Chapter 736: POV Flamesoul

Stone chunks the size of Bridget’s head rained down around her, bouncing off of her armor and causing her to stumble as she tried to dodge the deluge of arcane destruction. With her left hand firmly holding onto the chain that tethered her to Noll, she focused on keeping her feet under her while being dragged along by the old mercenary. His speed was incredible, and somehow more terrifying than Jadis’ insanity since they were on ground level where Bridget could get a real feeling for how fast they were going, rather than flying a thousand feet into the sky. That, or the fact that she was being yanked along on a chain rather than carried like a secured courier package made the difference in how exposed she felt.

Probably the latter, yeah.

“Hold on!” Noll barked at her over his shoulder.

“What the bloody fuck do you think I’m doing!?” Bridget shouted in a shriller tone than she intended.

A second later, Noll whipped around to his left, carrying them over the falling debris field of the giant dome structure that Aila had just exploded with a single fucking spell. The rubble of the demonic construction was still falling, the dust of broken stone mixing in the air with the toxic smog of decay that flowed like a filthy piss river over the city walls. Bridget squinted to keep her vision clear, her reaction times barely fast enough to keep from striking the pieces of stone and other broken junk that stuck up out of the pile. Noll’s leaping pattern of movement meant that Bridget was carried over and above most obstacles, but most didn’t mean all, and she still had to do her best to avoid collisions.

A dark shadow suddenly leapt at her from out of the fog and Bridget reacted instinctively, her training only helping but so much under the circumstances. She swung her flail to the side, hitting the scythe wight at an awkward angle, so that the shaft of her polearm hit flatly against the Demon’s shoulder and chest. Rather than simply deflecting the attacker’s leap, her sloppy counter cut through the Demon’s body like a pole slapped against a candle. The wight’s flesh splattered and its body was sent tumbling to the side, form lost in the mist almost as quickly as it had come.

So, this was how Jadis got away with not having any skills that enhanced her weapon techniques. Pure, overwhelming strength that bluntly battered down any barriers that had the misfortune to get in the way. Skill wasn’t needed when a single swing could break through any defense. Flamesoul gave Bridget a taste of that strength, granting half of her nine hundred and fifty-seven Arcane stat to her Strength attribute.

If Bridget wasn’t so busy trying not to get splattered across the ground herself, she might have spared a moment to revel in the feeling of power.

In seconds Noll had carried them through the debris cloud and they were out on the other side, near the sea cliff where the air was clearer thanks to the breeze coming over the water. Blinking the grit out of her eyes, which was something that Bridget wasn’t sure of the mechanics of since she was currently made of fire, she whipped her head around, trying to locate both allies and enemies that could be nearby. Rapid movement to her right caught Bridget’s attention and she spun half around on her chain to get a better look at the commotion.

Rein, the gray-skinned elf companion to the Hero, was standing on top of the city wall. A huge section of the fortification had crumbled under Jadis and Aila’s efforts, leaving a large gap that any attacking army would thank Charos for during a siege. Rein did not occupy the gap but stood high on the undamaged section that led into the sea cliff.

Bridget had once seen one of her cousins stick her foot into an ant nest on a dare. The result had been predictably painful and had warranted a trip to the temple for healing. That sight of the crawling masses of tiny insects had always been something that sent shivers up Bridget’s spine when she remembered it. The hundreds of Demons scrambling up the wall to swarm Rein was an unpleasant reminder of her cousin’s folly.

Noll’s course shifted and, just as Bridget had known the old bastard would do, he brought them both right into the heart of the swarm.

A wordless war cry erupted from her throat as Noll charged the enemy masses. While his sword flashed around his body, splitting mire hounds into pieces with each rapid slash, Bridget swung her polearm out in a wide arc, catching as many enemies with each sweep as possible. It was sloppy work, but elegance was hardly the point. Killing Demons and keeping their attention spread and confused was all that mattered. If the horde all focused on one target, not even Thea’s defenses would be able to protect Aila and Meli. But if the enemy force was distracted by other targets, then there would be enough time to get the job done.

Hopefully.

