Chapter 25 – Battle at Bufohelm: Part 2

With JD’s squad still two days away from Bufohelm, they had to deal with this issue alone for now. Ozzy had just finished the barrier, allowing Mr. Toad to release his blizzard spell. ‘Go create an opening,’ Mr. Toad ordered Ozzy, who ran to the stairs to do so. As he did, Mr. Toad walked to his desk, grabbing a piece of paper from the drawer.

He licked the tip of his finger multiple times until it got covered in his sparkling saliva. He wrote a few sentences on the paper, sentences that could change the outcome of this entire event, then began folding. Dozens of folds later, the flat piece of paper had transformed into an origami bird, and after a touch on its forehead by Mr. Toad, began flapping its wings and flying circles on the ceiling.

‘Hold on, little one,’ Mr. Toad said. ‘Just a jiffy.’

Ozzy ran to the main gate of Bufohelm, grabbing a silver dagger with a feathered crossguard. When he squeezed the dagger as he ran through the crowd, who paved a way for him the moment they noticed, the dagger began to glow in a white light. When he reached the gate – the door open, but with the barrier preventing others from going in or out – he saw the people who got left outside, slamming the barrier in panic. ‘I’m here – I’m here,’ Ozzy said, out of breath. ‘Just a minute, guys.’

He stuck the dagger in the bottom left of the gate, starting to carve out an entrance. With only the thin barrier between them, Ozzy met eyes with a soldier, acid having burned his scalp, continuing to burn his skull as tears dropped from his eyes. ‘May God torch the humans in hell for eternity…’ Ozzy thought as he slowly pushed his dagger against the resistance of the barrier. The barrier was thin, but incredibly dense, not letting in or out any sound, only allowing Ozzy to slice a fraction of an inch per second.

The acid rain had seemingly stopped, but as the dagger had reached the height of Ozzy’s knees, he saw something hit the barrier. A thin needle hit the see-through barrier, startling Ozzy, who jolted back, leaving the dagger in place. The lance long needle had penetrated the soldier’s chest, exiting through, stopping at the gate. After the first one, hundreds of others followed – all the soldiers fell victim to the needles puncturing their skin. None of the attacks were lethal, but all were made to hurt, and hurt dearly.

‘Fuck – fuck – fuck,’ Ozzy thought as he grabbed the dagger and began pulling it up again, continuing to create the gate. As the slice in the barrier grew bigger, he could hear the cries of agony his countrymen gave, like hell was crying out to him, begging to be saved. He pulled with all his strength, but couldn’t go faster. ‘Hold on, guys. I’m doing my best, I-I swear!’

Seeing the gate would take some time, some of the soldiers lost hope and chose to flee. With six feet long needles and acid burns in and on their body, two soldiers ran into the forest, not able to take any more pain. Each step jiggled their body, widening the wounds created by the needles, with small streams of blood now dripping out of them. As they ran side by side, not by choice, since none of them could take a second to think in the midst of this chaos – out of nowhere, a katana flew in from their right at a blinding speed. It struck one soldier in the neck, cleanly slicing through it, and immediately pierced the neck of the other, with the momentum carrying the two along, until the katana crashed into a tree, hanging both of them to its side as their jaws worked their way into the katana through the force of gravity.

After six seconds of violent bleeding, they lost consciousness, with a figure sprinting in to retrieve her sword. The figure revealed herself to be Yuki, slowing down as she reached for her katana. ‘You’re welcome,’ she softly said, putting her hand against the face of the initial soldier, drawing her blade out of the tree and two men. Without wasting another second, she began sprinting forward, running through the forest to put an end to those who dare to leave this pandemonium.

‘Can I spray again?’ Sarah asked, itching to add more pain to the party.

‘Not yet,’ Xiuying said, sitting in a bush while the others stood, all facing Bufohelm. ‘They are our assets. We need a handful alive.’

‘I like this mission,’ Sarah said with a wide smile.

While Sarah was indulging in this image, Cara cried. She sniffed up her mucus and wiped her eyes with her sleeves. ‘Damn it,’ she said. ‘I can’t take it, boss…’

Sarah laughed, unsympathetic to Cara’s humanity – thinking of it as a weakness. ‘Learn to enjoy it already…’ she said, as if she chose to be her psychopathic self.

‘I get what you mean, Cara,’ Xiuying said without looking at her. ‘But look at the numbers… Trust me, this is for the best…’ she stood up and put her hand on her shoulder. ‘I need you to go out soon… Prepare yourself, would you?’

