Chapter 5 - A Race of Sorts (Sneaking In)

[junkuroki]

Lily~

Jun blinked. Twice, three times, even.

Did he just do what I think he just did?

{Yes. He swallowed the gem.}

She stared disbelievingly at Reese.

"Why the hell did you do that?" She exclaimed, but was immediately interrupted by a loud cracking noise, followed by a deafening boom.

The door had been blown open from the outside, revealing a team of Estharian soldiers with their weapons poised.

And they looked like they were extremely well-armed.

The soldiers barged into the room, their machine-guns drawn and fired at the SeeDs.

She barely managed to dodge as one of them started firing at her, a bullet slightly grazing her arm.

Thanks goodness for the lab coat! She quickly shrugged it off, and at the same time, Tien Nu glowed with a brilliant whiteness.

She unsheathed her sword and swung it at her attacker in one smooth motion, cutting his head off expressionlessly.

"White Fairy Sword Dance." She said in an even tone, and weaved through the many Estharian soldiers that kept coming at them. She tapped her approaching attackers on certain parts of their bodies, freezing their bloodflow and rendering them motionless while her sword-wielding right hand disposed of them with a flurry of slashes, thrusts, hacks and stabs. Her body arched in different directions to avoid getting hit by their bullets. Heads rolled about on the floor as she decapitated them, along with other bodily parts, making the scene resemble that of a bloody massacre.

She finally made it to the door, but any hope she might have harboured for an easy escape was crushed, for yet more Estharian soldiers came rushing at them.

She felt like a salmon swimming upstream, against the flow of the river.

Sapphy, I need you to come out. Now.

{No. You and your teammates can handle them.}

Not for the first time, she cursed herself for taking on an insummonable GF.

"Someone, bring out your GF! There's too many of them to fight individually!" She yelled.

[junkuroki]

GC~

Gone was dancing, in a very morbid way. As soon as the door had opened his weapon had been in his hand, and an insane grin on his face. When they rushed him and the others, he swung his halberd in a lazy arc and casually loped the head off one of the men at the forefront of the rush. Then with a macabre grace he swung his halberd in controlled arcs, as he moved his feet to the rhythm of the battle. Severed limbs, heads, and a trail of guts and cooling blood was left in his wake.

"Someone, bring out your GF! There's too many of them to fight individually!" Jun shouted.

Gone glanced quickly at his comrades, who all appeared to be too engaged in their own battles to summon their Guardian Forces. Gone concentrated hard while countering any attacks that came his way.

Care to dance, Arianrhod?

Certainly.

His GF appeared in an incandescent light, she gracefully stepped out of the light and appeared as a beautiful timeless woman with dark red hair, green eyes and a smattering of freckles. “Silver Wheel.” She said in a lilting voice. A wind picked up in the room, growing stronger by the second until it was a full force gale wind, sapping the strength from the enemy, most of the time fatal, and those it did not kill, it slowed down. For his allies, she caste haste on them. After she finished her attack, she retreated back into Gone’s mind. At that moment a bullet ripped through Gone’s jacket. His looked in shock at the left sleeve, which now had a ten centimetre tear in it.

“THAT’S MY JACKET!” He roared. “VANISHING WIND!”

And a wind similar to the GF’s attack swept through the room.

[junkuroki]

Ani~

Suddenly, she felt her body lighten. Every move she made seemed so swift and quick. Arianrhod's haste spell doubled the number of her kills. Stardust bit her lip. She had shot down a handful of soldiers. But still, it didn’t seem like they could get pass through the dozens of Estharian soldiers that were blocking the doorway. Her GF was useless and the only thing that she could rely on was herself. There would be no way they were going to be caught.

“Holy!” cast Stardust, emitting a bright flash of light around the soldiers, temporarily blinding them. The impact of the spell made the soldiers kiss the ground thus giving them a fortuitous opportunity.

She took a deep breath. She could hear heavy footsteps outside getting louder. Still, there were more coming their way. “Now's our chance,” she said quickly then glanced at the door, then caught a sight of an air duct.

"Where do we go?"

[junkuroki]

Lily~

Jun breathed a huge sigh of relief when Stardust's Holy effectively finished off the first wave of attacks from the Estharian Soldiers.

But she knew that this situation would not remain, for the second wave would surely be onto them before long.

