"Fire Dragon Roar!" Nashi sent the soldiers flying and ducked as a few more began to shoot at her. They were currently hiding behind Ultear's ice wall to prevent getting shot, and it was beginning to wear rather thin.
"Poison Dragon Scales!" She heard the poisonous projectiles fly towards their target and explode, and Drake growled. "Every time I take one out, three more take his place!"
"I know!" Damien hissed, launching dark blasts from his hands. "How are you holding up, Ul?" Nashi cast a glance at the woman holding up their wall of ice, and noticed her sweating profusely too keep the bullets from breaking it.
"Great" She replied. "Feeling the burn, but I got it"
"She can't hold up the wall forever" Simon said, launching his swords at the soldiers, aiming for the guns rather than the men in order to stop the constant stream of bullets. "Drake! I need a haze!" Drake snickered.
"Paralyzing or nah?" The other asked, and Simon smirked.
"One that'll cover us and melt bullets!" Drake flinched.
"That's asking for a lot Simon, you got any thing to eat?" Simon glared at the dragon slayer and he chuckled. "Alright, everyone behind the wall." Nashi ducked under the thinning ice and saw Drake release the haze around them.
"Where'd they go?" A soldier demanded.
"The haze is covering them!" Nashi heard the soldiers open fire on them and she heard a hissing sound, and a melted bullet dropped in front of her. "It's melting the bullets! Stop wasting ammo!" Nashi glared at the rest of her group, with Ultear panting,
"Now what?" Nashi demanded, scooting towards them. Elise shrugged.
"I don't know" She replied. "I could make a hole in the middle of us, but it'll take some time"
"That's a good idea" Ultear managed through her panting. "It may not seem like it, but this wall takes a lot of work."
"Where'd the other Ultear go?" Drake asked. "She disappeared when the shooting began"
"Don't know" Damien replied. "But I think that hole is our best bet." Elise nodded and transformed her arm into a pickaxe, and began hacking away at the floor. Nashi put a hand on Ultear's shoulder.
"You good?" She asked, and Ultear nodded.
"Yeah," She replied. "I'm feeling great just...hurry up, okay Elise?" Elise nodded and began to hack at the floor even faster. Nashi stood a little to find the haze dissipating, and she saw a few soldiers through the haze.
"We need to get out of here" Nashi said flatly. "Before any of us get shot." She launched a fireball at a squad to the left, and they scattered for cover. Nashi ducked back beneath the wall, but it wasn't good enough. A bullet tore through her upper arm and she screeched in pain. "Fuck, I'm hit!" She shouted, clutching her bleeding arm. She felt the bullet still lodged in her arm, and it hurt a bit more then she'd imagined it would. Simon knelt in front of her, and she saw his worried look.
"Are you okay?" He asked, and Nashi nodded weakly. "Let me see" Nashi moved her arm and Simon inspected the bullet wound as bullets continued to fly around them. "It's still in there" He reported, looking back at Nashi, "Can you still fight?" Nashi chuckled weakly.
"A little bullet is nothing" She replied. "I got it" Nashi managed to stand back up and throw a few more fireballs, but everyone she threw with her left arm veered way off course. Nashi had to grit her teeth so that she didn't start wailing. It really hurt. She was about to suggest another haze when she heard the ground near Elise crumble.
"Got it!" She shouted. "Everyone in the hole!" Nashi turned as her vision began to blur and managed to fall in the hole, Damien catching her as she did. She was propped against the wall as everyone else jumped down, and Elise turned and sealed the hole with iron.
"Are you alright?" Damien asked, and Nashi coughed.
"I think they poisoned those bullets" She replied weakly. "Drake, get over here" Drake shook his head weakly.
"The bullet needs to be removed" He replied. "It'll keep the poison in her blood stream" Simon nodded, and strode towards a table in the corner, taking a small bit of cloth from a copy of Edolas' flag. He walked to Nashi and tied it around her arm, trying it tight.
"Alright, listen up" He told her. "I need to dig that bullet out. If I'm hurting you too much, squeeze Damien's arm, alright?" Nashi nodded weakly as Simon shoved the remainder of the cloth in her mouth to avoid her screaming and alerting guards. Simon requipped into a small thin blade and, with a nod from Nashi, approached her wound and the blade made contact with wound, Nashi screamed into the cloth as pain shot up her spine. She did her best not to squeeze Damien's arm, but she knew she was anyway. Black spots appeared in her vision as Simon grunted and the blade made contact with her bone, Nashi felt faint.
"Damn, this is gross" She faintly hurt Elise say. Nashi dug a hole in Damien's arm as Simon did his best to force the bullet out, and he growled in frustration and back up.
"Drake," He said. "Can you numb Nashi's arm? I'm afraid of hurting her." Drake nodded and moved forward, planting his hand on Nashi's shoulder, and Nashi felt the pain disappear, and she breathed a sigh of relief, thanking Drake with a look. Simon resumed his work, moving with much more proficiency as Nashi was no longer screaming in pain. Nashi turned to look at the bloody mess of her upper arms and Simon widened the whole a little.
"That looks gross" She murmured, and Simon sighed as the bullet fell from Nashi's arm.
