Read The Rise of Chaos: Genesis :: Taking the City, Part 4

“Get the fuck off of my Commander!”

The brutish yell made me drop my arm to see who had shouted it.

A plated sabaton connected with the hound’s midsection knocking it away from me. I followed the leg back to its owner, and looked upon the face of the ever quiet and reserved Soren.

He was panting hard, and beads of sweat cascaded down his face. His normally soft and passive features were gone, replaced with a bloodcrazed fury.

Soren brandished his sword and thrust it forward, sinking into the demon’s nape. He yanked the blade upwards and cut through the spine and connective tissues, the demon’s head rolled free.

I couldn’t do anything but stare in bewilderment at the scene in front of me. Soren wiped the blood from his sword on his uniform’s coattail. He sheathed his weapon and turned to me.

The blood rage had faded away, and his soft smile had taken residence once more.

He held his arm out for me, “Allow me to assist you. I’ll help you over to Commander Brooks.”

We hobbled over towards Hailey. She was already running to us at a sprint. The look of panic radiated off her face as a palpable aura. She clutched me tightly and traded Soren as my primary supporter.

“Easy now, I’ve got you.”

Her gentle words soothed my pain. Her own kind of unique magick.

“Sit down, let's get you patched up.” she ordered, helping me down. She looked at Soren, who nodded and took my limp arm.

He counted down calmly, “Three… Two… One—”

POP!

The golden glow of Hailey’s magick was already building up around her hands. She placed them gingerly on me, “Divine light, Deliver her from harm. Healing Grace!”

The best way to describe the feeling of a wound being healed by magick was told to me by a senior instructor at VxA: A dance of a thousand needles around the wound.

Normally, a wound on its own heals by the tissue slowly stitching itself back together. But through magick the tissue is forced to stretch and replicate under extreme stress, rapidly accelerated, in seconds.

I gritted my teeth as the pain of my wounded arm abated, though just replaced by the pain the magick was wracking my arm with.

It was perilous to keep fighting without a plan. If we didn’t come up with something it was likely one of us would die here. And at this point that someone might be me.

Hailey’s hand lingered on my now healed arm. Her face looked pale, but her expression had relaxed. She didn’t look nearly as unnerved. I reached up and clasped my own around hers.

“Nice job, Hails. I’m good as new thanks to you.”

She shuddered, letting out a pained sigh.

“I… nevermind—”

She got up from her stooped position and held out her hand. With her help I was back on my feet.

My uniform coat had been torn and ripped to shreds. The coattails were hanging loosely around my waist. I pulled my dagger from its sheath and quickly cut the damaged fabric free.

A cold gust of wind blew through the courtyard, making me instantly regret that decision—but a little cold air ruffling my skirt was a better situation than tripping over the ruined strips of coat.

My full attention was now back on the priority threat, that was the twenty-foot tall siege weapon of a demon. The boys had been chipping away at its health consistently, and one solid push might be enough to take it down.

I spotted Mei across the courtyard. She had fallen back, giving distance between herself, the ettin.

She was holding her bowstring back in a draw, arrow knocked. A greenish glow was building around the tip.

Her voice carried in the wind, the words felt like they were being echoed by the gale around us. The sharp inflections and cadence of elvish

“EGI ADVICAE QUTI DUX. STELLAE IMPERIAE. EXCIPI CALX!”

The intensity of the wind grew around her, rushing in and blowing her hair and cloak wildly. A soft metallic sound rang out and the arrow tip changed from a dull steel color to a brilliant white. She must have a direct mental link to me, because she was already preparing for a final push.

Her voice came over my communirune, "Airis, get ready to strike."

I rushed the demon again. Adrenaline coursed through me, though my nerves were alight with fear.

Mei spoke a single word. Her voice was so soft and calm that I almost faltered.

"Now."

As she was expecting her command to be executed precisely when given. I lunged with my sword pulled back, and swung it forward with all the strength I could muster.

Mei loosed her arrow and with a loud crack that shattered the air. It flew forwards so fast that it practically materialized in the demon’s chest. The arrow struck at the center of a bright red illuminated glow.

The impact caved the beast’s chest in, flesh and bone blew out over the street below. An instant later, my blade struck the impact site. My sword carved hungrily through the exposed tissue. Flames engulfed the cavity—but these flames were different—glittering particles of crimson-red raced out across the demon’s skin.

Gigas cried out in another ear piercing screech. This time however, we weren’t struck with a paralysis effect.

This time the demon was crying out in pain. The critical strike effect of SOULFIRE was burning every nerve the monster had.

A quick succession of blade slashes flashed, as my trio of swordsmen struck the demon with a series of combination strikes. Soren and Alistaire attacked with an impressive display of speed and agility.

Julius’ strike was a heavy slash that made a shuddering crunching noise as it hit. The giant demon stood frozen in place for a moment before it crashed down to the ground.

The earth shook as the mountainous beast fell.

A deafening thunderclap reverberated against the city’s stone walls. Like a supernatural call of retreat, the horde of demons fell back and we were left standing alone in the market square arena.

