Running across the lower city, Titania is with a group of Beheaders, following a group of fleeing goblins. Going past the level of the main access bridge from which they arrived into the city the first time, the terrain becomes more inclined, lowering the houses, and letting Titania see multiple bridges that connect, on the lower part, the city with the wall, and the fleeing goblins getting into one and into the wall.
Stopping in front of the bridge, one of the Beheaders says “We will push through, people. Still, be mindful of the surroundings once we are inside, especially of the top, since they may have the height advantage inside. Let's not keep stalling, come one!”
Titania nods, as so does the entire group, and they cross the bridge the goblins already crossed before.
Once inside, Titania realized something that was bugging her for a while now: The walls are pretty thick. In her expectations, the walls maybe were a man arms, stretched, in length. This wall, the tunnels and walkable zones were almost three man’s length to the sides.
They are faced with only one stair, going up. The leader signs up with his hand, and everyone takes a circle formation, with Titania covering the rear. Titania takes two jellies, turning some of her Aura into tamed water, and they start to move.
The light of the rising sun is already shining over the citadel, and its light can be seen from the entrance, but just a couple of steps forward and the light is already halved, with the tunnel having a dim atmosphere.
The tunnel height is quite tall.
As they reach the end of the stairs, many barrels can be seen, together with wooden boxes, and a large hallway. The Beheader in the front makes a sign, in order to start moving slowly, but Titania moves forward, putting a hand to his shoulder, and in a swift move, pierces the barrels and boxes. Two separates screams can be heard, only to reveal that two goblins were hiding, one inside a barrel, the other inside a box.
Nodding, the Beheader the signals again, this time they move again. Walking down the hallway, they come across another stair to the side. They take it. As they are leaving the floor, one Beheader on the side water tames into the shadows, over the wooden beams, only to hear the sound of flesh being pierced. Calling back the water, the body of a dead goblin falls down to the floor.
“I… just thought I saw something moving over there.” The Beheader says.
“Well done.” The one in the front says “Let's keep moving.”
Another nod and they are back moving. The second floor is no different from the first, with barrels, boxes, and a great deal of dust littering the place.
This time around, the one in the front called Titania forward, and pointed towards the boxes and barrels. Titania nodded and pierced them. Nothing.
As they are walking, in the middle of the corridor, from the top, the rest of the group of goblins falls down from the ceiling, all landing on four Beheaders, from the group of six. As soon as the goblins landed on them, Auras engaged, protecting them from the makeshift pointed weapons the goblins have, which the goblins are attacking them with. One of the Beheaders, with four goblins on top, is stumbling, with the goblins trying to make her fall.
“Get down!” Titania yells. The Beheaders hear her and get on their knees. The goblins keep stabbing, but at the sound of rushing water, they turn, only to be met with water piercing their heads, at high speeds. The other Beheader gets two more, only to leave eight goblins, that fall to the ground, and get up, putting some distance between them. Titania shots at them again, only for the goblins to evade the attack this time, and start screaming and running away.
“After them!” one of the Beheaders barks and the group stands and gives chase.
Right on the four-floor, two more goblins have been eliminated. Titania is starting to pant and enters one room to the side of the corridor. Another girl enters with her, and asks “Are you ok?”
“I’m ok,” Titania says “It is just that… I didn’t recover my Aura completely from yesterday, so I’m running a bit low here.”
“I see. I… I’ll accompany you then.”
“Thank you, but there’s no need. I can take care of myself. If some of those ugly bastards show up, they will meet the end of my spear.” Titania says, smiling.
The girl snorts, and answer the smile back “I will make sure no goblins survive today.” And reaching the entrance, she adds “take care!” while waving.
“You too!”
Having the girl left the room, Titania looks at the room, being surprised because it actually has a window and a box beside it. She takes the box that is there, puts it besides the window, and sits. “Wow… I can see the entire of the Port City from here”, she muses, as a breeze comes through.
Didn’t know that the wall had windows like this either.
Seeing the city, pillars of smoke rise from various parts of the city. The old cathedral is intact, but the Aquamarine mansion and many more buildings are down. Her house also is down. Looking down, she sees that the styx sea has already gone back, revealing the lower plains back to the sunlight.
Wonder how much havoc did the Cinders caused between their ranks.
Yes, she couldn’t forget, that city must surely be crawling with Cinders right now, especially Polsen.
