middleofsomewhere | Onward: Blue

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Onward: Blue

On the second night the ground begins to shake. The islanders seem well versed in earthquake safety and there is no mass panic- from them anyways. They will help any voidtreckers who don't know what to do in such a situation. The shaking is over quickly and is not strong enough to do any major damage though there are some after shocks throughout the day.

More worryingly are the thick clouds that roll out, covering the sky. Despite the memories these might invoke in the void warriors they are normal clouds.

Or perhaps not that normal, dawn breaks into darkness, the sun barely penetrating. Shadows are deep and the temperature cooler. It is not too dark to see, more like an endless twilight.

The monsters do not retreat into the sea as dawn comes. Instead they continue their attack into the day, unrelenting.

The seas themselves are rough, large waves crashing down onto the beach. The current is strong, as if the very sea itself is fighting them.

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Fighting through the night without a break would be tiring for most people, even under normal circumstances. His Jewels being drained so much more rapidly than usual didn't help. He had spoken with Yasi at length about his three day siege with the Jhinka. He had helped the village recover and work on repairs. He had been there for the funerals. Until now he hadn't fully grasped what it must have been like, though he had thought he had. How the **** had Yasi and Jaenelle managed three days? And was it terrifying or relieving that it took her three days of this to get pushed so far that she had killed all those Jhinka? He thought, as he fought, about everything Yasi had told him. But he couldn't pull Yasi's tricks. They weren't shielding a main base, too many others were out and about and he didn't have the strength to shield a whole village, even if everyone had been willing to fall back. So he couldn't use the psychic wires trick. And he couldn't swap shields to push. ****s fire he was tired. He still had some reserves in his Sapphire, and he could drop to his Birthright for his personal shields if need be. He was using the White, Yellow, and Rose for fighting, since these monsters had no shields of their own and the Lighter ranks drained him less. But even so he was going through his body's stores too quickly. Hunger was more than making itself known as he depleted his reserves. He had been looking forward to the dawn break, but it failed to come. He swore under his breath.

What teams were the people he cared about on? Romeo? Eva? Nita? Elfnien? Could he get them back to the train in time? Because there was one thing Yasi had considered that he could still do if needed. He could give everyone here a clean death if it came to that.

But these weren't Jhinka, he reminded himself. There was no evidence they tortured captives or worse. Besides, if he took that option, Uncle Saetan would tear his remains to bits if he couldn't convince him it had been needed. So He wouldn't. But there had to be something he could do...

He was a Warlord. Not a Warlord Prince. He kept himself off the Killing Edge this whole time, refused to make this a Killing Field. It made him less effective, but without someone he could trust holding his leash he didn't know that he could step back from that if he took that path. He would go down fighting, and by the end he wouldn't know who or what he was fighting, he would become a killing machine... He couldn't do that. Couldn't risk it. Not when there was no one here who could stop him.

So he kept fighting with his bladed stick and his Craft. But to those who knew him... they would see the toll the battle was taking. He wasn't smiling, his eyes were halfway to glazed, he was somehow thinner than if he had starved himself a week, and his color was bad. But as long as the threat remained, he was going to remain. He was going to help....

The battle was wearing on everyone. Lea was still on his feet, but was definitely starting to look a bit rough around the edges. He still had some granola bars and water in his backpack, and had been grabbing something whenever he had a spare moment to keep himself going. It helped a little, but not enough.

Most of the monsters in the immediate area lay dead, a good number of them severely charred, but there was still one further on, being battled by someone with a bladed stick. It looked something like a cross between a huge carp and crab, and the guy didn't seem to be doing especially well against it.

Moving to an angle so that he wouldn't hit the guy directly, Lea launched a large fireball at the creature which quickly struck home. It gave a gurgling screech of pain, much of its left side badly burnt. Which incidentally left it both seriously hobbled and also thoroughly distracted from its more direct attacker, as it turned to face what it perceived as the greater threat.

As soon as the beast, now injured, turned from him Kharry added some craft to his blade and drove it through the shell, embedding into the ground below. Panting, he had to use a bit more Craft to free the blade. "Thank you," he said, shifting the blade to a one handed grip so he could wipe down his face with the other. "Not sure how the **** Yasi did this for three days straight."

