There was a danger to it, and they all knew it.
Running through the stone valley of the Oscuras, each footstep echoing loudly throughout the mountain range, each one of them conspicuously visible even in the darkness of the crimson dawn. In a landscape barren of all life, Lina, Zangulus, and Natalia ruptured the silent presence of the dead mountains in a way just calling out for trouble. No doubt about it; the three of them were sitting ducks.
But the die had been cast; to save New Sairaag, they'd have to throw caution to the wind and determine, once and for all, whether or not the three could stand up to a monster attack out in the open. If they couldn't even do that much, then any fight would be pretty much futile. Though none of them spoke the thought, it nonetheless rang incessantly in the backs of their minds. Especially Lina's.
Her breath was short, her legs and eyes felt heavy, and her mind felt as if it were wrapped in a thick blanket, but the knowledge of the coming fight forced her to combat, if not ignore, her fatigue. She knew that to fail now would be to lose the war for good, because to have the New Sairaag settlement destroyed would also mean losing Sylphiel, and that would pretty much doom their efforts. Unlike the way the Dragon Army was raised, she understood that each one of them was an integral component of a single fighting force, each one of them bringing something to the table that would increase their overall chances of success. The brute strength of Zelgadis' Shamanist attacks, for instance, provided them with considerable offensive capabilities. One of his Ra-Tilts would do much against lesser monsters. She only hoped he was still alive. She herself was a master of not only the conventional spells but of the more secret and finesse ones as well; in a pinch, she had several big spells she could fall back upon, like the Terra Haut of the day before and the Giga Slave of times past. Natalia, well, she hadn't figured her role out yet, but she was certain her Astral powers would come in handy for something. Her Shamanist powers, in any case, would certainly help, especially if she knew the Ra-Tilt. Zangulus hadn't really figured into her equation, but she realized that, even if he needed one of them to help him, his Howling attacks provided them with some offensive capabilities. And Sylphiel was the defensive key to the entire scheme, for if she could protect the group while they launched their magic attacks, then maybe, just maybe, they'd have a fighting chance.
Meaning that to lose Sylphiel now would be to go into battle missing a vital component, and that wouldn't bode well. Not against the larger groups of Monsters.
She shook her head in self-reprobation. She was getting way ahead of herself here, thinking about a battle down the road when there was one right there in front of them to worry about. She turned her head to Natalia, her mind quickly piecing together a new strategy.
"Do you know the major Shamanist attacks?" she asked between hurried breaths.
She didn't know if Natalia's look was one of annoyance or simply tiredness. "Of course I do. I wouldn't be alive now if I didn't."
"The Ra-Tilt, then?"
Now it was definitely annoyance. "Yes!"
"Good, because we'll build our plan around it."
"How far is it ahead?" Zangulus asked as he tried his best to pretend he actually understood what they were talking about.
"We're not sure," Lina answered, her eyes scanning the area ahead and seeing nothing.
"So how do you even know the settlement's under attack?"
"I'm not even going to try to answer that one. Ask Natalia. She'd know better."
Zangulus looked towards Natalia only to be met by her spiteful gaze again. Meeting her gaze, he asked, "Well?"
"Would it be too much to ask if I merely asked you to be quiet and trust us on this one?" she replied as she refocused on the path ahead.
"Yes, it would. How do I know we're not on some wild goose chase here?"
She rolled her eyes. "Listen, Zangulus, the convergence of Astral and Terrestrial energies along existing rifts allows for a wandering spirit to travel as essence along delineated routes, as they were, through which time and space meant nothing. Meaning that, if the predetermined trajectories, predetermined because control is for the most part absent, allow it, the wanderer can collapse spatial and temporal gaps by bending planes together and fixating upon specific places and times either far or near. Having said all that, Lina and I underwent such a process in our sleep. That's how we know."
The smile with which she punctuated her so-called explanation almost made Zangulus laugh despite his annoyance and the situation at hand.
"I should have just trusted you," he mumbled, Lina herself smirking at the exchange.
"Yes, you should have," Natalia reprimanded before returning her attention to Lina. "What did you have in mind anyway?"
"The Sword of Light gives us an advantage," she began, "because it's the only melee weapon that can actually harm creatures on the Astral Plane. Zangulus' sword, however, doesn't have the same capacity, at least not on its own."
"Hmph," she grunted, "and then you wonder why I call you the useless swordsman."
Zangulus gritted his teeth but said nothing.
"However," Lina continued, shelving the need to reprimand Natalia for later, "its magic attack can be amplified by casting spells into its discharge."
"I take it you've already tried that?"
"How do you think we killed off most of those Leeches?" Zangulus growled. "You think you're the only one who can kill monsters?"
"What spells did you use?" Natalia asked, ignoring him.
"I cast an Elmekia Flame into it, but I imagine that a Ra-Tilt would be even more effective."
Natalia nodded. "I see where you're going. Elmekias are effective against low-level Monsters, but they wouldn't be lethal against the higher level ones. Ra-Tilts, on the other hand, would be."
"Exactly," Lina agreed. "And because the Howling blast is a dispersed attack, your spells will be able to hit more than just one target. I'm also thinking that the Howling Sword's attack amplified with a Ra-Tilt would give us some serious long-range attack capabilities."
"What about your Sword of Light?" Zangulus asked, following along with Lina's plan.
"Same idea, only I'd be our perimeter defense, so to speak. Gourry told me that the Sword of Light, amplified with a Ra-Tilt, was almost powerful enough to kill Zanaffar, so you know it'd be more than a match for most major monsters getting in close on us."
"Zanaffar?" Natalia muttered in disbelief.
"It's a long story," Lina sighed. "But it would work. Assuming you can manage pulling off Ra-Tilt after Ra-Tilt."
"I can try," she said, the doubt in her voice evident, "but you know how taxing it can be casting a major spell like that, to say nothing of casting it repeatedly. I've never tried casting one after another like that."
"It's a chance we'll have to take. We have my Dragon Slave to fall back on, but I'd like to keep that as a weapon of last resort. Otherwise, I might end up frying the New Sairaag Settlement alongside the Monsters. Besides..."
"Besides what?" Natalia asked suspiciously.
"Strange as it may sound, I haven't cast that spell in ages. I haven't had the need to since the beginning of the war, maybe earlier. I just hope I haven't gone rusty with it."
"Brilliant, Lina. Just brilliant."
"Hey, you think of a better plan, then!"
"Your plan, though," Natalia ignored her reproach and continued along their original line of thought, "it would mean that we'd be bunched up together, right? Basically, it would be very easy for the Monsters to encircle us and finish us off with one good attack."
"Unfortunately, yes," Lina nodded reluctantly. "We'll have to make sure that we can take them out at a distance before too many come too close."
"And if they do?"
"Well, you say your sword can reflect Astral attacks, as can the Sword of Light. We'd have some defensive capabilities up close."
Natalia shook her head, seeing the weakness in Lina's plan. "I don't know, Lina. I have a few tricks up my sleeve too, but we're pinning too much hope on our chances of blasting them at a distance. If they do get in close, we're in trouble. I can't cast a Ra-Tilt and use my sword at the same time. You need both hands for the spell to be cast."
Again, Lina nodded because she herself knew the cracks in her plan. "Which is why we have to make sure it doesn't come to that."
Now Zangulus shook his head. "Pardon me for saying this, ladies, but your plan really seems to stink. It's like we're going into this with more guesswork than anything else."
"I know that," Lina retorted angrily. "But without a pure defensive spell caster, we don't have much of a choice. Either Natalia and I could handle defense, but then we reduce our attack capabilities and risk being overrun quicker. If Sylphiel were with us, we'd have less to worry about because she could keep us protected while we went ahead with the attack. But she's not, so we work with what we have."
"Three special swords and a heck of a lot of Ra-Tilts," Natalia grumbled. "No offense, Lina, but this isn't what comes to mind when I think of tactical ingenuity."
"So I suppose you'd rather just kill me and take the easy way out, huh?" Lina meant it as a half-joke, but the anger with which Natalia returned her look made her instantly regret she had said it.
"Just know," she said as calmly as any running person could, "that if I see we're going to be overrun, I kill you myself."
Lina's eyes narrowed in instant frustration. "It amazes me how stupidly stubborn you can be, Natalia."
"I'm not sure who's the one being stupidly stubborn here, to be honest with you."
And they were at it again. Both women's eyes locked onto each other with a mixture of anger, annoyance, and even traces of mutual hatred.
Zangulus noticed the tension that had, out of the blue, materialized and risen to critical levels between them. By the looks of it, that tension would remain between them until either the monsters were defeated or one of them lay dead, and he realized now that any relationship established between the two would be a highly unstable and volatile one. Be that as it may, they could figure it out later. Later, away from all this, perhaps within the safety of Natalia's cave or the New Sairaag Settlement, they could duke it out or something to settle the issue. But not now; the last thing they needed was for Lina and Natalia to start fighting again now when the settlement lay in the balance.
"Well," he said, his mind racing to come up with the perfect ice breaker and quickly deciding upon the first one he thought of, "at least I get to die in the company of two beautiful women."