Cautiously, she peered out of the door and true to her suspicions, fresh numbers of Estharian soldiers appeared at both ends of the passageways on the right and left of the lab, their steps quick and heavy. The distance between them and the lab was rapidly diminishing.

"Where do we go?" She heard Stardust ask.

"Take the door! You guys... force a way out from the left! I'll try to hold those coming from the right!" Jun shouted back at them.

She hid near the door, allowing the soldiers to move halfway down the left passageway before jumping out and surprising them.

"Ultima!" Jun quickly cast the powerful spell. She pushed the dark ball that was positively crackling with energy currents down the corridor, blowing the oncoming attackers off with its destructive force.

Fairly satisfied with her attempt to clear the left side, she turned swiftly to check the situation on the right passageway. The soldiers were already three quarters down, shooting relentlessly and approaching fast.

Jun was silently thankful for the Haste that Arianrhod had cast upon them, or she would not have been able to dodge their bullets so accurately.

"Move! Move!!! Go down the left!!!" She yelled, slashing at the Estharian that had reached her first, just as another bullet grazed her left cheek this time, causing a thin trickle of blood to run down her face.

"YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT!" She blasted off another Ultima down the right passage, effectively stopping them from advancing, but only for a short while. For as soon as she stopped casting the spell, yet more soldiers swarmed down, their pace a little obstructed by the bodies littering the floor.

A sinking feeling filled her gut as she spotted them.

How many more of those are coming?
Hyne help us...

"Hurry, you guys!"

[junkuroki]

Auria~

As Gone's Vanishing Wind decimated the Estharians nearby, Reese took a step back and cast Regen on himself. Gone's attack was soon over and Jun was shouting to go down the corridor.

Reese ran through the exit and turned to go down the left corridor. The Estharian's pace quickened. He heard Jun cry for them to hurry behind him. His face hardened and he brought up Consequence, running straight for the group of Estharians.

Consequence clashed against the blade of an Estharian. He arched it to the right and lunged forward, the cold steel sliding through the uniform with ease. He immediately turned on his heel to block the attack of another Estharian. A Firaga spell hit his back and he stumbled a bit. He coughed and brought Consequence up to slice through the Estharian, before turning and clashing with another with a growl.

Another spell hit him from behind, this time it was Ultima. He stumbled forward. He turned to face the soldier, and a Slow spell hit him dead in the face. There are too many.

He willed his arm to move faster, but it would not obey. His limit break hit and broke the Slow spell. He carved into the nearest soldier with uncontrollable rage, then into the next, and the next. Parrying their every blow, he took down at least a dozen of them.

Still, that was only slightly more than half. His eyes wild, breath ragged, he turned for one final blow at the end of Damnation, and met with the a cold Estharian blade. He stumbled back against the wall and felt the metal slide from the right side of his gut.

Sh!t...

[junkuroki]

Ani~

In accordance to Jun, they took the left corridor but soon found themselves in a more difficult situation.

Stardust struggled to fight her way towards the mass of Estharian soldiers that was attacking them both with various magic and weapons. Her other teammate was as desperate as she was.

Stardust wheeled around to punch the soldier who was threatening to grab her then kicked him in the jaw to crash onto the soldier standing near him. She brought Ciceronian and started aiming. It was then that an ‘Aeraga’ spell hit her directly, completely detracting her from aiming, sending her to the ground.

“Damn,” she winced as she fell back. It felt like she was fighting a losing battle. She got up to her feet, pressing her hands against the wall to lift herself.

Before she could even blink and aim again, Reese’s back slammed onto the wall several inches away from her. He almost crashed into her.

“Reese!” she said aloud. She got in front of him. “Hey, you okay?" She lifted her hands to touch him when she noticed that he was stabbed. "Reese, you're blee--" Suddenly, a Firaga spell hit her on the back pushing her onto Reese; her face on his chest.

Stardust heard him wince. She quickly pulled back. It seemed like she whammed on his wound. /You made it worse../ She was about to turn around to face the culprit when she felt a tip of a gun on the back of her head.

"Don't resist! We got you surrounded," a cold voice coming from one of the soldiers rung on her ears.

[junkuroki]

Lily~

Jun turned a little to her left, and realised to her horror that it was already swarming with a new group of Estharian soldiers.

