Insignious instantly stood as the prison collapsed in the distance. No...Oh my god. Everyone in the courtyard had frozen in alarm, watching the billowing plumes of dust appear above the houses. A girl nearby screamed in panic, shaking the catatonic leader awake. "Adan! Kreed! Ione! Get your units to the prison NOW!" He shouted, grabbing the nearby sheathed weapons that had been left on the tables and running in the direction of the chaos. The clan scrambled about in hysteria, some shouting in fear for the people who'd been incarcerated, others pulling each other to the safety of their homes.
Tadi jumped to her feet, "Oh my god!" She cried, pulling her mask up around her face. She was a soldier in Ione's troop. "Dom! Dom I have to go! You find a safe place, okay? Run away from here- whatever this is, it wouldn't be after you! I'm so sorry!" Taking his hand, the girl squeezed it in a heartfelt goodbye before turning and running after her unit and disappearing in the spreading dust cloud.
Meanwhile, Insignious had neared the front door of the prison- or, where it had once been. He dropped the weapons. Waving his hand and coughing, he could now only see a mammoth heap of rubble. "KAHU!" He screamed, jumping into the wreckage and throwing stones out of the way desperately. "ZINNIA!" As Adan and the other captains arrived behind him, he turned and called over his shoulder. "Help me get them out! Get everyone out!" Sig could hear some cries for aid nearby and he hurried over, "Oh my god! I'm here! I've got you!" He shouted, heaving a beam of wood off of a pile of bricks. A hand was reaching out, which he immediately clung onto. "Anoki! We're gonna get you out! Someone get over here and help me!"
Akihito gasped, opening his eyes to see darkness. His lungs were filled with dust. "Ah..! F-Fuck..!" He sputtered, coughing violently and shifting under the mound of stone on top of him. The rocks were heavy and cold. He could hear voices filled with panic in the distance. No, I didn't want to hurt anyone... Aki thought to himself sadly, resting his head back on the sharp rubble. He could feel his arms pinned. What an appalling mistake this was.
Viewing the clouds of dust rapidly rise, the moon was obscured from his line of sight in its entirety, including the two who remained there. Dominic's jaw practically hit the ground as complete chaos unfolded, warriors rushing past the couple to attend to the accident. Although he was a bit speechless as Tadi grabbed his hand and squeezed it goodbye, he kept to his senses and listened in on the crowd. From all around him were shouts of directions, mostly about what the building was, and who of their clanmates were inside.
The prison, of all areas. That's what Insignious had said from the start.
Snaking his way over to the toppled building amidst the second wave of warriors, he couldn't help but silently laugh under his mask-- ominously yet silently laughing at the rising flames.
Hoo-boy, Cain, you crazy son of a bitch.
Off where Dominic couldn't possibly see, Zinnia shakily stood from the rubble, coughing up her lungs in the process. She was covered in dust and dirt, but mostly looked unscathed other than covered cuts and bruises.
"Over... here."
She wiped and scratched at her eyes, trying to clear the debris from her face. Her efforts only made the burn worse, however, causing her to squint her eyes as she scanned through the unrecognizable scene around her.
"Jeremiah... Jeremiah! Kahu!"
Guessing at the direction she last saw the two, she pulled her feet from the mess and stumbled over through the wreckage, dragging herself as she did so. She searched for anything that moved-- anything with color that could hint at life under the surface. Listening for moans and groans, her eye caught on something moving under a wooden beam caught by a heavy pieces of stone and rock.
The flames started as mere embers, trailing the rubble which Cain -walked- crawled within. He moved where he overheard Kahu instructing him to go, down where the hallway would've been, and to the left of that. It was a mere guess, a hope that he would find his friend of old, but as heat instantly burned away stone and wood to create himself a small passage, it ignited larger fires. He grew impatient, every minute counting with the injuries the poor demon already sustained. Thankfully, he found a body pinned in the ruins he shifted through-- brought together by fate, he assumed.
