“Once we reach the port we’ll wait for the guards at the dock to investigate.” Jinlin began his explanation of his plan. “Then Yunga will quickly take care of them while Shanta will blast an entrance for us causing so much racket and decimating anybody else at the entrance. That’s when everybody charges in, down the middle. With enough fire power we can mow down anybody that’ll get in our way.”
It was relatively close to noon all of the crew were well rested and gathered in the living quarters with all of the Purks. Jinlin was on the box as a makeshift podium to relay the plan. They were approximately an hour away from the fortress.
“We’re going directly to the tower where Uff’s office is at. All valuables he gets he keeps right in sight. So if he knows what he’s dealing with then it should be right up in there. All of us together can take him down. It all relies on us getting in that office. Stealing the blood and heading back to the ship to perform the ritual. After that it’s all up to fate.”
Hillanter was resting on a table in the room. The instructions for the ritual are pinned to the wall by a nail.
“Honestly.” He continued on. “We may even outnumber their troops, since they have so many soldiers out and about to wrangle up more slaves. So we have a really good shot here.”
“What’s the reason with the hole we cut under the captain's wheel?” Zunci asked. “You made us do that but didn’t explain.”
“That’s my escape hatch for when we pull into port. I need a way to easily get back down to the living quarters. To add to the mystery for when the guards investigate.”
“What’re we going to do with Huune?” Shug followed up with another question.
“There’s a big white sheet in the storage room we’ll cover him in. When they get close to him, because obviously they’ll be curious about it, that’ll be the cue for Yunga to attack.”
“Where am I hiding to get the drop on them?” Yunga herself inquired.
“There’s a ladder on the side, which when we sail into the port, will be facing away from them. There’s enough space to peer over the edge where they can’t see you. Overall, I think this plan is as perfect as it could be.”
“It seems fine to me.” Shanta commented. “We’re going to reach port soon right?”
“Yes, so if there’s any last requests or changes to the plan please let me know. And that goes for all of you.” He points at the crowd. “Prepare, hype yourself up, we’re going into battle.” He stepped off the box and started heading towards the deck. The Purks dispersed as an audience into their own little sub-groups.
“We should be able to see the fortress.” He continued on. “If you guys could join me up on the deck.” He started moving towards the stairs with the rest of the crew to follow.
Coming out from the depths of the living quarters to the cloudless sunny day above ground, Huune was laying down at the edge of the deck as the sight of the fortress peers over the horizon. All of them approached and stood alongside him staring over the ocean.
“Yup, there it is.” Yunga stated. “Gosh now that it’s in view, the whole dwelling feeling of this battle just hit me.”
“Same here.” Zunci added on. “It’s all fine in your head but when you’re actually seeing it in person your inner bitch mode turns on immediately.” She chuckled.
Shug took a long deep nervous breath. “My hands started shaking.” He tried to laugh it off.
“Better get over that feeling quickly.” Shanta nudged Shug. “Because we can’t have you stumbling over yourself because your nerves got the best of you. We can’t have another Quint port situation again.”
“Yeah, I know.” He responded hastily with a slight hint of an annoyance tone.
“We’ve got this.” Brentha tried to comfort him. “With what Jin described we should have a relatively easy battle.”
“We should. No promises though.” Jinlin responded.
“What’s this plan exactly?” Huune questioned.
“So the gist of it is that we’ll put a sheet on you when we pull into port and when people come to investigate we’ll launch our big attack. Charging straight forward, with your big burly frame, and our firepower we should have the upper hand. Including that we'd get the advantage of getting the drop on them first, I'd say it’s way more solid then we planned before.”
“Alright, I think I got it.” He answered with a little hesitation. “Seems simple enough to understand.”
“It should be. Since you don’t have to do much.”
“Whatever you say.”
“Ok guys huddle in.” Yunga announced, extending her arms. Everyone joined into the circle, arms on each shoulder and hunching down. “This might be our last fight, our last day of life, so just in case I don’t have the opportunity to say this. I love all of you guys. I love this whole crew, so even if I perish in this fight, at least I’ll be dying alongside my friends.”
“Me too.” Zunci followed up. “But we’ll get through this. So don’t even entertain the thought. Positive spirits only.”
“We can pray.” Shanta suggested. “Pray for all of the good luck we’ll need.”
“Yeah, we can do that.” Yunga supported.
