While the red plumes were distracted Alan iced part of Tandra's sword and used his power to yank it out of the other Descendant's grip, tossing it to Tandra.
"Let's go!" he cried as the red plume alerted his fellows to what was happening. Tandra was already close to him, so he prepared to throw down the Smoke.
Only to cry out in pain as one of the red plumes sent a shock of electricity his way making him drop the Smoke and sending it rolling into the grass. Tandra scanned the ground for the Smoke, but found nothing before she shoved away from Alan by a blur of pale green armour.
"Alan!" she cried, trying to see him between the gaps as the other Descendants rushed them, mainly heading towards Alan.
She felt someone grab her and she quickly got out of the hold, pointing her sword at her attacker. In turn they pulled out their own two swords, the metal singing as the weapons were pulled from their scabbards.
A firangi was good for cutting and Tandra usually fought in mid air, giving her plenty of space to move. However, the strong wind made that very difficult, and her opponent was in full armour, which her sword was going to have little effect on. Unlike her opponent, she would also usually have a buckler shield, but she didn't grab it earlier.
Basically, she wasn't in a great position to win this.
Alan had to pull up walls of ice and block the various lightning attacks that were being fired at him from all sides. This lessened the blows to slight jolts rather than muscle spasms, but he was stuck. He wasn't nearly as good at psychic ice as Head Davies, so had to hold his arms out to keep the ice up, with no way of attacking back without breaking the walls.
He heard Tandra call his name, but was in no position to respond, the barrage of electricity, shields and booted feet made it difficult to concentrate on anything other than keeping those walls whole and up.
Tandra held her sword in a one handed grip with her other hand behind her back, turning the sword over hand as her opponent did the same with his two swords. She was scared, she wasn't in armour and didn't have much in the way of defence. Not that her opponent would care, this was a war and they were convinced that she was on the other side. Normal rules weren't going to apply.
The red plume attacked first, lazily swinging their swords for Tandra to block, one above then one from the side. It was a test, to see how she'd react. Then they started moving faster, advancing as Tandra backed away, blocking with everything she had. Most of her weight was on her back foot as she skipped back, contorting her body to dodge as well as blocking.
The red plume swung with their swords, one after the other in quick succession, making Tandra block and skip to avoid getting hit. It was clear that her opponent wasn't worried, and they had every right not to be; they had the upper hand.
Another set come, the front sword went up for Tandra to block, but then the second was coming up towards her belly. Tandra skipped backwards again, losing her block but avoiding getting stabbed in the stomach. As she tried to move left she was blocked by one of the swords, for the other to come in again, this time coming in for a decapitation.
She rapidly blocked the neck shot, only to instinctively fling herself backwards to avoid the other blade. Her wings shot out to flap, but as she wasn't in the air all she did propel herself backwards faster, her feet scrambling for purchase on the ground until she lost her balance and fell.
Her wings flared out behind her on the grass and she had to roll to avoid the downward sword thrust. She only just tucked her wing around her in time to prevent her feathers from being sliced off.
Once she felt she was far enough away she sprang back up to her feet, her wings folding against her back again.
Tandra felt very limited on the ground, more used to 360 degree environment where the position of your feet didn't really matter. Even so, she was managing to get by without getting cut, although it was debatable about how that would last.
The ringing of steel on steel managed to reach Alan and he gritted his teeth. They needed to get out here, now.
He drew in a deep breath, and his power along with it, weakening the walls a bit. With a sudden cry he let loose, sending out a blast of ice in a wide circle. The force sent the attacking Descendants back and Alan had less than a second to catch his breath before he started running. He only paused to snatch the Smoke from a red plume on the edge of the group who had found it and was investigating it.
"Tandra!" he yelled as loud as he could to get her attention as he ran past. Tandra was moving as quickly as could around the dual wielder, but once she heard Alan she went on a quick offensive. She slashed forward, forcing a retreat before she started to run as well.
The same group of ten or so peeled off from the main fifty and gave chase, electricity sparking and circulating around the fingers of some of them.
"Can you fly?" Alan panted. They had a slight speed advantage over their pursuers, but when those pursuers can control the wind...
"I can try." Tandra said, the further they got from the main battleground the weaker the winds became. "Although, I don't think I can carry you."
"Well, we can't stop to use a Smoke." Alan's breathing was calming down, even as he was running.
The wind had died down a fair amount and Tandra looked over her shoulder to see if they were still be chased.
Her eyes then widened.
"Get down!" she yelled, tackling Alan for good measure as a bolt of lightning shot over their heads.
"I'm going to get in the air." declared Tandra, ignoring the ozone smell that now filled the air. Before Alan could say anything she was up, her white wings flapping hard to keep herself in place in the wind.
In response several red plumes also took to the air on concentrated air platforms, bobbing up and down on air currents as they moved in on Tandra. The rest stayed on the ground and went for Alan.
This time he stood his ground and formed a staff out of ice. It lacked the circular topper of his normal staff, but he really didn't have the time for that as he blocked a blow from a spear.
He shoved them away and danced backwards, sending a blast of snow towards them with a slash of the staff. He then spun his staff in a circle, forming more snow from the air moisture, then slammed it down, sending out a sheet of ice to slip up the other Descendants at the same time.
Some of the snow remained airbourne to send at them in waves, but parts of it melted and became water without his input. The water was then pulled back by some of the red plumes, where it hovered over their open palms.
Oh yeah, some of them have some control over water. Like that's going to help them. Alan smirked and risked a glance up, seeing how Tandra was doing before flinging the snow at them and firing blasts of ice out of the end of his staff.
