by Nicol Terra
A series of three footsteps then became nine as she felt people pace around the room.
“I swear I heard something!” Jay snarled. Then a slap.
“Next time you waste our time, I'll send you to the front lines!”
Then, Rose gave a single giggle... Tina closed her eyes as she grabbed Erudite next. The steps grew more intense. She froze time as Erudite formed a spatial wormhole to teleport them across the flat field to the girl's dorm. Tina let go as they rushed in and were greeted by the front door
The three panted rapidly as they held their shaking knees. Their wings drooped down, a sign of distress. Ironically, they left last but made it back first.
“Rose! You almost got us busted!” Erudite snarled.
“Sorry!” Rose whispered.
Erudite cursed and Tina swung around.
“Well, it's over. “Tina said, stumbling and leaning on the door. She slipped and fell as she felt the ground tilt beneath her. Rose giggle became a roaring laugh, with Erudite facepalming.
“I am surrounded by idiots.” Erudite sighed.
“No, you are surrounded by drunk people,” Tina said, floating upward and straightening her dress straight.
“How about we call it a night?” Erudite exasperated. Rose struggled to regain her composure, but she let out a thumb up to show she got it.
“Where is the alcohol?” Tina turned to panic, only for Erudite to float upward in a black hole. She blinked.
“Oh.” Tina said.
“Your welcome.” Erudite said. Tina drunkenness started to kick in.
“Okay go fuck yourself, I am going to sleep.” Tina rolled her eyes as both Erudite and Rose started to laugh.
“Well, see you tomorrow morning,” Erudite said as her laugh started to slow down., opening the door and walking in the quiet hallway. Rose and Tina turned and walked in together, making their way back to the room and quietly walking inside.
At least, quiet enough as Tina and Rose giggled with Erudite sighing in the darkness, swinging around to try and sleep.
Moments later. Tina fell asleep as she waited for two more weeks for her training to finish.
Yukari woke up to the sound of gunfire in the distance. The shots rattled through the city as buildings shattered and fell around her. She was fine, in her own ‘given’ house. The houses were shacks, basically a single room with a kitchen, a bed and if you were lucky, a Fusion Bubble that powered the home and pulled water from the ground. Unfortunately, Yukari didn‘t have the latter, but there was a vending machine, so she rarely complained. She yawned, stretching and walking out of bed to the outside. Her silk, slender pajamas met with a sudden chill. She shivered, only for her to see a frozen storm above her.
Snow fell, as it piled down from where she was.
Then, her Holosphere beeped rapidly, echoing in the room. She couldn't help walk back to her room in confusion, pressing the button on the top.
A hologram of Ryunsun greeted her. She yawned and rubbed her eyes.
“Good morning, how was your day?”
“Oh, great. We are making a second attack on the inner gates.” Ryunsun added. Yukari nodded, now that explains the snow, Yuki was blanketing the city with snow.
“I saw Yuki used her Unicus Igneium, should I armor up and help her?” Yukari asked, only for Ryunsun to shake his head.
“Even assuming she would let you help her, she is in a dangerous duel. Hell, her squadron retreated because of her magic affecting them too."
Yukari scoffed. “Snowflakes kill people, and Yuki controls Winter, what is the deal?” She said. Ryunsun started to speak, only for the image to grow fuzzy as a loud bang echoed from his side of the Hologram.
Ryunsun wanted to curse, only for a man to appear in the hologram with him, hand him a piece of paper and walk away. Yukari had no restraint with these people. Although her Unicus Ignieum always made her shiver.
“I am leaving you in charge of Legion 3, they are at the sixteenth gate, gear up and get ready,” Ryunsun said, ending the call as Yukari grumbled to herself, pulling out a black box from under the bed of her new, black armor and blade. She slinked on the slender metal corset and leggings as the metal melded to her natural shape. She grabbed the sword, putting her Orange Aura inside the blade, and slamming it into the tile floor. The blade showed no tear at all, thoroughly soaking her Aura and enchanting it to become unbreakable. She smirked, slinking the blade to her right side, walking out to the newfound snowfall and headed north. She slinked it up quickly and instantly back down. It was light to her, no more than a pound. Yet, her Aura strengthened the blade
The battlefield was pure chaos as soldiers shot blast after blast into the gates. The Faeries mostly held their ground, some of which creating barriers of Earth and lodge blasts of wind to smack through the weary legion of a hundred thousand soldiers, all of them compacted into an area of two hundred kilometers. In macro terms, it too crowded them, but in micro terms, they were too far apart. Yukari grabbed her blade as she walked down the center of a small battalion, firing at them.
