20th of Aerth
Elias didn't often dream. Or if he did, he didn't care to remember. He had nightmares sometimes, but this... he wasn't sure what this was. It felt like he was teetering between reality and fiction.
It felt like he was underwater. Underwater with Bianca again, her teaching him a lesson. He would sink, and she would push him down, and just as he felt like he was going to drown, she would pull him close to kiss him. And then she would bite him, then laugh, and he'd be in the air again - over, and over, and over, like some broken record.
"There's life everywhere. You're just not looking in the right places," she said as she glared at him, still underwater even though she was talking normally. "You're looking at a life source. You don't need to hold your breath."
"Hold your breath!" a faraway voice said as Bianca's ghostly face faded into darkness.
Noise reverberated in his ears as it felt like he was sinking into blackness. It took some moments for Elias to realize that the voice wasn't a dream at all. It was Raj, yelling at everyone to get up and hold their breath.
It wasn't until Elias woke up that he realized he was already holding his breath from the dream. His eyes shot open, and without even sitting up, he noticed a fog rolling into the darkness from every side.
Was this a dream too?
Elias quickly sat up, noticing the blanket of smoke already consuming the wagon. He heard coughing, and then a still silence. Who was in there? He tried to think of who was in there as a familiar rush of adrenaline moved through him.
Evaline. James. Adina. They breathed in the smoke. Considering Raj's warning, and considering that they were silent now...
This was no normal smoke.
Everything was moving so fast. All traces of sleepiness instantly disappeared as Elias noticed Mel and Jordan's still bodies near the wagon as well.
Everyone else was lucky to be awake, including himself. And everyone else was quick to get up, ready to fight - unlike Elias.
A swarm of people surrounding the camp. Elias could only assume that they were mage hunters. There were more than he could count. Dozens and dozens of shadows of people in dark clothing began to pour in.
Bo and Clandestine were quick on their feet to fight the hunters, with Mel and Raj already in the front of battle. Raj surrounded them both in flying circles of chunks of earth, which he hurled out like heavy bullets, while Mel was holding a sword, slicing at anyone who came at his back.
Elias frantically looked for Elise, not noticing her with the others. It wasn't until he more avidly scanned the ground that he noticed she was unconscious, presumably hit by a lumshade dart since she wasn't far from where Bo was at a little bit ago.
Elias knew he should join them, but he felt frozen in place. He had been in situations like this countless of times, but this felt different. He felt unprepared, not ready to fight.
Hendrik and Makiel were the next pair to get up to fight. Makiel immediately used his air magic to disperse the smoke, sending it billowing up into the air. At that, Hendrik screamed profanities and took out his biggest gun, cocking it in place to ready himself to shoot. Alistair also joined, throwing fire with Clandestine.
Finally, his legs moved - but not towards the front of battle. Elias ran towards the wagon, his protective instinct kicking in. Smoke filled the air again - but not the drugged smoke. Alistair had set a tree on fire, and the wind from Makiel's gusts sent it downstream. Elias had to hold his breath as he entered the wagon, verifying that James, Evaline, Adina, Mel, and Jordan were safe.
As safe as they could be, anyways.
Everything was so loud, but it felt like his heart thumping against his chest was louder. He knew he had to do something, but it was like everything in him was protesting. Telling him he didn't need to fight.
Elias glanced at the others again. Clandestine and Alistair were surrounding but were able to hold off any hunters with fire, burning any arrows and darts that came their way. Makiel continued to clear the air of smoke, evading attacks and also blowing away darts and arrows. Hendrik was the loudest, shooting at bodies with his gun at a rapid and deafening pace. He was screaming, but Elias could barely hear it over his gun. Bo was sending lightning from his fingers as Raj continued to send shards of earth flying.
But then Raj faltered and hit the floor. He was hit by a lumshade dart. Mel immediately ran to his side, and it was at this moment that Elias felt a prickle on his back as well.
Lumshade.
Elias reached around and immediately pulled it out, but he could feel the cold sensation already enter his bloodstream. A part of him wanted to succumb to it again, just like last time.
But even though he didn't want to fight... he did want to fight this. He couldn't hide in cowardice when his friends were in trouble.
Elias clenched his jaw, willing himself to push the drug out of his system. Getting rid of poison wasn't that much different from transferring a wound, but Elias knew he had already acted to slow, trying to process everything that happened.
His knees buckled as he then landed on all fours to the ground, doing his best to transfer the lumshade into the grass around his fingers. He felt his mind wavering as his senses dulled, the cacophony of noise around him muted like he was underwater again.
He ached all over. Blood stained the grass.
Blood?
It was then that Elias realized he had been shot at with an arrow. One... two... three. Three arrows. One in his shoulder, one in his stomach, one in his thigh.
Elias let out a muffled groan, weakly placing a hand on the arrow on his stomach.
He had to pull it out. But if he pulled them all out, he was going to bleed uncontrollably.
Dozens more people were spilling out from the darkness. Elias's vision blurred, but he knew that they were vastly outnumbered.
Dread sunk in as Elias felt like he was finally understanding the reality of the situation. He closed his eyes for a moment, but it was like everything was flooding in at once.
