Chapter 20 – Impossible
She didn’t catch up to them until they had stopped running entirely.
And she noticed that they were no longer alone. They had found what was left of Allay’s elite warriors. Catherine, Kace, Talia, Zhou, Daisy, Achan and the two remaining young Sages were all standing side by side on a rooftop, looking down at something below.
As Remi approached, she noticed that all but Kace were wearing their Sage robes. All of different colors, their robes blew in the wind like a beacon of hope. She also noticed that none of them were clean. Dirt flew out of their hair. Mud caked the back of their clothes. She could only guess as to what their faces looked like.
Regardless, the facts were there.
All had engaged the enemy at some point but her.
“Shut up,” she whispered, walking forward. She stepped next to Kace and stood there with them all, as if she had been there all along. He smiled at her and then nodded towards what they were all glancing at below.
She looked down and tried not to panic.
There were three of them below. The monster from earlier, a skinny man with beady eyes and clothes that were three sizes too big, and a toned warrior, outfitted with thin armor around his limbs, chest and thighs. Just from looking at him, he appeared fast.
“Are we ready for this?” Catherine asked with her voice full of determination. Remi noticed the morale rising from the others as they steeled their faces and cast fear aside. “Good. Let’s go.”
Catherine leapt down first and headed straight for the armored man. He took out a sword from his sheath and clashed with her, sword against eidolon. They parried and exchanged blows as the monster began barreling toward the young Sage who had dropped second. The thin man stayed in the background as much as possible. He used the monster’s weight and size to protect him.
Remi glanced to her right and noticed that she was the only one still on the roof. They had all leapt down but her, and she didn’t want to feel left out. She unsheathed her eidolon and pointed it towards the thin man. If everyone else was preoccupied with the others, she might as well focus on him.
Her eidolon hummed and she frowned at the information she was receiving.
There was something weird going on with the air.
No, not the air. But there was something strange…what was it? She waved her eidolon around in a small circular motion, reading the battle before her. It was the Sages. They were…they were getting weaker…but it was on a small scale. Were they just tired? Were they…NO! It wasn’t that at all!
Her eidolon stopped on the thin man, who had his hands raised towards the battle before him.
He was sapping their strength!
Remi watched in horror as he picked up the intensity, especially increasing it whenever someone got hit. The Sages wouldn’t think that anything weird was going on. They would just think that the blow they received was harder than they expected, or that their enemy was stronger than they thought, when that wasn’t necessarily true.
“HE’S TAKING YOUR ENERGY!” she shouted, but no one listened. They were all in danger, and their senses were devoted solely to an all-out defensive or survival. Remi leapt down from the roof and hit the ground hard, nearly falling face first. Luckily, she only landed on one knee, and she immediately propelled herself forward.
She heard a cry coming from her right and watched as Zhou was punched in the chest so hard that his body immediately went limp. His Sage robes vanished around him the moment he hit the dirt. The dead body of another young Sage was already lying next to him.
She turned to the left and watched as the last young Sage was cut across his abdomen by the armored man. Catherine roared in anger and redoubled her efforts, attempting to fight the armored man once more, but she only received a cut down her right shoulder for her efforts. Talia defended her while she nursed her wound.
I have to get the thin man, she thought to herself as she began running towards him. The thin man shouted out to the monster in another language, and the monster turned on her. She prepared to face him with all she that had, gripping her eidolon tight, when someone tackled her from behind. The monster barreled past her as she looked to her protector.
It was Kace. He was breathing so hard that he started coughing. She helped him to his feet as the monster began hitting Achan. Achan tried to cut through the monster’s limbs but his blade couldn’t break the skin. The monster pounded on his body long after he crumpled to the ground.
“STOP!” Catherine screamed. The monster ceased his ruthless attack and turned towards them all. Catherine’s tears flowed freely as she turned to look at her comrades.
“Retreat,” she whispered, and they all obeyed. They leapt to the roof from which they had once stood united, and immediately they noticed that not everyone had come back alive.
Zhou.
And all three of the young Sages were dead.
Achan was not far behind.
“I didn’t even get to say good-bye!” Catherine roared as she slammed a fist into the rooftop. Talia was the only one that watched their opponents leave together. As they left, they began tearing down every house they came across, killing or seriously wounding whoever was inside. When people started running out of their homes, they would give chase, and quickly ensure that they could run no more.
“Those people need us,” Daisy said. “Everyone they kill will be gone forever, just like the ones we…” Her voice trailed off as they all thought of their fallen comrades.
“They had just gotten back,” Catherine mumbled. “And now they’re gone. And for what?”
“We have to do something,” Talia replied.
“Yeah,” Catherine said. “But if we don’t come up with a plan, the results will be the same.”
“I wish Marie was here.”
“We couldn’t risk her being targeted,” Catherine sighed. “What do you think we should do?”
“We were separated,” Kace suggested. “So that means we should compare notes. Does anyone have any knowledge on those three that could help?”
“The armored man,” Talia said. “He’s the one that got the drop on me and one of the young ones earlier. He can copy techniques. Maybe not eidolons or special abilities, but the way you fight. He adapts to you the longer you combat him. I think he has the armor on him so he has extra protection until he learns how you operate.”
“The thin man,” Remi said. “When you were all fighting I noticed that he was draining everyone’s energy. Eidolons were losing their density. You all were getting exhausted quicker. The thin one might not be a fighter, but he’s arguably the most dangerous.”
“The monster needs to be hit in the head,” Catherine said. “Plain and simple.”
“They obviously work together,” Daisy said. “And we won’t get anywhere unless we do the same.”
“Any ideas?” Talia asked, but no one spoke up.
“Send me,” Remi spoke up. “Just me, until the rest of you can get into position to make one, coordinated strike.”
“Why you?” Kace wondered.
“Because they don’t want to kill me,” she said. “That monster back there had every opportunity to hurt me back there, but he didn’t. And I think it’s because Cimmerian briefed the three of them on who I am and what I mean to their endgame. They don’t want to destroy one of the Sorcerers’ weapons.”
“They may not kill you,” Talia warned. “But that doesn’t mean they can’t harm you.”
“Regardless, I should be the bait.”
“It could take a while until we’re in position,” Daisy said. “To make it count anyways. You sure you can handle things until we intervene?”
“Your friends died defending this Kingdom and all of us. The least I can do is extend the same. And to be clear, I want to do this alone. I need to do this alone.”
“But why?” Kace asked. “You don’t have to.”
“It’s because anyone that comes with me right now will die,” she said. “And it will make
the precision strike meaningless because they’ll be on alert even longer. I want them to think that the rest of you aren’t coming. That no one’s going to save me. It’s the only way we have a chance at beating them, and who knows? I might even be able to take one of them out in the process.”
“That’s a lot to ask of you,” Catherine said. “And remember that you don’t have to go all-out. Stalling is the key here, not winning.”
“All I have to do is not faint,” Remi said, giving Catherine a wink. “Got it.”
A tiny smile came upon Catherine’s lips.
“Then show us what a weapon like you can do.”