Ch 1.46: Defense

Everything was fuzzy. There was a pain in Elaina’s back, a stinging that wouldn’t go away, but gods did that not matter, because she was so fucking horny. She opened her eyes, finding herself in the forest clearing, right outside the cave she’d first met the System in. The bell was still ringing above her head, and it was a beautiful Summer’s day but wasn’t it raining? She looked down and found herself naked but wasn’t I wearing wet clothes earlier?

“Hey there.”

She turned, finding a blurry Tira standing there. Elaina went to cover herself before realizing that Tira was naked too, hands placed on her hips, the fuzziness in her mind’s eye only thing preventing Elaina from seeing everything. “Aren’t you shy?” Elaina asked, half-heartedly hiding her nakedness.

“We wouldn’t be shy around you,” another voice said from behind. Elaina turned again, seeing a hazy Carline standing there naked in all her splendor as well.

“Yeah, why would we be?” another voice said, the voice of an angel descended from the stars.

“Prisma?” Elaina said, turning back again. It was where Tira should have been standing, where Prisma’s voice had come from, but standing there was neither. It was still a woman, still naked, but she was crystal clear, with ghastly white skin and adorned with a smattering of red crystals across her body, blades sprouting from her elbows.

“Afraid not,” Myriala said. Blood dripped from her hands, where her nails had clawed at Elaina’s back but that was healed, right?

“I’m dreaming,” Elaina finally realized, holding her head. It still stung from where she’d been kicked.

“But you know I’m here, don’t you?” Myriala stepped forward, sharp crystal fingernail softly tracing Elaina’s sternum and sending a horrified shiver up her spine. “I’ll be here in this clearing, waiting for you when you wake up. Wake up. Wake up.”

“Wake up!” Carline’s voice said.

Elaina jerked upright, back on the castle grounds, back in the rain. She stood up, feeling the blood rush to her head as she checked her bag, finding the System still inside, glowing dimly. “Carline, I have to go!”

A strong hand grabbed her shoulder. “You’re not going anywhere, young lady.” Elaina looked back and saw a vaguely familiar face, a wrinkled, tall man with a thinning patch of unnaturally dark hair on his head, someone who was always eating at the faculty table. “First years go back inside, or help with support if your aspect allows it.

Elaina pulled away from his hand, turning back towards the forest. “No, I have to…” She slowed as her eyes adjusted to the darkness again, as the scene in front of her unfolded past the garden’s gate. The two creatures from before may very well still have been out there, somewhere, but the grounds were no longer an empty school field, rather a full battlefield.

Dozens of the white humanoids were about, each brandishing some sort of red weaponry attached to their body as they charged forward. The line standing behind the garden fence and holding them back was comprised of a few faculty, but mostly of students. Ranlit was there at the front of them in the center of the open gate, swinging some giant sword and keeping the beasts back as Calivahn and another male teacher backed her up, each wielding spears. A number of students held spears as well, though they stood behind the fence proper, stabbing at anything tying to climb the walls while the faculty kept the main entrance handled.

And that was only the beginning. Beyond the gate, out in the grass leading to the forest the true battle raged. Endrin’s platemail clad guards were out there, dozens of them engaging equal numbers of monsters in a chaos brawl, white limbs and pieces of armor alike flying through the air. But the armored guards were dropping, no reinforcements in sight, and plenty more of the Red Order were flooding in, overwhelming the guards, slipping past them, and eventually being cut down by Ranlit and her flank of spears, for now at least.

“Doctor Thims!” the voice came from above, though Elaina didn’t have enough time to look up before the source of it landed right in front of her, a girl in a bloodied uniform carrying another bloodied student, this one with his eyes closed, groaning in pain. The girl placed the student on the ground. Elaina recognized her, a member of the Watch, the one who’d almost caught her coming back from the cave that first night. “Slash wound, I think, to the side. I’m going back out.”

“Understood. How is the north entrance though? Have you found Strask yet?”

The girl looked to the side. “I, uhm... The north entrance is holding, nowhere near the number of monsters there. And I found Tira, but she ran into the forest, said there was a student stuck in there.”

“Of all the fucking—” The doctor punched the air. “Miss Forsythe, tend to this student, and you, Watchgirl, get back out there and tell Strask we need her in charge of the north wing!”

“Yes sir!” The guard launched into the air, flying off into the sky as Elaina watched in astonishment and Carline went to the other injured student.

“And you, first-year,” the doctor said pointing at Elaina, “will go inside, to the dining hall, with all the other noncombatants.”

“No, I can fight!”

