A group roar echoed out behind them as the Lupe realised what they had done, as they remembered their roles in the slaughter of their own family, of their own clan. They screamed out in rage at their lot, at their misfortune and faced the people who had caused them such a tragedy. With one heart the group chased, with one heart they hunted. Their screams reached Laurence, they reached Cleo and they reached Declan.
The Lupe leader raised the captive Zephyr and slammed his body down once more. Blood splattered across the great stage, centering from the broken body of Algar. Declan stared at it for a moment, at his handiwork before he turned around, a mad gleam in his eye.
“BOY, YOU HAD BETTER STOP RUNNING. I'M GOING TO FIND YOU AND END YOU!” Declan’s scream only propelled Laurence to run quicker, using the scant energy he had left in running away. To his left he could see two Zephyr men trying to leave, to his right he could see the remaining Lupe forces, some injured, some sick, attempting to rally and charge back in. There was far more than Laurence would have liked, especially with the sixty or so chasing after them. These Lupe were angry, they were tired and they wanted blood. They wanted revenge. “BOY, YOUR SACRIFICE IS FOR THE GOOD OF ALL OF THE TOWER. THE LUPE WILL RISE! YOU CANNOT STOP US!” Declan screamed once more before he began pacing. He looked behind him at Algar, back to his master and then towards Laurence. He growled at the edge of the stage, his eyes red with rage, with battle frenzy and with a thousand other feelings flooding through him. Without much of a glance, Laurence could tell that there was something wrong with him. There was something off about the way the Lupe was unwilling to step off the the dais. It was like he was bound there, unable to step of for fear of something happening with or without him.
Laurence looked back at the platform and at the number in the sky, watching it count down in increments. It was reaching the low hundreds now. The seal was almost broken and he could not help but feel it was not a good idea for him, or anyone to be around when the Fallen Morning was finally freed. In some ways he could not help but be curious about what the Fallen Morning really was; a man or a beast beyond his imagination. He turned back and looked at what was in front of him. The crowd of Lupe that had amassed to his right were quickly approaching. They seemed to be aiming to cut him and his friends off from their quickest escape route. With a wave of his hands and a thread of mana he transformed the mesh that made up the tents into a thick sludge to slow the army down, but they would still likely catch up with him. They could only push their bodies so far.
They continued to look for any larger groups of Zephyr clansmen, but it seemed that the majority had pulled out the moment they saw the battle between Algar and Declan go south. It was not worth anyone’s life if the leader of the operation died, and they would all die if Declan got out. They knew that for a fact. The sentiment was only solidified by Declan’s shouting once he had mostly dealt with Algar. Unfortunately his shouting seemed to make him angrier. Laurence had phased out the words, but he could feel the killing intent rise no matter how far away he ran. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end,this Lupe was out for blood.
The Lupe soldiers crashed into Laurence’s group of three able bodied people like a wave and the sixty Lupe behind them soon caught up and joined in the dogpile. The group heavily outnumbered them, they were tired, they were running low on power, but they had not given up hope. There was very little stopping them from escaping, five or six lupe in any direction they pushed, the issue would be surviving the rain of blows that fell upon them.
Swinging his hammer out in all directions, Laurence desperately tried to guard Cleo while she cut a way through the crowd of people. Her reserves were higher than Laurence’s, she still had a few charges left within her pointer ring, but her drain was much higher than Laurence’s. While he could perform four or five of his special styles from the Empty Throne with his mana reserves, Cleo could only perform two or three full powered attacks. Her battalion of burning beasts ripped through the crowd, clearing them a path, but by the time they had taken two steps the path had closed up around them. They were making progress, eating away at the troops and slowly breaking free, but it was not enough. Cleo would only kill six or seven Lupe with each strike this way, and Laurence could barely be sure that he was maiming the people he was hitting, let alone killing them. The Lupe were out for their blood, and there was very little any of them could do to dissuade them.
“Guys I have an idea!” His yells echoed just over the sound of battle, but Cleo and Winoa could just about hear him. “You two should run the moment I perform my next attack. I know you can do it. Just fly away. I’ll catch up. I have faith in myself”.