Nearing the wall, Bridget spotted an opportunity to deal a significant blow to the Demons' numbers. A roiling mass of mire hounds were using the rubble to climb up the destroyed wall to reach Rein at the top, where the elf was striking down all that came near. Amidst the ranks of lesser fodder, Bridget could see one of the huge rock monsters lumbering up the crumbling ruin, intent on reaching the spearman as well.

“You better fucking come get me!” Bridget shouted a warning at Noll.

Using her strength to pull hard on the chain, Bridget angled herself as best she could before letting go of her only tether to the therion. The force of her forward momentum sent her hurtling over the bricks and Demons alike on a perfect trajectory. Activating her Fulmination of the Flame skill, Bridget crossed her arms in front of her head and gritted her teeth. An instant later, she slammed into the simulacrum. Then she exploded.

Exploding wasn’t painful. It seemed like it should be, considering the destruction the act wreaked upon everything around her, but for Bridget, it felt more like jumping into a big hot bath, except in reverse. Did that description make sense? Probably not. But it was the only way she could think to describe the bizarre experience of fire bursting out of every part of her body at the same time with explosive force. An event that was made even weirder and more confusing when her body was literally made of fire.

When the smoke cleared, Bridget stood in the spot that the stone Demon had previously occupied. Everything around her was dead, burnt, and broken. While the main damaging effect of her explosive ability was limited to a radius of fifteen feet, the force of her flames knocking everything away from her had a much further-reaching effect on her surroundings. Bridget didn’t know how many Demons she had just killed, but going by the system notifications that were blinking like crazy in the corner of her eyes, she was pretty sure she had just killed enough to reach level ten in her tertiary class.

Thoughts of experience and levels were quickly shoved aside. The middle of a battlefield surrounded by enemy Demons wasn’t the time or place for reading notifications. Crouching low, Bridget prepared to leap off of the broken wall so that Noll could quickly get to her and drag her along again on the chain he carried. Tossing a look over her shoulder, Bridget froze in her tensed position, a chill running down her spine despite the heat of her flames.

There were thousands upon thousands of Demons swarming inside of the city. She could see, just on the other side of the wall, a horde of monstrosities that she could not even begin to count moving across the streets, the buildings, and even the water of the harbor. It was the anthill, angered by the idiots who had stuck their feet inside, and it had only just begun to wake up.

As Bridget watched, a huge creature of stone pushed its way between the buildings, knocking walls aside like a cow pushing through a wheat field. The Demon walked on four legs, but the front legs were much longer than the back legs, giving it a strange gait and a sloped posture. The angle of its stone back flowed upwards to a massive spike that rose from its body in place of a head. When it walked, the sharp protrusion led the way, like the prow of a ship sailing on rough seas.

Heart hammering in her chest, Bridget could feel the intent as that very, very sharp stone spike pointed directly at her.

Throwing herself off the wall, the pressure of wind flew above her, coinciding with a scrape of stone on stone as something massive just barely missed her. Bridget rolled down the crumbling slope of broken bricks, her body not truly touching the surface thanks to her Flamesoul form. Coming up onto her feet the moment her momentum slowed, Bridget began swinging her flail right away, knowing that Demons would already be on her heels. She was proven right when her first sweeping strike took off the head of a mire hound in an explosive pulping of mud and blood.

Bridget ran. Not without purpose or direction, but still she ran. She didn’t want to be caught out in the open when that giant stone Demon came up over the wall. She had dodged the spike that it had fired at her only because she had the wall to give her somewhere to fall to. Out in an open field, she’d be easy prey. So, she ran for the sea cliff, aiming to drop down to the sand below. It was only a twenty or thirty foot drop. She could handle that fall, especially in her fiery form.

She didn’t see Rein on the wall anymore. Was that because he had also vacated the area when he saw the monstrously large stone Demon? Or had he been struck by a different spike? Or had a different fate befallen him altogether? Where was Noll? Where was Halvor? Bridget couldn’t see either man as she ran for the sea cliff. Just Demons. Just… lots and lots and lots of Demons.

Where were Aila, Thea, and Meli?

Reaching the edge of the precipice that would lead down to the seashore, Bridget turned and stood her ground. Knocking away the few mire hounds that had kept up with her sprint, she kept an eye on the city wall where she thought that the stone Demon would crawl over while her gaze searched the battlefield for her friends. If Aila, Thea, and Meli had been hit by something, if they were in trouble, if they were hurt… there was no choice. No choice at all. Bridget would go to them. She would spend every drop of her own blood to make sure that they got out of that place alive.