Cara didn’t answer her, just sniffing her nose, but the lack of answer told Xiuying everything she needed. To be a weapon of a regime is easier for some more than others. None of the four believed they were the good guys. They had been in Terra Two too long for that. That being said, neither did they believe Soji to be good either. This world had truly found itself in a war that could take millennia, and by the end, it was only a question if it would still be in one piece.

Xiuying had been wondering for months how things would be on Earth, if this were to happen there. They might not have magic, but they had something much more destructive. The accumulation of knowledge, provided by thousands of years, had birthed many creations of mass destruction. Each day could be the one where an individual mad enough could come in to power and ignite the flame that could consume the whole planet. She had risen in the ranks, but didn’t know everything. Maybe this planet had built inventions of equal terror? Hopefully, she would never find out – it’s already hard enough to seize the days - imagine them being numbered.

JD woke up in blissful ignorance to what was going on in Bufohelm. The sun had already passed the halfway point when JD spotted it. All his subjects were relaxing, readying to hit the road again. Hopper ran up to JD. ‘We’ve lost a lot of time, captain. The night training has taken its toll on you.’

‘Quahaha!’ JD laughed. ‘Yeah, maybe, but we can leave now – JD will go on ahead of the group tomorrow. JD’s awesome protection of you weaklings won’t be needed so close to Bufohelm.’

Hopper sighed, dropping his shoulders down – sad to hear his captain call him a weakling, first thing after waking up. ‘Whatever you want, captain…’

When a loud bang came from the north, JD immediately turned his head towards it, recognizing the sound. None of the others reacted, and when JD looked at Hopper, he preemptively answered JD’s question.

‘Kuno is training by himself. You should probably get him, since we need to leave now.’

JD’s face dropped, finding it odd that Kuno decided to do extra training right after a big breakthrough. He hadn’t done anything like this in the previous days. Maybe he was the type to snowball a lead? ‘JD will get him,’ he said, followed by: Freebird – creating the angelic wings that allowed him to conquer the sky. He swooped up, still within the height of the trees, and soared towards the north.

Ozzy regretted skimping on physical training. By the time he had forced his dagger to the arch of the gate, his robe was drenched in sweat and his muscles began to cramp. ‘H-Halfway done…’ he said. The acid rain and the needles had stopped for a while, but the pain persisted. The adrenaline of the soldiers was dimming each second, their bodies getting more and more tired.

Half of the soldiers had tried to run away through the forest – not to be heard from again. By now, the wounds of those inside the dome were taken care of, and surrounded around Ozzy stood the might of Bufohelm – armed and ready to fight. If only they could help him now, but sadly Ozzy’s dagger cannot be touched by those with novice levels of magic. The only one that could aid him here was Mr. Toad, who was still in his chamber.

‘Damn this thing! Come on, go faster, you sticking old dagger!’ Ozzy thought with his eyes closed, squinting through the effort, but when he heard the swift breath the soldiers around him took, he opened his eyes in an instant – looking through the barrier.

Those outside had turned their backs to Bufohelm, standing firm in their fighting stance. Through between their shoulders, Ozzy put the first face on their enemy. With her nose reddened on her pale face, the trail of her tears visible on her freckled cheekbones – Cara walked up to the soldiers. Her lips were twitching through each step she took. ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,’ she kept repeating. No one knew what to think - seeing her face – a fair maiden in distress, no hint of dangers coming off of her, although all of them knew what she had to be – by her sheer human appearance alone.

Ozzy focused on his task, pushing the dagger – without taking his eyes off of what was about to happen.

Half of the soldiers had their weapons on them – drawing them out immediately and enchanting them with various elemental powers. It wasn’t only their weapons that got enchanted, however. The weaponless took a deep breath before casting: ‘Party Buff: Speed – Party Buff: Stamina.’

The skins of the soldiers emitted a white and blue smoke as they bent their knees, ready to attack. Their wounds were aching, but their fear had faded. The sight of Cara had healed them of the paranoia – they had a target – something to focus on. Now… they could fight.

Xiuying and Sarah had their eyes locked on Cara, who, although was mentally overwhelmed, had to do this task – Xiuying had to see her do it – to confirm Cara could have their backs in times of need.

Cara steadily approached the soldiers, but they weren’t going to wait for her to strike first. They were taught not to wait to strike until the iron was hot, but to make it hot by striking. And they did, launching forward toward the long, ginger haired girl, who still sniffed the snot of sadness up.

Xiuying and Sarah made no sound, didn’t blink, just stared at Cara with a neutral expression. But they never expected what would happen next.

As the soldiers got within twelve feet, Cara’s body began descending, falling forward, her eyes shrouded, not a single thought drifting in her mind.