They broke up the huddle and got on their knees and put their hands together, closing their eyes as Shanta began the prayer.
“Dear Honfochster, I ask upon thee to cast down your good fortune on the good people you look down from above. Please bless us with your luck and prosperity for our battle to be victorious. Freeing the people enslaved by the ravenous monsters who pose as humans. Please give us the blessing we oh do desire.” Then she pronounced something in a completely different language that none of them recognized that signaled the end of the prayer.
She then got up and everyone else slowly joined her. “Is that all your first prayer?”
“Basically.” Shug was the first to respond.
“Yup.” Yunga was second.
“No.” Jinlin followed up. “I used to say prayers before dinner with my family. Though I have never heard of a Honfochster.”
“I follow a really obscure religion.” She answered. “We don’t need to get into it right now, but it’s understandable you’ve never heard of him before.”
“That was very nice.” Brentha complimented. “I loved it.”
“I second that!” Zunci proudly exclaimed.
“I feel way better after that.” Yunga had a relieved sigh. “Alright everyone get ready.” She commanded.
Jinlin got back to the wheel, Yunga and Zunci stayed alongside Huune, Shanta went into the captain's cabin, Shug and Brentha went to the crows nest together. Getting mentally prepared before the battle begins. The fortress drew nearer and the overwhelming nervous feeling built back up even after the prayer. Taking a deep breath, Yunga put both hands on her hips confidently as they sailed along.
“Let’s do this.”
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“We’ve got one of our ships pulling up!” A soldier shouted out at the end of the dock. “That’s weird, we’re not expecting any arrivals.”
The ship was just in view from the port, still a good few minutes away. Some more soldiers came to gaze at it. They had a pair of binoculars that zoomed in for a better look. Examining the deck it was alarmingly empty with a huge white sheet covering an unidentified object in the middle. At the steering wheel there was a mysterious person who covered their whole body with some black fabric, so they couldn’t recognize any familiar faces.
“Be on guard.” The guy with the binoculars announced. “I don’t like the looks of this.”
All of them had their rifles at the ready, watching the ship sail slowly in as it gradually diminished in speed to the port. The anchor got pulled early, drawing it to a sudden stop right before the dock. The carried momentum drifted the ship almost perfectly to face the left side of the ship to the fortress.
“Show yourself!” The leading guard commanded while holding his rifle at the steering wheel. “Please come out with your hands up!” He took the first weary steps onto the ship.
The steering wheel was left completely empty, the person with black clothing vanished from sight. Which to them seemed impossible.
“Did they jump ship?” He turned to the other soldiers. “Check the surrounding water and call more guards in, and alert Uff while you’re at it. Now!”
Two troopers surveyed the water for the person the other one was describing. Four others joined the leading guard on the deck, looking around for anybody. They naturally drew near the white sheet which, whatever was outlined in it, didn't seem like any other object they could easily identify.
“Check it real quick.” The guard motioned his rifle to the sheet.
One soldier bravely tip toed to the sheet. It took a little bit but once he got just close enough to where he could lift it. Yunga popped up from right behind it and zipped right up to his face, slashing her sword.
The swipe to his face propelled his body into the other guards, knocking them down like bowling pins. The leading one was not a part of the group and immediately turned around to face her. She dipped down to the right of him and impaled him straight into his stomach.
As soon as she started attacking, the backup soldiers arrived with their rifles already drawn ready to shoot. A bright light emerged above them as a massive fireball generated right over their heads. It formed rapidly and before they even had a chance to react properly it came crashing down on them.
The huge engulfing flame consumed everyone at the dock, even some oil barrels that were resting around caught on fire and exploded. Destroying multiple walls, stone came crumbling down like an avalanche.
The whole ordeal obviously drew every single eye on the island towards them as a huge amount of smoke filled the air as the ship was obscured by the clouds of fumes. Camouflaging their entrance as alarms started blaring throughout the entire fortress.
Only a few brief seconds after that ear ringing blast, Yunga alongside of the rest of the crew came charging in with a thunderous war cry. Huune came galloping in right behind them and the Purks got into the fray.
Everybody else on the island was so caught off guard that some of them didn’t even have their weapons ready. Gunfire was already getting fired off and multiple soldiers started dying with some unfortunate losses returning on the crew’s side as well.
