"Enemies entering attack range," 8C notes. 3F turns to 8C.
"Evade or block incoming attacks?" 3F asks.
8C remains motionless, giving no sign that it's thinking, before suddenly glancing at me, then answering, "Block."
"Understood." With that apparently decided, they face forward again. I can just make out small flashes as the enemies begin to activate their own gears and armaments across the field.
"I'll take the front, provide rear support," says 8C.
"Understood," 3F responds. "Setting up our zone, prepare to defend this location."
8C takes a deep breath. Why can I feel tension from these two? Even though they're rail units? "Begin." It says.
Without delay, 3F calls out. "Hecate!" with more intensity than I've ever heard from a rail unit before. It's still flat compared to a human, but completely different than normal for a rail unit.
There's no time to be awed by that though, because its armament manifests immediately. It draws a long wooden staff from its divine gear. It is pure black, mostly straight with just a few bent parts up its length. Then there's a striking, curved band of gold floating over the head of the weapon. Silver spikes jut out from the golden arc, catching the light of the moon as 3F raises the staff overhead. "Vigil!" Much larger silver spikes shoot up, appearing from thin air at the head of the staff. They spin through the air briefly, about ten of them fanning out into a circle and ramming into the ground all around us. A tremble of power courses up through my feet, followed by a bright white light, coming right up out of the ground.
As I stare at the light, I gape a little. Hecate strengthens spells like Vigil, but makes them cost even more mana, and Vigil reduces mana costs of using other armaments. But it's supposed to cost a ton of mana itself, and it would have been increased even further by summoning it with the Hecate staff... Are they really going to use so much mana that it will be worth it? I gulp at the thought. What are they expecting the enemies to throw at us exactly, that they'll need so much power to defend against? I'm scared to find out. But before that, they aren't finished setting up yet.
The rail units turn to each other and take turns, passing the staff back and forth while casting Lilia on each other. Nevermind passing the staff off, which I don't remember the handlers teaching us, but they're using Lilia here?! Isn't that another incredibly high mana cost ability? They keep using them one after another, this is nothing like the way the handlers described normal battles! As far as they told us, most rail units prefer summoning a melee weapon type armament because they don't cost much mana and can be used for a long time before they break. We have a few strengthening armaments like Aura, but our bodies are basically human, and rail unit weapons are very powerful. It should only take a few good hits to kill one of us, so simple, efficient melee weapons are usually a pretty good choice. Even ranged weapons expend a little mana with each shot, so they're less efficient, not to mention their summoning costs tend to be rather high.
Sure, using a lot of mana to win one fight could be an option, but if you use more than you gain from the enemy you kill, you wouldn't even recover back to where you started. If you keep doing that, you still run out of mana and die eventually. 8C and 3F should know that isn't a good plan, but right now, they're going through all of these high power armaments in such a short time anyway. They must be burning through their mana at a record rate! I step forward a little, trying to get a look at their divine gears to see how much they have used, but it just draws their gazes over to me.
"We should use Lilia on 1A as well," 3F says.
"Agreed, otherwise it will die instantly if anything gets past us," 8C agrees. Instantly?! A wave of terror hits me. I want to curl up into a ball, but force myself to stay standing as I think about it. Lilia is one of the only armaments that allow the user to directly strengthen an ally, so I suppose it's a good idea. But the mana cost... As they approach, both holding onto the staff together, I skim over the bits of information I remember.
This one is an incredibly high power spell type armament, probably the second strongest, right after Arcane, though that can't be used on allies and shouldn't really count as a spell type... Lilia on the other hand, forms some sort of bond that completely strengthens every aspect of both the user and their ally. Except, doesn't it require them to stand really close together for the effect to work? Normally that would be pretty much impossible when everyone is moving around in battle, but I suppose that isn't a problem right now with the way they intend to defend this spot. Besides that, it also decreases mana costs yet again; I wonder how all of the mana cost effects they've used work together from so many armaments?
No, I'm getting distracted. After those effects, I know there are other various things Lilia does, but there were a whole bunch of them and they never got into much detail. Especially because it's not an armament most rail units would ever be likely to use. "Lilia," they both say. The faint pink glow of the armament manifests around their hands, and they each tap me on the shoulders. The glow on their hands are replaced with little pink star shapes that seem to hover over both of my shoulders as the spell takes effect, moving with me when I move. However-
"What is this?!" 8C grunts. Both of the rail units suddenly grasp at their chests. It only takes a moment to realize exactly what the problem is...