And judging by the mixture of groans and laughter that broke out between the two, he knew he had said the stupidest thing he could have come up with. And the smartest.
"Oh brother," Lina grumbled. "Now I've heard everything."
Natalia shook her head. "Another one like that, and I'll smack you across the head."
Zangulus smirked in spite of himself. He'd have to come up with a new one for next time.
And Lina, her head briefly shaking to herself in reprobation but just as quickly stopping, realized that there was nothing wrong with a little laugh now. Better to go into the coming fight with high spirits and not the pessimistic fatalism they had wallowed in only seconds ago.
She looked ahead and wondered when she'd see the first signs of a Monster attack.
It didn't happen until about two hours later.
After having been running and stopping for all that time, each one of them trying their best to fight off days of sleep deprivation and exhaustion but now finding their bodies less and less cooperative towards that end, they finally saw what it was they had come for.
It started with a sound, though. A far off sound of something exploding.
The rumble echoed through the valley, and it was then, as Lina, Natalia and Zangulus were trying to catch their breath and wondering if, in fact, they had gone on a wild goose chase after all, that their collective will to fight on suddenly displaced fatigue and weariness. It was as if the echoed explosion scared away their tiredness, leaving them only with a single, uncompromising thought: save the New Sairaag Settlement at all costs.
Once they had reached a clearing, they could see it. Just beyond them, deeper into the valley, in one of the Oscuras' many canyons that, for the most part, offered very good protection and stealth against most enemies. A powerful spell attack had been cast. The three of them saw a wave of bright blue fire begin at an unseen center and gradually expand outwards until the circular explosion had consumed what seemed to be a significant distance.
Lina and Natalia instantly recognized it as a defensive spell of sorts, though neither could recognize what spell it was specifically. It could be Sylphiel, putting up what seemed to be a hopeless fight. By herself.
"Are we too late?" Zangulus said as he witnessed the wave slowly dissipate.
"Like hell we are," Natalia said before her two hands raised suddenly. "Get out of the way!!"
Neither Lina or Zangulus had noticed a lesser Monster appear towards their far left. Nor had they time to do anything but obey Natalia's order as they noticed it beginning a spell attack.
But Natalia's reflexes had been quicker. With considerable fury, she unleashed a single Ra-Tilt upon the attacking Monster and beat it to the punch. Barely. As the Monster disintegrated, unable to withstand the direct Astral attack, its hellish shrieks seemed loud enough to alert its companions on ahead. There was no turning back now.
"The rear guard, so to speak," Natalia muttered. "They know we're coming up on them now."
"Then we've got nothing to lose," Lina said as she grabbed her sword. "We've got to hurry; I doubt Sylphiel can hold them off forever."
Her companions nodded. Natalia quickly unstrapped her backpack and let it drop to the ground, while Zangulus unsheathed his Howling Sword and readied it for its first salvo.
Which was to come much sooner than any of them had anticipated.
True to Natalia's conjecture, a wave of about fifteen different monsters materialized before them before they had been able to move a single step forward. The monsters stood almost hovering before them, as if examining these new humans who had just killed off one of their number with relative ease. These wouldn't just charge blindly at them. These would plan their attack. For those few moments, it was a sight unlike any other: humans and monsters, standing face to face and about to square off on one another. Three humans stood before them with more courage than three thousand had two years ago.
"Oh hell," Zangulus cursed silently as he lifted his sword.
Lina motioned with her hand. "Go!"
As if practiced to perfection, Natalia and Zangulus launched their joint attack with pinpoint precision, and all three of them stood still as the blazing white flames of the Ra-Tilt-amplified Howling blast blazed towards their targets.
"Reload!"
The man's voice staid firm despite the knowledge that, in all probabilities, they had seen their final hour.
As the row of about thirty archers reloaded a motley collection of conventional bows, crossbows, and long bows, and lifted their projectiles for the next barrage, a smaller group of swords-equipped men and women maintained their position right next to them. The monsters would, no doubt, re-materialize no more than twenty meters away from their position, and soon they'd all have to move up and begin fighting them off, human to monster, in an effort to hold their line. For behind them all were the two hundred and sixty seven survivors of the once great city of New Sairaag, and by the looks of it, escape was not an option this time.
"Matriarch!" a runner came through and ran directly to the woman standing at the front of the line. "Monsters have been spotted along the northern and eastern ravines! They're trying to encircle us!"
Her green eyes didn't betray the least bit of fear or desperation, despite the fact that she slowly began to realize that the fate of her people was now, for all intensive purposes, sealed. She knew that to allow that fatalistic assurance to manifest itself upon her face would be to doom her warriors; they needed to stay strong, even in light of their imminent defeat.
"Have everyone move in closer to this position," she began, maintaining control over her voice. "Alert everyone to close the gap between this line and the settlement, so that we won't be spread thin along three different lines of defense. Tell the rear guard to form up along the end of the settlement and prepare to keep a defensive ring around it."
"Yes, Matriarch," the runner nodded as he turned quickly and began relaying the message to the three other runners standing nearby.
She turned her attention to the Monsters that had re-materialized at about the same spots in which they had disappeared. As the grotesque creatures lifted themselves to their full, intimidating heights, her hands began to rise as a ball of swirling blue light formed at her palms. The leader of the archery line recognized the motion and lifted his own hand.
"Aim!" he shouted, thirty sets of hands lifting and aiming at his command.
Their tactics had worked before, so she knew they'd be able to hold them off for a while. But their previous defenses had been against stragglers and minor parties. This, she knew, was an all-out attack. The Monsters attacking them now were of the larger, higher-level variety, the type someone in her camp called city-killers, since they were, for the most part, the ones most frequently seen at the front of major Monster attacks. These wouldn't be taken down as easily as the lower-level hunters and Leeches. The ball generating in her hands now buzzed furiously as its gathered Astral energies lay ready for their terrestrial discharge. She cursed beneath her breath and closed her eyes: she knew that, somehow, the Monsters had hunted them down and discovered them after all.
Thirty sets of hands trembled slightly as the Monsters resumed their march towards them. Thirty sets of ears awaited impatiently for the command that would let them fire at the attackers. Thirty sets of eyes locked onto the hideous, inhuman forms slowly advancing upon them with what seemed like delight. Their leader, his own hand raised and slightly trembling as he awaited the Matriarch to cast her spell, twitched his eye as he noticed the blue flame in her hands begin to expand beyond her palms and around her body.
She opened her eyes, both hatred and fear contained within their silent gaze.
"Vas Inverse!"
A wall of blue flame erupted from her body and expanded outwards in a perfect circle. The humans around her couldn't feel anything despite the fact that it advanced past them like an inverted tidal wave of blue fire.
And just as it reached the base of the Monsters' line, the archery leader lowered his arm with one, swift movement.
"Fire!"
Lina lifted her Sword of Light and reflected the Monster's spell attack away from her. The deflected energy exploded along the rock formations and sent thousands of tiny pebbles showering upon the three of them.
"Howling Blast!" Zangulus yelled out as his sword launched another discharge.
Natalia quickly followed up with a Ra-Tilt, her spell just barely catching up to the Howling blast before it impacted near two monsters.
Lina's eyes followed the movements of three other monsters as they tried to move along their left flank and encircle them. She knew, however, that Zangulus and Natalia had already killed off over half of their original number, and that if they were trying to encircle them now, it was because more of them would start appearing at any given moment. Trying to buy herself some time, she quickly cast an Elmekia Flame and launched it towards them in hopes that the attack would slow them down somewhat.
"Natalia," she turned quickly to her companion, "we need to break through before their buddies get here!"
"They're weakening along the front. Might be a good place to punch through," Natalia's teeth gritted as a Blam Blazer generated and fired from her hands. The two monsters in its path were pushed back by the attack but not killed. She needed to pace herself; at the rate she was firing Ra-Tilts, she would completely burn herself out in no time.
"Right. We need to make it down that ravine, but they'll be following us every step of the way."
"Then leave it to us," Zangulus yelled as he noticed the three surviving monsters up front fire a new salvo of spell attacks. Instantly, he fired another Howling blast, in doing so effectively countering the incoming spells. "Just keep them off our backs."
"Natalia, if you will?" Lina held up her sword.
Without hesitation, Natalia cast a Ra-Tilt into the Sword of Light before turning about and preparing a Gark Ruhaad with which to attack the three monsters up front.
Lina's sword, powered as it was with the combined powers of its own Astral energies and the Ra-Tilt, shone forth with new life as its blade extended well beyond its one meter length and contorted with the influx of contained Astral energies.
The Monsters at the rear noticed it. They fired a furious salvo at Lina as she let out a yell and charged towards them.
And for the first time since the war began, they found themselves on the losing end of an exchange of firepower as Lina dashed through them with magnificent skill and fury.
"Fall back, fall back!" the leader yelled out as two more swordsmen fell dead to the Monsters' advance. The three large ones, peppered as they were with the previous salvo of arrows, had re-materialized almost instantly and much closer to the line than had been anticipated. Clearly, they were surprised at the effectiveness of the human attack. That much was certain by the caution with which they now advanced.