They're swarming all over the place like roaches! She stared in horrific silence, hanging her head as she realised she had gotten her teammates into trouble again. For it appeared heading down the left landed them in a worse situation than if they had stayed in the lab.

{Buckle up. This is no time for self-reproach. Wallowing in guilt is a luxury you cannot afford now.} Her GF chatised her.

It was strange, but he sounded like her dead Master at times.

Brushing her stray thoughts away, she concentrated on the battle on hand. She found it increasingly difficult to block their attacks, for a sudden fatigue had chained onto her limbs, rendering them heavy and painful to move. A haze gradually crowded her vision, a direct consequence of the rapid dwindling of her energy.

She bent sideways to avoid one particularly large swing of the enemy's blade, and saw Stardust stumbling onto Reese as a Firaga hit her back.

And he was bleeding - badly.

"Ree-" She called out, wanting to help him, but another thrust of the blade from her attacker reminded Jun that she was in dire states too.

We can't get caught.... we can't!!!! She thought frantically, slashing at her attacker.

She missed, and instead, exposed her arm for his attack. The soldier's blade slashed diagonally across the bicep, cutting deeply into the skin and tissue. Blood gushed down from the wound, painting a huge area of her skin a gross red.

Wincing in pain, she tried to counter attack, but stopped when a blade was held against her neck.

"Surrender your weapon now, or I'll slit your throat open." A toneless voice sounded into her ear.

From the corner of her eye, she looked down, and saw that the soldier that wounded her also held a blade, this time to her gut. As she moved her pupils around, she could spy a number of machine guns being trained from her.

She was trapped.

[junkuroki]

GC~

Gone had gone and done something stupid.

He'd gotten himself backed into a corner, not a good thing with a weapon like his, he needed space to wield it, it wasn't for tight quarters.

There were about five soldiers in front of him; the leader of the group was a hulking man, with hands like hams.

"Drop you're weapon." He ordered.

"Heck no!" Gone said defiantly.

The soldier slammed his fist into Gone's stomach. "Not my idea of fun." Gone wheezed and tried to swing his double-ended halberd.

It was a clumsy swing and his weapon was knocked out of his hand when the butt of a gun slammed his wrist. "Hey! That wasn't nice."

"And trying to kill us was." The soldier said, punching Gone again.

Gone realising he was cornered and going down, decided that the best course of action was to fight like a cornered cur.

It was all going well until, the butt of a rifle, hit his temple.

He knocked out for a few minutes and in that time he was cuffed and his weapon confiscated.

[junkuroki]

Auria~

"Bring them over here!" the soldier standing in front of Jun shouted in a commanding tone, still staring straight at Jun.

A soldier close to Gone cast Slow on him as another grabbed his shoulders, forcing him toward Jun. The spell weakened Gone, making his movements sluggish so he couldn't put up much of a fight. They slammed him against the wall and a foot connected with the back of his knee, bringing him to the ground.

The Estharian with his gun pointed at Stardust moved the barrel tip to her back and grabbed her roughly by the neck, forcing her toward where the soldiers had Jun cornered. Reese growled and straightened more, one hand bloody over his wound, the other gripping Consequence. He staggered forward away from the wall and lifted Consequence to strike, but his weakness made him slow and the soldiers near him snickered. The one in front of him cuffed him over the face and blood flew from his mouth. Consequence clattered to the floor. He coughed and fell to his knees, more blood splattering over the tile.

Two Estharians grabbed him at his arms and hoisted him to his feet. Half dragging Reese, they forced him to Stardust and Jun, dropping him to his knees at the women's feet. He spit a mouthful of blood, glaring up at the apparent Estharian leader with hate.

The soldier glanced at them. "What the fvck do you guys think you're doing?" he sneered.

[junkuroki]

Lily~

Jun shifted her eyes around and assessed the situation, which wasn't a good one by any counts. Her teammates had been dragged over to where she was. Gone was visibly on a Slow spell, for his actions were sluggish. Reese was the worse among them, the wound at his stomach apparently causing him more damage than she had first thought.

The man who held a blade to her gut was clearly the leader of this particular group of attackers, his voice ringing with authority. All this time, he stared at Jun in the eye. She stared back unflinchingly, despite the fact that this man would be able to order or cause her death if she so much as pissed him off with a blink.