Charging down the middle like they all planned it all looked like everything was going according to plan but as soon as they got to the loading bay, being almost pinpoint to the center of the fortress. A man with a beige sleeveless undershirt with gray pants sporting military boots, bit off a pin of a grenade and threw it directly into the middle of the oncoming army.
Yunga saw it bounce off the ground and roll right to them. “Move!” She shouted out.
With how they were positioned with an almost star like pattern they all split up in two groups. Shanta and Brentha dived forward towards the man, Zunci and Shug darted to the right, Yunga and Jinlin dashed to the left. Huune was able to stop running forward and carried some of the Purks back as the grenade exploded.
Causing some blowback to the crew as they were propelled forward in the direction they decided to head to. Some of the unfortunate Purks were caught in the blast and lost their life, some of them living as a limb or two flew off.
Huune was left behind with the only way to go was to the far right where there was an extended bay area. They were all separated with an almost impossible chance to regroup. All that matters, whoever gets there first, is to infiltrate the office.
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Shanta and Brentha landed directly in the oval shaped lift that carried some cargo that they were conveniently behind, masking themselves from the man who threw the grenade. Both of their ears were ringing from the explosion and once it faded away they could overhear a conversation.
“I got them separated!” The man who threw the grenade cheerfully yelled! “Cut them off and kill ‘em!” He started commanding.
“You take the people on the right, Fringerly.” A new voice popped up. “Anften will take care of everybody on the left. He’s perfect for it.”
“Already on it!” Another voice, presumed to be Anften, swiftly said as he apparently flew off on something that looked like ski’s, whooshing past above them like he was a plane.
“I’ll take on these folks.” The voice continued on. “It’ll be easy enough.” He cracked his neck.
That line gave Shanta goosebumps, she thought they hadn’t been spotted yet.
“Good luck Xinder!” Fringerly shouted out as he sprinted away.
Shanta and Brentha got to their feet, quickly looking at each other to make sure none of them were injured, then peeked over the edge of the wooden box they took cover behind. They saw the man named Xinder, brandishing a sword with a nice fitted yukata robe, the blade glistened in the sunlight.
“Stay behind me.” Shanta ordered. “If we stick together we’ll be-”
Before she could even end the sentence the box shattered right into two, splitting the both of them perfectly causing the natural instinct to fling their bodies back to dodge the slash. The crate then bursted into countless pieces, revealing Xinder staying in the pose of when he sliced.
Shanta, after catching her balance, lifted her palm up to him and propelled an invisible force his way that sent him careening back. Using his feet to stop his momentum of sliding, leaving a sizable gap between them.
“A mage huh.” He gave a cheeky smirk. “That explains the fireball.”
Brentha stumbly pulled her rifle out and shakily aimed down the sights at him. In a blink of an eye he dashed down to the right, Shanta threw another blast his way and with perfect precision, he twisted his feet and legs to switch his direction mid sprint and dodged it.
Stunned, Brentha started firing her gun randomly, loosely tracking his unpredictable spontaneous yet calculated movement. Shanta also started blasting but with every projectile that came his way he was able to avoid all of it.
It was clear that he was heading directly towards Brentha, and Shanta knew that she wasn’t going to hit him in time, she turned her hand to Brentha and blasted her out of the way right about as he was charging up his slash.
The force pushed way harder than was necessary into a control panel for the lift, her body colliding directly with it. The impact completely obliterated the console which caused a critical error, forcing the lift to suddenly drop all the way down. Like an elevator crashing, the velocity bringing Shanta and Xinder to fall to the ground. Brentha was left standing at the top.
Shanta rapidly rose to her feet and turned to face Xinder who did exactly the same. She gave a quick glance at Brentha before she was slashed at. Using the same force power as before but this time to propel herself back to dodge the attack. It was a constant slurry of swings, with her dodging just in the knick of time. Finally having enough space at the end of the lift to shoot off a lighting strike.
He lifted his sword and the bolt shocked the blade, sending a wave of electricity that caused blowback to him. His limp body glided in the air and bounced on the ground a few times before he caught himself, shaking off the hit.
“Get to the office now!” She shouted up at Brentha. “I’ll handle this!”
Brentha’s hands were severely shaking and she was about to tear up, but hearing her command she bolted away from the battle. The whole scenario shook her up way more than she thought, the constant shots of bullets, and even some explosions. But still she ran knowing that maybe the whole fate of this battle was now in her hands.