"Matriarch, we can't hold them!" one of the archers yelled out as he nervously reloaded his crossbow. "We must escape!"
"Move the line back ten meters and re-fuse it," she commanded, the authority in her voice willing the man's reluctance away. "There's no escape. We fight and die here."
By now, the eleven surviving swordsmen and women of the twenty that had charged the Monsters regained the line and joined in the partial retreat. None of them were injured; there was no such thing as being injured by a Monster.
"Matriarch," the leader said to her as he motioned his archers to re-establish the line, "I don't think we can get more than one shot off now. They'll overtake us for sure on the next pass."
"Everyone stands, Keio," she replied as she began casting the next blast. "We need to hold them here, because in case you haven't noticed, there isn't anywhere to retreat to after this."
Keio simply nodded as he lifted his hand again. "Aim!"
Another runner broke through and headed straight for her, the agitation in his eyes and breathing bespeaking big trouble. "Several Monsters are now approaching from the north, Matriarch. They're moving in on our position."
"Then get back there and hold them when the next Vas goes!" she nearly yelled, the futility of the situation finally chipping away at her composure. To have come this far to be destroyed in the end.
"Yes, Matriarch," he responded, the hesitation all but evident as he returned with what he knew was a death sentence.
Her hands lifted again. She knew it would be the last time. Her archers lifted their weapons in unison for what they knew would be their final volley.
The spell was cast. The arrows were fired.
"Watch it!" Natalia pushed Zangulus aside as she herself just barely dodged the spell attack that scorched past them at breakneck speed. She grunted as she quickly lifted herself from the ground and prepared yet another Ra-Tilt despite the fact that she was now feeling the wearying effects of the over-exertion. She'd lost count of how many she had already fired, and she knew that if she wasn't careful, she'd be unable to cast any more spells. But the situation no longer allowed room for caution and smaller attacks than the Ra-Tilt.
Lina had kept the rear well guarded. After she had killed the three monsters of the original attack party, she had rejoined her two companions, only to watch ten new monsters materialize directly behind them and open fire almost immediately. She couldn't help but to feel somewhat helpless, knowing full well that, unlike Natalia's Shamanist attacks, her own Black Magic attacks would only have limited, if any, effect on the Monsters. She did, however, have the Sword of Light, and powered as it was with the Ra-Tilt, it was able to withstand the onslaught. She was able to deflect most of the spell attacks even as she continued running backwards so as to cover Natalia and Zangulus' general charge towards the settlement.
But she knew that she couldn't keep this up forever. Already, the combined effect was wearing out, and the Monsters were beginning to spread themselves out so as to give Lina several more angles to have to defend against if she wanted to continue on that present course of action. To charge them now, dispersed as they were along a pendulum-shaped formation, would be nothing short of suicidal. She gritted her teeth as she prepared to deflect a new salvo of attacks. As the force of the deflection pushed her back a few centimeters, she realized that they had to think of something new. Fast.
Because things were falling apart on both ends. Zangulus and Natalia fired another combined salvo at the monsters ahead of them, but this time, their timing was off. Natalia fell behind, her arms now starting to tremble noticeably from the exertion of casting Ra-Tilt after Ra-Tilt, and was unable to fuse her attack with Zangulus' Howling Blast. As a result, his attack hit the Monsters but inflicted no real damage on them. Taking advantage of their mistake, the Monsters immediately launched counter-spells, and this time it was Zangulus that had to pull Natalia down before she was hit.
Despite the gravity of their situation, it was impossible not to notice the third defensive spell attack emanating from the settlement; its bright blue circular discharge sent out a roar that echoed loudly throughout the valley. The three warriors sensed a new hope, for it was evident that they had nearly closed the gap between themselves and the New Sairaag survivors. Just a little more, and they'd be at the outer edge of the battle, and then they'd be able to combine their attacks with Sylphiel's. Assuming she was still alive and the one casting those spells in the first place.
It was at that moment, however, that no less than fifteen new Monsters materialized to their front, several more to their right side. Over thirty monsters, ranging from low to high attack levels, had appeared from three different directions, leaving the three warriors with no real room through which to retreat, given the steep hill blocking their final direction.
Realizing their predicament, Lina, Natalia, and Zangulus moved closer together in an attempt to consolidate their defense and make a stand. However, even they could tell that the battle had turned against them. Killing off the first batch of about twenty medium-level monsters had been difficult enough; now being faced with a number of monsters almost twice as large and all at once presented a scenario they simply hadn't planned for.
"Oh hell," Lina muttered as the astral blade, its combined power now almost completely dissipated, shone across her face.
"Switch up," Natalia simply muttered as she kept her eyes on the larger group directly ahead of them. They weren't moving or attacking just yet; again, they seemed almost to be observing them before attacking, as if trying to figure out what breed of humans these were in front of them that were putting up such a fight.
"What?" Lina and Zangulus said in unison, themselves keeping an eye on the Monsters.
"Zangulus can guard our rear," she explained. "The Howling Sword can block spell attacks, even if it can't kill a Monster. We need you to clear the path for us."
Lina knew she was right. There was no way Natalia would be able to sustain another volley of Ra-Tilts for them to break through the Monster line. Now, it was up to her and her Sword of Light. For if their long-range options were gone, they still had a chance to slice through the line, slowly but surely, with the one weapon that could do so with no problem. Lina gripped the hilt tightly and found herself unintentionally thinking about Gourry. He had given her the sword because he knew it would be her key to survival; the situation at hand was to put his faith to the test.
No sooner had the two nodded in silent agreement when the first spell attacks were fired. The three of them jumped in different directions in order to avoid the blast, and all three quickly jumped back up as they noticed the group starting to advance towards them, menacingly and confidently.
Without waiting for the word, Natalia laboriously cast another Ra-Tilt into Lina's Sword of Light and then pivoted to her left so as to be able to assist Zangulus' defense and defend against the Monsters at their flank.
The series of explosions that followed could be heard throughout the mountain range. Zangulus launched Howling blast after Howling blast, ricocheting each blast against the ground so as to better disperse his attack and counter the salvo of spell attacks being launched at them by the Monsters at the rear. Natalia began firing a stream of Flare Arrows to block the barrage being fired from the left, and contemplated casting a defensive spell to encircle the three. It was, however, consuming every ounce of concentration to keep up the barrage of Flare Arrows, and to break that concentration in order to re-cast a big spell like the Guumueon would be their doom. Lina deflected spell attack after spell attack from the front, all the while proceeding steadily across the ravine and through the lesser Monsters that had challenged her. Sparks from broken spells blazed in every direction; rock shattered and showered across the battlefield; smoke from deflected explosions hovered over them all like a thick black mist. The Monsters pressed on, their magic attacks increasing in intensity. Lina, Natalia and Zangulus pressed towards the settlement themselves, realizing that to stop now and re-deploy was to succumb. They'd stick with Natalia's strategy until they broke through the Monster line or until they themselves were all dead. Each of them grunted with the exertion, the battle suddenly becoming more ferocious than anything they had ever been in or imagined.
But the Monsters weren't dumb. Through the heat and smoke of the battle, Lina noticed them motioning to one another, their silent conversations ending with a re-deployment of their own. Several of the Monsters from the left flank re-materialized to the front. The eighteen high- level Monsters now standing at the front dispersed themselves in that pendulum formation of theirs again, maximizing the number of angles through which to attack Lina. Their previous tactic-forcing a group of about seven lesser monsters to charge her directly-had ended badly, because the Sword of Light had taken them all out. Now, they'd move on her gradually, together, slowly wearing her down before going in for the kill. And they doubted that even she had enough skill or stamina to take out all eighteen of them. So long as they kept a sizable presence along their rear and left sides, the other two would not be able to help her. Speaking voiceless commands to their companions, the Monsters at the front ordered the others to intensify their spell attacks and to begin moving in on them.
Lina, Natalia, and Zangulus had stopped moving, their slow progression through the Monster line and towards the settlement had been halted by the Monsters' intensified attacks. As they huddled closer together, their magic and swords now put solely on the defensive as the barrage of spells created a wall of blinding white fire around them, they knew they were in trouble.
The Monsters were gone. At least the live ones.
The few Monster corpses left behind, sprinkled with arrows and bleeding strange colored liquids onto the ground, were not de-materializing as the others had.
New Sairaag's warriors and their Matriarch were left to wonder why it was that the final wave had not come upon them. They had been upon them all; when the Vas Inverse had been cast, the Monsters had been only several meters in front of them. Now, they were gone, as if destroyed entirely by the spell. But that hadn't been the case, she knew. Something else had drawn the attacking Monsters away from her warriors.
And then she saw the explosions. She saw as they began slow at first but then increase in number and ferocity, and within seconds, everyone there noticed and realized that a new battle had formed well beyond their own line by about a kilometer. Someone had appeared along the western ravine that, apparently, represented a greater threat to the Monsters than the New Sairaag defense. And by the looks of it, they were putting up one hell of a fight. Her eyes widened, marveling at the sheer ferocity of the spell attacks being fired and deflected.
