*gurgle* Ow. These Zipsum are too damn fast. The horror that was once Leaps-over-lakes drags his poisoned blade from my gut, I fall back utterly frustrated, but in no shape to garner a second attack. Everything was a bloody blur for a while...I know I healed myself at some point...then...huh? Rei? Rei was standing in front of me, blocking an attack from another abomination. I think, "Wow, Moses is really getting into her..." Then she was brutally cut down, and my fury at the destruction of a beautiful sentiment in action rose me to my feet. The rest of the battle was a whirlwind of blades and energy. How quickly a holy place falls.
As soon as the dozen or more altered Zipsum were dead I flew up to be sure there were no more coming. I can't explain my relief when I only saw two Gogajin at a dead run towards the top of the mountain. People gathered, and we all headed back toward the village. Turns out several of us were poisoned, and Mokuzai wasn't sure how to heal it. Great. I take this happy moment to notice that the discolored spot on my wrist has spread all the way to my elbow. Great. Can the day get any happier? Oh yes! Kiyoshi delightfully informs us that the Leaps-over-lakes said that all who helped us would be destroyed. Dare I say it? Great.
There seem to be Cheldrun visitors in the village that Larkin and company aren't too thrilled with, but at this point an impending Zipsum invasion weighs heavily on our minds. High Dive tries to brew an antidote to the poison, but too soon hordes of Riverswift are seen running toward the village. The large Gogajin drums beat ominously. A happy youthful Gogajin tells Edana there will be a big party because the Zipsum are coming...I just hope he doesn't die.
He can't die. There has to be something I can do. I am tired of my impotence against these unnaturally powerful beings. I fly high as the rest of my friends prepare for what seems like a hopeless battle against several hundred soul-sucking Zipsum. I felt hot tears boiling over my cheeks as my heart desperately hoped for some way to stop the onslaught, my ire rose, and I flew. I flew over the center of the seething mass, looked them in their non-existent eyes and screamed like I have never screamed before. I saw light shining impossibly brightly and then I was drawn into the black. "Please," my dying consciousness pleaded, "let me have saved my friends..." I blessedly didn't have time to consider the unlikeliness of that outcome.
I came to far from the battle, and didn't take time to wonder how I got there. I flew up and right back to see how I could help. To my horror I saw Kiyoshi unconscious at the tip of another man's blade. I silently dived toward the man to knock him off the roof, hoping to mess him up, as well as get him away from my nest-mate. Annoyingly, the man landed with a graceful roll, and still in possession of his blade, but at least he was farther from Kiyoshi. Blessed Edana picked up Keibatsu and Kiyoshi so that I was free to retrieve High Dive from the fray.
Rei was having fun with some sort of tornado effect she had whipped up, but we still decided that given our grievous injuries we should head for the cave in the quarry with the others. We arrived at the cave to find many badly injured and poisoned. Moses and Mokuzai were unconscious. Poor Mokuzai was just drained from the stunning things he had done with lightning, but Moses had a hole through his head and a life force that was barely existent. I cracked my proverbial mana-knuckles, and walked over to begin some much needed healing.
Ruins
Cities
2 comments:
Anyone else find it amusing that the chapter named after the Innocent Bystanders barely mentions them in passing? ;)
Yeah, heh. Una didn't have much contact with them, and it's told from her perspective.
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