Lloyd: This seems to be becoming a recurring start-of-chapter thing... But I feel that I should apologize again for the long wait. I had hoped to be able to churn out one chapter a month from now on, but as soon as I decided that, it all kind of hit the fan. I got my computer taken away for a majority of summer, and then there was the first semester of college (ugh), and NaNoWriMo in November. And then I had to take a nice break from that to let my creative juices respawn. But now we're all good to go! Keep your fingers crossed that it'll only take us two months at the most to update this time!
Genis: It's totally not my fault this time! For once.
"We were supposed to turn left back there, not right," Caitlin hissed to Neil, berating herself for not having taken the lead earlier. The two of them had realized that they had gotten a little lost because of that one wrong turn, and it wasn't like they could just turn everyone around and backtrack. The prisoners thought that they knew where they were going - admitting they were lost would only worry them more.
"Well then we'll just have to hope that this hallway loops around and leads us where we need to go," Neil muttered back just as quietly, though he at least had the decency to look sheepish. Caitlin sighed and shook her head, wondering if she could trade positions with Katherine, since the other girl had a sword now. They'd taken one from one of the dead Desians, so she was armed too, and she might be able to deal with Neil's lack of directions better.
"You should've just listened to me then and turned left," Caitlin sighed to herself. She hadn't intended for Neil to hear her, but he did, and he shot her an annoyed glance. Ignoring the look, Caitlin wondered if Katherine was having as much trouble in the back of the group. She seriously doubted it.
In fact, Caitlin was right, as all Katherine had to do to keep the prisoners in line was look cautiously over her shoulder and adjust the grip on her sword. She wasn't doing this just for show, of course, because if any Desians did find them, Katherine would be the only line of defense between them and the prisoners.
The group was doing quite well at keeping quiet and staying together, partly because of the armed guard, and partly because they knew what would happen if the Desians found them. At the very least, it seemed that they had no idea that they were all a little lost, which was a plus.
"Now turn left," Caitlin said at the next intersection, gesturing with her sword. Neil jumped back to avoid being slashed and she hastily put it down, muttering an apology, but he turned left. She just hoped that the halls were grid-like and made some semblance of sense, and they weren't like the game. Then they could wander for hours without ever finding their way out.
As they walked, Caitlin wondered where the group was. Had they figured out how to get to Magnius? Found Chocolat? She assumed that they hadn't reached Magnius, or else she, Neil, and all the prisoners (Katherine included) would have been trapped in a hallway somewhere already. Though it was only a matter of time. And Caitlin was also worried by the lack of Desians. Surely someone would be more worried about the huge mob of prisoners escaping than the five people wandering through the ranch.
Perhaps the thought had been jinxed or Caitlin just had weird luck with wondering things at a certain time, but it was then that they entered another intersection. Just as they were nearly at the other side, a thick sheet of metal dropped down, causing Caitlin and Neil to jump back in surprise. "Shit," Caitlin swore, looking around as the intersection closed itself off. Needless to say, the prisoners were starting to freak out with this new development. Narrowing her eyes, Caitlin looked around before realizing something - there were over a hundred prisoners. They couldn't all have fit in the intersection at any one time, because while the halls were wide, they weren't that wide. Which meant...
"Katherine!" Caitlin shouted, turning around to face the way they'd come from. She quickly moved through the prisoners, practically hitting the new wall, before gesturing for everyone to back up. They did so, looking at her nervously, as Caitlin swung her swords downward. "Beast!" she shouted, a blue lion shooting from her swords and hitting the wall. There was a loud bang and she winced, but the attack didn't even really damage the door. "Dammit!" Caitlin yelled, kicking the wall and startling the nearby prisoners even further.
So now she was trapped in a freshly-made room with Neil and approximately half (probably less) of the prisoners, while her friend was stuck out in the halls with the rest of the prisoners. On her own. Where things could very easily attack and leave her as the only line of defense between the attacker(s) and prisoners. Really, the girls' luck just sucked.
When the door clanged shut, Katherine jumped at the sudden noise, and when the prisoners in front of her banged on the door to no avail, she swore. The door closed off her route from Caitlin, the only one who knew the way out, but at least the other paths were open. She could still lead the prisoners out. Hopefully.
"Hey! Listen up!" Katherine yelled, trying to sound confident and not scared out of her wits. "We can't go that way, so we're going to double back and try another route. Stick close, and follow me!" A quick about-face, and Katherine was off, sword and shield at the ready. The directions to choose were simple in theory - try to go the same general direction that Caitlin was, and pick a new one when she hit a dead end. In practice though, she didn't get far before the clinical sameness of all the halls started to get to her and she started choosing directions at random.