She was brought back to reality by the gasps and nervous muttering of her warriors as they too took in the fireworks spectacle. There was no time for this, she knew. Whoever it was putting up the fight wouldn't last long at this rate, no matter how skilled. She needed to help them, now that they had, for the moment, saved her people. She turned to Keio as he too looked upon the display.
"I need fifteen volunteers," she commanded as she began to move as if to run towards the battle. "We need to help them."
"But Matriarch," he retorted in disbelief, "if we break now we'll be no match when they return!"
"We would have broken had those sorcerers not interfered when they did!" she responded angrily. "How long do you think we'll last if the Monsters destroy them and resume their attack on us?"
"But.."
"There's no time," she said, stopping in her tracks and looking at him with ill-concealed frustration and desperation. "There's no time to argue this!"
He nodded reluctantly as he motioned a group of his archers to follow them.
"Hurry!" she yelled as the group of them broke into a frantic run. "Our survival depends on this."
"Oh hell," Natalia muttered as her arms buckled violently. She had cast too many spells, and she knew she was at her end.
Not that it mattered much anymore. The Monsters had encircled the three and were within two meters distance of them. By now, they had stopped their spell attacks, realizing the futility in trying to breach the tight defense the humans had formed around themselves. Withstanding a direct, physical attack, however, would be another story.
"You've fought well," one of the Monsters finally spoke, surprising the three warriors that one of them had finally spoken to them, "but your pitiful struggle ends now."
"Like hell it does!" Lina yelled as she lifted her sword. Again, as if attuned to commands that didn't need to be spoken, Natalia quickly turned and, pushing herself beyond all limits, cast a final Ra-Tilt into the Astral blade. Moving with a swiftness that almost seemed unnatural, and silently voicing the necessary incantations - Lina didn't hear her say a thing, not for this spell or any other - Natalia spun around and cast an Astral Vine on Zangulus' sword. His looked with amazement as a beam of white light emanated from the hilt and swirled its way upwards so as to encompass the entire blade. And that was it: Natalia was completely drained, her mind no longer able to withstand the exertion of casting one heavy spell after another. Forcing herself to refocus her physical strength, she drew her sword, fully aware that in her weakened state, even keeping her sword in tune with her Astral powers would be no small task. But as she lifted it before her and watched as the Monsters readied their final advance, she nodded.
"It doesn't end until we're dead, you bastards," she said as furiously as she could manage.
Lina sized up the situation and realized that, unless the three could manage to hack away with their swords and keep the Monsters at bay, the Monsters would overwhelm them with one, concentrated attack. She cursed beneath her breath; Natalia's supposition had come true after all. But it wasn't over, she knew. Obviously, Natalia still had some fight in her, as did Zangulus, and she certainly had more than enough will in her still to make it very, very difficult for the Monsters to take them down. It was then, however, that she realized her one oversight: Zangulus' sword would be useless to him in a physical fight up-close. And as the Monsters did, in fact, strike in unison, she realized the severity of her mistake.
"Zangulus, get back!" she screamed as she began slicing away with her sword. She knew he wouldn't remain standing for more than a second if he was left to fight with his own weapon.
But she hadn't seen the spell Natalia cast on his weapon. Enchanted as it was with the Astral Vine, the steel blade now glowing a blinding white, the Howling Sword had been attuned to Astral signatures. And as Zangulus swung it towards one of the Monsters and made definite contact, he himself realized what Natalia had done.
As did Lina after a few seconds. For even between strikes and counter-strikes, she could hear that Zangulus had not, in fact, fallen, but was instead very much alive and putting up a good fight. She conjectured that Natalia had enchanted his sword and found herself swinging her Astral blade with renewed vigor.
"It won't last," Natalia said between grunts, sensing Zangulus' sudden enthusiasm as his blade tore into Monster flesh, "so move swiftly."
Zangulus allowed himself a smile despite the situation, for it was nice to finally be able to strike at the Monsters not with magic attacks but with his own skill.
Natalia swung away with her own sword, the Astral energies focused in on it allowing her to superficially wound the limbs and tentacles striking out at her.
And Lina's light sword continued to inflict considerable damage upon her immediate attackers.
But it was not going to be enough.
"There!" Keio pointed in amazement at the sight of several large Monsters swinging away at someone who, as yet, remained unseen behind the wall of demons.
She nodded and lifted her hands swiftly. "Form up and fire a salvo when the Vas hits."
"Yes, Matriarch," he acknowledged as he motioned his archers to load and stand ready.
She closed her eyes and hoped she wasn't too late.
They heard it, even past the sounds of their own grunting and the Monsters' attacks. The sound of a single, deafening explosion, oddly enough getting nearer and nearer. Lina caught sight of something large, something like a giant blue wall, rushing madly towards their position.
Natalia saw it too in the corner of her eye. She wasn't sure, but she thought she saw about a dozen or so little things flying almost directly behind it, looking something like arrows fired from a distant spot beyond. As she swung her sword around to counter yet another strike, she instinctively wanted to throw herself on the ground to dodge the incoming wall of blue fire. Intuition, however, told her not to. As did Lina's.
"What the?" Zangulus yelled as he heard the maddening roar of the approaching wave.
"Don't move!" Natalia told him, her sword swinging again.
The wave impacted.
For all its intensity, its deafening roar as it expanded towards them all, and its visual grandeur as it raced across barren grounds and rocks, none of the three warriors felt a thing. Not even a breeze as it passed them by. Nothing.
And by the looks of it, neither had the Monsters.
Three swords swung in near unison as what seemed like the final Monster strike began. And three sets of eyes widened in disbelief at the sight of their weapons ripping through the Monsters not with the emptiness of metal on phantom but with the fullness of metal on flesh. And as the arrows Natalia had made out tore into the Monsters along the outer formation, the two young women knew what had happened.
"They're vulnerable!" Lina yelled out as she began a new furious attack.
Zangulus didn't know what she meant by that until he slashed one of the Monsters with his sword and watched it fall to the ground, writhing in pain as any corporeal creature would. Likewise, he saw Natalia suddenly move forward from her position and begin to strike down the group of Monsters on her front. And he saw Lina taking a direct strike from a nearby Monster, only to watch in amazement as the fiery tentacle went through Lina as if she herself were a phantom. She quickly turned on it and struck it down with her sword.
"This won't last either," Natalia yelled out as she took out two more. "We need to head for the settlement!"
Lina nodded as she noticed several of the surviving Monsters disappear, the other few still lingering preparing to do so as well. "Right! When they re-materialize, they'll probably be re-shifted. Hurry!"
Zangulus finished off the one Monster he had been tangling with before the others disappeared. Joining Lina and Natalia as they broke into a run, he noticed the group of about twenty or so humans motioning to them.
"There!" he said out loud as he waved his sword.
It was a useless gesture; the two women had already caught sight of the group and had, in fact, conjectured that it was one of them who had cast that spell. They knew that to consolidate their defenses with them would give them the edge they needed to finish off the Monsters when they re-materialized. Especially if the spell caster was as good in casting defensive spells as he or she was in casting that strange spell.
Natalia began to make out the details. It was a group of conventional archers and swordsmen, all busy reloading their would-be weapons and preparing for the next attack. Standing to their extreme left was a woman dressed in the garbs of a high-level Shrine Priestess, standing at attention and ready to fire off another defensive spell at moment's notice. Natalia's eyes narrowed: it was her.
Her realization came at the same time as Lina's. For the familiar features of the woman's dress and face became discernible well before they reached their line. Lina felt an odd mixture of joy, relief, and hatred as she recognized that the woman leading the group was none other than Sylphiel, Shrine Priestess of the late city of New Sairaag.
Sylphiel's mouth opened in silent amazement. And shock. Her companion noticed it.
"Matriarch?" Keio asked as he noticed her expression. He scanned the area ahead, thinking, perhaps, that she had seen a new Monster group appear before them. "What is it?"
She couldn't talk. A single, near-silent gasp escaped from her mouth as her hands clenched furiously. Instantly, her hatred for Lina Inverse overrode her faculties, and it took every ounce of strength in her to keep herself from trembling with the rage that she now felt as she watched Lina and her two companions, those who had saved and, in turn, been saved by her people, running frantically towards the line. Of all the nerve. Of all the strange bounces in life.
And Keio could do nothing but wait for his Matriarch to break the silence herself.
"Long time no see," Lina tried to sound casual and ignore the hostility in Sylphiel's eyes, "but there's no time for pleasantries. I'm thinking those guys will be back soon enough."
"Keio," Sylphiel ignored the greeting, her eyes nonetheless locked onto Lina's. "Move the line back to the settlement and re-fuse. We'll make our stand there."
"Yes Matriarch," he nodded, nervously looking back and forth at his leader and the strange looking red-haired woman that had just appeared. "And what about them?"
"I'm sure they can be of some assistance," she replied with cold sarcasm. "That is, if they'll join us."
