EA Chapter 37 - The War Unfurls

The central market had quickly become a warzone, with more and more Ashborn drawn to the sound of fleeing humans. Gnolls and hellcats at first, but soon small scuttling imps and winged sprites joined the fray, bolstering their large kinsmen with their superior numbers.

Yet Luna and the others were able to stand their ground, funnelling the beasts into a kill zone on the main street, reinforced by volleys of halberd fire from the city guards.

Gradually, more and more soldiers filtered in to help reinforce the city guards. These men were better armed and armoured, carrying quartz weapons even more formidable than the halberd rifles. Luna got her first look at men carrying great axes tipped with sapphire quartz, able to fire powerful blasts of light that could rupture even a gnoll... if the shot connected.

But, for the most part, Luna and her two allies were the vanguard that halted the majority of the Ashborn.

And, eventually, the last of their attackers seemed to be dealt with.

Luna loomed over the final squalling imp, who tried in vain to scramble away from her with his spindly clawed fingers. The girl pressed a heel to his head, pinning the black core of his forehead to the cobbles, and pressed down. His skull, and the gemstone in his brow, shattered like glass.

“Hah,” she said, exhaling happily. She turned to her allies. “You two alright?”

Kiharu nodded, rubbing a set of bleeding clawmarks on her right shoulder. “Been worse,” she said.

“I’m alright,” Syri said, slowly panting for breath. Her face was marked by a mix of sweat and soot, but she was largely unharmed. All around her lay the dusty remnants of many imps, and a few shattered hellcat limbs.

Luna nodded. Her own heartbeat had risen sharply, and she could feel herself working up a sweat. It was not that any of these monsters were particularly powerful individually, at least not to someone with decent qi control, but their sheer volume caused issues.

“My thanks, young ladies,” one soldier said, a towering man distinguished by his steely plate armour, and a surcoat patterned with the symbol of Elthreme. Behind him, Luna could see a gathering of other soldiers setting up sandbags, and what appeared to be ballista with a core of sapphire quartz embedded in the iron frame. “Probably shouldn’t have cadets running aroun’ these parts. But I can’t complain when you’ve helped keep the people here safe.”

“No trouble. We wouldn’t want to leave these people in trouble,” Luna said, resisting the reflex to gag at her own words. She hardly cared for the lives of Vyrham’s people. But... they would have their uses. As she looked to the people cowering behind cover, watching her with widened eyes, she knew she had already planted the seeds of something very important.

If they all survived this, it would not take long for chatter to start spreading about the heroic ashen-haired girl who saved heir lives.

The guards parted as Romula and Rema made their approach, both girls puffing for breath. “Sorry,” Rema said, wiping some soot from her brow. “We had to fight off a few monsters on our way over here. It’s... it’s bad. Yifang actually directed some of the cadets to come out here and help alleviate the problem.”

“Must be dire indeed. Well, no harm in us contributing in that case,” said Luna, turning toward the two. “Take it you’re both in one piece?”

Romula nodded as she made for Kiharu. She held her wooden staff aloft, the sharpened tip glowing with ghostly green light. The torn flesh was slowly knit shut, scabbed over by pinkish tissue. “We’re fine,” the young Cleric breathed. “But there were... there are a lot of dead people on the street.”

“You’ll have to get used to seeing that,” said Luna.

Rema looked at her, the corners of her mouth forming into a worried frown. “I don’t know how you’re so calm about all this.”

“Oh, well,” Luna said, giving a small shrug. “I suppose I’ll start to panic and fret once the adrenaline has worn off. Now come on. Things are stable here, we need to get deeper into the city.”

The storm was still raging overhead, occasionally unleashing great gales that blew through the streets with enough force to bowl a normal man over. Flashes of light and quartz fire cut through the air, striking at winged creatures that flew ominously against the backdrop of gravid clouds.

From where she stood, Luna could glimpse a few airships flying around the outer edges of the city, raining fire from their on-board weapons and warding off any winged beasts that drew too close with pulses of quartz light. Yet they did not dare fly too high, or too close to the storm. The wind actively rebuffed any who tried. And any that persisted were struck with bolts of lightning from the heavens.

With their ranks fully healed, the five girls converged and ventured deeper into the streets, heading toward the roars and screams of the ongoing conflict. They worked their way through the winding streets, past shattered swathes of pavement and store fronts that had been smashed flat by the fury of the rampaging monsters.

And, as Romula said, there was no shortage of corpses strewn about the streets. Only a handful of people were still in one piece.

As they crossed the city, dispatching the few skulking imps and sprites lurking in the alleys, it became impossible not to notice a series of tremors rocking the street beneath their feet, occasionally punctuating by beastly roars which shook a great chunk of the city.

Luna tapped her mana sense as they drew nearer. Indeed, only a few blocks away, she could sense a malevolent and massive presence: A silhouette of shimmering crimson light that glowed through the many walls and buildings between them.

“Something huge. Likely an ogre,” she said.

“Should we... really try and fight something like that?” Rema asked.

“That might be a little much for a bunch of cadets,” Romula added.

“You two wanna help people, yeah? Well, this is part of that,” Kiharu said bluntly. “Me personally? I wanna see how tough the big bastards are.” She rubbed the weights on her wrist as she spoke. The Hawks had resolved to keep their weighted gear on for the time being, The Ashborn were drawn to the essence of the living, and if they were to let their qi rise higher it would have run the risk of drawing more attention to the fleeing pedestrians in the market.

But, it seemed, they’d need to cast their gear aside if stronger foes awaited them.

Luna kept leading the others, rounding a corner just as a great explosion echoed thunderously ahead of them. The ashen-haired girl looked up, eyes widening as the peak of a nearby rooftop was cleaved asunder by a great cloud of dust. An ogre, easily more than twice Kiharu’s height loomed ahead of them, swatting a crowd of soldier’s away with the sweep of a single, spike-ridged forearm.

“Ah,” Luna said, unlatching one of her wrist weights. “It’s as we feared.”

“Gods,” Syri whispered. “It’s massive.”

“Nothing we can’t handle,” Luna assured her allies, grunting as her weight crashed satisfactorily to the ground. From where she stood she could see a small crowd of civilians, cowering and screaming while trapped behind the facade of a partially collapsed building.

A part of her wanted to ignore them outright. Why should she care for the lives of such paltry beings? They’d likely be dead soon anyway regardless of her actions.

And yet, there was that smaller, more rational voice in her head that told her she had to save them. But only for the sake of her future reputation. After all, she needed these simpletons on her side. She sighed, dropping her next wrist weight, kicking the leg weights off as she stepped along. As her qi blossomed she used her power to produce a subtle golden glow around her body, something that would naturally draw the eye of anyone present and make her appear more... radiant.

“Kiharu, Romula, free those poor people and tend their wounds! Syri, Rema, with me,” she said. The ogre turned slowly, ponderously, each step of his great cloven feet shaking the ground. Its slitted eyes locked onto Luna, blazing like pools of molten metal. Its chest, broad and rounded, heaved with great strength as it rounded on her.

“I’ll put a stop to this bastard here and now.”