I can feel 8C and 3F. It's vaguely similar to how I feel Maven, but more muddled. They're still clearly distinct, separate beings from me, but I can feel their presence, their existence, and their feelings. And they can obviously feel mine. All of my angst, barely contained nerves and terror, even my self loathing at the thought of spending their lives to save my own, it's all layed bare to them now. Shit.
"Dismiss!" 8C grunts, but nothing happens. Of course Lilia is one of the only armaments that can't be dismissed at will. It figures. The effect probably lasts a long time too...
"What do we do?" 3F's voice sounds faintly strained, clearly overwhelmed by the torrent of secondhand emotions stronger than anything it has ever felt before. I still remember crying the first time I walked to a nearby cross street, just because I started getting nervous. With the mess of my emotions, all jumbled out of place from overloads of different mana types, it's incredible that they can even stay standing. Maybe it's only due to their own lack of emotions?
"There's no time, the enemies are finishing up their preparations, we need to hurry up," 8C says through panting breaths.
"Y-yes," 3F is clearly forcing itself to stand upright once more. I glance down at its gear, seeing that it has already gone through nearly fifteen hundred mana, even though the battle hasn't really started yet. Now that I can't hide my emotions, both rail units flinch at my pang of shock. "You're going to at least help out a little," 3F turns and speaks to me. It sounds... annoyed? Well, it doesn't really sound annoyed but it feels like it should be?
"Catherine," it calls. Catherine, the empowering blade. I remember this one pretty well since it has a unique name. 3F tosses the weapon over to me. It's shiny and silver, like a brand new sword, but the blade is completely blunt. It is supposed to strengthen all of the user's allies within a huge area around it, but not the user themselves. So I'm supposed to use it to strengthen them?
I catch the sword. It's not terribly heavy in my small hands. I could swing it without issue, but that's probably just thanks to the incredible effects of Lilia. Of course it's not useful in combat anyway, so I'll just be holding it. I look down at the blade in my hands. I suppose even if I can't use my divine gear, I could still use armaments handed to me. It seems that it is possible to hand them off if what they did with the Hecate staff is any indication. But don't weapons like these require mana constantly to keep functioning?
Yes, definitely. I can feel the presence of the sword weakening in my grip with each passing moment, like it is going to vanish into thin air. Which... it is, actually. I push a bit of mana into it. It goes right in, but I don't know if I feel any difference. I blink at it. It can take my mana, but maybe that wasn't enough. I want to push in more, but I only had that tiny bit of colorless to use. If I use more, it'll have to be my colored mana. I would need to convert more. But I left all of my metal back by that rock, I realize.
I didn't think I would need to actively use mana in the battle. "Shit." The rail units flinch slightly again.
I don't want to touch the colored mana, but I don't have any more colorless to feed the sword, fading in my hands by the moment. That colorless mana only made up like one or two percent of all my mana, I'm otherwise completely full already. I gulp a little, every hair on my body standing on end. Even the two rail units pause in their preparations to glance at me.
I pull mana from my mana well. The smallest amount I can possibly skim from the surface. The blast that pours out is enough to immediately overwhelm my senses. An unfamiliar, awful sensation assaults me. I don't know the feeling, can't really tell what it is. Like searing, imaginary pain pouring through every bit of my being as the mana threatens to burst me into shreds.
I can't help the strangled cry I desperately release as I direct the flood toward the sword as best I can. I fall to my knees, panting. While the other rail units shudder and stumble from the secondhand impact, I finish directing the mana. I stay down for a few moments. Apart from the unidentifiable not-really-pain, I'm otherwise fine... I think. The sword in my hand feels much better too. But it's still draining away rapidly. How much mana does this thing use?! Gritting my teeth, I push to my feet and draw more mana.
"What are you doing?!" 8C asks, something resembling anger creeping into its tone.
"I had no idea it took so much mana to use these, how do you two do it?!" I ask breathlessly as the second wave passes.
"Do what? We call out and the divine gear answers," 3F explains while throwing a pair of hand axes into the ground at its feet.