She just hoped not to blow up another airship in the process.

As more and more Demons charged Bridget and the corpses began to pile around her, she spotted flashes of movement across the battlefield. Bursts of magic that she thought came from Aila. Shouts that sounded like Halvor, or maybe Noll. The cloud of dust and haze of poison in the air made it hard to see, but at one point Bridget was all but certain that she saw Rein again, his spear flashing before him as he leapt over a pile of rubble only to disappear on the other side.

A crack and boom echoed across the battlefield and Bridget recognized the noise for the sound of Aila’s monstrous arcane pillar smashing into something. She would have let out a sigh of relief at the noise, if not for the fact that she was too busy striking down a scythe wight that was trying to cut her face off. Then, as she swatted another mire hound away from her flank, a different noise echoed in the skies above. Glancing up, Bridget froze, just for a moment, at an impossible sight.

There were thousands of flying… things in the sky over Kastoria. She didn’t know what they were. Bridget had never seen anything like them. Strange shapes, blinding colors, unnatural movements. It was a nightmare made manifest spreading out over the city, covering it in a cloud of insanity that hurt her eyes to look at.

Bridget didn’t know what to do. Whatever that… mass was, it wasn’t anything she could deal with. She still hadn’t spotted a sure sign of her allies, though the sound of Aila’s magic crashing down a few moments past gave her the strong hope that they were doing just fine without her. In which case, she needed to think about getting out of the mess she had put herself into.

The mess she had put herself into.

Maybe it was the wrong moment to have a serious realization about herself. No, it was definitely the wrong moment. But the recognition was there. Bridget set the thought aside, but with the care of an important and valuable treasure that she would need to examine more closely once she was in a safer situation.

That was, if she made it to a safe situation.

Backing up so that her heels were practically hovering over the drop to the shore below, Bridget prepared to take that final step over the edge. The shore was her means of egress. If she had to retreat, she would, though she didn’t want to until she knew for certain that her friends had gotten out of the area and to their own safety.

“Noll, I told you, you better come get me,” Bridget muttered as she slammed her flail into another attacking Demon. “Where in the whole bloody abyss are you?”

A rumbling noise drew Bridget’s eyes to the broken wall again, where she saw a massive stone spike rise up over the crest of the crumbled slope. Time had run out. Bridget couldn’t stay where she was for much longer. She was literally a burning torch, easy for any enemy to see. Once that giant Demon was over the hill, she’d be spotted, and then she’d have to fall back or else be impaled by a drake-sized spike.

Inching back, Bridget readied herself for the leap over the edge followed by a long, long run where who knew how many Demons would be chasing her across the sands. Then, the heavy pressure of a hard wind blew against her as something massive moved just behind her back.

“Hey sexy, need a lift?”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind one,” Bridget grinned as she glanced over her shoulder at the big, beautiful, knight in shining armor hovering behind her.

Well, not so much shining armor as gooey, dripping armor.

Jadis was covered in some kind of foul-smelling ichor, the black and green substance oozing off of every part of her. Sand had gotten mixed into the nasty gunk, creating an even worse appearance with all of the wet clumps clotting up across the surface of her armor. She looked like an absolute mess, and under different circumstances, Bridget probably would have told the giant to go soak herself clean in the sea for a few hours before touching her. Instead, she turned and threw herself into her woman’s free arm, letting the gorgeous Nephilim carry her up into the sky and beyond the reach of the Demons swarming the sea cliff.

The sudden jerk and pull of a fast evasive maneuver reminded Bridget that out of range of melee did not mean out of range of the giant spike-shooting Demon on the wall.

“Where are the others!?” Bridget shouted over the wind at Jadis.

“Down there!” the Nephilim shouted back while pointing with her sword staff.