Exhaling smoke, his hair ignited into tangible flames which lit their surroundings; dulled by the dust particles circling the two. Summoning more fire, he commanded the flames to engulf the stone atop Akihito, yet to leave him without burns. The heat was warm rather than scorching, comforting against the cold which was. Should Aki have looked at his old friend, he'd have been smiling, looking no more than slightly dirtied by the dust he moved within.
"My friend! Let me help you up. We must get out of here, quickly, before you are found."
[attr="class","skulloverlap"]Nunca llueve a gusto de todos.
[attr="class","skullbody"]Flames signified something, or were something of a signal-- Sergio couldn't recall the exact order of the phrase. If Cain had found him, there'd be smoke and where there was smoke, there was... Also something. Whatever, it doesn't matter; sayings are weird anyhow. Scratching his chin and scowling at the burgeoning, burning mess on the ground, Sergio pointed a finger at the rubble and, after looking over his blind spot for his own peace of mind, applied some anti-gravity to a good portion of the collapse. Less interested in clearing a path for Cain and their shared person of interest (though this was ultimately achieved as well), he hoped to lift some good ammunition to cast down towards any other Tempestclan aerial attackers-- or grounded attackers too, for that matter. Flying a large brick fragment up to himself, Sergio balanced it on his foot and bounced the near-weightless bit of rubble upon it. [break][break] His eyes narrowed at the sight of little warrior groups scrambling to get to the prison. Releasing his hold over some of the floated stones made for a quick and easy, drop-in barricade. Hopefully, Sergio thought, that'd keep them occupied for a little while. Perhaps he'd make a maze out of it for them. Satisfied with obstructing their path in this manner, he turned to look back at Dominic. "Like, does he really have to just stand there? C'mon, go and do something, what are you even doing there," he exhaled sharply, lifting his subordinate up briefly with anti-gravity to place him closer to Cain. Sergio crossed his arms once more and floated a little higher up, in the interest of guarding against the return of whomever that was before.
[break]
[attr="class","skullinfo"]PEOPLE ON THE GROUND BELOW
[attr="class","sheng4"]Catastor sliced through the last of the artificial anti-gravity and fell to her knees to catch a breath. A little faster on the downswing and he'd have been dropped back to earth, she huffed to herself. Dusting herself off, she got back up and stared skyward. In fighting with different pulls of gravity, Catastor had inadvertently been tunneled several hundred feet into the ground. Looking at the arduous climb back to the surface, she thought about sending an advance warning to Kazumi before focusing on returning to the fight.[break][break]
Catastor held her sword close and spoke into it, "They have someone in the air too, don't let him see any of you." Then, with a slash through distance, she sent her message to Kazumi. In the interest of succinctness, no advice on how to strike out at or otherwise counterattack the floating individual were included-- for the time being, avoiding his sight seemed to be sufficient for avoiding combatting him-- and, given the prison situation, wasting time in an uphill battle was unproductive to the current situation. Catastor sheathed her weapon and started looking for footing amongst the bored-out bedrock.
Tadi hurried to Zinnia's side, along with a few others who joined in. Carefully, Insignious hoisted Anoki out of the rubble and ushered him into the nearby arms of a healer. "Kahu! Jerem-..." His words caught as he noticed a body pinned under crushed iron bars. "Jeremiah!" He cried, crawling over heaps of crumbled stone towards the soldier. Jeremiah was motionless under the mangled cell door, blood making him nearly unrecognizable. As Insignious peered closer, he saw the man was impaled through his abdomen by a few twisted metal rods. "Medic!" Sig shouted, knowing better than to start moving anything around the body. "I need a medic here now!"
Behind him, now urgently assisting with the search for clan mates was Etoah who had returned at the sound of the collapse. "Did he do this..?!" The deputy shouted, flipping a large piece of debris.
"Just find everyone." Insignious ordered over his shoulder.
