“We need to run while it’s busy with Rhino!!” Talyndra shouts, impatient and already stepping backward toward safety.

Immediately, Sophia’s head snaps toward her. “Run?! Did you not see what it did to Camille, to Ray!?” She growls, voice seething with anger. “I… I might have been confused just moments ago, but not anymore… I’m going to rip this thing apart limb from limb.” She spits through gritted teeth, a fire burning in her eyes.

A dry laugh escapes Talyndra’s mouth. “Rip it apart? Are you insane!? We can’t beat this creature, even with all the preparation in the world!”

Sophia approaches Talyndra. With one hand, she grabs and lifts her by her collar. Talyndra is no pushover, however. Anger begins to take shape on her face and her soul begins to fluctuate, threatening to release the full might of her [melody] at a moment’s notice. Before things can get out of hand though, Sylvia steps in, separating the two.

“Enough!” She exclaims, her beautiful golden hair dancing in the wind. She then sighs deeply and looks toward the dust cloud apprehensively. “I’m.. afraid I must agree with Talyndra here. Retreating is the best option.”

Sophia’s eyes expand wide. “I’d have expected this from anyone but a FullCastle. Are you so scared you don’t eve-”

Talyndra shoves Sylvia aside, getting in Sophia’s face once again. “It’s not a question of courage!” With both of her arms she points to the dust cloud where the creature’s silhouette is still obscured. “Maybe the Thunderblade are not so well versed in the [echoed], but my family is! This thing spoke!! Do you have any idea what that means?”

The weight of her words hangs in the air, even I can’t answer that question for sure, though I have a suspicion I pray does not turn out to be correct.

Validating my worries, Ivana answers with a gloomy tone. “That’s… one of the defining features of [illuminated] beasts…”

With just the mention of something so ridiculous, I stutter in my confusion. “W-wha-”

“That’s impossible!!” Sophia yells.

“What do you mean impossible?! It’s right in front of you!” Talyndra blurts out. “Sure, there shouldn’t be any in this event, and yes [Illuminated] are rare in the first place, bu-”

With a stomp of her foot, Sophia interrupts Talyndra’s explanation. “That’s not what I mean! This… this creature was echoborn just yesterday! How could it be [illuminated] today?!”

Sylvia’s expression turns somber, her brows furrowing and creating ripples across her forehead. “...What do you mean?”

Sophia’s gaze drops to the frozen ground, as if trying to replay the scene in her head. “Earlier, when it kicked Ugo… I distinctly saw it… Its leg was bandaged with leaves…!”

“I’m not sure I’m following. What does that have to do with anything?” Feyrin interjects with a tilt of the head, and a strange calmness in his tone.

“It has everything to do with our situation…” Sophia’s voice echoes. “Because I wrapped those leaves around an echoborn beast myself… yesterday…!”

Talyndra bursts in outrage at her statement, claiming it to be utterly impossible. She is firm in her stance that there is simply no reality where a beast can go from echoborn to [illuminated] in a single day. This results in a heated argument between the two, Sylvia and Ivana both attempting to mediate and trying to prevent it from exploding into an outright battle.

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Meanwhile, I close my eyes, trying to remember anything I can to make sense of Sophia’s claim. As I recall the first day of the event, a flood of images crosses my mind – and that’s when I see it. The scene of the echo-blessed hyena from the first day having its leg wrapped with leaves and pieces of wood to help it walk. That scene then overlaps with the very brief glimpse of the creature I had. Their legs, though now they look very different, both don a makeshift bandage made of leaves.

“It’s the same…” I mumble, barely aware I spoke those words aloud.

“Mmm, if you seem to agree too, then it’s unlikely lady Thunderblade is too shaken to think straight.” Feyrin says, having closed the distance between us without me realizing.

Hearing his slithery voice so suddenly nearly makes me jump and I take a step back.

Ignoring my surprise, he voices his opinion, putting a stop to the two women’s argument. “I agree with lady Silverside.” He shrugs in defeat and closes his eyes. “It looks like this is something we can’t handle, and I’m not ready to die just yet.”

Yet again, Sophia shakes her head violently. “I already told you, I’m-”

I clench my fists.