Their blasts were too slow for her as she blitzed through the enemy battalion in a microsecond. She couldn't help sigh, as the snow-packed ground, the spine snapping cold wind splitting through her Battalion. Snowflakes landed on enemy soldiers, killing them randomly. Black tainted snowflakes killed hundreds with a single touch. As she saw her faint breathe, the flakes fell on her, and even she felt a little nauseous.
One of the Lieutenant Commanders saluted her. She was tall, six foot and had massive, silver armor wrapped around her. Her eyes were ready, but her body was exhausted. Her arms shook, and her legs were weightless.
“Maam! We were expecting you! What are our orders?”
Yukari pondered for a moment, only for a blade of wind slice near her cheek. She shot a stare in front of her. She saw them, each on the wall. Ten of them, Commanders. They wore a Gold Star on their Hats. There were six girls and four guys, all of them Elven. They looked down at her and scoffed. The battalion backed away in fear.
“So that‘s the Tainted Knight, kind of tiny.” One said. Yukari hardened her hold on her blade. Ten Commanders against one Legion Commander? That was still not fair.
“Our orders are to stop her, yet can she really hold off all of us?”
Yukari heard this as her red-tinted ears twitched. She pointed her blade at the ten in the wall. “I am all you will ever need to taste defeat.” She said confidently, walking forward and stopping the Lieutenant Commander
“Group up, send calls to all battalions to form Legion 3. We are pushing forward.” Yukari said.
“What, but our soldiers are-”
Yukari eyes tightened as she shot the soldier a glare. She meekly took a step back and darted her gaze away.
“I didn't ask for your opinion, that is an order. I got a date to handle.” She said, walking away from the hundred weakened soldiers. They all limped away, retreating westward as Yukari walked in front of the ten Elves. They all grabbed their weapons, one gun, four spears, four swords and one who had none. She raised a brow, the man with no weapons was the most threatening it seems. She flashed Yellow, seeing a hundred of futures at once. They all opened with using their advanced elemental techniques. One can stop time, and she saw a future where Yukari died from being sliced in space, and another where she was erased from existence. She intensified her gaze, releasing more purple.
“Aren't you going to throw the first blow?” One asked.
Yukari scoffed. “Against you, I will only need my Aura. I don‘t need to bend elements if I don‘t wanna.”
“Cocky shit!” One Elven male said, rushing at her with a blade of light. He shot the blade like a beam of light, refracting across a nearby mirror and shooting Yukari in the face. A meter away, Yukari smacked the beam of light aside. The Ten Commanders stopped, their eyes stunned.
“Light is so predictable, it is so fast, yet you can‘t hit me if I can see in time and block.” She said, she released Red and Orang
e Aura into her blade and ran towards the man, slicing him in half. In a second, he yelled, and he was gone. He disappeared as Yukari slinked her blade above the ground.
The nine followed, rushing at her from all angles. The future told her that one came from behind trying to erase her to nothing. She instead sidestepped the blade of magic and sliced through him. She disassembled the man's atoms piece by piece as his physical body was dismantled in an instant. Her raw power, like any in the Chief Commander ranks and stronger, was enough to demolish matter. Her blade gave off no energy and aura. This was just her raw power, her raw energy. She coated it with Orange Aura and Red Aura at the tip. Her expression was cold, motionless, without fear or hesitation.
Two Female Elves rushed at her from left and right. They had blades of flames as they sliced at her, only for her to duck at hit each other. They screamed and winced in pain as another Female Elf came at her suddenly. Yukari eyes widened as she blocked a swipe of a hand a centimeter from her face. She grabbed her hand and sliced her. She felt the atoms in her body disassemble, ripping apart and flying in all directions. Her power was so great that now she doesn't just break bones or organs, she split atoms. She sighed. Nothing challenged her anymore.