Tandra was up against the dual wielder again while the others hung back, either as an honour thing or to try and stop her getting too far. However, this time, she was in the air. While she may lack the finesse of those with membrane wings, she was still in more control than her opponent.
She went above and behind them to avoid their swords, but didn't outright attack. Instead she poked them with the point of her sword before moving.
Her opponent grunted and swung, but missed as Tandra flew backwards, only to zip up and behind to poke them again. She couldn't help but grin as she continued to repeat this.
Her opponent was getting more and more frustrated by this until they shoved their hand forward, sending a blast if air towards Tandra to knock her out of the sky.
She shrieked and tumbled, the world becoming a kaleidoscope of colours before she landed... in a snow drift?
She lifted her head up to see Alan not too far away, sending waves of snow at the approaching red plumes, but she could see that he was getting worn out. Frozen sweat glistened on his forehead and the snow he was producing, while still hampering the enemy's progress, was becoming thinner and more powdery.
Tandra scrambled to her feet, grabbing her sword as the red plume she'd been fighting crashed into the snow drift. Instead of facing them however she ran for Alan, grabbing his arm. Again, he flinched and she struggled not to release her grip as his body was now concerningly cold. If she couldn't feel his pulse and muscles moving she'd have thought she'd grabbed hold of a corpse in a morgue.
"Come on, run!"
Alan was too drained to argue, so scrambled to follow her.
Now that they weren't being attacked however, the red plumes could retaliate. Aerokinetics increased the wind speed, and fog manipulators started condensing water vapour to block off the two fleeing Descendants.
The wind slowed Tandra's and Alan's progress right down, and the forming fog made them stop in their tracks. Fog users could tell where everything and everyone was exactly in their own fog. So if Alan and Tandra got caught in the fog, they might as well be writing their own obituaries.
Alan reached into his pocket and grabbed the Smoke. Now seemed like the perfect time to use it.
"Just follow me." he said before making sure Tandra was close enough and throwing down the Smoke.
The scene in front of them disappeared in a plume of purple smoke. Immediately the wind disappeared and once the smoke cleared they found themselves in Alan's room.
"Sorry." he said as he collapsed on his bed, flattening his hair down tiredly. "First place I thought of."
Tandra stood awkwardly as Alan leaned back on his pale blue covers, and suddenly he just started laughing. There was no real reason for it, and very quickly Tandra was giggling as well.
It could have been stress, relief or anything else, but they were quickly laughing like lunatics, with Tandra doubled over and wiping tears from her eyes.
Finally the two calmed down, and Tandra got a better look at Alan's room.
"I thought Bella was kidding about the bird watching." she commented, as bird identification posters dotted the walls, binoculars and stands stood dotted around, along with various books and a games console.
Above them the ceiling was decorated with bird silhouettes, with common and scientific names underneath them.
"Shut up." Alan was actually embarrassed, his face flushing red as he fiddled with the button on his shirt sleeve. "It's a hobby."
"Hmmm." Tandra looked around the room. "Right..." she decided to stop teasing him. "Spot any birds before I showed up?"
"Nah. Those two armies were making too much noise." Alan had his hands tucked underneath the back of his head as he lay there. "and, er, thanks. I don't think I could have gotten out of there without you Tundra."
Tandra shook her head. "I should have been quieter when I showed up. I was just worried."
"I know. I'm sorry." Alan's usually cheerful or mocking expression had faded, and he sat up, rubbing his eyes with his fore finger and thumb. "You almost lost your sword, I am so sorry."
Tandra was tempted to make a comment about Alan actually apologising instead of waving it off, but decided against it. It wasn't often that he was this sincere.
"It's okay. We got away, that's all that mattered."
Alan still troubled, so Tandra sat down on the bed next to him and extended one wing, wrapping it around his shoulders.
"Thanks." There was a half smile on his face. "I just... can't believe what they said." he let out a little laugh, but there wasn't much humour to it. "I didn't think anyone was seriously that bigoted. I mean, I know it could have been worse, a lot worse. I just didn't think..."
Tandra was silent, but the curling of her primaries made Alan look over at her.
"You do?"
Tandra shrugged. "Not everyone likes albinos."
"Well, that's stupid." Alan declared. "You can't help that!"
"Neither of us can help it." Tandra shrugged. "Look, it doesn't matter. Let's just forget today happened."
Alan snorted with laughter. "Yeah, those guys are not going to want to admit that they lost two Descendants that were potentially spying on them!"
"Exactly. So no one knows. If anyone from the Branch asks, I found you bird watching."
"Agreed." Alan concurred, as distant thunder boomed once again.
Explanation of what the Descendants of Mother Nature were up to here.
Samantha Mallon was the Descendant of Mother Nature who told Jackie to leave in Don't Fear the Reaper Chapter 24. Then she was an Overseer in Training, but the High Overseer at the time has now died and Samantha Mallon is trying to take her place, except about half of the Descendants of Mother Nature are against this. Samantha is a very traditional Descendant of Mother Nature, who has more traditional views on things like the Descendants of Jack Frost, the general view of which have become more favourable since Jack Frost became a Guardian. However Samantha doesn't hold that opinion. The previous High Overseer was trying to get Descendants into the normal world a bit more and had a more favourable view of the Descendants of Jack Frost, making them popular with some and unpopular with others. Since their passing the Descendants of Mother Nature have been slowly split down the middle about which direction to go down, whether to follow the old High Overseer's ways or go back to how they were before. This has escalated into a civil war.
Teutonic- a form of German accent, used on its own. Refers to knights in prior to German unification. I would guess it's a dignified form of German accent. If anyone actually knows feel free to correct me.