The fiend must have known it was magnitudes more powerful than Eik and Michael, otherwise it wouldn't have taken its sweet ti like this. It would have rushed in and taken their heads in the blink of an eye. Instead, it was approaching them with curiosity, long, spindly fingers probing the air toward their faces. It continued to cluck strangely.
The thing clearly preferred quadrupedal movent with its long, flexible forelimbs. Its thin, bony body should not possess the terrifying power it had so clearly displayed earlier. It should have broken like a twig, but it rivaled steel. Its face seed not quite human, not quite beast, but rather like so manner of bad disguise. Eik wanted to look away but he couldn't.
The monster slid a finger down the side of his face, from the temple to the jaw, and continued down his neck, putting hardly any pressure. Its breath was grueso as well, the stench tearing into their nostrils and eliciting gags.
It wouldn't stop chuckling. It was enjoying the domination.
The wall exploded outwards in a barrage of wood fragnts, bricks, and other miscellaneous debris, showering Eik and Michael with dust.
"Michael! Michael, can you hear ?" Eik shouted, the ribs on the side where he was struck screaming in piercing agony as he exerted his voice.
"I'm here!" ca the answer.
"Get us away from here! I can't move!" Hands quickly took him under the armpits, dragging him across the ground. A figure stepped out of the holed wall, gigantic spear over one shoulder. The ridiculously strong monster that had treated them like toys hung impaled on the spear tip, lower body missing completely.
"Where are you two going?" the woman said with a crooked smile.
"We, uuh… We just thought—"
She raised an eyebrow. "Hey, F'er, I told you to protect the boy, not get him killed even harder."
"Yeah, sorry," Eik coughed, attempting to clear his lungs. "I'm one of those guys who get a little confused when I'm punched over a house, you know. Won't happen again."
The spear woman snorted a laugh. "Good. Your na is Michael?" she said to the young healer. "Can you do sothing for him?"
Michael nodded and scooted closer to Eik, beginning his healing. "Start on the ribs first, please." Eik said. "It's becoming difficult to breathe."
"Take a couple of these as well," the woman said and rummaged around the small bandolier on her chest. She fished out so deford healing spheres, the brown, doughy chunks flattened to pancakes. She handed them to a doubtful Eik.
He held one up for inspection. "Thanks, but you shouldn't keep them so haphazardly stored. You can get edible paper to wrap them in so they don't mush together and beco compromised. They're more delicate than people think, and in so cases, with a bit of bad luck, you might even spoil their efficacy. They won't beco useless per se, but you can expect worse overall healing output, possible contamination with other substances you might have had in your bags that shouldn't be ingested, and last, but certainly not least, worse flavor," Eik rambled, never once taking his eyes off the little nugget. "This one looks sowhat passable, though."
He looked up only to see his two new acquaintances staring at him with a mix of worry and puzzlent, the woman's expression leaning more towards unfiltered annoyance. "And what makes you think I, a C-rank, should be taking advice from you, an F-rank, on matters regarding my job?"
Eik chewed on his answer for a mont. "Well, because this," he said and pointed at the bumpy chunk in his hand. "is what your healing spheres look like, and I," he said and pointed to himself. "am the one who made this, and I know for a fact that it did not look like this when I sold it. And for the record, I'm actually mid to high F-rank."
"You made these healing spheres?" she asked.
"Yup," Eik said as he popped the two balls of dicine into his mouth. "Only the best locally sourced ingredients."
"These are great quality."
"I appreciate the kind words. I'll give you a discount next ti you co by my…" Eik trailed off, suddenly rembering the state of his cute, little store. It had been made one with the earth.
"Soone else buys them for ," the woman said.
"Oh, full price then, I guess" he said, trying to shake the image of 'Eik's Excellent Elixirs' being demolished by so otherworldly demon.
Michael had been focusing on healing Eik's ribs and arm. "I-Is it okay for you to be away from the battle, miss?"
"My na is Cecilia, and yes, because it's over. After I killed the strongest one, the one that ca for you two was the last one remaining."
Eik sat up further, pain surging through his body as he coughed up blood. "Then we need to get to the hospital tents west of Mark's Tannery. The patients there can't escape, much less run away."
"People are in trouble everywhere, Eik," she said.
"Olivia Valkiri is in a coma there. If she dies, Forest's fighting potential is severely compromised. Do you think we can afford that right now, when we might be facing a potential second collapse?"
Cecilia's gaze was firmly on him as she considered his reasoning.
She was probably considerably more inford about matters such as Forest's strength and the situation they were in, but Eik knew that Olivia was among the strongest in the city. To Eik and Michael, this Cecilia was terrifyingly powerful, one-shotting a monster that had played with them like a lion against a couple of 3-year olds, but she was still only C-rank, with Olivia in high B-rank.
"You're right. We can't afford that."—She turned to leave—"Can you walk?"
Eik forced himself to stand, holding back a moan of agony. "… Easily."
Cecilia chuckled. "Good. Then let's go. Get your shield man up as well. He's still alive, I think."
Eik made Michael run ahead to check on Heath, so when he made it to the small crater where the round-cheeked man had been smashed into the ground, the young man was already working his healing magic.
"How's he looking?"
"Not so good, but I think he might get better faster than you, considering the fact that his shield held through everything the fiend did to him."
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"That monster was weak anyway," Eik muttered and Michael gave him what might well have been the most skeptical side-eye in recorded history.
Suddenly Heath drew in a great gasp for air, as if the monster had only just stopped beating him monts ago. "What happened?" he rasped, still not appearing fully in command of his faculties.