So when she rounded a corner and came face to face with three Desians, Katherine was caught completely by surprise and the Desians were not. The half-elves moved quickly, two drawing their swords while the third began his silly mage dance. Katherine fumbled slightly with her shield, but managed to bring it up quickly enough to partially block the first blow swung at her. "Get back!" she yelled, turning slightly to face her charges. The second Desian closed in quickly, and Katherine was outclassed and outgunned in mere seconds.
The two sword-wielding Desians attacked Katherine together, making it so that she was left with very few options. Due to their attacks, her arms were at rather odd angles as she tried to hold her shield up and find a way to use her sword. Her shield was used, as it was supposed to be, in order to try and block the Desians' swords. Some blocks cut it close and others startled her as the Desians' weapons clanged off the metal. But with her shield up and covering her, it was difficult to find a way to attack around it. Though Katherine did manage to hit one of the half-elves with the pommel of her sword, wincing as his helmet clanged from the impact.
The mage finished casting and sent two fireballs Katherine's way. The first missed, sending the prisoners scattering to avoid it. One child screamed in fear. The other fireball hit Katherine's shield dead-on, sending her stumbling back, though the movement was actually rather lucky. When trying to catch her balance again, Katherine had flailed for a moment, making her sword move wildly. It cut into one of the Desian's sword wrists as they had been going to strike at her again, making him drop the weapon with a curse and a shout.
Katherine just looked at the Desian for a moment, rather stunned that she had managed to do that, when a burning in her leg made her jolt back to awareness with a shout. The second Desian had taken the opportunity to strike at a spot not covered by her shield while the girl had been distracted. That just so happened to be her leg, as the shield was up rather high to protect her body and head.
Seeing another slash coming, Katherine jumped back, though landing and putting weight on her injured leg was painful. She grimaced and slashed her sword at the Desian whose wrist she had damaged. It skittered across some of the Desian's armor before finding an unprotected spot of his throat, biting into the flesh and instantly drawing blood. The Desian yelled, throwing his hand up to cover the wound on reflex. While he was preoccupied, Katherine shouted, "Sun Strike!" and bashed her shield into the other half-elf's face.
Even though the second Desian was wearing a helmet, the bash did a bit of damage, if his yelp was anything to go off of. It had been a rather hard hit, and with a metal shield to a metal helmet nonetheless, and it caused the Desian to reel back away from Katherine for a moment. At the very least, he seemed to be disoriented, and Katherine looked over at the mage.
"Star Stroke," Katherine yelled, sending the blast of energy toward the mage just as the Desian cast Wind Blade. The two techs hit their targets at the same time, the Star Stroke staggering the unsuspecting Desian and the spell battering Katherine, giving her small cuts as she cowered behind her shield. When she looked up, the two not-majorly-injured Desians had left, probably to get reinforcements. They likely hadn't realized how difficult fighting the girl would be. The third Desian lay on the ground, already having bled out. Katherine's sword had probably clipped an artery as it had gone by.
Adrenaline was still pumping through her system, and if the two others had run for back up, she couldn't relax yet. But even so, there was a dead body just in front of her. A dead body that she had killed. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," Katherine muttered as she poked the Desian gently with her sword to see if he really wasn't dead. Adrenaline was not helping her deal with this at all. Just as a fellow prisoner tapped her on the shoulder to get Katherine's attention, a chorus of screams erupted from behind her. When she quickly turned around to see why, she joined them in screaming.
Where Lucille had been standing with the other escapees was now a charred smear on the floor, indicating the arrival of the stray fireball. And looming above the burn mark was ... a monster. A lumbering, sickly green hulk with overstretched limbs ending in claws, with a large glowing red gem covering where the face should be. And when it turned slowly to face Katherine, it howled. Katherine clamped her hands over her ears, dropping her sword, in a vain attempt to block out the rage and pain she was hearing.
The prisoners had scrambled away from the Exbelua, looks of terror on their faces. Some where clutching their own Exspheres, as if making sure that nothing had happened to them, either. Most didn't seem to realize what was going on, besides the fact that there was suddenly a monster standing amongst their number. A couple of the prisoners took refuge behind Katherine, knowing quite well that she would be able to do more against it than they would. Though admittedly, she wouldn't be able to do too much more.