Akihito gasped in alarm as the flames covered him, his brows pressing together in confusion when he didn't burn. Looking over, his face lit up with a relieved smile at the sight of of his friend. "Cain-!" Speaking too enthusiastically led him to another coughing fit, but his smile didn't waver. Slowly, the mortar sealing the bricks atop him began to melt and split and the man managed to draw his arms out from underneath. Sliding over onto his knees, he said, "Get us out of here, Libarto." with somewhat of a playful tone.
As Dominic rushed towards the chaos, he felt his weight lessen as he was lifted off the ground and moved. This was no surprise to him, however, knowing exactly who the culprit would be. Someone impatient; someone he forgot to make dinner for an hour or so prior. What he didn't expect, of all things, was to be launched in the direction of the action, Sergio dropping him off precisely over the criminal duo. He stood over rubble and gazed upwards, trying yet failing at immediately identifying the other intruder.
"Ack--"
As a flame nipped at him, he stumbled back, hunkering down to begin moving rubbish off the two. Yet, he'd hardly gotten anywhere when he witnessed a light rise from the debris, to which he immediately scrambled back from.
In a swift fury upwards rose a fireball, spreading the wreckage elsewhere as Cain jumped out from it, accompanied by Akihito.
Moments prior, Cain had nodded his head and grinned at his former leader's order, quick to respond.
"Yes, sir!"
He grabbed hold of the demon with one arm and raised the other. Conjuring a fireball, the ember grew massive as it rocketed upwards, creating a straight tunnel for the two to climb out of. When the duo finally made it to the top, Cain was quick to take note of his ally, his expression brightening as he caught his breath. As a wall of fire surrounded the three, the flamesman proudly beamed.
Upon spotting Jeremiah from Insignious' shouts, Zinnia immediately went into a coughing fit, thinking the worst. She was hardly a healer-- only understanding the most basic of treatments. Even if she wanted to assist them, she hadn't the equipment, as it lied somewhere beneath the rubbish. Just like her equipment, she couldn't get them out in time.
Thankfully, medics came running to the poor warrior's side, quick to promptly assess the situation and treat him. If he'd been found minutes later, who knew. Every second counted.
From behind her, and beyond most of the teams came a sudden and violent explosion. It tossed debris at and around them, Zinnia having to duck for cover. A wall of fire completely severed a quarter of the area off and away, the inferno swiftly rising. It seemed to spread and grow throughout the wreckage, making the situation even more dire than it'd already been.
"Oh, Ambrus."
A plead, maybe a curse, too. She attempted to quicken her pace, but only after another step onto stone did she notice the gash on her thigh, spilling blood. The adrenaline hid it; she felt fine to try and aid others. She was supposed to be responsible for them, after all. She was the acting warden while Kahu walked away.
Shoving stone out of the way, she searched for more signs of life-- grouped in with one of the other units assisting in the search. Still yet, the real warden wouldn't stir from the rubble.
In the warrior's drunken state, the collapse of the building brought a bout of confusion rather than real concern. Her eyes already burned, but the clamor of her clanmates brought an additional ring to her ears. In her tired and drunken state, she needed to sober up quickly to be of any help, yet failed to do so. Even after the dance, she'd continue to down cup after cup. The furthest she'd moved towards the disaster was around some side alley, what she wrongly felt was a shortcut.
As the fireball rose, she felt the message wave Catastor sent for her: "They have someone in the air too, don't let him see any of you." Not comprehending the frontliner's words, the warrior gazed upwards, squinting into the sky and she searched to and from. The fireball had illuminated him-- someone up in the air, flying without the use of wings. It was an odd sight, but she seemed to remember a few with such abilities. Although, it wasn't the time to figure out those identities.
