Enmity of Atlas

“Man, do you have some good timing!” Garrote exclaimed, clearly not worried about the current events in the slightest.

The man started down the hallway to their right at a leisurely pace, everyone else piling close behind him for protection. Once they started walking, Trenton noticed the man’s cloak had something on the back that he couldn’t see before–the number 2 printed in large red text. Trenton’s body immediately seized up in fear, the memory of the veil still fresh in his mind, but for whatever reason, be it intuition or acceptance, Trenton felt the inclination to put his faith in this man. It wasn’t really like they had much of a choice, anyway. He was clearly there for them. One way or another they’d have to follow him.

“Once we’re out of the building, we’ll have to pick up speed. But, for now, we can take it easy,” the man said.

The hallway took a sudden sharp turn left, but instead of turning, the man continued walking forward, digging his right hand into his left breast and drawing out a thin line of blood, which coalesced into a gorgeous, gleaming blade–a legendary weapon. It was of a make similar to Walibeld’s, a one handed longsword, but visually it was vastly different. It gleamed with red and orange light, some green accents decorating the blade and handle. The whole thing looked like it was practically on fire with how brightly it glowed. The detail that really caught Trenton’s attention, however, was the guard, which looked to be a dragon's head turned sideways, an unconventional protection to say the least. Still walking confidently forward, the man held the blade aloft, making dozens of incisions faster than Trenton could see, the lines of his cuts extending far past where his blade should have ended. The wall in front of them crumbled into a pile of small rubble, the room beyond now easily accessible.

“We’ll be taking a couple shortcuts. This whole place is built like a maze, and I really don’t have the patience for it,” the man said, the group stepping through into the side room.

“Who are you?” Leo asked, echoing what everyone else was thinking.

“I’ll tell you in a little bit,” the man said, waving his hand dismissively. “First thing first, I’m getting you out of the city. I’ve got a camp a ways outside the city where I’m planning to meet up with a friend,” the man said, several guards bursting through a door ahead of them, their blades held high.

The man, never once breaking pace, held up his left arm, which glowed with a dazzling light, the streaks of his fire engulfing his entire arm. The guards tried to stagger backwards away from the blast, but they weren't nearly quick enough.

“Isn’t that a little overkill!?” Garrote shouted out, everyone moving back to get away from the intense heat emanating from him.

“Nonsense! This is called efficiency!” the man shouted, letting loose his magic in a brilliant blaze of glory.

A mountainous fireball burst from his hand, its light searing Trenton’s eyes. For a moment, all Trenton could feel was his flesh burning, his hair singeing, his body recoiling, the thunderous roar of the flame drowning out every other sound in the world. Its sheer force was akin to the entire attack on the ball condensed into one concentrated blast. It was ABSOLUTELY overkill. When he opened his eyes again, the building was simply gone. The man’s fire was so destructive that it simply erased whatever it touched. There wasn’t even a sign left that the guards had ever even existed. In a straight line forward, easily 50 feet wide, the building was just gone. Since the ceiling above them was also now gone, Trenton could see the sky clearly, a wash of dark gray clouds coating the sky as far as the eye could see.

“You alright back there? Sorry, I got a little carried away. At least we’ve got a straight path forward,” the man laughed, his pace picking up to a quick sprint. The rest of them followed behind as best they could, pushing through the pain of stepping on the scorched ground his fire had moments prior burned a hole through.

Even as they ran, Trenton could easily tell the man was restraining himself, holding a pace more manageable for the kids to follow. It wasn’t easy by any means, Trenton, Leo, Millie, and Garrote breaking out into dead sprints just to keep up, but it was possible. Something told Trenton that if the man were truly running, he would’ve been out of the city two minutes ago. When they reached the edge of the prison, the line of carnage suddenly stopped, the fire having presumably dissipated after it broke through the prison walls. Had it continued much further, it would have started plowing through civilian housing and the hoard of confused people clambering about in front of them. He could control himself enough, at least. They spilled out onto the city streets, diving into the confused crowd, trying to push their way through. Off in the distance, Trenton could still see the dragon raging around, causing wanton destruction wherever it went, a massive snake-like creature in its claws. The dragon let out a mighty bellow, shooting a brilliant streak of flame into the sky as it used the snake to ram into some nearby buildings, their structural supports quickly failing, only adding to the chaos. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of smaller spells lit up the sky, a vain attempt from whoever was brave enough to stop the godly reptilian flying through the sky. Most of the spells missed their target, but some of them slammed into the dragon's hard scales, solid strikes against spots the dragon should’ve been weak in. Unfortunately, as the dragon's great wings beat through the clouds of smoke of fire, it looked completely unharmed, not a scratch anywhere on its body. They were helpless to stop it.

“It’s got Filyinir! It’s going to tear down the whole city at this rate,” Trenton shouted at the man’s back.