Lea sighed with mingled relief and weariness as the monster went down. One more down, who knew how many left to go. He approached the one who'd finished it off, mildly surprised to find that he recognized him. It was the same guy he'd laughed about wetsuits with back in the dressing car. Well, now was his chance to see how much more like a string bean Lea looked in one.

He nodded at the other's thanks. "Man, I hope this doesn't last that long," he said. "I've been trying to conserve energy where I can, but I'm still kinda running on empty."

Not that the other man looked like he was doing any better. In fact he looked significantly worse. He looked pale and sickly even in the dim light, and unless Lea was mistaken, he also seemed to have lost a visible amount of weight compared to just a few days ago. Lea was exhausted, sure, but this guy looked as though something was literally sucking him dry.

"Though frankly, you look like you're in even worse shape. You hanging in there OK? Been taking time to grab food and water?" If it was anything more serious than that Lea would have to direct him to someone else; he had no healing magic. But food and water he might be able to help with.

"I hope so too. At least they're not poisoning the well and I don't have to maintain a shield." He rolled his shoulders then shook his head. "These people have a hard enough time right now without trying to feed one of the Blood. Been managing water, and I was snacking off my reserves, but those ran out the first night."

Yeah, Lea had no idea what Kharry meant about being 'one of the Blood'. Though he guessed it meant that he wasn't as human as he looked. Still, whatever his species, he doubted that how the other looked now meant anything good.

"I get not wanting to impose," Lea said, "but you're not gonna be able to help anyone if you keel over from hunger or something. I can probably spare a couple granola bars, but your look like you need something more substantial than that."

"I probably could. In fact, I know I could. But I could easily eat in one sitting enough to feed four of these families and still need more. For some reason my reserves are draining faster than they should. I'm doing what I can now, but a few more days if this and I will have to stop. If only to set a good example. But I refuse to eat these people to starvation. I'm not the only protector here. If I have to step back to rest to let others step up, I'll do so."

"Yeah apparently certain types of magic are either blocked or partially blocked here," Lea said. "I have the same problem with my weapons taking way more energy to summon and maintain than they should, so I've mostly been falling back on my fire magic- which works just fine- as much as I can."

But knowing that did nothing for the matter at hand. Privately, Lea wondered where the guy would actually put that much food, but decided that now wasn't really the time to ask. "I'm not saying that you should eat them out of house and home, but you obviously can't keep up what you're doing forever either, judging by how you look. Maybe you could find a middle ground somewhere? Like enough to keep going til things calm down, but not as much as you'd normally take? I dunno..."

"I have been. I brought food from the train. Yasi would have skinned me alive leaving with nothing, but I brought enough for a day's hard work under normal circumstances and enough to share with one other person doing the same. That's been gone a while now. I assure you, having seen the girls when they lose themselves in magic this unexpectedly hard, this is the middle ground. And this is me setting a better example than Jaenelle. A **** of a lot better."

Lea listened, but it was a moment before he responded. He wasn't sure whether or not he should continue to press the issue. On one hand the guy looked terrible, but on the other, Lea wasn't his dad. He couldn't really force the guy to do anything, even if he thought it was for his own good.

"Well, if you're sure...", he finally said, trailing off a bit uncertainly. "But we don't know how long this is gonna go on, so be careful, alright? Seems like this is gonna be a long trip, and I'd hate to loose a guy with such a great sense of humor."

He chuckled and nodded. "Thanks. Yeah, I know I have to set an example. No chance I'm giving the Queens an excuse to pounce on when we give them a hard time to take care of themselves."

Lea couldn't help but smile himself, even if he had no idea what 'Queens' he was talking about. He nodded, glad that the other agreed to that much at least. "Anyway, guess we'd better get back to it then," he said. "See ya back on the train, if not before, alright?"

"You got it," he said with a warm smile, spinning his weapon to show off before heading after the next beastie.

Lea spared a moment to give a tired grin at the move, mostly because he'd have done the same under normal circumstances. And then he too went after the next available monster. There was a lot of night left to go.

Yes. Yes there was.

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Onward: Blue

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Thank you for the thread.