"The fight's over!" Michael assured him. "You survived, Heath."
"Where's my sister?" The large man demanded, clutching desperately at Michael's jacket.
"Your… Your sister?" the young healer asked, throwing a glance back at Eik. "I haven't seen…"
"Was she the pushy one you were with at Mission Central?" Eik asked.
Heath had to get his mind straight for a mont as he thought. "Yes, that's her! Do you know where she is?"
"She wasn't here when I arrived," Eik said, making a show of looking around the battlefield. Both monsters and people lay unmoving in the grass, several houses in ruins after the fight. Eik hoped none of them was the sister. "When did you last see her?"
"When those big flyers attacked…"
"You must have gotten separated then. We're moving on from here as well, together with that C-ranker. You should co with us. Better to move as a group, and if you don't know where she is then the place we're headed is as good a place to start looking as any."
Heath looked as though he wanted to refuse but knew what the best option was. "Alright, help up."
***
They made great ti thanks to Cecilia. They didn't have to stalk through the dark alleys to avoid monsters, because most of them were just slapped into oblivion by her. Occasionally, she had to exchange a few blows with the stronger foes, but never anything as serious as the fight she had been engaged in when Eik had first arrived.
When finally the hospital tents ca into view in the distance, it also beca clear that there was indeed fighting here. It had been a bad idea to build the infirmary camp out here, because it would be one of the first places to be assaulted in a wave like this.
A gout of fla rose into the air and for a mont Eik beca hopeful that maybe Olivia had awoken to fight the horde. As they got closer, it beca clear that a huge monster with a long, serpentine body was responsible.
"Shit," Cecilia muttered. "That bastard is probably at least high C-rank. I have to go.."
"Wait!" Eik shouted. "Let coat your spear in poison."
"Sorry, but F-rank Toxic isn't going to do anything to that baddie over there." She launched into the air in an enormous leap, a trail of dust following in her wake.
"What do we do?" Michael asked, the occasional sound of an explosion ringing in the distance.
Eik started hobbling toward the tents. "We need to secure the B-ranker inside that tent," he said, pointing. Heath and Michael nodded affirmatively and followed him.
They ran silently, doing their darndest to avoid getting involved in any high-rank fights. They'd be useless there anyway. Eik pulled the tent flap aside, Heath at the ready with his shield. Nothing ca pouncing from inside. It was so dark that they could barely see anything, two lanterns, one at each end of the large tent, being the only source of light inside. All the beds were empty. The injured must have gotten away.
"Can you use your magic to light this place up a bit?" Eik asked Michael.
The young man obliged, his hands allowing them to see sowhat. The beds and the curved sides of the canvas tent cast long shadows, however, playing tricks on their minds, with the moving light source making the blackness dance eerily like apparition.
Heath in the lead, they continued through the divisions of the tent, frequently stopping to listen for anything out of the ordinary. When they made it to the final division where Olivia had been lying, Eik was surprised to see the first bed vacant. How had they been evacuated so quickly?
The second bed showed a different story, the sa woman in her thirties still lying comatose. Did sobody specifically run away with the first patient? Maybe a friend or family. Olivia was still there as well, her black hair covering her face and flowing down past the pillow, almost touching the floor. Eik brushed it aside gently with a finger.
"That's the B-rank?" Heath asked. "You seem to know her."
"Yeah, I do."
"She's beautiful," Michael comnted. "Is she your girlfriend?"
Eik pulled a face. "Ew, no! She's like my sister! She and my brother were going to get married."
"Is your brother a strong Awakened as well? Or rather, was he an Awakened before this week?" Michael asked.
"He, uuh… He was. Damn strong too, but he got killed by a monster during a subjugation mission. Without dicine its venom was too much for him. More than seven years ago now."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Heath said.
"Thank you. It was a long ti ago. Let's get her out of here for now and co for the rest later."
As the only one without offensive abilities, Michael slung Olivia over his shoulder as Heath took lead again. Outside, the draconian, fire-breathing giant still raged, presumably fighting with Cecilia. They kept far away from that, lest they get caught up in a stray attack or sothing. They made good speed to the outskirts of the infirmary camp, the sounds of fighting slowly fading into the distance.
"How far are we going?" Michael asked as they marched.
"Until we find more people, I suppose. We're too weak to run around on our own. You're also F-rank, right, Heath?"
"How'd you know?" Heath asked, looking back at Eik with curiosity.
"Your sister said so earlier."
"You spoke with her?"
Eik snorted with a smile. "Well, she kinda pushed past in line back at Mission Central."
Heath laughed heartily, his whole body swaying. "That does sound like her, I'm afraid. Speaking of Mission Central, how about we head there for now? People might be gathering there."
"Sounds good," Michael agreed and Eik nodded.
The number of monsters must have thinned considerably, because even though it took them almost ten minutes to make it back to Mission Central, they didn't run into anything else. They approached the building with caution at first, but when it beca apparent that there were people inside, they called to them from the street. Makeshift cots had been prepared for the injured and Olivia was laid on one alongside other patients. Eik, Michael, and Heath reported the situation in the infirmary camp and were offered food and water. They sat at the tables for a break and a bite to eat.
To Heath's great relief, his sister had arrived in Mission Central thirty minutes earlier, and then gone out again with a group to look for survivors. They would go out again as well after so rest.
They'd tried to talk the injured Eik out of going, but he'd refused to stay back. The wave was still underway, and Eik needed all the experience he could get.
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