Before the flames had the chance to disperse themselves, Kazumi snagged upon his shadow casted onto a nearby building and rose it. She breathed a simple, yet lethal command unto it: Fight. A lesser copy of the stranger who resided there, nonetheless, the new tangible being did as it was told, leaping into the air. Kazumi then swept her line of sight around the clan, looking to back up the warrior who'd called upon her in the first place.
[attr="class","skulloverlap"]Nunca llueve a gusto de todos.
[attr="class","skullbody"]The resultant wall of fire received a bored smirk from Sergio. Sign enough. Noting their distance from the rubble, he lined up some rubble near his feet for him to kick down towards the scrambling Tempestclan warriors. Nothing heavy or too fast, just wide clearing shots to make big splashes in empty earth and dissuade the clan members from giving further chase to the escapees. A shoot and see what sticks kinda thing, he sighed to himself as he lined up several consecutive kicks. The floated debris careened towards the surface like furious meteorites with all of them landing exactly where he'd aimed, in unoccupied space around the collapsed prison. The craters and tremors each impact created seemed sufficient to shake the resolve of a couple would-be pursuers; none of his stuff would inflict major injuries or anything like that-- Kirai and Cain seemed to be more in charge of that kinda thing anyhow. Sergio was content to crowd control harmlessly, more or less, from above. Defense was the best offense, or something like that, anyhow. His peaceful position in the night sky seemed untouchable, until something very familiar approached him rapidly. [break][break] "Now who the fuck is this good-looking bastard? Got to be the best likeness I've seen yet, I would give my kisses to the chef. Or compliments, whatever." Sergio studied his shadow self as it drew closer. "Ah, ah, ah. See, points for using whatever-the-fuck to make this, it's very flattering. But I think you got the expressions all wrong, why do I look so grim? Did my houseplants die?" he joked, weaving to the side of the shadow's path. Sergio dive-kicked through his shadow's legs to reach a piece of debris. "The punches and the grapples, they're okay but you don't know the first thing about me if you think I reach them for first, okay." With a single fluid motion, Sergio fired his foot towards the captive chunk of stone and sent it hurtling through the shadow; it continued downwards, racing towards a lone woman suspiciously near to a moonlit structure. "If she makes it out of that, she-- your chef or creator, probably-- can have my, sorry, our kisses and compliments, huh?" Sergio asked his shaky shadow assailant with a little laugh. The gravity attached to the projectile would probably, from this height, flatten the building; it was up to the Tempestclan woman if she would be flattened along with it. Sergio ran a hand through his hair and continued dodging circles around his slowed shadow.
[break]
[attr="class","skullinfo"]PEOPLE ON THE GROUND BELOW
[attr="class","sheng4"]Sweat dribbled off of Catastor's forehead; diving, deep breaths escaped her parched lips. Säure stood back up carefully, removing her hands from her knees with hesitation. Cutting through time with her sword to make her way back to the clan territory in a hellish hurry drained about all of her, and then some. Her bones ached, newly-formed hairline fractures screamed to be acknowledged; and her wrists felt like they might lean the wrong way in the wind and snap off at any moment. In the few seconds she'd taken to stop and catch her breath at the edge of the village, Säure had felt each ligament in her legs chastise her with sounds that hinted at snapping and tearing-- fortunately, as far as she could tell, none had done so. Yet.[break][break]
She wiped a thin line of blood from her nose and began sprinting towards the prison, intent on slicing through the oxygen that presumably fueled the blaze. A desire to cut down whomever had caused this in the first place drove her forward but the sight of her clanmates, bloodied and bruised or worse, stopped her from leaping over the rubble towards the tall, imposing walls of fire beyond. "Okay, stick with me," said Säure to herself, half-unconscious but careful to be within earshot of Insignious and Zinnia. Raising her sword over her head, the warrior swung her weapon through much of the rubble, rendering it weightless. At the front of her mind, however, was the fear that she and her sword had arrived too late-- that trying to take down whomever was in the sky had