The Storm (Rebe)

Rebe

"Get behind me, Rebe. You do your thing, and I'll hit them really hard, " Luci let out. Rebe was terrified. She had trained, but this would be her first true fight. And this was war. She applied her war paint and went to war.

"You got it, Lu. Right behind yah," She wore her mask of confidence like a weapon. A stairwell was no place to fight, especially when outnumbered, so Luci led them carefully round the steps to the top. Rebe had eaten enough roots and greens to plant a garden in her stomach. She was ready. Her Wicc reserves were well charged.

The first fighter turned the stairs and came down upon them with a sickle in hand. He wore brown, ratty, rotting robes. His skin was long gone. Luci sent a flashing fist right into his stomach so fast and strong it knocked the wind out of him, and he tumbled down below their feet. 

Rebe would have finished him, but more were already upon them. A few stragglers were nothing that the bodyguards below could handle. And that was only if they didn't get lost in the tunnels first. 

Rebe concentrated and managed to draw the crude obsidian arrowheads the Boss had given her to store away at her side. She levitated eight of the arrowheads and shot off four, two into each of the targets. The first two grazing the cheek and glancing under the eye of an Undien. The second pair went through the eye and the lung of another Undien. 

Rebe's accuracy only improved from there. She didn't have the privilege of aiming to incapacitate. Her friends were in danger, and a single mistake would cost them their lives. Luci continued to brutally box the still-standing Undien to a pulp with a combo of uppercuts and jabs. When another got too close, she flying-kicked him so hard that Rebe heard a snap as he collided with the stairs above followed by a lifeless body crashing down on the stairwell and limply spiraled down. 

After that, they were able to force their way up to the top of the stairwell. The door to the wooden room was gone. The entire hall was filled with eager armed Undien farmers.

"Do it!" Luci shouted as she threw herself into the center of the crowd and began throwing rapid punches. Rebe concentrated really hard, and the room began to rumble as the stones of the stairwell gave way under the collapse of the soil above. The stairwell was instantly filled with dirt. They had sealed the path to the tunnels behind them. There was no escape but up. 

Unintentionally, the dim room was also filled with soil. Rebe hacked as dirt clung to her clothes and the back of her throat. She summoned six more arrowheads and shot them in two arches curving around Luci just before both collided with her skull. They then curved back inwards and tore through a dozen men who screamed out in pain. Luci knocked the rest out with her fist. That girl was seriously strong. She hadn't even broken a sweat. 

They climbed up the ladder out of the dusty room filled with Rott. They found the door and bars of the bell tower smashed to pieces. Outside, the yard was totally overrun with Undien. The Castle was breached. Luci started fighting through the tide to get out into the yard. 

"Go and check on Frenchie," Luci commanded. Rebe would have complained, but she knew better. She climbed the ladder up into the tower. There she found two more dead Undien. One next to and the other on top of a very wounded Frenchie. He had a bloody umbrella in his hands. He was unconscious. 

Rebe grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him to the ladder. He was surprisingly light, even for such a slight man. Even still, he was unwieldy and nearly impossible to move. She tried to get him onto her back and carried him down the ladder, though she tripped and fell onto the preantepenultimate rung. She fell onto Frenchie, who groaned in pain. Rebe struggled back onto her feet.

 Rebe looked out into the yard. Luci had fought her way outside and into the sea of invaders. She was totally surrounded. She looked down at her stash of arrowheads. She had started with 38. Now she only had 11 left, give or take. She sent all 11 arrowheads racing around Luci, hitting the overwhelming attackers on either side, freeing her to fall back. She did. She looked at Rebe and then Frenchie.

"Take Frenchie and go underground. Seal yourselves away. I'll hold them back," Luci demanded.

"No, Lu, I'm not leaving you alone," Rebe insisted.

"How many arrowheads do you have left?" Luci interrogated. 

"Plenty enough," Rebe lied.

"Liar. I'm sorry, Rebe," Luci let out. 

"Sorry for w..." Luci kicked Rebe so hard that it knocked the wind out of her. She fell down the trap hole back into the hall below. Weren't it for the bodies below to cushion her fall, she would have busted her head on the slimy stone. Just as she regained her breath, a great big Undien hit her and knocked her breath away again. Guess she missed one. Luci? Frenchie? She felt the room give way around her as she lost consciousness.