Iris hadn’t spoken a word to him as he sounded his orders and led the guardsmen and the Ghasts to the wall closest to the edge of the monstrous mass. It was a tall drop, but the Ghasts would manage; their training would’ve taught them the proper technique for weathering their body’s rapid deceleration, but the guards… he couldn’t imagine many of them would make it out of there without compression fractures. He would hate the sound, but statistically, with luck, the Ghasts that didn’t shatter themselves on the hard stones would be in such a state they’d be able to carry the rest of them out.
“Ready?” He spoke over his shoulder.
Abraham had finally gotten up and had joined Logan by his side, still uncertain as to what his role would be in the operation. Still, he signaled his status by raising his filthy thumb. Behind him, Mara and Jarek had, dreadfully, decided to stay atop the garrison alongside him - well aware that such a decision would drastically decrease the likelihood of their survival. Even so, they remained stalwart in their decision… he hated to admit it to himself, but he appreciated them for it. There wasn’t anyone else he’d rather have at his back.
Jarek threw a glance at the crate of mortar-ammunition next to him and checked his and Mara’s launching tubes before nodding his readiness. Lastly, Logan shouted far across the street - towards the two small forms seated atop Pupper in the distance.
“You ready, Serah!? We’re gonna launch!”
After a moment, she screamed back with enough volume to make Luna cover her ears: “Get goin’ already!” As eager as ever.
On Logan’s signal, Mara and Jarek dropped the bombs into the launchers atop the spring-pads. Upon bouncing into the tubes, the ammunition went live and soared in high arches above before turning nose down to slam into the streets.
The incendiary rounds might not have had much in the way of an explosive charge, but as they went off, white-hot flames spewed out to immediately sear the writhing jungle of flesh. The tentacles were quick to react, shifting and squirming to save themselves from the fire, only to fan the rapidly evaporating liquids - a happy coincidence, as it allowed Serah to do her work far more effectively.
The flames were organic at first - following the tissues they burned. But within moments, they began to writhe and swirl, forming a wide circle that only grew faster and faster. As the next two rounds joined the first in searing the jungle floor, Abraham attempted to join in on the trick, only to find himself slowing the rapid swirling. “I’ll teach ya later, fuckstick!” She screamed - her voice on the brink of laughter as she manipulated her hands about in the air. He gathered, by the tone of her voice, that this was an endearing term rather than what it sounded like.
When the circle of fire had grown wide enough and the tentacles had either been sufficiently coagulated or withdrawn, Logan signaled for the men to: “Go! Jump!”
Upon seeing the first of the Ghasts’ dark forms drop from the wall, Serah reacted quickly by opening the ring of fire to form a half-circle under the continued, more distant fire of the mortars.
Logan had to kick the last of the stragglers, but aside from him, the rest had performed the maneuver admirably… well. He could tell that a few would take a few months to recover in the Citadel’s best care.
In the strong hands of the Ghasts, the wounded were dragged over the blackened remains of the Monstrum. The black mass of silent leather coats, white masks and green carapace armor moved masterfully along the eye of the raging firestorm, creeping ever-closer to the safe perimeter just below the corner-store Luna stood atop.
Her gut writhed with unease at the sight of Logan stuck atop the distant rooftop and once again, the intrusive memories of Sitalii struck her. Back then, he had assured her all would be well - that he’d follow right behind her, only to remain inside the imploding station. She attempted to push the gnawing aside as the men finally breached the outer reach of the Monstrum, but something about all of it felt wrong, as if their quota of luck had already been pressed to the maximum allowance.
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“Ooph!” Serah spoke as she lowered her hands and relinquished control of the fire - letting it spread along the numerous planks strewn about the edge of the town.
The grunts of pain soon turned to screams of agony as the suppressing fields of the Ghasts dissipated - leaving the guardsmen to writhe around and clamor to their broken appendages.
A snarky voice spoke from the middle of the black mass and sounded a loud command to her followers: “Let’s not let the infection spread. Drag them out into the field.” Iris spoke with an authority that none of the Eyes dared second-guess.