cost her and her trapped clanmates precious time. "Kahu. Let's get Kahu," she uttered between ragged inhales. A piece of debris shot at them from above landed near Catastor, doing little to her or those around her. Her head ran towards many problems to be tackled all at once, but she steeled herself. Grabbing onto resolve as if she were dangling off a cliff edge, Säure spun around, letting her hair knock away a good portion of rock and stone from the collapse. Catastor fell to her knees again; the warrior's synapses and neurons remained overworked, still thinking of how to get at the mysterious attacker in the sky. Kazumi had tried something but until they knew what it was that he was doing, Catastor had little to try and cut-- if she could muster enough energy to get back up and leap skyward once more in this fight, that was. "He'll begin to accurately hit us if we give chase to Kirai; foolish or not, he misses on purpose right now," a tired Catastor murmured aloud, angling an arm slightly upwards to point her weapon towards the man floating in front of the moon. She hoped Kazumi would disengage and seek safety; Säure knew she only needed a minute or so to rest before she could begin slashing messages or strategies to her comrades; what she didn't know was whether they'd have a minute. Fickle fighter that the floating man seemed to be, would he just retreat once his allies escaped successfully? The question wrote itself in her defiant gaze upwards, to be read by any of her clanmates who might try and render first aid to her now.
As Jeremiah was tended to by medics, Insignious turned to see Catastor. He ducked down as a piece of stone came plummeting dangerously close, listening to her as she explained what she knew of the man in the sky. A few warriors began to unsling their bows from their shoulders, notching arrows. "No!" The leader shouted, raising his hands urgently. "Don't shoot! We're not fighting them!"
"What?!" Etoah yelled, dropping the wooden beam he'd been moving in order to stand and glare at Sig. "After all this you still insist-"
"WE CAN'T FIGHT THEM ETOAH!" Insignious screamed at him over the chaos- much louder than he meant to. At that, his deputy flinched back from him. Swallowing and gaining his composure, Sig leaned closer to the man. "We can't fucking fight this, Etoah." He said again, quietly. "We can't endanger everyone because you and I are angry. That's not the solution. A lion doesn't fight a dragon without a plan." Etoah opened his mouth to protest before stopping himself and looking away furiously towards the fireball that had exploded on the other side of the prison.
"-Let them go." Insignious said loudly, turning to all the warriors anxiously awaiting orders. "We must let them go." Some of the soldiers cursed, some spit towards their leader in fury and disbelief. Others threw their weapons and some just looked down in a sorrowful defeat. Sig nodded at them, accepting their rage towards him. "Help the healers. Help them get everyone to the Clinic House. I'll explain what I can once we find everyone."
* * * *
Akihito gave a tired smile as they emerged from the rubble, narrowing his blackened eyes to get a look at Dominic. "Dom..!" He said softly, laughing. As stones rained down nearby, he looked up. "And Sergio..? You're all still...I don't believe it." Standing on his own, he looked over his shoulder at the billowing fire and dust cloud behind them. "You need to get out of here, all of you."
Dominic added the name to Akihito's verbal list of familiar faces, although the man wasn't present. He tugged upon the makeshift mask, fixing it in place.
"Bek et camp, prebubly."
"And you're to come with! Include yourself in that sentence, my friend. We must flee."
Sparks ignited in Cain's hands, two flickers sent as signals to the warrior above them. A signal of victory, another for their retreat. Under the assumption that Sergio recalled their translations, however.
"Dominic, keep clear the path ahead. Sergio will cover behind us."
With an amused gaze in his eyes, warrior gave the self-proclaimed deputy a nod, darting off ahead of the two to get a head-start. He'd questioned the speaking impediment, but held off on the thought momentarily.
Just then, Cain thought he could hear the yells of the leader, Insignious, but brushed off the assumption. The flames hadn't wavered-- not even slightly. Turning his full attention to Akihito, he looked him over in short assessment.
"There is no shame if you need me to carry you out. Your orders, after all."
He searched for permission, but wasn't afraid to go against it for his sake.