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Shug and Zunci were launched into a tight alleyway. Getting tousled along the walls and straight into one at the end of it before veering off to the right. Their bodies were knocked around but miraculously they were able to rise.
They could see the peek of light at the way they flew in. Smoke started to bellow from the explosion and caused them to start coughing. They ducked down deeper until the invading fumes dissipated and couldn’t reach them anymore
“Did you see anyone else survive?” Zunci asked. “God I hope they did because what the fuck was that?”
“Did you see that guy?” Shug wiped his face from the sweat that mixed up with some dirt. “Are those the guys that Jin warned us about?”
“Most likely. Look , we need to stop standing and talking and just get our move on.” She started marching through the alley, Shug hesitantly following behind. “It looks like this way gets closer to the office.” She started to speculate.
“I knew we were going to get separated like this, well not like this but still, oh man fuck this is really bad. You think they all made it out of the way in time? I know you already said that but I'm still worried. Yunga definitely dodged but the rest I just-” He just kept rambling on.
Zunci butted him right in his stomach with her elbow. “You need to take a deep breath and relax. We’re all shaken up but if you start tweaking then we’re not going to get anywhere. Us two can get through this, just stick to the plan. Stick together and raid the castle.”
“You’re right I just-” It sounded like he was hyperventilating. “You know, Brentha and Huune especially. All of this gunfire just overloads me and I can’t keep my mind from racing.”
She swung around and slapped him right in the face. His panicked babbling was fueled with unnecessary words and pauses. “Shug, you know they’re alright. Don’t overthink. Let the sensible side of your brain take over.”
“Aren’t you-”
“We’re all worried!” She snapped at him, already knowing what he was going to follow up with. “I just do a hell of a good job at hiding it. Every fight I’m scared but I can’t show that or else what use am I? I can mask it with my smile all I want. it doesn’t change shit. The most important thing is keeping your composure.”
Shug looked down at his hands with them still shaking and his heart racing like he ran a marathon. His sweating didn’t come from exhaustion but just pure fear. “Shanta was right.”
“What?”
“I can't handle these situations. I’m still a little bitch. God, why am I so useless?” He smacked himself in the head.
“Hey!” She grabbed his hand. “You need to get a grip on yourself right now.”
“I can’t! We could be standing here with them all dead and-”
“So do you think yapping in this place is making the situation better?” She forced his hand down to his hip. “Just because you’re not going to be the hero of the day doesn’t mean you’re useless.” She put his heart to his chest. “All that you need is right there. Now let’s get moving and help our friends.” Letting go of his hand and trotting along forward.
He stayed with his heart slightly decreasing in speed, his palms firmly gripped his shirt and he held back tears. He let go and quickly caught right back up with Zunci.
The alley zig zagged through to the right until emerging out of it with a glistening sun beaming down a blinding light masking on what was hiding on the other side.
Cropping up from the depths of the alley they laid their eyes upon an array of boxes. It was a square like area with an almost blocky smile that the crates formed in the center. There was an upper level above them that encapsulates the entire place, some of the boxes resting upon the walls that could be used as a staircase to get on top.It seemed to be a storage space. Stepping out the sounds of constant gunfire got louder from behind them as an onslaught of opposing forces from the castle came pouring out.
“There seems to be no one heading our way,”: Zunci said. “Better stay that way.”
“Then that means most of the soldiers are out.” Shug followed up. “So maybe the office is easier to get to.”
“Right, let’s get-” She darted her eyes to the right top corner of her vision. Fringerly was there aiming down with his rifle right across the area from them. “Shug!” She charged him and flopped her body weight into his.
He was tackled to the ground as the gun went off and the bullet whizzed by him, grazing the hairs on his arm. They were both brought to the boxes, with Shug rolling over to the left side and Zunci landing on the right side.
“What the fuck was that!” Shug exclaimed.
“Almost knicked ya!” Fringerly taunted as he moved around to get another angle.
Zunci popped her head a little from her cover and saw him start moving to the left, he was on the upper level shifting over to a bridge that connected to the other part of the area that could get the perfect viewpoint to snipe them down.
She took her rifle and fired off a couple of shots in his direction. The bullets made him roll into some cover, stopping him in his tracks.
