Like an avalanche. That was the most fitting word to describe the sound of hundreds of thousands of footsteps, all falling at the same time. The people were desperate. They cried out and screamed, as if they needed to do as such to reassure their own presence, their own existence, in the chaos. It was surprising to Suna, who rode on the horse with the other two. Just how much fight there was left in the city's population. Old folk, kids, mothers, seeing such people, most armed with little more than makeshift clubs and the like, belting out voice-breaking war cries… She underestimated these people. It seemed that they were holding it in, all for this moment. These were, of course, just the people that decided to give their last stand, to fight to the death. She was certain there were just as many, if not more, that were still in that city, hiding, or waiting to die. She turned her attention back towards the field.
Cyra maneuvered the horse to not run too fast. They all silently agreed that their best chance was to slip in through the chaos, and as long as their horse stayed alive, they actually felt they had a real chance of escape. The effects of Angie's and Cyra's spells on the horse were varied, some visible and others not. But they used everything they had.
The charging legions got closer. They could start to make out the expressionless faces on the well-armed and armored Geth. She also noticed that some groups of Geth stayed behind, likely to intercept any stragglers. Meticulous, and efficient.
"Over there." Suna pointed towards a region that seemed to be less manned than the others. Cyra maneuvered the horse in that direction. They made zig-zags, placing themselves adjacent to the main fighting force of the Humans. They drew looks of ire on some, but the less fortunate had more pressing issues to worry about.
Closer. Some started launching projectiles. It was here, that Suna realized. Most adults know Magic. The sheer amount of colorful spells flying through the air seemed almost like a spectacle. Most of them were basic projectiles, and some didn't make it all the way across the field. But most did. Large groups of Geth, that bore the brunt of the colorful assault, were obliterated. There was just too many spells to even consider deflecting or even outrunning it. But of course, there were many Geth ready to take their place, fearless. Some of the Geth launched their own spells, wreaking havoc amongst the Humans. But there were also many Humans, Humans that had nothing left to lose, not hesitating to take their fallen brother's and sister's places.
And then. The two groups collided.
The resulting physical imagery and sounds from a surging sea of people literally colliding with walls of metal were hard to describe. It was not possible to look anywhere and not see blood, or a newly created corpse; it was just too chaotic of a scene that the brain could not process each interaction, it simply lumped the many thousands of interactions and fed the mind an image of some sort of entity, whose parts all moved at once in a truly chaotic fashion.
Suna, Angie, and Cyra all paid little heed to the clash of people and Geth. They were all laser focused on exploiting any gap or opportunity, any whatsoever, and being ready to delve into it once they saw it.
"Hyah!" Cyra kicked the horse, which knew better than to hesitate or meander.
The horse ran for its life, through people, over people, on people, on metal, on suits of armor, through blades and spears, most of which were deflected off via magical means. It plowed, cutting a line through the chaos, like a beam of light through the darkness. It ran for its life.
Awe.
"Fuck, hahah…" Cyra's voice shook, not believing that they had gotten past the main frontline of the Geth. Angie couldn't help but shiver, merely in speechlessness. There was a faint hint. Of Hope, within the three. They grabbed onto it, determined not to let go.
It was not smooth sailing afterwards. The outer perimeter of Geth took quick notice, and started approaching the horse and the girls, who all stifled the pain of the cuts they had just endured.
"Shaanek."
"Erykh antra Im, Feredoh."
The two girls did their best to heal what they could of themselves, Angie not neglecting Suna. But they didn't have much time.
The horse could feel it. Past this line of soldiers was freedom. Even if Cyra tried to change the horse's direction, it would have just accomplished nothing. The horse had given in to the allure of its Hope, mindlessly following it, as if there was nothing else.
It ran, it dashed, speeding up to a mad blur across the field. And it collided, with the line of soldiers, that formed a literal wall with their tall shields.
All three were launched into the air, their minds working their absolute fastest to keep track of their bodies through the air. And they fell. Onto grass.
Quickly! This sole thought rang out within the minds of all three, whose bodies started to move as soon as they impacted the ground, completely ignoring and suppressing any and all aches and pains that they felt from their short flight.
""Avaarem!""
""Erykh Avant!""
The two dashed for their lives, trying their best to outmaneuver arrow fire that came their way. But in their hearts, they thanked whichever supernatural being had bestowed them with such dumb luck. For they truly had made it out from the worst of it. Most of the Geth army was preoccupied with a flood of reckless Humans. The parts closest to them, though, did not relent, as if even letting just a few humans through their line was unacceptable. Furthermore, there were some other groups of Geth further up the hill that approached them. But they didn't form some sort of impenetrable wall. They could be maneuvered around.
None of them even had time to breathe. They all pushed their bodies further than they ever had in their life. Winning this game of fatal football would determine whether they lived or died. They fought against gravity, rushing up the slightly inclined hill, which felt as steep as a mountain to them. They weaved through crowds and groups, Suna's brain doing its best to calculate the optimal route through their intercepters. At times, they had to fight through small groups, with Angie's spells and Cyra's arrows doing a good job at breaking their momentum, allowing Suna to clean up the dazed and hampered rest with relative ease.
