunging out at him before falling just short and clawing madly at the mud. And then something pulled the beast. The Trock's eyes widened as it clutched at whatever it could before it let out an agonized cry while slowly being pulled into the sand. Crunching could be heard and the Trock fell limp as its blood gushed from the hole it was being dragged into.
Another Trock sank into the sand. And then another. The ground began to stir around Chung as several ripples began to move around him and the others.
Chung saw Lu's face suddenly drain of color. "Let's keep it moving, boys," she said in a hurried tone, "Piranhas are here."
Not needing to be told twice, Chung and Zudrich picked up the pace.
"Piranhas?" the king asked. Another Trock burst from the sands, lunging and clinging on to Chung by the waist. The same unseen force pulled on the beast and the Hamelian was dragged with him. Zudrich grabbed Chung by the arm, yanking him away just as the Trock disappeared without a trace underground.
Gerard and the others seemed to be locked in the same mess. The archmage and his wife stood defensively around their son, their eyes focused on every little movement as the sands began to stir around them. The Caluso stamped at the ground, warding away the entities that drew too close.
"Ciel! Look out!" Gerard screamed.
A fish longer than the man's arm suddenly burst from the sand, sinking its razor-sharp teeth into the vessel's leg. He swiftly sliced the fish at the gills, the majority of its body fell, twitching on the ground. Blood pooled from the corpse, causing the other ripples surrounding Gerard and his family to home in on the fresh kill. The corpse was snatched away in an instant, ripples in the sand showed a frenzy as the sandfish ate their own. Blood from Ciel's leg dripped on the ground and in no time, the swarm responded. Ciel's lower half was pulled into the sand before he even had a chance to fend them off and was violently dragged along the surface.
At that very same moment, Lu cried out in pain. A deep, visible gash inexplicably manifested on her leg. She fell to the ground, clutching at the bleeding wound "Lu!" Zudrich called, rushing to her side. He saw the wound quickly rip down the length of her leg.
"No-" Lu weakly pushed Zudrich away. "Ciel! Get Ciel!"
The sands around her began to ripple and Zudrich wisely pulled the demoness off the ground just as two piranhas broke the surface, snapping at nothing but air. With his free arm, the guardian swatted the fish away. They flopped on the bloody sand wildly before quickly burrowing under once more.
Without so much as a thank you, Lu continued to struggle in Zudrich's arm. "My vessel! Save my Vessel!" she cried.
Between the Hamelians and the Archmage's family, Ciel could be seen reaching out from a rapidly moving wave. He continued to struggle as he was dragged through the sand and hacked fruitlessly at the ground while trying everything he could to keep his head above the surface. A piranha leapt from the sand, snapping at his arm and sending his gunblade flying out of his hand.
"Help him!" Lu screamed as wounds began to form all over her lower body. Blood trickled down Zudrich's arm and the piranha snapped at his armor.
"And leave you to get eaten alive?!" Zudrich exclaimed, doing his best to shield her as more piranhas swarmed around them.
"Chung!" the guardian called as Chung watched the demoness writhe in agony.
The king stood there, watching as more and more piranhas latched onto Zudrich, trying to get to the small demon sheltered in his arms.
Despite how gut-wrenching it was to watch someone being torn by an unseen force, a small part of him, in the far reaches of his mind, insisted that the demon deserved this fate. Although faint, it was enough to stay any action as he stood there, waiting for her to die.
Zudrich roared, swatting away at the piranhas with his weapon before dropping the cannon and ripping off the ones who found their way through the joints of his armor. He began to draw blood as well, only increasing the fervor of the swarm around him.
"Chung…" Lu's voice was a weak wail. At that moment, amidst Zudrich's attempts to keep from being eaten alive, the demon and the king's eyes met. "Help… please-"
"Chung!" Zudrich cried.
He looked to Ciel and back at Zudrich and Lu. As much as he knew the demons were his enemy… this was wrong. Every cell in his body knew this was wrong. And no matter how much the voice in his head protested, the voices of the ones that needed him mattered more.
Abandoning his prejudices against Lu Chung began slogging his way towards Ciel.
"Hang on!" the king called.
"Hurry!" Zudrich screamed as he struggled to pull the swarm off of him.
The seconds felt like hours as Chung tried to reach Ciel. All the while, the voice in his head persisted, insisting Lu was better off dead. He pushed those thoughts aside, only to have it flooded with the reality of the situation: what could Chung do? Was there anything he could do? Even if he reached Ciel, the king had no reasonable way to fend off the piranhas, much less free Ciel before they completely picked him apart.
No! He had to try. He was a guardian! Even if there was nothing. Even if it meant saving an enemy.
It was what a guardian was meant to do.
A glint in the bloodied sand caught his attention. Realizing what it was, Chung rushed to it.
"C'mon-" Chung whispered under his breath. He clutched at the guardian stone embedded in his chest, "Please… work. For Lu and Ciel's sake… please."
"Zudrich! Chung!" Anduran cried. She covered her mouth as she stood at the edge overlooking the battle on the ground.
"As expected. A waste of time," Chieftain Karu said with an unimpressed grunt. Despite claiming his disinterest in the exiles' fate, Karu stuck around to watch their execution. The chieftain clutched the priestess's arm. "Come, Anduran. They are finished. Nerin and the others are soon to follow."
"No!" the priestess yelled, "No I… I won't leave them!"
"You will. We'll tend to their bones if we find them in the morning."
The chieftain pulled Anduran away from the edge, passing his lieutenant who stood unmoving at the floating island's edge. The assassin looked restless, his eyes darting from the battle below to the chieftain.