“Oh ho ho!” He snarkily cackled. “Getting real cheeky now aren’t we?” He darted up and fired off some more shots at her, the box blowing chunks off.
She moved to another side of her crate and turned around to face Shug. His arms were shaking and it looked like he was spacing out.
“Hey!” She snapped him back to reality. “Distract him, I’m going to try and get onto the next level.”
He swung around to look at her, like he was startled. “Yeah, yeah, roger that.” He uttered out with shaky breath. “How?” He finally realized what she had said.
“Just shoot at him to stop him from moving around us.” She commanded. “He’s trying to get the ultimate angle. If I can move to a different position without him knowing I can catch him off guard.”
“Ok, ok.” He tried to peek up from his cover but as soon as he started to raise his head over, the tips of his hair revealed themselves and a bullet was immediately sent his way.
The hair was completely blown off and he shot right back down on his ass comfortably behind his box. Fringerly gave off another cocky snicker before he started moving again.
Zunci then took the opportunity to try and shoot at him but the moment she started to raise her gun another bullet came flying through and hit the rifle. It broke on impact.
“Fuck!” She cursed as her hands vibrated from the shock of the hit, the rifle in two pieces resting in her palms. “What the hell do we do!?”
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“Makes me wonder how you even got through the front gate.” His voice became nearer.
She looked up at Shug who was still frozen in fear. They were pinned down with no way of peeking out without getting their face blasted. He’s just way too good of a shot to get a sneaky hit in.
If there’s any more time to get a move on it’s now Shug! You can do this!
She took a splinter of a crate off the ground next to her and threw it directly at his head and that got his attention.
“Shug, look at me and calm down.” She took her two fingers making a peace sign and pointed at her eyes. “Just start shooting randomly, I need to get close and you're my only distraction. Close combat is our only hope, get in the zone and once you start shooting I’ll start running.”
He nodded along. She gave him a thumbs up with a smile before getting on her knees ready to bolt from cover whenever she gets the chance. Unsheathing the knife from her holster.
You got this.
Shug was hyping himself up in his mind.
Don’t even need to hit, just need to get his attention on me and only me.
He moved to the edge of his box, not to just pop in the same spot he was immediately shot at. While moving he accidently stepped onto a broken wooden plank. An idea struck him when he spotted it.
Just to make sure he didn’t get his head blown off as soon as he peeked out from cover, he was going to use the board to test if it’ll be blasted. He grabbed it and put it forward, making it poke out from the side of the box.
It didn’t get shot at so he took it as a cue to peek over in an instant. In the brief seconds he saw Fringerly sprinting over the bridge that connects to the vantage point. As soon as he was in his sights he started firing off rounds.
The bullets made Fringerly roll into the nearest cover. The sounds of the gun fire signaled Zunci to dash across to the wall of the upper level, making her nearly invisible to him. There's a crate right next to her that could be used as leverage to get up.
Fringerly popped up and fired right back at Shug, who ducked down into his cover. He held the rifle tight into his chest with sweaty palms, his hands still shaking from earlier.
I got her there and now I need to make enough distraction for her to get up. There has to be something else up there to keep him busy. Or else he’ll spot her. Firing random bullets will only do so much.
He darted his eyes around to look for anything surrounding him. He tried leaning forward to see what was on the ground in front of him. Knowing that if he tried to survey the upper level that he would most likely be killed, he wasn’t going to get lucky twice.
He was able to successfully sneak a peek over on the upper level a crate stood dormant with a huge symbol that depicted a flame in a triangle that was labeled “Flammable.” It was at least close to where Fringerly was heading to. It was like God set up the perfect distraction.
With no other option in sight he pointed his rifle, aiming down the ironsight, and started firing into the crate. It took a couple of shots for it to start catching a couple of sparks before it erupted into flames as a huge amount of popping sounds boomed throughout the area. It was like the box was filled with firecrackers.
The crate crumbled apart and burnt to the ground as the contents of what was exploding inside spilled out everywhere. It looked to be like dynamite without the power of one as he saw it explode but pretty small for its size. It caught Fringerly off guard as he turned his attention to the chaos.
Some of them rolled near him which stopped him dead in his tracks and rolled backwards to some new cover. During all of that Zunci was climbing on top of the box and onto the upper level as soon as Shug started to shoot.