"We're out of time, they've finished preparing," 8C informs us while I struggle through a third wave of mana. I glance around, spotting our allies crossing the broken battlefield at an incredible pace, though the enemies are nearly at the horizon, so it's going to take them some time. They must be advancing because the enemies aren't approaching us. The way their formation is staying in place, they must be preparing for a long range attack. Our pincer strategy has been thrown out completely, hasn't it? Meanwhile, at the far end of the field, just before the hills, I see a number of bright lights shining into the sky, just like ours. These enemies... They're about to throw some serious attacks at us, aren't they? I quickly try to skim through which armaments they might be using.
Would the normal ranged arms even work at this distance? The big bows might... with some extra support. Maybe some of the extreme long ranged spells? Gaea would be devastating, especially if they were to empower them the same way 8C and 3F are, but I don't know if even that would reach at this distance. And would they really use that much power to bombard three rail units? There's no way that would be efficient, they couldn't possibly come out ahead launching attacks like that.
I want to run the numbers, but I don't have time, because I have to push another agonizing torrent of mana into Catherine, and I see a far off flash of ultrabright light, even compared to the blazing light given off by our divine gears and Vigil. It's like a flashing red and white explosion, which draws my gaze across the field instantly.
"They're attacking!" I say quietly, my whole body going tense. With my air mana, I definitely have the best eyes here, so it will be up to me to call out exactly what the enemy is doing, won't it? But I've never actually seen the divine armaments before, will I really be able to recognize them based on the general descriptions I heard in training? Even as the fear gnaws at me, my protectors are still preparing. Now that the first attacks are coming, they rush through the remaining preparations.
"Delay Sval! Delay Ishi! Multi! Multi! Multi!" 8C rolls through armaments at a breakneck pace, quickly stacking up over a dozen delayed shield spells. In its hand, deep cracks begin to form in the Hecate staff as it keeps using one after another. It looks at the staff for a moment, before stopping and tossing it to 3F. "One use left," it says. Oddly, I can feel 3F's acknowledgment through the Lilia bond, despite it not making any outward gestures or anything. A few more explosions of light continue flashing, far across the field. As I feel Catherine weakening once more, I take a deep breath, then grunt, wavering on my feet as I suffer through another wave of mana induced tearing. I think I'm getting better at it though. The trick seems to be pulling the mana directly from my well into the sword so it doesn't collect inside me first. That makes it just a little less horrible.
In the few moments I do so, I keep my eyes trained on the sky the entire time. They're definitely firing at us, I feel like I can just barely make out the first shot as it arcs across the sky toward us. Unfortunately, it's followed by a number of bright, explosive lights shortly after, a lot of them at once this time. The first shot hasn't even landed yet! I just keep focusing, picking out the object as it comes closer and clearer in my view. It's... long and somewhat slender. An arrow?
Based on my knowledge of the bow armaments, none of them fire arrows like this. So a thrown weapon? Unless I'm missing one in my frantic haste, there isn't a thrown weapon that would reach at this distance, not with an arc like that anyway. It resolves a bit clearer as it approaches, I only have a few moments left to identify it. Doesn't it seem a lot longer than when it was really far off? Yes, because it's actually large, very large. My eyes scan its length as it becomes more clear in my vision. Very long. Dark colored. Heavy looking. Spearhead. A spear type? A shudder goes up my spine as my intuition jumps straight to the correct arm, and the other rail units flinch in response.
"Lu In!" I gasp out as fast as I can form the words.
"Bastion!"
"Aegis!"
The rail units summon at the same time. In the back, 3F calls out Bastion to protect us from harm, while 8C in front draws the unbreakable Aegis shield. I don't have enough time to try to remember the details beyond that though, because 8C dashes into its path and brandishes the glowing golden shield in front of itself, receiving the massive spear plummeting from the sky. In an instant, the entire weapon explodes down its length, the blast deafening. Fire, lightning, and all manner of debris burst out, the vast majority directed away by 8C's perfect shield parry.
Despite all of the empowering effects surrounding us, 8C is thrown backward immediately, bouncing across the rocky ground before landing back on its feet. Despite its amazing guard, a little of the exploding metal debris fly out in our direction. 3F's hands fly up, mentally calling some of the delayed armaments to activate. The spells hanging all around us spring to life, a large wall of interlocking shields forming all at once, but it isn't fast enough. The first bit of the fragments sprays over us before the rest crash into the shields. 3F grunts and blocks most of them with its body, the shards slashing and cutting into it all over.
