The human advance force of three hundred Awakened stood awkwardly in place, unsure of what to do next.
They drew their weapons and looked towards one another in dismay. Hannah was supposed to be near the front lines, but somewhere during the march she had found herself surrounded by people she barely knew, unable to even see the edges of the formation through the raging blizzard.
A normal army could never have such disorganized movements, but the hard truth was that this wasn’t a trained army. It was a ragtag group of people brought together by necessity and fate, and those things didn’t tend to hold people together very well when matters of life and death were involved.
"Do you hear that?"
A man nearby spoke nervously, a thick stream of snot hanging from his nose as he stared into the white darkness. His dull silver armor clinked softly whenever he moved.
Hannah tightened her grip around the handle of her giant shield.
To someone else, the enormous slab of metal would have been an impractical weapon, far too heavy and cumbersome to carry into battle. To Hannah, however, it was the perfect weapon. She could alter its weight at will, making it as light as a feather in her hands before increasing its weight until it became as heavy as a mountain when it struck her opponent. The underside was reinforced with several sharpened edges, allowing her to use it for more than just defense.
A dull rumbling sound suddenly echoed through the blizzard.
Hannah’s eyes narrowed.
She could barely see the people standing around her, much less whatever was making that sound. The rumbling grew louder, vibrating through the frozen ground beneath her feet until several of the Awakened around her began shifting nervously.
Then the storm suddenly moved violently. A massive white figure emerged from the blizzard.
Hannah barely had time to raise her shield before hundreds of white figures burst from the darkness behind it, charging straight into the human formation.
The snort-nosed man beside her was caught by the first Eidolon. His body violently flung through the air, disappearing into the blizzard.
Hannah roared and swung her shield forward.
The enormous slab slammed into the first Eidolon with enough force to halt its charge, its body folding around the edge of the shield before being thrown aside.
"ENEMY ATTACK!"
The warning immediately echoed through the battlefield. Voices erupted from every direction, overlapping with one another as the three hundred Awakened finally realised they were under attack.
Hannah barely had time to plant her feet, before several more Eidolons crashed into her shield at once.
The combined force drove her backwards.
Her boots dug deep trenches into the snow before she finally lost her balance and fell onto her back. The shield remained clutched tightly in both her hands, covering most of her body.
The Eidolons didn’t stop to finish her off, their hooves crashed into the shield, the weight of their body forcing it against her chest as the stampede continued over her.
Hannah gritted her teeth as snow and ice were violently kicked into her face. Her arms were shaking beneath the pressure, but she refused to let go.
The battlefield had descended into chaos around her, people were screaming and attempting to flee, while weapons were clashing against spiked clubs. The Eidolons were tearing through the formation from every direction.
After an unknown number of times being trampled beneath the stampede, Hannah finally managed to shoot to her feet. The first thing she saw was a bloodied Eidolon standing a short distance away, one arm missing as it casually chewed on the severed head of a snot-nosed man.
The Eidolon slowly raised its head and looked straight at her, but it did not make a move.
Hannah’s heavy breathing spiked as she immediately turned and ran in the opposite direction. The blizzard wind battered against her body, making it difficult to keep her balance, but she pushed through it before suddenly twisting her body and flinging her shield.
The sharpened edge of the shield tore through an Eidolon’s waist, severing its body in half. Its upper half crashed into the snow, its lifeless eyes remaining fixed on Hannah even after death.
Hannah was severely disoriented when a figure suddenly crashed into her. A blood-stained spear slipped from their hand and fell into the snow beside them.
"Hannah, get up."
She immediately recognised Chad’s voice. When she raised her head, she found him standing over her, covered in blood. She couldn’t tell whether most of it belonged to him or the Eidolons he’d been fighting, and she didn’t have time to find out.
Hannah grabbed his arm and, with his help, managed to get back onto her feet. She retrieved her shield and tightened her grip around it before the two of them advanced together.
Dozens of Eidolons suddenly crashed into them from the side. Hannah reacted on instinct, shifting her shield into position and blocking the first impact, but the force behind the attack was far greater than she expected.
Her feet left the ground.
Hannah was violently thrown into the air, her shield still clutched tightly in both hands. She immediately realised her mistake, she had forgotten to increase the weight of her shield.
The massive weapon was still light enough for the Eidolons to send her flying, and that single mistake had brought her into her current situation.
From above, Hannah could finally see the battlefield.
The three hundred Awakened had been completely swallowed by the Eidolons. Their once-organised lines had broken apart, with small groups fighting desperately wherever they could find space.
Andrea and Yuri were surrounded on all sides, both women locked in a deadly battle against countless Eidolons that continued pouring through the blizzard.
Elsewhere, the Eidolons rampaged through the broken formation, tearing apart anyone who failed to escape their charge.
Hannah even spotted Old Man Bo in the distance, violently tearing through every Eidolon that came within reach of his twin hammers.
For a brief moment, she simply stared at the carnage from a birds-eye view. Then the wind suddenly picked up beneath her.
Hannah’s eyes widened as her body began to fall.
The battlefield disappeared beneath her as the ground rushed closer, and she realised with growing horror that she had no idea how she was going to survive the fall.