" There" He said. "I got it" He took the cloth around Nashi's arm that prevented her from bleeding a lot and wrapped it around the wound, wiping his bloody hands together,
"Thanks" Nashi said, doing her best to move her bloody numb arm. Simon nodded as Ultear washed his hands off. "Now what? We can't get caught like that again, or we'll be screwed.
"Where exactly are we going anyway?" Drake asked, crossing his arms. "I mean, we've just been doing our best to stay alive." Simon thought for a moment.
"We should be trying to stop the invasion." he said. "But with the way things are going, we won't be able to take on a huge invasion force if we can't even deal with a squad or two."
"Then there's that whole Dragon Knight thing" Damien said, whirling his hand around. "That old project Ultear told us about, remember?" Nashi nodded.
"We need to stop him" She told them. "But we need some sort of distraction, or an advantage..." Nashi was interrupted by a stern knocking on the door, and they all paled.
"Hey, you little shits" A familiar voice said. "I know you're in there, open the damn door." Nashi stared at the others in shock.
"Isn't that..." Ultear said, but Drake was already sat the door and he flung it open, revealing Commander Erik. "Commander Erik! Thank Mavis for you!"
"Thank who?" Erik asked as he quickly entered and shut the door behind him, and Ultear shook him off. "Anyway, I heard the castle getting torn apart and something about Earthlanders, so I came as fast as I could"
"Well, as you can see" Elise said. "We're in quite a predicament here." Erik nodded.
"That you are, but I have some information you could make use of."
"Which is?" Damien asked. Erik motioned for them to follow him, and they quickly followed him out the door and down an abandoned hallway.
"Where are going?" Simon asked.
"Sub level two of the castle" Erik replied. "Only Division Commanders and Members of the royal family can descend past sub level one. King Jellal had them built a few years after the last Anima incident to house several of his pet projects, and where the most dangerous of which is being prepared on sub level four."
"Ultear said something about a Dragon Knight" Elise said, and Erik visibly paled. "That have anything to do with this?" Erik growled and clenched his fists.
"The goddamn Dragon Knight?" He hissed as they rounded a corner. "What the hell is that moronic little kid doing...?"
Edo-Nashi should've seen it coming, but she didn't think of it until it was too late. Obviously, seeing as their Earthland counterparts were amazing fighters, they were not. They'd gotten capture almost immediatedly, and had been thrown into the cell with there families. Nashi grinned weakly as she looked at her mother.
"Nice save" Her mother said quietly, which made Nashi rub her head sheepishly.
"Sorry," She replied. "We didn't do very well" Her mother sighed.
"Where are your Earthland counterparts?" She asked, which was accompanied by an explosion up above.
"There they are" Drake commented. "What were they thinking letting us do this alone..."
"They have other things to do" Damien replied. "Besides, it was only one guy. We just suck." Nashi chuckled.
"Maybe they'll raise enough hell to the point where we can just slip away" She suggested as gunfire tore up something above them. They were about to give up when a soldier opened the cell door.
"Come on" He hissed. "Let's go"
"Where?" Nashi's mother asked, and the man grinned.
"To the courtyard where the army is gathered" He replied. "The King plans to use the Dragon Knight to kill the invaders, and the people who harbored them"
"But we're not the..." Nashi trailed off as she remembered they looked exactly alike. She trudged out of the cell after her guild as more explosions souded above. Nashi for the love of God, please hurry...
Nashi felt her wounded arm begin to throb as they descended the stairs into sub level two. They had managed to avoid all the guards on the way, but that was probably becuase they were all gathered in the courtyard. Erik walked over to the console and it sprang to life, and he began rapidly tapping the keys, searching for what looked like something it particular. Nashi rubbed the cloth over her bullet wound, tying to dispel the pain, failing rather well. She hadn't expected the wound to throb so horribly, it felt like it had it's own heartbeat. Erik cursed, which interrupted her thoughts.
"It's 70% ready" He told them, continuing to tap keys. "I can't believe he's activating it, it's banned under the law of the King..."
"He is King, right now" Simon reminded him. "Meaning he has every 'right' to activate it." Erik nodded absentmindedly.
"So, what exactly is this Dragon Knight?" Damien asked. "can we blow it up?" Erik didn't reply, just kept muttering to himself. Nashi looked at Erik for a translation. Drake looked confused.
"It will cause the sky to turn dark, and Edolas will lose half of it's magic... What the hell does that mean?" Erik still didn't reply, and Nashi could see Drake's patience wearing thin. "Hey, Edo-Dad! What the hell does that mea..."
"There" Erik said, standing back. "That is the Dragon Knight." Nashi's gaze drifted to the screen, and she paled at the sight before her. "This is what King Simon plans to use against you and Earthland."
"What is that thing?" Elise demanded. "It's huge!"
"And terrifying." Drake added. Erik took a shaky breath.
"The machine that almost took all this world's magic the last time it was activated." He told them. "The one that almost cemented King Faust's tyrannical reign..." Nashi stared up at the silvery beast on the screen. It looked close enough to it's code name, and it's glowing orbs that represented eyes shook Nashi up as she stared at them.
"What is it?" Nashi asked weakly. Erik glowered.
"The Dorma Anim"
OOOOHHHHHHHH...
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy, so leave a review! Let's try and get five!