Chapter 16: Under Assault

April had jerked her head up and Saka had dived out of the way with her clutched inside his arms when a colossal boulder fell down and devastated the ground beneath it.

Safatore crashed against the side of the mountain with his back, Eon crashed clumsily into Semacoar's torso and bounced off while the brunette Akka flew off the edge of the path. April opened her eyes to find Saka's wide open and staring at her with indifference as he lay supine on the ground with her on top.

"Uh…"

But there was no time to blush. Another shadow quickly grew and enlarged before she noticed it was another boulder. Still looking into her eyes, Saka gripped her sides and forced her weight to shift. The action pulled him as well and they rolled aside a fraction of a second before the falling projectile crashed down and sent an invisible impact force through the side of the mountain with a deafening, thunderous bang!

At this exact moment, Akka was trying to scale up the rocks when the force threw her off the side like a ragdoll, a startled yelp echoing after her.

April shrieked and Saka grunted. She touched her left cheek and saw purple blood on her hand. Looking at him, she saw a deep cut running over his left cheek, blood flowing out of it. The Soul Tie had transferred her wound onto his face when a sharp broken stone chipped her skin.

"Who's throwing these rocks at us?!" she had roared through the thunder of falling rocks before a blue blur spear-tackled the two of them away.

It was Safatore, and he had barely escaped being skinned by the boulder. April shrieked in terror as she saw his state. Half of his face's skin was wiped off in a peel and purple blood painted his blonde hair. Red flesh was visible among the veins that were exposed. He looked like a zombie! But the terrible wound was in the process of healing itself, thank goodness!

Grimacing to the healing process, he shouted over the noise:

"It's Kuri and Kakuro!"

"Who are they?!"

"Ask Saka!"

At this moment a rockslide consisting of rocks of all sizes and forms rained down on the three.

They scampered forward to escape them, stumbling with every crash – April screaming in berserk – and Safatore taking charge. It was the first time April really saw how unnaturally indestructible and reckless elves were. Safatore was running in the front, eviscerating any debris that came close. But there were a few he had to use raw strength to take out.

Like the moment April tripped and fell to her knees, away from Saka's reach. A huge rock was headed right down to her in petrifying speeds. Saka stepped in front of her, attempting to shatter it with his metal arm, but it was at this sensitive moment in time that Safatore appeared out of nowhere to shield them. He stood firm as his back absorbed the full force of the boulder. While it shattered to a gazillion bits and his face contorted in agony, a rain of violet blood sprayed out of his mouth.

A second later the man fell to a knee and heaved a bucketful of blood, leaning tiredly on his sword for support.

"Safatore!" April cried in terror.

The blonde coughed.

"I'm fine. Don't stop. Keep running!"

But it turned out that elves were not exactly indestructible. They just felt a minimum portion of pain and extortion that – honestly speaking – no human could ever survive. They were supernaturally strong, fast, healed in a matter of a few seconds and… basically they were the opposite of how humans were.

Helping the quickly healing man to his feet, April and Saka ran toward a cave-like crack in the wall and took temporary refuge in it. With adrenaline coursing through her veins, April watched Saka's calm face looking up. She followed his gaze and saw it too.

"The roof ain't gonna hold…"

It seemed like whomever was showering them with boulders was focusing the blows on top of this cave now. And… wait a minute…

April shot a red face to Safatore who was fully healed and cried:

"Where're the others?!"

A new and different explosion went off outside. The three in the cave turned as a sudden red flash filled the outside scape and attracted them. Any rock or boulder that touched this light was immediately turned to dust. Following this eerie scene, a dark green tornado formed, stirred fiercely and swallowed all of this dust. A blue light engulfed the twister and eventually dissipated into thin air with it and cleared the way for three perfectly preserved elves to come running through.

One of them, was a handsome blonde with mischievous brown eyes and sun kissed skin. He wore black trousers and a dragging coat. The coat was a piece with a green body and golden lining. It had a revere collar, had no buttons or laces to fasten it to his chest, so it just blew majestically as he ran, a longsword held extended to the ground, spitting sparks.

With the blonde was a redheaded girl with icy blue eyes. Just looking at her made April think about Christmas elves.

The redhead wore bright blue trousers and a long-sleeved top, which were under a bright pink robe that started from her collarbones and reached her gray Jika-tabi boots. Complementing her costume was a logo of a sword-shaped flower between two circles, and a twisty wand.

And last but certainly not least was the blue-eyed brunette Akka in white. Her white robe had a folded collar, three-quarter sleeves over a long-sleeved top and held against her waist with a brown girdle but hid underneath broad-legged trousers that hung over her Jika-tabis. Her weapon was a gray-wooded and unique scepter that resembled the ligaments of an insect's legs. It was the same height as her and clasped onto an orb with a sapphire in its core.

The three ran as a unit deflecting, incinerating, and protecting each other from raining rocks with their individual magics until they ducked in into the cave, joining April, Saka and Safatore.

"Well, hello, Little Monkey!" Semacoar trilled to April. "Nice place you got here."

The cave's roof shuddered, and a crack ran across it in an excited zig zag.

Eon grabbed Safatore by the coat and yelled over the bangs in her small voice:

"The rocks are everywhere!"