He shook his head, rage on his face. “Inside, or I’ll—”

A long, guttural sound cried through the night, and the doctor looked back to the gate. It was coming, a starhound bounding through a trio of armored guards, sending pieces of armor flying before it crashed into the fence. The steel posts creaked and cracked under the force, collapsing back as students ran from it, one unfortunate one getting caught right under the starhound itself as it landed.

“Shit, fall back,” the doctor said, grabbing the fallen student from under Carline and running towards the school. “Get behind and then seal the front door, now!”

Elaina stood as a handful of other students ran past her, following the doctor. “Elaina, we need to go,” Carline said, grabbing her hand and pulling. Elaina let her hand get pulled, but she kept her feet planted, jerking Carline as she tried to run back. “Elaina!”

“They’re after me.” Elaina looked down at her bag again. “After the System, that’s why there’s more here than the north entrance.”

“She said she’s masking her presence!”

Elaina shrugged Carline’s hand off, walking forward. “She said she’s hiding the main core, not this subcore. That’s why that thing came in our window.” She broke into a run, charging at the starhound as it buried its claws into a prone student.

Ranlit beat her to it though, greatsword stabbing into the creature’s flank. It howled in pain, shirking the blow off and striking back at the professor with its fangs, Ranlit backstepping as she whirled the sword in front of her.

“Don’t let its mane touch you!” Elaina screamed as she bolted forward, conjuring a length of chain and wrapping it around the thing’s neck and pulling tight. She knew it wouldn’t be enough to kill the beast quickly, but it was all she could do, and it was enough to distract the beast at the least.

The starhound reeled back, clawing at its own throat, mane whipping at the chains around it. The steel was already melting from the corrosive smoke, but not before a blade fell between its eyes, cleaving its face in two.

“Weaver, good work!” Ranlit said, stepping over the beast and cutting down Red Order members as they tried to flow through the whole in the fence. “Can you fix this section of fence?”

Fix it? “I’ll try!”

“Good,” Ranlit said, halving one creature before delegging another. “Forsythe, grab the wounded and fall back.”

“There aren’t any.” Elaina turned to see Carline had followed her, was standing there, her horrified eyes leaking tears. “They’re all dead.”

“Gods damn it all,” Ranlit said before splitting one of the creatures with a loud roar. There were at least half a dozen students at her feet, crushed, torn, and corroded by the starhound. “All students fall back! Shut the entrance hall and barricade in the dining room! And Weaver, put the the fence up behind me before you leave.”

Behind her? Ranlit was in front of wall, still clearing the horde of enemies charging towards the opening, and she intended to stay there after it was fixed. Elaina balled her fist, anger coursing through her as she ran forward herself. “Got it!” She reached out for [Restraint]. That’s what a fence was, right, something to keep things out? Her aspect didn’t agree, and she couldn’t feel the fence itself, so she’d have to try something else. She made chains appear, individual links links wrapping around the fallen fence posts, pulling them upright again, straightening them out, bending them to interlock with the pieces of fence that were still standing, walling off the monsters, Ranlit, and herself.

Carline crashed into the undamaged part of the gate. “Elaina, what’re you doing?” she screamed.

“Get inside,” Elaina said, struggling to force the metal to her whims. “They need healing in there, not chains.”

“Weaver!” Ranlit said, looking next to her as she spun her blade through another body. “I said fall back!”

“I can’t!” Elaina said, finishing up the repair on the fence. It wouldn’t hold forever, would probably fall back instantly if the attackers tried to pull it instead of push, but it would have to do. Maybe they’re too stupid to realize. “There’s something I need to do; I’ll draw them away!”

“Weaver, get back inside, that’s an order! Weaver!”

Elaina was already running north though, along the fence. There were three creatures shambling towards her from that direction, but she caught them with one rope, pulled taught and acting as a tripwire. She jumped over them, leg getting cut by a small crystal knife jutting from one of the creature’s wrists as it tried to grab her ankle.

She tripped, rolling across the ground, but then pushed herself up again and stayed course, regaining her momentum as she sprinted north. Fuck, knew I should have used chains, should have tied them up one by one. No, she couldn’t have afforded the excess mana to tie up those three individually. She’d spent a whole quarter of her reserve fixing the fence, and there was only one chance she’d have of getting away. She looked behind, seeing at least twenty of the things chasing after her, the ones she’d tripped scrambling to their feet and joining the chase. Yeah, they’re after me all right.

Elaina faced forward as she sprinted, tapping into [Restraint], willing her idea to fruition. What she wanted to do counted as restraint this time, right? She felt the resistance of her own consciousness, the inner battle over the definition of the word. This is a restraint for real, gods damn it! Her aspect was resisting though, and an army of monsters was on her tail.