“Wait, where are you going? Hey- aren’t you gonna help us!?” Luna shouted as the Ghasts grabbed hold of broken ankles and fractured wrists.
Iris looked up at the two girls atop the long-nosed Sighthound and clenched her fists in rage at the sight of the girl’s lengthy, black coat.
“Are you one of Crusher’s men or Behemoth-Bane’s? It really doesn’t matter - unless you’re a brigadier, too, you can’t stop us from enacting His Will.” She spoke with a certain amount of smugness as the Ghasts dragged the men towards the field of corn. Most of them had fallen unconscious - either with the shock of pain or due to the suppressing fields of the operatives, so it would be up to Luna to find a solution to the conundrum.
“You can’t set them on fire - what’s wrong with you!? Logan! Logan!” She shouted.
Across the sea of smoldering, burnt flesh, Logan narrowed his human eye to see the unusual movements and raised his voice to shout: “Stop - where are you going? The total evacuation can wait! Stop!” But his orders fell on deaf ears - or rather… ears far too comfortable with claiming ignorance.
Luna grabbed for the hammer-scythe strapped to the side of the hound’s harness, only for one of the black forms to approach her with a raised palm. The dark form spoke with a voice Luna recognized as belonging to the one she knew as ‘Smile’.
“Don’t. They’ll shoot you.” Luna and Serah stared down at the woman as the last of the guards disappeared into the sea of green and yellow.
Smile continued: “They’re dead either way. Iris made that decision the moment she came here. We-”
As soon as the fires had stopped shifting to Serah’s will, Logan had noticed an unmistakable change in the Monstrum’s movements. It had reared its disfigured tentacles for the duration of the fire, but now that the flames no longer held the threat at bay, the suspended wave of gore crashed back down with more fervor - more volume than ever.
Thankfully, Logan saw both the white shape of Pupper and Smile react in time to gain distance and land themselves outside the reach of the tentacular beast, but all had to grab for weapons to cut at the incoming projectiles of meat.
“Fire! Fire everywhere - keep it up!” Logan commanded his companions, who were all too happy to oblige him.
A few of the Guard had remained - enough to man the artillery and the bombs, but despite their constant launches, he’d yet to see the results.
By the time the first volleys had fired, he could see little more than dancing fire beyond a thick screen of smoke - moving with an undying will of its own. Or rather, Serah’s will - confirming that his companions were still alive somewhere beyond the smoke.
“Keep firin’, boys! You - fuckstick, anything you can do to help ‘em?”
Jorn’s question was pointed towards Abraham, whose naked eyebrows jerked at the mention of his endearment. He hadn’t a clue what he was supposed to do, but if there was something to be done, he imagined it best he at least made an attempt.
From their perch atop the wall, he felt the air - exploring the streams in an attempt to identify any of the magics he’d felt during his previous manipulations, only to find that the air was substantially different.
For one, he could find no flammable gasses - not loose like he had found them in the mire, at least. But he did feel the fire itself.
It struck him as so odd how he’d never tried to study fire before - something so magical in itself and, supposedly, a thing of divine purity.
“I don’t think he’s gonna be of much help.” Logan whispered to his adoptive father.
“I ain’t sayin’ yer wrong… but at least it’ll keep the boy busy. You got any plans for what we do if this don’t work?” Logan had been considering that same question for the past few hours and as the rain of incendiary charges continued to bombard the unstoppable hoard of the forest, he was left to conclude: “I’m not sure what we’re even after. This isn’t enough firepower to kill it and cutting isn’t going to do much good. We could cut for a hundred years and we still wouldn’t even inconvenience it…” Jarek, Mara and the guards had begun to set fire to the more distant buildings, clouding their every direction with the smoke of burning buildings.
Jorn grunted his agreement and silently sat down atop the garrison - silently signaling to his ward that time had to be the factor with which they could ever have a chance to lure the body of the beast out.