Zangulus decided not to say anything. Yet. He resented the implication, however, especially since the three of them had come within milliseconds of their own demise just to bail the New Sairaag Settlement out.
Natalia didn't have her companions' previous experience with Sylphiel, but she found herself disliking her almost instantly. She wanted to smile to herself, thinking that her dreams hadn't really exaggerated that much in their estimation of her arrogance. But she knew that there was an untold story here, one, no doubt, having everything to do with their mutual friend, Lina Inverse. And she found herself wanting to hear it very much. But that 'some assistance' bit had been too much.
"Oh, we'll tag along," she said with equal sarcasm, finally jarring Sylphiel's attention away from Lina. "because I doubt Your Highness can last all that long without our meager assistance."
"Who are you that speaks with such disrespect to the Matriarch?!" Keio burst out, his hand resting upon his sword.
"Sweet Maker," she rolled her eyes, "now I've heard it all."
"Why you insolent..."
"Do we move this line back and prepare for them," she yelled out, patience coming to an abrupt end, "or do we do the Monsters a favor and kill ourselves right here?"
"Natalia," Lina said softly, her own eyes finally breaking away from Sylphiel and looking back at her two companions. "Not now. We need to refocus, because we're going to need everything we've got to beat them back again."
"Of course," Natalia nodded once, her composure returning as quickly as it had left.
"But do you think they'll return?" Zangulus asked as they all began to run back to the settlement. "After all, we seemed to inflict some serious damage on their numbers."
Lina shook her head. "Monsters don't believe in retreat. They'll keep coming until either they or we are all dead."
"Let's just hope that we nailed most of them," he muttered.
The words hadn't even finished leaving his mouth when the original Monsters re-materialized almost exactly where they had disappeared from. Instantly, they began firing spell salvos at the group, which had just as instantly began running frantically back to the settlement. Immediately after realizing they were too far to inflict any kind of precision damage, the Monsters raced behind them, twenty two strong, all high-level.
The humans had gotten a good head start on them, but the distance was gradually decreasing between them and the Monsters. The latter moved with a speed seemingly impossible for creatures that big and massive-looking, but as their bodies were in fact refracted from their own Plane, they were able to move along the Terrestrial Plane without the hindrances of Earth physics.
And Lina knew it. Again seemingly attuned to unspoken commands between the two, she and Natalia began to slow down and fall behind the main group. It still seemed a significant distance away from the settlement and its reinforcements, and to think that humans could outrun Monsters was nothing short of naïve.
"What a wonderful woman," Natalia said sarcastically as she turned around to face the incoming Monsters. "I can see why the two of you get along so well."
"You don't know the half of it," Lina said seriously before focusing on the Monsters. "We're going to need your Ra-Tilts again. Can you do it?"
Natalia, still drained from her previous exertions, took a knee despite the decreasing distance between them and the Monsters. "Give me a second. I'm trying to refocus."
"We don't have a second," Lina said as she fired an Elmekia Flame into the oncoming Monsters.
"I'm not asking for much," she now whispered, seemingly blocking Lina out of her mind and forcing herself to displace her mental fatigue.
"Natalia!" Lina said, the alarm in her voice clearly evident. "It's sink or swim time here!"
Two more Elmekia Flames. The beads of sweat were rolling down her forehead quicker. She quickly looked down at Natalia and almost scoffed when she saw her in what seemed to be deep meditation. Another Elmekia flew. Now she was worried. Now she started to doubt whether even the two of them could hold them off effectively. Whether she'd be able to hold them off by herself: by the looks of it, Natalia had slipped away on an Astral joyride or something.
"Natalia, damn it!"
"Thank you, mama," Lina heard Natalia whisper as she suddenly lifted herself and immediately cast a Ra-Tilt at the Monsters. Even past the concentration of casting another Elmekia Flame to back up Natalia's attack, Lina wondered what it was that had just brought her companion back into the fight.
"We need to give Sylphiel enough time to re-form her line."
Natalia smirked. "And I suppose you think we'll have enough time to catch up to them?"
Lina smirked back as she generated a Blam Blazer in her palms. "Yeah, sure."
The two unleashed a salvo whose combined force disintegrated another of the onrushing Monsters. The surviving twenty continued on, now pressing ahead fast and furiously. Lina and Natalia began moving backwards steadily, mustering up the strength to sustain their magic salvos as they did so. At this rate, however, they Monsters would get to them well before they could knock out even half of them. Two salvos took out two more, but by then, the Monsters were within twenty meters of closing the gap. Their charge had remained furious and unbroken. Lina could tell that the Monsters were, for lack of a better term, really pissed off: why else had they not launched any more magic attacks at them? These seemed more intent on physically getting to her and Natalia and literally tear them to shreds.
Meaning that if they acted quick, the two of them could use the Monsters' rage to their own advantage.
As if reading her thoughts, Natalia's hands lifted to cast a new spell. Almost instantly-again, Lina was at a loss as to how she could cast spells without reciting any incantation-a dark mist swirled from around Natalia's body and encircled a large radius. Large enough to engulf both them and the attacking Monsters in an almost impenetrable mist of darkness. Lina recognized it as a Dark Mist, but had never seen one quite so thick.
Just as suddenly, Natalia, drawing strength now from pure adrenaline, unsheathed her sword and began heading into the mist. "Get back to the group and have that Sylphiel person cast one of those big spells of hers. If her people can catch the Monsters in the mist, they'll have a chance to get them all. I'll keep them busy here."
"Are you crazy?!" Lina yelled out as her eyes tried to re-adjust to the darkness. "I can't leave you to fight them by yourself!"
"Just shut up and do it. They might not be able to sense me, remember?"
"But..."
"Move it!" she yelled out impatiently as she charged into the mist, disappearing from Lina's view.
Lina was frozen for a moment, not fully willing to sacrifice Natalia just like that. But as she heard the sound of the woman's sword slashing through wind and mist followed by the sounds of a Monster howling out loud, she knew that the best way to help her now was to do exactly as she had said. For her to charge blindly into the mist where she herself could not see the Monsters but where they would be able to sense her would do nothing but make Natalia's sacrifice pointless.
Trusting herself to her sense of direction, Lina ran past the dark mist, hoping she wasn't heading in the wrong direction. Her hands instinctively tried to clear the fog in front of her, but even then, all she could see were her gloved hands disappearing into the mist. She stumbled and nearly fell flat on her face more than once, her feet tripping up on rocks and holes that she simply could not see. She cursed to herself, hoping that Natalia hadn't gotten herself killed already. She cursed herself again; she knew that was too much to hope for.
Crimson light finally began cracking through the dark mist, and it was then that Lina could begin to make out what was in front of her. She could finally see the silhouette of the mountain range and of the steep hills immediately surrounding her. She could begin to see the road ahead of her, the road that, no doubt, led straight to the settlement's encampment. And she could make out what seemed to be Sylphiel's group of archers plus a number of swordsmen standing about fifty meters away from her.
The warriors noticed her. Zangulus, already angry at himself that he hadn't noticed the two sorceresses splitting away from the group earlier, instantly felt a sharp pang in his stomach when he realized that Lina was alone. And Sylphiel looked indifferently upon her as she motioned to Keio.
"Sylphiel!" Lina yelled out as she neared them. "We need that spell of yours, and we need to follow it in!"
Zangulus looked at Sylphiel and noticed the spite in her eyes and the indifference in her motions. Was she going to ignore her? Would she be capable of that much?
"She finally does something useful," he heard her muttering to her right-hand man with the gray beard.
Sylphiel motioned Keio, who in turn motioned to the swordsmen and the archers. At his command, the thirty archers-the ones left behind to guard the settlement had moved closer to the battle despite orders-lifted their bows and stood ready to fire into the mist, doing their best to approximate the location of the Monsters inside it. The swordsmen and women drew their swords and began running behind Keio as he too, sword in hand, began charging into the mist.
Lina's eyes widened. Even if Natalia had somehow survived, there was a good chance she'd be caught in the barrage of arrows. She raised her hands, gesturing Sylphiel to hold the attack. But she knew she wouldn't. There was no time to be worrying about a single person trapped under a barrage that could potentially take out a few Monsters.
True to her suspicion, Sylphiel merely ignored her as she began her incantation.
"Blue fire flowing through Astral seas, white wind blowing through Terrestrial grounds, converge at the nexus of our two worlds, displace and dispossess that which has crossed into ours."
Lina silently cursed Sylphiel, turning back towards the mist and drawing her Sword of Light.
"Vas Inverse!"
The wave of blue fire roared across the ground, invisibly slicing through the now dissipating mist and passing the human warriors harmlessly.
Lina forced her tired legs to break into a mad rush back into the mist out of which she'd just gotten out of. Sylphiel's warriors would, no doubt, go in charging madly at the Monsters but wouldn't be concerning themselves as much with looking for and aiding one person in particular. And given Natalia's own willingness to sacrifice herself for the sake of all of them, Lina knew it was her duty to reciprocate the gesture and bail her out of whatever jam she'd gotten herself into. However much she tried to ignore it, she couldn't help but to linger upon a single thought: the chances of Natalia still being alive were virtually non-existent.