The bluecoat grinned sheepishly.

"I know. They are pretty angry, and this cave won't hold for much longer."

The hollow shuddered once more, and dust sprinkled on the six elves. A whole bucketful seeped from a crack and onto the mercurially white hair of Saka who indifferently shook it off before he barked:

"Let me just go and talk to them face-to-face!" He presented his clenched fist.

Akka shook her head.

"No one can go head-to-head with them when they are angry. You of all elves should know better."

"I can!" whitehead exclaimed.

Safatore growled:

"No, you mean you could. You're connected to April, remember? Or do you want to take her down with your suicide?"

The cave received another thundering and crushing boulder and shuddered once more. April involuntarily fell and landed inside Saka's arms, feeling as the normal hand touched her brea…

She jerked her head up and came to find a confused frown on the snowy boy's face. A spontaneous flush coated her cheeks as he clenched his jaws and his telepathic voice said:

[I'm not that kind of elf.]

She coughed and impulsively yelled:

"Who's they and why are they angry?"

Semacoar smirked wryly and waved a hand all carefree and hearty.

"Oh, you know. Just two of the most easily annoyed she-beasts in Xander. Whom Safatore and Sakature may or may not have disappointed. The guardians of Xander is all…"

A boulder crashed atop the cave and sent a terrible crack wriggling across the roof. The elves slightly shuddered and thoughtfully stared up at it. They were fresh out of ideas. But not Saka who still insisted they face the onslaught straight on.

"…and it should be you, Safatore who confronts them first! Since you promised to bring me back on time."

The blonde's brow wrinkled.

Saka also added:

"And Semacoar should follow right behind you. Because idiots follow other idiots!"

There was a sudden clamor of angry voices in between thundering crashes. Everyone argued while Safatore stood with his arms folded and a bitter look masking his face. Semacoar shouted:

"You see this face? This face, I'm not letting this gorgeous face get wiped off. Ever! Regeneration or no; never!"

The others growled in exasperation while throwing their hands up and rolling their eyes. Through all of this barking and snaring at each other, April could see their fangs baring. They had long vampiric fangs she had tried to ignore but couldn't.

"Do I have those too? Huh..."

They instantly went silent and shrugged away from each other. This was a highly concerning situation. She involuntarily curled both her tails around Saka's waist. He noticed and then whispered in her mind:

[When I push you, you run like hell.]

April shot her eyes up his face, shocked.

[This cave will kill us both.]

"Go now!" he shoved her out and into the open, following her.

Suddenly outside, ducking and dodging falling rocks, April screamed wildly. This guy was trying to get her killed.

From where she was, she could tell she was halfway up the mountain. The sun had even moved past its zenith, working on its advance to the west.

Whatever had gotten into Saka was also transferred to April and had caused her to gain more momentum in her legs and quadrupled her speed. She just felt cool mountainous wind blowing through her ears as she broke several laws of physics by jumping onto the underside of a falling rock, scaled it like a lizard to stand atop it before leaping off of it into the sky, way past the seven peaks…!

"Crazy adrenaline! Wake up from this blasphemous dream!"

But it was happening. And halfway into the air, among the clouds, gravity finally took over and pushed her back down.

She pierced down at bullet speed, body vertical and upside-down, hair streaming behind her in a yellow trail. She dared herself to open her eyes. Somehow, she didn't vomit from the sight. Below, she could see the whole shape of the Jagged Mountains. Seven of them formed neatly into a circle swallowed in a dark shadow. The outside edges of these mountains were lit by the sun and by a particular cliff, rocks were forming out of nothing and falling down onto the path she saw to be shaped like a thread-thin snake that wiggled up the side of the mountain.

"That must be Kuri and Kakuro's doing…"

She forgot about the fact that she was plummeting down to the rocky mountain surface and pressed her arms against her sides. This made her more streamlined and tripled her speed. Soon enough the wind was seemingly visible and parting for her as she shot down.

This felt like a videogame simulator. She even forgot about her fear of heights at this point.

"Two thousand meters… one thousand-eighty-two meters… one thousand-fifty-nine meters… one thousand-forty meters…"

The ground quickly grew as she got closer and closer by the second, narrowing her eyes to slits.

"…nine hundred meters…! You're gonna die."

The path became clear and the destruction audible.

"…seven hundred meters…"

Two gray dots appeared on one of the peaks, throwing boulders off the side.

"Kuri and Kakuro… five hundred meters…"

Saka was running up the path.

Safatore and the others appeared to have been hiding behind a ramping rock when they saw her falling at dramatic speeds.

"Two hundred meters!"

She pushed her head forward and sharply pushed herself to the peak.

"Twenty meters! Eat dirt!"

And she righted herself at the last moment, landing perfectly on the rock with her feet apart to avoid falling on her buttocks, and sent a thick brown cloud spraying outward a ten-meter radius in every direction. For a second, she stood in the eye of the cloud, mouth ajar, tails curled and eyes wide in disbelief.

"Holy hell… I landed…"

But her bubbling excitement was abruptly choked.

To her left, the cloud of dirt swirled, and a shadow pierced through. She had no time to react when a silhouette lunged at her.

"Crud…"