‘I wish I could rip it apart too, I really want revenge for what it did but…’

I place a hand on Sophia’s shoulder. “He’s right… This… this situation is beyond us. Risking our lives while knowing so little just doesn’t make sense Sophia. We have to retreat and-”

*boom*

Zora reappears carrying a massive, muscular man on her shoulders. She places the man softly on the ground, a furious look in her eyes. As I inspect him, I quickly realize just how bad of a shape he’s in. On his right, a gaping hole drips with blood, putting his insides in full view of any one who dares to look. Three arrows have pierced his shoulder, ankle and abdomen, lodged so deep, both ends are visible. His face has been beaten to a bloody pulp and his right arm seems broken, bending in an unnatural way.

“Alex..!? what happened to you?” My voice cracks as I speak, shock permeating it.

Sylvia leans beside him. “Who did this to you?!”

“A…. Ad…am..Betrayed…” He manages to spit out through the swelling in his lips.

Ivana’s face goes pale at the revelation, and while I can’t see mine, I’m sure it’s not much different.

“He can’t talk well right now but ya heard him….!” Zora says, her voice rough with emotion. “It’s Adam who’s done this!! He did this to big Al, and…” She grits her teeth, holding back tears. “And… He killed giant-, no, he killed Jasmine and Clayton! The only reason big Al survived is because of his [melody]!”

My face contorts even further. This is simply too much information to process. I don’t even know what to feel. Anger? Sadness? Indignation? How am I supposed to accept that someone I considered a friend mere moments ago slaughtered our classmates!?

“And that ain’t all either…!” She takes a breath before continuing. “I’m sure you all figured that one out already, but there’s somethin’ wrong with the suits, the shield function ain’t workin’...”

Sylvia nods in agreement, her voice sharp with frustration. “If it did, none of this would have happened…”

“Exactly, but on top of that, our communication ain’t workin’ either. I tried and I couldn't get any signal.” She continues.

Talyndra waves her hands in the air, stopping the conversation. “Alright, so our tech isn’t working.” Her voice is tight with impatience. “Fine, Let’s get out of here and figure it out later! We’re wasting time!”

Zora bites her lip, her eyes flickering with something that looks like despair. “That’s the worst part. We can’t leave…” She points toward the top of the waterfall. “We got a bass cannon from the shop to defend the zone, and we set it up, up there, on the waterfall. When Alden told me to get big Al, that’s where I went, and that’s where I found him like this.”

“So what?!” Talyndra snaps, her irritation only growing.

“I’m getting to it!” Zora snaps back, before taking a deep breath to steady herself. “I wasn’t gonna bring big Al all the way over here at first, I wanted to get him away, to safety, then I was gonna come back… but I couldn’t get away. It’s like there’s an invisible wall stoppin’ me or somethin’. I circled the lake, and the wall’s everywhere… we’re trapped!”

“..Are you sure…?” Sylvia asks, an even deeper frown on her face.

“Ya think I’d mistake somethin’ like that?” Zora fires back, her expression dark.

Sylvia stands up and grabs hold of her warchord. She sighs as she turns her attention to the dust cloud where the two beasts still seem to be going at it. “No… I just hoped I heard wrong… but if you’re so sure, then we have no choice but to win.”

Talyndra loses her balance, her legs giving out beneath her. She runs her hand across her face and a bitter laugh escapes her lips. “Ha… I should have just followed Davon and gotten the hell out of here when I had the chance. Damn coward had a good idea for once… ”

I just now realized that he hadn’t been here this whole time.

‘So that’s why…’

“Feyrin, tend to Alex. Stop his bleeding at the very least like you did for Camille and… Ray.” Sylvia instructs him.

With an overly dramatic bow, Feyrin does as he’s told and leans over to reach Alex. He slits his wrist with his sharpsong and pours some of his blood into Alex’s open wound. Rapidly, the blood which had been leaking out stops flowing, held by invisible forces..

With a sight of relief, I grab hold of my sharpsong and steel myself. “We should at least come up wit-”

*splat*

The dust cloud finally settles, and the silhouettes of the two massive creatures which had been locked in battle till now come into clear view.

With a deafening sound, two halves of Talyndra’s rhino fall on opposite sides of each other, leaving a waterfall of blood in their wake. The hyena-like creature stands victorious above it, its form looming over the slain beast. Having taken virtually no damage, it licks the blood off of its bone swords and grins maliciously. Then, it redirects its attention to the seven of us.

“F*ck” I mutter under my breath, my heart palpitating.