The Lost City

Elena soared through the sky, buildings zooming past her as she moved. The old skyscrapers were all overgrown and starting to fall apart. The roads down below had long given way to grass and trees. Elena looked down at the greenery, spotting a deer or two hidden in the little forest below. 

She looked ahead and found she was headed towards a collapsed building. With a twist of her body, she pointed her feet downwards, calling upon Wind Nin. The green runes swirled into reality, blown in from some unknown place. She concentrated them on her feet, before willing them to burst. With a soft pop, they did, sending out a torrent of air that sent Elena flying upwards at great speed. She soared past the top of the building, high up above the ruins of the city. 

She twisted, looking down on the former civilization with awe and wonder. Humans used to live in giant cities such as this. Millions of them. And now, it was a just a home for deer and the occasional Shadow. 

Her ascent came to a halt, and she lingered up in the sky for a second or two. After that brief moment, she began to fall. She let herself do so, rapidly picking up speed as a rooftop came closer and closer. She called on Nin. It formed around her like a cushion. She came to a sudden stop right before hitting the roof. The Wind Nin burst, dropping her safely onto the concrete. 

"Ah, I love the wilds." She smiled, taking in the fresh air. 

Elena let her short blonde hair flow in the wind, her emerald green eyes covered by a pair of goggles. She wore a simple but functional outfit designed by Mira, although she questioned the functionality of the two ribbon streamers that streched out the back of it. 

"It's part of the wind motif!" She recalled Mira protesting. 

At her side she wore two short, curved swords that she used to fight Shadows, although it has been at least two weeks since she had last drawn them for anything but practice. 

"Remember we're deep in the Gluttony Overlord's territory, Don't let your guard down." A voice said. 

A small yellow orb floated near Elena, the origin of the voice. An orb of Light Nin. 

"We haven't seen a single Shadow the whole time we've been out here." Elena sighed, taking a seat at the edge of the roof, letting her feet hang down. She took a moment to pull the googles off her eyes. 

"Doesn't mean we won't see one." The voice said. 

"I saw a deer. It was really cute." Elena pointed with her finger. 

"Focus!" The orb jumped in her face. 

"Even if we find this supposed Leviathan class, do you think we can take it down?" Elena asked, titling her head. 

"We're Alpha squad. We'll find a way." The orb assured. 

"I'm stepping off again." Elena said, pulling her googles back on. "Hopefully I'll see something this time." 

With a small step, she plummeted off the roof.

"Hey! Wait for me!" The orb screamed. 

Elena allowed herself to free fall, catching herself with a cushion of Wind Nin, before redirecting it and launching herself horizontally. 

"Is this thing even out here?" She mused. 

A dark figure moved in the street adjacent to her, passing behind a building. 

"Oh. Found it." Elena said. 

"What?" The orb asked, catching up with her. 

The creature burst through a building, causing it to collapse as it charged Elena. She summoned Wind Nin, forcing herself upwards in a gale and dodging the Shadow's jaws. It resembled a gigantic shark that swam through the air. 

"Engaging target." Elena grinned. 

"Hey wait for back up! I'm sending Mira and Luna to your location, just wait!" The orb screamed. 

"Too late!" She laughed, summoning the force of a downward gale. 

She slammed on top of the giant shark, drawing her two curved blades, the sound of steel cutting the air crying out. She began running down the length of its body, slashing at it with her blades. The shark bucked in pain, throwing her off. She spun through the air, her boots softly coming into contact with a nearby window, before launching herself towards the Shadow once more. The shark turned towards her, jaws wide open. At the last moment, she used Wind Nin, shooting to the side of the shark and carving down the length of its body with her blade. The shark slammed into the building behind her, flopping to ground below. 

"That's not all!" she screamed.

She forced herself downwards, using the momentum of Wind Nin, ready to finish the Shadow off. 

"Look out!" the orb cried. 

Elena barely dodged as another Leviathan class shark soared past her, knocking her against a pillar before she plummeted to the ground, landing in a small pond of water. 

"Elena??" The orb floated down towards the surface of the murky green water. 

Elena's head popped up as she took a gasp of air.

"Two of them?" She coughed. "This wasn't what our intel told us..." she said, pulling herself out of the water. 

The downed shark recovered, swimming back up into the air. The two sharks circled each other, hovering above her like vultures over a dead body. Elena had minor injuries, mostly just cuts and bruises from the sudden hit she took. 

"My swords!" she noticed, realizing that both were missing. 

Something stirred in the tall grass. A deer's head peeked above, except it wasn't a normal deer. It's head was see through, flickering in the sunlight. A shadow. The shadow rose up on two feet, revealing a large muscular body with two blade-like appendages for arms. Several others shadows appeared as well, all with various different animal heads but the same bipedal bodies. 