It's a completely different story for me, though. My eyes widen as I see them approaching, my body already in motion as my intuition kicks in. I shift slightly, the smallest bit I can move where I'll avoid the worst of it, while solidifying my mana to protect against the attack, like I have before.
Then the fragments rip through me, like I'm not even there. Mana and all.
"Gah!" I cry as a dozen holes punch straight through. I collapse in a heap, all my strength vanishing as my blood gushes out onto the rocky ground.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"1A!" I can vaguely hear a little shock and concern, so strange to hear from a rail unit, followed by another massive explosion, and more shrapnel bombarding our defenses. "Calad!" Suddenly, the haze slowly enveloping my mind lifts.
I push up to my hands and knees, still hurting all over, but I don't feel on the verge of death now. 3F is covered in cuts and gouges, bleeding pretty badly, but it's nothing compared to the damage I suffered. Even with all of these powerful defensive armaments around us, there's still that much of a difference between us? As I look up from the ground, I see 3F drop the winged healing staff, which dissolves away into bits of light a moment later. It is gritting its teeth slightly, hand pressed to the ground so I can see its divine gear clearly. 8955 mana left. It has used up more than half of its mana already? How much did it take to heal my injuries just now?
After parrying away yet another Lu In spear, 8C says, "Next wave coming!" Its voice forcibly drags my attention back to our awful situation, and I quickly work to push back up to my feet while hot tears threaten at the corners of my eyes. I can't just curl up into a ball, I have to help if I don't want to die. I squeeze onto the handle of Catherine and force more mana into it, determined to at least offer what little, insignificant support I can in return for their protection.
After taking what, three spears, even 8C is all cut up from the exploding fragments. I tear my gaze away and scan across the sky, picking out numerous incoming projectiles. They're bright white and shiny in the moonlight, so they're easy to see. There are many more of them, unlike the spears from before. Were they only able to fire those one at a time?
Shaking away the thought, I focus on the present. White, shiny. Long like the last one, but smaller overall. Spiky tip?
"Kon!" I call out this time. A polearm that releases a blinding flash of light when it hits something. To fire all of these weapons at us, all the way at this range, I can't think of any way except for using them as ammunition for the largest and most powerful bows. It's shocking to see them fired so far. Maybe they're using other armaments to help fire even further than usual? But shooting huge weapons like polearms from bows should break the bows. Are they just breaking all their bows to keep shooting at us? Even though bows are expensive to summon because they're supposed to be used continuously? Are our enemies burning through mana at the same insane rates we are? Why?
I don't have the time to consider it though. Dozens of polearms are falling around us. Since bastion takes way too much mana to keep up, 3F already dismissed it, and is moving to deal with the next wave of attacks. Still kneeling on the ground from a moment ago, it raises its hand, the tattered wall of shields relocating above us. Looking at them more closely, this one is Ishi, the deflecting mirror. I don't know what a mirror is, something with a hexagonal shape like these have?
As I watch, 3F activates the second set of delayed mirror shields, bringing them all just above our heads to join the others. I can... see myself in them?
"Shield your eyes," 8C says when it sees me staring up at the shields. I hurry to do as instructed, covering them with my arm that's holding onto Catherine, clutching my basket to my chest with the other. Then the Kon polearms land. High pitched metallic clangs echo down rapidly, while bright flashes go off overhead. It goes on and on, three waves of raining spears in a row, though they're spaced enough that it's hard to tell where one ends and the next starts. 3F has to summon another three walls of shields as ours are beaten down to nothing. But thankfully, nothing breaks through the shields.
Even with my arm almost completely covering my eyes, it feels like the light of ten suns blasting at us, full power. I just try to focus on continuing to feed mana to Catherine while I wait. When it finally ends, it's strange. A short time after the Kon polearms stop hitting our shields, there's one more set of light explosions. But they're somewhere off behind us? It takes a moment to remember that the Ishi shields deflect projectiles. So I guess they all bounced off and landed somewhere else.
I stand, trying to blink away the glares in my eyes. It's like dancing lights that all keep moving around. I'm really glad 8C reminded me not to look... I glance forward once more. Our allies are finally reaching the enemies. We only had to weather through a few different attacks, but that was some serious firepower they threw at us. I let out a short, relieved breath at the thought, but some part of my intuition kicks in.