Lina reached the main group of warriors. The light from her blade was now shining through the fading darkness, allowing her to witness a sight she had not imagined: human swordsmen slicing through Monsters with relative ease and much effectiveness. The Monsters that remained standing after the barrage of arrows were cut down before they could disappear by the group of twelve warriors and Zangulus, who had likewise joined in the fray. Those Monsters that did get off some attacks had not fully realized the situation, and consequently, their normally-lethal attacks flew harmless through would-be victims. The mist, dissipating but still looming significantly over the area, had kept the Monsters dispersed, confused, and most importantly, collectively unaware of the shift that had been forced upon them by Sylphiel's spell. And within moments of the spell's effect, humanity claimed its first decisive victory over a large force of Monsters since the outbreak of war.
Despite the celebration that broke out among New Sairaag's warriors, both Lina and Zangulus felt the emptiness of their missing comrade, and as the other warriors followed their Matriarch back to the settlement, they began searching for traces of Natalia's fate. As both searched for her amidst the thinning fog, neither wanted to give voice to the silent fear both entertained. Neither seemed to notice that they were searching for her along the ground. Neither gave thought to the fact that they weren't even calling out for her. They had both, without speaking it, agreed that Natalia could not have survived.
"How could you have let her?" Zangulus said angrily, more angry at himself than at Lina. "How could you just let her charge a group of high-level Monsters by herself? What were you thinking?"
"I wasn't, okay?" she retorted with equal anger and frustration. Zangulus was right, of course. It had been stupid of her to follow along with such an idiotic plan of attack. They both should have retreated to the line, perhaps by casting Ray Wings and thereby giving themselves a chance to outrun the oncoming Monsters. Admittedly, both of them probably would have been too drained to do it, but they could have tried it. She closed her eyes; hell of a time to finally figure it out.
"I can't imagine she lasted more than two seconds in there," Zangulus continued, more reserved. "Maybe we should wait until the mist clears? We might have better luck then."
She opened her eyes and punched her left palm. "Stupid girl! Stupid, stupid girl!" she cried out, muffling her fury behind gritted teeth. She couldn't understand why she was feeling as angry, as upset, as saddened as she was, when she had known Natalia for all of a day and a half. But that was what she felt: like she had just lost a life-long friend. It made no sense whatsoever. There was no logic in it, she knew, but logic hardly made her feel better now.
What did make her and Zangulus feel better, however, was the sound of a familiar, sarcastic voice breaking through the mist, the familiar silhouette of a woman wearing mismatched shoulder guards and two long braids likewise breaking through and approaching them, slowly and awkwardly.
"Who are you calling stupid?"
Lina allowed herself a quick sigh of relief; to show any more would be ridiculous. Zangulus tipped his hat and started laughing that same laugh she'd heard before when he too was trying to hide emotion behind make-believe mirth. Both felt a tremendous weight lifted from them, a weight that had conveniently packaged guilt, anger, and despair into a single, indescribable emotion. But neither was about to indulge in melodrama. Neither was ready for the silliness of rushing towards her, yelling out something corny like 'Natalia, you're alive! You're alive!' and hugging her like she was the oldest and dearest of friends. Natalia would probably smack them both across the head and tell them how utterly idiotic the gesture was anyway.
But as they now discerned that she was, in fact, limping severely and keeping all her weight off one leg, and as they watched her suddenly fall onto her side, both immediately dropped the charade and rushed to her. Finally getting a clear look at her, they noticed several things. She was deathly pale, obviously worn out from the exertion of casting all those heavy spells and swinging that big sword of hers around. She was breathing heavily, as if ready to pass out but doing her best to hang in there. Her left hand still held her sword, and its blade almost seemed to glow with the dark miasmic energies gathered upon it. Monster blood, so to speak. And they noticed her two wounds-one on her upper left thigh, the other in her abdomen-and the broken arrows sticking out of them. Lina instantly felt her anger towards Sylphiel rekindled.
"This is ridiculous," Natalia muttered, trying to sit up and gritting through the pain. "I mean, what are the chances? How many archers were there, anyway?"
"Between twenty and thirty, I think," Zangulus answered as he knelt besides her. "They fired a salvo just as Sylphiel cast her spell."
"Twenty to thirty, huh?" she tried to sound nonchalant. "And I'm hit by two of them? Wonderful odds."
Lina couldn't help but to shake her head and smile. "Always the performer, aren't you?"
Natalia forced out a smile of her own. "Would you rather have me writhing around in pain and screaming out like some weakling?"
"Yes," Lina answered her jokingly before turning to Zangulus. "I don't think she can walk to the settlement. You think you can..."
"Excuse me," she said as she noticed Zangulus already moving on Lina's half-implied suggestion. "Don't even think about it. I'm not that helpless, you know."
"But Natalia," Lina insisted as she saw the blood streaming out of her abdominal wound. "It would be best if..."
"In case you missed it," she said, her face contorting again with the pain, "I just finished tangling with over a dozen Monsters at close-range. Don't you think, after all that, that I can manage to enter the settlement without the embarrassment of being carried into it like some damsel-in-distress cliché? Just help me stop the bleeding and give me a hand walking, okay?"
Lina simply nodded as she pressed her hands against Natalia's abdomen and cast a minor healing spell. Natalia would need more than that, she knew, but if they could at least stop the bleeding, she would be okay until Sylphiel could heal her completely. With the bleeding stopped, she motioned to Zangulus.
"All right then," Zangulus said as he put Natalia's left arm around him, Lina doing the same with her right arm. "Just try not to complain too much on the way or we let you crawl back to the settlement on your own."
"Yeah," Lina chimed in. "Big tough girl, huh?"
"I hate you two," Natalia mumbled, her teeth gritting in pain again as the long walk towards the New Sairaag Settlement began.
No one present in the New Sairaag Settlement could have guessed that, only hours before, its inhabitants had been at the brink of annihilation. No one looking upon the festive atmosphere, upon the smiling faces of men and women, upon the looks of excitement as warriors told the story, and upon the drinks being served in celebration, could have imagined the horrible fate so narrowly escaped that morning.
Another Monster attack was not expected, even if the more pessimistic elements among them warned them that another wave could appear at any given moment. Committing to the optimism and hope that no attack was forthcoming, the people indulged in a celebration long overdue. It wasn't long before the pessimists decided that the people's high spirits shouldn't be brought down so quickly, not after coming so close to being wiped out, and certainly not after two years of horror and tragedy.
"Just leave them be," Zangulus said to Lina as she continued to look upon the small celebration. "For all we know, it's their last chance to feel this way."
"I know," she said softly, observing the antics of several small children fooling around with the grown-ups' bows. "It's just that..."
"It's just nothing, Lina," Natalia added. "It's no small feat, if you think about it. To my knowledge, this is the first city or settlement to survive a full-scale Monster attack. And I somehow doubt they'll be back anytime soon."
Lina turned her attention back to her companions. "I guess. I just wish I had your confidence."
"Hey, what you don't have, you fake, okay?"
Lina smiled and looked towards Sylphiel, who was speaking to several of her people and seemingly in no real hurry to come over and speak to them. "I wish she'd hurry up, already. She saw what shape you were in."
"Don't worry about it," Natalia replied, her head falling back and resting upon a thick rope holding up the tent they were sitting besides. "The healing spells you and I cast will keep me alive, much to your chagrin."
"Yes, but you'll need a more powerful spell to heal that injury," she said, motioning to Natalia's abdominal wound. "For all we know, you've ruptured something internally."
"Que sera, sera."
Zangulus rolled his eyes. "Natalia's fatalistic outlook aside, what's the story with you and Sylphiel? I don't remember her being this distant and cold."
"Oh, you noticed it?" Lina asked with mild sarcasm before returning her attention to her former friend.
"The last time I saw her, she was a weakling, for all intensive purposes. Frail. Insecure. More foolish than brave. Singularly benevolent, perhaps annoyingly so."
"That's a bit harsh, isn't it?" Lina replied. "I'm surprised you were able to read her that deeply considering you hardly knew her."
"Some things are more obvious than others," he said, also observing Sylphiel as she continued her conversation with the group of people. "Besides, all you needed was to hear her speak. I thought we'd ring more conviction and assertiveness out of a mouse than her."
"That does sound harsh," Natalia chimed in. "You'd think she was your kid sister or something."
"And yet now," he continued, "she seems so much stronger and authoritative. I can almost see why her people have made her the ruling Matriarch. But she also seems that much more distant and, as our good friend here suggested, downright arrogant. I imagine you know something about it?"
"Somewhat," Lina muttered. "We kept in touch for a while. Until..."
"Until what?" he asked.
She sighed. "It's a long story."
"Looks like you've got a whole bag of those," Natalia muttered. "We do, however, appear to have some time on our hands now."
Lina's expression softened, her voice becoming a whisper as she spoke. "It's not something I'm comfortable talking about."
"Why not?" Zangulus persisted, thinking to himself that Gourry figured into this somehow.
"Because they're not very fond memories."