“No, Law. I’m not doing it,” Cleo’s response was immediate. “Winoa should, you have to look after Jim, but I refuse to leave you ever again”. She grabbed a Lupe and incinerated him where he stood as she pointed at Winoa. “We promised, Law. We promised”.
Laurence swore, but he did not argue. He could tell his words would have no meaning to her, she had made up her mind. They would both get out or neither of them would. Somehow since he had returned he had known that a situation like this would likely occur, but that did not mean that they could stop. Raising his mana in the air he pulled most of the mana within him and let it flood into his surroundings once more. At the top of his lungs he screamed before pounding down on the ground with all his strength.
“MALKUTH!” It was like godly hammer had descended upon the army, crushing the troops around Laurence, but leaving Cleo and Winoa unharmed. “RUN” he shouted as the dazed Lupe began to reform like they always did. He knew he could hold the barrier for them for a short while, but the window he had opened would not last long. Immediately, Winoa leapt into the air with Jim still in her arms. She dashed through the sky and soon enough she was out of sight. Laurence smiled, the Zephyr were the fastest of the clans so he never had any fear she would not escape if given the chance. The issue was Cleo’s escape, and his own. Holding out his left arm to her, he began walking forwards and crushing the Lupe that stepped near them. This domain would not last long, but as long as it did, they would be free of trouble. They looked back and watched as the clock ticked below a hundred. The seal would soon be released and things would change. Laurence had no doubt that the release of the seal would usher in a new cycle, a new age within the tower. What Laurence did have doubts about was the state of Declan who was still on the tower. He was almost frothing at the bit, raging at how Laurence was about to get away again. He looked up at the sky, at the timer ticking down to the release of near unlimited power and he could no longer bear it. The Lupe leapt off the stage towards Laurence and Cleo.
Flying through the air at breakneck speed the air tore around him as he dashed through the sky, tearing apart the ground beneath him, ripping up the tents that had been in place for so many years. The wolfman howled at the top of his lungs and chased the escaping pair as quickly as he could. He was seeing red, his bindings free, all he wanted was the blood of the invaders upon his flesh.
Laurence and Cleo looked back at the screaming and cried out, the Lupe leader was like death come to reap souls of the damned. He would not be stopped and there was no way they could escape. He reached the pair and skittered to a stop, grinning in perverse pleasure as the shockwave knocked them both away, sending them skittering against the ground. If not for their hands firmly held together the two of them would have been torn apart by the blow.
Declan roared out once more. “BOY, IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO MEET YOUR MAKER”. He took a breath and slowly walked over to the two of them, still on the floor with the wind knocked out of them. “Or not,” he said, “I fully intend to crush your mana reservoir. That way even the cycle of reincarnation might not want you”. Raising his fist he plunged down towards Laurence with a strike aimed to kill. Laurence had prepared himself for the pain but before the strike could even land Cleo rolled on top of him. Her lips brushed against his, her eyes stared deep into his soul and spoke a million words that her mouth would never be able to say. Her head arched up and then Laurence felt heat drip onto his abdomen.
“Well that’s awkward,” Declan said, a small dog made of fire yelping and whimpering in his palms. “I killed the girl instead. I mean she was going to die, but still this is awkward. You were supposed to go first”.
Laurence’s eyes went wide. He rolled Cleo off him and saw the hole that went through her stomach from front to back. “No... no no no no no no no...” Desperately he tried to block the blood from spilling out of her, but the hole was too big. “No Cleo, no. You can’t go no...” His hands were covered in her blood and the heat of them was scalding. He looked up at the dog in Declan’s hands and the Immortal laughed. He threw the small creature at the hole in the body but they both knew it was too late. Laurence held Cleo’s mana reservoir back in the hole, hoping upon hope that the flesh would somehow knit back together but her body shook once more and the light faded from her eyes. The Lupe laughed. Laurence cradled her body in his arms, tears streaming down his face as he felt her body die. Declan laughed. He felt her very soul begin to leave and something changed within him. He began laughing with Declan, tears streaming down his face as his laughter mixed with his sobs. His heart broke, his mind cracked, and with a roar the sky shattered.
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