"It's not over yet!" I gasp, even though I have no idea what might happen. Those last attacks were supposed to blind us, supposed to cover whatever their follow-up is. The other rail units' attention snaps onto me. They can feel my certainty. My anxiety is infectious, especially since they have no experience with any of these emotions.
I stare back up at the sky, with no idea what I might be looking for. It takes me a few moments because of the blinding glare in my eyes. Then I see it. They're small, or at least they seem that way. But really, they're just incredibly far away, aren't they? I can only see them because they're a bright, glowing white on the otherwise dark backdrop of late evening sky. There's no way I would be able to spot them if those spears worked as intended.
Narrowing my eyes, I mutter. "Star shapes?" My heart is in my throat, but I don't know why. My mind works as fast as it can. It's all I can do to contribute.
It's the same little, five pointed star made by Lilia. I still have them floating near my shoulders. And there's also one on Catherine's blade, near the guard, isn't there? I saw it earlier, but it didn't actually register until right now. Then there were the stars on Ren. I don't know about Ren, but both Catherine and Lilia are very powerful armaments. So whatever it is, it should also be powerful. "I'm not sure what arm it is. I just see some little stars way up in the sky," I explain while I point up. They both look up, squinting, but can't see anything. In the few moments it takes to point this out to them, the little stars quickly begin to grow larger. "It's coming." I say, even though I don't know what, exactly, is coming. But the dozen or so stars show their true colors only a moment later, when I spot the lights.
Falling lights, long beams of energy that fall from high in the sky to pummel the ground below. "Sh-sh-Shanra! A dozen of them!" I cry.
"Seriously?" both of the rail units finally speak with emotion plain in their voices. 3F glances at its wrist. How much mana has it used up?
"Kekkai?" 3F asks 8C, actually sounding uncertain for the first time.
When it sees the look, 8C says, "No, I'll do it, everyone on me, now!" We both immediately run to 8C. "Crouch down under me, I'll protect us," it says. We dive to do as instructed. I curl up into a little ball and 3F wraps around me protectively, then 8C crouches over us, planting its hands on the ground and saying, "Golem." The spell takes effect, allowing 8C to wrap the ground itself up and around us, just in time for the deafening blasts that echo through the solid stone, one after another.
It feels like it just keeps going, but it probably doesn't last that long. By the time the last of the explosions fade away, my head is pounding and I feel battered all over from the endless concussive blasts that beat on us right through the solid stone. 8C lowers the stone shield covering us and we all stagger back to our feet. I barely manage to shake off the stunning numbness enough to realize Catherine is almost completely out of mana again. I shudder as I throw more into it, three times in a row this time since it's so dangerously low.
Since the sword doesn't affect me, I have to wonder how much this really helps. Woozy, with a hint of nausea from the weird burning pain, I sink to my knees and look around. Everything in a huge area around us has been shredded to dust, the stone itself broken up into tiny bits of powder by the endless barrage of a dozen Shanra spells.
Even with two rail units specializing in shields burning through all of their mana to protect me, this is insane. Reid was right. None of my preparations amounted to anything.
This is what it means to fight rail units.
"No way..." Their voices bring my gaze back up from the ground.
Meteora?! Apparently one of the enemy rail units wants to kill us so badly, it essentially threw its life away to summon Meteora.
It's not flashy at all, just a rock, falling from the sky to crush us. A rock the size of a mountain.
Abandoning all hope of continuing to defend our location, the rail units dismiss most of their armaments.
"Veli! Yun!" they both speak together as they summon two new arms. The cape of wind and jump boots, exactly what we need to get as far away as possible, as fast as possible. 8C hits me like a solid stone wall, scooping me up from the ground and kicking off the ground. Its jump boots activate, launching us away at high speed.
However, where there were once empty rolling hills stretching away from the battlefield to the south, a group of rail units simply appear out of thin air. Which armament does that? 8C kicks off in midair, jump boots suddenly redirecting us, but it's not nearly enough.
"Nova," a number of enemy rail units say. The flares of light and force they direct our way swats us right out of the air. Without a chance to respond, the light blinds me instantly. Then the force hits, unlike anything I've ever felt before. It's like all of the bones in my body snap apart at the same time.