Sapphy, don't you think now is the time to act?

{Can't handle them yourselves? Just a few puny Estharian soldiers... and you call yourselves the cream of SeeD}

You call that a few? There is enough of them here to defend the entire city of Esthar! Don't be stubborn and show your ass out here!

{An entire city of Esthar? This is a very big and advanced city you're talking about.}

Look, that is beside the point! We are now up to our necks in sh*t and you won't even come out! If now's not the time, then when is? When I'm dead? When we're ALL DEAD?? She ranted huffily against him.

{You ARE rather enlightened in certain areas, girl.} She knew he was smirking. She could envision it on his terribly loathsome face.

Be careful, I might just take you up on that offer. She threatened. Now come out now, or else

He gave out a long sigh. {As you wish.} He said in a nasty tone, suggesting he was treating her like a kid. But take heed I will not condone such wastes of my energy again.}

She made no other reply, but only closed her eyes briefly on the pretext of a very long blink, a signal that her GF would soon be leaving her mind, and stared back at the Estharian leader again.

He stared at her with a suspicious expression.

But before he could do anything, a huge mist fogged up the area.

A massive dragon with scales colored a brilliant sapphire rose from behind Jun, rearing his head backward as he gave off a majestic roar.

The Estharians stared at him, presumably held immobile by surprise by his appearance since Jun had not done anything to summon him.

"So how do I look, ladies?" He smirked. Jun rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"Get on with it, please?" She mouthed at him.

Catching her eye with displeasure, he immediately blasted off an energy beam at all the Estharian soldiers that packed the left and right passageways. One by one they dropped to the ground, their bodies giving off wisps of smoke from serious burns derived from the energy beam.

Jun nodded her head when she witnessed the Estharian leader drop down with the rest of them.
"Not bad. Not half bad at all."

"But of course." He said in a gruff voice, and vanished inside her once again.

"How are you guys?" She turned to the rest of them.

She did not see the moving hand of the Estharian Leader.

It grasped a stray blade and slashed at Jun's calf, before dropping down limply again.

"Sh*t!" She exclaimed, and fell on one knee.

She looked at them wryly.
"Stupid Estharian soldiers."

[junkuroki]

GC~

Gone was very not a very happy camper. Someone had cast slow on him. And then to add insult to injury had kicked him in the back of the knees. Nasty motherf*cker. This was so not his idea of fun, he thought impotently, as they tried to hurry him towards the others. HA! They had just cast Slow on him and they wanted him to walk fast! Well he’d show them. Gone walked slower than a snail, just to piss his captors off. Defiance!

Just as Gone was going to slur off a smart ass comment, a GF appeared. Gone blinked it was a dragon. He watched as it almost casually decimated the Estharian troops. While the few that had survived were distracted, Gone recited an incantation, wiggling his fingers in the proper pattern and cast Esuna on himself. He felt his movements return to their natural speed.

“Let’s make a break for it!” He shouted grabbing his weapon away from a corpse and swinging the double-ended halberd at another unfortuna te soldier. He grabbed the others weapons and tossed them towards their owners. “Hurry! And if someone’s got something that cures, now is not the time to be holding out on us.”

[junkuroki]

Ani~

Stardust's mouth hung slightly as a blue dragon came out from nothingness and obliterated the Estharian soldiers. She gazed at her teammates for a while. Most of them, especially Reese, were badly injured. She knew they had to make a run for it but a thought of healing them crossed her mind.

“Let’s make a break for it!” Gone shouted from behind her. “Hurry! And if someone’s got something that cures, now is not the time to be holding out on us.”

Stardust became silent for a while. The slight burn coming from that earlier Firaga bothered her a little. She wasn't about to summon Diwata just to attend to her teammates' shortcomings but somehow, she didn't like the sight of them hurt and bloody.

She looked at the taint of blood on the floor where Reese was. Maybe if she did let Diwata aid them, their escapade would be faster. Yes, that would be her reason. It wasn't because she cared about them or anything. Just to make everything faster, she should help them. They were her teammates afterall.

"Hold on, this'll be quick," she replied and tilted her hand to the air. Diwata...