At their sides was what seemed like a moving wall of soldiers, collapsing in on them as they tried to squeeze their way through the gaps. They'd try to close in, and end up forming a surging flood of bodies behind them, too, one which continuously launched spells and arrows at them. It was all Mayhem. But they were lucky. None of them suffered a severe, direct hit. They were somehow making it through, up the cluttered and infested hill which seemed so, deceivingly, peaceful during their blissful wagon ride.
Then, they heard it. The Humans behind them roared, their voices, their cries, their screams soaring through and filling the very air itself. The three had no time to look back, but they guessed correctly. The Humans had broken through the frontline of the Geth. They didn't realize it, but the group's attraction of the Geth forces had created a weak point in the previously insurmountable front line. The Humans could feel it, deep down. That this opportunity was their Hope. And they all reached for it, as far as they could, grasping for their Hope. The closer they got, the more their spirits flared, and the louder their cries rang out. They were gaining momentum.
But Suna and the other girls did not have time to appreciate the distraction of their masses of pursuers. They saw it coming. Large, bright, flaring projectiles, that shone in varying colors, falling from the sky.
"Fuck!!" Cyra's words did nothing to stop the falling meteor-like balls of energy-infused rocks. All she could do was follow directly behind the dashing Suna, who was doing her utmost to calculate a path around their trajectories. Thankfully, the amount of Geth infantry that stood in their way was decreasing, so there were more routes available to them.
CRASH!! CRASH!! CRASH!!!
It was like a rain of boulders, that emitted a blast of some sort of dangerous-looking energy when they impacted the ground. Dirt and grass was uprooted, flung into the air, a small pelting sensation that all three felt but ignored. They stumbled slightly as the ground itself seemed to shake; but they knew, falling meant death. So they kept upright, maintaining their blistering dash.
Loud chanting. But they only faintly heard it, as if the words were spoken from far away. They did not bother trying to locate the origin of the distant voice.
And then, massive rumbling. The ground, it was shifting. Something rose up, ahead of them. A massive, towering wall of earth rose from the ground. The top was blanketed by soil, the rest, a menacing wall of pure stone, bedrock. It was so unnatural, how smooth the surface of the wall was, reminding Suna of towering metal fortifications from her world.
Suna and Cyra's breath was stuck in their throats. Suna saw just how many Geth were trailing on their sides; going around this wall meant facing a flood of metal and bodies. Her calculations were grim. But a voice pulled her away from her grim conclusions.
"Leave this to me!" Angie ran ahead of the group.
"Ferrus Olrickt Viendum,"
Angie's hands pulled close to her chest, and painfully struggling, she widened them, further and further apart. It looked as if she was pushing against an invisible set of walls around her.
"Urrrghhhh… Not'daaren!! Encaado!"
She fully extended her arms outward. And as she did, they saw it. Faint and small, but slowly widening. A gap!! The three, brimming with Hope, dashed for the gap. Angie looked visibly shaken and tired from the spell, but she did not let it affect her speed.
It was a somewhat thick wall, but it wasn't endless. And their slight worries of the wall crashing in on them, squishing them, those didn't come to pass. And the Geth… they were rid of them. Only a small amount of them could fit through the tiny gap at once, and there was practically no one this far up the hill. The three would've laughed if they had the breath. But their short celebratory mood was not long lasting.
A figure. One they faintly recognized, but was too far away to see clearly the last time they saw it. It was descending, in front of them, a good distance away. They were running right towards it.
Another metal body, like a suit of grey armor. Homogenized, no visible gaps or plates.
Suna ran ahead of the group. She drew her knife. This wasn't her first rodeo, her body knew what to do.
She remembered. Just how much less scary the dark figure was when it started panicking. So she was nonchalant. She rubbed her knife's handle. Her steps were light. She had a bit of a lilt in her step. But this was not feigned confidence. This was the confidence of someone who had put to rest one of these annoying suits of metal before.
Words, syllables… they floated around in Suna's being. She realized, even though she tried to cast her spell again, during her free time, it failed, but not because she was incapable of it. She just had no need for it. It was like a muscle, one deep in her body, that she couldn't seem to move at will. But it flexed and strengthened under the right conditions, almost laughably easily so. She was worried she had somehow regressed. But feeling it, darkness, run through her mind, fill it, become it… it was a pleasurable feeling, of satisfaction, of assured comfort. This was her. She was her. And no one, nothing could take it away from her.
So she ran, at what seemed like a nonchalant jog, towards the figure. She got closer.
She wondered. What it would feel like, as she cut down this suit of metal, too.
"...Tch."
The suit of armor… ascended back into the sky. It did not chant, it hurled no meteors. It directed its attention towards the humans that were trying to go around his wall of earth.
"..."
Silence. The other two girls did not speak. Suna did not look back, but she could feel their gazes on her back. Respect.
They advanced, approaching the crest of the hill. It turned out their were Geth out of sight, in the scattered woods, that had emerged and tried to stop them. Their numbers were great, but the group had gotten somewhat used to their basic troops. They maneuvered, they ran, they fought when they had to. Their numbers weren't as oppressive as the literal surging walls of Geth further down the hill, but they were still plentiful, as if unending.
So they continued. And as they had made it up to the top of the hill…
It awaited them.