Then, the two Elven Females tried their tactic again, a burn mark in the shape of a phoenix burnt on their necks, only for them to trip and fall again, as a dark ooze creeped out of her body, undoing the curse and applying to the casters
“You two cursed yourself; you are practically dead,” Yukari said, walking away.
The other six rushed at her as a girl created a spatial force field around Yukari. She felt space constrict around her, holding her in place.
“I got her!”
Yukari flashed Green Aura, only for her body to keep moving in the trapped space, forcing spatial magic to part away from her. She was injured, and swiped her sword at the man and erasing him again. When he tried again, the spell failed to work as Yukari adapted to the Spatial Ability as long as she had Green Aura up.
She pointed her blade and created a beam of Red Energy as she forced out a beam of energy and shot it at the rest.
In less than a minute, she killed eight soldiers and cursed two more by changing the effect. She knew so many ways to cause damage, either through her own power or her own ability, it was almost frightening.
“Monster!” One said. She was the smallest of the former ten. She was five foot, had green armor wear and had a disgusted look at her face. Her tears ran down her cheeks, and her snot made her blubber uncontrollably.
Yukari held her blade stronger in her hand. She wasn't the monster; she was a soldier. She was fighting for her state and herself. She walked over to the commander, only for the other one to walk in front of her. Yukari raised a brow in confusion.
“You can take mine, but not hers.” She said
Yukari felt a stinging pain in her right chest. Her eyes were filled with determination, devotion, and kindness. She felt her heart break slightly, turning away from the two.
“Run. Head anywhere but here. If I catch you in my way again, I'll kill you.” She said, her newfound mercy a strange new action for her, an act for mercy she felt brew deep inside her. She shook it off, slamming her blade in the ground.
Daybreak amassed the legion. Yukari, Yuki, and Ryunsun lead their armies in different parts of the city. The legion pelted bolts of flames and wind into the walls, breaking and shattering the gates. Yukari was in the middle of the Legion, raising her blade high and pointing forward.
“Charge!” She yelled. The hundred thousand of soldiers rushed at a small, wooden gate. The gate was ripped apart in a second. The wall holding the gate was blasted with it. Behind the smoke of the explosion greeted them a Legion. The two clashed as Chisean Soldiers pushed back Faerie soldiers. The Faeries flew in the sky pelting them with bullets of magic. Yukari cursed.
“Fuck you.” She said, releasing red Aura as she bolted up into the sky, flying thousands of meters and lunging her blade into one of the flying Faeries. She looked to see her hyperventilate, gasp and die. She was erased a second later, and thousands of bolts of magic hit her directly. She felt the flames, wind, and rocks, but they did not hurt her. She just walked forward, a rock would merely slow her down, a spark would annoy her, and a gust of wind would just push her back a few feet, only to piss her off more.
“Push her back! Don't let her get close!” One yelled. She spat, they were playing too smart for her.
Then. The clouds and snow grew darker. The blackened flakes looked corrupted from smog or an intense desire of decay. She turned to see Yuki, her body enveloped with Water. Yukari smiled.
“Unicus Igneium: Blizzard of Nyx,” Yuki said. The legion of enemy soldiers saw the black flakes land on their body. Some of them fell, instantly killed, others turned on their former allies and shot at them instead. The Madness of Winter broke the ranks of soldiers, as the rest in the back line retreated, heading back into the inner city. Minds shattered, bodies lying on the floor. The snow bristled past her hair, snapping Yukari’s ears red.
Within a few hours, the battlefield with littered with corpses, none of which had no cuts or open wounds, instantly killed by Yuki. Their faces looked somber, confused, yet none seemed to be contorted by the extreme pain. She saw Ryunsun carrying a body and knocking the corpse into a pile of dead bodies.
Yukari felt a strange sense of pity envelop her, as she kicked a body up, looking at his face. His mouth was wide open, his eyes terrified, his cheeks red with frost-burn. She covered his eyes with her hand and waved it down, his eyes closing.
“So the official count is around ten thousand, give or take a thousand. Most fled as their Morale dropped.” A nearby soldier said.