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Another breeze comes through, finally relaxing her body. The goblins have been dealt with, and they don’t need her help to finish the hunt.
Good, because she is running low on Aura already. Why is her Aura recovery so slow? After many years she still can’t figure that out.
As she thinks of the past, the image of her late father comes up. A knot instantly forms on her throat, as her eyes get teary. She had to grow up, and fast, so much so that she can’t remember the time before when her father was around. Like a cloud covering the sun, those blessed days feel so far away now, the little girl she was once she can’t recognize now, not anymore.
At the very least, her mother is safe now. Even when the goblins are really weak, a person like her mother with so little Aura, and a red one to that, with no combat experience at all, she would have a lot of trouble. It would be really dangerous. Since the goblins went mostly for women, her little brother would probably be fine. Even when the goblins did take some boys, he is also besides Ray, with her mother close enough.
Wiping some tears off, she reassures herself. She did everything she could. Her mother and little brother are safe. Everyone is safe… No, she overdid it.
“When I will learn to be more careful with my Aura?” she whispers in exasperation.
Anyway, enough rest for now. Time to go back.
As she gives another look at the city, she spots something odd. At half way between the Port City and the Citadel, Titania catches the enemy army, coming forward towards the wall. At the front, some sort of carriage, carrying a large piece of, what it seems, a large piece of iron, or steel. Getting at a certain distance, the enemy army leaves the front alone, taking some distance, while eight people come forward.
The fire tamers, four of them, suddenly start taming fire to the four corners of the open carriage, the four flames in a straight line. Then, the other four, electric tamers, started to move electrical arcs, between the four beams of fire. At this moment, eight more people joined each one supporting one tamer with their own Aura.
The metallic object started to gain a bright color, and to Titania’s surprise, the large object, seemingly heavy for her, started to float in the air.
“This is weird now… just like when Tomoe water tames, being able to suspend bubbles in the air and all that… is it related at all?” Titania lets escape.
A sound reaches her ears, and she turns, raising the infused water ready to attack, only to find Sven, standing there in the entrance of the room.
“Oh… good Lord. You scared me.” Says Titania, as she some deep breaths, to try and calm her pounding heart.
Sven just shakes his head. Then, he points towards her, then the barrel.
“This? I’m just taking a bit of a break. I haven’t recovered completely from yesterday.” Looking at him, Titania adds “Don’t just stand there. Come in, take a box, come, sit and watch with me this… unusual thing.” She says, pointing downward, out of the window.
Titania looks again at the little, unusual spectacle, only to find that sixteen more people have joined the first tamers. The heavy large object of metal is now shining, suspended on the air, and is now spinning really fast. She also sees that the electrical arcs have multiplied, jumping between the fire beams.
Sven comes closer and takes a look out of the window.
“Weird, isn’t it? I wonder what are they trying to do?” Titania asks. Raising her eyes though, she sees something that she hasn’t seen before: With sweat dropping from Sven’s forehead, his arms trembling, his mouth open, grabbing the wall and window struggling to stand on feet. His expression is the most unexpected, an expression of fear, his face is like it took impossible contortions.
“Sven… what’s wrong? Are you ok? What is-” Titania starts saying, while she is standing and reaching Sven with her hand. Sven, without notice, takes Titania’s arm, pushes her towards himself and carries her “Hey! What is happening?!” Titania yells as Sven runs out of the room, taking the next two stairs up, to the sixth floor. Finding a room that has a window on the side that looks at the citadel.
Entering the room, Titania is trying to push Sven away “Hey! If something is wrong speak to me but don’t carry me or do anything out of nowhere!” Sven pulls her down, and Titania asks “Finally! What got you so riled up?” only to see that Sven took a couple of steps back, and in an instant, tackles her. Titania engages her Aura barrier in the last second, but the momentum is so big that she is pushed against the window. Sven, taking chance and not leaving Titania time to recover, grabs the barrier, and Titania with it, and throws her, with all of his strength, out of the window.
As she is flying away, she takes a look at Sven. Only one question appears in her mind: Why? But something unexpected happens. The image of Sven, in the window, suddenly disappears in a blur, together with a large chunk of the wall. Titania feels a void to her left, and a sudden burst of air crashes against her, together with an inaudible high pitch sound. At this, Titania’s barrier was completely destroyed, and the savage gust of wind picks her up, sending her all the way in the direction of the Starlight Forest, landing almost at its embrace.