"If I left, you'd move to assist them, Vegar. I stayed to prove a point. Those outsiders did not deserve our help."
The assassin clenched his fist but remained silent on the matter. Satisfied with his message, the chieftain turned to leave.
Just then, a bright beam of light shot upward, cutting in half the night sky. The spectacle shocked Karu and the entire capital. Curious to see its source, he returned to the island's edge but had to squint to stare directly at the searing light below.
The ground shuddered as it rose around the king. His eyes burned the El's light as every piranha within his vicinity was ripped from the ground. There were a few dozen of them. Far fewer than he had thought, but a threat nonetheless.
In his state of hyper-awareness, Chung brought the gunblade in his hand to eye level and, with precise carving sweeps, sliced his way through several of his targets before squeezing the trigger and killing one or more in masterfully aligned shots. He stood over Ciel, stomping at a point in the sand and catching the second gunblade as it was launched into the air.
Each magical round struck true, finding one or several targets each before the guardian stone's light faded from his chest and the magical field faded. With one last cross slash, Chung sashimi'd the final surviving piranha as it fell in the air in front of him just as the El in his eyes faded completely, leaving the entire battlefield silent save for the few burning corpses that sizzled around them.
Without missing a beat, Chung dropped the weapons at his side and turned to Ciel. He took the man by under his arms and dragged him out of the sand, leaving a fresh trail of blood as he was pulled free.
He wasn't an expert in treating wounds but he knew when someone was beyond help. From the dim moonlight, Chung could see Ciel's legs were shredded to the bone. The man had fallen unconscious and death was only a few moments away.
"Gerard!" Chung called.
The archmage and his family hurried down the slope to meet him.
"Chung, I have to say, what you did was outstanding. I-"
"Gerard, can you fix him?" Chung interrupted.
The archmage turned to see the man in his eviscerated state.
"You're asking me to- I can't… I can't reverse time on him."
"You did it for Zudrich. You can do it for Ciel."
"No. Absolutely not. You don't understand the laws of time and space wouldn't allow it-"
"Do it!"
"Chung, there are fates far worse than death and I do not want to subject myself or the people around me to that."
"Take me to him…" he heard Lu whisper as Zudrich arrived with the demoness in his arms.
"Oh… no," the demon murmured weakly. "Down… put me down…"
"Lu, I," Chung began, "I'm sorry I couldn't-"
"Shut up!" Lu coughed as she shuffled closer with her only good arm. She rested her head at the man's side, taking a few breaths before shutting her eyes and grimacing in concentration. She was losing strength. Fast.
"Slow it down," Chung ordered the archmage.
"I… I can do that. For just a moment." Gerard drew a rune in the air and whispered a quick incantation before resting his hands over the man's wounds.
In the dim amber light of the runes glowing above, Chung could see the blood slowing to a stop at the torn flesh. All the while Lu seemed on the verge of passing out.
Seconds passed and nothing seemed to happen. At least nothing to the wound. Something else about the man began to change. His head twitched and in that small shift, Chung saw the man's ears grow more pointed.
Not a slender as an elf's, but stubbed.
Like a demon's.
"Cut the time magic," Lu whispered. Gerard did so and, to everyone's amazement, the wounds on Ciel's legs began to cauterize from the inside. Lu's body caught up with Ciel's and seemed to mirror him as blood boiled and solidified at the main arteries. She was using her unholy flames to staunch their wounds.
"Is there anything I can get you?" Zudrich asked.
"The priestess's El would be nice…" Lu whispered. She shut her eyes and, after a moment, her head rolled weakly to its side.
"Will they make it?" Chung asked, to which the archmage simply shrugged.
"For a demon? Injuries like this are survivable. For an Elrian? I doubt he'd last the hour."
"Is he still an Elrian?" Chung asked, pointing out the observed change to the man's ears.
"Demonic traits on an Elrian? How…? Well, that matters little. Lu needs Anduran's El. But getting it is another problem in and of itself," Gerard said, rubbing his chin in thought.
"It may not be, for long," Nerin said, pointing up at something falling from high up.
The figure drew closer and, with expert timing, broke its fall with a cushioning gust of wind before landing nearby.
It was their observer from before. As Vegar dusted the sand off his attire, he scanned the destruction around him and nodded with approval.
"You survived," he commented.
"Yes, but two of us are badly hurt. They need to see Anduran or else-" Chung began but Vegar raised a hand to silence him.
Vegar surveyed the corpses on the ground. "Did you kill all of the piranhas yourself?"
"I- Yes, but-" Chung protested, motioning at Lu and Ciel.
"Are you able to tap into your powers, now?" Vegar continued, indifferently.
"You saw what I did right? Yes! But right now, what's more, important is-"
"Then you'll have an audience with the Chieftain," Vegar said, "At the moment he's with the priestess but after what has transpired here, I'm sure he'll set aside time to speak with you."
"Karu wishes to speak with us...?" Chung asked.
"Wish, no. Obligated would be more fitting. The Caluso has a need for outsiders such as yourself. Though I'll leave that up to you to make him see that."
A/N: Hi everyone! This story was edited by Aliniel, Sky, and Rune. Thank you so much to them for their work. This chapter was a nightmare for me to write. I learned I don't like writing fight scenes in the desert because the setting just has so little going on for it unlike dense cities with a lot of clutter or narrow corridors where room is limited. Still, I'm happy with the final product. Please let me know what you think about the action scenes as well as the character development!