My mind goes white with pain far worse than even the attack earlier. But I guess Lilia did as they said. Despite seemingly crushing all of my bones, I didn't die instantly. As the blinding light fades from my vision, I'm staring up at the sky, my blood seeping away into the ground from my ravaged body. The rising moon sits at the edge of my vision, full, just like I saw in that premonition. Only this time, it's not even in the middle of the sky. So I didn't even last as long as Reena said I would. The rest of my vision is occupied by Meteora, plummeting down directly toward us, set to wipe out this entire area. I wonder if I'll bleed out before it lands on me?
"Trace!" I hear 3F. Then it appears in my line of sight as my vision goes blurry at the edges. The battered Hecate staff leaps into its hand. My dying mind wonders, where was that sitting until now? Everything is getting dark.
"Bara!" Pressing the staff against my broken body, 3F uses another healing spell. The staff shatters into bits of black light, and a warm, pleasant feeling settles over me. It pushes away the dark chill of death.
It isn't like last time when I was miraculously healed all at once. Now I can feel my body being stitched back together bit by bit. My bones melding into one another, torn skin and muscle slowly reattaching and shifting back into the proper shape. Like I'm being sewn back together piece by piece. I can't tell whether its agonizingly painful, or absolutely wonderful. As my consciousness returns, I realize I still hear the sounds of combat. Then there's a whistle. They finally sounded the retreat?
As soon as I can move enough, I sit up. The contents of my basket, which I managed to hold onto up to this point, have been completely scattered. I see bits and pieces of bandaging cloth scattered all over the ground around me, with chunks of lele fruit. My last resort pops into my mind briefly, and I close my hand around a small chunk of the fruit on the ground. The Catherine sword is long gone too. While struggling to my feet, I blearily survey my surroundings as they become clear.
8C is running around, deflecting attacks left and right from three or four attacking rail units, unable to do anything but attempt to avoid them while being continuously pushed back. 3F is kneeling down just in front of me, desperately throwing around shields and spells to hold back four more rail units trying to get past it, to me. They keep attacking with a variety of weapons, tearing through the shields one after another while 3F stays pinned in place, rapidly summoning more. Neither are in any position to retreat. Then there's Meteora falling toward us. If we don't get moving, we're all going to die here.
But then my eyes catch a flicker of movement. One of the attackers shifts to the side, inexplicably vanishing. There's a feeling, a sudden pull of intuition, and I run forward. What am I doing? I reach out as I approach 3F's side, and suddenly crash into something without warning. The enemy rail unit appears, having been completely invisible until I hit them. Grabbing onto the enemy rail unit's leg as it brings its sharpened metal fan slashing down toward 3F's neck, I do the one thing I know might help incapacitate it.
I pull. Hard.
The fan slashes out. 3F sees the attacker and shifts, taking the attack to the shoulder instead.
I'm pulling as hard as I can, but nothing is happening. Desperately, I reach into the rail unit, flailing my mana in an attempt to do anything I can to even attempt to harm it. But it's just... empty. I have no idea what to make of it, but my only moment of opportunity has passed. The fan is redirected to me. I'm already leaning back out of the way, but the rail unit is so much faster, it cuts straight across my chest. I can feel the small, light, bladed edge sheer clear through my ribs without resistance. At least the dodge saved my lungs and heart.
I fall back, at least as much as I can with these injuries, and all of the enemy rail units abandon their targets and dash toward me. 3F jerks around to block them, but flinches and stumbles from that last attack.
Only one enemy splits off to head in a different direction, breaking off from attacking 3F to run toward 8C. Seeing all the enemies coming right for me, I have the strongest, immediate desire to just run away, but my eyes flick over to 8C. Rather than attempting to stumble uselessly away from the terrifying rail units, I dash to my right, closer to 8C. My body screams in protest as my sliced ribs grind together. When it sees me heading that way, 8C's eyes flash across the battlefield, and I feel it make some sort of decision through the Lilia bond. With a hard kick, the Yun boots from earlier use up the last of their power and shatter off of 8C's feet. However, one of the enemies makes a big swing with a fire sword, spewing a jet of flames across 8C's path and forcing it to stop short. But it doesn't stop, it just keeps going, right at the fire.
"Preta!" It calls, a torrent of multicolor lights flood out of its body as the spell activates. Is 8C sacrificing itself here?