"I know. It's supposed to be miserable, Elias," Evaline said to him, back when they were younger, simpler, and naive. She looked at him with a gentle understanding that replayed in his mind over and over, even now.
Elias opened his eyes again, noticing that hunters were starting to climb into the wagon. He gritted his teeth, pulling out the arrow in his stomach, and transferring the wound over to the nearest hunter. He didn't wait nor pay attention to what they did - he only heard a loud scream as Elias did it again and again, pulling out the other two arrows before transferring.
Elias quickly got up, his gaze only resting on the person he used his magic on. He didn't have time to see much, since blood spilled across the ground with their body torn apart.
Elias reached for the knife he had sheathed under his jacket, ignoring the noise reverberating in his head. More people were approaching, and nets were shot out from canons. A net wrapped around Mel and Jordan, and Elias moved to free them, but found himself fumbling back into the ground as a net wrapped around his body instead.
Elias hit the ground, sharply closing his eyes as he rolled across the ground, keeping a strong grip around his dagger.
For a brief second, he saw Alan again, staring at him before he then stared down at Elias's palms holding a dagger. With his gloved hands, he wrapped Elias's fingers around the dagger so he could hold it more steady.
"You know what you have to do."
Elias loudly groaned, sensing that he was hit with more darts. He didn't hesitate this time, immediately using his magic to transfer all the lumshade to the closest hunter nearby. The net was constricting, but Elias was already holding the dagger. He clenched his jaw and then stabbed his thigh, ignoring the pain.
Someone was drawing near, and Elias needed to get out of this net before they could arrive. He immediately used his magic to heal himself, transferring the stab wound to the hunter drawing close, once again hearing a muffled scream.
Elias worked fast to cut through the net, slicing the rope with his dagger to free himself. More darts would come his way, but he would continue to his his magic to remove it from his system, transferring it to a hunter when possible.
Everything started to blur together. Elias knew he used his dagger a few more time to hurt himself so he could hurt others, but he was losing track of how often he did it. Twice? Three times now? And how many darts? He was losing track.
They were outnumbered. Elias counted only a few people standing, including himself. Hendrik wasn't shooting as often. Bo used his electric magic less. Less fireballs were whizzing through the air. Earth shards and wind were no longer detected.
Elias knew he had to help more - and fast. He was still using his magic defensively, reacting when hurt.
But before his head could spin on his fact some more, a massive burst of lighting pulsed out of Bo as he shouted, "Duck!"
Elias was already on the ground since he had only finished freeing himself from the net, but by the time he could really let what was happening sink in, thunder boomed and a shockwave of lightning whizzed above him. Elias leaned closer to the ground, feeling the vibrations of dozens bodies hitting the ground with a thud.
Finally, it was quiet - but only for a moment.
Elias slowly sat up, noticing Bo now exposed in the open now that the piles of bodies around him had fallen. Another loud boom reverbrated in the sky, and Elias helplessly watched as a giant harpoon shot out from the darkness of the forest, going straight through Bo's chest, an arrow retracting and expanding on the end so that he couldn't pull it out. Upon hitting him, the chain tightened, immediately yanking him into the darkness with extreme force.
Elias felt his head swell again with noise as he slowly got up, noticing that Hendrik, Clandestine, and he were the only ones standing. There were still dozens of mage hunters left, unrelentless.
Elias continued to play defense as he reacted to every weapon and dart thrown his way, but he knew he had to change direction. Now.
"You don't seem to have much of a choice, do you?" he heard Alan whisper in his ear, and that was enough for Elias to give up fighting this.
"Okay," Elias said softly, hand still gripping his dagger as he watched a mage hunter running towards him with a sword. "You win."
He gripped the dagger harder in his hands, bringing it up to his throat, slicing it deep across his artery.
Pain. Blood. More pain.
It felt like a vicious cycle, as Elias continued to slash, to use his magic, listening to screams, to people uttering their last words as blood splattered on him.
Again, and again, and again. The throat was an easy target, as it almost always led to death. But Elias didn't stop there. There were so many other places he could target...
His stomach. Heart. Arms. Thighs. All of it was fair game. He just had to hurt himself to hurt others. That was always so much easier.
The noise ballooned in his head. It felt unbearable. His hands shook as visions of everyone he knew flashed across his eyes - of all the moments he didn't want to remember, like a haunting dream.
Why couldn't it all go away?
He had to keep fighting. He had to fight harder.
"Hendrik," Elias called when he was finally close enough to be near him. "Give me a gun."
If Hendrik said something, Elias didn't hear it. He just knew he hesitated.
"Give me a gun!" he yelled, more urgently.
It wasn't an ask. It was a threat.
Hendrik seemed to understand, because he finally tossed a gun over to Elias. It was one he recognized immediately. The gun was small and only had room for six bullets of storage, but it would suffice.
Elias didn't know how many hunters were left. He only ran towards the area with the highest concentration of them.
And when he got with a few yards of them, Elias pointed the gun. But not towards the hunters.
He pointed the gun to his own head and shot it.
Finally, everything went quiet.
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