Lucille the Exbelua swept an arm out towards Katherine and caught her squarely in the torso, throwing her across the room before she had a chance to react. Katherine hit the wall with a crunch and staggered to her feet. Lucille began to advance on the girl, dragging her hands on the floor, and Katherine realized that her sword was not in her hand but halfway down the hall.
Katherine backed away, her shield raised in case an attack was coming, but only took a step or two before her back hit the wall she had just been thrown into. She at least was happy that the shield had been strapped to her arm and hadn't gotten away from her like her weapon had. Katherine was just starting to desperately think of a plan besides 'cower behind shield and hope something happens' when she heard someone shouting. "Get away. Leave her alone!" a child yelled, and looking around her shield, Katherine saw a little girl kicking at the Exbelua.
Seeing that spurred Katherine into action as Lucille started to turn, trying to find the source of the kicking. The shield-bearing teenager skirted around the monster when it turned, grabbing the child around the waist with her free arm and moving her out of the way just as Lucille brought her hand down to crush the little girl. "Stay there," Katherine said to the child, quickly pushing her over to where the other prisoners were huddled in fear. The good thing about the rescue, though, was that it put her on the same side of Lucille as her sword. She scrambled for the weapon, snatching it up and spinning on her heels to face the Exbelua again.
Lucille had lost interest in Katherine, her attention on the group of prisoners. Before Katherine could reach the Exbelua and regain its attention - something she didn't entirely want to do, but she knew she had to in order to protect the prisoners - Lucille had swept one long arm at the group. The prisoners scattered, some simply falling to the ground to avoid the attack, but a good number were hit or nicked by Lucille's arm. The hall was full of shouts of pain, fear, or confusion in an instant before Katherine was hurrying up between Lucille and the prisoners.
As the Exbelua swept its arm around for another attack, Katherine threw her shield up to block it. The impact sent her sliding a few inches to the side and nearly sprawling to the ground, but she kept her balance. Her shield was a bit dented and the bent metal pressed uncomfortably against her arm, but it was still serviceable. Before Lucille could move, Katherine swept out with her sword without looking. She didn't want to hurt Lucille, but knew she had to or else all of them would be killed. Her sword cut the Exbelua's arm, and it howled again, blood dripping from the wound.
Katherine lowered her shield enough to easily see around it but still be able to raise it if necessary. Gritting her teeth and trying not to think about what she was doing, she slashed again at the Exbelua, opening another cut across its chest. The pain was angering it further, and it lashed out again, catching the edge of Katherine's shield when she raised it and throwing her to the ground. The shield had bent itself strangely about her arm from the impact but she ignored it as she rolled, dodging another attack. When she rolled, the edge of her sword nicked her side, making her flinch.
Quickly, Katherine scrambled to her feet once more, her damaged and bent shield held up. She swallowed hard before launching a hard attack, closing her eyes halfway through so she didn't see the damage she was doing to what had once been Lucille. After a minute, she heard the Exbelua fall, a loud thud echoing through the hall and the impact shaking the ground a little. Opening her eyes, she saw the monster on its knees, holding itself up with one large arm while the other simply laid limp along the ground. It was bleeding from a number of wounds that dribbled blood onto the ground.
Katherine was breathing heavily, not so much holding her sword, but propping it against the ground. Her shield arm was in severe pain and she figured getting the twisted metal off of her would cause even more agony.
She was on the verge of collapsing when she heard Lucille moaning. It was a strange sound, pain and labored breathing mixed with tears. "Safe...are you safe?" Katherine couldn't believe it. She was sure that Lucille was dead. Blinking rapidly, Katherine nodded slowly. "Yeah, we are." She tried to smile but ultimately failed. With a shudder, the Exbelua's supporting arm fell, and Lucille stopped breathing. After a moment, Katherine followed her friend to the floor in a heap.
Around Katherine, the prisoners were helping those that had been injured, pulling people to their feet and trying to bandage up any open injuries as well as they could without any real materials. Some came up and thanked Katherine, but a majority were giving the dead Exbelua a wide berth, as if afraid it would jump up and start attacking them again at any moment. They were working for just a couple minutes before a loud alarm suddenly started, red warning lights up high on the wall flashing and bathing the hall in a red glow. The alarm roused Katherine from her stupor and she groaned. After everything that had happened to her - the trap, the Desians, and Lucille - at least a half moment of peace would have been nice. And now the alarm meant the ranch would self-destruct. It seemed like it would never end.