Zangulus was about to speak again when he felt Natalia's hand touch his knee. She shook her head at him, the expression in her eyes telling him to drop it for now. Reluctantly, he did just that.
"Damn it," Lina said suddenly, frustration back in place. "What is her problem."
Sylphiel had, at that moment, turned to look at them and caught sight of Lina's angered look. For a moment, the two women gazed upon each other, the distance between them doing nothing to diminish the hostility being exchanged. But Lina's hostility was immediate; she was angered by the fact that Sylphiel was purposefully stalling and ignoring the urgency of Natalia's wound. Sylphiel's hostility, on the contrary, was one built up through years of animosity and hatred for Lina. She herself had, for all this time, assumed Lina had died after the fall of New Sairaag, perhaps caught and overwhelmed by Monster stragglers or something. And despite her role as Shrine Priestess to the people of New Sairaag, Sylphiel had found herself wishing that such had been Lina's fate. It was that dark, unspoken wish that would now keep the two separated despite their close proximity. Lina had come to the New Sairaag Settlement with the hopes of burying the hatchet between the two of them; Sylphiel didn't want to have anything to do with her, period.
Perhaps it was Sylphiel's realization that, stall as she might, Lina and her companions weren't going anywhere, that prompted her to finally attend to them. Excusing herself from those she had been conversing with, she walked towards the woman whom she hated with all her being.
Lina wasn't sure what to say anymore as Sylphiel stood over the three of them. She didn't know whether to shelve her anger and try to be friendly with her, or remain firm and resolute and speak to her with confidence, or if she should just be downright rude to her. She wasn't sure if friendship was even a remote possibility any more, if cooperation was even within the bounds of feasibility, and began to wonder if it wouldn't be the best thing to simply forget the whole idea and resume her search for Zelgadis. And she wasn't sure if the sudden urge to rise up and slap her across the face wasn't entirely unwarranted.
"I'm surprised you had the nerve to show your face around here," Sylphiel finally spoke. Zangulus almost felt a chill down his spine: Sylphiel's demeanor was so cold and hateful, she made Natalia seem downright friendly in comparison.
"Because it's ironic," she continued, "that you couldn't pull off half as good a job of fighting them at New Sairaag when you had three thousand warriors more. I imagine you're feeling pretty good about yourself right now, thinking you've vindicated our city by saving its pitiful remnants."
"No, I hadn't thought that," Lina responded quietly, instantly ashamed at the mention of her failure at the original New Sairaag.
"I doubt it," Sylphiel responded spitefully. "All you've ever been is a braggart, manipulative little bitch with absolutely no concern for anything beyond your own immediate benefit."
Lina was instantly infuriated by her words, her face flushing a red that would give the skies a run for their money. To think she had nearly died trying to save Sylphiel's life seven years ago, only to be told now, by that same person, that she held no regards for anyone's well-being other than her own. She wanted to get up and yell at Sylphiel, curse at her for being so singularly spiteful, explain to her how she was wrong about so many things, about how she had always been wrong. But something kept Lina at bay. It was, more than anything else, the shame and guilt she felt over her own contributions to their deteriorated relationship that kept her from responding to Sylphiel with equal venom.
Fortunately for her, not everyone was as reserved.
"Excuse me," Natalia spoke, her own spite matching Sylphiel's, "but I'd really advise you to shut up. Don't forget that you and your people are still breathing because of us, and that it's thanks to Lina that we were even here to help you."
Sylphiel's eyes turned to her and narrowed condescendingly. "Who are you anyway?"
"The name's Natalia Stillrage," she answered aggressively, "and I won't be spoken down to by anyone. I don't care if you're the settlement laundress or the settlement Matriarch."
"And I really don't care who you think you are," Sylphiel responded angrily, "but I'd advise you to mind your own business."
Natalia looked at her and suddenly flashed that mocking smile of hers again. "Cute outfit, by the way."
Sylphiel's mouth opened as if to retort but said nothing. It was evident in her eyes, though, that she instantly hated Natalia.
"She's in her right," Lina suddenly spoke as she motioned to her companion to keep quiet. "After all, the Dragon Army's destruction was my fault. I told you the story."
"Be that as it may," Natalia persisted, "your story was incomplete, and I'm thinking that our good friend here is pinning more blame on you than she has the right to."
Sylphiel ignored her remark and turned to Zangulus. "And you. I remember you. You're that jerk that kept challenging Gourry all those years ago. By the looks of it, you've hardly changed. Lina really knows how to pick them."
"I'm sorry that I don't measure up to your standards," Zangulus began as he tipped his hat towards her, "but I'm equally disappointed in you. For all the weaknesses I saw in you when we first met, I always knew that at the core of your being, you respected life above all other things. I thought that it was not in your nature to feel spite, hatred, and all those other dismal qualities that make the rest of us so petty, so flawed. I thought you were beyond all that because the look in your eyes always bespoke a maturity of spirit if not in character, and it was a maturity that most of us could only dream of emulating. Yet here you are, Sylphiel, as full of venom and hatred as you were once full of compassion, wisdom, and understanding. And I can't help but to feel sorry for you. I can't help but to think of you as a fallen angel, fallen because you've lost sight of those qualities that made you so angelic in the first place. You've become, I fear, a shadow of your former self."
Lina and Natalia looked at him, completely stunned at the eloquence and the tempered conviction with which he spoke. His face had remained serious throughout, and Lina was now completely convinced that Zangulus was more than just brawn and testosterone. Moreover, his response to Sylphiel's insult had been superbly effective. Unlike Lina, who had spoken too softly, and unlike Natalia, who had spoken too harshly, he had found the perfect balance between the two and spoken with a truthfulness that was precise and calculated but not in the least bit vicious and insulting.
Sylphiel noticed it too. She didn't speak, nor did it appear that she was going to retort as rudely as she had done with Natalia. The sharpness in her eyes dulled somewhat, the fury in them tempered with the words that she herself knew to be too true. She remembered what she had been like before, when she had built her identity around the principles of her Shrine and around the hopes of a happy future with the one man she loved more than anything else in the world. She remembered the compassion and the caring that Zangulus alluded to, because they had defined her, maintained her, and held her up for most of her life around those that looked up to her, especially during the reconstruction of Sairaag. Being compared to an angel brought back bitter memories of her dead father, for he too had often said the same thing to her, about how she was an angel on earth who would always uplift the spirits of the people she was to serve.
But now would not be the time to re-evaluate her life and the way it had fallen apart on her when she learned of Gourry's marriage to Lina. She wasn't about to allow Zangulus to place all the blame on her alone, nor was she going to allow them all the pleasure of seeing her affected by his little speech. Not now when Lina, the woman who had played such a huge role in her own deterioration, was right there next to her. Let Lina speak her part, let Lina tell her side so that they'd know why it was that she had changed so dramatically for the worse.
Lina noticed the tension in her eyes and realized that Sylphiel's indifference was now a façade. Zangulus had hit close to home, and she knew Sylphiel was now fighting her emotions in order to conceal the extent to which his words actually stung her. She almost felt sorry for her, because Lina wasn't a hypocrite. She knew the damage she had done Sylphiel by marrying Gourry; she had always known. It had almost kept her from refusing his proposal four years ago, aware that Sylphiel would somehow remain a presence between them, no matter how far from New Sairaag they were. But Lina didn't. She married him anyway, and the guilt she felt manifested itself conspicuously when she failed to send word to Sylphiel that the two were going to be married. How stupid she had been. Like a foolish girl eloping and keeping her wedding a secret from her parents.
But she also knew that Sylphiel herself was being unfair. Sylphiel had never believed that Lina loved Gourry. To her, Lina's marriage to him was just a ploy, a last-ditch attempt to secure that which she had been after all those years: Gourry's Sword of Light. When Sylphiel first told her that, almost a year after the wedding, Lina almost flew at her furiously. She had turned red with rage, and had wanted to beat the stuffing out of her for even suggesting such a thing. And even that worked against her, for Sylphiel concluded that Lina had reacted as anyone would when confronted with the undeniable truth. Things just went downhill from that moment on.
By the time the War began, Lina had re-evaluated her situation and realized that to continue fighting with Sylphiel was pointless and petty. Only before she actually had the chance to travel to New Sairaag and try to talk to her peacefully, the Crimson Dawn came. And the next time she and Sylphiel met, their existing tension was compounded by their fierce disagreement over how to deploy the Dragon Army. They never did have the chance to re-conciliate.
Which was why Lina was doing her best not to provoke her now, Natalia's temperament notwithstanding. She had come here to bring Sylphiel into the coming fight because they needed her. She had searched her out because her defensive powers could give them all a much-needed edge in a fight that, in every other sense, seemed utterly hopeless. And while she had not admitted it to herself because she too had been too immature about this whole thing, she had wanted to talk to Sylphiel, explain things to her, and maybe even bury that hatchet that had risen between them and destroyed what had been a solid friendship. Considering Lina had few friends to begin with, she had found herself missing it.
Lina knew that re-conciliation would have to wait. Sylphiel was already turning as if to leave, simply muttering to them, "You're free to stay with us, if you wish. I'll have someone provide a tent for you."