/Now, that's more like it./

A sprinklet of bluish -purple light appeared in front of Stardust, concentrating like a mass light, growing bigger and bigger until it took the shape of a svelte creature with long flowing ebony hair. She smiled; her locks graced her face. Lifting her hands to her lips, she blew a kiss from the direction of Jun, past Reese up to Gone.

A gentle healing breeze hovered around each and everyone of them easing the pain that the Estharian soldiers caused, completely replenishing their strength to full and closing their wounds.

"There, everything is going to be all right now. " Diwata whispered, her soft smile unfading as she slowly disappeared from her place back into Stardust's mind.

The pinkhead sighed. She let her hands drop to her side and eyed the ground. "You're all all right now. We can go..."

[junkuroki]

Auria~

Reese exhaled slowly as the heavenly form of Stardust's GF appeared amidst the fallen soldiers. Her presence was calming, her smile radiating security and comfort. He watched as she blew a kiss, the air at her lips misting and rushing pass Jun and into him.

He inhaled slowly. His wound burned severely for a few seconds. He winced. At last the pain came to an end and the flesh at the cut began fusing together. The burning on the inside dwindled to a tingling warmth before fading altogether. He stood, his strength come back to him. He reached down, his fingers closing around the handle of Consequence that Gone had thrown to his side earlier.

He growled and swung it around, hacking into an Estharian's limp body. It was the one that had stabbed him. His face contorted with rage and frustration and he brought it down again, beheading the man.

Fvcking lay your hands on me!!

/REESE CALM DOWN!! THERE ARE MORE!! YOU HAVE TO RUN!!/

He hocked up a loogey, colored red from blood still in his mouth, and spit down on the man's body. He sheathed Consequence, still covered with Estharian blood, and stalked off toward Gone.

[junkuroki]

Ani~

Stardust brought her gaze up when she heard Reese thrust Consequence upon the body of the Estharian soldier and mercilessly beheaded it. There was nothing but great anger in his eyes as he spat blood on the soldier’s lifeless figure when he was through. He looked like he was going to attack anyone who went near him.

She didn’t look at Reese when he strode furiously past her to join Gone. Instead, her eyes were left fixed on the mass of bodies that was crisply fried by Jun’s GF. That was a close call. She must admit that if it weren’t for that dragon, they would probably be ending up in jail.

She swiveled her gaze for Jun to see how she was doing when a thunderous rush of footsteps echoed at the end of the wide hallway before her. It seemed like Jun was looking at that direction too. Stardust called her.

There’re more coming. Her grip on Ciceronian tightened. She shifted her weight on one side before turning around to follow Gone and Reese.

“They’re here,” she said, her slow gait quickening into a sprint. They had to run and find a place where they could get out of here. "We gotta get to the exit!"

[junkuroki]

Lily~

Jun let out a wheezy, shuddering breath as Diwata's healing breeze blew over her, healing her wounds with a gentle, ticklish feeling. She hadn't realised how much they'd hurt until they began to close.

She stood up and surveyed the situation. The Estharian soldiers that weren't roasted by Sapphy did not survive for long, suffocating on the smoke trapped in their lungs or getting stabbed by Gone's halberd. Her own eyes watered in the haze difting over the passages as she searched about for her sword.

Gone had found their weapons first, and threw Tien Nu towards her. Stroking it gently, she muttered a short foreign phrase before placing it back into the silver sheath.

Dui Bu Qi...

{Your sword is a part of you. If you really feel remorse for failing to protect her, then etch this in your memory and never let it happen again.}

She lowered her head, silently acknowledging her GF's stern words.

It was then that she heard someone hacking into something. She turned and saw Reese beheading an obviously dead Estharian soldier, his face a mask of fury.

Can't say I blame him. I for one feel an urge to make mincemeat out of each and every Estharian pig lying here.

Clomp Clomp Clomp Clomp

Her body stiffened when she heard an all too familiar noise heading towards them. The rush of more footsteps, hostile in their intent and getting closer by the second.

There's more of them coming!

She heard Stardust call her. She merely nodded at the latter's words, taking off after them in great urgency as the steps sounded nearer.

"Maybe we could look for a emergency exit? A place this big has to have them! And what about that door we saw outside?" She swivelled her head around, trying to look for an exit. "There's got to be a way out!"

If only we can somehow create a diversion...