Following the line her weapon indicated, Bridget spotted another one of Jadis’ bodies attacking some kind of huge, three-headed mire hound thing. Noll was there with her, along with Halvor and Rein. The mass of Demons swarming around them was growing by the second, and the three-headed hound seemed to be doing a good job of fighting their combined forces to a standstill. For a moment, Bridget thought she spotted Meli, but the spider-shaped Dryad was dodging in and out of the Demons and the fog, making it hard to keep track of her. When another Jadis flashed briefly into sight on the trail of the Dryad, Bridget knew that at least she and the others had the Nephilim to protect them. Jadis and the Demons and all the others were clustered around the second damaged dome, and while the bronze spike at the top was gone and no lightning was coming from that structure, the next dome in the line was striking out at them all with great bursts of magic that fried everything it touched.

Suddenly, one of Aila’s arcane pillars materialized in the sky and plunged down through the open hole in the top of the disabled dome. The following explosion was soundless, except for the splatter of black gunk and the crumble of stone. The dome didn’t collapse as the first one had, not fully, but Bridget could see how pieces fell in on themselves and the whole structure seemed to lean to one side, like the support that had held it up had just been cut.

“We’re pulling back!” Jadis called out as she circled to the west. “Was there anyone else with you? Other than Aila, Thea, and Meli?”

“Noll, Halvor, and Rein,” Bridget replied. “That’s it!”

“Alright! Hold on!”

Bridget did as she was told, arms wrapped tightly around Jadis’ neck as the woman flew at incredible speeds away from Kastoria. Her position allowed Bridget to get a good look at what was going on behind her, and she saw the mass of mind-itching shapes swarming the skies over the city clearly. Every time she tried to focus on any one of the demonic flying things, the object would somehow slide out of her vision, not blurring so much as flowing around her focus in a way that made her brain hurt. It was horribly distracting, and Bridget couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be surrounded by that mess of irritants.

When the golden man with two sets of arms as well as a double pair of strangely positioned wings burst out of the cloud of shapes, Bridget almost dismissed the sight as a continuation of the strange illusion taking up the airspace over Kastoria. Then the mind-aching cloud of shapes winked out of existence while the figure continued flying forward on his griffin and Bridget realized that he was the Hero with Severina riding just behind him on his mount.

Shouting into Jadis’ ear, Bridget pointed out the two flying behind and to the north of them. Altering her course and speed, Jadis brought them around so that they were flying next to the two.

Neither Wilhelm nor Severina were in good condition. The Hero had some kind of glowing black spike sticking through his left shoulder. Rather than tearing through the metal of his armor, it appeared to have passed through in the same way as the malediction dagger Maeve had in her possession could ignore physical objects to strike at the soul directly. Severina, on the other hand, had clearly broken her left knee by the way it was bent, and the armor on her side was shredded like something had ripped her stomach open from navel to armpit. She wasn’t bleeding, but the Seraphim looked unusually pale and was clearly in a lot of pain.

“What happened?” Jadis demanded in a concerned tone.

“Much,” Wilhelm replied shortly, the pain in his own voice obvious.

“Have you seen Noct?” Severina called back. “I lost sight of her when the illusions began!”

When Jadis’ answer was returned in the negative, Bridget knew that her lover was about to turn around and go looking for the newest addition to her harem. It was her way. When she loved someone, she loved them completely and with all of her heart. It was one of the things that Bridget admired most about Jadis. And if she was going to throw herself back into danger to find Noct, then Bridget would follow with her. She wasn’t sure what she could do to help, but she absolutely would not stop trying.

The hawk-sharp cry of Wilhelm’s griffon was all the warning they had before a splatter fleshy debris rained down around them as they flew over the battlefield. Bridget let out a disgusted grunt as some stringy piece of bone and sinew caught onto her helmet, forcing her to toss the piece of viscera away. Turning her head as Jadis and Wilhelm slowed down, Bridget caught the sight of some huge, winged thing that had been split into several pieces fall past them, tumbling through the air to land with a muted thud against the ground hundreds of feet below.

A dark figure gently floated into their formation, taking up a place on Jadis’ left. Blood dripped from her clawed hands, her clawed feet, her tail, her black wings, and the long metal polearm clutched in her grasp. When she turned her head and looked at them with piercing red eyes, Bridget felt a chill roll down her back to match the one she felt when seeing the demonic horde swarming inside Kastoria.

“I leveled,” Noct offered in greeting.

“Congratulations,” the group replied.