"Sylphiel," Lina tried to sound as polite as she could without seeming downright fake, "Natalia's hurt. She needs a high level healing spell." Lina impatiently frowned as her companion complained and shook her head in refusal. Guess I'm not the only one being immature here.
Sylphiel sighed heavily as if to make sure they all knew how bothersome she thought it all. Sharply turning back around and catching a glimpse of Natalia's reluctance, she knelt down besides her nonetheless and not-too-gently pressed her hand against her wound. Natalia couldn't keep a small yelp from coming out.
"What can I say," Natalia said sarcastically as she tried to ignore the pain. "I don't respond too well to arrows."
Sylphiel ignored her as she began whispering an incantation.
"Natalia, shut up already," Lina said bitterly as she got up and walked away.
Lina stood by herself a short distance away from the settlement, taking in the light breeze and looking at the crimson sundown. For all that was associated with the red skies, the sight of the reddened sun sinking down into the Oscura Mountains was nothing short of awe-inspiring. If only they could all take the scene out of context and admire it for what it was, instead of seeing it as a reminder of what was, of what had been, and of what was to come: the extinction of humanity.
"No," she whispered to herself, wrapping her arms around herself and closing her eyes. She started to think about Myra, about what it was that she might be doing at that moment. She wondered if she was still wearing her ribbon on her blouse, if she was still playing that wizards and monsters game with her friends at night, and if she even remembered her anymore. It didn't matter, she knew, because Lina remembered her. She couldn't explain it to herself why she had become so emotionally attached to that little girl, but she figured it had something to do with the way Myra had befriended her immediately and right at the moment in which she most desperately needed a friend. She had come along in Lina's darkest hour, the hour in which despair had seized her completely, and brought her spirits back up despite her annoying questions. Lina laughed gently to herself. The questions had annoyed her then, but she'd love to hear them again now. How she wanted to see Myra again and tell her more of those magic stories she seemed to like so much. Maybe she'd tell her the one about the time Naga summoned all those sea cucumbers. Yes, she'd like that one.
She thought about how great it would be if the Jenna folk had a spell caster like Sylphiel among them so that they too could make a stand against the Monsters. It was then that her spirits dropped slightly; humanity's first victory against the Monster Race had come only because Sylphiel's strange spell had made it possible for human melee weapons to inflict damage on Monsters. She wasn't sure what the spell was and was hoping Sylphiel would have the courtesy later of explaining it to her. Whatever it was, however, it was evident that, in all probabilities, she was the only person in the surviving world capable of casting it. Meaning that a similar victory was nothing but impossible for Jenna and every other settlement remaining.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of slow, uneven footsteps approaching her from behind. For a second, she thought it was Natalia, limping towards her perhaps to threaten her again or something. But the burp that broke through the silence told her that it wasn't her. Not unless she was displaying a whole other side of her personality.
She turned and recognized the gray-bearded man with the scratched-up armor as that man that had stood besides Sylphiel during the battle. Keio, was it? She wasn't sure.
"Oh, sorry," he motioned to her, his left hand holding a drinking cup and outstretching towards her. "Care for a drink? Best stuff you'll find anywhere now."
Lina took a sip from the cup out of curiosity. Instantly, her face contorted in disgust, flushing red with the bitter taste of whatever it was that Keio had fermenting in there. "What is that stuff?!" she cried out.
Keio laughed loudly. "And there I was thinking you'd know how to drink! Ha!"
Lina shook her head in amusement. Leave it to humanity to still find a way to ferment liquor, even in the middle of an apocalypse. And by the looks of it, Keio had already had a bit too much of the local brew. That much she could tell by the way he wobbled between laughs.
"Try it again," he insisted as he clumsily offered the cup again. "It's a toast! A toast to our first victory against the Monsters. Now..." He burped, then began thumping his chest. "Now it's a war! Ha!"
Despite the aftereffects of her previous sip, Lina accepted his toast and took a healthy drink from the cup. Hell, she thought, so what if it tasted like horse urine? Keio was right in feeling optimistic, because for the first time in two years, a ray of hope had broken through the crimson darkness and told them all that, if their spirits remained strong, they could still overcome. Well, that, and if they had Sylphiel with them.
"Aha!" he slurred his words, "that's better! That's what I expect from Lina the Bandit Killer!"
"What?" she said in disbelief, unused to an epithet she hadn't heard in years.
"Oh, don't act so surprised! We all know who you are. Lina Inverse, the Bandit Killer, commander of the glorious Dragon Army!" He burped again.
"I see," she said quietly, her cheeks flushing in silent embarrassment.
"Oh no, no, no, no, no!" he shook his head several times. "I'm not here to offend you or anything. Nothing like that. Nothing like that."
He took another swig from his cup, finishing off what was left.
"I mean, at first, I didn't like you very much. Not very much..." Now he had definitely gone beyond plastered. He resumed his slurred, slow speech. "I used to think, 'hey, who does this Lina think she is anyway?' Little snot-nosed, flat-chested brat. Got no business leading an army and getting us all...oh, sorry," he swayed back and forth. "didn't mean no offense."
"None taken," she replied, her mouth arching into a very amused smile. Thankfully for Keio, she had finally come to terms with her under-development about four years ago.
"But today, ha! Today, you showed balls! Oh, sorry..."
"That's okay."
"Yep, today, you showed those ugly buggers a thing or two with all that fancy spell stuff of yours. And that guy with the funny hat. And that pig-tailed friend of yours. And our Matriarch!"
And that was it. Keio passed out right then and there, falling to the ground and starting to snore in a way that would have made Zangulus proud.
"Oh yeah," she said to herself as she turned back to face the sunset, "we're going to win this war now."
Not a minute passed before she heard more footsteps heading for her. She rolled her eyes. Was every drunken warrior going to come over and make conversation with her? She turned around and sighed in relief when she saw who it was. It was Zangulus. And he was sober.
"Hey," she greeted as she turned back around. "You have to see this."
"I've seen it," he replied nonchalantly. "I've spent so many nights just looking at the setting and thinking that, despite what they represented, the red skies did have a beauty to them."
"You know," she said, shaking her head and looking at him, "you're just full of surprises. How come you didn't show any of this personal depth and eloquence seven years ago? It would have made our fight much more interesting."
"Because there was no need to."
"That makes sense," she replied sarcastically.
"Doesn't it, though?"
"Strange man. What are you doing here anyway?"
He shrugged. "I'm not used to that much activity around me. I just wanted to come out here where it was quiet."
She nodded in agreement. "How's Natalia, by the way?"
"Snoring loud enough to keep everyone awake for the night. Which I suppose is better for them than if she were awake. Is it just me, or does that woman just have a knack for pissing off everyone she comes into contact with?"
"Yes, she seems as proficient in that as she is in handling her sword. Did Sylphiel heal her?"
He nodded. "However reluctantly. After she finished with her, one of her people took us to a tent where we'll be spending the night. Natalia said she wanted to sleep, and she hadn't been in there for more than three seconds before I heard the snoring start. I just hope I don't sound that bad."
Lina smiled to herself, deciding not to tell him about what she and Natalia had said about him the night before.
"In any case," he continued, "she should be perfectly fine by tomorrow."
"Good," Lina nodded, thinking ahead to tomorrow's conversation with Sylphiel. There wasn't time to beat around the bush, she knew. Whether they re-conciliated or not was no longer the issue: Sylphiel had to join them no matter what.
They stood looking at the sundown, neither of them saying anything as the sun disappeared behind the mountains and threw the entire horizon into a crimson splendor. And even the sound of Keio's snoring didn't ruin the tranquillity of that one, perfect moment.
"That's it," Zangulus pointed to a tent among a whole row of them. "and I think you can hear her already."
Lina strained and heard what Zangulus had referred to. To say that Natalia was in deep sleep would be the understatement of the year.
"I doubt she'll keep me up," she yawned as she headed for the tent. She stopped and slapped her forehead. "Oh damn, I hope we don't start having weird Astral dreams again!"
"What?" Zangulus asked, recalling the strange experience of watching both of them reacting as if dreaming the same thing.
"Tomorrow, Zangulus, tomorrow," she waved her hand as she continued towards the tent.
"I'll be there later. I think I'm going to look around for a while, see if I can't get some information about Zelgadis."
"You do that," she said half asleep as she entered the tent and disappeared into it.
Zangulus turned towards one of the campfires and figured he'd spend some time getting to know some of the people there. It wouldn't do any harm, especially considering the possibility that they'd be with them for some time. He hadn't discussed it with Lina, but he could tell that Sylphiel was not just going to pack up and join them and leave her people to fend for themselves. To do so would be to sentence them to death, for without her protection, they wouldn't stand a chance, even against lesser Monsters.
The thought struck him as serious enough to relate to Lina immediately. For if their plans now had to accommodate an entire settlement, that would surely complicate things. He turned around again and walked to the entrance of their little encampment.
Only by the time he did so, he was greeted with the sound of two women snoring loud and hard enough to blow the tent off its supports.