Chapter 4

I’ve never understood the phrase, “time stood still.” That is until I found myself in this strange phenomenon. Where time was at a standstill.

Everything around me was no longer in motion. My snowy white hair stood pointing upward. I couldn’t swivel my head. Nor could I see any further than my peripheral vision. 

Directly above me were the frozen faces of my terrified peers looking down on me. As if I were looking up towards a photo of them.

The mouths of my peers expressed they were shouting down towards me. But nothing but inaudible shrieks came forth. Like a fork hitting a glass, no. Something much higher pitched.

“Kan--a--de!” The high-pitched shrieks slowly became more audible. And Fumia’s voice echoed down towards me, hitting the base of my eardrums with full force.

“Kanade!” The rest of my peers called out towards me.

My powdered hair began to sway ever so slightly. As I felt a breeze pushing down on me.

Looking towards my right arm, as I saw the black fabric of my sleeve flap back and forth, I unsheathed the swords on my torso. Moving myself midair from a lying position to a standing one. Bending my knees, I dashed forward and thrust my swords into the thick concrete of the wall. 

Sliding downward, I began losing my bearings as orange sparks flew down into my face. Although I had slowed down, it would still be dangerous to fall from this height.

My right hand flew off the handle of my blade. And just as my left hand was going to follow, my forearm was grabbed and pulled upward by a potent yet elegant hand.

“Fumia.”

Any second later, I would have been splat onto the hard dirt floor below us.

“Kanade, what were you thinking? Let’s get down from here.”

Looking below me, a crew of Safeguard soldiers sent up a high riser. The rectangular metal platform was held up paracord and was operated by a hand-crank used to go up and down the wall.

Getting onto the high riser, I grabbed my blades out of the thick concrete.

“Thank you, Fumia.” She still held onto my forearm.

Shooting me a glare as sharp as her katana, she curled her fingers into a fist and thrust it forward dead center of my stomach.

“Guawf!” I wheezed.

After a heavy blow to the stomach. Fumia pulled me forward into her arms and wrapped them around my back. And I began to feel warm.

“What were you thinking? You know how dangerous concentrated breathing is. You could have collapsed a lung again.”

“I know I’m sorry. It’s just…” I paused. “With the information I gathered, we have the upper hand to stop the attack before it even begins.”

“That’s true. But we have to do it now, or else this would have been for nothing.”

I nodded.

Finally making up the wall again, the two of us regrouped with the others.

“I’m surprised you even know what concentrated breathing is…although you did it improperly, I’ll give you a round of applause for at least trying it,” Kiriya said as he walked towards me, his red eyes gleaming.

“What is this concentrated breathing anyway?”

“You shouldn’t mess with it Sakura. Although being powerful, it’s too dangerous to handle. Only an idiot, who promised not to use it again would actually use it.”

“Hey, I said I’m sorry.”

She turned her head away from me.

“I don’t think an apology will be enough. You really need to make it up to her, Kanade.” Yuna whispered.

“I know--”

“Do you? You keep worrying her by putting yourself in dangerous situations. Do you want to get yourself killed?”

I looked down.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have lashed out like that. But--”

“I know, I do.”

“Enough banter, you two. Let’s get going.” Kiriya demanded.

The three began traveling towards the northeast section of the ward, along with the forty-something Safeguard soldiers next to us. 

Making it to the section of the ward where walls intersect the forest. I was left standing with my jaw dropped.

“W-w-what’s going on? You said they were still outside in the forest. There’s no way they had the time to break through--” Yuna panicked as I cut her off.

“The wall…”

Within the outer wall of the ward, a massive chunk of it was missing. As if someone had just taken a bite out of it. And MechaBeasts began swarming in through the breach.

“Who would have thought.” Kiriya sighed.

“We need to start evacuating in case of a worst-case scenario.”

“Fumia is right. We don’t have time to spare.” I said.

“You chum’s ought to go down there and tell Atake what’s going on.” Sakura glared towards the large group of Safeguard soldiers.

A murmuring within the crowd began before they came forth with their resolve.

“We don’t take orders from you.” A young boy with glasses began.

“Yea!” The crowd backed him up.

Fumia stepped forward, unsheathing her katana. And pressed it onto the kids glasses, shattering the left lens. Her cool facial expression was as intimidating as the blade at his lens. “This isn’t the time to argue who you take orders from.”

“The lives of everyone here are in danger. And what if someone dies? Do you really want to go on knowing you could have prevented that?” I paused, taking a deep breath.

“You all are as good as dead-weight on the battlefield. In a worst-case scenario, your bullets just bounce right off them, or your gun jams. What then? I don’t see any of you with an Eris weapon to back you up.”

“Kanade’s correct.” A deep female voice daunted over me. “Leave the rest to these five. We’ll start evacuating people and moving them towards the docs. Then if they fail, we’ll have an escape plan ready.”

“Y-yes Lady Atake.” The kid in the broken glasses, along with his comrades, took a knee and placed their arms over their chest before dispersing.

Atake bowed before us, “Pardon the intrusion.” And leaped onto a descending platform.

“Now, the rest is up to us,” Kiriya stated. His eyes again gleaming a crimson red.

The five of us looked down towards the forest as a sea of wolf-like creatures invaded the ward.