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30 Days Until Carnage And the Uncertain End (part 4)
Evester raced past the walls and the soldiers who had gathered at the walls, to fight the Aralax that were trying to climb over. There was a weak point on the Tower;’s energy field between the wall and the Tower, in the air itself. Without metal reinforcement it was delicate and capable of breaking, as the flying Aralax had discovered. Heia raced with him, towards the wall where Kim was already directing attacks at the Aralax who scrambled once they got to the ground. There were not many, but the Aralax were beginning to capitalize on the weak point more.
Ovaria’s main ground was over populated from the Towers that had been evacuated to her defenses, and they could not let the Aralax win. The tragedy would be greater than if a single Tower fell. The Aralax were trying the maneuver on three sides, overwhelming the defenses with bodies and then sending flying units in through the small gaps that could be dug through.
“Clear over here.” Rayda said over the intercom.
“Evester what is the wall’s status on your side?”
“Bad.” Kim answered.
“Drones have spotted a large mass headed your way.” Uly warned them. “We will begin bombing in three minutes.”
“If that wall is breeched the city is decimated.” Heia shouted, racing forward and slashing an Aralax that reached for Kim. “We need something.”
“It is going to take at least five more minutes for the wall’s internal magic to surge. Rayblay has redirected power.” Phil warned. “Hold on until then.”
Evester grit his teeth, knowing that it was a task easier said than done. Each time that they used the defense surge there was little magic and energy to replace it. Without their Class One mages, they could not refill the wall with magic and without the Superiors they were struggling. The fight was supposed to be hard, but they had anticipated having Zeydar. He knew not to complain, Reytaria was in a worse state, than they were. Each time that Evester flipped through them, he heard Kony’s panicked voice barking out orders. So many mages had been transported to the city but evacuations were not yet complete.
Three more Towers. Avalonia, Utoia, Reytaria. Once the three were evacuated, all the mages would be fighting. The Superiors would be back at Ovaria. Yet, would they have the power to fight? The attack reports and numbers were only growing as the night wore on.
“We can do that.” Evester needed to convince himself, slashing at an Aralax, before shooting at others at the top of the wall and in the sky. Five minutes was easier, than what the Mages at Reytaria were faced with. Evester found Kim’s back, as Heia fought with Kori.
“You good?” Kim asked him.
“Not really.” Evester answered, pushing forward against the Aralax. “But we’ve been through worse.”
“Reminds me of the circle when we were in the mountains,” Kim said, running around him to assist. “Only this time, we do not have Zeydar.”
“No.” Evester grimaced as he continued to fight. He did not know what Zeydar was doing, not since Zeydar had gone into his exclusive connection with Maverin.
“Should we regroup with you?” Lynx asked over the intercom.
“Yes.” Rayda asked. “Phil and I have our hands full.”
“All forces prepare for the drop.” Uly ordered.
The sound of breaking metal that overpowered the sound canceling headphones. The barrier buzzed, flickered, and Evester’s skin crawled as it disappeared. Looking up to the Tower, Evester saw Aralax raining down from the sky. The bombs started outside the wall but there were orders being shouted. A large wave, over the wall poured in and from the sky they fell, crashing down. Most were dead bodies, but not all. Evester heard as orders were sounded and mages fought to kill the Aralax that had fallen through, aided by cameras. There were not many but each time a surge happened a few more got through. The surge worked by deactivating and then reactivating at full power. Evester had little time to think of the Aralax who got through, it was up to the military to take care of and the supporting specialty teams. There were four special teams at Ovaria after all the evacuations, and Evester had to trust in Heia’s teaching.
Seconds ticked slower than they should one by one. He breathed in unison with Kim as the two danced around fighting with all their energy, switching with Kori and Heia in location and partners. The four of them worked well together, better than he could have hoped.
“Prepare!” Uly shouted when Evester gasped out reaching for the air and unable to find it. With the remaining bit of his energy, he pulled Heia and Kim back, following Kori who got a safe distance from the wall. “Five. Four.”
The metal creaked again, and then the barrier was back up. It began to glow a sharp blue in electricity, prickling and hot even from the distance away. Evester continued to run, searching for a place to take cover.
“Three. Two.”
As Uly said one, their section of the wall was breached. In the center of the wall, was a melted hole from the acidic blood of the Aralax, turning larger and large by the moment, until the magic holding up the metal cracked, collapsed, and the electricity disappeared. Evester’s heart stopped beating.
“Full breached!” Kim shouted.
“Get out of there now!” Uly shouted.
Evester doubted there was a way that they would be able to. The Aralax were faster than they were. Searching for a vehicle, Evester found that they were surrounded by nothing that would be fast enough. Even then the outskirt cities were empty but only for a few miles. It would not take much time for them to get to the civilians.
“Can we fight out?” Heia whispered.
“If we can find the commanding officer.” Kori answered. “There!”
Evester saw the mark of a Captain: the red stripe, surrounded by a mess of Aralax that were swarming towards them. Sucking in a breath, Evester took Kim’s hand and nodded.
“I can’t believe this.” Kim whispered, laughing at the entire situation.
“EverDanger.” Evester said with a sinking feeling in his chest. Fear spread through him in the moments that he read, his expression turning grim. For years, EverDanger had operated in certainties. It was a game, but this? It was not a game. For the first time in his life, the adrenaline made him sick.
