Aspel Cassul: When in doubt, Aspel! (weaponry) wrote in emillion, |
Pandaemonium attacked, and there was no strength to resist, no durability in her body to withstand the force of the Flattening blow it inflicted on them both. Her body slammed down hard, armor clattering, and she screamed in pain, but couldn’t recognize her own voice as waves seemed to crash in her ears. She could hear Drake, not far from her now. Aspel struggled to open her eyes again, and haze clouded them, a greyness around the edges from her imminent death, and she reached back, managing barely to weakly hook her gloved fingers into his. “Good night, love.” And then the world was black. Ari’s mind was too muddled to follow immediately -- to realize, at first, that she had to follow -- that Aspel’s request and Drake’s smile had been meant as a sort of good-bye. That they had intended, surely, for her to run the other way. Instead, she stumbled over the broken, pitted cobblestones as fast as her injured, exhausted legs could carry her. “Don’t --” It wasn’t fast enough to reach them, not enough to do anything -- but she had to do something anything, this couldn’t be happening -- only enough to see the tortoise spin, launch itself into the air, and drop like a stone. Only enough to see both of them fall, to feel the earth shake, to realize, with a sudden burst of nauseating, overwhelming horror, that they weren’t standing up. She couldn’t sing, her throat was too parched, her lungs seemingly unable to draw air, her entire body aching -- but it turned out she could still scream, piercing and shrill and so loud that it was likely audible from blocks away. Mag did not hear. She did not even hear the sound of her own voice, raw with pain and rage as she charged the monster, uncaring what would happen to her. Uncaring that her attacks would only glint off the thing’s armor, registering nothing but the emptiness inside and the sight of Aspel falling to the ground, over and over in her head, an elegant crumple like the folding of giant black wings. She Jumped, fell down on the monster with the desperation of one who has nothing left to lose. When her attack did nothing, she Jumped again. “I don’t want to live for you!” she screamed. The monster tossed her aside with a blow like an afterthought, and she stood up and rushed it again. “I want you to live for you!” With every blow she felt her body start to give way, felt the inevitable countdown ticking down further, and ignored it. If it was a countdown to an explosion, then she would take this monster down with her and make it pay for taking away what could never be replaced. Her blood flowed from a cut on her forehead and got into her eyes, mixing with the tears, and when the cut did not stop bleeding right away, she realized the music was no longer playing. She screamed Ari’s name like the word would solve everything, and Jumped again. “Heal her!” When there came no reply, she yelled again, “I don’t care what you have to do, but bring her back! You’re a healer, so heal her!” |