With no one to spot her she was actually able to sneak on right as Fringerly got into some new cover, still drawing his eyes to the explosions. Carefully she tiptoed to his position as he drew his rifle back at Shug.
He started raining bullets down at him as Zunci appeared on his right. Brandishing her knife she lunged forward and stabbed him directly into his shoulder blade, digging in deep.
He yelped out in pain and whipped the but of his gun around as fast as he could and almost struck her directly in the face. She ducked out of the way and tackled straight into him, making the rifle fall to the ground.
They landed and struggled around as they threw punches at each other, she struck his face and he retaliated by hitting her in the stomach. He was able to wiggle his leg up and kicked her off of him.
She plopped right next to the fallen rifle and picked it up with no hesitation. He jumped off the ground and reached out for the gun, right at the same time she grabbed it. Both of them struggled back and forth, tugging on it like a game of tug of war.
He spun her around to the edge as they continued their big skirmish. Shug was down below watching the entire thing but he couldn’t get a clear shot because Zunci was constantly in the way.
She looked down at Fringerly’s foot and stomped on it fiercely with all of her strength. It worked as the force and the pain combined made him lose his grip, the rifle slipping from his palms.
The final tug she gave made her fall backwards off the edge, clutching the rifle close to her chest as she descended into the floor. Right underneath her was a wooden hatch that presumably led to a basement or cellar. She slammed right into it, smashing the entrance completely as she fell through to the bottom. Her body disappearing into wherever she landed as the opening had a cloud of darkness as the light cut it off.
“Zunci!” Shug shouted out.
“God fucking dammit!” Fringerly cursed under his breath as he put a hand over his injured shoulder. He reached into his pocket satchel he had strapped to him and pulled out a bunch of tiny capsules and threw them all around the place.
One of them rolled right at Shug’s feet and it opened up, releasing a ton of smoke. The fumes reached his nostrils and it made him start convulsing into painful coughs as the whole area filled with the mysterious gas.
It was a smoke grenade and they were deployed all around him, clouding his vision and making all of his other senses incomprehensible as he kneeled down behind his cover.
He completely lost sight of Fringerly, now just desperately darting his eyes everywhere but it was completely useless. He was now stranded with nothing but his rifle, lost in clouds of smoke with no sense of direction.
He was basically standing prey for a sneak attack, it was only a matter of time before that would become reality.
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“Shit!” Yunga slammed her fist down as she recovered from the blast. “We need to regroup now!”
Jinlin slowly rose to his feet coughing like one of his lungs gave out. “Get to cover first!”
“Way ahead of you.” She ran by him and dragged him by his shirt across a courtyard looking area near the far left side of the fortress. Reaching the wall, they were both disoriented from the explosion but they were now behind some cover, a low hanging stone wall that they were crouching behind.
Their whole clothing was covered in dust and dirt, initially landing in a bunch of mud from the initial shockwave. Straying the farthest from the group and the remaining army. Stuck in the courtyard, opposing enemy soldiers came marching past into the battle. They didn’t even glance their way before firing off shots in the distance.
Keeping their head down before there were no more militants running by. Poking their head out from their cover, spotting the office from their viewpoint.
“Just gotta get there.” Jinlin pointed. “Those fucking soldiers I was talking about yesterday. I didn’t think they would be that prepared to handle us, considering it was a surprise attack. I was also hoping they wouldn’t even be here but I guess we can never have anything without it being extremely difficult with a million obstacles in the way.”
“Quit your rambling.” Yunga said. “The more you talk the less time we take action.”
“Right, let’s head out. We should be in the clear.” He took one more glance over.
Yunga led the charge straight into the castle and right as they got into the middle of the vibrant courtyard with its surprisingly breathtaking colors and flower garden, she spotted a man standing on top of the fortress walls.
It was Anften and he had what looked like skis on the bottom of his feet with sticks attached to them which he was holding onto. Behind his feet were little engines fastened on pretty neatly.
He pressed down onto what appeared to be a button and in an instant the engines behind his skis sprung to life and blasted off. He was gliding right towards them, at very high speeds as well.
“Move!” She bolted into action, tackling Jinlin to the ground as the guy swept down. He nearly hit them swooshing by and landing like a plane on the ground.
She jumped back to her feet, helping Jinlin back onto his in no time. “Go ahead.” She commanded. “I’ll hold him off, just get to the castle.”