“Of course, Yuki saved us! We didn‘t have to fight.” Another said. Yukari shot this man a glare, only for him to retreat.
“What do we do with the bodies?” Ryunsun asked. Yuki leaned on a wall.
“We will bury them, get official counts and names, and when this war is over, we hope no one wants revenge.”
“No,” Yukari protested. “They won't want revenge if we send them a message.”
“On with that again?” Yuki told, her tone was snarling and exhausted. Yukari said nothing this time, instead of looking at a pile of the dead. She couldn't see any of their faces anymore.
“Your sadism about proving our worth will kill us all,” Yuki said, walking away for Yukari to think in silence. She didn't move for minutes, instead taking in this new scenery in. The dead lied as tall as houses, the holes for each of their bodies went one for miles. The Soldiers celebrated, drinking in celebration.
It was only Yukari, who reflected on what happened. Was she in the wrong? She shrugged off the question, choosing to walk away. She bumped into Ryunsun, whose face was contorted with pity and sadness from this mass slaughter.
She looked away; she didn't need friends anyway as long as she did her duty.
Duran wakes up to the sound of water dropping on the face. The warm water was quickly running down his forehead as he opened his gaze up. The tent had a small tear on the top; he let out a single sigh. He has been camping inside this cave for nearly a week. He gave a quick shine of purple aura- today was the day he would see a city beyond his wildest dreams.
He gave out a single stretch, his legs creaking and his arms snapping as he gave a small yawn. He slipped off his pajamas, slipping on a blue cotton shirt and white cotton pants. Then, he slipped on his armor as he walked outside. D.J and Ariels tents were lifeless, motionless. He gave a devilish grin as he took a deep breath.
“Enemy raiders! They are coming argggghh!” He yelled. D.J’s and Ariel's tent jumped up, D.J and Ariel running out with a white pajama suit. D.J held a frying pan as his weapon as he frantically searched from side to side. Ariel had her sword up, coated with red energy. The darkness of the gave shrouded him.
“Where did you go, Duran!” Ariel said.
“Come out so I can pound your head in!” D.J said,
swinging his pan madly as he smacked Ariel in the face. She staggered back slightly, mostly uninjured. Duran gave a bellowing laugh.
“Duran! Is that you?!” D.J said, walking forward and taking one more swing. Ariel snuck up behind him and kicked him into the wall. Duran laugh became a cackle as he rolled back in laughter- this was how he woke himself up.
“Oh man, that was priceless.” He said. Ariel sparked a red light in the air to illuminate the cave, her expression sour and unsavory. She gave a loud groan as D.J popped out of the rock, mostly unscathed as he stumbled backward.
“Did I get him?” He asked
Duran shook his head, the light of the flames from D.J’s hands lit the cave.
“Oh, you got him alright. I was dying.” He said. Ariel stomped her feet on the ground multiple times.
“God! That isn’t funny.” Ariel shouted.
“It was kind of funny,” Duran said.
D.J shook his head. “I would laugh if I still wasn’t the practical part of the joke.”
Duran giggled once. “Hey man, I had a laugh.”
D.J giggled back. “Well, it was funny I guess.”
“You too?” Ariel exclaimed.
D.J shrugged, bumping his fist on Duran’s. “Hey man, you got me good.”
Duran sighed. “At least you appreciated it.”
“I thought you died!” Ariel cried, then turning to D.J “Also, a frying pan? You are a soldier with a sword in your tent, and you reach for a frying pan.”
Duran giggled as D.J groaned.
“Hey, reached for the nearest thing!” D.J said.
“And it was a frying pan?” Ariel asked.
D.J turned away. “I like eggs in the morning.”
Duran touched the top of his tent as the limbs disassembled itself to a pile of steel sticks. “All right, we are almost to the city.” He gave one last snicker. “Still was funny.”
The three disassembled their tents, with D.J ‘pocketing’ them and making them disappear in a black rend of space. Duran walked forward first, touching around the dark cave, lit only by D.J’s red flames. He saw scorpions scurry away at their footsteps and snakes slither inside their holes- they knew better not to get in between their path. The rocky spires and the smell of sulfur faded beyond until the three stopped to see a giant drop over three miles deep and then a large, open field with a massive city.