“What are you doing!” Uly shouted. “There is a vehicle five minutes from you. You can make it.”
“We can’t.” Heia hissed. “Not unless we can slow them down. We can’t let them get to the civilians.”
The four cut down their path, using every skill in their arsenal, making their way to the Captain. They shot at the wings of the flying Aralax, to stop them, and continued fighting with a single thought: survive. Heia cut down the Captain. For a few moments all the incoming Aralax stopped moving. Breath out, Evester turned to flee when suddenly the Aralax sprung into action. Evester moved to avoid, but found himself sluggish, the exhaustion had finally caught up. His arms moved slower than they should and the marks he left behind were shallow.
“Evester!” Kori screamed. Evester flinched, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Evester lashed out and found Zeydar mouthing to him: I leave you alone for three minutes.
“Zeydar?” Uly gasped.
Next to Evester was Zeydar, holding Evester close to him, hand with Staff extended out towards all the Aralax that raced inside. They were cut down by blades of ice, before Zeydar spun them around and ignited the sea of Aralax in fire. Zeydar let go of Evester, and pushed him back. Evester stumbled into Heia who was breathing hard.
Zeydar spun his Staff again, and with a single motion all of the fires turned to ice. He walked through field of thorns towards the gap where more were pouring out from.
“Utoia is clear for the time being.” Maverin’s voice came from the intercom.
Zeydar used what looked like wind to cut down the bodies, opening up a path outside, which he took. Into the sea of darkness, Evester breathed three times, debating to follow him when the world lit up in bright white light. Like an explosion, Evester was bathed in the shadows that the wall cascaded over him from the explosion on the other side. Through the melted hole, was a blinding white light for all but five seconds, before the light began to move to the east, headed along the wall.
“We’re… Clear.” Kim spoke into the intercom.
No more than thirty seconds later, Zeydar walked back through the hole. He messed at his wrist before his intercom came back onto the main channel from his private one with Maverin.
“I am going to need a break for a bit, but if someone can get me the metal, I can patch this up.” Zeydar walked to the four of them, running his hand through Evester’s hair. Zeydar looked far worse for wear, bags under his eyes and drained in a way that Evester had last seen when he was detoxing. He then disappeared. Reports of the Aralax who had infiltrated were countered by the elimination of the Aralax, thanks to Zeydar.
“Okay.” Uly answered before clicking away to get them reinforcements.
“We’ve lost a lot of people.” Heia whispered looking around.
“Not as many as we could have.” Kim collapsed to the ground and Evester followed her. The five of them sat on the ground, heaving. Zeydar collapsed next to Evester seconds later, leaning against him.
“I can do this. I can do this.” Zeydar whispered to himself.
“Do you need a break?”
“I am calculating the time frame, based on our experiment.” Maverin spoke into the main connection.
“Last I saw, the next reinforcements will not be here for another two hours.” Zeydar hissed. “For now, we should continue focus on the other Tower evacuations.”
“We are.” Uly said as he clicked back in. “How are you?”
“I’m alive, and that’s what matters.”
“If we can get a few more tests, I think we’ll be able to perfect Zeydar’s tracking magic and honing magic. We don’t need to kill all the Aralax, just the Kings who control them.”
“They’re all gold and bronze instead of the usual brown and green.” Zeydar explained. Evester wrapped his arm around Zeydar unsure what was being said or what it was that Zeydar was trying to do. Zeydar sighed, his fingers lightly touching Evester’s wrist.
The five sat there, gathering themselves, until they could muster the energy to move. When the reinforcements arrived, they arrived with energy supplements and drinks. Zeydar then used their assistance to move the discarded vehicles to the hole. He then stood, arms out, eyes closed. For moments the world crystalized and shined, like dust and snow as in the air. It spiraled around him as he pulled it all towards himself, looking refreshed and ready to fight again. When the hole was filled, Zeydar filled the wall with magic, and then turned to them. The Tower’s defensive barrier sparked to life once more.
“That should hold for the next three hours once the fighting begins again.” Zeydar nodded. The next thing Evester knew, he was standing next to Crass and Karla who were helping the injured retreat. Magic spiraled out, explosions rang. The dark night of the Cloud City was lit in blues and purples and reds.
“The next field then?” Kim said from next to him. Glancing back, he found Rayda, Phil, Lynx, Onyx, Trace, Robee, Kori, and Heia. There were a number of soldiers who continued to appear, weapons, all of the forces from Ovaria had arrived.
“Did you…” Kony laughed over the connection.
“I told you I could do it.” Zeydar huffed out. “Had to use the connection as an anchor to create the circuit and the channels for the array to form but the theory was applicable.”
“I never doubted you for a second.” Kony’s laugh turned proud and loud, as he then said a spell and muted himself.
“Where are you?” Evester asked him.
“I’m going to rest for a bit. Clean up there. You should only need another hour or so to finish the evacuations. The whole of the Tower should be evacuated, but the Aralax will breach soon. Be prepared, the weapons and vehicles should be able to get through the teleportation circle. Majorie, Superiors leave last.”
“Understood.” Majorie agreed.
“Thanks.” Zeydar said before there was a buzz of silence. Around Evester there were whispers of mass transportation and just like Kony, Evester felt a wave of pride in Zeydar’s abilities.
“Let’s go.” Heia stepped ahead, shaking her head, and racing towards the sea of black.
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Marlena Marie 
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