The heavy weight of my rain soaked armor overcame my resolve. Fatigue flooded in and I collapsed to the ground. I groaned loudly as my head throbbed.

"Uhhhhhgggh!"

I was joined by my party members, they walked over and sat down in the rain with me to catch their breath. The rain fell harder and the wind grew fiercer, but we didn’t move a muscle. We leaned against each other, stacked together in a pile of exhaustion.

Soren broke the silence, his boyish voice wavering and broken, not a hint of the crazed berserker that saved me earlier.

"I—I can’t believe we survived that..."

A wild fit of laughter came from Alistaire. His hearty laugh was contagious and soon we were all lightly chuckling.

Julius was the first to stand, he stretched his arm out to help me up, "Let’s get the hell out of here. The forward guard should be able to handle it from here. Doubtful anything will show its face tonight after this."

I eyed the fallen Ettin.

I was confident that the beast didn’t have pockets, so I doubted it carried any notable loot—but I did make a mental note to tell the quartermaster back in camp to send someone out to gather anything of use from its corpse.

We left the courtyard, and passed a squad of guardsmen standing at the gateway. Their faces bore wide smiles and wicked grins. They must have watched us fell the massive Ettin.

On the other side of the gates we were greeted with the sounds of loud cheering that drowned out the drone of the wind and rain.

"They slayed a giant!"

"Hail our mighty Commander! Airis, The Crimson Blade."

"The Crimson Blade!"

"With the Commander on our side, nothing can stop us!"

My body ached in pain, but I kept my shoulders high as we walked through the crowd of fatigued faces. Their calls for ‘The Crimson Blade’ gave me a short burst of adrenaline.

Once we passed the mass of recovering soldiers Hailey slumped against me, making each step an awkward stumble. We climbed up onto a horse and my muscles turned to jelly. I melted into a puddle of slime in my saddle and she jostled around behind me. Beyond exhausted, the singular goal in my mind was to get back to camp and fall into my bed.

Hanna was there to meet us as we entered the camp. Alistaire and Luke began to recount our heroics while the rest of us walked past them like living corpses.

Hanna tried to stop Hailey and me to talk about something—Hailey just grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. She mumbled at Hanna that we could talk in the morning, and that she wanted someone to come by and take our gear to the blacksmith.

When we approached our tent, Rias rushed over to meet us. Her bloodshot eyes said enough and I closed my mouth before saying anything stupid.

“You jerk!” She pounded a fist against my chestplate, “You left without saying anything and I was worried. When the injured soldiers got back, I—“

Her voice cutoff as she gawked at my ruined uniform and damaged armor. She reached out towards my right shoulder, touching the ripped cloth sleeve where a metal plate should’ve been.

“W-What in the Aether happened to you!? Are you okay?”

“I’m okay. We had a little run in with something nasty. But your big sis handled it, no problem.”

Rias pursed her lips and angled herself away from me, looking to Hailey expectantly.

Hailey weakly raised her hands up. “Hey don’t get upset with me, I just healed everyone. Airis got herself all beat up on her own.”

With a weak laugh I placed my arm around Rias and led her into the tent. “We’re all fine. I think all three of us are probably exhausted, physically and emotionally, let’s turn in for the night.”

Rias huffed for a bit, but eventually settled down. She helped me struggle out of my equipment and fetched a cloth and wooden washbasin.

I barely managed to scrub off the grunge before collapsing into bed. The muscles in my arm spasmed momentarily causing me to twist awkwardly to my side.

Hailey stumbled back while taking off her boots, falling into bed on top of me. I groaned in discomfort, but didn’t budge.

She curled up next to me and complained.

"I am so sore! My back hurts from carrying the party so hard."

She laughed loudly but doubled over to clutch her side.

"Ow—ow, it hurts to laugh."

I tried to think of a joke to lighten my own mood, but my brain was fried. After the stress of battle I was far from a humorous state. Instead, I buried my head in her shoulder, trying to hide my face—so that she couldn’t see me break into tears. My voice trembled.

"I—I didn’t think I’d make it… I was so afraid."

Hailey wrapped herself tightly around me.

"Me too."

I did eventually stop crying—but only because I had run out of tears. Not because I managed to somehow get control back over my emotions. I rolled over and acknowledged the soft blinking on my wrist, gently tapping it. A flood of new notifications filled my view.

» YOU HAVE GAINED IN POWER, YOUR ATTRIBUTES HAVE INCREASED:

» STRENGTH HAS INCREASED TO 32

» TOUGHNESS HAS INCREASED TO 26

» FORTITUDE HAS INCREASED TO 27

» COURAGE HAS INCREASED TO 45

» AGILITY HAS INCREASED TO 17

» SWIFTNESS HAS INCREASED TO 21

» PERCEPTION HAS INCREASED TO 10

» REFLEX HAS INCREASED TO 22

» AETHER HAS INCREASED TO 26

» INTELLIGENCE HAS INCREASED TO 36

» WISDOM HAS INCREASED TO 27