“Don’t worry, the city will be fine. Remember, number one priority is getting you out of the city. The wall is only a couple miles away. Everything is under control,” the shouted back without turning around. “By the way, would you happen to know where Walibeld is?”

“Polias!” Leo shouted in between breaths, “He’s with Polias on the other side of the city.”

“Polias! Of course! I should have guessed!” The man exclaimed, slapping himself on the head. “No wonder I couldn’t find him!”

The closer to the gate they got, the denser the crowd got. The man seemed to be having no trouble himself, expertly weaving through the crowd, but everyone else was stuck running into cities or guards, jumping over and around whenever they could.

“Oh this is getting nowhere. We’re going up!” Garrote shouted out, throwing his arms upwards. Suddenly, Trenton felt the whole world lurch, his feet no longer finding purchase beneath him, the ground sinking further away. Trenton, Millie, Leo, and Garrote all floated above the ground, Garrote using his arms to control their movement, his face contorted into a pained expression, the strain clearly visible all across his body. Once they were high enough, Garrote forced them to the side, sending them, rather ungracefully, sprawling across a rooftop, a much clearer walking path. “Gods, you lot are heavy,” he doubled over for a moment, collecting himself.

“Come on! We need to keep moving!” Trenton shouted, pulling Garrote forward.

“Right, right,” Garrote said, their group picking back up to a sprint, “just jump as far as you can. I’ll keep everyone atop the roofs.”

They leapt from rooftop to rooftop, taking care not to get hit by the stray attacks that were being launched into the air. It seemed like no one really knew what to do, or what was going on, everyone simply taking an action to try and alleviate the situation, only succeeding in making it worse. Whenever someone didn’t quite jump far enough, Garrote would give them a little boost, ensuring that they at least made it over the lip of the roof, their stability their own responsibility completely. After they got past a couple of buildings, they found the man leaning out of the side of a tower, waiting for them.

“Good improvisation! Try to keep up,” the man said, vaulting around the tower.

They kept breaking forward, the city wall slowly coming into view. This time, to ensure he didn’t lose them again, the man was running much slower, his pace easily matched by all four of them. It also helped that there wasn’t a crowd on the rooftops. Off in the distance, Trenton could see the soldiers atop the gate loading up their siege weapons to fire at the dragon, their great ballista bolts missing by wide margins. Even with its great size, the dragon was quick, maneuvering like a graceful ballerina.

Suddenly, off to their left, moving like a wayward comment, something vaulted towards them, colliding with the cloaked man, who managed to levy his sword in front of himself just in time to prevent direct contact. Both the strange man and the object barreled off to the right, plowing directly through several buildings, which began to fall like dominoes.

“We can’t slow down! He’ll be fine!” Trenton shouted, moving forward to lead the group, but he didn’t even make two steps before another obstacle blocked their path.

All around them, soldiers in raiment unfamiliar to Trenton began climbing onto the roofs, weapons in hand. Their small group formed a triangle around Millie, protecting her with their bodies. Trenton tried to summon his hammer to his hand, to prepare for the fight at hand, but nothing came. Not only was Trenton still missing the necklace, he never even replaced his hammer after the fight with the bloodcrazed. He had been so distracted with the severity of their injuries that he completely forgot to reform his hammer. And with them stuck on the roof, he wouldn’t be able to use his magic effectively. The ground was simply too far beneath him.

Behind Trenton, Garrote stepped forward, eagerly approaching his own front of soldiers. His footwork as he expertly sliced through their defenses was remarkable, his movements quick and precise. He was clearly very experienced in the art of combat. Even as the enemy soldiers aimed their strikes at his most vital points, Garrote did not flinch, instead twisting around, ducking under several stray slices, and slamming his hand against a man’s breastplate. With an unnatural force, the man was shoved backwards, toppling off the roof head first. Garrote backed away from the group of soldiers, casting a sudden wave of gravity to hold them back. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Leo rolled to the side, getting out from behind Garrote to launch a barrage of fire motes, many of the soldiers falling into flaming heaps of charred flesh. Meanwhile, the soldiers on Trenton’s front were almost upon him, Trenton languishing over what to do.

“Heads up!”

Trenton looked up to see a boulder of stone the size of his chest barreling towards him, just about the right size. Trenton ducked, slamming his palm into the boulder, forcing it into the shape of his signature warhammer and hoisting it by the handle in one clean movement. Stepping forward, Trenton blasted through the weak soldiers armor, crushing their entire bodies with a single swing of his great hammer. Whatever simple issued plate they were wearing was no match for Trenton’s strength, his blows falling heavy upon them like meteors. Trenton bashed through soldier after soldier, ducking around their simple casts of magic, even managing to get several in one swing a couple of times. With fire, water, light, lightning, and more all flying around them, it was a gale storm of energy, several strikes boring into Trenton, shocking him to his core, burrowing into his flesh, burning his muscles, but he pushed through.