After taking a couple short steps over in the direction of the explosion, she gazed up at the makeshift shadow and its original. To confirm where he was and to confirm the shadow continued her biddings-- she was thankful she looked up in time, avoiding the projectile with moderate difficulty. She summoned a nearby shadow and latched onto it, whisking herself away at a speed greater than she could accomplish by running.
Cursing the assailant, she raised a new and formless shadow into a thick sludge, surfing her over to the collapsed prison before it sunk back into the ground, shrinking as it neared the source of flames.
Drunkenly analyzing the chaotic scene around her, she noted the medical crew before making out Catastor among the crowd. Struggling to keep hold of her tunnel vision on the warrior, she tripped on stone and crashed face-first onto debris. The pain wasn't severe, but it hindered her momentarily. Lurching upwards, she blew hair out of her eyes before pulling herself to her feet and dragging herself forward. Skeptically joining in on the search and rescue, she only questioned the lack of offensive decisions when she neared Catastor, leaning over to her with shifty eyes.
"I don't... We're not shooting arrows at 'em? How many... who are we missing?"
Meanwhile, up in the air, the shadow being launched fist after fist, punch after kick. However, as the link between shadow and caster grew weaker, so did its form, until it fell to the ground and disappeared. More of a being to stall than that of a talented and skilled fighter, certainly.
[attr="class","sheng4"]Säure's breathing returned to an acceptable level, fluctuating less and less as the seconds passed. Slash space to reach him in an instant and then strike him down from there; attempt to cut the air around him and force him to descend for fear of suffocation; slice time and try to come up with a strategy that works before my body gives out further-- all of these options and more revolved in her mind as if standing still meant an instant loss, not just for herself but for her whole clan. Sensation flowed fully through her arms again and she estimated one or two good swings rested within her before she'd need a break... or she herself would break. Quietly, Catastor wondered if any of her comrades would know or think to stop her; certainly, there was enough going on that not every individual could be seen to or advised properly now. All that mattered was defending her fellow clanmates in this instant.[break][break]
The warrior's hand tightened around the handle of her weapon; her path was decided. Kazumi's sudden presence caught Catastor's attention and, as their eyes met, much of the action seemed to freeze. "I'm up. Insignious said to not fight them but I get what to do. I'm up to take him down," she uttered, averting her eyes slightly from her friend's. Catastor rose to her full height, only to convulse for a half second. Blood, narrow and little like a fine ribbon strand, slipped down and out of the corner of her mouth. Cutting through time to travel a handful of miles from where she'd landed back to the clan territory in an instant had damaged her more than she'd realized. Säure grit her teeth and took up her sword stance; her eyes looked skyward... only to find no sign of anyone, floating or otherwise, illuminated against the moon. The mysterious attacker was no longer in the area. In the time Kazumi had spoken to Catastor, the sound of debris strikes from above had ceased too-- Catastor's violent heartbeats, easing up only seconds ago, had kept her from easily registering the absence of the sound. Hoping to do one more thing while she still could, Catastor turned to eye the fire situation, sword in hand. A shaky slash towards the burgeoning inferno kept it from spreading any further into the rest of the village; the fire would have to burn itself out, but at least it'd do so without harming anyone or anything new. Säure fell back to the ground, complying with her clan leader's wishes for them to not fight... out of both necessity and by default. With the assailants more or less gone, the long-haired warrior mustered strength to roll over and look up at Kazumi once more. "Could you help me to the Clinic House? I might have, I might have strained a muscle," Catastor said dryly with a weak smile-- understatement and subtlety were her best forms of humor. In the back of her mind, she hoped Insignious wouldn't chastise her too much for very clearly attempting to make one last attack towards the very same now-vanished individual she'd advised against fighting for the time being. Trying to get one last shot in for the benefit of her clan was a decently-sized part of her programming, even if hazardous to her own health; her comrades had known this for some time now.