“Already on it!” He shouted back as he already bolted.
Anften launched once again, trying to cut off Jinlin from exiting the battle. Yunga was quick to get in his way before he could get close, forcing him to draw back. She dashed forward at him and he had no choice but to stand his ground and fight.
She dashed in with a high kick towards his head which he blocked right on time. She then swung her body around using her other leg to kick him square in the stomach, throwing him back a little.
He caught his balance as he blasted off backwards right onto the wall. He jumped off the ground and placed his feet on it and started gliding along. The wall curved all the way to the castle entrance acting more like a dam than anything, exactly where Jinlin was heading to.
Yunga caught her breath and started dashing to fend him off. Anften was going inhumanely fast, quicker than she can move. Jinlin saw him coming and took out his rifle on his back and pointed it at him ready to fire.
Anften leapt off the wall and flew right at him. Jinlin quickly fired off a shot and he was able to dodge it, veering off to the left of him. Right before he was able to be in arm's reach, Yunga came zooming in and hit Jin out of the way.
She was now in the path of his attack, his arm naturally following through and grabbing her shirt. He threw her to the ground and she went bouncing off of before catching herself on the ground, using her hands to slow her momentum scratching up her palms and fingernails.
Anften kept swinging forward, forcing her to retreat constantly back as he made a relentless flurry of punches and kicks her way. He was combining his gadget which made his attacks even faster and more deadly.
They were going around in circles in an endless cycle of attacking and dodging. Jinlin recovered from the blow as he was blasted into the corner of the courtyard watching the fight happen, hidden and masked by the shadows. He looked to his left at the castle and more soldiers came marching out.
All of them seemed to be distracted by the ongoing battle, raising their rifles at them ready to fire. He crouched down and pulled out a glass bottle containing a dark red liquid.
It was a spherical glass ball with a cap at the top to pour stuff into it, it was a potion. He clutched in his hand tight and peeked slightly out of the cover of darkness, arching his arm backwards aiming at the crowd of militants.
He released the bottle and it went soaring through the air. It flew right into the back of a soldier's head. Breaking apart on impact and spreading the liquid inside everywhere.
It sprayed on all of the troops and started burning into their skin. It was like a corrosive substance that was melting into their bodies. All of them screamed in terror and misery. Some of it got into their eyes making the pain even more unbearable.
Most of them fell to the floor because they couldn’t deal with all of the insufferable burning. Jinlin started firing off shots into the fallen soldiers making their death guaranteed.
Yunga was still being put on the fence with every passing second he was getting closer and closer with his attacks. Being done with the constant barrage she suddenly jerked to the left.
The sudden shift made Anften stutter in his upcoming punch completely missing her. She wound up her own kick but he was just as quick to dodge back. He hastily swayed his way around her as soon as she attacked.
Being directly behind her he slammed right into her back. The blow flung her into the ground and dragged along the concrete floor. She skidded next to Jinlin who just finished offing all of the soldiers.
The hit almost knocked her out, she experienced the full force of his kick right into her spine. She tried to get up but the aching pain of her back prevented her body from getting off the ground.
“Are you ok?” Jinlin immediately checked up on her. “What happened?”
“He’s way too fast.” She muttered out through her shut mouth as she breathed through her teeth to deal with the pain.
“Just can’t keep up can you?” Anften started to flaunt. “Surprised you can even move like that without any equipment or anything but that doesn’t matter because I’ll always be one step ahead of you.” He then slapped himself in the face. “Man, I gotta stop being an annoying cunt with people and just get on with it.” He was mumbling to himself.
She tried to get up again but the pain was even more agonizing. She yelped out pretty loudly from her wound. Jinlin kneeled down with her as he held out yet another potion.
“Take this.” He unscrewed the cap and put it right up next to her mouth.
She chugged down the whole container without asking any further questions. In less than a second her pain just poofed out of existence and she garnered an enormous chunk of energy that jolted her joints and made her jump right on her feet.
“Still kicking?” Anften asked. “Shame, thought you were going to be a hell lot easier to deal with.”
“I don’t know what was in that shit but thank god you brought it.” She cracked her knuckles.
“Just be careful.” Jinlin warned. “It only makes your body ignore the pain but the injury is still there. Don’t think you're invulnerable.”
“I don’t need to be. I’m going to kick his ass."40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLv5pNUNJeI
