Vanessa did not fight continuously. Her condition did not allow her to do so. Instead, she fought through the cloud that plagued her mind and the weakness that plagued her body, and carried out guerilla tactics.
Even if her control over her innate ability was poor, meaning that she could not disappear completely within the shadows, at least she was harder to spot in the heat of battle. That allowed her to strike relatively undetected, escape quickly after each hit. This hit-and-run strategy was extremely dangerous in its own way, for if any of the rabid beasts detected her before she struck, she’d be vulnerable in front of them. Yet that was all she could do at the moment.
With each passing second, the beasts strengths were growing as they slowly, but steadily, headed towards the peak of the Initiate level. Meanwhile, the group was getting weaker every passing moment. Many of them had minor injuries and a couple of them were bleeding.
Even if the rip in their suits didn’t expose them to the various poisons present within Perilith, just the continued strain of defending against these beasts for so long would completely exhaust them. Something needed to change, and fast, or they would not last long in their situation. Yet the pressure was so great that they could not afford even the slightest distraction.
Vanessa’s own aether control was not up to par, so she could ask one of the soldiers to try and heal Noman and Bael. If they recovered, they could also contribute. But unfortunately, even the slightest opening in their defense would cause it all to break, so that option wasn’t really available to them.
The ground trembled under the strain of their fight - or maybe the dizziness was getting to Vanessa again. She paused for a moment to wipe the blood and sweat entering her eyes before resuming her aid.
The soldiers whose grip strength had elapsed had tossed his spear aside, and instead was relying solely on his cards to defend. 0 star cards could not block an Initiate, but it could give the other soldiers a second wind. It could make the ground slippery. It could create hindrances.
There was another soldier by the side whose wheezing Vanessa could hear. It wasn’t that he was out of breath, but that he was injured, and every time he moved, it hurt. He fought through the pain.
Lina, the one who stood at the forefront, had the worst of it. She took the brunt of most attacks, and seemed to be the main target that the feline beasts had picked out. Simultaneously, she was the one holding on the best.
It was not the strength of her arms, nor her form, or her training that made her stand out. No, it was her innate ability.
Purple tendrils of aether - surely it was aether, despite how cursed it felt - snaked around her, mixed with gravel and dirt. When an enemy approached Lina, the purple tendrils would strike, their range clearly limited, which often allowed the injured beasts to retreat quickly. Yet their lethality was shocking.
Even their Initiate bodies stood no chance against those purple vapors, burning and corroding at its touch. Their fur, their flesh, perhaps even their scales served as no barrier to it, and if any piece of a beast’s body would fall off, it would begin orbiting the tendril as well, just like the gravel.
The sight, at any other time, would have seemed horrifying and creepy, yet in this moment, it was naught but reassuring.
Reason seemed to have abandoned them, left in exchange for madness. Vanessa did not know what fuel the others used to continue to stand, whether it was determination, or passion, or duty. She, though, operated purely on desperation and an unwillingness to lose.
To lose, to falter even the slightest, would mean to die. Maybe the many contingencies on her body would keep her alive, possibly even allow her to survive. But it could do nothing for anyone else. These soldiers... these kids who were fighting tooth and nail, fighting through pain, fighting through mental illness, fighting through the worst Perilith could throw at them... they were here because of her and Nero.
They were here because they wanted to find the pond, for their own futures. One had already paid the ultimate price for them, and Vanessa did not want anyone else to pay. So she fought desperately, even as her own body seemed to fight against her.
Miraculously, they endured. Even when they should have died, should have folded to the onslaught, they endured, for they had no other choice but to endure.
No one spoke any more, Vanessa passed no more orders. Words had long since failed them, lost to the cries of the unnatural things that hunted them in this strange reality. In their silence lived resolve - a fierce, burning thread, too proud, too desperate to snap, even now, even here. But it frayed.
Something needed to change, Vanessa knew. She just did not know what to do, or how to bring about that change. But change came on its own, and it came in the form of Dave.
Now, an Initiate, he had emerged from the cave where he hid, and had returned to finish the job. Although logic told him that the mere fact that Perilith had now allowed Initiate beasts and cursed things to exist should be enough to kill them all, he returned regardless to finish the job. He could not afford the consequences if even one of them managed to survive somehow.
When he returned, to his immense surprise, he found that they were still holding on. They were on the verge of death, of defeat, but against all logic, all hope, they held on.
Resolve flashed through Dave’s eyes. Although it was only a matter of time before they died, he decided to speed up the process.
He was less concerned about his own survival now, for his innate ability had evolved, His ability to detect danger had improved, and he could now even get a sense for the perfect way to avoid or counter that danger. That additional sense was not too strong, and it did not give him complex instructions - it was more like guiding him how to hide better, or maybe how to retaliate perfectly to resolve the danger.
Either way, he was more confident in his own ability to escape Perilith. He just had to make sure no one escaped after him. It also helped that his fear of Nero had reduced. Now that he was an Initiate, his body had been strengthened by the evolution process. Even though he wasn’t in his peak form yet, as the evolution was gradual instead of immediate, he was already beyond a normal Neophyte.
With his decision made, Dave crouched down and crept up closer to the group, picking out a long range offense card from his case. Unfortunately, he didn’t have access to any 1 or 2 star cards, but considering he had the element of surprise on his side, he was certain that even 0 star cards would do the trick.
All he had to do was pick out the perfect moment, and shoot down one of the retards from a distance. As soon as even one of them fell, their formation would collapse, and the beasts would do the rest.
He would have preferred to kill Vanessa himself, but with her fading in and out of the shadows, he didn’t want to risk missing his shot. His second preference would have been to kill Lina, since she was the one who attacked him and messed everything up, but those purple tendrils around her gave him a bad feeling. It felt like she’d be able to use them to defend herself, so he ultimately had to choose someone else.
He took his time, since time was on his side, and finally found the weakest link. There was a soldier who clearly had a rib injury. Though he was still fighting, his mobility was greatly compromised.
Dave smiled as he picked his target. He would be the first domino to fall.
Dave waited. He waited for the perfect moment, when his target was in the open and preferably distracted. He waited with all the patience of a predator, the feeling of finally being in control once more calming his nerves and settling his mind.
When the moment arrived, he struck. A black blur shot through the bushes behind which he hid, zooming through the air.
Vanessa heard the attack coming, but it happened too quickly. By the time she looked over, it was already too late. An arrow, shot out from the thicket, had rammed itself in one of the soldiers’ chest.
It didn’t kill him instantly, but it might as well have. The soldier faltered, the formation weakened - if only for the briefest moment - and one of the beasts pounced. In the blink of an eye, it was latched onto his chest, ripping through his throat.
Vanessa moved to attack, but the beast leaped back before she could even get close. Suddenly, they were one man down, but it felt like the dam had burst, and they could endure no more.