"That's not good..." She chuckled nervously, readying Wind Nin. 

She launched into the air, only to have something clip her side, forcing her back down into the ground. She recovered, looking up and using Wind Nin to slide out of the way of high speed projectiles flying towards her. The sharks above had channeled their Nin, and were firing shadowy spikes at her.

"Get out of there!" The Light Nin screamed. 

Elena flipped over one shadow, and slid under the the legs of another as they pounced on her. She rushed past them, moving side to side, her movements aided by Nin, to dodge the incoming fire of spikes. She proceeded to slide over a car, avoiding another attack, before rushing towards a collapsed tunnel. There was a small opening in the rubble just large enough for a person to squeeze through. Using Wind Nin to assist her speed, she launched at it, twirling her body through the air as she narrowly fit into the opening, a spike missing her head as she slipped in. 

She tumbled down a flight of stairs, her back slamming against the wall, bringing her to an abrupt stop. 

"It hurts..." She hissed, hand at her side. she lifted it to her face and found it covered in blood. The spike from earlier had cut into her side.  "Sorry Mira." She apologized, pulling one of the ribbon streamers from her outfit and wrapping it around her waist as a makeshift bandage. 

"Need to find a way out of here..." She gasped, supporting herself against the wall, leaving a handprint of blood. 

"I think this old subway tunnel should lead to the main station. That's near where Mira and Luna are." The Light Nin directed. 

"This way right?" She said, following one of the old directional arrows that pointed towards the main station. 

She lowered herself onto the old train tracks. They were in bad shape. Water pooled deeply in several areas as she limped her way down the path, with the occasional cave in, but nothing that completely blocked the way forward. She used the Light orb as a flashlight, it illuminating the dark tunnels just enough to see. 

"I seriously messed up this time, didn't I?" Elena told the Light orb. 

"Don't worry about that now. We need to regroup and get out of here. We've confirmed two leviathan classes. We just need to pull in more squads with better firepower. Just focus on getting out." The orb said. 

"That's our captain for you. No wonder they picked you over me." Elena chuckled. 

"Can you please stop raising death flags? We Sisters are expendable enough already." The voice of Rin scolded. "Besides it was a very narrow margin that you lost. If you hadn't overslept the captain exam, you probably would have gotten it over me." 

"I stayed up late playing that dating sim with Mira." Elena commented, slipping down into a pool of waist deep water. "I hope this doesn't get infected..." She sighed, hand clamped down on her bloodied side. 

Elena forced herself under a pile of rubble, crawling on her stomach to get through. A shadow stirred, landing atop the rubble and pinning Elena ever so slightly. She forced a hand to her mouth to hide her pained gasped, waving her free hand in order to dim the light nin. The shadow crawled off the rubble, before skittering off into the darkness. It let out its shrill cry, which was greeted by several others deeper into the tunnel. 

Elena waited a moment before finally crawling out. She took a deep breath, before continuing forward. She walked for several minutes, taking breaks to address the pain in her side before moving on. Finally, she saw it. Light. 

"A way out..." She muttered to the Nin. 

"Good. Mira and Luna are hiding out at the station. Assuming you went the right way, they'll be there to greet you." Rin said. 

The girl took a step into the light, and found something she wasn't expecting. It wasn't sunlight she was seeing. Instead, it was a crystal. The blue colored crystal gave off a soft light that illuminated the are around it. It was located in a collapsed recess of the tunnel, with rubble and debris partially piled on top of it. 

"What is that?" She wondered aloud. 

"Careful, could be a trap." Rin said. 

Elena approached, lifting a careful hand to the crystal. It was warm to the touch. She looked closer, her eyes widening in shock. 

"There's someone inside it!" She gasped. 

"A Sister?" The Light orb asked. 

"They don't look like any Sister I've ever seen. And that uniform, why is it so familiar? Captain, I think that's a human in there."

"A human?" Rin asked. 

"I've never seen one like this before. Just bones. But they still have their skin. Their hair. Perfectly preserved." Elena peeked closer, trying to get more details on the person trapped inside. 

"We'll take note of it and send a team later. You still need to get out of there." The Nin said. 

"But they might still be..." Elena's hand lingered on the crystal. For some strange reason, she was completely drawn to the figure inside. 

"Don't be ridiculous. No one can survive being fully incased like that, not even the toughest Sister." The orb said. "Just leave it." 

Elena sighed, pulling her hand off. 

"We'll come back for them then." Elena shrugged turning around. 

A Shadow grinned at her, standing only a short distance from her.