From off to the left, stemming from an adjacent rooftop, a thick bramble of branches grew, stabbing into several men, hoisting their bodies into the air like a twisted sort of shish kabob. Standing off to his left was Kiva, branches extending from her position to slice through the men around Trenton.

“Keep moving! Get to the wall!” Kiva shouted out, breaking her fortified position to focus on sprinting.

Trenton grabbed Millie, turning on his heel and sprinting in the same direction. Behind him, Leo, Garrote, and a new young girl he didn’t recognize had cut a path through the soldiers, new waves rapidly pushing in on every side. Now pressed on every side and pursued from behind, the lot of them leapt off the roof, spilling into the city streets below, making a mad dash for the city gate.

They spilled out into a clearing just before the gate, the main road leading into the city cluttered with soldiers fighting each other. The city guard's attention was split two ways now, the new enemy soldiers and the raging red dragon. Trenton dashed through the warring men, doing his best not to slip on fallen men’s entrails decorating the ground. If ever someone got close to him, he’d loft his hammer and bash it against their body, crumpling them in one fell blow. Finally, when they made it to the stone wall, with nowhere left to go, the 6 of them turned around, deciding to, at the very least, make a fitting last stand.

Trenton, Leo, Garrote, Kiva, and the new girl launched forward in a flurry, every person tackling enemy soldiers, burying their weapons deep into their flesh, using their magic to push away or pierce whatever they couldn’t touch. Trenton slammed his hammer into the ground, a wave of earth spikes piercing a dozen soldiers all closing in on him. One soldier vaulted over the attack, using his momentum to drop kick Trenton and send him sprawling. Trenton rolled to his feet, scooping up a handful of earth as he went and hurling it at the man in a scatter shot, which peppered the man with dozens of holes. Still moving, Trenton ducked under a wave of fire, curving his body to slip past a bolt of lighting, which buried itself harmlessly in the wall behind him. Trenton slammed his foot into the ground, sending a wave of earth spikes forward, which clashed with another geomancer's magic, the spray of earth spraying wildly outwards. Trenton covered his eyes to protect his vision, swinging his hammer into another approaching man with his whole body, knocking the head cleanly off of the man’s shoulders.

Off to his left, the others were in similar positions. They fought desperately for their lives, Garrote blasting people apart or crushing them with wells of gravity, Leo immolating them, Kiva piercing and immobilizing them with branches and roots, and the weird girl doing…something or other. Trenton struggled to comprehend what was happening at a quick glance, the most that he could afford with so many enemies trying to surround him. Her whole side of the battlefield was moving much slower than anywhere else that he looked. He didn’t have time to figure it out. Trenton whipped his head back forward, a stray bolt of space launching right at his head. A friendly soldier from off to the left caught the bolt with his blade, knocking it out of the way and continuing on, plowing into a mass of soldiers off to Trenton’s right. Without wasting a second, Trenton ducked to the side, digging his hammer into the ground and sending another scatter of stone towards the mass of enemy’s.

Slowly, ever so slowly, they were being overrun. Even as Trenton crushed one soldier, two more would instantly take his place, their blades digging into Trenton’s soft flesh. They wouldn’t last. The longer this went on, the more weary Trenton grew, his whole body beginning to slow, the strain of fighting wearing on his stamina. And, off to his side, everyone else was following suit. Leo and Garrote were nearly drowning in enemies, their magic growing weaker by the second. Trenton stumbled from exhaustion, a stray soldier taking this moment to dart forward and strike at Trenton, raising his blade high and bringing it down onto Trenton. However, the moment he moved, his entire body fell to the ground in dozens of little red pieces. Trenton looked up. All around them, brilliant red streaks of fire wove their way around the battlefield, a single elongated fire strike, it’s path catching the enemy’s before they even had time to move. Instantly, hundreds of enemies fell to the ground dead, their bodies split into little cleanly sliced chunks. Right in front of Trenton, the man in the white cloak stood again, smiling wide. That was barely even fire magic. Somehow, the man had moved his entire body fast enough to personally cut through the soldiers, his blade dancing through the air with streaks of fire like Phleminths brilliant burning glory.

“Sorry that took me so long. That guy was persistent! Anyway, up we go,” the man grabbed all of them, leaping between them to pick them up like they weighed less than a single coin. “Try not to throw up.”

The strange man launched upwards, vaulting up and off the edge of the wall to send them even further into the sky. They appeared to hover for a moment, the man’s upwards momentum carrying them far past the scope of the wall, the ground hundreds of feet below them looming like a great gaping maw promising certain death.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING! I CAN’T CATCH ALL OF YOU!” Garrote cried, wriggling to try and free his arms.

“I told you to trust me, didn’t I!?” the man called out, their height starting to level out.

“Did you!?” Trenton cried.

“Did I?” They began to fall.