In Medias Res

[Nothingness]

This isn't over yet!

Yeah, Raen was really wishing he had his sword right about now. He never learned how to use a spear, and it really showed. In only a couple minutes of fighting he'd gotten cuts along both his arms, legs, and one very close to his collarbone. All he had to show for his fight was that the soldier might have been slightly tired from swinging his sword so much.

Without warning, the soldier suddenly stopped his assault and turned towards where Elrick was. Raen's immediate thought was that Elrick had been killed, but, in fact it was Elrick who had done the killing. As the dead soldier hit the ground, the one he had been fighting took a few steps back, watching their former brother-in-arms carefully. "Yeah, that's right. Run away." Raen taunted, smirking. They may be strong, but a bullet to the head was still lethal.

Before he could take advantage of the enemy's shock, a massive wall of wind formed between Elrick, and he and Lillian, and Elrick was shouting at them to leave. "Goddammit, you idiot!" Raen shouted over the roar of the wind, letting his emotions take over for that moment. "You'd better not get yourself killed!" He hated himself, but it was the only way.

Raen took one last look at Elrick before turning around and running after Lillian. They lost.

[Lagunamov]

Goodnight.
Serenata Immortale

Relief overtook Elrick now that his friends got away. He knew perfectly well that it was only a temporary solution, but that was the best he could do for them at the moment. He smiled faintly as he heard their footsteps fade away, eventually leaving only the noise of the raging tornado behind him. Looking at the soldiers in front of him, and particularly at Hammond, he dropped his smile, a murderous intent clear in his newfound expression.

“How heroic of you Wieland! Too bad the results are just being postponed, not changed,” he mocked, half a dozen of the darkness clad soldiers rushing towards Elrick, weapons at hand. Trying his best, he deflected the blows of the first one with his sword, managing to hit him with his elbow in the gut before moving forward and sliding on the ground to avoid another attack, slashing at the enemy’s shins. Rolling to the side he avoided a downwards attack from a sword larger than most people, getting stuck on the ground for a second, thus giving Elrick enough time bring himself back to his feet and remove that soldier by grabbing his face with his hand and crashing his head backwards against the ground.

His vision was starting to get blurred as he continued, earning him a slash to the left side of his chest from a soldier almost as soon as he tried to stand up after dealing with the previous one. That caused him to bump backwards into another soldier, giving Elrick the opportunity to spin behind him quickly to avoid a second and more powerful attack, now directed at another enemy and cutting him right in half. Not that he remained behind him for long, for as soon as he had moved there he had started a sprint against Hammond, to end that once and for all.

Jumping into the air to avoid a piercing slash from a spearman right in front of the enemy commander, the former Orpheus Major plunged his sword into that man’s face, and as he removed it midair annihilated any chance of recognizing who that man previously was. Now, finally face to face with Hammon, Elrick launched a piercing attack of his own, putting what strength he had left and his weight behind it… only to get deflected once more. Expecting that, Elrick loosened his grip on the sword, letting him switch to a reverse grip as soon as it was blocked, and pulled himself upwards and above Hammond with his left arm by grabbing onto whatever it was that protected him.

Midair above him, Elrick slashed downwards and back, actually managing to hit the commander who had been caught unaware by the strategy, the sword going straight through his left shoulder. His roar of pain unsettled the remaining forcers as his attacker landed safely on the ground, tripping a couple of feet forward as he pulled the sword out. Elrick turned around, going for the kill… but before he could even make eye contact with Hammond again he saw a had larger than his head with claws upon his face, flinging him backwards and making him crash against the wall behind him.

Elrick yelled in pain, the broken building’s structure having probably cracked a rib or two, but his yelling was quickly silenced, for the creature that had come out of nowhere plunged itself towards him again, its blue clawed hand hitting his face again, this time the claws tearing through the flesh on the right side of his face and leaving some small shards of ice in the area. The shock of the impact against the wall once more almost knocked him out, leaving him barely conscious. Barely aware of his surroundings.

The creature stood back, floating in the air next to Hammond, who had regained his composure and was now simply standing while holding his shoulder. “He’s always been a tough little bastard. There’s a reason only he and the Commander survived the battle at the fissure. Must run in the family,” he mocked as the surviving soldiers returned to normal, three approaching Elrick to remove him from the wall, tying his arms behind his back with what appeared to be a special rope, and then locked his hands inside special handcuffs, made specifically to prevent him from using any special skills of his.

With the soldiers dragging him around by the arms, he tried to get a look at the creature that had ended up besting him. It was hard to see, between the blur of his vision from exhaustion and the blood covering his left eye. But, in one slight moment of clarity before he finally gave in, he managed to catch enough of a glimpse of it to recognize it immediately. The creature was tall and slim, with blue tinted skin and white markings on its chest. Its arms were skinny like toothpicks, but at the end had two large claws connected to it by thin threads, almost as if they had grown to the side of its arms. Finally, its head was large, almost as large as its chest, with a small face that looked like a mast, two prongs downwards on the side, and the majority of its head floating in the air behind it.

How Hammond had gathered control of a mythological beast from Eurydice folklore was a mystery.

Hymn