Many times faster than before, it flies across the ground nearly too fast to see, bursting straight through the wave of fire so fast, it blasts a hole through the flames. "Ru Yi!" It pulls a small staff of wood with golden ends from its gear. The size changing staff.
The staff expands, a wide spinning swing bringing its thick shaft across the rail units coming after me faster than they can possibly respond. The hit lands so hard it blows all seven enemies away at the same time. However, the one that split off earlier makes it to the spot it was heading for.
"Kekkai!" it calls out across the field. With a loud thrum, so deep it rattles my bones, a yellow light descends from above. It's circular, centered on the one that cast it. And that rail unit is standing between 8C and 3F, the impassable barrier coming down with them at the edges, and all the other enemies just outside after being thrown. The enemies out-positioned them!
But in the handful of instants it takes for the barrier to drop, 8C acts. Under the effects of the self-sacrificing Preta spell, it moves with impossible speed, spinning and stabbing out with its staff. It extends in a flash to cover the entire distance between us and catches me directly in the chest. I feel my slowly mending ribs shatter, coughing up blood as they punch into all sorts of vital organs. The staff continues to extend, flying out at great speed, and snapping up and to the side while embedded against my body. With a flicking motion, 8C launches me into the air just before its staff is pinned by the descending barrier, and I'm sent sailing far away from the enemies. Of course they immediately start after me, but there's no time left. I skim across the surface of the enormous falling Meteora rock just before it hits the ground.
In the last moments, the rail units below summon whatever throwing weapons they can and hurl them at me. I brace myself, but they never reach me. Meteora crashes and blows everything away.
I'm in the air, not even on the ground, and already flying away at high speed. But the shockwave that erupts from the impact hits me worse than those Nova blasts earlier. Like every part of me is mercilessly crushed into paste as I'm blasted away. I'm amazed that I can still be alive after that, even with the overpowered healing and defensive spells cast on me. I'm only vaguely aware that I've been sent careening through the air in a tumbling fall. As the ground and sky continue to change places, I realize I'm going to land somewhere around that canyon. I cross the top of my arc and begin to descend. It's hard to think through so much pain, but I survived, didn't I?
No, it's too early to celebrate. Still, this doesn't look like an area with enemies, and they already sounded the whistle to retreat, so I should be able to go once I land. If 3F's healing spell is enough to recover from all these injuries before it wears off, at least.
Of course, even that small hope is far too much for me. An arrow flies up from the ground, barely missing me as I spin through the air. Flailing my arms to try and straighten out, I see one rail unit from before. It survived the impact somehow and is heavily injured, blood pouring from injuries all over its body. But it holds a large bow and is firing at me, one arrow after another. It's trying to finish me off before the battle ends.
I do everything I can to turn back and forth in the air, using my arms to control myself while the arrows go skimming past. It could be that I'm so far away or moving too fast for it to aim accurately, but this rail unit is a surprisingly bad shooter. Or it's just too injured. Even so, it's just a matter of time before one lands.
I cross my arms in front of myself when I see it coming, the arrow exploding against me. It feels like my arms are nearly torn off as the fire and shards of exploding arrow rip through my already destroyed body. The force of the impact sends me launching down toward the canyon. The only saving grace being that the canyon walls will break line of sight with the attacking rail unit.
But it's chasing after me. Wherever I land, it's going to finish me off. There's no way I can avoid it, not as long as it can follow me by my mana. I grit my teeth and use the last of the strength in my destroyed arm to put the lele fruit in my mouth, before it becomes completely unusable. I guess this is my only option in the end, isn't it? I have no idea if it will work, but I only have one chance. When it loses line of sight, I eat the fruit and pray that the mana numbing effect makes it look like I don't have any mana. Which would make me look dead maybe? I don't even know if that's how it works, but it's my only option.
I mean, I don't even think these wounds should be survivable with 3F's healing spell. Especially after taking that last arrow. My arms are hardly attached to my body anymore, I can't even feel them at all.
I'm choosing between certain death and near certain death. It was always going to come down to this, wasn't it? At least at the very end, one single bit of my preparations may turn out to actually amount to something. As I fall into the canyon, I realize I'm going to hit the water.
One little flicker of hope, at least there's water to break my fall. I wait until I can't see the enemy, then swallow the fruit. I plummet, the short moment passing before I feel my hope crushed flat with my body, smashing into the river water as if it's solid rock. And finally, nothingness.