Élan: A Youngblood World

CHAPTER 14 Duty In Its Truest Form

       THE clamor filled the thin atmosphere with its screeching howls; the shrills of fleeing people mixed with gashing and puffing cries of vigorous blows of magic like that of a sound of a sea wave of wind projected with different tempos, chorused altogether into a clump of explosive hails of conflict. The air reeked with the stench of sour vapor and ash, scattering the smell of the ghouls that now flew in a dozen. 

       The alarmed people watched the cataclysm before them below the vast roof of the train station as several fled past them like a rock intercepting the fast, flowing river, separating the waters. Cazzie could feel the quivering grip of Stella's hand as she shielded the Princess behind the boys with matching vigilance. The crowd was a bedlam of screams and thundering footsteps. Others remained, deploying the frontline, which the boys dove right into.

       Her ears rang at the sound of the individual crying out from her back. She swiveled to the direction Stella vented her voice at, coming face to face with the swiftly approaching darkness on their left. The ghoul braced forward its blood-hungry claws, coming for the strike. She cannot help the blight of paralyzing fear, choking back on a scream that writhed its way out from her thorn-pricked gut. The shade is closing in on them with its shilling wail.

       A swift swush. The lethal whistle of a drawn-out blade strung their ears. Cazzie snapped herself back to full consciousness, her eyes wide open in a grateful shock to a hay of walnut hair in front of them.

       "Run!" Kayne shouted, firming his stance against the thrusting force of the ghoul as with his enchantment sword. "Hiro! Get them out of here! We'll catch up."

        Hiro nodded and grabbed Cazzie by the arm, pulling Stella along, and hurriedly they dashed across the tiled platform. They hopped into the tracks through the flashing, colorful blizzard of magic and hurtling streaks of black. Crossing the train track, they swept over the ground of dried leaves, arousing crunching footsteps behind their trail as the three made it to the other side of the track, into the gloomy clot of lank-branched trees.

       "Down!"

       Evading the hunk of rock that swept over their heads, evoked by Hiro's surprising strength, the girls glanced back as the assault catapulted toward the pursuing horde of three ghouls, grievously missing yet slowing them back several steps. More exhibited themselves in place of the slowed few, hissing with their wide-open, cuspated gobs.

       "Hey! What are you-"

       "Just go!" He intervened in Cazzie's exclaim to his halting, whipping his hand for them to scram.

      Stella tugged Cazzie's arm, motioning for her to go by Hiro's dictate. "Come on, Cazzie. There's no stopping him." In response to that, Cazzie's teeth pressed together in despondency, and took up running, leaving behind a second glance on the redhead who willed to face the wave of ruthless foes.

*

       The puffy layer of clouds overhead gave a chilling nimbus, adding more density to the cold air. After what seemed like a mile run, their bolting fare decelerated to a trot as they passed through the band of trees of dispersed ranges between each other. 

       Taking the time to catch their breath and bask their legs from a non-stop travail, Cazzie leaned by a tree. "I have to-Hiro." An exhausted gasp of air paused in between her unclear statement. "He's alone out there, we must do something!"

       "Cazzie," said Stella, resting beside her, "stay calm. As much as I hate to admit it, he may have a better chance of surviving the fight without us weighing him down. Trust me, crashing waves cannot move the unyielding rock."